Skyroot Aerospace joins unicorn club; Non-Yulu biz to hit 25% by year-end: Yuma Energy MD

Hello,

Home services startup Pronto has raised an additional $20 million in an extension of its Series B round, taking the total financing to $45 million and doubling the company’s valuation to $200 million within roughly a month.

The round was led by Lachy Groom, the co-founder of AI robotics company Physical Intelligence and an early backer of quick commerce startup Zepto. The fresh capital will be deployed to increase presence in existing cities and expand into newer household service categories. It has recently started offering car washing and gardening services in select micromarkets while piloting home-cook services in Bengaluru.

In other tech updates, Spotify is expanding its AI DJ feature by supporting four new languages: French, German, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese. Previously available only in English and Spanish, the AI-powered DJ lets users request songs and hear spoken commentary from personalities such as Maia, Ben, Alex, and Dani.

Spotify is also expanding the feature to Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, South Korea, and Switzerland. According to the company, AI DJ is now available in more than 75 countries worldwide.

Meanwhile, Snap has ended its partnership with Perplexity, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. The deal, announced last November, would have integrated Perplexity’s AI search engine directly into Snapchat. Perplexity had agreed to pay Snap $400 million in cash and equity over one year as part of the arrangement.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Skyroot Aerospace joins the unicorn club
• Non-Yulu biz to hit 25% by year-end: Yuma Energy MD

Here’s your trivia for today: What's the biggest tech acquisition in history?

Space-tech

Skyroot Aerospace joins the unicorn club

Hyderabad-based spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace has raised $60 million in a funding round co-led by Sherpalo Ventures and GIC, pushing its pre-money valuation to $1.1 billion and making it India’s first spacetech unicorn.

Key takeaways: 

• Skyroot Aerospace crossed the $1 billion valuation mark, signaling strong global investor confidence in India’s private space sector.
• The startup will use the funding to scale commercial launch operations for Vikram-1, an orbital launch vehicle designed for small satellite deployment.
• The funding round also saw participation from the existing investors of Skyoot including Greenko Group and Arkam Ventures, along with funds managed by BlackRock, Playbook Partners, and Shanghvi Family Office.

Interview

Non-Yulu biz to hit 25% by year-end: Yuma Energy MD

Battery swapping startup Yuma Energy is expanding beyond its core partnership with Yulu as India’s EV delivery ecosystem scales rapidly. Backed by Magna International and Yulu, the company now serves over 45,000 users daily through 350+ swapping stations and is betting on ecommerce, e-rickshaws, and personal mobility to drive the next phase of growth. 

Key takeaways: 

• Yuma Energy expects non-Yulu business to contribute 20–25% of revenue by year-end as it partners with EV makers like Kinetic Green, Quantum Energy, and Motovolt.
• The company currently operates in 18 cities with over 350 stations, driven largely by quick commerce, food delivery, and logistics riders seeking faster EV turnaround times.
• Yuma is using AI-driven forecasting and expanding into e-rickshaws and electric commercial vehicles, while scaling battery manufacturing at its Chennai facility. 

News & updates

• Gold & Silver: The rally that pushed gold and silver to record highs in 2025 could gain momentum again if the U.S. and Iran reach a peace deal, analysts told CNBC. Spot gold rose 1.2% to $4,750 an ounce on Thursday amid hopes the two countries may be nearing an agreement to end the 69-day conflict.
• Prime Video: Amazon’s Prime Video will invest at least 90 ​million euros ($105.95 million) in European video ‌and movie production in French language this year, the French telecoms ​regulator said on Thursday.

What's the biggest tech acquisition in history?

Answer: Microsoft and Activision Blizzard in 2023, valued at $68.7 billion

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