Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (July 17, 2026)

YourStory brings you today’s headlines with the latest developments across sectors

Featured news

How two women are making Indians more 'food-wise' through sustainability and education

Foodwize, founded by Srijata Sengupta and Priya Joshi, is a Bengaluru-based social enterprise that helps people build a healthier relationship with food while creating more sustainable food systems.

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Funding news

Naturis Cosmetics raises Rs 100 Cr led by Sharrp Ventures

Naturis Cosmetics, a contract development and manufacturing organisation in the beauty and personal care space, has raised Rs 100 crore in a maiden round of funding led by Sharrp Ventures. The round also saw participation from Mirabilis Investment Trust, Anicut Capital and Niveshaay besides several angel investors.

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Other news

ideaForge crosses 1 million UAV flights

ideaForge Technology has crossed 1 million successful UAV flights conducted by its customers across defence, homeland security, public safety, mapping, surveying, and industrial applications. The milestone highlights the growing adoption of the company's drone platforms by the Indian Armed Forces, government agencies, enterprises, and global institutions. Over the years, drones have supported disaster response, crowd management, infrastructure monitoring and critical surveillance operations.

The company said the achievement reflects the reliability and autonomy of its UAV platforms. As demand for advanced drone technology rises, ideaForge is expanding beyond intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance into logistics support, long-endurance surveillance, combat capabilities, and next-generation autonomous systems, strengthening its position in India's rapidly evolving drone ecosystem.

Myntra expands AI across customer and seller operations

Fashion ecommerce platform Myntra has unveiled the next phase of its AI strategy, deploying artificial intelligence across customer discovery, seller onboarding, catalogue management, and product development. The company said AI has reduced seller onboarding time from 15 days to under two days while improving personalised shopping experiences through search, styling recommendations and size guidance.

Myntra's AI-powered Contextual Styling Suite helps shoppers discover complete fashion looks, while automated content processing accelerates catalog reviews. Myntra said 90% of its monthly active users already experience personalised search. The retailer is also integrating AI into engineering workflows and internal operations, enabling faster product development and improving efficiency as it scales technology-driven growth.

TripleDart reaches $7M ARR

B2B growth company TripleDart has crossed $7 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) while maintaining a 50% EBIT margin, driven by its in-house AI platform, Slate. The bootstrapped company said Slate automates SEO, content creation, and AI visibility, allowing client teams to collaborate directly with AI agents.

Founded four-and-a-half years ago, TripleDart has grown to 120 employees and manages more than $200 million in advertising spend across over 300 clients, including General Electric, SentinelOne, ByteDance, Cognizant and MakeMyTrip. The company said software-led automation, rather than expanding headcount, has powered its profitability and growth, positioning it as an AI-first marketing services company.

Raptee.HV enters Bengaluru

Electric motorcycle maker Raptee.HV has opened its first experience centre outside Chennai, marking its entry into Bengaluru as part of its national retail expansion. The new showroom will offer customers product demonstrations, test rides, deliveries and after-sales support.

Bengaluru becomes the company's second operational market after customer deliveries began in Chennai earlier this year. Raptee.HV said the city was chosen because of its strong electric vehicle ecosystem, expanding charging infrastructure, and vibrant motorcycling culture. The company is pioneering the use of electric car high-voltage technology in two-wheelers and aims to strengthen its presence in India's premium electric motorcycle segment through a phased rollout of retail experience centres.

BikeWo, Yubhas to test solar-assisted EVs

BikeWo Green Tech has partnered with Yubhas Renewables to validate solar-assisted electric three-wheelers designed for rural and semi-urban transportation. Under the collaboration, BikeWo will deploy the vehicles across its rider network to evaluate performance, battery efficiency, payload capacity, ride quality and operating economics before commercial launch. Feedback from the pilot will help refine the vehicle's design and reliability.

Beyond testing the technology, both companies are exploring a rural entrepreneurship programme that will train young people in vehicle operations, maintenance and business management, enabling them to become owner-operators. The initiative aims to combine clean mobility with livelihood generation while supporting sustainable transportation in underserved regions.

Medi Assist integrates Aadhaar offline verification

Medi Assist Healthcare Services has integrated UIDAI's Aadhaar Offline Verification Framework into its health benefits platform after becoming a registered Offline Verification Seeking Entity. The company said the feature enables secure, consent-based identity verification while reducing paperwork, fraud and identity misuse. Members can verify their identity without sharing unnecessary personal information, improving privacy and simplifying access to healthcare benefits.

The capability also helps insurers and employers strengthen identity assurance, reduce manual documentation and speed up claims processing. Medi Assist plans to extend the Aadhaar offline verification capability to third-party administrators, insurers and pension funds using its technology platform, supporting a more secure healthcare benefits ecosystem.

LTM partners Glean for enterprise AI

Technology services company LTM has partnered with enterprise AI platform Glean to help organisations improve productivity and accelerate AI adoption. The collaboration will combine LTM's BlueVerse agentic AI ecosystem with Glean's enterprise knowledge platform to provide employees with secure access to information spread across multiple enterprise applications.

The companies said fragmented enterprise knowledge remains a major barrier to AI deployment. By integrating AI-powered search, assistants and autonomous agents, the partnership aims to streamline decision-making and improve operational efficiency. LTM said the collaboration will provide enterprises with a governed pathway from enterprise search to AI-driven automation while helping organisations maximise returns from AI investments.

IIM Bangalore, Square Yards to create property index

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and proptech platform Square Yards have entered a multi-year partnership to develop a residential property price index for India. The benchmark aims to provide homebuyers, investors, lenders, policymakers and researchers with a transparent measure of housing price movements.

Square Yards will contribute anonymised transaction, registration, RERA and property listing data, while IIMB will lead the research methodology and statistical modelling. The institute will retain academic independence and publication rights. The partners said the initiative will address the lack of consistent pricing benchmarks in India's real estate sector by combining large-scale market data with academically rigorous research.

HCLTech opens AI hub in GIFT City

HCLTech has launched a Global Technology Centre in Gujarat's GIFT City to deliver AI-led solutions for global financial services clients. The facility will also focus on developing next-generation technologies and nurturing skilled talent. Alongside the launch, HCLTech signed memoranda of understanding with IIT Gandhinagar and Gujarat Technological University to strengthen industry-academia collaboration.

The partnerships will support research in artificial intelligence for financial services, software development and skill-building initiatives. Students and faculty will gain industry exposure through projects focused on digital transformation and emerging technologies. HCLTech said the centre reinforces its commitment to expanding AI capabilities and technology innovation from India.

Zithara.AI forms partnership with Palmonas

Zithara.AI, an AI native customer engagement platform for offline retailers has announced a partnership with Palmonas to enhance customer engagement through data driven solutions across the brand’s retail operations. As part of the partnership, Palmonas will implement Zithara.AI’s AI native CRM platform to unify customer data across multiple touchpoints, enabling a single, consolidated view of customer interactions.

The platform will support intelligent customer segmentation, automated engagement workflows, and personalised communication designed to improve customer retention and increase repeat purchases. The deployment is aimed at creating a more structured and consistent approach to customer engagement as the brand continues to scale.

Broadcom enters into long term partnership with Standard Chartered

Broadcom and Standard Chartered have announced a long-term partnership to accelerate the bank’s global infrastructure modernisation by establishing a secure, resilient private cloud foundation to support banking services across 54 global markets.

Standard Chartered has realigned its infrastructure delivery to a fully integrated software-defined private cloud environment using VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). VCF embeds intrinsic zero-trust security directly into the infrastructure layer, providing uninterrupted availability and compressing infrastructure deployment from weeks to a day. By modernising the infrastructure that underpins its core banking, payments and digital services, Standard Chartered said it has enhanced its future-ready technology platform for sustainable growth and client-centric innovation.