Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (September 8, 2026)

From GalaxEye’s US patent win to W Health Ventures’ new fund and a slate of consumer and deeptech raises led by Fundly.ai and DigitalPaani, YourStory brings you today’s headlines and the latest news across sectors.

Featured stories

Five initiatives making literacy accessible across underserved communities

On International Literacy Day, YourStory spotlights five initiatives widening access to learning, from Pehchaan The Street School’s weekend classes in Delhi’s slums to Arunachal’s roadside libraries and Central Square Foundation’s programmes. The stories show how community-led models are extending literacy beyond formal classrooms.

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Latest news

GalaxEye secures US patent for OptoSAR imaging tech

GalaxEye has secured a US patent for the core architecture behind its OptoSAR system, which synchronises optical and SAR sensors to capture aligned observations. The company said this strengthens its IP as it builds out its Earth observation business.

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W Health Ventures closes Fund II at Rs 700 Cr

Healthcare-focused VC W Health Ventures has closed its second fund at Rs 700 crore, above its Rs 630 crore target. The firm plans to invest in 8 to 10 startups over four years and has already backed Everhope Oncology and Everbright Health from the fund.

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Funding news

Fundly.ai raises $4M pre-Series A led by Accel

Fundly.ai has raised $4 million in a pre-Series A round led by existing investors Accel and Multiply, with participation from Rajeev Ahuja and other angels. The company said the round also includes venture debt from Alteria Capital and takes total funding to over $7 million.

According to the company, Fundly.ai is building an AI-native B2B distribution network for India’s Rs 2.5 lakh crore pharmaceutical market, connecting ordering, payments and credit for the secondary trade. Founder and CEO Amit Chawla said the platform aims to coordinate currently fragmented workflows across medicine distribution.

DigitalPaani raises Rs 22 Cr led by Navam Capital

DigitalPaani has raised Rs 22 crore in a round led by Navam Capital, with participation from Enzia Ventures, Chakra Growth Capital, 3one4 Capital, Momentum Capital, Achieving Women Entrepreneurs Early Growth Fund and Echo River Capital. The company said the capital will support expansion across industrial and municipal sectors, operations scale-up and the start of international expansion.

DigitalPaani said its AI-powered operating system automates water infrastructure operations and is deployed at over 95 facilities treating more than 150 million litres daily. It cited marquee clients and claimed cost savings at upgraded plants, along with nearly six times revenue growth over two years.

ARC raises Rs 10.5 Cr pre-seed led by Chimera

Gaming technology startup ARC has raised Rs 10.5 crore in pre-seed funding led by Chimera VC and MIXI Global Investments, with participation from Dhruv Vohra in a personal capacity. The company said funds will accelerate engineering, validation, manufacturing readiness for its ARC X1 device, development of OWL OS and go-to-market efforts.

ARC said X1 is a portable gaming system built on ARM architecture powered by Qualcomm technology and runs its proprietary OWL OS. It added that X1 is being designed to support native Android gaming, PC-game compatibility through ARC’s software stack and cloud gaming, and that it has crossed 50,000 waitlist sign-ups.

Iztri raises Rs 10 Cr seed led by All In Capital

On-demand fabric care startup Iztri has raised Rs 10 crore in a seed round led by All In Capital and Suashish Group. The company plans to use the funds to expand operations, strengthen its hub network and infrastructure, and grow its customer base.

Iztri operates in Bengaluru with services that include fabric care and repairs. The company has indicated plans to increase density in its home market, expand across southern India over the next few years and later enter major metro markets.

Safebox raises $1.1M seed led by family office

Safebox has raised $1.1 million in a seed round led by a family office, with participation from several angels including Sekhar Garisa investing in a personal capacity. The company said it will deploy the capital to enhance product capabilities and accelerate distribution through partner networks and corporate tie-ups.

Safebox describes itself as a family wealth protection platform that tracks assets, liabilities, insurance and critical records across 55 categories, integrating with regulated infrastructure such as Account Aggregator. The company said customers have recorded over Rs 6,000 crore in assets since June 2026. Safebox operates via Beyondco Technologies Private Limited, registered with SEBI as an Investment Adviser.

SORRY SUGAR raises $1M seed led by Dhanuka family

SORRY SUGAR has raised $1 million in its first seed round led by the Dhanuka family and Amishi London. The company plans to expand online and offline across North India and accelerate new product launches, including monk fruit-sweetened gelatos with zero added sugar.

The clean label beverage brand said it recorded more than Rs 1 crore in revenue in its first month and runs three offline stores in Gurgaon and Delhi. Founded by Deepak Pathak, Kunal Verma, Shashank Sherawat and Saiyam Malik, the brand was incubated by Palash Arneja alongside Wolfpack Labs. SORRY SUGAR targets an annualised revenue run rate of over Rs 60 crore by the end of the current financial year.

Other news

Bhartiya Converge appoints Eric Pagdiwalla as COO

Bhartiya Converge has appointed Eric Pagdiwalla as Chief Operating Officer. In this role, he will lead consulting, operations strategy and customer success to strengthen execution and scale the company’s integrated GCC enablement model.

Pagdiwalla joins from Persistent Systems, where he served as Senior Vice President and Head of GCC Practice. He has held leadership roles at ANSR and Ascena Retail Group, and previously spent over 13 years at Hewlett Packard Enterprise across digital selling, global business services and account management.

PointAI unveils physics-based virtual try-on platform for fashion

PointAI has launched a real-time virtual try-on solution that the company said combines generative models with physics-based simulation to replicate how fabrics behave on different body types. The launch also includes AI platforms for e-commerce and enterprise customers.

The company said the offering aims to improve accuracy and speed compared with conventional image-generation tools and plans to introduce an agentic commerce app in multiple markets. PointAI provides AI solutions for digital fashion and retail use cases.

Jarvislabs.ai launches Managed Endpoints for open model deployment

Jarvislabs.ai has introduced Managed Endpoints, allowing enterprises to deploy selected open models as API endpoints with serving configuration maintained by the company. Jarvislabs.ai said its team preselects GPUs and optimises serving images, precision and kernels for each model.

The company added that customers can set worker scaling to match traffic, keep workers warm for latency-sensitive workloads or scale to zero when idle. Managed Endpoints are positioned alongside Jarvislabs.ai’s existing options for VMs, clusters and serverless deployments.

Amazon India crosses 20 lakh sellers ahead of festive season

Amazon India announced that its seller base has crossed 20 lakh, with over 3 lakh new sellers joining the marketplace. The company said lower selling fees, including zero referral fees across more than 12.5 crore products, and wider use of AI-powered tools supported the expansion. Ahead of the festive season, it plans 20-plus Seller Connects and Ads Hive workshops.

According to Amazon, seller interactions with its Seller Assistant grew 7.5x year on year, while the share of advertisers using AI tools rose 77% and SMBs created 62% more ad creatives in Q1 2026. The company said it has created over 160,000 seasonal work opportunities across 400 cities.

Honasa Consumer elevates Nishchay Bahl as CBO, Offline

Honasa Consumer Limited announced the elevation of Nishchay Bahl to Chief Business Officer, Offline. In the new role, he will lead the company’s offline business across General Trade, Modern Trade and other channels, with a brief to drive growth, expand distribution and strengthen brand presence across markets and categories.

Bahl previously served as Senior Vice President, Offline Revenue for nearly three years and worked on Project Neev to bolster General Trade. He brings over 17 years of experience, with prior roles at The Good Glamm Group, Reckitt and Britannia. “Nishchay has demonstrated strong leadership,” said Varun Alagh, Co-founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer Limited. At Reckitt, he was E-commerce Director for South Asia, and he is an alumnus of ISB Hyderabad and St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Agnikul opens Chennai facilities to test reusable rocket stages

Agnikul Cosmos inaugurated two new units at its Assembly and Testing Facility in Chennai, expanding capabilities to test reusable rocket stages under flight-like conditions and manufacture critical components in-house. The Stage Testing and Inspection Facility and the Pressurant Tank Realization, Over-wrapping and Outfitting Facility were opened ahead of Mission-02 in the presence of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla.

STIF enables full-stage testing, supports thrust levels from 1 kN to 200 kN, LOX sub-cooling to 73 K and burns up to 150 seconds, and allows post-flight inspection and requalification. PROOF can produce over 10 composite overwrapped pressure vessels a month, up to 3,500 litres and 350 bar. “STIF gives us the ability to test complete stages,” said Srinath Ravichandran, Co-founder and CEO, Agnikul Cosmos. The company said these capabilities position it among a small set of global firms pursuing full-stack reusable launch capability, and the only Indian private space company with in-house post-flight requalification infrastructure.

(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)