Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (September 9, 2026)
YourStory presents the daily news roundup from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Wednesday, September 9, 2026.
From QNu Labs’ Rs 200-crore raise and leadership changes at Snap to payments moves by Jio Payment Solutions and Pluxee, YourStory brings you today's headlines and the latest news across sectors.
Featured stories
QNu Labs raises Rs 200 crore in Series A1 round
Quantum cybersecurity startup QNu Labs raised Rs 200 crore in a Series A1 round led by the National Quantum Mission and Speciale Invest, with Sony Innovation Fund, Gaja Capital and Artha Ventures participating. The company will expand R&D and go-to-market in India and overseas.
Snap’s Ajit Mohan steps down as chief business officer
Ajit Mohan has stepped down as Snap’s Chief Business Officer and will return to Singapore to spend more time with his family. Snap has named EMEA President Ronan Harris as Chief Commercial Officer as part of the leadership changes.
Jacob Coxon warns labs of reckless superintelligence race
Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon has resigned after three years in pretraining roles across OpenAI and Anthropic, warning that top labs are racing toward self-improving superintelligence without adequate safety focus. He said the industry’s private misgivings about risks are greater than public statements suggest.
Jagriti helps women in eastern UP build digital businesses
Jagriti Sewa Sansthan’s Women’s Centre of Excellence in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, is helping women build sustainable digital businesses through incubation, mentorship, market access and ecosystem building. The story traces Jagriti’s evolution from vocational training to enterprise support across Purvanchal.
IBM’s Rahul Rao on integrating AI into daily workflows
In an interview, IBM Distinguished Engineer Rahul Rao said AI delivers value only when employees can integrate it into everyday workflows, supported by governance, data and infrastructure readiness. He added that flexible architectures are needed to balance performance, energy efficiency, and cost across environments.
Funding news
Circolife raises $4.5M in pre-Series A round anchored by Jaisinghani
Cooling-as-a-service platform Circolife raised $4.5 million, Rs 40.45 crore, in a pre-Series A round anchored by Bharat Jaisinghani. Other participants included Nitish Mittersain, Intelliquity Ventures, Sumit Jalan, Siddharth and Anand Ladsariya, Anant Goenka, Sky Impact Capital, and the S N Damani and Vyom Wealth family offices. The company said proceeds will fund fleet expansion, national rollout, and its AI-augmented IoT platform.
Founded by Abhishek Murarka, Tushar Patil and Devanshu Mishra, Circolife offers subscription-based cooling for businesses. According to the company, it has about 10,000 active subscriptions across five cities and targets 40,000 units in 24 months. It added that connected sensors enable predictive maintenance, supported by in-house service teams and refurbishing facilities in Mumbai and Delhi.
Other news
Wipro and CrowdStrike launch CISO Command Center for enterprises
Wipro has launched a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Command Center in collaboration with CrowdStrike to help enterprises shift from tool-driven security to a risk-led operating model. The centre uses Wipro Intelligence solutions, CyberTransform and CyberShield, with the CrowdStrike Falcon platform to unify endpoint, cloud, exposure and AI security with SOC-based detection and response.
Wipro said the centre will translate security signals into business risk intelligence. CrowdStrike’s Daniel Bernard said AI is changing both threats and defence. Wipro added it is a member of CrowdStrike’s Project QuiltWorks, a coalition focused on identifying, prioritising and remediating frontier AI risk.
Jio Payment Solutions launches cross-border payments for exporters
Jio Payment Solutions has launched cross-border payments after receiving RBI authorisation to operate as a payment aggregator for cross-border transactions. According to the company, exporters can accept international payments via virtual accounts, international cards, and local rails, with T+2 settlement and no rolling reserve, and receive eFIRA documentation within the same working day.
The company said its coverage spans around 50% of India’s export footprint and offers integrations from hosted checkouts and payment links to SDKs and APIs. Jio Payment Solutions has partnered with Citi as an Authorised Dealer Category-1 and for export collection accounts, and already operates as a payment aggregator for online and PoS transactions.
Multipl launches UPI spending app with liquid fund integration
Consumer fintech has Multipl launched a UPI-based spending account that keeps money for everyday expenses invested in eligible liquid mutual funds until payment. The company said a pilot with more than 20,000 users saw over Rs 20 crore invested and around Rs 4 crore in UPI transactions. It targets about 2 lakh users and Rs 200 crore in 12 months.
Multipl said it works with UTI, Axis, ICICI Prudential and HDFC mutual funds, and operates as a third party application provider on UPI. It will add bill payments on September 10. The Bengaluru firm says it has over 5 lakh users with investments facilitated exceeding Rs 150 crore.
ControlZ expands to 700 plus service centres across India
ControlZ has expanded its authorised service network to more than 700 centres, covering 31 states and union territories, 551 cities, and over 18,000 PIN codes. The company said the footprint is complemented by an 18-month warranty on renewed devices and a 24x7 AI-powered call centre.
According to the company, the expansion supports a broader ecosystem for premium renewed smartphones across renewal, distribution, warranty and after-sales service. ControlZ said it renews devices at component level and operates a Renew Hub that uses AI, automation and robotics.
FSID at IISc names Omprakash Subbarao as CEO
The Foundation for Science, Innovation and Development (FSID) at IISc has adopted a new governance model and appointed Omprakash Subbarao as CEO, reporting to the FSID board. Prof Suryasarthy Bose will serve as professor-in-charge for institutional oversight. FSID said it aims to undertake 1,000 industry projects and build a portfolio of 300 deep-tech startups by 2030.
An IISc alumnus, Subbarao earlier led CORE Labs at FSID. The organisation said it will deepen corporate engagement and strengthen incubation via iHUB, where partners including BEML, Toyo Ink and Schaeffler have set up labs and workspaces.
Pluxee India receives RBI nod as payment aggregator
Pluxee India received RBI authorisation as a payment aggregator for both online and physical point-of-sale, complementing its existing prepaid payment instrument licence. The company said the approval enables merchant payment collection, settlement and refunds, and supports continued merchant acquiring under RBI’s licensing framework.
Pluxee said it supports more than 11,000 companies and 3.5 million consumers, with 150,000 plus meal merchant partners across over 2,200 cities. It operates on the RuPay network for additional benefits categories and has introduced AI-led bill processing, alongside the 2025 acquisition of corporate childcare benefits provider ProEves.
(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)