Daily Indian Funding Roundup & Key News - 10 July 2026: Aukera Bags ₹90 Cr, CarDekho Eyes ₹3,500 Cr IPO
Retail and consumer brands led the day's dealmaking, spanning luxury fashion, lab-grown diamonds, live entertainment and biofuel. Four rounds brought in roughly ₹318 crore in total, topped by Purple Style Labs' ₹162.5 crore debt raise for Pernia's Pop Up Shop. Aukera followed with a ₹90 crore round led by Alteria Capital. On the news front, CarDekho is preparing a ₹3,000-3,500 crore IPO this quarter, while Flipkart announced a fresh $50 million ESOP buyback.
Daily Indian Startup Funding Digest - 10 July 2026
| Startup | Sector | Funding | Round | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pernia's Pop Up Shop (Purple Style Labs) | Luxury Fashion Retail | ₹162.5 Cr (~$17 Mn) | Debt (NCD) | Kairos Ventures, Real Capital Financial Services, Texport International |
| Aukera | Jewellery / D2C | ₹90 Cr (~$10 Mn) | Undisclosed | Alteria Capital |
| BiofuelCircle | Biofuel Marketplace | ₹35 Cr (~$4 Mn) | Undisclosed | Pooja Unichem LLP |
| thumpN | Live Entertainment / Ticketing | ~₹31 Cr ($3.75 Mn) | Pre-Seed | Arijit Singh, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, others |
Pernia's Pop Up Shop Raises ₹162.5 Crore in Debt
Purple Style Labs (PSL), the parent of luxury house of brands Pernia's Pop Up Shop, is an omnichannel luxury fashion house. It was founded in 2015 by Abhishek Agarwal and houses Indian designer labels alongside its flagship Pernia's Pop Up Studio & Shop.
The company raised around ₹162.5 crore (about $17 million) across 14 tranches between January and June, issuing a combined 64,588 NCDs at a face value of ₹25,000 apiece. The debt came from institutional investors including California-based Kairos Ventures (₹20 crore), Real Capital Financial Services (₹15 crore) and Mumbai-based textile importer Texport International (₹2 crore), plus a clutch of angel investors. (exclusively reported by Inc42)
The debt sprint followed SEBI's go-ahead for the firm's IPO. PSL filed its DRHP in September last year to raise ₹660 crore through a fresh issue, and plans to deploy IPO proceeds towards offline store expansion. Its FY25 loss widened 295% to ₹189 crore, driven by an exceptional ESOP item.
Aukera Raises ₹90 Crore Led by Alteria Capital
Aukera is a lab-grown diamond jewellery brand founded in 2023 by Lisa Mukhedkar and Kumar Saurabh. It sells through company-owned retail stores across markets, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi NCR.
Aukera raised ₹90 crore (over $10 million) in a round led by existing investor Alteria Capital, with participation from InnoVen Capital, Lighthouse Canton and a bank. The raise comes less than a year after it secured $15 million in an equity round led by Peak XV Partners.
The fresh capital will fund store network expansion, omnichannel operations, product development and talent. Aukera has grown from 13 stores to 35 over the past year, entering Pune, Lucknow, Dehradun and Visakhapatnam.
BiofuelCircle Secures ₹35 Crore in Fresh Funding
BiofuelCircle is a Pune-based biomass and biofuel marketplace founded in 2020. It connects farmers, suppliers and industries, enabling price discovery, logistics and trade finance while helping farmers monetise agri-residue.
The company raised ₹35 crore in a round led by Pooja Unichem LLP (₹22.40 crore), with participation from Varanium Venture, Rajeev Kumar, Karma Capital Advisors and others. Its valuation rose about 21.5% to roughly ₹638 crore, following a ₹70 crore raise in August 2025. (as first reported by Entrackr)
Proceeds will support the company's growth plans. Its operating revenue rose to ₹50.7 crore in FY25 from ₹29 crore a year earlier, while losses widened to ₹6.51 crore.
thumpN Raises $3.75 Million in Pre-Seed Round
thumpN is an AI-native discovery and ticketing platform for live entertainment, co-founded in 2025 by Varun Khare, Shreyas Srinivas and Alaap Gosher. Its conversational AI agent, Shadow, helps fans find live experiences through natural conversation, backed by a network of co-curators.
The platform raised over $3.75 million (~₹31 crore) in a pre-seed round from Bollywood musicians Arijit Singh, Sunidhi Chauhan and Badshah, alongside Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Madhur Deora, Shray Chandra and VG Jairam.
The proceeds will be used to expand its AI-native live entertainment platform. thumpN is launching with a pipeline of events across music, theatre, comedy, festivals, nightlife and sports.
Muskaan Kapoor
Key Business News for 10 July 2026
CarDekho To File DRHP For ₹3,500 Crore IPO This Quarter
Auto classifieds unicorn CarDekho's parent Girnar Software plans to file draft papers with SEBI for an IPO of up to ₹3,000-3,500 crore in the July-September quarter. The issue will combine a fresh issue, expected at around 10% of the total, with an offer for sale. The company is eyeing a valuation of ₹13,000-15,000 crore, up from ₹9,000 crore at its last raise in 2021, and has appointed Axis Bank, IIFL, Goldman Sachs and Nomura as bankers. Founded in 2008 by Amit Jain and Anurag Jain, it competes with listed CarTrade and IPO-bound Cars24.
Flipkart Announces $50 Million ESOP Buyback
Flipkart has announced its second ESOP buyback event, with a $50 million corpus allowing employees to cash out vested stock options. The move adds to a growing trend of Indian startups offering liquidity programmes to staff and early investors. BrowserStack recently ran a $125 million buyback, while CoinDCX and Unacademy have conducted their own ESOP liquidity initiatives.
Zostel Withdraws Fresh Plea Against OYO Ahead of IPO
Budget hostel chain Zostel has withdrawn an urgent Delhi High Court application seeking protection for a 7% stake it claims in PRISM, the IPO-bound parent of OYO. Zostel had sought that 7% of OYO's share capital be escrowed until the decade-long dispute is resolved. The plea followed OYO's updated DRHP filed with SEBI last month to raise ₹6,650 crore. The dispute stems from a 2015 agreement under which OYO was to acquire Zostel's Zo Rooms for equity, with the next hearing due in August.
WhatsApp Responds To Centre's Notice On Username Feature
Meta-owned WhatsApp has submitted its response to MeitY's notice on its proposed username feature, which would let users communicate without sharing phone numbers. The ministry, which is examining the reply, had flagged concerns over privacy, phishing, impersonation and online fraud. The Centre directed the platform not to roll out the feature in India until consultations conclude. MeitY has issued similar notices to Telegram and Signal over their username-based messaging systems.
