Daily Indian Funding Roundup & Key News - 11 September 2026: Popo Global Raises INR 532 Crore, Flipkart Minutes Clocks 4X Growth In Two Years, and More
Here's your daily dose of Indian startup funding roundup and key business news for 11 September 2026. Popo Global raises INR 532 crore, Flipkart Minutes clocks 4X growth in two years, and Flipkart launches AI shopping agents through Super.money.
One funding round closed on 11 September 2026, in the food and beverage space. Investment firm Artal Asia led the round. The raise is Popo Global's INR 532 crore round to expand its restaurant footprint across India.
Away from funding, Flipkart Minutes marked two years of operations with 4X growth and expansion to over 150 cities, Flipkart's Super.money launched AI shopping agents, and EaseMyTrip promoter Nishant Pitti pledged INR 212 crore worth of shares with Motilal Oswal.
Daily Indian Startup Funding Roundup - 11 September 2026
| Startup | Sector | Funding | Round | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Popo Global | Food & Beverage (QSR) | ₹532 Cr | Funding Round | Artal Asia |
Popo Global Raises INR 532 Crore Funding
Popo Global raised INR 532 crore, about $56 million, from investment firm Artal Asia. The funds will expand the company's restaurant footprint across India and scale its portfolio of food and beverage brands.
Founded by brothers Abhijit Gupta and Nikhil Gupta, Bengaluru-based Popo Global operates The Pizza Bakery, Paris Panini and Smash Guys, running its restaurants directly rather than through a franchise model. The company reported around INR 175 crore in revenue in FY25 while remaining profitable, and had earlier been in talks with Invus Group for a similar-sized round at a valuation of roughly INR 1,100 to 1,350 crore.
Key Business News for 11 September 2026
Flipkart Minutes Clocks 4X Growth In Two Years
Flipkart Minutes marked two years of operations with 4X year-on-year growth, expanding to nearly 1,200 micro fulfilment centres across more than 150 cities. The platform said around 60% of its customers return to shop again, and it has created more than 4 lakh direct and indirect jobs since its August 2024 launch.
Growth has been especially strong in Tier II and smaller cities, where the customer base grew nearly 25X year-on-year, and among Gen Z shoppers, who now account for more than 45% of orders in categories such as beauty, electronics and gaming. Categories like gourmet and specialty grocery have grown 8X, while men's grooming and pet food grew nearly 6X and 5X respectively.
Flipkart Launches AI Shopping Agents Through Super.money
Flipkart-owned fintech platform Super.money launched AI agents that can shop on Flipkart and buy gold on a customer's behalf when prices hit specified levels. CEO Prakash Sikaria said the company plans to cover all its customers within two months and eventually expand the agents into bill payments and investments.
Super.money, which has more than 20 million monthly active users, expects to direct about 20% of its technical budget this year towards developing these consumer agents, with no charge to customers for now. Sikaria said the company expects 30% to 40% of its revenue to come from agentic use cases within three to four years, as it looks to monetise the agents through subscriptions over time.
Nishant Pitti Pledges INR 212 Crore Of EaseMyTrip Shares
EaseMyTrip promoter Nishant Pitti pledged 34.51 crore shares worth INR 211.92 crore with Motilal Oswal Financial Services for personal use, according to a stock exchange disclosure. The pledged shares represent 8.66% of the company's total share capital, taking his total encumbered shares to 44.87 crore, or 11.26% of the company.
The disclosure showed no encumbrance against co-promoter Prashant Pitti's 9.15% stake, while third promoter Rikant Pitti holds 23.02% of the company. EaseMyTrip's shares were trading at INR 5.84 at the time of the filing, giving it a market capitalisation of INR 2,323 crore, after the company posted an INR 11.7 crore loss in Q1 FY27 compared with a small profit a year earlier.
Muskaan Kapoor
