Daily Indian Funding Roundup & Key News - 12 August 2026: Yulu Raises $93 Million, Astrotalk Turns Unicorn, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran Resigns
Four funding rounds closed on 12 August 2026, spanning electric mobility, children's tech, driving education and deep tech, with GEF Capital Partners and 12 Flags among the day's lead investors. The headline raise is Yulu's $93 million (~₹772 crore) Series C round to scale its electric mobility fleet.
Away from funding, online astrology platform Astrotalk turned unicorn at a $1 billion valuation through an ESOP buyback, while Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said he will step down when his term ends in February 2027, following months of boardroom deadlock over his reappointment.
Daily Indian Startup Funding Roundup - 12 August 2026
| Startup | Sector | Funding | Round | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yulu | Electric Mobility (MaaS) | ₹772 Cr (~$93 Mn) | Series C | GEF Capital Partners |
| Wippi | Children's Tech | ₹10 Cr (~$1.2 Mn) | Seed | 12 Flags |
| Lane | Driving Education / Mobility | ₹8.5 Cr (~$1 Mn) | Pre-Seed | Kae Capital |
| Quarkitech | Deep Tech | ₹2 Cr (~$0.24 Mn) | Pre-Seed | Artha Access, Finvolve |
Yulu Raises $93 Million Series C Funding
Yulu is a Bengaluru-based electric mobility-as-a-service platform founded in 2017 by Amit Gupta, RK Misra, Naveen Dachuri and Hemant Gupta. It operates a technology-enabled fleet of roughly 50,000 electric two-wheelers for urban mobility and last-mile delivery, covering 2.5 million zero-emission kilometres and facilitating more than 750,000 doorstep deliveries daily across 12 primary metros and eight franchise-operated regions.
Yulu raised $93 million in a Series C round comprising $63 million in equity led by GEF Capital Partners and $30 million in debt. The company plans to quadruple its active fleet to 200,000 electric vehicles over the next two years, enter new urban mobility use cases via the full-sized Yulu Express scooter, and support a potential public market listing.
Wippi Raises $1.2 Million Seed Funding
Wippi is a Bengaluru-based children's technology startup founded by Rishabh Singhi and Siddhartha Jain. It builds screen-free products that combine conversational voice AI, storytelling and interactive play, including Character Cards, illustrated storybooks and Wippi Radio, letting children aged four and above interact with characters such as Ram, Krishna and Cinderella.
Wippi raised $1.2 million in a seed round led by 12 Flags, with participation from Warmup Ventures, Ventana Ventures and Ruvento Ventures. The capital will fund voice AI development, engineering and AI hiring, manufacturing scale-up in India and D2C growth, as the startup targets 15,000 families over the next 12 months.
Lane Raises ₹8.5 Crore Pre-Seed Funding
Lane is a Bengaluru-based driving education and mobility platform launched in January 2025. It offers structured driving lessons, end-to-end RTO and licensing support and a driver intelligence platform, and has delivered more than 30,000 hours of instruction to over 3,100 learners in 18 months, developed through 400-plus hours of pilot classes with automobile researchers.
Lane raised ₹8.5 crore in a pre-seed round led by Kae Capital, with DeVC, Antler India, Panthera Peak and other angel investors participating. The funds will go towards scaling its instructor network across Bengaluru and other Tier 1 cities, building sensor technology and expanding into car ownership services.
Quarkitech Raises ₹2 Crore Pre-Seed Funding
Quarkitech is a Chennai-based deep-tech startup founded in January 2025 by Rajesh Narayanan, Sanyam Parashar, Shashikant Singh Kunwar and Vishnu P.K. It develops simulation and quantum-inspired algorithmic solvers for large-scale combinatorial optimisation, including a compression algorithm library that can reduce radar, LiDAR, hyperspectral and electro-optical sensor data by 10 to 100 times at the source.
Quarkitech raised ₹2 crore in a pre-seed round from Artha Access, a programme of Artha Venture Fund II, and Finvolve, and separately secured a ₹1.5 crore grant from the IITM-CDOT Samgnya Technologies Foundation under the National Quantum Mission. The funds will develop the compression library further for deployment across UAVs, satellite payloads and ground-segment systems.
Muskaan Kapoor
Key Business News for 12 August 2026
Astrotalk Turns Unicorn at $1 Billion Valuation via ESOP Buyback
Online astrology and spiritual tech platform Astrotalk has turned unicorn at a $1 billion valuation through an ESOP buyback for more than 100 employees, funded through the company's own profits. Founded in 2017 by Puneet Gupta and Anmol Jain, the Noida-based startup has a revenue run rate exceeding ₹2,500 crore and posted ₹1,176 crore in revenue with ₹285 crore in PBT in FY25. It is backed by Left Lane Capital and Elev8 Venture Partners, having raised $34 million in total, and has expanded into spiritual commerce through Astrotalk Store, which processed 1.6 million orders in 2025, and a newly launched gemstone platform. Astrotalk becomes India's eighth unicorn of 2026, following Emergent, Sarvam AI, Square Yards, Skyroot, KreditBee, Neysa and Juspay.
Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran to Step Down in February 2027
Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said he will step down when his current term ends in February 2027, throwing India's salt-to-software conglomerate into uncertainty as it leads the country's push into high-tech sectors. The decision follows months of deadlock over his reappointment after a single board director withheld support for extending his tenure. Chandrasekaran, widely known as Chandra, has led Tata Sons since February 2017, succeeding Cyrus Mistry after Ratan Tata's interim stint at the helm.
Accel Closes Ninth India Fund With $550 Million Corpus
Global venture capital firm Accel has closed its ninth India-focused fund with a $550 million corpus, part of a larger $3.5 billion capital raise across four new funds aimed at expanding its AI and deeptech investments. The new vehicle comes around 18 months after Accel's $650 million eighth India fund in January 2025, taking its total India commitments to over $3 billion. Accel has backed some of India's largest tech companies including Flipkart, Swiggy and Freshworks, and has recently used its Atoms and Atoms X programmes with Prosus to back early-stage AI and deeptech startups such as Praan, QOSMIC and Dognosis.
Shiprocket IPO Subscribed 0.35x on Day One
Ecommerce enabler Shiprocket's ₹1,617 crore IPO was subscribed 0.35x within the first few hours of bidding, led by demand from retail investors and employees, with bids placed for 3.29 crore shares against the 9.44 crore shares on offer. The retail portion was subscribed 1.35x and the employee quota 2.48x, while non-institutional investors booked 0.35x and qualified institutional buyers showed negligible early interest.
The Shiprocket IPO, priced between ₹92 and ₹97 per share and valuing the company at about ₹7,000 crore, closes on Friday, 14 August; it follows ₹727.4 crore raised from anchor investors including HDFC Mutual Fund, Nippon Life and Goldman Sachs a day earlier.
