Daily Indian Funding Roundup & Key News - 15 September 2026: Flam Raises $40 Million, SEBI Greenlights Fibe's INR 750 Crore IPO, and More
Here's your daily dose of Indian startup funding roundup and key business news for 15 September 2026. Flam raises $40 million, SEBI greenlights Fibe's INR 750 crore IPO, and Darwinbox gets a follow-on investment from Teachers' Venture Growth.
Two funding-related rounds closed on 15 September 2026, spanning AI interactive content and HR tech. QED Investors and Teachers' Venture Growth were the round leads. The headline raise is Flam's $40 million Series B round, backed by high-profile investors including actor Shah Rukh Khan.
Away from funding, SEBI cleared lending-tech startup Fibe's over INR 750 crore IPO, the government specified that banks cannot charge for UPI transactions up to INR 2,000 or RuPay debit card payments, and Moneyview cut its IPO fresh issue size to INR 750 crore.
Daily Indian Startup Funding Roundup - 15 September 2026
| Startup | Sector | Funding | Round | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flam | AI Interactive Content (HQ: San Francisco) | $40 Mn | Series B | QED Investors |
| Darwinbox | HR Tech | Undisclosed | Follow-On Investment | Teachers' Venture Growth |
Flam Raises $40 Million Series B Funding
Flam raised $40 million in a Series B round led by QED Investors, with participation from Claypond Capital, Martin Chavez, Olivier Pomel, Venky Harinarayan and actor Shah Rukh Khan, along with existing investors RTP Global and Dovetail. The funds will expand R&D across its AI models, broaden its product suite, and scale enterprise sales globally.
Founded in 2021 by Shourya Agarwal, Malhar Patil and Amit Gaiki, Flam develops AI-powered interactive content for enterprises across use cases such as marketing, product visualisation, learning and development, and customer support. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with teams in India and Japan, holds more than 15 patents, and has onboarded over 100 enterprise customers in the past six quarters, including Google, Reliance and Hyundai.
Darwinbox Raises Follow-On Investment From Teachers' Venture Growth
Darwinbox raised a follow-on investment from Teachers' Venture Growth, the late-stage venture and growth investment platform of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, marking TVG's second investment in the company after an initial round in 2025. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2015 by Jayant Paleti, Chaitanya Peddi, Rohit Chennamaneni and Vineet Singh, Darwinbox offers a cloud-based human capital management platform serving more than 1,400 companies and 4.5 million employees globally. The company has grown at a 70% CAGR over the past five years and recently launched Darwinbox Cortex, an AI-native HCM platform built with technology partners including Microsoft, Slack and Glean.
Key Business News for 15 September 2026
SEBI Greenlights Fibe's INR 750 Crore-Plus IPO
SEBI issued its final observations on the IPO of Fibe's parent, Social Worth Technologies, clearing the way for the lending-tech startup's public listing. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth up to INR 750 crore and an offer for sale of more than 4 crore equity shares, with TPG as the largest selling shareholder.
Founded in 2015 by Akshay Mehrotra and Ashish Goyal, Fibe, formerly EarlySalary, operates a digital consumer lending platform. Its net profit more than doubled to INR 257.5 crore in FY26, while operating revenue grew 31% to INR 1,584.6 crore, and the company plans to invest INR 562.6 crore of the fresh issue proceeds into its NBFC subsidiary.
Govt Specifies No Charges On UPI, RuPay Debit Card Payments Up To INR 2,000
The central government specified that banks and payment system providers cannot impose charges on UPI transactions up to INR 2,000 or on payments made using RuPay-powered debit cards. The notification follows an August amendment to the Payment and Settlement Systems Act that empowered the Centre to specify which electronic payment modes remain charge-free.
The notification does not specify a no-charge provision for UPI transactions above INR 2,000, leaving room for a merchant discount rate to be introduced on higher-value transactions later. The government has clarified that person-to-person UPI payments will continue to remain free regardless of any future MDR framework for merchant transactions.
Moneyview Cuts IPO Fresh Issue To INR 750 Crore
Digital lending platform Moneyview cut the fresh issue size of its proposed IPO by half to INR 750 crore from the INR 1,500 crore proposed in its draft papers, and also reduced its offer-for-sale component to around 10.04 crore shares from up to 13.61 crore shares. The revised structure follows SEBI's approval and comes ahead of the company's public listing.
Investors including Accel, Tiger Global, Crimson Winter and Ribbit Capital have scaled back their planned stake sales, while the founders' OFS remains unchanged. Founded by Puneet Agarwal and Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Moneyview reported INR 2,773 crore in revenue and INR 210 crore in profit over the first nine months of FY26.
Novastar Partners Invests In AJVC To Back Pre-Seed Startups
Novastar Partners, an India-focused private markets investment platform, invested an undisclosed amount in early-stage venture fund AJVC to help it continue deploying capital across India's pre-seed ecosystem. The investment gives Novastar exposure to companies at their earliest stages across sectors including AI, healthcare, deeptech and consumer technology.
Founded by Aviral Bhatnagar, AJVC has a corpus of around INR 165 crore, has backed more than 35 companies to date, and plans to invest in over 85 companies over the fund's life. Novastar Partners, founded by Dhruv Jhunjhunwala, invests in private equity and venture capital funds alongside select direct investments in Indian technology businesses.
Muskaan Kapoor
