Daily Indian Funding Roundup & Key News - 16 September 2026: VerifAIX Raises $5 Million, TRUE ARTIS Raises INR 11.4 Crore, and More
Here's your daily dose of Indian startup funding roundup and key business news for 16 September 2026. VerifAIX raises $5 million, TRUE ARTIS raises INR 11.4 crore, and Activate closes its maiden $105 million AI fund.
Four funding rounds closed on 16 September 2026, spanning semiconductor verification, aesthetic surgery, fashion discovery and beauty quick commerce. Endiya Partners, Bluehill VC, Zeropearl VC and AJVC were among the day's lead investors. The headline raise is VerifAIX's $5 million seed round to scale its AI-native chip verification platform.
Away from funding, Aakrit Vaish's Activate closed its maiden VC fund at $105 million to back AI startups, while Reliance Jio partnered with Canva to offer free Canva Pro to subscribers on select recharge plans.
Daily Indian Startup Funding Roundup - 16 September 2026
| Startup | Sector | Funding | Round | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VerifAIX | Semiconductor Verification (AI) | $5 Mn | Seed | Endiya Partners, Bluehill VC |
| Firi | Beauty Quick Commerce | $3 Mn | Funding Round | 360 ONE Asset |
| TRUE ARTIS | Aesthetic Surgery | ₹11.4 Cr | Seed | Zeropearl VC |
| Slayd | Fashion Discovery | ₹1.5 Cr | Pre-Seed | AJVC |
VerifAIX Raises $5 Million Seed Funding
VerifAIX raised $5 million in a seed round co-led by Endiya Partners and Bluehill VC. The proceeds will fund product development, customer deployments and expansion of its engineering teams across the US, India and Israel.
Co-founded in 2024 by Madhulima Tewari, Kenneth Roe and Avner Landver, VerifAIX is building an AI-native verification platform for semiconductor design. Its "Formal Brain" combines AI with formal methods to reason across specifications, RTL and verification assets, helping engineering teams verify increasingly complex chips with greater speed and rigour.
Firi Raises $3 Million in Funding
Firi raised $3 million in a funding round led by 360 ONE Asset, with participation from Better Capital, CRED founder Kunal Shah and other angel investors. The company plans to use the funds to expand into makeup, fragrances and other beauty categories, and to add more dark stores in Gurugram before expanding to other cities.
Founded in 2026 by former Uber India executives Vivek Madani and Karishma Rathaur, Firi is a Gurugram-based beauty and personal care quick commerce startup that uses AI to analyse product reviews before listing products on its platform. The company claims to have analysed more than 50 million reviews and shortlisted around 3,000 products, with deliveries in parts of Gurugram taking as little as nine minutes.
TRUE ARTIS Raises INR 11.4 Crore Seed Funding
TRUE ARTIS raised INR 11.4 crore in a seed round led by Zeropearl VC, with participation from Eleven, a business group of Medanta co-founder Sunil Sachdeva, and a group of angel investors including PhonePe CBO Vivek Lohcheb. The fresh funds will open two new centres in Delhi NCR over the next six to eight months, strengthen surgical and recovery capabilities, and expand its network of plastic and aesthetic surgeons.
Co-founded in 2025 by Ankit Joshi and Sandeep Upadhyay, TRUE ARTIS is an integrated aesthetic surgery platform offering facial aesthetics, breast procedures, body contouring, hair restoration and non-surgical treatments across two centres in Delhi and Gurgaon. The company claims to have served more than 10,000 clients and completed over 400 surgeries in the past nine months, with its first centre reaching EBITDA break-even.
Slayd Raises INR 1.5 Crore Pre-Seed Funding
Slayd raised INR 1.5 crore in a pre-seed round led by ajvc, an early-stage fund founded by Aviral Bhatnagar. The round values the startup at around INR 16.66 crore post-money, and the funds will expand its team and scale its private-label business, Slayd Originals.
Founded in 2025 by IIT Roorkee alumni Sparsh Jain, Harsh Porwal and Kumar Prasang, Slayd is a Gurugram-based fashion discovery platform that aggregates products from more than 300 marketplaces and D2C brands. The startup has crossed 200,000 users with over 40% month-one retention, and its private-label brand Slayd Originals currently generates around 1,000 orders a month.
Key Business News for 16 September 2026
Activate Closes Maiden VC Fund At $105 Million To Back AI Startups
Aakrit Vaish-led VC firm Activate announced the final close of its maiden fund at $105 million, comprising an $85 million flagship early-stage fund and $20 million deployed through growth investment vehicles. Activate said the flagship fund closed 125% above its original target, with backers including Vinod Khosla, General Catalyst, Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Bhavin Turakhia.
Founded in December 2025 by former Haptik CEO Aakrit Vaish and former Together Fund partner Pratyush Choudhury, Activate backs AI-native startups from the pre-seed or idea stage, targeting 25 to 30 companies with initial cheques of $500,000 to $3 million. The fund has already made 10 investments, including seven early-stage bets in stealth and growth investments in Sarvam AI, ElevenLabs and Wispr Flow.
Reliance Jio Partners With Canva For Free Canva Pro Access
Reliance Jio partnered with Canva to give eligible subscribers free access to Canva Pro or Canva Pro Lite for up to 12 months, depending on their recharge plan. Jio's INR 399 plan will include Canva Pro, while the INR 349 plan and select 2GB-per-day plans priced above INR 349 will include Canva Pro Lite, with the offer live across all channels from 16 September.
Canva Pro Lite includes premium templates, images and videos along with basic Brand Kit tools and one-tap background removal, while Canva Pro adds AI-powered chat-to-design capability and a Content Planner. The partnership will also enable content creation in Hindi and other Indian languages through the MyJio app, as Jio continues to bundle third-party digital services into its recharge plans.
Muskaan Kapoor
