Daily Indian Funding Roundup & Key News - 17 September 2026: DheyaTech Raises ₹43 Crore, NSE Raises ₹6,746 Crore From Anchor Investors, and More
Here's your daily dose of Indian startup funding roundup and key business news for 17 September 2026. DheyaTech raises INR 43 crore, NSE raises INR 6,746 crore from anchor investors, and Practo announces a leadership reshuffle.
Five funding rounds closed on 17 September 2026, spanning deep tech gas turbines, industrial workforce, laundry and home cleaning, metal procurement, and wealth-tech. Avaana Capital, Info Edge, GVFL Prarambh Fund and Exar North Group were among the day's lead investors. The headline raise is DheyaTech's INR 43 crore pre-Series A round to scale its gas turbine engine business.
Away from funding, NSE raised INR 6,746 crore from anchor investors ahead of its IPO opening today, Practo announced a leadership reshuffle with Jagnoor Singh replacing cofounder Shashank ND as CEO, and PB Fintech moved to acquire the remaining stake in MyLoanCare.
Daily Indian Startup Funding Roundup - 17 September 2026
| Startup | Sector | Funding | Round | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DheyaTech | Deep Tech (Gas Turbine Engines) | ₹43 Cr | Pre-Series A | Avaana Capital |
| Enlight Metals | Metal Procurement (AI) | $1.5 Mn | Funding Round | Exar North Group |
| Factrika | Industrial Workforce | ₹8.9 Cr | Seed | Info Edge |
| Ecosys | Laundry & Home Cleaning | ₹5 Cr | Pre-Series A | GVFL Prarambh Fund |
| Crowwd | Wealth-Tech | ₹2.5 Cr | Angel Round | Dr Ritesh Malik and others |
DheyaTech Raises INR 43 Crore Pre-Series A Funding
DheyaTech raised INR 43 crore in a pre-Series A round led by Avaana Capital, with participation from Unimech Aerospace and Manufacturing. The fresh capital will scale production, set up an integrated testing facility for its gas turbine engines, and work with domestic and global customers to accelerate deployment timelines.
Founded in 2018 by Gurushankara K C, Abhinav Alva and Chetan Kumar, Bengaluru-based DheyaTech develops micro gas turbine engines and energy systems for aerospace and power generation, with an engine portfolio spanning 20 kgf to 400 kgf of thrust. The company's gas turbines are entering commercial deployment, with flight trials planned for Q4 2026, and it has already received confirmed orders from Indian and global OEMs.
Enlight Metals Raises $1.5 Million At $10 Million Valuation
Enlight Metals raised $1.5 million from US-based investment firm Exar North Group at a valuation of $10 million. The proceeds will develop its Agentic AI-enabled procurement platform, strengthen technology infrastructure, and expand operations across the metal procurement ecosystem.
New Delhi-based Enlight Metals combines steel sourcing and distribution with technology, and claims its AI-led platform has cut end-to-end transaction processing time by 75% and reduced supplier matching time from 5-7 hours to under three minutes. The company operates facilities in Pune, Mumbai and Raipur, plans to expand to Ahmedabad and Indore, and is targeting around INR 1,200 crore in revenue next financial year.
Factrika Raises INR 8.9 Crore Seed Funding
Factrika raised INR 8.9 crore in a seed round led by Info Edge. The proceeds will strengthen its team, enhance its technology, and expand into more industrial clusters across India.
Founded in 2024 by Kshitij Puri and Gaurav Asthana, Delhi-based Factrika is an on-demand industrial workforce platform that connects manufacturers with skilled and verified factory workers, claiming to deploy workers within two hours with a show-up rate above 90%. The startup has more than 10,000 registered workers across over 20 skill categories, with clients including Lenskart, Asahi India Glass and Jubilant Foods.
Ecosys Raises INR 5 Crore Pre-Series A Funding
Ecosys raised INR 5 crore in a pre-Series A round led by GVFL Prarambh Fund, with participation from Proteus Partners and backing from operator-investors Puru Gupta and Sreejith Moolayil. The round takes Ecosys' total funding to INR 7.94 crore, and the proceeds will build the brand, reach more consumers through digital channels, and develop new formats.
Co-founded in 2017 by Sumit Goyal and Chirag Dangi, Mumbai-based Ecosys is an eco-friendly cleaning startup making sustainable, water-soluble laundry and home-cleaning pods designed to reduce single-use plastic waste. Its product range spans laundry detergent pods, glass, floor and bathroom cleaners, and kitchen sprays, sold through quick-commerce and ecommerce channels.
Crowwd Raises INR 2.5 Crore Angel Round
Crowwd raised INR 2.5 crore in an angel round at a valuation of around INR 50 crore, from more than 30 investors including Innov8 founder Dr Ritesh Malik, Three Words Capital, YOGa Clean Air co-founders Sachin Panwar, Deepak Raina and Gaurav Nagar, France-based Hexa Startup Studio, Dr Lal Pathlabs independent director Somya Satsangi, and Share India Securities MD Sachin Gupta. The funds will develop and scale its wealth-tech infrastructure, acquire and integrate a brokerage platform, scale mutual fund distribution, and strengthen its technology, compliance and operating capabilities.
Founded by Ajitesh Gupta, New Delhi-based Crowwd is an AMFI-registered investing platform built around behavioural personalisation, using its proprietary Investor DNA framework to map investors into six behavioural profiles. The company is evolving from an investor-focused social community into a wealth-tech platform, and is preparing to launch in-app mutual fund distribution as the initial core of its revenue model.
Key Business News for 17 September 2026
NSE Raises INR 6,746 Crore From Anchor Investors Ahead Of IPO
The National Stock Exchange raised INR 6,746 crore from anchor investors ahead of its IPO, which opened for public subscription on 17 September. The exchange allotted 3.78 crore equity shares to 189 anchor investors at INR 1,785 per share, the upper end of its price band, with LIC emerging as the largest single anchor investor.
Foreign portfolio investors contributed around INR 2,883 crore, or 43% of the anchor book, while domestic investors put in about INR 3,588 crore, or 53%. NSE's IPO, priced between INR 1,700 and INR 1,785 per share and structured entirely as an offer for sale, is seeking to raise around INR 22,569 crore, making it one of India's largest public issues.
Practo Announces Leadership Reshuffle, Jagnoor Singh Replaces Co-founder as CEO
Healthtech startup Practo appointed former COO Jagnoor Singh as CEO, effective 1 September, while cofounder and former CEO Shashank ND Singh moved to the expanded role of MD and executive chairman. Cofounder Siddhartha Nihalani takes on the additional role of COO for B2C, Rowel Coelho becomes COO for B2B, and cofounder Abhinav Lal has been named chief scientist.
The reshuffle comes as Practo steps up international expansion and prepares for a proposed public listing targeted for 2027, having reportedly been in talks to raise $100 million to $125 million in a pre-IPO round at a valuation of around $700 million. The company says it is growing 40% year-on-year and has remained profitable for the past two-and-a-half years.
PB Fintech To Acquire Remaining Stake In MyLoanCare, Infuse Capital In Subsidiaries
PB Fintech, the parent of Policybazaar and Paisabazaar, received in-principle approval to acquire the remaining 20% stake in subsidiary MyLoanCare Ventures for up to INR 5 crore, making it a wholly owned subsidiary by 31 March 2027. Separately, the company approved capital infusions of up to INR 10 crore in PB Wheels and INR 1 crore in PB Financial Account Aggregator, both wholly owned subsidiaries.
MyLoanCare's turnover plunged 90.6% to INR 82 lakh in FY26, from INR 8.7 crore in FY24. On the financial front, PB Fintech reported a 92% year-on-year jump in profit after tax to INR 163 crore in Q1 FY27, with operating revenue growing 40% to INR 1,888 crore.
Unstop Acquires PerspectAI To Expand AI-Powered Talent Intelligence
Unstop signed an agreement to acquire PerspectAI, an AI-native talent assessment platform built around Game Science, Data Science and People Science, in an all-equity swap with no cash consideration. Unstop will acquire 100% of PerspectAI, including its technology, data, client relationships and revenue, and both PerspectAI cofounders are joining Unstop's leadership team.
PerspectAI, which was profitable in FY26, serves enterprise clients including Aditya Birla Capital, Tata Sons, Swiggy and Motilal Oswal, using psychometrics and behavioural science to generate talent signals such as employability and role fit. Unstop, which connects a community of more than 32 million students and professionals with employers, plans to fold these tools into its hiring platform for campus recruiters, lateral hiring teams and large enterprises.
Muskaan Kapoor
