On February 17th, the food delivery firm announced that it has deepened its strategic partnership with OpenAI in order to boost its AI capabilities company-wide. A number of its partner platforms and internal systems, including Zomato, Blinkit, District, and Hyperpure, will be improved by the AI. The partnership will centre
Exponent Energy, a Bengaluru-based energy-tech company, announced a 360-degree fintech and asset management business venture, Exponent One, aimed at addressing a key barrier to scaling commercial EV adoption: access to viable financing. Financing and mobility veteran Sandeep Divakaran will helm the new venture as Co-founder and CEO. Exponent Energy has
Navikenz, an enterprise AI and data transformation company founded by Anjan Lahiri and Samit Deb, has raised USD 7.5 million in a Seed equity funding round. The round was led by Sekar PRC (former CEO, Hexaware), Sudip Nandy (former CEO, Aricent), along with Anjan Lahiri and Samit Deb, with
India’s startup ecosystem continued to see steady capital inflows across AI, deeptech, career access, consumer brands, and recruitment tech. From Shark Tank India-backed consumer plays to multi-million dollar AI rounds, today’s funding activity highlights strong investor appetite across early and growth stages. Here’s your detailed roundup. Daily
On Tuesday, 17 February 2026, gold and silver prices in India closed lower as profit-booking intensified and global cues turned subdued. Both metals experienced downward pressure from a firmer U.S. dollar and thin trading volumes amid holiday closures in major Asian markets, leading to a risk-off environment for bullion.
With the introduction of its subsidiary 'Exponent One,' the electric vehicle quick-charging startup Exponent Energy has entered the electric vehicle financing area. Now it will provide funding options to commercial EV operators. Venture capital firm AdvantEdge has invested $2 million (about INR 18.2 crore) in Exponent Inc.
Artociti, India’s leading mass-premium luxury 3D wall art and manufacturing brand, has raised ₹1 crore for a 7.5% equity stake at a valuation of ₹13.33 crore on Shark Tank India. The funding comes from renowned investors Namita Thapar, Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, and Vineeta Singh, Co-founder
Over a hundred positions have been eliminated at Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) due to a reorganisation. Approximately 10% of its employees might be impacted, according to media sources. In a challenging advertising climate, layoffs are part of a larger effort to rationalise costs. According to the sources, the layoffs
Shekhar Natarajan, Founder and CEO of Orchestro.AI, explains how the misuse of facial recognition software impacts legal narratives in this opinion piece.
Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical giant, will increase its long-term presence in India by adding more than 4,500 jobs to its workforce at its global capabilities center (GCC) in Hyderabad. There are more than 2,600 people working at the centre right now. A "multi-hundred-million" investment will fund
Equirus InnovateX Fund (EIF), the early-stage venture arm of Equirus Group, today announced the final close of its maiden B2B tech fund at ₹166 crore. The fund’s first close was announced in February 2024. EIF backs seed and pre-series A companies building in Deep Tech, SaaS and Fintech -
Pune-based EdTech startup Beep, has raised 850K USD in a Pre- Series A funding round to accelerate its mission of building an AI-driven career ecosystem for students and early career professionals. The round saw participation from Knowhere Ventures LLC, Pacific Global Solutions Limited and LeadAngels FLV, along with individual investors
India’s startup ecosystem saw significant action on 16 Feb 2026, featuring multi-million and billion-dollar funding rounds across AI, semiconductors, wealthtech and accelerator platforms. Gen-AI infrastructure player Neysa emerged as a unicorn after a Blackstone-led $1.2 billion funding, while C2i Semiconductors secured $15 million Series A for AI-centric power
A new phase of cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) has begun between TCS and AMD, a US-based chipmaker. In an effort to compete with Nvidia, the two companies have joined up to set up rack-scale data centre infrastructure in India. On February 16th, the AI Impact Summit began in New
On Monday, 16 February 2026, precious metals in India closed with both gold and silver easing from recent levels, with silver sliding sharply while gold ended modestly lower. At the close of domestic trading, bullion faced downward pressure amid profit-booking and firm dollar dynamics, with silver exhibiting greater weakness than
- Sam Altman called Peter Steinberger "a genius" in the announcement post on 'X.' - Peter Steinberger will be part of OpenAI's future core products. - The goal is to strengthen OpenAI's AI agents and multi-agent systems.
Bengaluru is now home to Anthropic's newest office. India is becoming an increasingly important player in the global AI competition, as the country has become the second-largest market for its AI assistant, Claude. According to the business, approximately half of Claude's usage in India is for
Following Paramount/Skydance Corp's submission of revised parameters intended to revive a purchase deal, Warner Bros. Discovery is considering reopening negotiations with the rival studio. This might put Netflix back in a high-stakes battle for one of Hollywood's most valuable content portfolios. The board has been
In its transition out of Hindustan Unilever, ice cream seller Kwality Wall's (India) intends to become a "snacking" company that sells its products all year round. According to Chitrank Goel, executive director of Kwality Wall’s (India) Ltd, the company is spearheading the transition of ice
Fractal Analytics, one of India’s best-known artificial intelligence and advanced analytics companies, made a muted stock market debut on 16 February 2026, with its shares listing below the IPO price on the major exchanges. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), shares opened at ₹876, reflecting a 2.67% discount
Meta has officially stated that it has no plans to implement new performance-based layoffs. Consequently, the company is denying online rumours that it may resume workforce reductions that are associated with employee ratings. According to a representative from Meta who talked with a news outlet, the most recent modifications were
Kwality Wall’s India Limited made its stock market debut on 16 February 2026, listing on both the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), but the ice cream major began trading at a sharp discount compared to its reference price. On the NSE, the stock opened
The Pentagon has selected two defence technology companies to compete for the development of voice-controlled, drone swarming software for the US military. OpenAI has partnered with these companies. For the sole purpose of converting spoken orders from military leaders into digital directives for the drones, OpenAI's technology would
According to Airbnb, its in-house AI agent is already taking care of about a third of customer support enquiries in the US, and the company is getting ready to launch the function worldwide. By the end of the next year, the business hopes that its AI voice and chat systems