If you’ve followed India’s retail and tech space even casually, you’ve probably heard one name making waves lately: Jeyandran Venugopal. And for good reason. Reliance Retail, a company that’s already reshaping how India shops, has handed its top job to a man who has quietly engineered
This article has been contributed by Muzammil Patel Co-founder and CEO Acies Consulting In the world of solutions, what matters is outcomes. Concepts, ideas, and frameworks are only as relevant as their actual implementation and benefits derived therefrom. For a very long time, advice and methodologies were conceived by people
12th December 2025 brought a mix of major corporate developments and strategic innovation across global and Indian business ecosystems. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella showcased the power of generative AI with a new cricket analytics app, while Skoda Volkswagen India announced a voluntary early-retirement scheme aimed at strengthening operational efficiency. Global
Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and licensing hundreds of its most well-known characters to use in Sora, the company's groundbreaking text-to-video production tool, in one of the most unexpected collaborations of the year. The statement, which was jointly made on 11 December, represents a daring new
In an effort to soothe worries about possible job losses at its manufacturing operations, Skoda Auto Volkswagen India has implemented an early-retirement option at its facilities in Pune and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, which it anticipates will result in just a limited number of employees leaving. Despite employing almost 5,000
- It has fallen by more than 5% this year, marking a major psychological and economic milestone. - The government says the situation is under watch but not alarming. - However, foreign investors are withdrawing money from Indian stocks already.
With 53 million distinct transacting clients, Flipkart Minutes, the company's fast commerce platform, saw a 16X increase in the second half of the year. Flipkart Minutes saw significant growth during the holiday season, with demand for products like jewellery, high-end gadgets, home décor, and mobile phones increasing by
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft and a self-described cricket fan, demonstrated his coding prowess by creating an AI-powered application that evaluates player statistics to select ideal IPL teams. The tool unexpectedly revealed that Virat Kohli was chosen as captain instead of MS Dhoni. Nadella Steals the Show with His
The Indian startup ecosystem witnessed steady activity on 11th December 2025, with notable funding rounds across healthtech, wearables, specialty coffee, and managed office solutions. Growth-stage funding continued to strengthen India’s innovation landscape, while early-stage ventures attracted investor confidence in emerging consumer and technology categories. Alongside funding updates, key corporate
Imagine juggling dozens of apps just to track one customer. Right now, most businesses do exactly that. In fact, only 24% of companies have fully integrated customer data across their tools. The result is chaos: teams waste hours on duplicate data entry and manual work, and customers get inconsistent service.
Think about your own habits: how often do you email a company versus just sending a quick WhatsApp or Instagram message? Today, the answer is clear. Consumers overwhelmingly favor instant messaging over traditional email or phone calls. In one survey, about 67% of people said they prefer to contact companies
In 2026, new business ventures known as startups will have to deal with a new reality: they may either advance briskly or not at all. AI technologies have come a long way since they were first used in high-tech add-ons. Now, they are important components of the building that can
In a comprehensive cost-cutting plan, Pfizer intends to eliminate more than 200 positions in Switzerland, according to a report by Bloomberg News on 11 December that cited people with knowledge of the situation. By the end of 2025, the pharmaceutical company plans to reduce its personnel in Switzerland from about
The Maharashtra government informed the state legislative council on 9 December that Tata Consultancy Services had let go 376 workers from its Pune campuses during the first two quarters of the current fiscal year. Following enquiries from lawmakers who referenced news reports indicating widespread layoffs at the IT services company,
- A rare mega-acquisition signals TCS’s aggressive push into AI, cloud and data centre expansion. - TCS is funding this deal with its $5.49B in free cash flow for FY 2024-25. - The deal is expected to close by 31 January 2026.
Corporate circles and corporate India are buzzing about the IMF's accreditation of the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, as the largest real-time payment system in the world with 129.3 billion transactions. Key online payment platforms have praised the recognition and emphasised the close cooperation between the banking
Inito is moving beyond fertility to build a broader at-home hormone and health diagnostics platform Inito, the company on a mission to simplify health with at-home diagnostics, today announced it has raised $29 million in Series B funding, led by Bertelsmann India Investments and co-led by existing investor Fireside Ventures.
* Planned deployment across 18–20 deep-tech startups * Focus on lab-to-market deep-tech ventures building globally relevant, IP-led technologies * Over 50% of the fund has already been subscribed to, and this is part of the first bullet BYT Capital, an India-focused deep-tech venture capital firm founded by Amit Chand, Dinesh Kumar, and
* The funds will be used to scale on quick-commerce platforms, with a target of capturing 5–8% of the coffee category and reaching ₹60–80 crore ARR. * The startup has been featured on Shark Tank India and is backed by visionary investor Ritesh Agarwal. * Toffee Coffee Roasters is among the
One of the biggest cash piles in the nation's consumer internet market is currently supporting India's quick-commerce development, but the figures conceal a significant shift of capital during the previous 12 months. According to market financial research, after spending close to INR 9,000 crore between
Christmas is a holiday season when many people think of fun, going on a holiday, and relaxing at home. But some people see this period as a time to start a business. Starting a new business this Christmas will be very profitable and lucrative. There are lots of Christmas business
The Indian startup ecosystem recorded a dynamic day on 10th December 2025, marked by strong fundraising momentum across fintech, energy efficiency, clean nutrition, edtech, AI, and pet care. Major deals included Skydo’s $10M Series A, Smart Joules’ $10M Series B, and significant rounds for Uolo, Earthful, KNOT, and Dr.
Digital adoption platform Whatfix has reduced its workforce by around 6% in its first large restructuring exercise since the company was founded. The Bengaluru-headquartered SaaS firm, backed by global investors including SoftBank and Warburg Pincus, confirmed that the move is part of a broader shift in its business priorities as
StartupTalky presents Recap'25, a series of exclusive interviews where we connect with founders and industry leaders to reflect on their journey in 2025 and discuss their vision for the future. India’s drone ecosystem has rapidly evolved from hobby-grade experimentation to mission-critical national infrastructure, with adoption rising across
Year End Stories
StartupTalky presents Recap'25, a series of exclusive interviews where we connect with founders and industry leaders to reflect on their journey in 2025 and discuss their vision for the future. As businesses across sectors faced rising competitiveness, pricing volatility, and increasingly informed customers in 2025, AI-driven pricing moved
Year End Stories
StartupTalky presents Recap'25, a series of exclusive interviews where we connect with founders and industry leaders to reflect on their journey in 2025 and discuss their vision for the future. India’s EV and last-mile mobility sector is entering a new phase as demand grows for reliable, well-engineered
📝Interviews
As India’s gifting culture evolves and emotional expression takes new formats in a digital-first world, legacy brands are reimagining themselves for the next generation. In this interaction with StartupTalky, Hanisha Gandhi, Executive Director of Archies, talks about leading the iconic 46-year-old brand as its first woman and first non-family
Indian Startup Funding
Company Sector Headquarters Amount Funding Round Type Lead Investors Infra.Market Real Estate Tech Thane $83 Mn Series G - EvoluteIQ Enterprise Tech Bengaluru $53 Mn – Baird Capital FinBox Fintech Bengaluru $40 Mn Series B WestBridge Capital Blue Energy Motors Clean Tech Pune $30 Mn - Nikhil Kamath, Omnitex Industries
👨💻StartupTalkers
Neal Mohan is an American businessman who has been the CEO of the online video-sharing platform YouTube since 2023. He succeeded Susan Wojcicki and managed several of its segments, such as YouTube TV, YouTube Music, and YouTube Premium. He was one of the driving forces behind the introduction of a
✍️ Opinions
This article has been contributed by Ms. Upasana Sharma, Executive Director, TiE Delhi-NCR If you spent enough time around founder events in 2025, especially the casual ones in coworking spaces where people talked more freely, you would have sensed something shifting. It wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t packaged
✍️ Opinions
This article has been contributed by Mukul Pasricha (Founder & CEO , Spring House Workspaces) As 2025 comes to a close, the commercial real estate and workspace market in India is undergoing its most significant transformation in decades. The old office equation - long leases, fixed desks, centralized headquarters is giving