Pracheer Gupta

Two teenagers — including one from Kolkata — are heading to Y Combinator. 🚀 18-year-old Aayam Bansal, a DPS Ruby Park alumnus from Calcutta, and Ishaan Gangwani from Pune have taken their AI startup InkVell (YC W26) to Y Combinator’s Winter batch in Silicon Valley. Built just months ago, InkVell helps researchers and professionals turn raw material into publication-ready documents using AI. They’ve already raised ~$1.4M and now enter the world’s most influential accelerator — the same one that backed Zepto, Groww and Razorpay. 💰 At Kolkata Calling, we celebrate stories like this because they show what young builders from our city are capable of on the global stage. May this inspire the next batch of teenagers in our schools and colleges to dream a little bigger. Full article here: https://lnkd.in/dvT7PSpF #kolkata #startup #YCombinator #Funding #Investors #Entrepreneurs #Teenagers #Founders #InkVell #SanFrancisco #KolkataCalling #KolkataNews

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Israeli observability startup Coralogix has raised $115 million in a Series E round, becoming a unicorn with a valuation of over $1 billion. Coralogix offers a full-stack observability and security platform that helps companies understand and resolve complex issues in their data streams. The company has developed an AI agent, Olly, which uses a semantic layer over internal and external data to automate data observability and provide sophisticated insights through simple text prompts. The all-equity round was led by NewView Capital, with participation from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments | Investissements RPC) and NextEquity Partners, alongside existing investors. The funding will be used to expand its engineering base in India, with a planned $100M investment over five years, and to further develop its AI agent. Congratulations to co-founder and CEO Ariel Assaraf and the Coralogix team. TechCrunch: https://lnkd.in/dS3NZrrG #Observability #Data #AI #DevOps #Unicorn #SeriesE #Funding #VentureCapital #IsraelTech

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India has abundant expertise across every domain - logistics operators, subject matter experts, local service providers, etc. What's scarce isn't capability. It's the systems that coordinate this capability at scale. Most companies see this fragmentation and default to vertical integration: build everything in-house, own all capabilities, control every aspect of delivery. This works if you have unlimited capital and time. Most companies have neither. But there's an alternative approach that we've noticed two of our portcos execute remarkably well, in completely different industries - 1. When Meesho looked at India's logistics, and they saw thousands of fragmented local operators. Instead of building warehouses and delivery fleets, they built Valmo - an orchestration platform coordinating existing partners. Individual pilots with smartphones earn sustainable incomes, small hub operators build viable businesses, and Meesho gets coverage across 15,000+ pin codes at 12% lower cost than traditional third-party-logistics. 2. Entri saw similar fragmentation in education. India has abundant teaching expertise already running offline/online programs. Entri partners with them for content while owning demand generation, platform infra, quality monitoring, and placements. This allows them to launch new categories in weeks and scale across languages without the capital intensity of building in-house teams for every vertical. If I had to pull a common thread, it's that in fragmented markets like India, the orchestration layer often matters more than asset ownership. Coordinate what exists rather than rebuilding from scratch.

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Thane-based marketing technology startup Grexa AI has raised INR 15.5 crore in a seed funding round. Grexa AI is on a mission to simplify marketing for India's small business sector. The company offers an all-in-one platform that automates digital marketing for SMBs like salons, clinics, and gyms. The platform handles social media, local SEO, advertisements, and website management without requiring technical expertise, aiming to empower one million small businesses over the next two years. The seed funding round was led by Utsav Somani, with participation from Bharat Founders Fund, DeVC, Vernalis Capital, and several angel investors. The newly secured funds will be used to accelerate product innovation and support go-to-market efforts as Grexa AI continues to develop its autonomous platform. Congratulations to co-founders Ashutosh Kumar, Ayush Varshney, Arpit Oswal, Narendra Agrawal, and the Grexa AI team. Entrepreneur India: https://lnkd.in/dNTMDFp7 #MarTech #AI #DigitalMarketing #SMB #Automation #SeedFunding #IndianTech

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Micro VCs Summit 2025 | Fund Moats and Sectoral Thesis  At Micro VCs Summit 2025, Arpit Agarwal, Investment Partner, Blume Ventures; Ankit K., Founder and Lead Investor, Capital A, and Managing Director, Manjushree Packtek; and Murali Krishna Gunturu, Partner, Inflexor Ventures, came together for a high-impact session on “Fund Moats and Sectoral Thesis.” The panel explored how emerging fund managers can differentiate themselves in a crowded venture ecosystem by building unique investment moats, sharpening their thematic focus, and crafting sectoral theses aligned with their strengths. Whether it's deep domain expertise, founder access, or portfolio services, the session offered a grounded perspective on what gives a fund lasting edge. Their insights empowered micro VCs to think strategically about differentiation and long-term value. #MicroVCSummit2025 #FundMoats #SectoralThesis Headstart Network Foundation Amit Pandey Anil Joshi Mitesh Shah Anoop N Neeraj Tyagi Murali Krishna Gunturu Ankit K. Varun Bajaj Pearl Agarwal Sarita Raichura Arpit Agarwal

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Powering the Future of Learning : A dynamic India-based EdTech company has developed a robust LMS + SIS platform that’s already supporting leading institutions like IIT Jodhpur, IIT Jammu, Jain University, and Amity Online. Their solution is designed to address what most institutions still struggle with: 1. Fragmented systems 2. Low student/faculty engagement 3. Scalability issues 4. Lack of customization This platform offers a modular, multilingual, mobile-first experience — combining powerful learning tools with a seamless student information system. It’s secure, API-ready, and built to scale with the needs of modern education. Ideal for universities, skill-based platforms, and EdTech providers seeking an agile, user-focused LMS + SIS solution. Happy to connect you with the team or share the deck if you're exploring options. #EdTech #DigitalLearning #LMS #SIS #HigherEducation #EducationTransformation #IndiaEdTech

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Whenever a new industry takes shape and scale, ancillary/supporting companies also get set up. We call such companies as ‘Enablers’, the ‘Picks and Shovels’, to the large and growing industries. For eg: Contract manufacturers for FMCG/Pharma/Electronics/Mobiles, auto-ancillaries for OEMs, bottling plants for Coke. These are supply side businesses. There are demand side businesses also. For eg. Franchisees of QSR/retail brands, Cloud kitchen business on Food Delivery apps, Fleet operators on Ride hailing apps. When E-Commerce started scaling in India, we saw players like Delhivery, Shadowfax and Shiprocket emerge. So, we asked this question to ourselves, "Which enabling business will emerge when Quick Commerce starts seeing unprecedented scale?" We found our answer in Inamo. Do chk them out. C Sumit Anand and Rupesh Thakare are building a fundamentally solid company and we at Gemba Capital are happy to be a part of the journey.

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The H-1B system is finally back online. After nearly a month-long freeze, the U.S. Department of Labor has restored the FLAG portal and labor certification systems. For thousands of skilled professionals, most of whom are from India, this restart is more than a policy update. It is a lifeline. → Employers can now file new Labor Condition Applications (LCAs). → PERM certifications for Green Card sponsorship have resumed. → Delayed applications from the shutdown are finally being processed. During the shutdown, entire projects came to a halt. Tech companies couldn’t onboard engineers. Hospitals couldn’t hire critical staff. And thousands of visa holders faced expiry deadlines with no clarity. No, those systems are back up, and applications are moving again. However, this crisis reveals the fragility of the U.S. immigration pipeline. If America wants to keep leading in innovation, it must treat its visa infrastructure as essential because global talent can’t wait. ➡ Stay updated on significant legal and policy changes like this. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gPAti4bB #h1bvisa #usimmigration #techworkers #globaltalent #Jinee #Jineegreencard #Jineegreencardreviews

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Inviscid AI (YC W26) just signed a government MOU, partnering with MPSEDC to bring real-time digital twins to the Madhya Pradesh State Data Center, in the presence of Hon'ble Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav. We're building the physics digital twin for critical infrastructure. We run full thermal and air simulations in milliseconds instead of hours, enabling predictive monitoring, hotspot detection, and cooling optimization that actually runs in real time. Data centers spend 30%+ of their energy on cooling. We think that's a problem worth solving at the speed of physics. Excited for what's ahead. More to come soon 🚀

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The Product Mind Behind eChai San Francisco (Originally published for Slice of Startup Life on eChai Ventures) Over the years, eChai has grown from a small group of founders in Ahmedabad to a global network connecting entrepreneurs across cities and time zones. We have active chapters in India, growing ones in Dubai and Singapore, and a thriving community in the Bay Area. Each city carries its own setup, but what makes eChai special everywhere is the same: founders helping founders, without pretense. San Francisco wasn’t always one of our most active chapters. We had done a few meetups when someone from eChai was visiting from India, but the consistency wasn’t there yet. That changed when Khyati Brahmbhatt decided to take the lead. In February 2025, when Khyati was visiting India, I invited her to one of our eChai meetups in Ahmedabad. It was a typical founder evening, lively, curious, full of conversations that carried on late into the night. During that chat, she asked, “Let me know if you plan to do anything in San Francisco.” I said, “We already do, but not as frequently as in other cities.” She smiled and said, “I can help you with anything that you need.” That simple offer was the start of everything that followed. Living in the United States, Khyati understood the founder diaspora, people who had moved for opportunity but missed the sense of belonging that eChai represents. She started small. A few mixers. A dinner. A food-truck social. Then partnerships with Zoom HQ, San Jose State University, and Playground Studios. She also brought key restaurants like Rooh, Fitoor, and Ettan into the mix for founder dinners. Each gathering felt intentional. She treated every event like a product, observe what works, improve what doesn’t, and make sure people leave feeling connected. That steady approach transformed eChai San Francisco into what it is today: a familiar home for founders traveling from India and a local community for those building in the Bay Area. It carries the same openness as our Indian chapters, but adapted to a global context. And now, Khyati is extending that blueprint across North America. She builds communities the way great product and growth leaders build teams: with empathy, clarity, and the confidence that small iterations compound faster than grand gestures. You can see that thinking in everything she does, in how she listens to feedback after every event, how she notices what keeps founders coming back, and how she quietly improves the experience without making it look like a strategy. It’s about designing trust, one experience at a time, until people start to feel like they belong without being told they do. As Khyati now lays out her plans for eChai North America, I’m excited to see what’s next, for her, for the founders she connects, and for this journey we’ve started together. If the past eight months are any indication, the best chapters of this story are still to come.

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On February 18, during India's AI Impact Summit, a company called Sarvam shipped a 105-billion-parameter model trained from scratch in India on government-subsidized GPUs, designed for 22 Indian languages. It outperforms DeepSeek-R1 on certain benchmarks at one-sixth the size. The same summit produced $200 billion in investment pledges from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Reliance. The headlines were about the money. The real story was Sarvam. This post examines in detail why it took this long, what changed, and whether Sarvam is the first crack in an old equilibrium or a lonely exception. "Indians Rule Big Tech. Why Can’t India Build?": Link in comments.

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