Fuelling Bharat's AI Ambitions, Ather To Trim IPO Size & More

Fuelling Bharat’s AI Ambitions

As India races to catch up with global AI advancements, Inc42’s , held yesterday in Bengaluru, set the stage for a crucial inflexion point in the country’s AI journey. The invite-only event brought together 350+ leaders to discuss the next frontier of AI, from conversational and agentic AI to vertical GenAI solutions.

Everyone had but one thing on their minds — What would it take for India to stand on par with China and the US in terms of deeptech innovations? Understandably, the question takes birth from Union minister that are taking place in India compared to the world.

With this, while some industry stalwarts took the liberty to call a spade a spade, others talked about how AI has helped them take a giant leap in their endeavour to build great businesses from India.

Here are the key takeaways:

: According to SarvamAI cofounder Vivek Raghavan, India must focus on building a sovereign AI ecosystem to ensure autonomy over its data.

: Reliance Jio’s chief AI scientist, Gaurav Aggarwal, believes that the paucity of “risk capital” and effectively leveraging swathes of unstructured data are hindering AI development in the country.

: Tally Solutions’ Tejas Goenka said that MSMEs continue to be wary of GenAI-led automation due to data privacy concerns and issues related to inaccuracies and outdated computing infrastructure.

Greenshoots Of Innovation: While has doubled food tracking engagement for health and fitness app operator Healthify, is working on an AI-led commerce offering that will transform devices like phones or TVs into a hyper-personalised styling and shopping discovery space.

More Is Less In The “Deep” Tech World: It is just the dawn of AI, and Indian companies are already leveraging this emerging tech to the best of their advantage. Here, names like , exploiting GenAI to automate processes and bring sweeping efficiencies in their operations.

But, what’s more impressive is that , showcasing the growing prowess of India in AI adoption.

From The Editor’s Desk

: Amid the ongoing volatility in the Indian stock markets, the EV maker is planning to slash the size of its public issue by at least $50 Mn to $350 Mn. Ather has already received the SEBI nod for its IPO plans.

: Audio products and wearable startup Noise has raised $20 Mn from its existing investor Bose. The global audio giant first invested $10 Mn in Noise in December 2023 at a valuation of about $426 Mn.

: The quick commerce giant’s cofounder and CEO Aadit Palicha claimed that the company has reduced EBITDA (excluding ESOPs) and operating cash flow burn by 50% while clocking nearly 300% YoY growth.

: The fintech unicorn’s subsidiary Resilient Payments has secured final approval from the RBI to operate as an online payment aggregator. This strengthens its position as a full-stack fintech company.

: The brokerage has slashed the price target of Naukri.com’s parent company to INR 7,800 from INR 8,750 earlier. JM Financial cited the recent correction in the stock price of portfolio companies Zomato and PB Fintech for the cut.

: The central bank has allowed the NPCI to revise transaction limits for P2M payments on UPI to accommodate higher-value transactions in select merchant categories. Currently, UPI payments for both P2P and P2M are largely capped at INR 1 lakh.

: The EV juggernaut is said to have roped in the consulting firm to help it “achieve regional compliance” as Ola Electric looks to push the pedal on same-day deliveries.

: With foreign capital drying up, the spotlight is now on Indian family offices to step up and invest more in the private sector. Let’s take some time out to learn more about them.

Inc42 Startup Spotlight Can NeoSapien’s AI Wearables Help Indians Skip Data Fatigue?

A recent Accenture report found that 76% of consumers in India felt inundated by “too much choice” online. When siblings Aryan and Dhananjay Yadav faced a similar predicament, they sat down to build NeoSapien.

The Personalised AI Filter: NeoSapien is a deeptech startup developing AI-powered wearables that can integrate seamlessly into daily life. The startup’s flagship product, Neo 1, is designed to function as a “second brain” to augment human cognition, offering real-time insights to help users manage information, improve focus, and make better decisions.

Offering Real-Time Insights With AI: Neo 1 tracks conversations and analyses emotions, offering users the ability to store unlimited memory and enhance their mental capabilities. The product aims to help users unlock their full potential by providing real-time analysis and insights.

Piggybacking On Shark Tank Fame: With Batch 1 selling fast, the company has now rolled out Batch 2 in early access mode at INR 9,999, with no subscription fees for the first year.

While the official launch is still ahead,

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