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PM Modi at Startup Mahakumbh; Pocket FM, Ultrahuman raise funds
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Successful startup founders should support and mentor young entrepreneurs and academic institutions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the Startup Mahakumbh. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.
Also in this letter:
■ Zomato nixes green uniform for pure veg fleet
■ Who is Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s AI chief
■ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang on AI revolution
![PM Modi Startup Mahakumbh PM Modi Startup Mahakumbh](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-108653751/PM Modi Startup Mahakumbh.jpg)
Lauding the entrepreneurial spirit of Indian youth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked successful founders to give back to society by supporting young entrepreneurs and academic institutions.
Several founders of new-age companies including Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal, Lenskart’s Peyush Bansal, Boat’s Aman Gupta, and Policybazaar’s Alok Bansal, were among the audience when Modi was speaking.
Driving the news: “Today, successful startups have a huge responsibility. You have to remember that someone placed trust on your idea, which is why you reached here. That’s why you should also support new ideas,” Modi said. He also asked industry associations to conduct hackathons with young startups to solve problems faced by the industry.
Employment creators: India's youth has chosen the path of being job creators rather than job seekers, Modi said, highlighting the changing mindset of people.
“The ecosystem has grown with over 1.25 lakh registered startups in the country with which over 12 lakh youngsters are linked. The startups are providing employment on a large scale and the young founders have turned out to be job creators instead of mere job seekers as was the case earlier in the country.”
More than 45% of Indian startups are led by women, he said.
‘India to lead the world in AI’: On artificial intelligence (AI), the prime minister said now is India's time. “We are in a new era of AI technology, and the world acknowledges that India will have an upper hand in AI. It is now our priority to ensure that we do not let go of this opportunity,” he said.
Modi added that the government is taking a forward planning approach to research and emerging technology.
Pocket FM cofounder and CEO Rohan Nayak
Pocket FM, a leading audio entertainment platform, has raised $103 million in Series D funding led by Lightspeed with participation from Stepstone Group. The latest round brings Pocket FM’s total funding to date to $196.5 million.
The new funding will strengthen Pocket FM's push into the US market and also support global expansion as the company plans to expand into Europe and Latin America markets markets in2024.
The company said it has exceeded $150 million in annualised revenue run rate (ARR) worldwide, with revenue growing at 57% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ).
Also read | Pocket FM to invest $40 million in online reading platform
Ultrahuman raises $35 million in a mix of equity and debt
Mohit Kumar, cofounder and CEO, Ultrahuman
Ultrahuman, which sells wearable devices and services that help users track metabolic health, has raised a $35 million financing round in a mix of equity and debt.
Meet the investors: The round was co-led by existing backers Blume Ventures, Steadview Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, Ultrahuman’s founder and chief executive, Mohit Kumar, told us in an interaction.
Other existing investors like Alpha Wave Global and Zomato founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal also participated in the round.
Deal details: About $25 million of the funding came in equity, while the rest was raised in debt. This brings Ultrahuman’s total fundraise so far to $65 million.
The company is now looking to expand production of its flagship ‘Ultrahuman ring’ from about 15,000 units to about 100,000 units by the end of FY26. This expansion will translate into a revenue run rate of $20 million per month by end-FY26, from $3 million now. The firm is eyeing an annual revenue run rate of $100 million by the end of calendar year 2024.
Easemytrip founder’s Optimo Loan secures $10 million: Small business-focused lending startup Optimo Loan has secured $10 million in its first equity fundraise from Blume Ventures and Omnivore, along with additional infusion from founder Prashant Pitti.
“Optimo lending operations commenced in November 2023, and we are scaling swiftly, yet prudently. We aim to establish an asset-light company by primarily leveraging co-lending agreements with banks and larger NBFCs,” said Pitti who will be running this venture parallel to Easemytrip.
Liquidnitro Games raises $5.25 million: Liquidnitro Games has raised $5.25 million in a seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from angel investors who are industry veterans. “The funds will be used to build a world class studio, make significant AI & technology investments to boost production pipelines and offer live services capabilities at scale,” it said.
Sugmya Finance bags $3 million from existing investors: Sugmya Finance, a Delhi-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) has raised $3 million in a funding round led by its existing investors, the company said in a statement. It has raised over $10 million since its inception.
Zomato’s food-delivery chief Rakesh Ranjan (left) and cofounder & CEO Deepinder Goyal (right)
After a major backlash on social media, food-delivery major Zomato modified the ‘Pure Veg Mode’ it launched on Tuesday for its 100% vegetarian customers and decided to remove the on-ground segregation of the ‘pure veg’ fleet which was to wear green uniforms.
Trending on X: On Tuesday, the company came under fire online for launching this new mode which would curate pure vegetarian restaurants and exclude any eateries offering non-vegetarian food items. Chief executive Deepinder Goyal said in a post on X that the ‘pure veg’ fleet will use green delivery boxes instead of the standard red ones.
Strengthening bias: Users on X said this move would further “strengthen caste segregation”. People also raised concerns that Zomato’s regular fleet may be barred by some societies and resident welfare associations for carrying non-vegetarian food.
Explanations aplenty: Hours after launching the feature, Goyal had said on X on Tuesday that the move did not aim to cause any discrimination on the basis of food, adding the food-delivery platform will “roll it back in a heartbeat” in case there are negative social repercussions.
Verbatim: In a lengthy post on X, Goyal sought to allay concerns that Zomato's regular fleet may be barred by some societies and RWAs. “We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice thing if that happened because of us,” he said.
![Mustafa Suleyman Mustafa Suleyman](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-108653786/Mustafa Suleyman.jpg)
Microsoft made another big move in the artificial intelligence (AI) battle for supremacy on Tuesday as it roped in Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of Google's DeepMind and Inflection AI, to lead its consumer AI business.
Responsibilities: Suleyman will directly report to chief executive Satya Nadella, and will be responsible for expanding a consumer AI business, including Microsoft's Copilot chatbot, Bing search engine and Edge internet browser.
Another Inflection AI cofounder, Karén Simonyan, a leading researcher who also came from DeepMind, will also join Microsoft, as will much of their team.
Microsoft’s AI efforts: Nadella, in a blog post welcoming Suleyman, said that as part of this transition, Mikhail Parakhin and his entire team, including Copilot, Bing, and Edge; and Misha Bilenko and the GenAI team will move to report to Mustafa.
Microsoft, leading the AI frenzy, is betting on Copilot, built using technology from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, to bring in revenue. It can write emails, summarise documents and make presentations.
Who is Suleyman? One of the most important voices in the AI industry, Suleyman cofounded DeepMind, an AI lab, in 2010 with others like Shane Legg and Demis Hassabis, now the CEO. This was later acquired by Google in 2014, which it merged with Google Brain to form an entity called Google DeepMind.
Suleyman left Google in 2022 to start Inflection AI, a startup looking to build a personal AI assistant. The company raised $1.3 billion in June last year, from Microsoft and Nvidia in a mix of cash and cloud credit at a valuation of $4 billion last June.
Also read | Apple is in talks to let Google’s Gemini power iPhone generative AI features
Nvidia cofounder & CEO Jensen Huang
India’s technology professionals are emerging to be the ‘front-office’ of the world's artificial intelligence (AI) revolution by reskilling themselves with AI-native skills, Jensen Huang, chief executive, Nvidia, said.
India opportunity: In response to ET’s question at a press briefing in San Jose, California, Huang said that his conversations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted India’s “need to become a part of AI value-addition rather than just exporting India’s data to train super-sized large language models”.
Also read | ETtech Explainer: All you wanted to know about Nvidia’s Blackwell AI chip
Asked if Nvidia is part of the Indian government’s commitment to import 10,000 GPUs, Huang, said, “We’re very interested in it, if somebody would like to buy some GPUs, I’m open for business. Tell everybody, spread the word, Nvidia’s open for business.”
The Union Cabinet earlier this month approved a Rs 10,372 crore India Artificial Intelligence Mission for the next five years, aimed at creating computing infrastructure in public-private partnerships.
Nvidia’s Blackwell Chip: Nvidia on Monday announced its most powerful Blackwell chip capable of processing trillion-parameter AI models up to 30 times faster and at one-fourth use of power. Huang revealed that Blackwell GPUs are built to train the world’s largest AI models with trillion parameters in size. Nvidia’s manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., will use its 4NP technique to produce the product, the company said.
Read this explainer to understand the processing capabilities of the new AI chipset and what it means for training LLMs
Today's ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Megha Mishra in Mumbai.
Also in this letter:
■ Zomato nixes green uniform for pure veg fleet
■ Who is Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s AI chief
■ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang on AI revolution
Startup Mahakumbh: PM urges startup founders to mentor young entrepreneurs
![PM Modi Startup Mahakumbh PM Modi Startup Mahakumbh](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-108653751/PM Modi Startup Mahakumbh.jpg)
Lauding the entrepreneurial spirit of Indian youth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked successful founders to give back to society by supporting young entrepreneurs and academic institutions.
Several founders of new-age companies including Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal, Lenskart’s Peyush Bansal, Boat’s Aman Gupta, and Policybazaar’s Alok Bansal, were among the audience when Modi was speaking.
Driving the news: “Today, successful startups have a huge responsibility. You have to remember that someone placed trust on your idea, which is why you reached here. That’s why you should also support new ideas,” Modi said. He also asked industry associations to conduct hackathons with young startups to solve problems faced by the industry.
Employment creators: India's youth has chosen the path of being job creators rather than job seekers, Modi said, highlighting the changing mindset of people.
“The ecosystem has grown with over 1.25 lakh registered startups in the country with which over 12 lakh youngsters are linked. The startups are providing employment on a large scale and the young founders have turned out to be job creators instead of mere job seekers as was the case earlier in the country.”
More than 45% of Indian startups are led by women, he said.
‘India to lead the world in AI’: On artificial intelligence (AI), the prime minister said now is India's time. “We are in a new era of AI technology, and the world acknowledges that India will have an upper hand in AI. It is now our priority to ensure that we do not let go of this opportunity,” he said.
Modi added that the government is taking a forward planning approach to research and emerging technology.
Pocket FM raises $103 million in funding led by Lightspeed, Stepstone Group
![Pocket FM Pocket FM](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-108654094/Pocket FM.jpg)
Pocket FM, a leading audio entertainment platform, has raised $103 million in Series D funding led by Lightspeed with participation from Stepstone Group. The latest round brings Pocket FM’s total funding to date to $196.5 million.
The new funding will strengthen Pocket FM's push into the US market and also support global expansion as the company plans to expand into Europe and Latin America markets markets in2024.
The company said it has exceeded $150 million in annualised revenue run rate (ARR) worldwide, with revenue growing at 57% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ).
Also read | Pocket FM to invest $40 million in online reading platform
Ultrahuman raises $35 million in a mix of equity and debt
![Mohit Kumar, cofounder and CEO, Ultrahuman Mohit Kumar, cofounder and CEO, Ultrahuman](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-108653764/Mohit Kumar, cofounder and CEO, Ultrahuman.jpg)
Ultrahuman, which sells wearable devices and services that help users track metabolic health, has raised a $35 million financing round in a mix of equity and debt.
Meet the investors: The round was co-led by existing backers Blume Ventures, Steadview Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, Ultrahuman’s founder and chief executive, Mohit Kumar, told us in an interaction.
Other existing investors like Alpha Wave Global and Zomato founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal also participated in the round.
Deal details: About $25 million of the funding came in equity, while the rest was raised in debt. This brings Ultrahuman’s total fundraise so far to $65 million.
The company is now looking to expand production of its flagship ‘Ultrahuman ring’ from about 15,000 units to about 100,000 units by the end of FY26. This expansion will translate into a revenue run rate of $20 million per month by end-FY26, from $3 million now. The firm is eyeing an annual revenue run rate of $100 million by the end of calendar year 2024.
Easemytrip founder’s Optimo Loan secures $10 million: Small business-focused lending startup Optimo Loan has secured $10 million in its first equity fundraise from Blume Ventures and Omnivore, along with additional infusion from founder Prashant Pitti.
“Optimo lending operations commenced in November 2023, and we are scaling swiftly, yet prudently. We aim to establish an asset-light company by primarily leveraging co-lending agreements with banks and larger NBFCs,” said Pitti who will be running this venture parallel to Easemytrip.
Liquidnitro Games raises $5.25 million: Liquidnitro Games has raised $5.25 million in a seed round led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from angel investors who are industry veterans. “The funds will be used to build a world class studio, make significant AI & technology investments to boost production pipelines and offer live services capabilities at scale,” it said.
Sugmya Finance bags $3 million from existing investors: Sugmya Finance, a Delhi-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) has raised $3 million in a funding round led by its existing investors, the company said in a statement. It has raised over $10 million since its inception.
Zomato rolls back green uniform for pure veg fleet amid social media backlash
![Zomato Pure Veg Zomato Pure Veg](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-108653777/Zomato Pure Veg.jpg)
After a major backlash on social media, food-delivery major Zomato modified the ‘Pure Veg Mode’ it launched on Tuesday for its 100% vegetarian customers and decided to remove the on-ground segregation of the ‘pure veg’ fleet which was to wear green uniforms.
Trending on X: On Tuesday, the company came under fire online for launching this new mode which would curate pure vegetarian restaurants and exclude any eateries offering non-vegetarian food items. Chief executive Deepinder Goyal said in a post on X that the ‘pure veg’ fleet will use green delivery boxes instead of the standard red ones.
Strengthening bias: Users on X said this move would further “strengthen caste segregation”. People also raised concerns that Zomato’s regular fleet may be barred by some societies and resident welfare associations for carrying non-vegetarian food.
Explanations aplenty: Hours after launching the feature, Goyal had said on X on Tuesday that the move did not aim to cause any discrimination on the basis of food, adding the food-delivery platform will “roll it back in a heartbeat” in case there are negative social repercussions.
Verbatim: In a lengthy post on X, Goyal sought to allay concerns that Zomato's regular fleet may be barred by some societies and RWAs. “We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice thing if that happened because of us,” he said.
Microsoft hires Google DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman to run its consumer AI
![Mustafa Suleyman Mustafa Suleyman](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-108653786/Mustafa Suleyman.jpg)
Microsoft made another big move in the artificial intelligence (AI) battle for supremacy on Tuesday as it roped in Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of Google's DeepMind and Inflection AI, to lead its consumer AI business.
Responsibilities: Suleyman will directly report to chief executive Satya Nadella, and will be responsible for expanding a consumer AI business, including Microsoft's Copilot chatbot, Bing search engine and Edge internet browser.
Another Inflection AI cofounder, Karén Simonyan, a leading researcher who also came from DeepMind, will also join Microsoft, as will much of their team.
Microsoft’s AI efforts: Nadella, in a blog post welcoming Suleyman, said that as part of this transition, Mikhail Parakhin and his entire team, including Copilot, Bing, and Edge; and Misha Bilenko and the GenAI team will move to report to Mustafa.
Microsoft, leading the AI frenzy, is betting on Copilot, built using technology from ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, to bring in revenue. It can write emails, summarise documents and make presentations.
Who is Suleyman? One of the most important voices in the AI industry, Suleyman cofounded DeepMind, an AI lab, in 2010 with others like Shane Legg and Demis Hassabis, now the CEO. This was later acquired by Google in 2014, which it merged with Google Brain to form an entity called Google DeepMind.
Suleyman left Google in 2022 to start Inflection AI, a startup looking to build a personal AI assistant. The company raised $1.3 billion in June last year, from Microsoft and Nvidia in a mix of cash and cloud credit at a valuation of $4 billion last June.
Also read | Apple is in talks to let Google’s Gemini power iPhone generative AI features
India’s IT will be the ‘front office’ of global AI revolution: Nvidia's Jensen Huang
![Nvidia Ceo Jensen Huang Nvidia Ceo Jensen Huang](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-108653840/Nvidia Ceo Jensen Huang.jpg)
India’s technology professionals are emerging to be the ‘front-office’ of the world's artificial intelligence (AI) revolution by reskilling themselves with AI-native skills, Jensen Huang, chief executive, Nvidia, said.
India opportunity: In response to ET’s question at a press briefing in San Jose, California, Huang said that his conversations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted India’s “need to become a part of AI value-addition rather than just exporting India’s data to train super-sized large language models”.
Also read | ETtech Explainer: All you wanted to know about Nvidia’s Blackwell AI chip
Asked if Nvidia is part of the Indian government’s commitment to import 10,000 GPUs, Huang, said, “We’re very interested in it, if somebody would like to buy some GPUs, I’m open for business. Tell everybody, spread the word, Nvidia’s open for business.”
The Union Cabinet earlier this month approved a Rs 10,372 crore India Artificial Intelligence Mission for the next five years, aimed at creating computing infrastructure in public-private partnerships.
Nvidia’s Blackwell Chip: Nvidia on Monday announced its most powerful Blackwell chip capable of processing trillion-parameter AI models up to 30 times faster and at one-fourth use of power. Huang revealed that Blackwell GPUs are built to train the world’s largest AI models with trillion parameters in size. Nvidia’s manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., will use its 4NP technique to produce the product, the company said.
Read this explainer to understand the processing capabilities of the new AI chipset and what it means for training LLMs
Today's ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Megha Mishra in Mumbai.
Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox?
I agree to receive newsletters and marketing communications via e-mail
![](https://img.etimg.com/photo/msid-81268931,quality-100/et-logo.jpg)
Thank you for subscribing to Daily Top 5
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