Welcome to a new edition of ETtech Unwrapped – our weekend newsletter packed with the most important stories this week. Let’s take a look.

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Startups join IPO frenzy, VC funding inches up: A dozen new-age companies that have filed draft IPO papers are looking to raise over Rs 18,000 crore ($2 billion) through fresh share issues, signalling renewed momentum in India’s public markets. Meanwhile, venture capital funding in Indian startups showed early signs of a rebound in the first half of 2025, with total deal value inching up to $4.95 billion across 410 deals, per data from Venture Intelligence.


Tata Digital shores up board after Tahilyani’s exit: Tata Sons added Indian Hotels CEO Puneet Chhatwal and Tata Consumer CEO Sunil D’Souza to the board of Tata Digital to build up consumer business insight.

Quick commerce apps stack up extra fees to curb losses: India’s quick commerce players — Blinkit, Instamart, and Zepto among them — are quietly layering on new charges, such as handling, small-cart, rain, and surge fees, to shore up their fragile unit economics, executives and analysts tracking the sector told us.


India’s influencers turn next startup founders: India’s top social media influencers are launching their own brands in beauty, fashion, and beyond to appeal to the micro communities of their followers, ranging from 1 million to 10 million.

Privacy bill may be sent to AG for judging RTI impact: The Centre will refer the proposed Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act to Attorney General R Venkataramani for his legal opinion on whether the new law conflicts with the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

H-1B aspirants brace for longer waits, denials: Experts are warning of higher rejection rates, slower processing and more paperwork for H-1B applications under a Trump administration that is deeply sceptical of immigration.

Ban-battered bike-taxi riders struggle to make ends meet: About 150,000 bike-taxi riders were estimated to be operating in Bengaluru alone before the high court-imposed ban came into effect June 16. Since then, their income has come down by half, said at least a dozen such gig workers.

Also Read: Central advisory backs use of personal vehicles as bike taxis

Soham Parekh’s career saga brings moonlighting back into spotlight: Indian techie Soham Parekh used remote work as an opportunity to experiment in simultaneous employment—colloquially called moonlighting—working for as many as five startups at once, and drawing severe backlash.

Also Read: Soham Parekh confesses to working for multiple startups: 'Not proud of what I've done'

Rapido eyeing food delivery pilot in Bengaluru by next week: As we first reported in March, ride-hailing platform Rapido is gearing up to launch its much-anticipated food delivery service, Ownly, with a limited pilot in Bengaluru next week.

B2B firm Jumbotail turns unicorn: B2B ecommerce marketplace Jumbotail has become India’s fifth unicorn of 2025 after raising $120 million in a funding round led by SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered.

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Meesho confidentially files draft for IPO papers: Ecommerce unicorn Meesho has confidentially filed its draft red herring prospectus with Sebi for a Rs 4,250 crore ($500 million) IPO.

Shadowfax takes confidential route to file for IPO: The maiden public offer size is expected to be in the range of Rs 2,000–2,500 crore, comprising a mix of fresh issue and offer for sale (OFS). The company is expected to be valued at around Rs 8,500 crore.

Curefoods files DRHP for IPO: Cloud kitchen operator Curefoods filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for an initial public offering (IPO), joining a wave of Indian tech firms tapping into renewed interest in the IPO market.

India Ratings downgrades IPO-bound Infra.Market: India Ratings has downgraded Infra.Market’s long-term debt rating to “BBB+ with Negative Outlook” from “A- with Negative Outlook”, citing worries around debt refinancing, weak liquidity and negative cash flows from operations in FY25.

Also Read: IPO-bound Infra Market raises additional $50 million debt financing from Mars Growth Capital

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Four banks bag bulk of UPI beneficiary payments: A small number of banks are quietly dominating the receiving side of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India's preferred retail payments system, with Yes Bank in the lead.

Bhim gets big boost as NPCI scales up incentives, offers: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)-run consumer payment app Bhim is making a comeback, offering cashbacks and incentives to attract users again, and early signs indicate it's succeeding.

UPI reports marginal transaction volume, value dip in June: The UPI, operated by NPCI, experienced a marginal decline in both transaction volume and value in June.

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India rising as Big Tech breaks bank for AI talent: Mark Zuckerberg’s hiring spree is increasing global demand and prices for AI talent. However, India still provides a cost advantage, and some of that demand may move east.

Muted Q1 awaits IT on sluggish spends and deal momentum: The Indian IT services industry is expected to post muted first-quarter performance, with industry leader Tata Consultancy Services, HCLTech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra projected to post low single-digit to flat revenue growth sequentially.

BFSI’s big AI turn to move the revenue needle for slump-hit IT firms: Long the top buyer of tech services, the BFSI sector is now expected to drive growth with its AI transformation efforts for the $280-billion IT industry, which has been stuck in a low-growth cycle.

Govt eyes August-Sept start to electronic parts PLI approvals: The government is likely to begin approving applications under the Rs 23,000-crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for electronic components by August-September, a senior official told us.

Mind Your Health! Infosys mails WFH staffers working off the clock: Software services company Infosys is warning employees spending longer hours during their remote work period, flagging health risks and urging them to focus on work-life balance.

Also Read: Genpact work policy: Is India closer to adopting China’s 996 work culture?

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VCs on AI flight to Valley: Indian venture investors are setting up shop in San Francisco, the AI epicenter, as they chase cutting-edge development of the technology and aim to spot the next wave of AI trends.

Are AI agents here to stay? Despite growing adoption and experimentation with agentic AI, reports also indicate limited maturity of the technology or the use cases for AI agents, leading to high chances of failure of proofs-of-concept.