News

Vectorial, an AI startup building human behaviour simulation tools for product development, has raised $3 million in a funding round led by SenseAI Ventures. Other participants include Smilegate, Berkeley SkyDeck, Berkeley AI Research Lab, Dent Capital, Motus Ventures, SUM Ventures and angel investors

Karta AI, a voice AI platform for inbound customer operations across banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), has raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by PeerCapital and Cedar Hill Capital. Wyser VC, CDM Capital and Seedstars also participated in the round.

ShopOS, a Bengaluru-based AI startup backed by Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal’s 3STATE Ventures, has launched Sloosh.ai, an AI creative platform that generates product images, visual scenes, reels and creator-style videos from ideas, photos and videos.

Bengaluru-based electric mobility startup Ultraviolette Automotive has launched the X-47 Venom electric motorcycle alongside a new 100V VX-100 platform. The motorcycle is priced at Rs 2.65 lakh under an introductory offer, with deliveries scheduled to begin in November 2026.

NewView Capital recently partnered with Carta. The collaboration combines NewView’s secondary deal-structuring experience with Carta’s equity platform. Ravi Viswanathan, founder and managing partner of NewView, pitches this as a way to help startups launch and manage liquidity programs more seamlessly.

Getting initial customers as a startup can be one of the most grueling challenges in business. Even when companies manage to snag some early interest, there’s no guarantee those customers will stick around.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to reduce mortgage costs as rising interest rates and inflation make homeownership less affordable. The order, titled “Decreasing Housing Costs for the American People,”

Egyptian prop-tech startup Aqar Exit has secured an investment of EGP10 million ($183,000) from businessman Ayman Mamdouh Abbas, executive chairman of Intro Holding Group, in return for a 10 per cent stake in the company.

Kenyan electric mobility company Spiro has launched its first 100 electric motorcycles in Ghana, introducing its Ekon 450 M1 V3 model and battery-swapping network to the West African market.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted Approval-in-Principle (AIP) to JPMorgan to establish JPMorgan Merchant Bank Nigeria Limited, marking a new step in the US financial institution’s plans to expand its presence in the country.

OpenAI is reportedly close to securing another mega round of private funding, rather than plowing ahead with an IPO. The AI lab is working on raising up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation

The Her Startup initiative, a partnership between the KSH Foundation, Tomorrow Foundation and EHA Impact Ventures, will select 10 early-stage women founders and help them build investment-ready tech businesses.