Zepto raises $1 Bn in 2 months💸
Zepto raises $1 Bn in 2 months💸
Google DeepMind's Morni AI, Ola Electric products on ONDC, Zoho launches payment gateway, Funding Deals and more.
Good morning and welcome to Friday’s edition of Rise & Shine!
“Success is the sum of all efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.”
— R. Colliers
As we close out the week, R. Collier’s quote serves as a potent reminder that success isn’t achieved through sporadic bursts of effort, but rather through consistent, daily dedication.
Every small, daily action contributes to the larger goal, building a foundation that is both strong and enduring.
Tech Updates
Zepto raises $340 Mn at $5 Bn valuation
Quick commerce company Zepto has raised $340 million in a follow-on financing round led by General Catalyst, with Dragon Fund and Epiq Capital joining as new investors. Existing investors, including StepStone, Lightspeed, DST, and Contrary, also increased their stakes. This takes the total funds raised by the company to $1 billion in two months, $1.2 billion in the past 12 months, and more than $1.5 billion since its inception.
Google DeepMind's Morni AI to cover 125 Indic languages
Google DeepMind's India unit is working on an Indic language AI project called Morni (Multimodal Representation for India) which aims to cover 125 Indian languages and dialects to build inclusive and equitable Indic AI. Manish Gupta, Director of Google DeepMind explained that 73 out of these 125 languages had zero corpus of digital data available. Even for a languages like Hindi, which is now spoken by close to 10% of the world's population, the share of Hindi text on the internet is 0.1%.
Ola Electric to offer products on ONDC
Ola group founder Bhavish Aggarwal said all of Ola Electric’s products will be available on the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Ola Cabs is also rebranding itself to Ola Consumer to expand its services beyond ride-hailing. It also announced fully automated dark stores - placed inside container-like structures, designed and manufactured in-house - that will be offered to direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and other sellers on the ONDC.
Zoho launches payment gateway for businesses
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) major Zoho on Thursday said it is entering the payments sector with the launch of Zoho Payments – a unified payments solution to help businesses accept money online from their customers. The solution features B2B payment capabilities that streamline invoice presentment and payments, powered by the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) of NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (BBPL).
Funding Deals
Beauty and personal care D2C firm Pilgrim has raised Rs 75 crore (approximately $9 million) in its extended Series B round led by Fireside and Vertex Ventures.
Robotics firm Miko, a product of Emotix, has raised Rs 20.5 crore (approximately $2.5 million) in a new round from a group of angel investors. Moneycrew Fintech injected Rs 4.5 crore while the rest of the sum was poured in by angel investors including Amrapali B Doshi, Sanjiv Sarita, Amit Jain, Satyam Sinha, Inderjit Kaur Arora, and others.
Luxury student housing brand The Hive Hostels, which operates in over 10 cities across India, has completed a pre-IPO funding round, securing ₹11.5 crore investments from angel investor Ritesh Malik and Ankit Mittal and his family office Sixth Sense Ventures Partners also contributed to the funding round, among others.
Serigen Mediproducts, a biomedical product manufacturing company has raised ₹10 crores from IAN Alpha Fund and Colossa Ventures, along with existing and new angel investors.
Bengaluru-based edtech startup ODA Class has raised $500K in its Series B round from Skywalker Education Technology Co. Ltd. (Singapore), Daituzi Education Technology Corporation Limited, and Matrix Partners China.
User data storage startup Medront has raised Rs 1.06 crore in its pre-seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures.
📝 Short Story: The Persistent Writer
Elena, an aspiring novelist, struggled for years to complete her first book. She had bursts of inspiration, but they were often followed by long periods of inactivity, which made her progress sporadic and frustrating.
Motivated by Collier’s words, Elena decided to set a daily writing goal: no matter her mood or inspiration level, she would write for at least one hour every day.
This new routine transformed her process. The daily commitment kept her engaged with her work, smoothing out the highs and lows of creativity. Over time, her consistent efforts accumulated, and she finally completed her manuscript.
The routine she dreaded initially had become a comforting and productive part of her day, ultimately leading to her success as a published author.
Tweet of the day🐥
As you end your week, think about the small efforts you can commit to daily.
Whether it’s professional development, personal growth, or a hobby you love, regular engagement is the key to seeing substantial results.
Rise & Shine is here to inspire you to keep pushing forward, making every day a building block to your success.
Have a consistent and successful Friday!
Thanks for reading till the end!