GENERAL CATALYST PARTNERS
AI sales startup Nooks secures $500 million in funding for expansion
Unlike traditional investors that buy a stake in a company, General Catalyst's commitment involves taking a share of the returns its capital helps generate, Nooks CEO Dan Lee said. He declined to give details on the terms of the deal.
OneStack raises Rs 12.5 crore to take cooperative banks deeper into UPI ecosystem
OneStack, a fintech provider, secured ₹12.5 crore funding to enhance cooperative bank participation in UPI payments. The funding will help expand services among cooperative banks and NBFCs while developing compliance offerings. Partner banks can now act as UPI issuers and acquirers, which improves revenue opportunities. This shift allows banks to maintain direct relationships with customers and merchants while managing transaction data.
Coders out, VCs in: Investors bet billions on AI-first services
The AI-native services firms’ promise of high margins and rapid growth with fewer people has attracted the interest of VC firms. If Distyl AI raised $175 million at a $1.8 billion valuation a year ago, Wonderful raised $550 million at a $5 billion valuation in September.
ETtech Deals Digest: Even Healthcare, Different lead October funding to $694 million, down 51% on-year
Even Healthcare led deal activity during the month with $50 million, followed by Different at $48 million, Boldfit at $41.5 million, Baba Care at $40 million and GreenCell Mobility at $34.5 million. Early-stage deals accounted for 61.9% of the capital raised during October, while late-stage transactions made up 19.4%. Seed-stage companies comprised the remaining 18.7%.
How Databricks’ $2.2 billion Tabular deal helped Tim Chen’s Essence VC nearly return its entire fund
Tim Chen wasn’t planning to raise a new venture capital fund when investors began approaching him. His investment in Tabular, acquired by Databricks in 2024, helped put Essence VC on the map. The interest eventually helped Chen close a $41 million fourth fund, even before he had prepared a pitch deck.
VerSe valuation sinks; Paytm Q2 profit rises
Happy Tuesday! Dailyhunt parent VerSe Innovation’s valuation has taken a sharp hit. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Social gaming platform Matiks raises $10 million in funding led by General Catalyst
The startup will use the fresh capital to expand internationally, invest in new games and social experiences, and launch an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered game creation platform that will allow users to build and publish their own brain games without coding.
Research: Why Some Junior Employees Work Well with AI—and Others Don’t
Organizations need to understand how individuals create value beyond the AI baseline in real organizational settings, particularly in higher-stakes professional work requiring judgment, domain expertise, and decision-ready outputs. KPMG and researchers from the University of Texas conducted a large-scale field study with 523 early-career professionals where participants completed business-specific tasks using an AI agent built for the domain. This research can help answer two questions: 1) What enables early career employees to add value in AI‑enabled workflows? And 2) how can those capabilities be intentionally developed in ways that sustain continuous improvement as AI continues to advance? The findings sorted participants into three groups: AI apprentices, AI delegators, and AI amplifiers. A surprise in the findings was that foundational skills such as critical thinking abilities, AI literacy, and domain knowledge weren’t clear signals for who fell into which group. This can help leaders rethink how to design entry-level work and how to hire for these jobs.
Legal AI startup Legora raises $550 million at $8.8 billion valuation in Atreides-led round
The round was led by Atreides Management. New investors, including Baron Capital, Capital Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Glade Brook Capital Partners and JP Morgan, joined the round.
Urban Company's Q2 loss triples on InstaHelp burn; CEO Bhal says ready to 'respond in full' to rivals
With competition in the instant househelp segment remaining intense, InstaHelp's post-discount average order value (AOV) fell about 12% to Rs 118 in the September quarter from Rs 134 in the June quarter. Urban Company competes with Nexus Venture Partners-backed Snabbit and General Catalyst-backed Pronto in the instant househelp segment, and both rivals have raised large sums this year.
Snabbit reports net loss of Rs 168 crore, revenue of Rs 12 crore in FY26
Backed by investors including Nexus Venture Partners, Elevation Capital and Lightspeed, the Bengaluru-based company started operations in August 2024, making FY26 its first full year of operations.
Urban Company board approves plan to raise Rs 2,500 crore via QIP
In a letter to shareholders, the Gurugram-based company said it had Rs 1,901 crore in cash as of September 30, while its businesses excluding the InstaHelp segment generated Rs 119 crore in adjusted Ebitda over the past nine months.
Skyroot eyes funding boost; MDR deferment cheers D2C brands
Happy Thursday! Skyroot is eyeing a big funding round as it gears up to scale rocket production. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
India first, orbit next: Skyroot eyes $300 million dual valuation plan
Skyroot is in talks with Indian family offices to raise $150 million at a valuation of $2.3-2.5 billion, while the company is seeking to mop up the same amount from global investors such as General Catalyst, General Atlantic and Silicon Valley venture fund Benchmark at a higher valuation of up to $3 billion, the people said.
Exclusive | Countdown begins for the mother of all IPOs: Jio likely to file RHP today for record Rs 30,000 crore issue
Jio Platforms is set to file its RHP for a potential Rs 30,000-crore IPO, which could become India’s largest-ever share sale. The Reliance Industries subsidiary is expected to open the issue for subscription from October 21 to 23. The IPO may value Jio at up to Rs 10.3 lakh crore, with a likely price band of Rs 1,065–1,119 per share. Existing investors are not expected to sell their stakes.
ETtech Deals Digest: Ultraviolette leads weekly startup funding of $110 million
The increase was driven by Ultraviolette, which accounted for more than three-fourths of the capital raised during the week. Late-stage deals made up 77.3% of the funding, while seed-stage and early-stage rounds accounted for 14.9% and 7.8%, respectively.
Cred alumni’s Sol raises $4 million from GC, Nexus Venture Partners, Kunal Shah
The startup, which is coming out of stealth, is building an AI assistant around the idea of 'proactive AI'. This identifies commitments users make in emails and starts the work needed to fulfil them, instead of waiting for users to write a prompt or assign a task.
Value commerce startup CityMall in talks to raise Rs 400-500 crore led by Jungle Ventures: Sources
CityMall’s push into ecommerce in smaller towns and cities comes at a time when larger 10-minute delivery players such as Flipkart Minutes and Amazon Now are also expanding their presence in tier-II markets and beyond. CityMall is currently present in 18 markets across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi-NCR, and Haryana.
Mid-tier VCs rewrite playbooks to chase India's deeptech bets
So far in calendar year (CY) 2026, deeptech startups have attracted $574 million across 61 deals, which is almost 84% of the $679 million raised across 94 transactions, according to Venture Intelligence data shared with ET. The CY26 data includes large rounds, like satellite imaging startup Pixxel’s $100 million funding and Skyroot’s $60 million, which made it India’s first spacetech unicorn.
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