Startup News Review: Latest Developments in Technology and Finance on September 21, 2026
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YourStory [india, en]
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Startup News Review: Latest Developments in Technology and Finance on September 21, 2026

YourStory presents a daily overview of the latest news from various sectors, ranging from autonomous logistics robots by Ottonomy to Rajesh Subramaniam's twenty-two years of experience in creating powerful routing software for embedUR.

Rajesh Subramaniam, speaking about his experience, initially expressed a desire to improve the lighting during the recording so that he would be clearly visible. When informed that the story would be written rather than filmed, he relaxed and spoke for hours about Wi-Fi.

Smita Choudhary, who grew up in Lanka, a small village near Shamli in Uttar Pradesh, observed differences in the upbringing of boys and girls. Girls were expected to finish school early and take on household duties, while boys were encouraged to attend college and build a career.

Ritukar Vijay believes that the most challenging part of logistics is the middle of the process. Although robotic solutions are gradually being introduced into the industry over the last decade, moving samples, food, parts, and parcels between buildings, through elevators, and across campuses has remained largely unautomated.

Prime Industries secured ₹11.86 crore from Dr. Uday Narang, founder of Omega Seiki Mobility, to support its activities in the defense, nuclear, and precision industries. Part of the capital received is planned to be directed towards establishing a research and incubation center for its Special Product Division.

Prime Industries' interests include enterprises such as Kay Bouvet Engineering and Linga Agri, which operate in the fields of defense, nuclear energy, and advanced manufacturing. Dr. Narang is also associated with OBSC Perfection, a precision manufacturing company with capabilities in CNC machining, investment casting, forging, and stamping for industrial needs, including aerospace and defense.

LTM appointed film director Shekhar Kapur as a Strategic Advisor for its business unit, BlueVerse Craft. BlueVerse Craft helps businesses develop creative capabilities based on artificial intelligence by combining strategy, creativity, technology, and production. Kapur will advise the unit's management on the vision of AI-enhanced creativity, including how new technologies can expand creative horizons and content production.

The engagement of Kapur comes amid growing corporate demand for content across various formats, channels, and markets, as AI is increasingly used to accelerate, adapt, and personalize content creation. Kapur is a BAFTA award winner and Academy nominee, with experience in world cinema and storytelling.

Edelweiss Financial Services launched a public offering of secured, repayable unsecured bonds worth up to ₹300 crore, including a 'green shoe' option of ₹150 crore. The offering includes 10 series with maturities of 24, 36, 60, and 120 months, offering annual, monthly, and cumulative interest options. Effective annual yields range from 8.64% to 10%. The offering opens on September 21 and closes on October 5, 2026. At least 75% of the funds will be used for repayment or early repayment of existing borrowings, with the remainder allocated to general corporate purposes. The NCD bonds have a Crisil A+/Stable rating and will be listed on the BSE.

RNFI Services reported that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted perpetual validity to the AD Category-II foreign exchange license held by its subsidiary, RNFI Money. This approval also permits currency transfers, Nostro accounts, and the appointment of Forex correspondents. RNFI intends to leverage its network of over 2.8 lakh active agents to expand regulated services for foreign exchange, money transfers, and trade payments, including services for small exporters, importers, and SMEs outside major cities. Transactions will be processed centrally and subject to KYC, monitoring, and regulatory oversight. This development follows prior RBI approval for RNFI Money to operate as a Payment Aggregator – Individual.

Payinstacard partnered with CAMS Group to enhance data privacy and compliance with India's Personal Data Protection Act. The fintech company will utilize ConsenPro, an AI-based compliance platform from CAMS Think360.ai, to manage consent and data privacy. The goal of this collaboration is to bring greater structure to Payinstacard's collection, processing, and protection of personal data while optimizing compliance processes and increasing transparency in data handling practices. It merges Payinstacard's fintech operations with CAMS Group's financial expertise, data, and technology, as financial institutions face increasing demands to strengthen client information governance.

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Semicon India 2026 has started: Prime Minister Modi opened the event, 300 companies participated
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Semicon India 2026 has started: Prime Minister Modi opened the event, 300 companies participated

The Semicon India 2026 event has begun. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The three-day forum will take place from September 17 to 19. It is expected that more than 300 companies from 52 countries will participate in this event.

Indian companies, investors, researchers, and numerous students will take part in Semicon India 2026. The main goal of the event is to stimulate talent development, investment, and cooperation in India. The theme of Semicon India 2026 is 'From Silicon to System: Building an Ecosystem.'

It is planned that over 600 companies and startups will be presented at Semicon India 2026, and the total number of visitors will reach about 50 thousand. More than 400 executives from 52 countries and over 150 speakers are expected among the participants.

During Semicon India 2026, the entire semiconductor value chain will be demonstrated. The full process will be shown, starting from semiconductor materials and chip design, to manufacturing and advanced packaging. The event will present the entire semiconductor ecosystem journey.

According to the information, this entire semiconductor ecosystem journey will be showcased through the 'Sand to Silicon to System Value Chain Experience'.

Semicon features pavilions from six countries: Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, and Sweden. Additionally, there are 12 government stands, a startup pavilion, an innovation exhibition, a hackathon for students, and a workforce development pavilion.

A semiconductor is essentially an electrical flow regulator. It is used in everything from mobile phones to cars. Currently, chipsets are used in most modern machines. They are made from silicon. Billions of tiny transistors are created on silicon wafers, which are then used to create processors and...

Startup News Roundup: Cybersecurity Investments, Space Partnerships, and Fintech Updates
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yourstory.com

Startup News Roundup: Cybersecurity Investments, Space Partnerships, and Fintech Updates

YourStory's daily startup news roundup highlights the latest developments across various sectors, ranging from investments in quantum-resistant cybersecurity by AllSecureX to agreements between Inbound Aerospace and Australia, as well as data updates by Swiggy on Snowflake.

Finvolve, in collaboration with India Accelerator, has invested an undisclosed amount in AllSecureX, an Indian deep tech and cybersecurity startup. According to the company, this seed funding will be directed towards developing Phase 2 of its product, conducting pilot projects in controlled defense and space, creating intellectual property, hiring personnel in engineering and business departments, and preparing for opportunities with iDEX and the Indian Army.

Founded in 2025 by Himanshu Vohra, AllSecureX creates a hardware-agnostic, software-defined platform designed to detect cryptographic assets, assess long-term quantum risks, and manage the transition to post-quantum cryptography in closed and isolated environments. The company reported that Phase 1 of its QERA platform conducted 2781 evaluations in 229 test environments, has eight requests for pilot testing and validation, and has filed five patents. The next phase, Quantum Discovery, aligns with NIST requirements for post-quantum standards and DRDO.

Inbound Aerospace signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Space Angel Group from Australia to explore collaboration in flight and drop testing, high-altitude and near-space testing, rescue operations, spaceport infrastructure, and mission planning. Starting September 2026, the MoU establishes a three-year plan to assess how Space Angel's infrastructure can support Inbound's return and ascent system testing and demonstration. The scope of cooperation includes joint technology development, pilots, and market expansion in India and Australia.

This Chennai-based startup, incubated at IIT Madras, is developing an autonomous, unmanned, recoverable spacecraft for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) missions. These missions cover microgravity research, in-orbit technology demonstrations, in-space manufacturing, and payload return, including precision landing capabilities relevant to defense and disaster response. Inbound Aerospace is led by co-founders Dr. Arvind I B, Vishal Reddy, and Captain Abhijit Bhutey (Retd).

Snowflake announced that Swiggy utilizes its AI Data Cloud as a unified data foundation for its food delivery services, Instamart, and Dineout. According to Snowflake, Swiggy's slowest data processing workflows improved by 90–96%, heavy queries were reduced from two hours to 15 minutes, and data processing shifted from six hours to near real-time. Employees now have governed self-service access with role-based controls, column masking, and row-level security, while operational teams monitor service quality metrics in real time. Madhusudhan Rao, CTO of Swiggy, noted: 'At Swiggy, data is only valuable when it reaches the person who can act on it.'

Google unveiled five sustainability-focused initiatives for India, covering smart utilization of solar rooftops, clean energy procurement, climate-smart agriculture, and research. The company stated that its Solar API analytics now cover over 300 million Indian rooftops. Google entered into a new 150 MW solar power agreement in Rajasthan with ReNew Power and is collaborating with Mitti Labs on a project to reduce methane and water usage for small rice farmers in Telangana.

Google clarified that the Solar API, part of Earth AI, helps local platforms like Solar Ladder and OpenSolar automate assessments and proposals. The deal with ReNew will provide environmental attributes for tracking electricity emissions in the value chain, while the project with Mitti Labs aims to mitigate nearly three million tons of CO2e based on GWP20 through satellite verification. Google's Climate Technology Center is also expanding its focus areas to water resource management, waste, and circularity.

AvenuesAI reported that its payment gateway, CCAvenue, integrated Amazon Pay Balance, allowing merchants to offer customers a familiar saved balance option during checkout. This integration, showcased at Global Fintech Fest 2026, aims to increase successful payment rates and reduce cart abandonment on CCAvenue merchants' sites. The companies noted that Amazon Pay Balance serves over 70 million customers, and the deep link integration supports secure transactions and higher conversion rates. Neha Gupta Mahatame, Director of Saved Value and Gifts at Amazon Pay, stated: 'Our goal is to make digital transactions as intuitive, secure, and beneficial as possible.'

Xflow announced a partnership with HSBC that enables global enterprises to accept payments from Indian customers via UPI, internet banking, and cards without establishing a local legal entity. The company claims the solution converts cross-border payments into domestic transactions to boost conversion, with UPI and cards achieving success rates above 95%. Xflow indicated that settlements are available in major currencies, and the product targets categories such as physical goods, SaaS, AI platforms, travel, and edtech. The company holds final approval under the RBI's payment aggregator structure for export and import, and has received preliminary approval from IFSCA to operate as a payment service provider in GIFT City, and is registered in Canada as an MSB.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services expanded its voice AI partnership with Sarvam, deploying agents across sales, collections, and employee engagement departments. Announced at GFF 2026, the companies reported that the voice agents, created by Mahindra AI on the Sarvam platform, operate in 12 Indian languages and have completed over ten million calls. Use cases include relationship verification and cross-selling in sales, overdue payment reminders during collections, and feedback from field staff for engagement, with AI user pipelines recording and analyzing calls, passing data to subsequent systems. Raul Rebelo, Managing Director and CEO of Mahindra Finance, stated: 'Voice AI has allowed us to scale this intimacy.'

HyperVerge launched an AI agent suite for underwriting business loans, designed to reduce manual work on complex SME files to less than an hour while maintaining decision-making authority for credit managers. At GFF 2026, the company reported that pilot projects with about ten mid-tier lenders reduced financial assessment time from two-three hours to five minutes, and report preparation, which took four hours, was cut to under 10 minutes. The suite includes agents for collecting and verifying financial data, a personal video communication assistant available in 10–12 languages, and background due diligence that links recommendations to source documents and timestamps. Pricing is usage-based. Kedar Kulkarni, CEO and Co-founder of HyperVerge, noted: 'Our AI agents automate this assembly work by extracting documents, compiling data, and executing credit parameters.'

Razorpay introduced Vulcan, which the company named the first AI-powered foundational payment model in India, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at GFF 2026 in Mumbai. The company stated that Vulcan was trained on nearly three trillion data points from four billion payments to improve success rates, enhance fraud detection, and optimize checkout. Razorpay reported that businesses like Blinkit, Bachatt, and redBus are seeing an 8–10% improvement in payment success rates and an eightfold increase in international card fraud detection. The company added that Vulcan is designed to make online transactions faster, safer, and smarter for both sellers and customers.

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