Month: February 2026

Temple, which is building a cutting-edge wearable to track cerebral blood flow and other biomarkers for elite athletes, is recruiting engineers with an unusual twist: candidates must meet specific physical fitness benchmarks, including body fat percentages, alongside strong coding skills .

Those who don’t meet the fitness criteria can still join but will remain on probation until requirements are met. The move has ignited conversations about inclusivity, discrimination, corporate culture, and what it means to build products for high-performance users .

Abhijith Nag Balasubamanya, founder and CEO of Hydro Space Sweden AB—an agri-tech startup focused on microgreens production to enhance local food security—announced on LinkedIn that he is being forced to leave the country by the end of February 2026. He has sold the company and is returning to India, describing the situation as an “eviction” rather than a voluntary exit .

In a detailed, widely shared post that has resonated across global founder communities, Abhijith accused Sweden’s Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) of operating a “hostile,” “dysfunctional,” and increasingly “xenophobic” system toward foreign entrepreneurs .

India’s startup ecosystem is navigating a tough phase of recalibration. According to aggregated data from industry trackers, media reports, and startup disclosures, over 4,500 employees have been laid off across various companies since July 2025.

This wave of job cuts reflects ongoing cost optimization, restructuring, and a sharper focus on profitability and sustainable unit economics amid tighter global funding conditions, slower growth in certain consumer segments, and rising operational costs .

In a landmark move for India’s voice AI ecosystem, CoRover—the company behind the indigenous BharatGPT platform—has unveiled Kanha Ji, a screen-free, voice-first AI companion designed specifically for early childhood development.

Launched on February 26, 2026, Kanha Ji leverages CoRover’s homegrown BharatGPT (their sovereign, multilingual large language model) to create a safe, engaging, and culturally rooted learning buddy that speaks naturally in Hindi, English, and regional Indian languages .