Funding News

For decades, the invisible airwaves around us—radio frequencies—have been the workhorses of wireless communication. Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G, Bluetooth: all rely on a spectrum that is increasingly congested, interference-prone, and vulnerable to interception.

But what if the very lights in our offices, homes, and streets could also carry the internet? What if a beam of light, invisible to the naked eye, could deliver speeds of 10 Gbps with absolute security?

This is not science fiction. This is the reality being built by Velmenni, a Delhi-based deep-tech startup that has just raised ₹30 crore (approximately $3.3 million) in a pre-Series A funding round to scale its pioneering Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) and Free Space Optics (FSO) technologies .

In Silicon Valley, the PayPal Mafia became legendary—a group of former employees and founders who went on to build YouTube, Tesla, LinkedIn, and Yelp, forever changing the technology landscape. India is now witnessing its own version of this story, not once, but in successive waves.

The latest data is staggering. According to an analysis by Longhouse for the Economic Times, the second generation of India’s startup mafia—alumni from companies built between roughly 2014 and 2025—have now launched around 360 startups cumulatively . This marks a sharp increase from 253 companies reported in 2023, demonstrating the accelerating pace of this entrepreneurial spillover .

In the modern world, semiconductors are the new oil. They power everything from smartphones and cars to satellites and AI data centers. Without chips, the digital economy grinds to a halt.

For decades, India has been a consumer of semiconductors, importing nearly all of its requirements. Despite having world-class chip design talent, the country has lacked the manufacturing infrastructure to turn designs into physical products.

That is about to change in a big way.

India is preparing a massive $11 billion semiconductor fund to strengthen its chip manufacturing ecosystem, marking one of the country’s most ambitious deep-tech initiatives to date . The move is designed to reduce dependency on imports and position India as a global electronics hub, aligning with the government’s vision of technological self-reliance.

In the world of startups, timing is everything. An idea can be brilliant, a team can be talented, and a market can be massive—but without the right support at the right moment, even the most promising ventures can falter.

This is where accelerators come in. They provide the critical bridge between an idea and a business, offering not just capital but also mentorship, strategic guidance, and access to networks that can make all the difference.

A recent funding round underscores the power of this model. Several startups from the Invention Engine accelerator portfolio have collectively raised approximately $2.5 million in fresh funding. Companies such as Sonic Lamb, Cheerio AI, and Desible.ai are among those benefiting from this investment, which will be directed toward scaling product development, enhancing technology platforms, and expanding market reach.