Startup Spotlights

In a move that underscores India’s emergence as a global fintech powerhouse, European fintech giant Revolut has announced plans to base nearly 40% of its global workforce in India by the end of 2026 . The company, valued at $75 billion with over 65 million customers worldwide, will hire 1,600 new employees over the next two years, taking its total headcount in India to approximately 5,500 out of a global workforce of 12,000 .

Infosys made a decisive move to strengthen its digital capabilities, announcing two major acquisitions of US-based technology firms with a combined value of up to $560 million . The acquisitions—Optimum Healthcare IT and Stratus Global—represent a strategic push into two high-growth verticals: healthcare and insurance technology .

India’s International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City is taking a significant step toward gender diversity in entrepreneurship. On March 26, 2026, GIFT City announced the launch of the Women in Fintech Accelerator under the GIFT International Fintech Innovation Hub (GIFT IFIH) .

The initiative is designed to strengthen the participation of women-led startups within India’s IFSC ecosystem by addressing key barriers that have historically limited their access to institutional capital . By creating a structured pathway for women entrepreneurs to build investment-ready ventures, GIFT City is positioning itself as a global fintech hub that champions inclusivity alongside innovation.

Global venture giants Accel and Prosus have announced the first cohort of their Atoms X LeapTech programme, selecting six startups that operate far outside the industry’s usual playbook . Described as “off-the-map” ideas, these are companies working on problems where markets are still undefined, progress is difficult to measure, and the path to commercialization is measured in years, not quarters .

Selected from over 2,000 applications, the inaugural cohort spans healthcare, climate, space, and longevity—science-led themes with long development cycles and uncertain commercial pathways . The initiative reflects a growing recognition among global investors that India’s next wave of breakthrough companies will not come from copying existing models, but from building entirely new categories rooted in deep science and engineering .

India’s Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA) 2025 effectively banned real-money gaming, wiping out more than 95% of Dream Sports’ revenue overnight . Profits vanished. The core business model that had built a unicorn was no longer viable.

But rather than fold, Dream Sports pivoted. In December 2025, the company restructured itself into eight independent business units, shifting into what CEO Harsh Jain described as “startup mode” . The portfolio now spans sports streaming (FanCode), sports travel (DreamSetGo), mobile gaming (Dream Cricket), AI athlete intelligence (Dream Play), open-source initiatives (Dream Horizon), philanthropy (Dream Sports Foundation), and crucially, financial services .

The company unveiled a suite of new features designed to reduce “everyday shopping friction” and usher in what it calls “behaviour-led commerce” . The centerpiece of this update is a ‘Pay Later’ facility offering interest-free credit, alongside ‘Real Lens’ —a tool providing real-time images of fresh produce—and an ‘Add After Checkout’ function that lets customers add forgotten items to an existing order .

Deep-tech innovation in India has long faced a critical bottleneck: the chasm between groundbreaking research in academic labs and scalable, market-ready solutions. This gap—often called the “valley of death”—has been where many promising ideas go to languish, unable to secure the funding, mentorship, and industry partnerships needed to survive commercialization.

On March 21 and 22, 2026, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay will transform into the epicenter of India’s deep-tech ambitions. The institute is set to host the Bharat Innovates 2026 Deep-Tech Pre-Summit, a landmark two-day event that will bring together 137 of the most promising deep-tech startups from across the country, along with investors, policymakers, and academic leaders .

This is not just another startup event. It is the culmination of a rigorous, multi-stage national selection process that began with over 3,000 applications, narrowed down through theme-specific bootcamps and a National Basecamp at IIT Gandhinagar . The startups chosen represent the very best of India’s research-backed innovation, spanning 13 critical technology themes .

Building a semiconductor fabrication plant, developing a new cancer therapy, or launching a rocket into space takes time—often a decade or more. The traditional 10-year startup recognition window meant that these ventures would “age out” of crucial government benefits just as they were nearing commercialization.

That has now changed.

In a landmark move announced via a DPIIT gazette notification on February 4, 2026, the Government of India has introduced a dedicated ‘Deep Tech Startup’ category under the Startup India initiative . The new framework extends the eligibility period for deep-tech startups to 20 years and raises the turnover cap to ₹300 crore .

In a startup ecosystem often defined by headlines about mega-rounds and unicorn valuations, it’s the steady drumbeat of early-stage innovation that truly builds the future. The past week offered a perfect illustration of this truth, with three distinct startups from three very different sectors announcing fresh capital infusions.

From a deep-tech company using light to transmit data, to a sustainable textile innovator turning agricultural waste into fabric, to a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand redefining pet nutrition, the diversity of ideas finding investor backing is a powerful signal of the ecosystem’s maturity and resilience.