Electric mobility and consumer brands led the deal flow on 15 July 2026, with seven rounds spanning EVs, AI software, D2C food and grocery. Ather Energy topped the day with a ₹1,200 crore preferential issue, while AI software startup Emergent joined the unicorn club at a $1.5 billion valuation. Fireside Ventures backed two separate rounds, in baby care brand Promom and grocery startup Anmasa. In policy news, the Union Cabinet cleared a ₹62,500 crore mobile phone manufacturing scheme, and Zomato began piloting an AI voice bot for food orders. Ather Energy is a Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler maker and one of the larger listed players in India's EV scooter market. The company's board approved a preferential issue worth ₹1,200 crore (~$144 million). Existing investor Hero MotoCorp is committing nearly ₹960 crore through 76.19 lakh convertible warrants, the India-Japan Fund is investing ₹200 crore, and co-founders Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain are putting in ₹20 crore each. After the allotment, Hero MotoCorp's stake rises to 30.68% from 29.48% on a fully diluted basis. The raise is part of Ather's plan to shore up capital for expansion, research and development, new products and manufacturing capacity as competition with Ola Electric, TVS and Bajaj intensifies. Ather shares touched an all-time high of ₹1,313.8 on the day of the announcement. Emergent is an AI software creation platform founded in 2024 by Dunzo co-founder Mukund Jha and his brother Madhav Jha, letting users build web and mobile apps using autonomous AI agents. The startup raised $130 million (~₹1,080 crore) in a Series C round led by Creaegis, with MNI Ventures, Claypond Capital and Sentinel Global as co-leads. Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed and Y Combinator also took part. The round lifted its valuation to $1.5 billion and total funding to $230 million, making it India's sixth unicorn of 2026 and the third homegrown AI unicorn after Krutrim and Sarvam. The funds will go towards hiring, open-source AI research and global expansion. Emergent says more than 12 million apps have been built on its platform by users across 190 countries, with an annualised revenue run rate of about $120 million; India contributes 6-7% of revenue. E3 Electric.Ai is a Bengaluru-based electric mobility startup founded in 2024 by former TVS Motor EV head P Sanjeev, building AI-powered scooters for family commuters. E3 Electric.Ai raised ₹100 crore(~$10.4 million) in a Series A round led by BluVenture Holdings, with participation from undisclosed angel investors. About 75% of the funding came through equity and the rest through debt. E3 follows an asset-light model and will direct most of the capital towards intellectual property and technology rather than manufacturing. It plans to launch its first scooter, the E3 TRION, in Bengaluru and southern markets, and has identified around 90 markets including Delhi for expansion this financial year. Open Secret is a Mumbai-based D2C healthy sn
