Four funding rounds closed on 12 August 2026, spanning electric mobility, children's tech, driving education and deep tech, with GEF Capital Partners and 12 Flags among the day's lead investors. The headline raise is Yulu's $93 million (~₹772 crore) Series C round to scale its electric mobility fleet. Away from funding, online astrology platform Astrotalk turned unicorn at a $1 billion valuation through an ESOP buyback, while Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said he will step down when his term ends in February 2027, following months of boardroom deadlock over his reappointment. Yulu is a Bengaluru-based electric mobility-as-a-service platform founded in 2017 by Amit Gupta, RK Misra, Naveen Dachuri and Hemant Gupta. It operates a technology-enabled fleet of roughly 50,000 electric two-wheelers for urban mobility and last-mile delivery, covering 2.5 million zero-emission kilometres and facilitating more than 750,000 doorstep deliveries daily across 12 primary metros and eight franchise-operated regions. Yulu raised $93 million in a Series C round comprising $63 million in equity led by GEF Capital Partners and $30 million in debt. The company plans to quadruple its active fleet to 200,000 electric vehicles over the next two years, enter new urban mobility use cases via the full-sized Yulu Express scooter, and support a potential public market listing. Wippi is a Bengaluru-based children's technology startup founded by Rishabh Singhi and Siddhartha Jain. It builds screen-free products that combine conversational voice AI, storytelling and interactive play, including Character Cards, illustrated storybooks and Wippi Radio, letting children aged four and above interact with characters such as Ram, Krishna and Cinderella. Wippi raised $1.2 million in a seed round led by 12 Flags, with participation from Warmup Ventures, Ventana Ventures and Ruvento Ventures. The capital will fund voice AI development, engineering and AI hiring, manufacturing scale-up in India and D2C growth, as the startup targets 15,000 families over the next 12 months. Lane is a Bengaluru-based driving education and mobility platform launched in January 2025. It offers structured driving lessons, end-to-end RTO and licensing support and a driver intelligence platform, and has delivered more than 30,000 hours of instruction to over 3,100 learners in 18 months, developed through 400-plus hours of pilot classes with automobile researchers. Lane raised ₹8.5 crore in a pre-seed round led by Kae Capital, with DeVC, Antler India, Panthera Peak and other angel investors participating. The funds will go towards scaling its instructor network across Bengaluru and other Tier 1 cities, building sensor technology and expanding into car ownership services. Quarkitech is a Chennai-based deep-tech startup founded in January 2025 by Rajesh Narayanan, Sanyam Parashar, Shashikant Singh Kunwar and Vishnu P.K. It develops simulation and quantum-inspired algorithmic solvers for large-scale combinatori
