Currently operating in stealth mode, Dreamteam is finalising investor negotiations, although the deal terms may evolve in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the startup is preparing to officially launch its product in May, signalling its entry into the highly competitive CRM software market.

Founded by former Freshworks executives Anand Venkatraman, Senthil Kanthaswamy, and Ramesh Parthasarathy, Dreamteam leverages artificial intelligence to automate customer relationship management workflows. Specifically, the platform deploys AI agents to capture and structure customer data, thereby eliminating manual data entry and enabling natural language interactions for businesses.

According to its website, the company is building an “AI-native CRM that understands your company context automatically, reasons like a human, and gets work done through specialized AI teammates.” As a result, Dreamteam positions itself as a next-generation CRM solution that directly competes with global leaders such as Salesforce and HubSpot.

Moreover, the startup has developed multiple AI agents to handle critical business functions, including lead qualification, meeting scheduling, prospect profiling, deal monitoring, and contextual data capture from calls, emails, and meetings. These capabilities allow companies to configure their CRM systems through conversational interfaces, significantly improving productivity and operational efficiency.

In addition, Girish Mathrubootham, who recently stepped down as chairman of Freshworks, is actively collaborating with Dreamteam to refine its product strategy. Notably, Mathrubootham played a key role in placing Chennai on the global SaaS map through Freshworks, and he is now working to replicate that success with an AI-first approach.

Furthermore, Dreamteam is part of the growing ecosystem of startups founded by former Freshworks employees, commonly referred to as the “Freshworks Mafia.” This network has expanded significantly, with around 360 startups launched by early 2026. Several successful ventures, including Rocketlane, SuperOps.ai, SurveySparrow, and Zuper, have emerged from this ecosystem, leveraging deep SaaS expertise to build global enterprise solutions.

At the same time, the funding discussions come amid a surge in investor interest in AI-driven enterprise platforms, particularly in CRM and customer experience technologies. Investors have increasingly backed AI-first startups that aim to disrupt legacy systems, as demonstrated by funding rounds such as Rocketlane’s $24 million Series B, Whatfix raising $125 million in 2023, and Uniphore securing $140 million in its last round.

Sources indicated that Dreamteam plans to use the fresh capital to enhance product development, expand its engineering and go-to-market teams, and accelerate global customer acquisition. Additionally, the company intends to strengthen its AI capabilities by improving agent accuracy and expanding use cases across sales and customer success functions.

Earlier known as Happy Sales, the company has since rebranded to Dreamteam following its seed funding from Together Fund. Through this transformation, the startup aims to redefine CRM systems by eliminating manual workflows and delivering fully automated, AI-powered solutions.

As businesses increasingly prioritise efficiency, data intelligence, and seamless workflows, startups like Dreamteam positions to reshape the future of customer relationship management globally.

Sprect enables users to book focused one-on-one video calls with professionals who are otherwise difficult to access. Currently, thousands of verified professionals across finance, careers, business strategy, and technology actively offer their time on the platform. These professionals include alumni from leading institutions such as IIMs, IITs, ISB, and UCLA, as well as experts from organisations like Airtel, Google, Times Internet, and Warner Bros. Discovery, along with Formula car drivers and senior government officials.

Rishabh Kathotia said, “Expert access has historically been a privilege of the few,” said Rishabh Kathotia, Director at Subhkam Ventures. “Sprect is building the infrastructure to change that, with a credible PRO network, a clear institutional use case, and founders with the depth to execute on both sides of the platform. We are backing Vishal and Mohit for the long run.”

Accessing the right professionals has traditionally posed significant challenges. For instance, first-generation founders often struggle to connect with experienced CFOs who have navigated multiple funding cycles, while mid-career professionals face difficulty in reaching senior leaders within aspirational organisations. Sprect addresses this gap by enabling on-demand connections between users and relevant experts. Additionally, institutions such as SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) have partnered with the platform to strengthen alumni engagement across batches and years.

Mohit Khadaria said, “This funding round validates what we have always believed, that structured expert access is a real and growing need,” said Mohit Khadaria, Co-founder of Sprect. “Colleges want their alumni engaged and contributing. Organisations want curated knowledge flowing through their teams. We are already seeing this with multiple institutions, and this round lets us deepen that work significantly.”

On the supply side, Sprect allows professionals to control their availability, pricing, and engagement preferences. They can offer paid, free, or charity calls and define the topics they wish to address, while the platform manages scheduling, payments, and video infrastructure seamlessly.

Vishal Rupani said, “The right 10 minutes with the right person can change the trajectory of a career or a business,” said Vishal Rupani, Co-founder of Sprect. “India has millions of professionals who have spent decades building exactly that kind of expertise, yet there has never been a dignified, structured way for them to offer it. Sprect changes that, giving every professional a platform to make their knowledge accessible on their own terms. This raise is about getting that opportunity in front of many more professionals.”

As demand for personalised, on-demand professional guidance continues to rise across careers, business, and education, Sprect therefore aims to scale its network and, in turn, strengthen its position in India’s evolving knowledge-sharing and professional networking ecosystem.

Notably, Peak XV, which backed the company as an early investor, achieved approximately three times return on its investment, highlighting a successful exit in India’s fintech ecosystem.

“Peak XV Partners has sold around 61 lakh shares, about 7.7% of the company share capital, at an average sale price of Rs 214 per share. The total deal size is close to Rs 130 crore. With this sale, Peak XV has completely exited from the firm,” a source said.

Meanwhile, institutional investors including Florintree Advisors, Viridian Asset Management, Dymon Asia, and Karma Capital have acquired stakes from Peak XV, thereby strengthening their presence in the fintech companies.

Importantly, this development follows closely after MobiKwik announced that the Reserve Bank of India granted a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) license to its subsidiary, MobiKwik Financial Services Pvt Ltd. This regulatory approval is expected to enhance the company’s lending and financial services capabilities.

Consequently, the timing of the exit aligns with a significant milestone for MobiKwik, as it continues to expand its fintech offerings and strengthen its regulatory position in India’s competitive digital payments and lending market.

Peak XV Partners’ complete exit from MobiKwik underscores strong investor returns in the fintech sector, while the entry of new institutional investors and the NBFC license approval signal continued growth potential for the company in India’s evolving financial services landscape.

National, 28th April 2026: Kovon, a cross-border workforce mobility platform, has raised $250,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by TDV Partners. Founded by Bibartan Roy and Swayamjeet Das, Kovon is building a trusted platform for blue and grey-collar workers across industries such as healthcare, hospitality, construction, and logistics, connecting skilled Indian talent to international job opportunities.

The platform acts as an infrastructure layer across the entire journey, from job discovery and upskilling to financing and placement, while addressing critical gaps across skilling, financing, and deployment. As developed economies across Europe, the UK, and the Middle East face persistent labour shortages, the demand for skilled workers globally continues to rise. Kovon aims to make these opportunities more accessible, reliable, and structured for Indian workers while helping international employers meet talent shortages.

The fresh capital will be deployed towards product and platform development, strengthening employer partnerships globally, expanding candidate acquisition, and building out the skilling and training ecosystem. The company also plans to hire across technology, operations, and partnerships.

According to EY’s report Reaping the Demographic Dividend: India at 100, India is expected to have one of the largest working-age populations globally by 2030. Every year millions of people in India migrate in search of employment, especially from Tier 2 & 3 cities to metropolitan markets. At the same time, a severe skilled labour shortage in developed countries, driven by ageing populations and declining workforce participation, presents a significant opportunity for India to emerge as a global supplier of skilled talent.

Bibartan Roy, co-founder and CEO of Kovon.io, said, “We witnessed the fragmentation in global talent mobility, particularly in the blue-collar segment, firsthand through our experience across education, skilling, fintech, and workforce supply chains. While global demand is surging, the supply chain remains broken at multiple levels, driving exploitation, eroding trust, and failing both talent and employers. At Kovon, we are bridging this demand-supply divide by embedding financial access, discovery, opportunity, and trust into a single, seamless platform.”

As per the OECD’s International Migration Outlook 2025, 2.25 lakh Indians gained nationality in OECD countries in 2023, with Canada, the United States, and Australia as key destinations. India remains one of the world’s largest recipients of remittances, with inflows reaching USD 135.4 billion in FY25, underlining the significant contribution of Indians working abroad to household incomes and local economies.

Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, has also encouraged Indian businesses and workers to tap into global demand, describing it as a potential “game-changer” for the country’s economic growth. Referring to the Australian housing crisis, he highlighted the multi-billion dollar opportunity and urged Indian startups and enterprises to actively participate.

Commenting on the announcement, Ujwal Sutaria, Founder and General Partner at TDV Partners, said, “The blue-collar and grey-collar workforce mobility segment presents a significant opportunity, given the scale of the Indian workforce. Kovon is building in a structurally growing space with a transparent, efficient, and tech-first approach. While automation continues to evolve, these roles remain far from being replaced. Much like Indians have gone on to lead global organisations at the white-collar level, we believe similar pathways will emerge for blue-collar workers on the global stage.”

Despite strong global demand for talent, the system remains fragmented and largely unorganised, with limited infrastructure for skill certification, compliance, and globally aligned placements. As a result, what should be a clear pathway to opportunity often becomes uncertain and uneven.

Compliance with local labour regulations and ethical recruitment practices continues to be a significant challenge. Under the guise of facilitating work visas, many job aspirants fall prey to fraudulent operators, often losing substantial sums of money. In some cases, individuals also find themselves stranded in foreign countries without adequate employer support, highlighting the need for more transparent and reliable pathways.

Kovon is being built to change this. It aims to build trust and create a transparent, end-to-end ecosystem for cross-border workforce mobility, covering discovery, verification, placement, and post-deployment support. The platform brings together job discovery, candidate verification, upskilling, financing, placement, and post-deployment support into one ecosystem, reducing friction and helping workers and employers connect with greater confidence. With the advent of AI tech, which they plan to build, these workflows become much easier and smoother than what they used to be previously. For families seeking stable income opportunities, it aims to replace uncertainty with trust and access.

With India as its talent base, Kovon is focused on building skilled, verified, job-ready pipelines for labour-deficient markets across the Middle East, Europe, the UK, and beyond.

About Kovon

Kovon is a cross-border workforce mobility platform connecting skilled Indian talent to international job opportunities. Founded in 2025 by Bibartan Roy and Swayamjeet Das, the company focuses on enabling global employment access for India’s blue- and grey-collar workforce across sectors such as healthcare, hospitality, construction, and logistics.

Kovon addresses a key gap in global labour markets, where workforce shortages in developed economies coexist with limited access to opportunities for Indians’ frontline talent. Through an end-to-end platform spanning job discovery, upskilling, financing, and placement, Kovon creates a structured and reliable pathway for global talent mobility.

Visit: https://www.kovon.io/

Furthermore, Snabbit Founder and CEO Aayush Agarwal said that the company will utilize the funds to strengthen its balance sheet while preparing to expand services across micro-markets and enter new categories in the near future.

“We have raised $56 million in Series D round funding, led by SIG, along with Mirae and Bertelsmann. We already have strong investors like Lightspeed, Elevation, and Nexus. Bertelsmann, which led our previous round, is doubling down significantly,” Agarwal said.

Moreover, global marketplace investor FJ Labs joined the funding round as a new investor, thereby further diversifying Snabbit’s investor base. With this latest infusion, the company has raised a total of $112 million to date, reinforcing its position in India’s rapidly growing home services sector.

“There is strong investor backing, but also greater responsibility to build what we believe can be a generational company that changes how Indian households operate. This round gives us more than three years of runway. That includes total capital, not just the raised capital,” Agarwal said.

At present, Snabbit claims to have over 10 million monthly active users, which drive category-leading throughput of 40,000 jobs per day from a limited operational footprint. Consequently, the company demonstrates strong utilization rates, repeat demand, and operational efficiency rather than relying solely on surface-level expansion.

Currently, Snabbit operates in three major cities—Delhi NCR, Bangalore, and Mumbai—while maintaining a smaller presence in Hyderabad and Pune. Looking ahead, the company plans to establish a significant presence in at least the top 10 metro cities in India within the next 12 months.

“We currently live in three major cities—Delhi NCR, Bangalore, and Mumbai—with a smaller presence in Hyderabad and Pune. Over the next 12 months, we aim to have a significant presence in at least the top 10 metro cities in India,” Agarwal said.

In addition, Snabbit plans to expand into new service categories, including home cooks, childcare, elderly care, and driver services, thereby broadening its offerings in the home services marketplace.

“Right now, I’m particularly excited about home cooks. We have run a successful pilot and are now scaling it, starting with Bangalore. The idea is simple, home-cooked meals by trained experts (not chefs), like how we approached home cleaning as an unsolved problem,” Agarwal said.

Meanwhile, Agarwal emphasized that the company will prioritize scaling operations, expanding across categories, and improving unit economics in the near term.

“Today, for every 1 mature micro market, there are 7-8 new micro markets being built, which means investments are currently outweighing returns. It will take some time for this equation to turn, as we want to clearly prove the economics of the business and then sustain it over a long period. Alongside this, the priority is to build a high-quality, world-class organization and team that can support continued scale,” Agarwal said.

Snabbit’s $56 million funding round highlights strong investor confidence in India’s home services market while positioning the company for aggressive expansion, category diversification, and long-term sustainable growth. As demand for digital home services platforms rises, Snabbit aims to redefine how Indian households access essential services, thereby strengthening its foothold in the competitive startup ecosystem.

To move forward with the public issue, Acko has appointed Morgan Stanley, Kotak Securities, and ICICI Securities as book-running lead managers. Furthermore, the company plans to file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) before the end of June, thereby advancing its listing timeline in India’s capital markets.

Acko operates as a direct-to-consumer (D2C) digital insurer, offering general, health, and life insurance products while eliminating traditional agents and intermediaries. This model enables cost efficiency, faster policy issuance, and improved customer experience. The company was founded by Varun Dua, who previously built insurance distribution platform Coverfox. Acko secured its regulatory licence in 2017 and subsequently launched operations in 2018, positioning itself as a key player in India’s insurtech space.

Moreover, Acko has attracted strong backing from global and domestic investors, including General Atlantic, Multiples PE, Accel Partners, Elevation Capital, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Collectively, these investors have infused over $583 million into the company, underscoring its growth potential and market relevance.

From an operational standpoint, Acko has demonstrated strong traction across key insurance segments. In FY26, the company underwrote motor insurance premiums worth Rs 1,186 crore and health insurance premiums of Rs 1,235 crore, highlighting its expanding footprint in India’s insurance market.

Financially, the company has shown steady progress toward profitability. In FY25, Acko reported total revenue of Rs 2,887 crore and a net loss of Rs 424 crore, as per filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. However, it significantly reduced its losses from Rs 670 crore in FY24, indicating improved cost efficiencies and scaling of its business model.

As the company moves closer to public markets, its performance will likely serve as a benchmark for other fintech and insurance startups considering listings. If successful, the IPO could further strengthen investor sentiment toward technology-driven financial services and accelerate innovation in India’s insurance landscape.

The company has set a price band of Rs 162–171 per share, according to a newspaper advertisement. Furthermore, the IPO includes a fresh issue worth Rs 850 crore alongside an offer for sale (OFS) of 4.4 million shares, which translates to Rs 76 crore. Through this structure, Kissht plans to strengthen its capital base while also providing partial exits to existing investors.

However, the updated IPO structure represents a strategic revision compared to its earlier proposal. Previously, the company had planned a Rs 1,000 crore fresh issue along with an OFS of 8.8 million shares. With this adjustment, Kissht has streamlined its offering in response to prevailing market conditions and investor sentiment, ensuring a more balanced and attractive issue size.

Moreover, the IPO comes at a time when India’s fintech sector is witnessing rapid digital adoption, increased credit penetration, and strong investor interest in digital lending platforms. As a result, Kissht’s public listing could further boost confidence in the sector and highlight the growing importance of technology-driven financial inclusion.

Kissht’s IPO launch signals a significant milestone in its growth journey while also underlining broader trends in India’s capital markets and fintech landscape. If the offering garners strong investor demand, it could pave the way for more digital lending startups to explore public listings, thereby accelerating innovation and competition in the industry.

According to a regulatory filing, Pine Labs will complete the acquisition within three months, and it will execute the transaction entirely in cash. Consequently, the move reflects the company’s strong financial position and commitment to expanding its digital payments ecosystem.

Founded in December 2021, Shopflo builds checkout infrastructure and e-commerce enablement tools designed to improve conversion rates for online brands. The company reported revenue of Rs 14.7 crore in FY25, rising from Rs 9.1 crore in FY24 and Rs 0.63 crore in FY23, thereby demonstrating strong growth in the D2C technology segment.

In 2022, Shopflo raised around Rs 24.5 crore ($2.6 million) in seed funding from Better Capital, Tiger Global Management and TQ Ventures. All existing investors will exit the company as part of the deal. “This is our first investment after going public and will be fully funded through internal accruals,” said Amrish Rau, chief executive officer of Pine Labs. “Even before going public, we had around Rs 1,100 crore in cash.”

Moreover, Pine Labs stated that the acquisition will enable it to offer an integrated platform for merchants across offline payments, online checkout, and customer engagement. As a result, the company aims to deliver a seamless omnichannel commerce experience, aligning with its broader strategy to build a full-stack payments and commerce platform.

Additionally, Shopflo provides checkout optimisation tools, analytics, and e-commerce solutions that help reduce cart abandonment and improve payment success rates. These capabilities will complement Pine Labs’ existing payments infrastructure, thereby enhancing value for merchants operating in the online retail ecosystem.

Currently, Shopflo serves more than 1,000 online brands and has enabled transactions for over 60 million consumers. Notably, merchants using its platform have reported a 15–20% improvement in conversion rates, highlighting the platform’s effectiveness in driving e-commerce growth and customer retention.

Founded by Priy Ranjan along with Ankit Bansal and Ishan Rakshit, the startup gained attention in 2022 when Tiger Global made its first seed investment in India through Shopflo. Since then, the company has raised about $3.7 million from investors including Tiger Global, TQ Ventures, and Better Capital, strengthening its position in the startup ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Pine Labs’ online payments business reported approximately 50% year-on-year growth in Q3 FY26, with revenue increasing to Rs 744 crore from Rs 601 crore in the same period last year. Furthermore, the company posted a net profit of Rs 42 crore in the quarter, compared to a loss of Rs 57 crore in Q3 FY25, indicating a strong financial turnaround. Its Q4 results are currently awaited.

With this acquisition, Pine Labs strengthens its foothold in the rapidly growing D2C ecosystem by combining robust payments infrastructure with advanced checkout capabilities. As competition intensifies in the fintech and e-commerce sectors, the move positions Pine Labs to offer merchants a unified, scalable platform across online and offline channels, thereby driving innovation and accelerating growth in the digital commerce landscape.

Notably, in a strong endorsement of the company and its debut title ‘eCricket,’ globally recognised cricketers such as MS Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Tilak Varma, and Sai Sudharsan have joined the funding round as investors. As a result, LightFury Games has gained unique athlete-backed momentum while building ‘eCricket,’ a AAA cricket game from India with global ambitions, scheduled for release in 2026 on mobile platforms.

At a time when cricket continues to rank among the most-followed sports globally, this backing significantly enhances the company’s positioning. Moreover, LightFury aims to capitalise on cricket’s massive global audience of over 2.5 billion fans by addressing a long-standing gap in the sports gaming category through a technically advanced, competitive, and live-service-driven cricket gaming franchise.

The company will primarily utilise the newly raised capital to complete game development and strengthen its live operations (live ops) infrastructure. Specifically, it will invest in post-launch systems, content pipelines, and scalable infrastructure designed to deliver a high-quality and continuously evolving player experience. Consequently, the studio aims to ensure long-term engagement and operational excellence in the highly competitive gaming ecosystem.

“We’ve backed LightFury from inception in their mission to pioneer a new generation of Indian gaming studios, building IPs with global ambition. Building a AAA game is neither easy nor quick—it takes sustained creative excellence, deep technical expertise, and long-term discipline. In LightFury, we’ve seen a team come together from different parts of the world, with a shared passion and incredible attention to detail, depth, and creativity. Supercharged by natively built AI tools, we are excited for the world to experience eCricket very soon. We would like it to be the Dhurandhar of Indian gaming history,” said Karthik Reddy, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Blume Ventures.

Arjun Vaidya, Managing Partner of V3 Ventures, added, “I’m a die-hard cricket fan, and today it is one of the biggest sports in the world. Yet it still does not have a definitive game in the way football, basketball, or American football does. That is the gap. What gives us confidence is not just the size of the market but the quality of gameplay, overall experience, and player associations that LightFury has been building behind the scenes with real intent. Cricket is a uniquely complex sport, and its place at the intersection of culture, community, and technology for nearly a quarter of the world’s population makes the opportunity around eCricket even more exciting. We’re excited to back LightFury as they work to build an impactful, category-defining global title and give our favourite sport the game it deserves.”

According to industry projections, the global gaming market is expected to surpass $400 billion in the coming years. Simultaneously, India’s gaming ecosystem is projected to reach $9.89 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 14.55% between 2026 and 2031. Therefore, LightFury Games is strategically positioning itself at the forefront of India’s emergence as a global game development hub. Over the past two years, the company has invested heavily in core development capabilities, infrastructure, and analytics systems to support continuous content creation, deeper player engagement, and scalable live operations.

“India has long been one of the world’s biggest gaming markets. Yet it has not been able to build a truly world-class AAA sports title. With eCricket, we want to change that. We are building from India for the world, with a very high bar on quality, deep competitive gameplay, and true-to-sport authenticity. This partnership ensures that we deliver on that vision and bring eCricket to fans soon in 2026. For us, this is much bigger than a game launch. It is about proving that India can build premium gaming IPs for the world and not just play them,” said Karan Shroff, Co-Founder & CEO, LightFury Games.

On what stood out to him about this collaboration, MS Dhoni said, “I’ve seen a lot of cricket games over the years, and there’s always been something missing. When LightFury showed me what they were working on, I felt they were trying to close that gap. It’s a big undertaking, building something like this out of India for a global audience. I’m here to contribute what I can from my time in the game and make sure the details hold up. The rest is up to them, and from what I’ve seen, they’ll do a good job.”

Speaking about the challenge of capturing the depth of cricket in a game, Jasprit Bumrah, who is exclusively managed by RISE Worldwide, added, “Cricket is a game of fine margins, and that’s what stood out to me about eCricket. The focus on detail and authenticity is impressive. I’m happy to back a team that is thinking deeply about the sport and building something meaningful from India.”

Sharing his perspective, Hardik Pandya said, “Cricket is pressure, skill, and entertainment all at once. Fans want to feel that energy. What excites me about eCricket is that it is not trying to make cricket smaller for gaming. It is trying to make gaming rise to the scale of cricket. That is a bold idea, and I was very excited when the LightFury team approached me to be a part of the game.”

Technologically, ‘eCricket’ runs on Unreal Engine 5 and follows a mobile-first design approach. The game delivers a progression-driven experience, where real-time decisions shape evolving player journeys. Furthermore, its physics-based gameplay, strategic batting and bowling systems, and dynamic AI commentary aim to replicate real-world cricket dynamics. Additionally, broadcast-style presentation ensures each match feels unique.

Earlier this year, LightFury Games secured the global player roster license of over 600 professional cricketers, including Chris Gayle, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Kane Williamson, Pat Cummins, Jos Buttler, Travis Head, and Andre Russell. Consequently, this represents one of the largest player rosters ever assembled in cricket gaming.

Founded in 2024 by Karan Shroff, Anurag Banerjee, and Tina Balachandran, LightFury Games has quickly emerged as a premier AAA game-tech studio in India. Collectively, the leadership team has contributed to the development of more than 40 AAA titles, thereby bringing significant industry experience to the venture.

With this pre-Series A round, the company has successfully completed two funding rounds. Its investor base continues to include Blume Ventures, V3 Ventures, MIXI, Times Internet, and strategic backing from prominent cricketers. Since inception, LightFury Games has prioritised world-class technology and talent as core pillars of its growth strategy, aiming to redefine India’s role in global game development.

Following the investment, the Bengaluru-based startup will channel the capital into expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities, strengthening research and development (R&D), and building strategic partnerships with textile mills and global fashion brands. Moreover, STCH operates under the contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) model, positioning itself as a key enabler in the global textile supply chain.

Founded in 2025 by Narahari Payala and Aseem Chitkara, STCH focuses on building an AI-powered fabric R&D and manufacturing platform. Specifically, the platform enables global fashion brands to design and deliver trend-aligned, high-performance, and sustainable fabrics at scale.

Furthermore, the startup leverages artificial intelligence to analyze global fashion trends, develop eco-friendly fabrics, and distribute them through its controlled manufacturing network across India and Asia. In addition, its AI platform facilitates the selection of sustainable fibres while optimizing supply chain efficiency, thereby enhancing overall production outcomes.

At present, STCH has built a strong market presence, with an order book exceeding $15 million from leading brands across the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. This traction highlights the increasing demand for AI-driven textile solutions and sustainable fabric innovation in global markets.

Importantly, founders Narahari Payala and Aseem Chitkara previously worked with Zetwerk, where they gained deep expertise in the textile and manufacturing ecosystem. Their combined experience continues to drive STCH’s strategic growth and innovation roadmap.

According to Narahari Payala, the fashion industry currently directs much of its AI innovation toward the front end, but it finds the real opportunity deeper in the supply chain, where Asian markets dominate manufacturing.

“Fabric, in particular, is the most critical yet least optimised layer. With improving trade dynamics, including free trade agreements with the UK and Europe as well as easing tariffs from the USA, we believe this is a defining moment to build a globally leading, AI-native textile innovation powerhouse from India,” said Payala.

Meanwhile, Omnivore Managing Partner Mark Kahn emphasized the founders’ expertise and India’s potential in sustainable textiles.

“Narahari and Aseem bring rare depth as they understand both the materials science and the supply chain realities of getting sustainable textiles to market at scale. India has the raw materials, the mills, and now—with STCH—the AI-native platform is set to become the world’s leading source of sustainable textile innovation.”

STCH’s $7 million funding round underscores the growing convergence of artificial intelligence, textile innovation, and sustainable manufacturing. As global demand for eco-friendly fabrics rises, the startup stands well-positioned to transform the textile supply chain through AI-driven insights, scalable production, and strategic global partnerships. Consequently, STCH could emerge as a key player in shaping the future of sustainable fashion and textile technology from India to the world.