Top tech and startup stories to start your day with
Delhivery’s Barua bets on consolidation; Amazon, Flipkart’s qcomm price war Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter Logistics market can’t support
Delhivery’s Barua bets on consolidation; Amazon, Flipkart’s qcomm price war Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter Logistics market can’t support more than three players, further consolidation likely: Delhivery's Sahil Barua On quick commerce On competition On ecommerce dependence Amazon, Flipkart spark quick commerce price war as Blinkit, Instamart hold the line Raining discounts Amazon Now is offering cashbacks of Rs 50, Rs 100 and Rs 200, tiered by order value. Flipkart Minutes is running Re 1 deals on fresh produce.
Zepto is pushing select non-grocery items at Rs 9. Analysts' insight Dark store expansion Blinkit plans to scale its network to 3,000 dark stores by March 2027. by March 2027. Amazon is targeting 1,000 stores; Flipkart aims to reach 1,500 in the coming months.; Flipkart aims in the coming months. Zepto and Instamart, each with a little over 1,100 dark stores, have eased off aggressive expansion. AI startup Rocket in talks to raise $40-50 million: sources Deal details 360 One is expected to lead the round with a $20-25 million cheque, with other investors also participating.
The round will value Rocket at about $500 million. The raise will cap a dramatic turnaround: less than a year ago, Rocket raised $15 million from Salesforce Ventures, Accel and Together Fund at a near-$60 million valuation. About Rocket Startup seed rounds double as VCs turn more selective Number-wise In H1 2026, startups raised $3.34 billion across 608 rounds, up from $2.96 billion across 1,055 rounds a year earlier. Average cheque size nearly doubled, from $ 2.8 million to $ 5.5 million.
Early-stage funding rose to $2.8 billion from $2.2 billion, even as round count fell to 188 from 258. Seed cheque size climbed to about $1.3 million, while seed round volumes dropped sharply. Other Top Stories By Our Reporters Policy gap for blockchain in India Where are the unicorns of 2021? West Asia conflict may delay India's chip projects Global Picks We Are Reading
The BriefWire