Top tech and startup stories to start your day with
Next MDR on UPI on the cards; Emergent enters unicorn club Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter Exclusive: Govt may
Next MDR on UPI on the cards; Emergent enters unicorn club Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox? Also in the letter Exclusive: Govt may bring back UPI merchant fee for big businesses Driving the news The proposal under examination may peg the turnover threshold for merchants at Rs 1-1.5 crore and Rs 2,000 for transactions, sparing small merchants. A final call will be made shortly at the highest level of government. Peer-to-peer transfers are expected to stay free. Catch up quick Why it matters Government approves Rs 1.27 lakh crore ISM 2.0, expects Rs 4 lakh crore investments Scheme details The government expects the programme to bring Rs 4 lakh crore in investments, Rs 2 lakh crore in production and Rs 1 lakh crore in exports.
The scheme spans the entire semiconductor value chain โ from sand and silicon ingot wafers to fabricated wafers, integrated circuits, and electronic bare components and subassemblies. Vibe-coding startup Emergent's valuation jumps 5x to $1.5 billion in new funding Unicorn round The round was led by Creaegis, with participation from MNI Ventures, Claypond Capital, Sentinel Global, Khosla Ventures, SoftBank, Lightspeed and Y Combinator. The new valuation is about 5x higher than it was six months ago. Emergent has now raised $230 million in total. The fundraise, however, is smaller than the $200-250 million round Emergent had initially targeted, sources told us. CEOSpeak Also Read ETtech Explainer: What Emergent's ARR reveals about AI's numbers game D2C snack brand Open Secret raises Rs 50 crore funding Tell me more Ather Energy raises Rs 1,200 crore from IJF, Hero Motocorp, founders; launches QIP Details Round details Hero MotoCorp will commit Rs 960 crore via convertible warrants.
India-Japan Fund (IJF) will invest Rs 200 crore through equity shares. Cofounders Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain will each infuse Rs 20 crore. The issue, subject to shareholder approval, increases the preferential allotment size from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,200 crore. Stake impact Hero MotoCorp's stake in Ather will rise to 30.68% from 29.48%. IJF's holding will increase to 6.02% from 5.75%, assuming full conversion of the warrants. Groww Q1 profit nearly doubles to Rs 735 crore; MTF, commodities gain share By the numbers Net profit: Up 94.4% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 735 crore from Rs 378 crore, attributable to the company's shareholders. Revenue from operations: Rose 66% YoY to Rs 1,501 crore from Rs 904 crore.
Sequentially: Total income slipped 0.3% from Rs 1,505 crore in the March quarter, while net profit rose 7% from Rs 686 crore. Also Read Other Top Stories By Our Reporters TCSโ latest deal win Wipro looks back at FY26 Global Picks We Are Reading