30 Startups To Watch: Startups That Caught Our Eyes In May 2025

After a muted April, the Indian startup ecosystem staged a comeback in May, raising a total of $1.1 Bn in funding. This was more than double the amount raised in April.

This funding surge was backed by several key developments that boosted investor confidence. Ather Energy became the first startup to go public in 2025, while major players like Groww and Shiprocket filed their draft IPO papers via the confidential route.

Not to mention, investor optimism remained undeterred in artificial intelligence (AI). Moreover, the Indian government reinforced its commitment to homegrown innovation by shortlisting three domestic GenAI startups — Gnani.ai, GAN.ai, and Soket AI — to build India’s very own large language models (LLMs).

Against this backdrop, it’s no surprise that startups working on AI, deeptech and consumer services stood out in the 59th edition of Inc42’s flagship series, 30 Startups To Watch.

This curated list features the crème de la crème of the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem.

The month’s list shines a spotlight on breakthrough startups in fast-growing sectors such as spacetech, EV, climate tech, healthtech, and quick commerce, and we have barely scratched the surface.

So, without further ado, here are 30 of the hottest Indian startups that caught our eye in May.

Editor’s Note | The list below is not a ranking of any kind. We have listed the startups alphabetically.

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Adalat AI | Fast-Tracking Justice With AI

India’s judiciary is paralysed by a staggering backlog. While over 80,000 cases are pending before the Supreme Court and more than 60 Lakh remain unresolved in high courts, lower courts are burdened with a staggering backlog of over 5 Crore cases.

This only reminds one of what William Ewart Gladstone, a British prime minister, once said — “Justice delayed is justice denied”.

To make sure that justice is not delayed, lawyer Utkarsh Saxena and AI/ML engineer Arghya Bhattacharya founded Adalat AI in October 2023. Together, they are building AI-powered tools to digitise and streamline courtroom operations. 

Adalat AI‘s offerings include real-time transcription in 15 Indian languages, centralised caseflow management, and AI legal assistants that make proceedings more efficient and accessible.

Within a year, the founders claim that their tech is active in 10-15% of Indian courtrooms, assisting over 3,000 judges and cutting case timelines by up to 50%. If scaled effectively, their tech could help fast-track justice for millions.

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Anahad Pharma | Fixing India’s Last-Mile Pharmaceutical Gap

Despite India’s status as a global pharmaceutical powerhouse, access to essential medicines in rural areas remains alarmingly inadequate. Not to mention, while 65% of Indians live in rural areas, only 30% of the country’s healthcare infrastructure reaches them. A major bottleneck lies in the fragmented and inefficient last-mile pharma supply chain.

To address this, Mumbai-based Anahad Pharma is developing an on-demand sourcing platform that directly connects pharmacies with pharmaceutical warehouses.

Founded in 2022 by IIT-Bombay alumnus Shikhar Agrawal, the startup streamlines procurement and speeds up delivery to underserved areas.

With over 2,000 pharmacies onboard and partnerships with 115+ pharmaceutical brands, including Cipla and Mankind, Anahad is building a critical logistics layer in India’s healthcare system. With its tech-led approach, it is bridging the rural-urban healthcare divide and unlocking a scalable solution for last-mile pharma access.

With strong early traction and a clear focus on a long-standing supply chain problem, Anahad Pharma is trying to drive meaningful change in the rural healthcare delivery market, expected to breach the $130 Bn+ mark by 2030. Anahad Pharma currently locks horns with names like Mahindra Logistics, Marken, and Kuehne + Nagel.

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bbsAI | Powering India’s Multilingual Tech Future

A dearth of Indian AI tools catering to Indian languages is making it hard for people to access this tech. Besides, due to the limited availability of datasets to build Indic languages, it’s quite difficult to build reliable and localised AI solutions.

To solve this, Ganesh Arnaal and IIT Bombay professor Ganesh Ramakrishnan founded bbsAI in 2023. The startup is focussed on building India-focussed language AI infrastructure.

At its core is the Udaan Translation Engine, which has been developed with over a decade of research at IIT Bombay.

The engine powers enterprise-grade AI tools for multilingual translation and document processing in Indic languages.

By enabling businesses to operate seamlessly in India’s many languages, bbsAI is positioning itself at the heart of India’s digital transformation. Its solutions like ABAACU and bbsHindiOffice have been developed to support everything from government communication to enterprise workflows.

In the space, bbsAi directly locks horns with names like Synthesia.io, Lilt, and DeepL, among others. Notably, the Indian government is also facilitating the development of India’s own foundational LLM models. Under the IndiaAI Mission, Soket AI will be building India’s first open-source foundational model, while  Gnani.AI will build a voice AI foundational model to offer multilingual advanced reasoning and processing capabilities. 

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Be Clinical: Filling India’s Anti-Ageing Skincare Gap

Following her six-year-long stint in the consulting industry, Hemangi Dhir realised that her true passion lay in skincare. After spending two years researching the Indian skincare market, she found a clear gap for effective, science-backed anti-ageing skincare solutions. 

Identifying the problem statement, Dhir launched Be Clinical, a D2C science-driven skincare brand. The startup is trying to build its niche within the Indian skincare market on the back of its anti-ageing solutions. 

It recently launched its first product, PlumpX Serum, an anti-ageing formulation, designed to plump the skin by boosting volume and hydration.

Operating within India’s medicated skincare market, which was valued at $1.52 Bn in 2024, Be Clinical competes with Indian luxury skincare and wellness brands like Plum Goodness, Dot & Key and Cetaphil, just to name a few. 

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Contineu.ai | Digitising Construction From The Ground Up

Despite being one of India’s largest sectors, construction remains heavily manual and under-digitised. Paper-based workflows, fragmented communication and manual QA/QC processes often lead to project delays.

Founded in 2023 by Harshil Naik and Kanao Ramesh, Bengaluru-based Contineu.ai is building AI-powered vertical data infrastructure for the construction industry. 

Using helmet-mounted cameras and proprietary 3D computer vision models, the startup captures real-time site visuals and turns them into structured data.

Besides, its tech can automatically detect defects and track deviations with 30mm precision.

By bringing end-to-end visibility and automation to the construction industry, Contineu.ai is addressing a massive global market. With use cases spanning developers, general contractors, and project management consultants, the startup is tackling a core data challenge for every stakeholder in the construction ecosystem.

The startup has already run pilots with some of the largest construction companies in India and the US. Its long-term vision is to become the default data infrastructure layer for the global construction industry.

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ContraVault AI | Solving Post-Tender Puzzles With AI 

Winning a tender is a cause for celebration until the challenges it brings along come to the fore. Managing inefficiencies, reliance on manual effort and inherent risks often lead to substantial delays, frequent inaccuracies in evaluation and ultimately missed opportunities in procurement.

SaaS startup ContraVault AI resolves such issues by declogging the supply chain, streamlining procurements, reducing manual labour and enhancing decision-making by leveraging natural language processing and machine learning for tender and contract management.

Sayan Sen, Isha Juneja and Tanmay Juneja set up ContraVault AI in 2024 with four modules – RiskFinder for spotting risks, AI Negotiator for clause edits, document summarisation and tender synopsis, and Go/No-Go Analyser for bid qualification.

ContraVault is now looking at emerging markets, addressing language, compliance, and scale needs through AI capabilities. It has its sights set on milking a juicy pie of the $2 Bn global market opportunity.

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Dodo Payments | Gateway To Global Payments Simplified

For many Indian ecommerce, SaaS, and digital-first businesses, expanding globally is harder than it looks. Cross-border payments may present significant challenges, including setting up local entities, managing tax compliance, mitigating fraud risks, and integrating with multiple gateways. These hurdles often lead to failed transactions and lost revenue.

To make the process seamless, Ayush Agarwal and Rishabh Goel founded Dodo Payments in 2023. The startup offers a unified global payments platform that simplifies international expansion. Acting as a merchant of record (MoR), it handles local payment processing in 150+ countries across 25+ methods, while also automating billing, tax compliance, and fraud protection.

Dodo Payments’ platform is designed for solopreneurs and smaller SaaS founders.

It serves as a flexible MoR solution that streamlines billing, tax compliance, and global payments, with a primary focus on the Indian market.

As Indian businesses increasingly look to go global, the demand for streamlined, compliant and scalable payment infrastructure is growing rapidly. Dodo is aiming to be the go-to layer, powering global revenues for digital businesses, especially in sectors like SaaS and marketplaces.

Given the increasing globalisation, the global MoR software market size is estimated to become a $26.3 Bn market opportunity by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 14.59% from $13.2 Bn in 2025.

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Dream Aerospace | Propelling India’s Satellite Dreams Sustainably

Space exploration is rapidly gaining momentum in India, but one critical roadblock is cost. Propulsion systems, especially those relying on traditional rocket fuels, are expensive, hazardous, and unsustainable. For India to truly realise its spacetech ambitions, the country needs low-cost, efficient, and eco-friendly propulsion solutions built for scale.

Kanpur-based Dream Aerospace is tackling this core challenge with its indigenous, high-performance satellite propulsion systems.

Its flagship product, the ATOM Thruster, runs on non-toxic green propellants, offering greater safety, lower operational costs, and improved environmental sustainability.

Founded in 2022 by Hari Krishnan KJ and Rogith S, the startup focusses on scalable propulsion tech for CubeSats and larger satellites.

With the global satellite propulsion market expected to hit $19.74 Bn by 2028, Dream Aerospace is positioning itself as a cost-effective, local alternative to foreign tech. 

The startup is targeting both commercial and defence sectors. Plans are underway to set up in-house thruster manufacturing.

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EON Space Labs | Redefining Real-Time Earth Imaging With Mini Telescopes 

High-resolution Earth observation is crucial for defence, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring. However, most imaging payloads today are bulky, expensive, or platform-specific. This makes real-time, cross-platform surveillance across satellites, drones and ground vehicles difficult and inefficient.

Founded in 2021 by Sanjay Kumar, Punit Badeka and Manoj Kumar Gaddam, IIT Madras-incubated Eon Space Labs is building compact, interoperable optical hardware to enable precision Earth observation. 

The startup is developing satellite imaging payloads and has already integrated its flagship electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) solution with drones.

Its drone-mounted product, Lumira, functions like a miniature telescope for long-range surveillance. As of now, Eon Space Labs is working on new space imaging products, MIRA and ARGUS.

With Earth observation valued at over $3 Bn globally, along with a growing demand for real-time imaging across defence and civil sectors, Eon is positioning itself to lead India’s self-reliant optical payload ecosystem.

Armed with a war chest of $1.2 Mn, the startup plans to scale Lumira, develop more compact EO payloads, and launch satellite constellations with partners for full-stack observation capabilities.

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Fitsol | ESG Co-Pilot For Enterprises

As industries face the growing pressure to meet environmental compliance and ESG targets, tracking and reducing carbon emissions, especially Scope 3 emissions (indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur throughout a company’s value chain, remains a major challenge. 

These emissions, which fall outside direct control, often account for over 70% of a company’s total carbon footprint.

Founded in 2022, Gurugram-based Fitsol offers an AI-powered carbon management platform that helps organisations measure, report and reduce emissions across Scope 1, 2, and 3.

The platform helps companies with real-time ESG reporting, decarbonisation strategies and AI-driven recommendations to improve sustainability. It also offers a sustainability marketplace for carbon credits and eco-friendly alternatives.

Flush with $1 Mn in seed funding, Fitsol is strengthening its AI capabilities to help industries shift towards net-zero goals. It is crafting solutions that can simplify carbon tracking and reduction.

It achieves this by offering an integrated platform that combines emissions tracking, ESG compliance, and decarbonisation tools. By tackling Scope 3 emissions head-on, Fitsol addresses one of the biggest blind spots in corporate sustainability.

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Flowatt Battery Science | Building Battery Stack For EV Logistics 

India’s EV logistics sector is growing rapidly, but high battery costs and inefficient fleet operations are slowing down mass adoption, especially for small and medium operators. Besides, traditional ownership models demand heavy upfront capital, and the lack of battery-level intelligence results in underutilisation, downtime, and poor ROI.

Founded in 2024 by Siddhartha Srivastava and Vikash Singh, Flowatt Batt offers a battery-as-a-service model that removes the burden of high upfront costs. Through a flexible, pay-per-use subscription, fleet operators can access advanced batteries that come bundled with IoT-enabled tracking, remote monitoring, and predictive analytics.

The startup’s solutions provide real-time insights into fleet and rider optimisation, which helps improve uptime, usage, and route efficiency.

By combining hardware innovation with software intelligence, Flowatt Batt makes it easier for logistics fleets to scale EV adoption.  

The opportunity for EV fleets in Indian logistics is projected to cross $5 Bn by 2030. To support the growth of this market, the battery-as-a-service model is expected to play a crucial role in overcoming existing barriers, addressing high battery costs and inefficient fleet operations to accelerate mass adoption.

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Green Aero Propulsion | Building India’s First Hydrogen Jet Engine

Sectors like aviation and shipping are under pressure, with global carbon emissions touching a record 37.8 gigatonnes last year.

Imperative to mention that these industries together account for nearly 10% of total emissions. But their deep dependence on fossil fuels and legacy propulsion systems makes decarbonisation extremely challenging.

Founded in 2023 by Prithwish Kundu and Anushila Chatterjee, Green Aero Propulsion is addressing this challenge by developing hydrogen-based propulsion systems and advanced gas turbines.

The IIT Delhi-incubated startup aims to replace traditional fossil-fuel engines with cleaner, high-efficiency alternatives for both energy and defence applications.

In May 2025, the startup successfully demonstrated its first hydrogen-powered jet engine, The Blue Dragon.

Green Aero Propulsion is building for industries like defence and transportation, where the demand for low-emission, high-performance propulsion tech is rising fast. Its work aligns with global efforts to decarbonise aviation and strengthen India’s defence innovation roadmap.

The startup is also developing next-generation propulsion systems with long-term national security and sustainability implications.

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Hunar.ai | Rethinking Blue-Collar Hiring

Despite India’s surplus labour pool, enterprises often struggle to fill frontline roles at scale. During their time at automation company Locus, Krishna Khandelwal and Shantanu Bhattacharyya noticed this gap. The issue wasn’t availability, it was the lack of a reliable, scalable system to hire efficiently in a low-trust, fragmented recruitment ecosystem.

In 2022, the duo launched Hunar.ai to fix hiring for frontline jobs using automation and AI. They built an AI-powered recruitment platform tailored for high-volume hiring across sectors such as logistics, retail and manufacturing.

The startup works on a services model with its enterprise clients, offering subscription plans (monthly/quarterly/yearly), per-hire charges for outcome-linked billing and custom contracts for large-volume recruitment.

The SaaS platform helps HR teams source, screen, assess, and onboard candidates without relying on third-party vendors.

Its AI voice bot “Neha” and multilingual chatbots manage candidate engagement across languages, regions, and roles.

With over 30 enterprise customers, the startup claims to have automated 50% of its frontline hiring processes. Despite India’s frontline workforce exceeding 60 Cr, tech adoption in this segment remains minimal, giving rise to a huge market for companies like Hunar.ai.

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MedVital | Delivering Tech-First Care For Chronic Wounds

Chronic wounds caused by diabetes, ageing, obesity or trauma are a growing but often overlooked health crisis in India. Without proper care, these can lead to long-term disability, sepsis, or diabetic amputations. Yet, access to advanced wound care is limited, especially outside metro cities, due to a fragmented healthcare system and a lack of infrastructure.

To tackle the wound care gap with technology-led solutions, pharmacologist Dr Varun Gupta and former Pristyn Care VP Tarun Bansal founded MedVital in 2024

Their flagship product, NoWound, is a negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) device that enables precision-controlled healing of chronic wounds. It’s designed for use across hospitals, clinics and even home settings.

Besides, MedVital is building a full-stack platform that brings together medical devices, monitoring tools, and biomaterials to improve the way complex wounds are managed and treated.

The Indian wound care market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.4% to reach $1.8 Bn by 2033. In this growing market, MedVital competes with companies like Axio, FibroHeal, Serigen, Inochi Care, and Crimson Healthcare.

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Misfits | Building Offline Clubs For Urban Loners

Sometimes, even with a wide social circle, you may still feel disconnected, especially when you do not have many people who share similar interests or hobbies. 

While platforms exist for events or dating, there’s no easy way to build real social connections around hobbies.

That’s where Misfits comes in. Founded in 2023 by IIT-Kanpur batchmates Shashwat Narhatiyar and Saurabh Sharma, the Delhi NCR-based startup is building a community-led hobby group marketplace that helps people find their tribe in a new city.

Misfits connects over 25,000 members in Gurugram across 15 hobby clubs, including basketball, dance, board games, music, and cricket. Each club is led by a dedicated organiser who hosts weekly meetups at pre-selected venues. So far, the startup has facilitated over 3,000 meetups.

With a strong base in Gurugram and INR 5 Cr in seed funding from Info Edge Ventures and Better Capital, Misfits is now expanding across Delhi NCR to become India’s go-to app for hobby-based connections.

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NapTapGo | Disrupting India’s Budget Hospitality Market

India’s growing travel and gig economy continues to fuel demand for affordable, hygienic and flexible accommodations, especially in urban and transit-heavy zones. However, the hospitality market still lacks high-density, privacy-focussed lodging options at scale. This leaves budget-conscious travellers, students, solo workers, and pilgrims underserved.

In 2023, Nitin Malhotra and Himanshu Shukla founded NapTapGo to bring a new category to India’s hospitality space — capsule hotels, modelled after Japan’s pod hotels.

Their launch properties (30-bed setups on just 300 sq m) in Noida and Amritsar serve as proof-of-concept for high-repeat, low-CAPEX lodging.

With nightly rates starting as low as INR 500 and a strong focus on privacy, hygiene, and convenience, NapTapGo claims a 35% monthly repeat customer rate.

The startup earns through hourly and nightly stay revenue in its pods and pod rooms. Users can book their stays directly via NapTapGo’s website or through popular travel aggregators like Goibibo and Travelpedia.

Backed by strong early traction, NapTapGo plans to launch capsule hotels in Mumbai, Gurugram, Udaipur, and Banaras by the end of this year.

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Outzidr | India’s Answer To Shein & Zara

India’s $28.8 Bn women’s apparel market is evolving fast, with Gen Z women driving a new wave of demand for affordable, trendy, and expressive fashion. This group now accounts for 20–25% of the online fashion segment and is shaping the next big opportunity in ecommerce.

Tapping into this trend, Nirmal Jain, Mani Kant Mani and Justin Mario launched Outzidr, a Gen Z-focussed D2C fashion brand in 2024. Inspired by fast-fashion giants like Shein and Zara, Outzidr follows a “test-and-react” model. The startup launches new styles in small batches, tracking demand in real time and scaling only the designs that resonate with its customers.

The brand offers stylish western wear tailored for young women seeking trend-driven yet affordable outfits.

Since its platform went live in February, Outzidr has seen early traction and aims to hit INR 100 Cr in ARR within 6-8 months.

Backed by a seed war chest of $3.5 Mn, the startup is now looking to scale fast in a growing market projected to reach $45.5 Bn by 2032.

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ParvAI Labs | Transforming Human-Machine Interaction With Vision Intelligence

Founded in 2022, ParvAI Labs is an IIT Madras-incubated startup that is working at the intersection of precision hardware and customised software analytics through its patented, AI-powered eye-tracking and vision analytics technology.

Its proprietary eye-tracking mechanism enables highly accurate monitoring of eye movements, generating AI-based insights on fatigue, attention and engagement.

The startup was cofounded by Professor Rajagopalan Srinivasan of IIT Madras, who also leads the institute’s Data Analytics, Risk & Technology (DART) Lab.

ParvAI’s solutions are designed for critical, high-performance sectors such as aviation, defence, logistics, and industrial operations, where monitoring human focus and performance is essential for improving safety, efficiency and decision-making.

The startup’s tech is already being used by DRDO, Pfizer, BARC, FedEx, and ISRO. Its platform delivers real-time insights that help reduce operational errors and optimise workflows.

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Pronto | 10-Minute On-Demand Home Services

With the rapid growth of quick commerce redefining consumer expectations, it was only a matter of time before the 10-minute delivery model expanded beyond groceries. Urban Company has already entered the space with Insta Help, offering on-demand house help within 15 minutes.

Riding this trend, ex-Bain Capital private equity investor Anjali Sardana founded Pronto, a 10-minute on-demand home services startup. Incorporated in October 2024, the app officially launched in April 2025.

Pronto allows users to book instant, scheduled, or recurring household services such as cleaning, laundry, or even vegetable chopping.

Since its launch, Pronto claims to have serviced over 500 homes in Gurugram, where it currently operates. 

Backed by $2 Mn in seed funding from Bain Capital, the startup plans to deepen its footprint in the city by setting up 10 local hubs and hiring 700 service professionals. Shortly after announcing its maiden fundraise, Inc42 learnt that the startup is now seeking to raise about $12 Mn in Series A funding. 

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ReelSaga | Bite-Sized Soap Operas

With Indians spending hours watching 10-15 second reels, traditional long-form content like daily soaps has faded into the background. But there’s a new twist that might just bring back stories worth bingeing on.

Inspired by the microdrama boom in China, Shubh Bansal, Shanu Vivek and Ritesh Pandey founded ReelSaga in 2024 as one of India’s earliest mobile-first platforms for short-form, vertically shot dramas.

These microdramas, or bite-sized episodes of 20–30 seconds each, are designed for today’s audience. With a booming smartphone base of 700 M+ users and growing fatigue around long episodes, ReelSaga is betting on this mobile-first format to redefine storytelling.

The startup produces and distributes original microdramas across India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Revenue experiments are underway across multiple channels, including ads, subscriptions, micro-transactions, brand integrations, and content licensing.

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Rimigo | AI-Powered Travel Assistant 

Planning an international holiday can feel overwhelming due to the abundance of information and numerous choices. This is exactly what Bengaluru-based Rimigo is trying to fix.

Founded in 2024 by Sahil Sharma, Shubham Chintalwar and Aditya Shirole, Rimigo positions itself as a digital travel friend, offering an AI-powered platform that crafts personalised, end-to-end travel itineraries based on individual preferences.

Targeting India’s fast-growing online travel market, estimated at $19.1 Bn in 2025 and projected to reach $31.4 Bn by 2030, Rimigo is focussed on delivering a more seamless travel planning experience.

Along with customised itineraries, Rimigo also suggests flights, hotels, dining options and activities. The startup claims to be enjoying strong traction in the beta phase itself. Once fully launched, Rimigo plans to expand its product offerings, grow its travel tech team and strengthen AI capabilities to capture a meaningful share of the global travel planning space.

While Rimigo claims to differentiate itself from other OTAs on the back of the curated recommendations it provides to its users, its business model closely resembles Tripadvisor, Trip Planner AI and Pickyourtrail.

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Salt Oral Care | Cleaning Up India’s Oral Care Market

Founded in 2022 by actor Karan Raj Kohli and producer Viraj Kapur, Salt Oral Care is carving a niche in India’s premium oral wellness market, expected to reach $3.2 Bn by 2033.

Most oral care products in India rely heavily on plastic, especially toothpaste tubes, which add to the growing landfill crisis. Salt Oral Care is tackling this by offering products packaged in eco-friendly materials like aluminium tubes and glass bottles.

Positioned as a luxury, science-led oral wellness brand, the Mumbai-based D2C brand offers a clean and conscious alternative for modern consumers. Its product line includes toothpastes, mouthwashes, electric brushes, and mouth sprays.  

It claims to be manufacturing its oral care portfolio by adhering to ethical sourcing, strict quality control protocols, high-quality ingredients, advanced machinery and ensuring implementation of safety protocols. 

Backed by strong customer retention and traction, the brand also claims to have clocked a 448% YoY revenue growth in FY25.

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Sammmm | Making Self-Care Cool For Gen Z

For most teenagers, adopting a self-care routine can feel more like a chore than a choice.

This was obvious when ex-Nykaa VP Mantosh Roy was having a conversation with his daughter about how she perceives self-care. 

Understanding that there is a significant gap in teen-focussed skincare market, Roy partnered with ex-Nykaa VP Rishi Seth to float Sammmm in 2024 to offer a range of teen skincare and cosmetics products, including moisturisers, cleansers, and lip tints. 

A key differentiator for the startup is its radical transparency regarding ingredients, suppliers, and clinical studies.

Its products are non-irritant, clinically tested and cruelty-free. Beyond the co-created products, Sammm’s products are priced in a range of INR 500 to about INR 1,000.

The Mumbai-based D2C brand aims to diversify its product portfolio, amplify brand visibility and establish a multi-channel footprint, all with an eye set on capturing a significant share of the underserved teen personal care market in India.

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SatLeo Labs | Thermal Imaging Satellites For Earth Intelligence

Founded in 2023 by Shravan Bhati, Urmil Bakhai and Ranendu Ghosh, SatLeo Labs is building a microsatellite constellation to capture thermal and optical imaging data from low Earth orbit.

The startup’s proprietary tech captures infrared radiation emitted by objects on Earth. This data is then used to monitor crop health, assess climate conditions, support disaster prevention and aid in defence surveillance.

SatLeo’s satellites are equipped with dual-band thermal and visible imaging systems that offer high-resolution temperature mapping, real-time data processing and AI-powered analytics to turn raw data into actionable insights

These capabilities enable applications across sectors such as agriculture, climate modelling, disaster management and urban planning.

The startup recently raised $3.3 Mn to develop its thermal imaging payload. SatLeo also claims to have secured over $25 Mn in letters of intent from prospective clients.

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Stimuler | Voice-Led English Learning

With the fall of unicorns like BYJU’S, investor and user trust in the Indian edtech ecosystem has taken a hit. Yet, some early stage startups are regaining credibility by solving real problems. One such name is Stimuler, a voice-first AI edtech startup tackling a long-standing challenge: spoken English.

Founded in 2022 by Akshay Akash, Akshat Baranwal, Ankit Kumar Pandey and Anesh Srivastav, Stimuler offers an AI-powered English speaking tutor, which has been designed to help users improve pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency, and speech confidence.

At the heart of its platform is an AI bot, Sara, that engages users in spoken conversations and provides real-time feedback. The app is built for users with basic English proficiency.

The startup has found traction globally, with users in 150+ countries, including India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. To date, Stimuler has recorded over 4 Mn app downloads and more than 45,000 paid users.

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SVASTEK | Fixing ICU Tech Gaps

Having spent over a decade working with hospitals, Aritra Abrol and Aprameya Rajput observed a significant gap in high-quality, India-made medical devices. They also found that clinicians face challenges due to inadequate solutions to meet the evolving needs of patients. 

To address this, the husband-wife duo launched SVASTEK in 2022. The startup aims to solve critical healthcare problems with its clinician-centred medical devices.

SVASTEK’s flagship product, ALLTIP NIV Mask, allows uninterrupted enteral nutrition delivery during non-invasive ventilation.

This product enhances patient comfort, supports continuous therapy and improves clinical outcomes by preventing complications associated with nutritional deprivation.

Beyond the mask, SVASTEK’s product pipeline includes solutions to optimise oxygen delivery, ventilation efficiency and a mask (patent awaited) for critically ill patients.

The startup aspires to rule the global non-invasive ventilation mask market, expected to become a $3.3 Bn opportunity by 2031.

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Uni Seoul | Korean-Inspired Products For Modern India

From appliances to foods and beverages, and from media and entertainment to fashion, Korea has invaded Indian life in a big way. But a full-scale disruption is yet to unfold, believe Gaurav Karmani and Mohit Khurana, the brains behind the lifestyle brand Uni Seoul.  

The startup aims to bring Korean traditions to India through affordable products across categories like home and living, personal care, gifting, and fashion accessories.

What inspired the founders? It’s the street culture of Seoul where luxury transforms into accessibility. The startup launched an online store in 2023 and expanded with more retail stores across Pune, Nashik and Bengaluru. 

It recently clinched INR 5 Cr in a seed round and looks to expand across the country. Uni Seoul plans to roll out its private labels shortly.

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Vaya | Astrology Gets An AI Makeover

With the Indian spiritual market expected to breach the $135 Bn mark by 2033, several startups have formed a beeline to tap into this growing demand. 

After noticing that much of the astrology market was informal, fragmented and largely offline, former Atlys executives Maahin Puri and Nitesh Kumar Niranjan set out to build Vaya, an AI-powered astrology platform that delivers on-demand Vedic consultations through a curated pool of expert astrologers.  

Vaya’s tech simplifies complex astrological calculations using AI, freeing astrologers to focus on interpretation and personalised guidance. One of its standout features is the ability to store detailed consultation history, helping astrologers develop long-term advisory relationships with users, much like a life coach or therapist.

By combining traditional astrology with modern tech, Vaya is reimagining how spiritual guidance is accessed in a digital-first world.

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Zebu | Building The Future Of Military Drone Warfare

With recent India-Pakistan clashes highlighting how future warfare will be tech-driven, the case for a stronger homegrown defence tech ecosystem has never been clearer.

Amid this shift, Chennai-based Zebu, led by Santosh Balajee, is building next-gen counter-drone and unmanned aerial systems tailored for modern combat. Founded in 2021, the startup has developed four combat-ready UAV platforms.

Among its achievements, Zebu set a Guinness World Record in 2024 for the longest drone endurance under 5kg, solidifying its innovation edge in lightweight UAVs.

The Indian armed forces have already become a major client for Zebu. Its portfolio includes a drone-neutralising system (Net Drone) used by the Indian Air Force, a sea surface combat and rescue drone developed for the Coast Guard, a swarm-enabled offensive UAV for the Air Force, and a tethered surveillance drone designed for Army border patrols.

Overall, the Indian drone market is expected to breach the $1.4 Bn mark by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 17%.

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Zenergize | Supercharging India’s EV Dreams

With a consistent government push and OEMs picking up pace, the Indian EV dream is poised to be a promising story. However, infrastructure-related issues go unaddressed. Challenges like high ambient temperatures, frequent power cuts and grid instability make reliable EV charging and renewable energy solutions tough to scale. 

Energising India’s EV dream to make it a reality was a vision shared by IIT Bombay alumni Navneet Daga, Veer Karan Goyal and Himanshu Aggarwal when they founded Zenergize in 2024. 

Their mission was simple –  create a more readily available charging alternative that would resolve the nagging environmental and grid issues like high ambient temperatures, power fluctuations and frequent power cuts.

Zenergize offers AC/DC chargers and solar inverters. The hardware, software and manufacturing are done in-house from its Himachal Pradesh hub. 

In the EV charging infrastructure market, expected to exceed $3.7 Bn by 2030, the startup claims to engineer products for India’s unique conditions — the ones that could withstand high temperatures, handle power and grid fluctuations and frequent power cuts.  

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[Edited By Shishir Parasher]