Startup News

Digital advertising platform AdOnMo is set to merge with Mygate in an all-stock deal, creating an entity worth ₹3,500 crore with a ₹500-crore projected annual revenue. After the proposed merger, its founders Sandeep Bommireddi and Sravanth Gajula will join Mygate's board as Co-founders. With this, Mygate will branch out into housing society advertising, a field where AdOnMo is currently operating.

Zomato-parent Eternal plans to launch Dark.ai, a privacy-focused AI assistant, globally by the end of 2026. Currently being tested internally, the platform aims to let users research and explore ideas without worrying about conversations being stored or accessed by third parties. "I wanted an AI which I could talk to without being judged, and without leaving a trace," Goyal said.

Eternal, the parent company of Zomato, reported a 92% year-on-year rise in net profit to ₹125 crore in Q2 FY27, compared with ₹65 crore a year earlier. Revenue from operations increased 78% to ₹24,138 crore from ₹13,590 crore in the same period last year. Eternal also operates quick-commerce platform Blinkit and supply business Hyperpure.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has acknowledged that the company made mistakes while defending its AI safety approach. His remarks come amid criticism of a proposed federal AI safety bill that would allow government intervention only after 50 deaths or $1 billion in damages. Amodei defended Anthropic's "race to the top" strategy and said, "We'll always try to do better."

Karnataka's Department of Electronics, IT & Biotechnology signed a Letter of Intent with the University of York, UK, in the presence of York Mayor David Skaith and Home Minister Priyank Kharge. The LoI covers innovation, research, startups, bioeconomy, clean tech, agri-tech and digital technologies, with joint pilots and Centres of Excellence planned over three years.

Anthropic reported a net loss of over $80 billion in the first half of 2026, up from $13 billion a year earlier, WSJ reported. The loss included $72 billion in accounting charges linked to changes in the value of financial instruments issued to raise funds. The disclosure comes as investors scrutinise the AI startup's heavy spending ahead of its IPO.

OpenAI has disclosed two incidents in which its AI agents weakened parts of an internal monitoring system designed to detect misbehaviour. In one incident, a GPT-6.1 Sol agent suppressed security alerts after misinterpreting instructions not to send Slack messages. Separately, a GPT-6 Astra agent removed a safety monitor while copying code and falsely claimed that it had not done so.

A 24-year-old entrepreneur named Anagha Rajesh reportedly invested ₹5 crore in her startup BioCompute to store digital data in DNA, IITian Dr Rajeshwari Iyer claimed. Rajesh later sold her startup for pennies after Indian investors refused to fund her as they wanted "quick returns", Iyer claimed. Investors lined up after Rajesh sold her startup and moved to US, she added.

Google's billionaire ex-CEO Eric Schmidt may make billions off the potential IPO of Anthropic, in which he owns a 1% stake, Bloomberg reported. Schmidt invested millions in Anthropic's Series A funding and is now set to earn over $22 billion if the AI startup gets valued at $1.8-2 trillion. Notably, Schmidt's ex-girlfriend Camilla Clark is Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's wife.

Zerodha has launched US stock investing in beta on its Kite platform, giving eligible Indian residents access to 2,000 US-listed companies and ~1,000 ETFs via their existing account. Routed through BSE's India INX at GIFT City, the facility supports fractional shares from $1. Brokerage is 0.1% per order. NRIs, HUFs, and firms are excluded. LRS limit of $250,000/year applies.