• Startup Pulse
    EloElo Group raises $80 million in a Series C round led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal, with MIT Investment Co. and existing investors participating. Peppermint Robotics raises ₹100 crore (approximately $10.5 million) in a Pre-Series B round led by pi Ventures and Crane Venture Partners, with Asiana Fund participating. Traversal raises $120 million in a Series B round at a $1 billion valuation, led by Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint and Khosla Ventures, with Sequoia Capital, Battery Ventures and Amex Ventures participating. GIVA raises over $100 million in a round led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management. The Croffle Guys raises ₹14 crore in a round led by V3 Ventures, with N.A.N Partners participating. Solgram raises over $1 million in a pre-seed round led by DSG Consumer Partners and Saama Capital, with Kapil Chopra participating. Sachin Tendulkar makes a strategic investment in Metasports Interactive, the company behind Hitwicket. The amount was not disclosed. Hyeglo Beauty raises ₹7 crore in a round led by Sauce, with Giga Capital, Consumer Collective, Reckitt's Arjun Purkayastha and The Patient Capital participating. Unify Foodworks raises ₹5 crore in seed funding through convertible debentures from Atrium Ventures, SailThru Ventures, Arjun Vaidya and Abhishek Goyal. OBSESS raises approximately ₹3 crore in an angel round from Pushpendra Singh, Amit Goel and Harshit Vij. EloElo Group raises $80 million in a Series C round led by Hornbill Capital and NBCUniversal, with MIT Investment Co. and existing investors participating. Peppermint Robotics raises ₹100 crore (approximately $10.5 million) in a Pre-Series B round led by pi Ventures and Crane Venture Partners, with Asiana Fund participating. Traversal raises $120 million in a Series B round at a $1 billion valuation, led by Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint and Khosla Ventures, with Sequoia Capital, Battery Ventures and Amex Ventures participating. GIVA raises over $100 million in a round led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management. The Croffle Guys raises ₹14 crore in a round led by V3 Ventures, with N.A.N Partners participating. Solgram raises over $1 million in a pre-seed round led by DSG Consumer Partners and Saama Capital, with Kapil Chopra participating. Sachin Tendulkar makes a strategic investment in Metasports Interactive, the company behind Hitwicket. The amount was not disclosed. Hyeglo Beauty raises ₹7 crore in a round led by Sauce, with Giga Capital, Consumer Collective, Reckitt's Arjun Purkayastha and The Patient Capital participating. Unify Foodworks raises ₹5 crore in seed funding through convertible debentures from Atrium Ventures, SailThru Ventures, Arjun Vaidya and Abhishek Goyal. OBSESS raises approximately ₹3 crore in an angel round from Pushpendra Singh, Amit Goel and Harshit Vij.
  • Glance AI Redefines E-Commerce with AI-Native Platform for Hyper-Real Visual Shopping

    Glance AI

    Pune: In a bold leap forward for AI-powered commerce, Glance AI, the latest innovation from consumer tech leader Glance (a subsidiary of InMobi and backed by Google), has officially launched worldwide.

    Built on proprietary AI architecture, Glance AI is redefining how consumers discover and shop by merging deep commerce intelligence with hyper-realistic, personalized visualization.

    Designed to replace traditional product search with AI-led inspiration, the platform invites users to upload a selfie or photo, and instantly receive AI-curated looks tailored to their body, style, skin tone, and preferences.

    By harnessing advanced diffusion models and neural visualization, Glance AI transforms e-commerce into a deeply immersive, visual-first experience.

    “The internet is evolving from curated feeds to AI-generated realities,” said Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of InMobi and Glance. “With Glance AI, we’re introducing the future of AI-native commerce—where intent is replaced by intelligent inspiration, and search gives way to autonomous agents. This is one of our most ambitious technological initiatives yet.”

    Glance AI: AI That Understands and Anticipates the Consumer

    At its core, Glance AI runs on a powerful three-layered AI engine:

    • Commerce Intelligence Model: Trained on 20+ years of global commerce data, this layer predicts trends, behavior, and user preferences.
    • GenAI Experience Model: Simulates hyper-realistic try-ons, factoring in variables like gender, fit, ethnicity, season, and style.
    • Transaction Journey Model: An intelligent agent that understands shopping intent before it’s expressed, mapping AI-generated looks to actual products from a catalog of over 400 global brands.

    The app is currently focused on fashion, with planned expansion into beauty, accessories, and travel. It is already integrated with Google’s Gemini and Imagen via Vertex AI, enabling hyper-personalized, photorealistic experiences. Importantly, Glance AI is fully opt-in, with strong emphasis on privacy, data ownership, and user control.

    Beyond the App: AI-Powered Ecosystem

    Unlike conventional platforms, Glance AI is built on an open architecture that enables seamless integration with mobile phones, smart TVs, brand websites, and third-party apps. This means the platform is not just an app—it’s an AI-native ecosystem, turning devices into commerce engines and enabling always-on visual shopping.

    In early U.S. trials, the platform has already achieved remarkable traction:

    • Over 1.5 million active users in just weeks
    • 40+ million personalized style requests
    • 50% of users download or share their looks
    • 40% begin shopping journeys after visual discovery

    These results highlight the platform’s potential to become the new standard in immersive, visual-first, AI-powered commerce.

    Author

    • Salil Urunkar

      Salil Urunkar is a senior journalist and the editorial mind behind Sahyadri Startups. With years of experience covering Pune’s entrepreneurial rise, he’s passionate about telling the real stories of founders, disruptors, and game-changers.

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