Discounts galore at qcomm; VCs pick AI developers

Happy Tuesday! Quick commerce apps are turning up the discount dial this festive season in a bid to hold on to customers. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ PixelSky’s first close
■ Captain Fresh IPO
■ Beyond Appliances fundraise

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Quick commerce platforms are waving their discount banners vigorously this festive season to catch the buyers’ eyes, even at the cost of profits.

Driving the news: Discounts are everywhere, with some platforms offering as much as 30% higher price cuts than last year.

• Select categories, like ethnic apparel, dry fruits and chocolate gift boxes, and lower-value consumer electronics, even have discounts up to 70%.
• These discounts are over and above what brands are offering on their products.

Quote to note: “Improved consumer sentiment and intense platform rivalry are translating into higher discounts and promotions,” said Mayank Shah, VP at Parle Products.


Reality check: The freebies come at a cost. Swiggy’s April–June net loss doubled to Rs 1,197 crore, largely due to quick commerce, while Eternal’s profit plunged to Rs 25 crore from Rs 251 crore a year ago amid fierce competition in the sector.

“It’s important to not miss out on any opportunity to boost sales during this [festive] period,” a quick commerce executive told us.

Also Read: D2C brands lining up to list on quick commerce platforms in festive season

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Venture capital funds have a new favourite: early-stage artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem in India. Focus is on developer tools and infrastructure segments as enterprise adoption of AI accelerates and agentic platforms gain momentum.

State of play: Leading investors, like Accel, Lightspeed, Elevation Capital, and WestBridge Capital, are backing startups focused on AI-led software integration, DevOps automation, and large-scale adoption platforms.


Big fundraises:

• UnifyApps:$20–25 million.
• Emergent AI: $20 million.
• Composio: $25 million.
• Refold AI: out of stealth after $6.5 million seed round.
• CodeKarma: $2.5 million.

Number wise: Indian GenAI startups raised $524 million in the first seven months of 2025, as per Venture Intelligence, the highest in five years. The space saw investments of $475 million in 2024 and $129 million in 2021.

Globally, GenAI startups raised $49.2 billion in the first half of 2025, up from $44.2 billion last year, per consultancy firm EY.

Founders’ speak: Coding agents or domain-specific agents are getting funded because investors believe they have a clear path to scale, one founder told us. But globally, most of the money is going into the foundational layer, he added.

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Buckle up, Bengaluru! The fourth edition of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 is here. And it gets better. DK Shivakumar, Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, will set the tone for the day with his inaugural address and unveil the Economic Times Top Soonicorns and Minicorns of Karnataka | Priority Sectors 2025 report, in collaboration with Research Partner Tracxn.

The report charts Karnataka’s dual-speed innovation economy—from Bengaluru’s $48.2 billion funding inflows since 2020 to the promising rise of “Beyond Bengaluru” hubs such as Mysuru, Manipal, and Dharwad. Adding intrigue and depth to the programme, three exclusive closed-door roundtables will convene Karnataka’s soonicorns and minicorns to explore:

• Building Industrial India 2.0: Technology Infrastructure for Health, Manufacturing & Agriculture
• Scaling the Cross-Border Strategy: What Global Ambition Actually Looks Like for Indian Startups
• The Founder’s Dilemma: Can You Chase Unicorn Dreams Without Bleeding Cash?

Join us on August 22 in Bengaluru as Karnataka’s next chapter of startup ambition unfolds.

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Zerin Rahiman, cofounder, IndigoEdge & Hitesh Ahuja, managing partner, PixelSky Capital

PixelSky Capital, a secondaries-focused fund, has raised Rs 150 crore for its first close and is targeting a Rs 400 crore corpus, people familiar told us.

Who’s behind it: PixelSky is backed by boutique investment bank IndigoEdge and Yumlane founder Hitesh Ahuja. It has already deployed capital into beauty platform Purplle and logistics firm Porter, investing around Rs 40-45 crore in each at a $1-billion (around Rs 8,700 crore) valuation.

Road ahead: The fund aims to pick secondary stakes in at least three more late-stage startups that could go public in 2026 or 2027. The fund is targeting companies valued anywhere between $300 million and $1.5 billion, a person familiar with the developments told us.

Next bets: Plans to pick secondary stakes in at least three late-stage startups eyeing IPOs by 2026-27, in the $300 million to $1.5 billion valuation range.

Big picture: India’s secondary market is heating up.

• Former Peak XV Partners managing director Piyush Gupta launched Kenro Capital in November.
• Oister Global teamed up with Silicon Valley investor Tribe Capital to launch a $500-million secondaries-focused fund in September last year.
• Investors point to an opportunity of $20 billion for secondary transactions, where early investors, angels and Esop pools are looking for liquidity.

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Captain Fresh gears up for IPO: The packaged seafood company will raise Rs 1,700 crore through a fresh issue of shares in its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), showed filings to the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Beyond Appliances raises funds for manufacturing expansion: The kitchen appliances startup raised $4 million in a funding round led by existing investor early-stage venture fund Fireside Ventures.

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