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Ola Electric Wants More Money Barely three months after its ₹780 Cr QIP, Ola Electric is back again in the market for fresh capital. The move arrives amid falling sales, a dealer-network pivot, a new energy storage business and another senior exit. Can this fresh capital reset the EV maker’s trajectory? Hungry For More Capital: Ola Electric’s board has approved a proposal to raise up to ₹1,500 Cr via equity shares or convertible securities. The fundraise is still subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. The EV maker has not specified how it will use the proceeds, but the timing suggests that financing needs remain significant as the OEM forays into new territories. The Debt Question: Borrowings continue to exert significant financial pressure on Ola Electric. Saddled with over ₹1,600 Cr in debt as of May 2026, the EV maker had to allocate a big chunk (₹225 Cr) of its recent ₹744 Cr QIP to repay existing loans. This debt load means that the newly proposed ₹1,500 Cr infusion is vital to ensure loan obligations don't stifle its aggressive push into the energy storage market. Charting A Turnaround: The fundraise also comes as Ola Electric is attempting to turn the corner via a combination of product expansion, wider distribution and tighter cost control. To curb losses and declining sales, the EV maker has launched a new scooter and energy storage. It is also planning to build a 500+ dealer network over the next two quarters, signalling a broader effort to revive demand, improve reach and rebuild investor confidence. The Leadership Test: Adding to the operational churn, chief operating officer Hyun Shik Park has resigned due to personal reasons. Meanwhile, the company’s board has re-appointed Manoj Kohli and Shradha Sharma as independent directors for second terms. As C-suite transitions unfold alongside structural shifts, can Ola Electric translate fresh funding into sustained market dominance? Let’s find out… From The Editor’s Desk 📉 Weekly Funding Rundown Indian startups raised a combined $176.5 Mn across 22 deals last week, down 16% from the $210.3 Mn across 23 transactions in the preceding week. Ultrahuman and Yuma Energy bagged the biggest cheques at $70 Mn and $35 Mn, respectively. Healthtech emerged as the most funded sector last week as four startups secured a combined $74.5 Mn. Cleantech raked up the biggest number of deals, with five startups raising $46.3 Mn last week. Early-stage funding saw healthy traction as six startups collectively secured around $12 Mn across seed, pre-seed and pre-Series A rounds. Equentis and Info Edge Ventures remained the most active backers, backing two startups each. 💊 Zeelab’s Affordable Pharma Play Founded over six years ago, the epharmacy started with one store in Delhi to cut pharma middlemen. It has since scaled to 300+ company-owned outlets, nearly 10,000 daily orders and an operating revenue of about ₹110 Cr in FY26. Zeelab’s core pitch is structural affordability. It claims to sell equivalent formulations at 50–90% lower prices than branded MRPs, positioning itself against both private pharmacies and the government’s Jan Aushadhi generic network. On the back of its micro-market strategy and using its offline stores as dark stores, the startup is targeting ₹200 Cr in revenue in FY27. It also plans to scale its daily online orders to 15,000 and offline orders to 35,000 in the next six months. 🎓 NoPaperForms Files UDRHP The SaaS startup has filed its updated draft red herring prospectus with SEBI. The IPO will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth ₹375 Cr and an OFS component of up to 3.8 Cr equity shares, which will only see participation from Info Edge. Founded in 2017, NoPaperForms offers two products. While Meritto offers SaaS-based enrolment automation and CRM tools for educational institutions, Collexo enables fee-collection and payments-related solutions. It claims to cater to 1,183 clients. On the financial front, NoPaperForms’s operating revenue rose 25.2% YoY to ₹115.6 Cr in FY26, while net profits surged 534% YoY to ₹11.9 Cr in the fiscal under review. 📊 Bearish Week For Startup Stocks Rising crude oil prices and geopolitical tensions weighed on investor sentiment last week. Of the 62 listed new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage, 26 gained between 0.03% and 13% last week. The remaining 36 declined by up to 15%. Klassroom and ArisInfra emerged as the biggest losers, while Yudiz and Shiprocket gained the most. The combined market cap of the 63 new-age tech companies, including ESDS that listed last week, stood at $170.50 Bn. Industry watchers expect markets to remain sensitive to crude prices, geopolitical developments and global monetary policy. They also caution that rising global bond yields could limit sustained FPI inflows in the coming week. 💰 Mokobara Bags ₹170 Cr The D2C luggage brand has raised around $18 Mn in a Series C round, which saw participation from Sauce.vc, Peak XV Partners and AYRA Ventures. Sauce.vc led the round with a ₹109 Cr infusion in its startup. Founded in 2019, Mokobara sells a range of luggages, travel bags, wallets and kits on its website and online marketplaces. It also operates about 50 stores across India and the UAE. The fundraise comes as India’s luggage market is witnessing strong growth, driven by rising travel, premiumisation and a shift towards branded products. The homegrown luggage industry is projected to become a ₹26,700 Cr opportunity by 2028. 🗄️ TCS To Build A New Data Centre The IT giant’s data centre subsidiary, HyperVault, and its partners will invest up to ₹70,000 Cr to build and operate a large-scale AI data centre campus in Hyderabad, with a capacity of up to 1 GW capacity. TCS said that it has secured 264 acres of land in Hyderabad to develop the facility. Once completed, the campus will offer high-density, liquid-cooled compute workloads for frontier AI companies and hyperscalers. Established last year, HyperVault has been envisaged with building AI-focussed data centres across India. TCS, along with TPG, plans to invest up to ₹18,000 Cr over the next few years to scale the subsidiary. Inc42 Markets Inc42 Startup Spotlight Building Autonomous Systems For The Indian Army Modern warfare is shifting to autonomous systems that can surveil, strike and operate where risking human personnel is difficult. Auxobit Aerospace is building exactly this: a portfolio of drones, surface vehicles and counter-drone systems for India’s defence forces. Auxobit’s Unmanned Stack: Founded in 2023, Auxobit develops unmanned systems across air, surface and sub-surface domains. Its lineup includes a swarm-enabled aerial platform for tactical payload delivery called Hell Fire, an autonomous surface vehicle for hydrographic and bathymetric surveys named Mystic One, and other autonomous aerial platforms. The Shield In The Sky: The startup claims that it is building capabilities in loitering-munition swarms, weapon-mounted airborne systems, unmanned single-rotor helicopters, underwater rovers and counter-UAV systems. It has showcased its products in military exercises and caters to the Indian armed forces. Riding The Defence Wave: Auxobit is entering a competitive field that includes ideaForge, Raphe mPhibr and Garuda Aerospace. However, it differentiates from rivals with a broader focus across aerial, surface and autonomous defence systems. As defence budgets tilt towards networked systems and regulatory push for indigenous technologies, can Auxobit make India’s defence stack autonomous? Infographic Of The Day Beyond helming Zerodha, there’s another side to Nithin Kamath as well. From CRED and Licious to Infra.Market and Nazara, the Zerodha cofounder has built a rather interesting startup portfolio. Here is all about it…
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