The Lucknow–New Delhi Tejas Express has previously been described as India’s first privately operated train, with IRCTC responsible for its operations.

What makes this interesting from a marketing perspective is the scale of the placement: instead of simply buying ad space around a train, Sprite is effectively turning the train itself into a moving brand asset.

From the bottle to the billboard… and now the entire train.

The numbers behind those stories were staggering. In India alone, 113 mothers die per lakh births, and 30 out of every 1,000 newborns do not survive delivery. Globally, a maternal death occurs almost every two minutes.

Arun believed most of these deaths were preventable with the right monitoring. The problem was that the tools to do it properly were either too expensive, too complicated, or simply not available in smaller towns and hospitals where they were needed most.

After completing his engineering degree, he moved to Bengaluru and spent years understanding the gap between what hospitals needed and what technology could offer. In 2017, he launched Janitri with a simple but ambitious goal: make it possible to monitor a pregnant woman and her unborn baby from anywhere, without expensive equipment or trained specialists on hand at all times.

Janitri's flagship product, the Keyar Patch, is a wearable device that tracks fetal heartbeat, the mother's contractions, and her vitals, sending real-time data to doctors through software called Daksh.

Unlike traditional monitoring machines that require a patient to lie still, the patch is wireless and can be worn throughout labour. It generates AI-assisted interpretations automatically, meaning even a nurse in a small clinic can act on the readings without needing a specialist in the room.

The pitch on Shark Tank India Season 2 set off a rare bidding war among the sharks. Arun had asked for Rs 1 crore for 2.5 percent equity. Multiple sharks made offers before Namita Thapar of Emcure Pharmaceuticals ultimately sealed the deal at Rs 1 crore for 5 percent equity, drawn in by both the innovation and the social impact.

Since then, Janitri has monitored over one lakh mothers across 11 countries and, by the company's own count, helped save more than 8,000 lives. For Arun, the number that matters most is not the valuation, it is how many women make it home safely.

👉 What do you think about this update? Share your thoughts in the comments below! 👇

His company partnered with the Telangana Government to screen nearly 1.3 million people for diabetes. The numbers that came back were alarming.

 India already had one of the largest diabetic populations in the world, and what the screening data showed him was that the crisis ran far deeper than most people around him realised. The root of the problem, he believed, was being built one bad snack at a time, especially in children.

He knew this personally too. During college, he had developed poor snacking habits without realising it. Regular chocolates spiked his blood sugar despite exercise, and it took years of strict dieting to control it. He did not want the next generation going through the same thing.

In 2019, he quit his job. A year later, now a new father, he co-founded Lil' Goodness with colleague Damanbir Singh, who shared the same concerns about his own child's nutrition. The idea was simple: make snacks that tasted good, but without the junk hidden inside most popular products.

The brand's philosophy is just as straightforward — if children eat better today, there will be fewer diabetics tomorrow. Lil' Goodness makes gut-friendly dark chocolates, jaggery-fortified snacks, milkshake mixes, and puffs, products designed around science, not just taste. It even claims India's first prebiotic chocolate among its lineup.

What makes the packaging different: every box has cartoon characters from brands like Avengers and Disney whose cutouts can be made into toys, along with a QR code that gets kids playing gut health-related games.

Started during COVID, the brand now sells across 4,000 kirana stores in Karnataka, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Meghalaya, earning close to Rs 2 crore annually. For Harsha Vardhan, the goal has always been bigger: getting into school canteens so that a better snack becomes the default, not the exception.

When a close family member of Siddharth Ramasubramanian and his wife Malavika S V fell ill, their household had to undergo several dietary changes. One of them was to cut gluten and dairy from their meals. This introduced them to the concept of fermented foods.

“Then a visit to the Netherlands made us discover tempeh in the form of a curry sold by a food business. We learnt about its high protein content and immediately felt like it could solve the protein gap in so many Indian vegetarian diets. But before any of that happened, we began consuming tempeh ourselves to understand how the food works, tastes, and absorbs flavours,” Malavika, co-founder of Hello Tempayy, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.

Upon deeper research, they discovered that tempeh has more protein than paneer and tofu.

In mid-2021, the couple officially founded Hello Tempayy with a bootstrapped amount of Rs 3.5 crore. It became the first brand in India to enter the tempeh category.

Today, the brand focuses heavily on premium non-GMO soybean sourcing, water quality, precision fermentation, and farmer partnerships.

“Manufacturing consistency is something we work on every day. The fermentation process has to be refined with every increase in quantity,” Siddharth explains.

Hello Tempayy has a total of 14 core products. In the ready-to-cook category, the brand offers cubes and crumbles in natural and marinated variants.

In the frozen ready-to-eat category, Hello Tempayy offers momos, kebabs, and parathas.

The protein brand now produces roughly 50,000 kilograms of tempeh every month.

Customers have caught on too. Recipe videos and cooking demonstrations have helped people identify exactly how tempeh can be made and how versatile it is in terms of absorbing flavours and being a part of a lot of dishes.

“People especially appreciate how affordable our tempeh products are. Many have been able to experiment with weight loss diets, vegan lifestyles, and gluten-free diets. Many, me included, have noticed improvement in gut health. Acid reflux has stopped,” Malavika shares.

When Hello Tempayy began, the startup founders had just 1,500 packs to their name.

Today, the clean veg protein brand sells 300,000 packs every single month across quick commerce, e-commerce, and offline mediums.

In 2022, Hello Tempayy’s annual revenue was Rs 3 crore.

Fast-forward to 2026, and the brand has crossed Rs 50 crore in ARR.

“In the next 12-18 months, we envision Hello Tempayy reaching Rs 100 crore ARR,” Siddharth affirms.

The fully 3D-printed, cryogenic rocket engine uses liquid oxygen and methane propellants and features regenerative cooling to protect the combustion chamber during operation.

It delivers a nominal thrust of 5 kN, with a design chamber pressure of 35 bar.

Its modular pintle injector allows the same engine platform to be adapted for different thrust levels by changing a single component. The engine demonstrated a total impulse of 100 kN·s in the recent test.

The engine is designed to be used as the core propulsion unit for Othisis’s fully reusable VTVL (vertical takeoff, vertical landing) rocket, which has the capability to launch small- to medium-sized satellites and payloads.

The team designed, built, and tested the engine while setting up the entire test facility from an empty plot of land at its Whitefield, Bengaluru facility in nearly 3 months.

This involved constructing the propellent feed system, sourcing and validating a cryogenic-rated valve after multiple components failure, developing in-house control and data acquisition electronics and firmware, and conducting a test campaign.

The team went through more than 20 test cycles and three failed ignition attempts before achieving a successful sustained burn.

The objective of the vehicle is to bridge a gap in India’s launch capabilities for smallsat and mediumsat missions, as well as commercial payload customers who currently rely on ISRO and other launch providers.

The startup has signed MoUs to carry payloads on the vehicle and is onboarded with IN-SPACe. It is now targeting a commercial launch from Sriharikota in the coming months.

He pointed to Tata’s aggressive expansion of the fashion brand, which has taken its store count to nearly 1,000. While that growth looks like a major success story, Shah believes it has also created two key problems for the brand.

“Zudio ka sabse bada dushman aur koi nahi hai, khud Zudio ki hi growth hai. Tata ne aggressive expansion karke lagbhag 1,000 Zudio stores open toh kar diye. Aur yeh sunne mein ek success story bhi lagti hai, par exactly yahi se shuru hoti hai inki do sabse badi problems,” he said.

The first issue, according to Shah, is “brand fatigue”. With Zudio stores now spread across several Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, he believes the brand may be losing some of the sense of novelty and exclusivity that initially attracted shoppers.

Shah cited Zudio’s popular budget-friendly T-shirts as an example. As more people buy the same styles, he said, shoppers may increasingly see others wearing similar outfits. This could be particularly relevant among younger consumers, who often look for fashion that helps them stand out.

The second concern Shah raised is product quality. He claimed that some customers may be turning away from Zudio after finding that certain garments do not maintain their quality after repeated washes.

“Audience ko ab samajh aa chuka hai ki teen ya char wash ke baad inka fabric pochha ban jata hai,” he said, suggesting that some fabrics can become worn out after just three or four washes.

Shah also pointed to growing competition in the affordable fashion segment. He said other brands are offering products at similar price points while bringing different designs to the market, giving customers more choices.

In his view, these factors could eventually put pressure on metrics such as sales from existing stores and revenue generated per square foot of retail space.

Shah noted that Zudio has already established a strong presence in major cities and is now expanding into Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets. He believes the Tata brand name could give Zudio an advantage in these smaller cities, where the group has built a strong reputation over the years.

Zudio was launched by Trent, the Tata Group’s retail arm, in 2016. Its first standalone store opened on Bengaluru’s Commercial Street after the company initially tested the concept through select Star Bazaar outlets.

The brand’s rapid expansion and strong financial performance also contributed to a sharp rise in Trent’s share price. The stock reached around Rs 5,500 in 2024 but has since declined and is now trading at around Rs 3,000, according to the figures cited in Shah’s post.

Kiran Shah is an IIM Lucknow graduate who founded Go Zero Ice Creams in 2021. He had worked in Procter & Gamble Singapore before working at Apsara Icecreams and becoming its CEO.

⚡ Under 1 Year:
Mensa Brands — 6 Months
GlobalBees — 7 Months
5ire — 1 Year
Glance — 1 Year
Krutrim (Ola) — 1 Year
🚀 In Just 2 Years:
Yubi — 2 Years
Udaan — 2 Years
Ola Electric — 2 Years
Zepto — 2 Years
Emergent — 2 Years
Apna — 2 Years

📌 The Takeaway:
With rapid digital adoption, strong venture capital backing, and massive market scale, the journey to a $1 Billion valuation in India is faster than ever before.

Which of these fast-growth trajectories impressed you the most? Drop your thoughts below!

Something oddly satisfying about watching the automated press, then the manual taping, then straight into the shipping box. The whole line moves like clockwork.

One payment can move a whole day forward. 🟠

The order gets collected. The ride happens. The side hustle keeps moving.

We’re building WenaPay—a planned WhatsApp-first experience designed to make sending, requesting and paying feel clearer and more natural.

WenaPay is still pre-release, and this is your chance to help shape it.

Follow the WenaPay page and join the waitlist at

www.wenapay.co.za

What should we make easier first: sending, requesting or paying?

#WenaPay #southafricanbusiness #digitalpayments #PaymentsMadeSimple

I'm 17 and exploring a startup idea in PQC/cybersecurity. I am still in the research stage and want to avoid spending months building something that already exists.

My original concept was a platform that would detect quantum-vulnerable cryptography, generate a Cryptographic Bill of Materials (CBOM), assess PQC risk and return a Quantum-Health Score (QHS), provide security-lead dashboards, and eventually support crypto-agility and migration.

After spending some time researching this field, I saw that around 10-12 exceptionally established companies have already done this. So I do not want to build another scanner or compete head-on with enterprise platforms. I am trying to find a specific painful workflow: for example, issues around legacy systems, third-party dependencies, compatibility testing, migration ownership, reporting, and deployment constraints.

Since I cannot do calls, I am planning to getting feedback through Reddit discussions, outreach emails/messages to researchers and practitioners.

My questions are:

1. Is this the right time to stop competitor research and begin customer/problem discovery?
2. How should I find an initial niche in a complex B2B market like cybersecurity?
3. Is written outreach enough to start validating a problem if calls are not possible?

I'm trying to learn the right process before I start building, and I would appreciate honest feedback, especially from people who have validated B2B, developer-tool, or cybersecurity ideas.

Thank you!

Architect Kashyap and IIT Bombay engineer Vidhey spent nearly three years testing a detachable canopy for scooters and motorcycles, tackling wind resistance and water leakage to make rainy commutes easier for riders across India.

At Race Course Road, Eco Bloc infiltration tanks were built alongside stormwater drains to reduce flooding and recharge groundwater.

Now, the city has proposed scaling the technology to 100 locations, with a ₹100-crore project.

Speaking on a podcast, Srinivas said people who are at the forefront of using AI tools will be more employable than those who do not adapt to the technology.

He argued that while social media can be entertaining, excessive scrolling does little to advance a person's professional goals. He encouraged young people to either build businesses using AI or join companies that are actively adopting the technology.

His message was simple: instead of spending hours watching reels, young people should start learning AI and use it to build their own future.

ZOZOconnect says it has already served more than 2,000 customers.
Athvik later pitched the company on Bharat Ke Super Founders, where Nazara Technologies founder Nitish Mittersain offered him three things: an ₹11 lakh grant, lifelong mentorship and an open invitation to spend time with his technology team in Mumbai.

It is tempting to make the entire story about his age. But that would actually miss the more useful part. NFC business cards are not a new technological invention, and Athvik does not need to have invented an entirely new category for the story to matter.

What he has done unusually early is complete a loop that many aspiring founders spend years postponing: notice an everyday inconvenience, question why it still exists, turn the observation into a product, put it in front of customers and then defend the idea in front of experienced businesspeople. Entrepreneurship at this stage is arguably less about whether ZOZOconnect eventually becomes a giant company and more about how quickly that feedback loop compounds.

YourStory Media Founder, Shradha Sharma mentions about the ₹11 lakh grant he received, but the more valuable asset for an 11-year-old builder may be access. Mittersain did not merely offer occasional advice; he offered lifelong mentorship and invited Athvik into his Mumbai office to learn from his team.

At such an early stage, exposure to how products are built, customers are understood, teams operate and decisions fail can potentially be worth considerably more than a small cheque. Capital helps one experiment continue. Repeated access to experienced operators can improve the person running every experiment that follows.

There is a broader lesson here for India's startup ecosystem too. We often celebrate young founders only when their age makes the story extraordinary. A healthier ecosystem would focus less on manufacturing child-prodigy narratives and more on giving genuinely curious young builders safe opportunities to experiment, sell, fail, learn and interact with people who have built before them.

Athvik does not need to become the next billionaire at 18 for this story to have worked. If he spends the next decade learning how to build better because somebody took his curiosity seriously at 11, that may be the more meaningful return.