Nykaa’s strong Q1; Activate backs Sarvam

Nykaa reported strong quarterly growth, on the back of healthy sales across its businesses. This and more in today's ETtech Top 5.

Also in the letter:
■ Chip stocks tumble
■ Meta under scanner
■ ETtech Done Deals

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Falguni Nayar, CEO, Nykaa

Beauty and fashion retailer Nykaa parent FSN E-Commerce reported strong quarterly profit and revenue, driven by sales growth across its businesses.

Financials:

• Revenue: Up 29% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2,782 crore, compared with Rs 2,155 crore a year earlier.
• Net profit: Rose to Rs 80 crore, from Rs 24 crore in the year-ago period.
• Total income: Stood at Rs 2,791.3 crore.
• Expenses: Up 25% YoY to Rs 2,662 crore, compared with Rs 2,120.5 crore a year earlier, driven by higher costs of traded goods purchased, employee benefits and other expenses.

Aminu acquisition: Nykaa's board approved the acquisition of a 51% stake in Mumbai-based skincare brand Aminu for Rs 32 crore. The company said Aminu, which sells products such as serums and sleep oils, operates "in a sizable high growth segment".

Also Read: Nykaa appoints ex-Instamart COO Ankit Jain to lead quick commerce business


Nitish Mittersain, founder, Nazara Technologies

Online gaming company Nazara Technologies reported a decline in quarterly revenues after deconsolidating its esports unit Nodwin Gaming from its financial results in August 2025.

By the numbers:

• Revenue: Down 14% YoY to Rs 429 crore, compared to Rs 499 crore. Excluding Nodwin from its Q1FY26 results, revenues grew about 9%.
• Net loss: At Rs 82 crore, against a profit of Rs 36 crore a year earlier.

CEO exit: Founder Nitish Mittersain will step down as chief executive officer (CEO) of Nazara from September 1, with Raymond A. Stauffer succeeding him in the role.

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Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, founders, Sarvam AI

AI venture fund Activate has invested in India's sovereign AI startup Sarvam. The fund was founded by Haptik cofounder Aakrit Vaish and former Together Fund investor Pratyush Choudhury.

Deal details: According to sources, Activate has invested about $15 million in Sarvam, marking the fund's third growth-stage investment.

"While its core fund invests in young companies, the Sarvam investment was made through a separate special purpose vehicle (SPV) created for growth-stage opportunities," Vaish told us.

Round details: The investment comes a day after Sarvam said it would raise another $75 million from investors including Nvidia, Glade Brook Capital and Gaja Capital.

The latest raise is part of the Bengaluru-based startup's planned $300 million funding round, valuing the company at about $1.5 billion. Sarvam had earlier announced the first close of the round led by HCLTech, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures.

What else? At its Epoch conference last week, Sarvam launched eight AI products, including coding tools, enterprise AI agents, voice AI, document intelligence and cybersecurity offerings.

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More than $1 trillion has been wiped off the market value of semiconductor stocks over the last few weeks as concerns over an AI bubble rise.

What's happening? The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX), which tracks 30 US-listed chip companies, has entered bear market territory after weeks of heavy selling.

The index fell 21% in July, marking its worst monthly performance since October 2008 during the global financial crisis. The decline has also been linked to signs that China is advancing its chipmaking capabilities.


The numbers:

• Nvidia: Market value down $238 billion.
• SK Hynix: Lost $176 billion.
• Samsung Electronics: Dipped $173 billion.
• Micron: Lost $113 billion.
• According to CNBC, Nvidia, SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics, Micron, AMD, and TSMC have each lost more than $100 billion in market value.

Yes, but: Despite the recent selloff, the SOX remains up 61% year to date, supported by strong AI-driven chip demand. However, investors are becoming more cautious about big technology companies' capital expenditure plans and whether current spending levels are sustainable.

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MeitY secretary S Krishnan

IT secretary S Krishnan said that senior executives from Meta will meet officials from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss child sexual abuse material (CSAM), AI-generated content, deepfakes, and the company's compliance with Indian laws.

What's the matter? The government will ask Meta why its current safeguards have failed in some cases and what steps it is taking to strengthen them, Krishnan said.

The meeting follows increased scrutiny due to recent concerns over WhatsApp usernames and the CSAM controversy, among others. Krishnan said MeitY has already sent notices to the company and the legal process is underway.

What else? Krishnan added that the ministry has not received any formal complaints about WhatsApp users being unable to access their accounts after being placed under a 24-hour review, ostensibly for suspected inappropriate use.

On WhatsApp's request for some users to provide their date of birth, he said the move could be linked to age-related compliance under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. However, the government will verify the reason, he assured.

Also Read: Telegram says app restored on Apple's App Store

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(L-R) Alok Maurya, Saurabh Maheshwari, Subham Kumar Boundia, cofounders, Superleap

Enterprise AI customer relationship management (CRM) platform Superleap has raised Rs 36 crore in funding from Peak XV Partners' Surge.

Fund use: The startup will use the funds to strengthen its AI capabilities, grow its go-to-market operations in India and overseas, and expand its team, CEO Subham Kumar Boundia told us.

Quote, unquote: "We are building an agentic operating system that can support the entire revenue function with humans and AI agents working together. This funding will help us accelerate product development, expand our enterprise presence and strengthen customer service," Boundia said.



Agentic enterprise AI startup Kily has secured Rs 30 crore in funding from early-stage fund Sorin Investments.

Round details: The round also saw participation from Razorpay and Wyser Capital.

The company said it will use the fresh capital to enhance its product, expand go-to-market efforts and speed up adoption among India's largest consumer brands.

Also Read: Ex-Swiggy, Zomato execs launch AI startup Profound, raise $1.5 million from Stellaris, 3one4