 Daily Top 5 |
SC refuses UPI MDR stay; Nvidia unveils tools for rogue AI
Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox?
I agree to receive newsletters and marketing communications via e-mail
Thank you for subscribing to Daily Top 5
We'll soon meet in your inbox.
The Supreme Court has refused to stay MDR on select UPI transactions and sought Centre’s response. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.
Also in the letter:
■ Prosus in talks to back BazaarNow
■ Armatrix’s robotic arm push
■ Instinct raises $1 billion
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant an interim stay on the Centre’s decision to impose 0.4% MDR (merchant discount rate) on specific UPI (Unified Payments Interface) person-to-merchant transactions above Rs 2,000.
The court has issued notices to the central government, RBI (Reserve Bank of India), NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), and other respondents.
What’s the matter: The bench, headed by chief justice of India Surya Kant, was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the Centre’s new UPI MDR framework, which is scheduled to take effect from October 15. The petitioner has alleged that the levy was introduced without adequate statutory safeguards, transparency, and public consultation.
Centre’s stand: The government has said the charge was a settlement fee shared among participants in the payments ecosystem and that it was not collecting any amount itself. The court has asked the Centre to explain the legal and policy basis for imposing MDR.
Digital lending platform Moneyview's IPO ended its three-day bidding process with a stellar investor response, getting subscribed nearly 100 times. Investors placed bids for 2,290 crore shares against 23.25 crore shares on offer.
Subscription status:
Use of funds: Moneyview plans to use Rs 325 crore of the proceeds to increase loan disbursals under DLG arrangements and Rs 250 crore to strengthen the capital base of its subsidiary WFPL.
Also Read: Accel, Ribbit eye multifold returns from Moneyview IPO
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
Nvidia has released a set of software tools designed to protect AI agents from carrying out unauthorised actions, saying the technology could have prevented the recent hack of AI coding platform Hugging Face.
Rogue agents: The move comes as OpenAI and Anthropic, the top two US AI labs, are investigating numerous instances where their agents, which are AI systems capable of carrying out complex tasks autonomously, hacked into commercial and government systems.
Industry push: Nvidia is launching the tools with dozens of partners, including Anthropic, and is also working with Arm and Intel to make the system compatible with their processors.
How it works: The Nvidia tools use mathematical formulae to detect when agents are trying to use workarounds, such as when an agent might "spawn" several "sub-agents" in an attempt to circumvent efforts to block the main agent.
BazaarNow cofounders Priyanshu Jain, Arjun Harish and Tarithmay Mandal.
Dutch technology investor Prosus is in talks to invest about Rs 150 crore in BazaarNow at a valuation of around Rs 900 crore, people aware of the matter told us.
Why it matters: Prosus, which owns about 21% of Swiggy, could potentially be backing a rival to its portfolio company’s quick-commerce business Instamart.
Small-city bet: BazaarNow, founded by former Zepto executives Priyanshu Jain, Arjun Harish, and Tarithmay Mandal, sells groceries and daily essentials, focusing on local products and regional brands in tier-II and -III cities.
Quote, unquote: “This fits with Prosus’ approach of backing competing businesses that do things a little differently. They are also looking to invest in companies serving customers beyond India’s metros,” said one of the people cited above.
Also Read: Flipkart Ventures backs AI startups Alive and Keploy
Armatrix cofounders Vishrant Dave, Prateesh Awasthi and Ayush Ranjan
Bengaluru-based robotics startup Armatrix is targeting 10-12 pilots over the next six months as it prepares to commercially deploy its product in the first half of 2028, founder and CEO Vishrant Dave told us.
Armatrix won the Best on Campus category at The Economic Times Startup Awards 2026 for its 3-5 metre long snake-like robotic arms.
Use cases: It is designed to navigate narrow and hazardous industrial spaces where manual intervention is difficult, unsafe, or expensive.
Quote, unquote: “We saw a gap in the industry. There was a set of tasks and use cases which was not being automated. Someone is crawling in, squeezing in somewhere, it’s really difficult to enter, or it takes days or months to open up an asset to perform a particular task. We want to solve for these industries with this product,” Dave said.
Funding: Armatrix has raised about $2.1 million from investors including pi Ventures, GradCapital, Boundless Ventures, WTF Fund, and Emergent Ventures. It is currently looking to close its next round of funding.
Agentic AI firm Instinct said on Monday that it has raised $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation in a series C funding round. The round drew investments from Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue, the company said in a statement.
What it does: San Francisco-based Instinct is developing a personal agent that can perform tasks autonomously.
Products: The company has released new products over the past few months, including a concierge service meant to handle tasks such as bookings and making phone calls.
Also in the letter:
■ Prosus in talks to back BazaarNow
■ Armatrix’s robotic arm push
■ Instinct raises $1 billion
SC refuses interim stay on 0.4% MDR, issues notice to govt, RBI, NPCI, others
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant an interim stay on the Centre’s decision to impose 0.4% MDR (merchant discount rate) on specific UPI (Unified Payments Interface) person-to-merchant transactions above Rs 2,000.
The court has issued notices to the central government, RBI (Reserve Bank of India), NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), and other respondents.
What’s the matter: The bench, headed by chief justice of India Surya Kant, was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the Centre’s new UPI MDR framework, which is scheduled to take effect from October 15. The petitioner has alleged that the levy was introduced without adequate statutory safeguards, transparency, and public consultation.
Centre’s stand: The government has said the charge was a settlement fee shared among participants in the payments ecosystem and that it was not collecting any amount itself. The court has asked the Centre to explain the legal and policy basis for imposing MDR.
Moneyview IPO subscribed over 98 times on strong QIB demand
Digital lending platform Moneyview's IPO ended its three-day bidding process with a stellar investor response, getting subscribed nearly 100 times. Investors placed bids for 2,290 crore shares against 23.25 crore shares on offer.
Subscription status:
- The retail individual investors (RIIs) category was subscribed 19.57 times against 11.72 crore shares on offer.
- The non-institutional investors (NIIs) category was subscribed 115.41 times against 5.02 crore shares offered.
- The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 227.45 times against 6.50 crore shares on offer.
Use of funds: Moneyview plans to use Rs 325 crore of the proceeds to increase loan disbursals under DLG arrangements and Rs 250 crore to strengthen the capital base of its subsidiary WFPL.
Also Read: Accel, Ribbit eye multifold returns from Moneyview IPO
Nvidia releases AI safety software it says could have stopped Hugging Face hack
Nvidia has released a set of software tools designed to protect AI agents from carrying out unauthorised actions, saying the technology could have prevented the recent hack of AI coding platform Hugging Face.
Rogue agents: The move comes as OpenAI and Anthropic, the top two US AI labs, are investigating numerous instances where their agents, which are AI systems capable of carrying out complex tasks autonomously, hacked into commercial and government systems.
Industry push: Nvidia is launching the tools with dozens of partners, including Anthropic, and is also working with Arm and Intel to make the system compatible with their processors.
How it works: The Nvidia tools use mathematical formulae to detect when agents are trying to use workarounds, such as when an agent might "spawn" several "sub-agents" in an attempt to circumvent efforts to block the main agent.
Prosus in talks to invest Rs 150 crore in Swiggy Instamart challenger BazaarNow
Dutch technology investor Prosus is in talks to invest about Rs 150 crore in BazaarNow at a valuation of around Rs 900 crore, people aware of the matter told us.
Why it matters: Prosus, which owns about 21% of Swiggy, could potentially be backing a rival to its portfolio company’s quick-commerce business Instamart.
Small-city bet: BazaarNow, founded by former Zepto executives Priyanshu Jain, Arjun Harish, and Tarithmay Mandal, sells groceries and daily essentials, focusing on local products and regional brands in tier-II and -III cities.
Quote, unquote: “This fits with Prosus’ approach of backing competing businesses that do things a little differently. They are also looking to invest in companies serving customers beyond India’s metros,” said one of the people cited above.
Also Read: Flipkart Ventures backs AI startups Alive and Keploy
ET Startup Awards 2026: Armatrix targets 10-12 pilots, commercial deployment of snake-like robotic arms in 2028
Bengaluru-based robotics startup Armatrix is targeting 10-12 pilots over the next six months as it prepares to commercially deploy its product in the first half of 2028, founder and CEO Vishrant Dave told us.
Armatrix won the Best on Campus category at The Economic Times Startup Awards 2026 for its 3-5 metre long snake-like robotic arms.
Use cases: It is designed to navigate narrow and hazardous industrial spaces where manual intervention is difficult, unsafe, or expensive.
Quote, unquote: “We saw a gap in the industry. There was a set of tasks and use cases which was not being automated. Someone is crawling in, squeezing in somewhere, it’s really difficult to enter, or it takes days or months to open up an asset to perform a particular task. We want to solve for these industries with this product,” Dave said.
Funding: Armatrix has raised about $2.1 million from investors including pi Ventures, GradCapital, Boundless Ventures, WTF Fund, and Emergent Ventures. It is currently looking to close its next round of funding.
AI agent firm Instinct raises $1 billion in latest funding round
Agentic AI firm Instinct said on Monday that it has raised $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation in a series C funding round. The round drew investments from Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue, the company said in a statement.
What it does: San Francisco-based Instinct is developing a personal agent that can perform tasks autonomously.
Products: The company has released new products over the past few months, including a concierge service meant to handle tasks such as bookings and making phone calls.
Want this newsletter delivered to your inbox?
I agree to receive newsletters and marketing communications via e-mail