VCs step up wealthtech bets; Blinkit freezes new launches

Investors are pouring fresh capital into wealthtech startups as demand for financial products grows. This and more in today's ETtech Top 5.

Also in the letter:
■ ETtech Done Deals
■ IT leaders enter AI era
■ AI's ‘code sprawl’ problem

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Venture capital firms are stepping up investments in wealthtech as retail participation in financial products rises and India's pool of affluent investors expands. Startups across micro-savings, fixed-income, and wealth management are attracting fresh capital.

What's happening:

• Stable Money is looking to close a $75 million round, comprising about $50 million in primary capital and $25 million in secondary transactions, at a valuation of around $300 million.
• Grip Invest has appointed Investec to raise around $20 million. The platform distributes corporate bonds, securitised debt instruments, and other alternative products.
• Bachatt is in talks to raise $25-30 million at a valuation of around $140-150 million, while Nexedge Capital has raised $20 million in its maiden institutional round.

Why now:

• Retail investors are putting around Rs 1,500-2,000 crore into corporate bonds each month, up from roughly Rs 300 crore a year earlier.
• Retail bond transactions more than doubled to 2.8 million in FY26, while Sebi has lowered the minimum face value of privately placed bonds to Rs 10,000 from Rs 10 lakh.
• The affluent investor pool is also expanding. Nexedge estimates that Indians with more than Rs 10 crore of investable surplus could rise from 4-5 lakh today to 20-25 lakh over the next decade.

Lalit Keshre, cofounder and chief executive of Groww parent Billionbrains Garage Ventures, said technology, wealth management, and artificial intelligence (AI) will be the company's immediate priorities at its first annual general meeting since listing.

Capital expenditure will largely be focussed on technology infrastructure, cloud capacity, cybersecurity, and data systems. Groww also plans to use AI to personalise the app, handle customer queries, and speed up product development.

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Eternal CEO Albinder Dhindsa

Eternal's quick commerce unit Blinkit will freeze new product launches from August 31 to November 10 as it manages high warehouse utilisation ahead of the festive rush, sellers and brands on the platform told us.

Driving the news: From September 10, Blinkit will stop issuing release orders (ROs) for trials, retrials, and upcoming product launches, they said, quoting a note shared with sellers by the company.

Jargon buster: A release order is sent by platforms to brands to dispatch orders with specific stock-keeping units (SKUs) and locations.

Why this matters: “From September, brands will start supplying inventory to fulfilment centres of quick commerce and ecommerce firms. Platforms freeze operational plans 60 to 90 days in advance, so that no last-minute structural changes occur,” an executive explained.

This is not limited to Blinkit. Last year, multiple sellers and brands missed listing items on quick commerce for Diwali because platforms paused new listings and pre-launches due to the festive rush.

Setting the context: This year, quick commerce sales are expected to account for a higher gross merchandise value (GMV) than last year during the festive season.

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Naman Pushp, founder and CEO, Airbound

Airbound raises $37 million from Greenoaks, DoorDash, others; to scale drone deliveryBengaluru-based aerospace startup Airbound has raised $37 million in a round led by Greenoaks.

Funding funda:

• Existing and new investors including DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, and Humba Ventures participated in the capital raise.
• The company will use the funds to scale aircraft engineering, commercial-scale manufacturing, and go-to-market efforts.
• The latest round takes Airbound's total funding to nearly $50 million since inception in 2023.

Tell me more: The funding comes with a new commercial deployment deal with the Andhra Pradesh government. Airbound plans to build a drone delivery network linking Amaravati, Vijayawada, and Guntur.




Electric motorcycle maker Matter Motor Works has raised $25 million (about Rs 240 crore) from existing investors Helena, Capital 2B, Japan Airlines, Translink Innovation Fund, and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC).

The round takes the Ahmedabad-based company's total funding thus far to about Rs 1,000 crore.

Also Read: Wealth firm Nexedge Capital raises $20 million in maiden funding round

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India's $315-billion software-services industry is facing its biggest challenge yet as AI disrupts the labour-intensive business model that transformed the sector over four decades.

What's the news: Indian IT companies are rejigging senior talent and creating AI-focussed units.

• TCS recently changed 14 senior leadership roles, created new business units.
• HCLTech and Wipro have promoted executives to lead new industry and AI verticals.

Expert take: Industry insiders told us that such changes alone may not be enough, even as these moves point to a wider effort to adapt to the changing technology landscape.

Experts say running utilisation, offshore delivery, employee pyramids, and large labour-based contracts are no longer sufficient. Leaders now need to understand AI economics, engineering, platform ecosystems, intellectual-property creation, and outcome-based pricing.

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As companies use AI to generate, modify, and deploy software, developers are increasingly maintaining code that no human fully understands. The result is a new enterprise problem that technology leaders are calling “code sprawl”.

What does it mean: “Code sprawl” arises when multiple coding assistants and autonomous agents create large volumes of code without central oversight, adding technical debt despite faster development timelines.

Faster code, harder fixes: Tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex have sped up delivery, but can make debugging slower when failures occur in AI-generated logic.

An HfS survey found 43% of large enterprises already see AI creating technical debt. While 94% of engineering leaders rated AI-generated code higher quality than human-written code, 78% reported more production incidents after it reached live systems.

Technical debt is the future cost of maintenance and rework that piles up when companies choose quick fixes over solid long-term planning and design.