Pranav Mukul

The company’s valuation could rise to Rs 4,000-4,500 crore from Rs 2,500 crore, driven by rapid topline growth at the company founded by Ankit Chona of the family behind Havmor ice creams.

Former executives asked Flipkart parent Walmart to delink their liquidity from the Bengaluru-based ecommerce company’s proposed initial public offering, according to people aware of the development. They raised the demand in a fresh email sent earlier this week to the US retail major’s board, the people said.

L’Oreal announced in June that it would acquire a majority stake in Innovist, the parent of brands such as Bare Anatomy, Chemist at Play and SunScoop, at a valuation of around Rs 4,100 crore. The transaction closed in October, with people familiar with the matter saying Innovist’s revenue grew another 50% between June and October.

Simplismart, an innovative AI infrastructure startup, is in talks to secure between $40 and $50 million in funding, which could potentially boost its valuation from $100-120 million up to $300-400 million. Notable investors like Peak XV Partners and Damac Digital are eyeing stakes in the company, which was established by ex-Oracle and Google engineers.

According to people in the know, the combined entity will be valued at around Rs 3,500 crore. Mygate closed a Rs 225 crore round in June this year — a mix of primary and secondary transactions — that valued the Bengaluru-based company at Rs 2,000-2,200 crore. The round was led by Dharana Capital.

The fund, named Longshot Capital, has secured commitments of about Rs 300 crore and is targeting its first close in January 2027, following which it plans to begin investing, the people said. Fundraising discussions are continuing, and the size and timing of the first close could change.

San Francisco-based Provision Labs will work with developers building AI models for robotics and other real-world applications. Sardana will serve as the chief executive of both Pronto and Provision Labs, the people said.

A significant portion of the proceeds is expected to go towards InstaHelp, its instant house help business, which has been incurring heavy losses as the company invests in expanding the segment, one of the persons said. However, brokerages have assigned little to no value to the business, citing concerns over sustained losses and the challenge of achieving profitability targets.

As enterprise adoption of AI models scales, companies are seeking more cost-efficient ways to operate AI tools. Simplismart, founded by former Oracle and Google engineers Jain and Devansh Ghatak, provides software that helps enterprises select and deploy AI models suited to their specific workloads and run things more efficiently.

Cognizant’s potential investment in Sarvam comes as advances in agentic AI raise questions about the future of the IT services industry. AI agents are increasingly capable of automating tasks across software development, application maintenance and back-office operations, potentially disrupting traditional outsourcing models.