By Ankit Kumar

2024 has been transformative for India’s drone industry, showcasing Bharat’s immense potential as a land of opportunities. Drones are rapidly transitioning from niche applications to becoming an integral part of mainstream operations in India. With remarkable advancements in policy, innovation, and sector-wide adoption, the industry has grown exponentially, impacting logistics, agriculture, healthcare, and infrastructure. 

There are many examples of how India is leading the trend. In a groundbreaking development, Gurugram became the first metropolitan in the world to adopt drone-based delivery in daily life, enabling residents to receive anything and everything within minutes. As one of the fastest hyperlocal delivery services, Skye Air completed over 1.5 lakh deliveries in the city during December alone. 

Milestones like drone-based mail delivery in Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and AIIMS medical supply chains further highlight the sector’s ability to enhance accessibility and efficiency.

As we move into 2025, the momentum will only grow stronger, with drones becoming increasingly integrated into mainstream operations. The focus on scaling networks, boosting payload capacities, and driving cost efficiencies will unlock new opportunities in quick-commerce, urban air mobility, and sustainability. 

The government’s proactive measures, such as the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, have laid a robust foundation for the drone ecosystem. This ambitious initiative integrates various economic zones and infrastructure projects, enabling seamless logistics and enhancing operational efficiencies.

Initiatives like this, coupled with continued investments in R&D and skill development will further solidify India’s ambition to become a global drone hub by 2030. 

The future holds incredible promise. Drones are proving to be indispensable in addressing real-world challenges. They are reducing urban congestion by offering alternative delivery solutions, minimizing carbon footprints through energy-efficient logistics, and facilitating disaster management and agricultural monitoring. These advancements will propel “Bharat toward a technology-driven, sustainable tomorrow.

Ankit Kumar is the CEO of Sky Air. The opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views of CIO Dimension

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India is home to the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. The number of  DPIIT– recognized startups stands at a colossal 1,17,254 as on 31st December 2023 – an impressive 40 percentage growth from the previous year! While these numbers speak of a flourishing ecosystem, there is a contrasting reality. As much as 9 out of 10 startups fail globally, according to various reports. In India, 80-90 percent of the startups do not make it past the first five years! 

Yet, India has some of the glorious success stories from the startup community. So, what really makes a startup tick? It’s a ‘billion-dollar’ question, considering that startups in India collectively raise a few billion dollars in funding every year. 

To understand the nuances of building a successful startup, CIO Dimension caught up with this young entrepreneur in Bengaluru – the startup capital of India. Yuvaraj Thanikachalam, Founder & CEO of Kreatorverse – a startup venture studio, is anything but a typical Bengaluru startup founder. His company is on a mission to guide promising startups through the often-treacherous path to success and profitability. 

Building on Web3 for the future

Yuvaraj emphasizes that startups need more than just a good product and funding to thrive in the market.

“New venture building exercise requires experimental infrastructure (lab), scientific methodology, entrepreneurial (tech & business savvy) talent, and seed capital. It is super rare to find all of them in one place. Building such an organization for a new venture founder or investor takes years of investment. It is a real big problem for Indian startup founders and investors,” says Yuvaraj. 

A good product is often just the beginning; enduring in a dynamic market is the real test for startups, he observes. 

The venture studio works with early stage startups and serial entrepreneurs to help them build products that stay relevant for a sustained period. With a strong foundation in finance and blockchain, Yuvaraj believes Web3 is the future. So far, Kreatorverse has worked with over 20 startups to build Web3 software products by applying proven methodologies and technologies. The company’s clientele include fintech startups, neobanks, digital banks, private wealth management firms, alternate investment companies, and social media startups. 

All of these startups in the financial services sector stand to benefit hugely with Web3. The primary socio-economic impact pursued by fintech is financial inclusion. Inclusive, neutral, democratic internet infrastructure is a must for global financial inclusion, which is a sustainable development goal. Decentralized finance (DeFi) and real-world assets-backed tokenized economies are the best ways to do it, Yuvaraj says. 

The right blend of technology and business 

So, is Kreatorverse providing just the “staffing” for these startups? Yuvaraj maintains that the company goes much beyond that. Building a product requires more than just the software development understanding. It’s not just about the programming tools and skills. It’s about empathy for the customer and business. Software is not a standalone entity in a tech-first venture, it’s the core of the business, he adds. 

“Just imagine, customers have no incentives for staying with a product for long. Their decisions are influenced strongly by the experience they have with a software or an app. Hence, building each customer touchpoints with experiential value is critical for startups. And that experience is the differentiation for a customer to choose a product. We help startups create this differentiation.” 

The company optimizes innovation outcomes by blending business acumen with technological expertise. They establish a solid foundation through design thinking, innovation frameworks, and diverse problem-solving approaches. This method drives innovation and enables the creation of distinctive products within their studio. Kreatorverse guides businesses from concept to proof of value within 4 to 6 months, says Yuvaraj. 

He observes that Web3 startup co-founders often navigate regulatory and compliance landscapes blindly due to their limited understanding of traditional finance and capital markets. Kreatorverse also offers an added advantage by combining expertise in both Web3 and traditional markets.

“Our goal is to minimize the risk of failure and significantly increasing the rate of business success for startups,” sums up Yuvaraj. 

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Tekion, a cloud technology provider for automotive sector founded by Tesla’s former CIO Jay Vijayan, has secured $200 million in growth equity capital from Dragoneer Investment Group. This financing round sets Tekion’s valuation above $4 billion, the company said in a press release. 

Tekion plans to invest the capital to expand its product offering for dealer partners and OEMs, accelerate implementation timelines, and deliver better customer support.

“Tekion has charted an extraordinary growth path, revolutionizing the automotive retail industry through our comprehensive and fully integrated platform,” said Jay Vijayan, Founder and CEO of Tekion. “We are delighted to partner with Dragoneer, whose team has followed our progress closely for multiple years, believes in our long-term vision, and carries an impressive track record investing in best-in-class vertical SaaS businesses.”

The funding announcement follows Tekion’s performance in 2023, with 97% year-over-year annual run rate revenue growth and expanding partnerships in the industry including with over 2,000 automotive retailers, multiple leading-brand OEMs, and over 250 ecosystem technology partners. The company had recently made key appointments to its leadership team, including the CFO, CRO, and CTO. 

“Having watched Tekion’s rapid pace of innovation and market adoption over the past several years, we are proud to partner with and support Jay and his world-class team in the next phase of the company’s growth journey,” said Christian Jensen, Partner at Dragoneer. “

Tekion had raised $250 million funding in October 2021. The Pleasanton-headquartered firm has close to 3000 employees globally and caters to some of the leading automotive dealers across geographies.  

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Mitti Labs, the agtech that helps reduce methane emissions in rice farming, has raised $3 million in seed round, according to reports. The funding is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Voyager Ventures, Overview, and angel investors.

Mitti was co-founded by Devdut Dalal in 2023 along with Nate Torbick and Xavier Laguarta. Devdut is an entrepreneur who earlier co-founded Mumbai-based Fresh India Organics – a brand involved in organic produce. 

The agtech leverages AI in helping farmers curb emissions and reduce water wastage in rice farming. According to data, rice has emissions equivalent to the global aviation industry. This is mainly due to farmers flooding fields, which creates the ideal anaerobic conditions for bacteria to thrive and release methane. Further, overuse of poorly absorbed nitrogen-based fertilizers, leads to nitrous oxide emissions, according to Mitti. The startup maintains that specific seeding and water management farming practices can turn the tide on Rice GHG emissions, reducing Rice GHG emissions by over 40% without affecting yield. 

It combines AI with satellite imagery and field data to offer local accuracy at country-level scale. India has been a primary market for the startup as the country is the world’s second-largest rice producer. 

The company had recently launched five rice projects across India, in partnership with Syngenta Foundation, Ebro Foods and Dr Reddy’s Foundation, aimed at reducing methane emissions, increase water security and build farmer resilience. 

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Cisco Investments, the global corporate venture investment arm of Cisco launched a $1B AI investment fund to bolster the startup ecosystem and expand the development of secure and reliable AI solutions. As part of the new AI fund, Cisco is making strategic investments in Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI among others. Cisco has already committed nearly $200M of the $1B investment fund to date.

Over the past several years, Cisco has made over 20 AI-focused acquisitions and investments, furthering GenAI and Machine Learning capabilities and integration of AI across the Cisco portfolio. In addition to these investments, Cisco will also be working with AI companies on product collaborations that allow Cisco to co-innovate, while also being an agnostic provider and platform player in AI, offering options and coverage for Cisco’s global customer base.

The committed investments in the new AI fund include:

• Cohere: Headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco, Cohere provides security-focused frontier large language models (LLMs) and industry-leading Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities tailored to meet the needs of enterprises.
• Mistral AI: Mistral AI is a global company headquartered in Paris specializing in generative artificial intelligence. The company develops new models of generative artificial intelligence for businesses, combining scientific excellence, an open approach and a responsible vision of technology.
• Scale AI: Based in the U.S., Scale AI provides a data-centric, end-to-end platform providing training and validation for AI applications. Cisco recently participated in Scale AI’s Series F funding as the round’s largest strategic investor.

“The establishment of our $1 billion AI investment fund is a testament to our commitment to the transformative power of artificial intelligence and its potential to redefine industries globally,” said Derek Idemoto, SVP, Corporate Development and Cisco Investments. “This fund represents our unwavering commitment to AI and innovation, and to the entrepreneurs and visionaries who are defining the next wave of technology.”

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inHEART, a medical device company delivering AI-driven digital twin of the heart, has raised $11M to drive commercial growth of its therapeutic software solution for cardiac ablation procedures and advance the development of its predictive cardiac models for heart failure, sudden cardiac death, and cardio-embolic stroke.

The financing was led by Vesalius Biocapital IV and co-led by Elaia Partners with participation from NACO, Sagana, Sofia Angel Ventures, CWR Funds, and Webit Investment Network. In addition, inHEART received funds from a successful crowdequity campaign on Tudigo and from the UK impact fund Astorg Foundation.

The funding will also support commercial expansion of inHEART’s digital twin of the heart in the US, EU, Asia Pacific, and Middle East markets. 

“We welcome this strong international group of investors to our latest round of financing,” said Todor Jeliaskov, Chairman and CEO of inHEART. “This new round allows us to go further in addressing the needs of cardiac patients from early screening and disease detection through advanced therapeutic support. It’s exciting for us to be at the forefront of transforming the healthcare industry with the power of AI technology by improving the efficiency of care, quality of decision-making, and effectiveness and safety of medical interventions.” 

Optimizing cardiac care

inHEART’s current therapeutic solution addresses the challenges of conventional cardiac ablations. The inHEART solution creates highly detailed, interactive 3D heart models with proprietary AI-driven cardiac CT or MR image segmentation. These 3D models of the heart allow physicians to optimize treatment strategies based on each patient’s unique cardiac anatomy and to support pre-procedural planning for faster ablation procedures and improved clinical outcomes.

AI-driven predictive models

Financing from this round will also support the development of new product verticals for AI-driven predictive software models for sudden cardiac death and cardio-embolic stroke, as well as a new therapeutic software solution to help physicians treat heart failure patients. Currently, inHEART is commercially available in the US and EU through a direct sales force model, with plans to establish a global distribution network in the coming months to further accelerate growth.

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A recent report suggests that the salaries of startup CEOs declined on average while early-stage CEOs saw modest pay increases and Series B CEOs endured a 10% pay cut. The pay gap between female and male CEOs remains persistent at $14,000, but expanded on a percentage basis due to the decline in average salaries.

The study is conducted by Kruze Consulting, the startup accounting and CFO consulting firm servicing more than 800 venture funded startup clients. The report, based on anonymized payroll data, is the longest running and largest startup CEO salary report in the world. 

“The CEO salary data collected this year reflects some resilience in the early-stage startup ecosystem and turmoil in the later stage market. Seed and Series A startups saw solid pay moves whereas Series B CEOs’ salaries came down on average. While the volume of funding rounds was lower, the quality of companies that raised Seed and Series A rounds were strong, and their CEOs were able to command better pay compared to the prior year,” said Healy Jones, Vice President at Kruze Consulting.

He emphasized that the gender pay gap is concerning, because it hasn’t recovered to 2019 levels since the massive discrepancy that opened up during the pandemic.

In 2019, the gender pay gap was $5,000 then expanded to $45,000 during the pandemic. Since 2020, it’s recovered somewhat but has remained at $14,000, around 10%, for the past two years. 

Since professional startup investors are typically involved in executive pay decisions, this is a place where VCs have an opportunity to affect change. We’ve conducted this study annually since 2018 in order to equip Founders and investors with the data they need to make informed decisions when approaching executive compensation.

Key findings include:

• The average startup CEO salary was $142,000 in 2023 and slightly declined to $141,000 in 2024. 

• For CEOs of Series B startups, the average salary declined almost 10% from $251,000 last year to $227,000 in 2024. 

• Series A CEOs saw a 6.5% increase in salaries, up from $168,000 in 2023 to $179,000 in 2024. 

• Seed stage CEO pay averages increased 2.3%, from $129,000 in 2023 to $132,000 in 2024. 

Only the best startups were able to raise Seed and Series A rounds recently, driving the increase in CEO pay. The past 2 years have been very difficult for Series B and beyond companies to fundraise, so those executives are responding by keeping executive compensation lower to preserve capital.

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SiMa.ai, the software-centric, embedded edge machine learning system-on-chip company, recently announced it has raised an additional $70M of funding led by Maverick Capital, with participation from Point72 and Jericho, as well as existing investors Amplify Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Lip-Bu Tan and others. SiMa.ai will utilize the $270M raised to date to continue meeting customer demand for edge AI/ML with its first-generation Machine Learning System-on-Chip (MLSoC) while accelerating the delivery of its second-generation MLSoC for release in Q1 of 2025, the company informed. 

With the release of the second-generation MLSoC, SiMa.ai will unveil one software-centric platform for all edge AI. SiMa.ai’s ‘one platform for all edge AI’ scales with customers as their AI/ML journey evolves, from computer vision, to transformers to multimodal generative AI.

The rapid proliferation of generative AI is simplifying the way we interact with AI/ML, namely through multimodal inputs such as text-to-speech, text-to-image, speech-to-text, speech-to-image, audio-to-image, image-to-image and image-to-video. Edge devices such as robots, drones, diagnostic machines, autonomous vehicles and more must be equipped to handle this new, more collaborative interface. 

The first-generation SiMa.ai MLSoC claims to deliver better ing performance and efficiency for vision-centric edge inference. Future generations, said the company, will power and process any modality customers prefer with even greater performance and power efficiency. 

“AI — particularly the rapid rise of generative AI — is fundamentally reshaping the way that humans and machines work together. Our customers are poised to benefit from giving sight, sound and speech to their edge devices, which is exactly what our next generation MLSoC is designed to do,” said Krishna Rangasayee, Founder and CEO at SiMa.ai. 

“The computational intensity of generative AI has precipitated a paradigm shift in data center architecture. The next phase in this evolution will be widespread adoption of AI at the edge. Just as the data center has been revolutionized, the edge computing landscape is poised for a complete transformation,” said Andrew Homan, Senior Managing Director at Maverick Capital. 

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The UK edtech unicorn Multiverse, which builds apprenticeship programs, has acquired Searchlight, a talent intelligence and skills assessment platform that uses AI to help companies close their skills gaps.

California-based Searchlight was founded in 2018 by twins Anna Wang and Kerry Wang. The Stanford graduates started their journey with Y Combinator, and have since been recognized by Forbes 30 under 30. The company also received investment from top venture capital firms including Founders Fund and Accel.

Accelerating AI implementation at Multiverse

The combination of Searchlight’s technology and talent will accelerate the use of generative AI and machine learning at Multiverse. Searchlight’s custom-built and bias-free AI engine will enhance Multiverse’s ability to identify, analyze, and close skills gaps within organizations through programs that are closely mapped to customer business needs, the company stated. 

Multiverse partners with more than 1,000 organizations to deliver training in areas such as data analytics and software engineering. Its training model is built on a new kind of apprenticeship that is measured, applied, guided, and equitable, and its tech platforms exist to ensure learners have access to a high-quality, personalized experience that delivers measured ROI for their employers.

Searchlight is the second acquisition for the company, following the purchase of Eduflow, another Y Combinator company, in May 2023.

The Searchlight team will join Multiverse to spearhead the integration of its talent intelligence technology into Multiverse’s platform and lead Multiverse’s AI initiatives. Searchlight’s CEO, Kerry Wang will become Director of Product. Searchlight’s CTO, Anna Wang, will become Head of AI.

Founder and CEO of Multiverse, Euan Blair, said: “After meeting Anna and Kerry and digging into the Searchlight product, I was really excited at how they were using AI to spot patterns and identify skilling solutions both within and outside of the workforce. Most companies are on a journey of tech transformation and they want to do it in a way that is both equitable and effective. What often holds them back is the gap between the transformation they want to see, and the skills that will unlock it.” 

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Borderless AI, the AI-powered startup in the Employer of Record (EOR) space, announced that it has raised $27 million in seed funding to leverage the power of generative AI to automate and accelerate the process of onboarding, managing, and paying international team members. The company maintains that its AI agent, Alberni, can solve complex problems and automate processes in any country around the world within 10 minutes; the market norm is 7-10 business days.

The $27 million seed round was led by Susquehanna and Aglaé Ventures, the venture arm of Bernard Arnault, currently the richest man in the world, with participation from additional institutional investors. The company was founded by serial entrepreneur Willson Cross and Lyft’s founding investor Sean Aggarwal. Borderless AI’s launch comes at a time of increased investment and interest in vertical-specific AI, with numerous companies like Harvey for legal services and Sierra for customer service, leading the way and drawing attention to the critical need for AI agents across verticals.

“As the first company in the world to bring AI agents to HR, we are firm believers that AI agents will become commonplace for companies just like websites in the 90s and mobile apps in the 2000s,” said Willson Cross, Co-founder and CEO of Borderless AI. “Leveraging conversational AI, our platform automates many of the complexities within the global HR stack, without hallucinations, such as payroll set-up, time-off requests, or employment agreement generation. Our AI is fluent in a multitude of languages, allowing for geographic expansion and successful deployment of business operations around the globe.”

Alberni is available in 170 languages and cuts the time it takes to generate employment agreements, allowing a company’s legal and HR teams to move faster, save money and ensure compliance in the onboarding and payments processes. Alberni can also answer complex employment law, finance or tax queries, an important need for the distributed global workforce and employers looking to scale quickly.

“Our mission is to bring economic empowerment to the world,” said Sean Aggarwal, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Borderless AI. “With our AI first approach to HR, we’re removing geographic barriers and democratizing access to the best job opportunities for talented people around the globe, and we’re excited to see the possibilities it opens for employers and employees alike.”

Borderless AI is serving organizations of all sizes and across industries, and claims popular dating app Raya; MG2, a 500+ employee-size, global architecture firm; and Affiniti, a venture-backed fintech startup as customers.

The company worked with Omeed Malik and his investment bank, Farvahar Partners, in raising the majority of the round.

Borderless AI is also a strategic partner of Large Language Model (LLM) leader Cohere and is the only partner deploying Cohere’s models to global HR. Borderless AI has developed its proprietary data platform that augments Cohere’s LLM, putting trust and accuracy at the forefront of the technology.

“The HR industry is ripe for innovation and Borderless AI is one of those companies that has the rare combination of industry expertise, product innovation, and a deeply committed and capable founding team,” said Miyuki Matsumoto, Partner at Aglaé Ventures. “Globalization isn’t going anywhere and companies will rely on seamless technology like Borderless AI and Alberni to help them scale successfully on a global level. We strongly believe that AI agents for HR will become mainstream and we’re thrilled to be a part of this journey.”

With an increased demand in technologies that help companies navigate complex issues that arise from hiring international team members, such as employment agreements and employee tax forms, Borderless AI’s technology is a key differentiator in the EOR market, accelerating the future of work and allowing companies to understand complex queries that previously took days or weeks to navigate.

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