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AgroStar raises $30M from climate-focused investor Just Climate
Technology

AgroStar raises $30M from climate-focused investor Just Climate

Agritech startup AgroStar on Thursday said it raised $30 million in fresh equity funding from climate-focused investor Just Climate, with participation from existing backers. Founded in 2013 by brothers Sitanshu and Shardul Sheth, AgroStar operates an agri-commerce and advisory platform, reaching more than 10 million farmers through nearly 10,000 retail outlets and a direct-to-farmer digital app. The startup sells over 200 branded farm-input products and provides real-time agronomy guidance through its AI systems. It will use the capital to expand its omnichannel presence, develop new products across its input and output businesses, and step up investments in AI tools that power its advisory and distribution network. “Indian agriculture stands at a critical juncture—climate variability and degraded soils threaten our farmers’ livelihoods,” CEO Shardul Sheth said. “Partnering with Just Climate brings far more than capital; they bring deep expertise in scaling natural climate solutions.” Just Climate said the investment marks its first India bet under its global natural climate solutions strategy. “Indian agriculture is a key priority for our strategy, both from the perspective of climate and nature action, as well as to ensure a just transition for people,” said Siddarth Shrikanth, Director at Just Climate. “We are delighted to be backing AgroStar.” The startup uses a proprietary AI system to give real-time, personalised agronomic recommendations to farmers, including guidance on fertiliser usage, water management, soil health, pest/disease management and crop-stage interventions, which helps improve yields while reducing unnecessary input spend. According to independent surveys cited by the company, 81% of its users reported higher production, and 53% said cultivation costs dropped. In FY25, the firm helped farmers save 276 billion litres of water and cut 120,000 metric tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions by reducing chemical-fertiliser usage. Accel Partner Prashanth Prakash, an early investor, said the founders had “reimagined Indian agriculture from the ground up.” “Our conviction in the team has only grown stronger over the years as they continue to prove that real, lasting change in Indian agriculture comes from building trust, delivering value, and staying rooted in the farmer’s reality,” he said. (Edited by Suman Singh)

Urban Company spends to defend turf as Snabbit, Pronto chase ‘instant help’ boom
Technology

Urban Company spends to defend turf as Snabbit, Pronto chase ‘instant help’ boom

Urban Company is looking to tighten its grip on India’s fast-evolving home-services market just as a wave of upstarts backed by venture capital begins to crowd its turf. Startups, including Snabbit and Pronto, have lured tens of millions of dollars to chase the same instant help-at-home opportunity that Urban Company is already trying to turn into a mass habit. The newly listed company is spending to defend its lead. Despite revenue rising 23.7% year-on-year in Q2 FY26 for its India consumer services (excluding Instahelp), profitability sharply deteriorated. Adjusted EBITDA dropped 61.4%, from Rs 26.2 crore in Q2 FY25 to just Rs 10.1 crore this quarter. “This decline is a result of deliberate investments we have made in training, audit, customer support, new user acquisition led by brand marketing, investments towards faster fulfilment, and investments in technology and AI,” CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal told investors in the earnings call. Between FY23 and FY25, Urban Company lifted margins from negative 9.7% to positive 3.3%. Now, the company is treating FY26 as a “period of reinvestment” to build a “long-term compounding core” Much of that reinvestment is flowing into Instahelp, the company's newest and most ambitious bet. Unlike Urban Company's traditional occasional services—a plumber once a month, a beautician for a wedding—Instahelp offers daily housekeeping: maids and domestic help who come to your home regularly. It's this high-frequency service that directly competes with what Snabbit and Pronto offer. In just eight months, Instahelp scaled to 4.7 lakh monthly orders, but it’s bleeding cash: Rs 44 crore in adjusted EBITDA losses this quarter alone. “We recognise that these investments impact short-term profitability, but the opportunity in Instahelp is both significant and immediate,” he said. The vertical has lost over Rs 52 crore this financial year. Urban Company believes it’s worth it. “We see Instahelp as a long-term investment, one that deepens customer engagement with our app, improves the frequency of usage, and also expands our overall time,” Bhal told analysts. That logic now faces its toughest test yet. Snabbit, founded in 2024, just raised $30 million at a $180 million valuation, claiming to deliver home help within 10 minutes through a 5,000-strong, women-led fleet across five cities. Pronto, also launched in 2024, secured $11 million in August this year from General Catalyst and Glade Brook Capital to expand its “shift-based” model that promises reliability by controlling the entire labour supply chain. Both companies are targeting Urban Company’s core demographic: dual-income urban professionals who can't spare much time for chores. Urban Company’s leadership seems unfazed, at least publicly. “The category is early and evolving. We would like to continue to deliver great customer experiences and firmly cement this market leadership, just as we have in our core services business,” Bhal said during the Q&A. The company's strategy hinges on what it calls "micro-market densification"—packing enough customers and service partners into the same neighbourhood so jobs can be matched nearby, reducing travel time and idle periods for workers. In practice, that approach improves partner utilisation, measured by the average number of paid hours a worker spends on jobs each month. Urban Company says utilisation has climbed from 59 hours per month in FY22 to 89 hours in the first half of FY26, driven by tighter clustering of demand and supply. "As we densify micro markets, our service professionals spend less time waiting for jobs or travelling between jobs and more time inside consumers' homes," Bhal explained. The company pointed to an early proof: in its most mature neighbourhoods, the top 5% of service partners are already clocking 150 hours per month—nearly double the platform average. (Edited by Kanishk Singh)

Diwali spending: UPI tops Rs 1 lakh Cr on Dhanteras, cards left behind
Technology

Diwali spending: UPI tops Rs 1 lakh Cr on Dhanteras, cards left behind

Indians transferred over six lakh crore rupees through UPI during this year's Diwali week, cementing the homegrown digital payment system's dominance over credit and debit. Dhanteras—the auspicious day when Indians traditionally purchase gold and other valuables—emerged as the undisputed peak of the spending surge. UPI transactions topped Rs 1 lakh crore on Dhanteras. Compared with last year’s Diwali week in late October 2024, total UPI spending jumped more than 13%, while transaction volumes climbed nearly 28%. On Dhanteras itself, year-on-year value growth was 17.5%, with volumes up by a third. Traditional cards told a starkly different story. Combined credit and debit card spending totalled Rs 44,691 crore during the festival week, down more than 5% from Rs 47,164 crore last year. The decline cut across channels—physical store transactions fell 4% to Rs 21,575 crore, while ecommerce card spending dropped over 6% to Rs 23,116 crore. The shift underscores how deeply UPI has penetrated Indian consumer behaviour. What began as a pandemic convenience has evolved into the dominant payment rail, with its instant, free transfers. UPI now accounts for about 85% of all digital payment transactions in India, processing roughly twenty billion transactions monthly worth over $280 billion, according to RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra. Non-metro cities drove this year's online shopping boom, accounting for nearly three-quarters of total ecommerce volume. Tier III cities alone contributed over 50% of all orders, according to logistics platform ClickPost's analysis of 4.25 crore shipments. Food delivery platforms reported doubling their order volumes, with vegetarian and thali orders jumping 40% during Navratri. The government's GST reforms, which slashed rates on 375 items from toothpaste to cars just before Diwali, also helped buoy spending this year. (Edited by Jyoti Narayan)