Techi

Stimuler, an AI-powered language learning platform, has secured $3.75Mn in Pre-Series A funding, with participation led by Lightspeed and SWC Global. The fresh capital infusion also included participation from additional investors including MVP, Rebright, Force Ventures, GradCapital, and Operators Studio. Majority of the proceeds from the fresh funding round will be deployed towards scaling up its proprietary AI infrastructure, as well as recruiting for its technical team in order to support the platform’s growing base of users. The company plans to increase monetization by more than five times in the next 12 to 18 months. “At Stimuler, our goal is simple, to make fluent English speaking accessible to people worldwide. This funding allows us to deepen our investment in AI infrastructure, expand our reach across LATAM and SEA, and move closer to becoming the #1 education app in these key markets. We believe our India-to-the-world and voice-first approach positions us uniquely to addr...

High Court in the Indian state of Karnataka, has now directed the Federal Government to initiate proceedings aimed at blocking Proton Mail, the encrypted email service, across India. This comes after a legal petition was filed in Bengaluru accusing Proton Mail of being involved in facilitating cyber harassment against its employees. The petitioners claim that Proton Mail was being misused to send abusive and obscene emails targeting senior female employees at the company. The emails allegedly contained explicit content, including AI-generated deepfake images, and were circulated to employees, clients, vendors, and even competitors. The firm argued that the harassment caused serious reputational damage to the company and emotional distress to its employees. At the heart of this case is Proton Mail’s use of end-to-end encryption, which ensures that only the sender and recipient of an email can access its contents. Encrypted email providers like Proton Mail offer anonymity and end-to-e...

E-commerce behemoth Amazon has now marked a major milestone in its ambitious ‘Project Kuiper’ initiative by successfully launching 27 satellites into low Earth orbit (~ 280 miles or 450 kilometers above Earth). From there, these satellites manoeuvre themselves to move higher up into space, reaching their final position at about 392 miles (630 kilometers) above Earth. These satellites were deployed via a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Each satellite is equipped with optical inter-satellite links (OISLs), allowing them to communicate with one another using infrared lasers. These links can maintain data transfer speeds of up to 100 Gbps over distances up to 2,600 kilometers, even as satellites travel at speeds of around 25,000 km/h. Notably, Earth orbit satellites aimed at providing high-speed global internet service, positioning it as a competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink. Project Kuiper is Amazon’s $10 billion initiative to deploy a constellati...

After Meta AI, OpenAI is now under renewed scrutiny after it was revealed that a flaw in its ChatGPT platform allowed users registered as minors to access sexually explicit content. A report by TechCrunch reveals that the popular AI chatbot, under certain conditions, generated erotic conversations for accounts indicating users under the age of 18. OpenAI has acknowledged the issue, attributing it to a “bug,” and stated that measures are being taken to rectify the problem. The incident appears to be linked to recent adjustments in OpenAI’s content moderation policies. Earlier this year, in February, the company had announced a few changes, and made ChatGPT more permissive regarding sensitive topics. This included the removal of certain warning messages that previously alerted users about potential violations of the company’s terms of service. According to OpenAI’s Head of Product, Nick Turley, the changes aimed to reduce “gratuitous/unexplainable denials.” However, this shift has ha...

China’s Alibaba Group is now making its latest offering in the AI sector with its new Qwen3 model series. The Qwen3 series includes both dense and mixture-of-experts (MoE) models, with parameter counts ranging from 0.6 billion to 235 billion (in the AI field, larger parameter counts generally correlate with higher problem-solving capabilities). “Today, we are excited to announce the release of Qwen3, the latest addition to the Qwen family of large language models. Our flagship model, Qwen3-235B-A22B, achieves competitive results in benchmark evaluations of coding, math, general capabilities, etc., when compared to other top-tier models such as DeepSeek-R1, o1, o3-mini, Grok-3, and Gemini-2.5-Pro. Additionally, the small MoE model, Qwen3-30B-A3B, outcompetes QwQ-32B with 10 times of activated parameters, and even a tiny model like Qwen3-4B can rival the performance of Qwen2.5-72B-Instruct,” read an official blog post on the matter. Introducing Qwen3! We release and open-weight Qwe...

Popular home services upstart Urban Company has become the latest Indian tech startup to gear up for its public debut. The Gurugram-based firm has formally filed its draft papers for an initial public offering (IPO) valued at ₹1,900 crore ($223 million). The move, backed by major investors including Tiger Global and Bessemer Venture Partners, and will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth ₹429 crore, while existing investors are set to offload stakes amounting to ₹1,471 crore. According to the firm’s DRHP filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), it intends to deploy more than half of the proceeds from the fresh issue toward developing its tech capabilities, especially enhancing its cloud infrastructure and tech offerings. Additionally, portions of the funds will be used for leasing new office spaces and ramping up marketing efforts. The share sale by existing investors involves prominent stakeholders such as Accel India and Elevation Capital, who hold stakes of ...

Meta is yet again facing scrutiny over how its platform continues to falter on security of its underage users, following a disturbing report by The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ reports that the company’s AI chatbots were engaging in sexually explicit roleplay, even with accounts identified as underage users. The investigation found that both the official Meta AI chatbot and user-created chatbots on Facebook and Instagram (both Meta-owned platforms) participated in sexually charged conversations (“romantic role-play”), sometimes even initiating them, despite indications that the users were minors. And if this is not enough, it seems that the idea of using celebrity voices – intended to popularize Meta’s AI companions by lending them familiarity and credibility – has backfired. Reports reveal that some of the chatbots involved used celebrity voices licensed by Meta, including those of John Cena, Kristen Bell, and Judi Dench. In one instance, a chatbot using Cena’s voice told an account...

India is making a major move to build its own sovereign AI model, one that can stand alongside big global AI giants like ChatGPT (from the US-based OpenAI) and DeepSeek (from China). The government has selected Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI to lead the development of the nation’s first sovereign large language model (LLM) under the IndiaAI Mission. Notably, this initiative aims to establish an indigenous AI model capable of advanced reasoning, speech processing, and fluency in Indian languages. To facilitate this project, Sarvam AI will be provided with access to 4,086 NVIDIA H100 GPUs over a six-month period, enabling the startup to build the LLM from the ground up. The development will contain three distinct variants – ‘Sarvam-Large’ for complex reasoning and generation tasks, ‘Sarvam-Small’ for real-time interactive applications, and ‘Sarvam-Edge’ for on-device operations. In collaboration with AI4Bharat (IIT Madras), Sarvam AI aims to ensure that the models are deeply rooted in Indi...

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has announced its financial results for Q4 of the fiscal year 2025. The company has reported a consolidated net profit of $2.3 Bn (~₹19,407 crore) for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2025, marking a 2% year-on-year increase, surpassing analysts’ expectations of ₹18,877 crore. Revenue from operations for the quarter stood at ₹2.64 lakh crore, reflecting a 10% increase compared to the same period last year. In fact, EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) for the quarter increased by 3.6% year-on-year to ₹48,737 crore. This growth was primarily fueled by the strong performance of the company’s retail and digital services arms, which offset challenges in its oil-to-chemicals (O2C) division. However, the EBITDA margin declined to 16.9% from 17.8% in the corresponding period (Q4) of the previous financial year. Jio holds strong Particularly in the digital services segment, Jio Platforms continued it...

Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, has delivered its earnings report for the first quarter of 2025, exceeding market expectations on both revenue and profit. Its revenue for the quarter amounted to $90.2 billion, beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $89.2 billion. Net income surged to $34.5 billion, amounting to diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.81 and beating the estimated $2.01. Advertising remains the backbone of Alphabet’s revenue model – generating a total of $66.9 billion in revenue for the quarter ended March 31. Its Search advertising business generated $50.7 billion, up from $46.2 billion in the same quarter last year and marking an annual growth of 9.8%. Meanwhile, revenue from YouTube advertising amounted to $8.93 billion. Alphabet’s operating income for the quarter amounted to $30.6 billion. while operating margin rose to 34%. “We’re pleased with our strong Q1 results, which reflect healthy growth and momentum across the business. Underpinning th...

Streaming giant Netflix has set its sights on reaching a market capitalization of $1 trillion, according to co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Speaking at a recent conference, Sarandos revealed that the streaming service giant currently holds just 5% of global consumer spending in the entertainment segments it operates in. He announced this as evidence of “enormous room to grow, just in the thing that we do.” Over the last five years, Netflix has doubled its revenue, clocked a 10x growth on its grown profits, and tripled its market valuation, according to Sarandos. These financial achievements, he stated, confirm a clear “path” toward the trillion-dollar valuation goal. However, he stressed that future progress remains “incredibly dependent on executing well.” This development comes at a time when Netflix is not abandoning its core streaming business but instead branching into adjacent sectors to diversify its revenue streams. So far, the streaming service giant has rolled out a library of mobile...

Elon Musk’s neural interface technology company Neuralink, is now reportedly looking to raise around $500 million in a new funding round, aiming for a pre-money valuation of $8.5 billion. The company has initiated preliminary discussions with potential investors, though the terms of the deal have not been finalized yet, reports Bloomberg. Since its inception in 2016, the company has secured over $680 million across several funding rounds. The most recent funding happened in August 2023, when the company raised $323 million in a Series D round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. At that time, the company was estimated to be valued at $5 billion. The neurotechnology company mainly focused on developing implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). The company’s primary aim is to make devices that enable direct communication between the human brain and external technologies, like computers and artificial intelligence systems. Its flagship device – the N1 implant – consists of ultra-th...

Social media company Meta has now decided to expand ads on Threads, its text-based social networking platform, to global advertisers. This development marks a shift for Threads, which was introduced in mid-2023 and has since emerged as a key challenger to Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter). The rollout will make Threads accessible to brands and businesses in over 30 markets worldwide, including the US. “To help people deepen connections with businesses they love, we are expanding ads in Threads to all eligible advertisers globally, as well as access to inventory filter. This new placement—Threads feed—will be on by default for new campaigns using either Advantage+ or Manual Placements. Advertisers have the option to opt out of Threads feed via Manual Placements. These ads will be delivered in select markets at launch and will roll out to additional markets as we continue to test and learn,” the company announced . Initially launched with a pilot advertising program limited to the US a...

Xiaomi’s push into the electric vehicle (EV) sector has hit a major speed bump. The Chinese electronics giant, which is more widely known for its lineup of smartphones, has now pushed back the launch of its highly-anticipated mid-size YU7 electric sport utility vehicle (SUV), which was originally slated for sometime later this year, in the wake of an accident involving its maiden EV, the SU7 sedan. Xiaomi has yet to issue a detailed public statement on the investigation into the accident or the specific technical aspects of the vehicle’s autopilot system. Prior to the recent developments, the YU7 SUV had been touted as a potential strong rival to Tesla’s popular Model Y in China, and many expected the YU7 to build on the momentum of the SU7. Now, according to media reports, which state sources familiar with the company’s internal plans, Xiaomi will no longer proceed with the scheduled June or July launch of the YU7 SUV (which has been in the works since mid-2024), and a new launch da...

Elon Musk-owned Tesla’s financial performance in the first quarter (January-March period) of 2025 has been expectedly weak, with net income dropping by 71% to $409 million from $1.39 billion in the same period the previous year. Its total revenue also declined by 9% to $19.3 billion (from $21 billion in Q1 2024), even dropping short of Wall Street’s expectations of $21.5 billion. This marks Tesla’s weakest quarterly performance since 2022. In the first quarter of this year, the company’s automotive revenue (the income generated from vehicle sales) dropped to $13.9 billion, marking a 20% decline from $17.4 billion in the same period the previous year. At the same time, the Musk-led company made $595 million from selling regulatory credits, and that money helped make its financial results look better. The company’s gross margins (earnings for each dollar of revenue) have also narrowed, dropping to 16.3% from 17.4% in the previous year. Interestingly, the downturn is attributed to a c...

Bengaluru-headquartered EV startup Ather Energy, backed by Hero Group, has now revised its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) by reducing the size of the offering by 18%. According to the new draft prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Ather Energy now intends to raise ₹2,626 crore (about $308.3 million) from the IPO. This is significantly lower than the initial target of ₹3,100 crore set when the company first announced its plans for a public listing. The company had originally sought a post-money valuation between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. However, following the reduction in its offering, Ather is now targeting a valuation of $1.4 billion, according to media reports. The IPO will open for subscription on April 28 and will close today days later, on April 30. Prior to this, anchor investors will have the opportunity to bid in a private placement on April 25. The price band for the shares is expected to be disclosed shortly before the IPO...

Flipkart is now returning home. The Indian e-commerce company, majority-owned by Walmart, has announced plans to move its headquarters back to India from Singapore. This decision seems to be part of the company’s preparation for an initial public offering (IPO) on Indian stock exchanges, which is expected within the next year. Flipkart, which was founded in Bengaluru in 2007, was initially a modest online bookstore that eventually transformed into one of India’s leading e-commerce platforms. It had initially moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2011. This decision was driven by several factors, including the desire to attract more foreign investments and capitalize on favorable tax conditions. At that time, India’s bureaucratic hurdles and political challenges presented major challenges for startups, which prompted the shift. Now, the company is returning to its roots. For its part, Flipkart explained that its decision to relocate its headquarters back to India represents a “natu...

Amid escalating trade tensions and shifting tariff regimes, Google parent Alphabet has reportedly decided a shift the manufacturing strategy for its Google Pixel smartphones. Following Apple’s cues , US govt’s tariff decision has prompted the tech giant to consider relocating a major portion of Pixel production from Vietnam to India (which now presents a more stable alternative). For now, the tech company is reportedly in talks with electronics manufacturers – including domestic firm Dixon Technologies and Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn. US government’s had impose steep tariffs — 46% on imports from Vietnam (though it paused enforcement for 90 days starting April 9), compared to a relatively lower 26% on goods from India. While Alphabet had previously aimed to gradually scale up Pixel production in India over a span of two to three years, sources familiar with the matter indicate that the tariff situation has led the company to accelerate its plans. The near-term focus appears to be...

Two major South Korean electronics companies, LG and Samsung, have initiated legal proceedings against the Indian government over new e-waste recycling regulations. The companies have filed petitions in the Delhi High Court seeking to overturn a policy that mandates minimum payments to electronic waste recyclers, making them the latest among a growing group of firms that are pushing back against India’s environmental regulations, which they argue impose excessive financial burdens upon them. The policy at the center of the lawsuits was introduced by India’s central government in an attempt to formalize and incentivize the e-waste recycling sector. Under the new rules, companies must pay a fixed floor price — ₹22 per kilogram — for the recycling of consumer electronics, and a higher rate of ₹34 per kilogram for smartphones. According to the government, these payments are intended to attract formal players to a sector still largely dominated by informal scrap dealers and to increase in...

OpenAI had first introduced its o3 reasoning model in December, promoting it as having strong mathematical reasoning capabilities, especially when evaluated on benchmark datasets such as FrontierMath. However, reality now paints a different picture, and discrepancies between OpenAI’s internal testing and recent third-party results have sparked scrutiny over the transparency and consistency of the company’s performance claims. At the time of its introduction, o3 was stated to come with the ability to solve more than 25% of questions on FrontierMath, a dataset designed to test complex mathematical reasoning. This performance was significantly higher than other models at the time, which reportedly managed only around 2%. Mark Chen, Chief Research Officer at OpenAI, publicly stated during the model’s launch that, “Today, all offerings out there have less than 2% [on FrontierMath]. We’re seeing [internally], with o3 in aggressive test-time compute settings, we’re able to get over 25%.” ...

Precision Neuroscience, a prominent rival of Elon Musk-owned Neuralink, has announced that its brain-computer interface (BCI) system has received ‘Breakthrough Device’ designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This technology is designed to read brain signals (the tiny electrical impulses the human brain uses to send information) and then translate those signals into commands that can control things like a computer, tablet, or even robotic limbs. The FDA-approved flagship product – named ‘Layer 7 Cortical Interface’ – is a very thin, flexible device that is designed to sit directly on the surface of the brain, not deep inside it. It contains 1,024 electrodes within a one-square-centimetre area, embedded in a film thinner than a human hair. This design allows for high-resolution mapping of brain activity while minimizing invasiveness. In fact, with the FDA’s approval, the company is now allowed to legally provide its brain implant (Layer 7 Cortical Interface) for us...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed that he has been in talks with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, where both leaders revisited earlier discussions held in Washington DC and explored new avenues of cooperation in “technology and innovation”. Modi announced the development through a post on social media platform X. “Spoke to @elonmusk and talked about various issues, including the topics we covered during our meeting in Washington DC earlier this year. We discussed the immense potential for collaboration in the areas of technology and innovation. India remains committed to advancing our partnerships with the US in these domains,” Modi stated on the erstwhile Twitter. Spoke to @elonmusk and talked about various issues, including the topics we covered during our meeting in Washington DC earlier this year. We discussed the immense potential for collaboration in the areas of technology and innovation. India remains committed to advancing our… — Narendra Modi (@narendram...