Spotify is nearing 700 million users, but experienced a $100 million loss in Q2 2025 due to increased expenses. The audio streaming platform added 18 million monthly active users (MAUs), marking an 11 per cent year-over-year growth, reaching a total of 696 million users. The increase was driven by growth in Latin America and the Rest of the World region.

Arpita Das, once told she’d never make it to Google, turned a harsh startup interview into fuel for success. Her viral story highlights resilience, the flaws in hiring bias, and the power of self-belief. Now a Google engineer, Arpita inspires young tech professionals, especially women, to push beyond doubt and redefine what ambition and potential truly look like.

India’s MSME Ministry has simplified its SPICE scheme, enabling micro and small enterprises to adopt green technologies with less paperwork and faster subsidy disbursal. A new portal lists 116 approved technologies, offering 25% subsidies on machinery costs. This move aims to onboard 3,400 MSEs by FY27, supporting cost savings, waste reduction, and circular economy adoption across key sectors.

4 Indian AI startups, CodeParrot, Subtl.ai, Wuri, and Locale.ai, shut down, citing funding gaps, scalability issues, and weak product-market fit. Despite early promise, they were unable to sustain momentum. Their closures signal a maturing GenAI ecosystem in India, where only differentiated, resilient ventures with real-world impact and robust revenue models are likely to survive the next wave.

India's leading D2C startups are redefining growth. They leverage customer data to personalize experiences, use influencer-led go-to-market (GTM) for trusted outreach, and maintain full control over their supply chains. By cutting out intermediaries, they preserve margins and speed up feedback loops. It reflects a shift toward agile, self-sustaining business models in India's evolving market.

A recent survey shows 67% of digital-first brands prioritize organic growth over paid ads. Why? It builds customer trust, improves retention, and reduces long-term acquisition costs. By focusing on SEO, community, and content, brands gain compounding traffic and defensible brand equity in competitive spaces.

Leading B2B companies report up to 5x revenue growth by aligning sales and marketing, using data-driven forecasting, and building long-term customer trust. Their strategies include centralised CRMs, marketing automation, and account-based targeting. These tools reduce friction in deal cycles and shift teams from transactional selling to strategic, value-driven partnerships.

Startups backed by corporate venture capital (CVC) often scale at double the speed compared to traditionally funded peers. This is not just due to funding, but access to industry connections, technical expertise, and regulatory support. CVC partnerships provide strategic advantages like faster go-to-market routes and operational mentorship, accelerating growth while reducing early-stage friction.

Studies suggest that 60% of today's jobs could have at least one-third of their tasks automated. But this is not about job loss; it is about redefining work. Automation is shifting human roles toward tasks requiring creativity, problem-solving, and strategic thinking. This transformation demands updated workforce training to align skills with emerging human-AI collaboration models.

There is an Indian startup named Velocity that is trying to fix logistics issues with Shipfast, it's an AI powered shipping aggregation platform. It uses automation and voice AI to handle operational gaps. The system verifies addresses before dispatch, nudges customers to convert COD orders into prepaid, and automates re-attempts for failed deliveries.