News.

CCPA fines Pladis Rs 1 lakh over Wholewheat claim

The CCPA fined Pladis India Rs 1 lakh over a Wholewheat claim on a biscuit that was 19.5 percent whole wheat flour and 52 percent maida, and held that a small disclaimer did not save it.

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Comet raises Rs 100 crore Series B led by Verlinvest

Comet raised Rs 100 crore at a Rs 535 crore post-money, and the plan attached to it is 10 stores this month against Rs 29 crore of FY25 revenue.

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SUGAR raises Rs 144.47 crore at a sharply lower mark

A91 Partners put Rs 144.47 crore into SUGAR Cosmetics at a Rs 433.6 crore pre-money, in a year when the brand's revenue fell about 20 percent and its net loss roughly doubled.

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HUL: 30,000 creators, most premium media on digital

More than 60 percent of premium brand media now goes to digital, and HUL has disclosed influencer activity covering 100 percent of its brands under an advocacy-led model.

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Cars24 revenue falls for a second straight year

The used-car marketplace booked Rs 5,092 crore of operating revenue in FY26, down about 18 percent, while trimming its net loss to Rs 441 crore.

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RentoMojo files RHP for Rs 1,255.6 crore IPO

The rental subscription company goes to market on FY26 profit that grew far faster than revenue, with an offer for sale that makes up almost 88 percent of the issue.

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Plum crosses Rs 500 crore revenue, profit roughly doubles

Revenue moved from Rs 402 crore to Rs 515 crore in FY26 and profit roughly doubled in the same year, which is not the usual shape for a beauty and personal care brand at this size.

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Ecommerce gets $48.23 million in a $954 million August

Indian startups raised about $954 million across 88 deals in August. Ecommerce took $48.23 million of that, spread across 12 deals.

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Zostel opens Zo Selections premium tier in Jaipur

Zostel has launched Zo Selections, a premium hospitality vertical, with the first property open in Jaipur and four more locations planned.

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Ultrahuman closes $70 million round led by Qualcomm

Qualcomm Ventures has led a $70 million Series C in Ultrahuman, a consumer hardware brand that reported a profit after tax in FY25.

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Mokobara Series C now reported at Rs 170 crore

Mokobara Series C is now reported at Rs 170 crore, above the Rs 90.66 crore recorded in its filings, with roughly Rs 80 crore of the round still unexplained.

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Good Flippin’ Burgers raising Rs 55 cr at Rs 480 cr

Revenue more than tripled across FY23 to FY25 and the loss line grew faster still. The new round funds more outlets on the bet that density fixes the second number.

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Influencer usage rights: a separate, steeper fee

The content fee and the right to run that content as paid media are now two separate negotiations, and the second one is being priced as a multiple of the first.

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UPI AutoPay mandates may become portable: report

If a customer moves their recurring mandate from one UPI app to another without cancelling it, a churn event you never caused disappears from your subscription numbers. That is what is being reported, not announced.

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Satvacart shuts down: profitable in 2019, still closed

An e-grocery company that demonstrated profitability in 2019 has closed after twelve years, and the reason given is that profitability at its scale was not what investors or acquirers were buying.

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FSSAI Prohibits Everest, Laljee Godhoo Hing Sales

FSSAI has stopped the sale of compounded hing made by Everest Food Products and Laljee Godhoo and Company, with immediate effect and till further orders. Any seller carrying those SKUs has a delisting job today, whoever manufactured them.

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Furlenco FY26 revenue Rs 370 Cr, profit up 19 times

Furlenco posted FY26 revenue from operations of Rs 370.43 crore and profit of Rs 59.52 crore, with 92% of revenue from furniture rental. The source does not reconcile the profit figure against reported total expenses.

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Meta’s India and Southeast Asia VP joins OpenAI

Sandhya Devanathan is leaving Meta for OpenAI after more than a decade. Her new remit covers Southeast Asia and Australia from Singapore, and does not include India.

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Uber, Eternal and Porter quit Karnataka gig board

Uber, Eternal and Porter have exited the Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers Welfare Board while Amazon India stays on. The exit reason is attributed to ET reporting, not confirmed by the companies.

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FSSAI proposes red hexagon warnings on packaged food

FSSAI has proposed a red hexagonal front-of-pack warning system for high sugar, saturated fat and salt, rolled out in two phases. The nutrient thresholds are not specified in the proposal as reported, and no implementation date has been given.

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FSSAI’s five claim words, and Nestle’s CEO backing

Nestle's global chief has backed FSSAI's line on misleading labels, and the specific claim words now under scrutiny are the part packaged food brands should act on.

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ChatGPT ads: what is actually left for agencies

WPP and Omnicom are the first agency partners on ChatGPT Ads in India, the arrangement is non-exclusive, and a self-serve buying model leaves an open question about what agencies are for here.

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Where ChatGPT ads sit and what data comes back

Ads sit below a ChatGPT response, labelled and visually separated from the answer, and advertisers get aggregate impressions and clicks rather than conversations.

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OpenAI opens ChatGPT Ads in India at Rs 725 a day

ChatGPT Ads is live in India for Free and Go tier users, with daily campaign budgets starting at Rs 725 and self-serve access to the Ads Manager opening on 4 September.

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Nitro lets Shopify sellers build apps by prompt

Nitro Commerce has launched Nitro Apps, which builds and installs private Shopify applications from a prompt, with more than 700 created during its private beta.

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Curaa raises Rs 40 Cr Series A led by 3one4 Capital

Two-year-old kitchenware brand Curaa has raised Rs 40 Cr to widen its range and build warehousing, with existing backers doubling down alongside 3one4 Capital.

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boAt FY26: profit up 38% as revenue slips

boAt lifted net profit 38% to Rs 84.5 Cr in FY26 while operating revenue fell to Rs 2,931 Cr, with wearables swinging to a segment profit.

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Flipkart Minutes edges past Instamart in CLSA count

A CLSA note puts Flipkart Minutes 12 stores ahead of Swiggy Instamart across India's top 10 cities, in a count that leaves out Amazon and JioMart entirely.

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Purple Style Labs: Rs 680 crore all-fresh-issue IPO

Purple Style Labs, parent of Pernia's Pop Up Shop, has filed its RHP for a Rs 680 crore IPO, up from Rs 660 crore, with no offer for sale. The largest use of proceeds is lease liabilities on its experience centre network.

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Epigamia: $20 Mn secondary, no fresh capital in

Verlinvest, the Mirchandani family and new entrant Sauce.vc have bought about $20 million of Epigamia shares from existing investors. It is a secondary transaction, so the company itself received no money.

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DealShare: sale talks reported as options narrow

Entrackr reports that DealShare is in acquisition talks with TrueMeds and Captain Fresh, citing unnamed sources who requested anonymity. No party contacted for the story confirmed anything, and no deal value is stated.

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AI ad spend by FY27: a forecast, not a finding

One practitioner expects AI to control 65 to 75 per cent of digital media spend by FY27. Another named in the same piece puts FY27 at 50 to 70 per cent. Neither number comes from a published report, and the only report-sourced figures measure something else.

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Dark stores become the shelf as festive ad rates rise

Six quick commerce platforms are processing around 9.5 million orders a day, and festive placement costs are rising to match. The dark store now works as shelf space, but the costs the reporting actually discloses are advertising costs, not rent.

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Amazon and Flipkart tighten seller fees before festive

Amazon has moved its seller cancellation charge to a percentage of order value and raises closing fees from 7 September. Flipkart's dispatch penalties went live on 23 August. Both changes land weeks before the festive peak, and the two published accounts do not agree on scope.

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SEBI proposes curbs on bond ad claim words

A SEBI consultation paper would make online bond platform providers back six named claim phrases with real information, with comments open until 11 September 2026.

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Amazon expands rail freight on the Western DFC

Amazon India has expanded operations on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor with Indian Railways and DFCCIL, with the first JPP-RCS train flagged off on 18 August 2026.

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DGFT frees atta, maida and rava exports

A DGFT notification moves wheat flour, maida, semolina and atta from prohibited to free, reopening a channel that has been shut since 2022.

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Colgate India puts 60 percent of ad money in digital

Advertising and promotion has moved from a historical 12 to 13 percent of sales to near 16 percent, and the majority of it is now pointed at digital.

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Third Wave Coffee raises Rs 408 crore led by WestBridge

The chain is funding nine new cities and a dessert line extension at once, off an FY25 P and L that lost Rs 94 crore on Rs 285 crore of operating revenue.

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Asaya raises Rs 88 crore at Rs 400 crore valuation

The D2C skincare brand is live on ten Indian platforms including all three major quick commerce apps, and says the next moves are deeper quick commerce and offline retail partnerships.

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Wakefit up 16.69 percent leads new-age tech stocks this week

PM Modi asks ministries to adopt Indian digital platforms

Colgate-Palmolive India names Manish Anandani MD and CEO

Ministry removes the 10 plus 2 TV advertising cap

FSSAI cancels Amazon warehouse licence, 150 plus notices issued

Accel and AVP sell Amagi shares in Rs 587.3 Cr block deals

Greenjoules raises Rs 62 Cr from Amazon and Singularity fund

Omega Seiki raises another Rs 50 Cr for Africa expansion

Battery Smart raises Rs 185.5 Cr Series C at Rs 4,075 Cr

Be Clinical raises Rs 21 Cr led by Sauce for clinical skincare

Zomato pilots Zomato Now food pods in Gurugram offices

Bata puts 45 percent of spends on digital, exits retainer creative

Festive quick commerce ad budgets rise 25 to 35 percent

CBI FIR names BluSmart founders in Rs 672 Cr IREDA case

MeitY notifies Rs 62,500 Cr mobile manufacturing scheme

Gurugram FIR over alleged pesticide sale through Meesho

SC directs Matrimony.com and Jodi365 to explore settlement

Zetwerk UDRHP: Rs 2,600 Cr fresh issue, 70% to debt

Upstox begins preliminary IPO talks, $400 Mn eyed: report