Agentic AI Platform War, The Second-Screen Economy & More

Battle For Agentic AI’s Core Layer

The recent launch of NVIDIA’s NeMoClaw has officially turned the agentic AI race into a platform war. By debuting its agentic framework, the chip giant is moving beyond hardware to own the software layer. So, what is this new war for the AI operating system?

Architecture Of Autonomy: Enterprises are moving past simple chatbots to autonomous agents, which can execute multi-step business workflows. While building these from scratch is resource-heavy, agentic frameworks provide pre-built functions to hasten the creation, management, and orchestration of  AI agents. 

With NVIDIA joining the likes of big tech giants like Microsoft and Google to become the industry standard in the space, where does India stand in all of this?

India’s Moment? While Silicon Valley is building foundational AI models, Indian startups are winning at the orchestration and application layers. So, who is doing what?

• Razorpay: Its Agentic AI Studio allows partners like Swiggy and Zomato to deploy agents that can place orders and trigger payments.
• Gnani.ai: The startup recently launched Inya, a platform designed to help enterprises rapidly build and deploy voice agents.
• Bolna AI: It enables enterprises to deploy multilingual voice agents across different call scenarios. 
• Squadstack: The Delhi NCR-based startup is building orchestration capabilities for production-grade deployments, focused on customer experience workflows.

The concentration of Indian new-age tech companies in this layer can be attributed to relatively lower entry barriers, faster paths to monetisation and high-context use cases.

The Monetisation Puzzle: The real prize in the framework wars isn’t just tool adoption, it’s owning the gateway to enterprise AI. As such, revenue models are shifting from flat subscriptions to usage fees, outcome-linked pricing and indirect monetisation, which offer the framework for free to drive consumption of underlying GPUs and applications.

As the landscape consolidates, the winners will be those who balance high-quality models with the guardrails of enterprise security. So, can Indian startups govern the future of business intelligence? Let’s find out… 

From The Editor’s Desk

The Second-Screen Economy Takes Off

• In 2026, IPL is officially moving beyond the realm of a mere TV spectacle to an AI ecosystem, where the primary screen is now just one part of a multi-layered experience. The tournament is heralding the rise of the second-screen economy.
• To cash in on the second-screen frenzy, Dream11 has lined up 100+ creators for its watchalong offering and is projecting to cross nearly 5 Cr users during the ongoing tournament.
• The IPL 2026 season will also likely see streaming platforms pull all stops to monetise second-screen streams with features like real-time shoppable videos and hyper-personalised promotional offers.

Weekly Startup Funding Rundown

• Indian startups cumulatively secured $342.8 Mn across 25 deals last week, up 50% from $228.4 Mn raised across 22 deals in the preceding week. Euler Motors and Rocketlane took home the biggest cheques at $73 Mn and $60 Mn, respectively.
• Cleantech topped the sectoral funding charts last week with a total infusion of $82 Mn. Meanwhile, ecommerce clocked the highest numbers of deals at five, raising $44 Mn.
• Seed funding declined 73% week-on-week to $3.5 Mn last week. Alteria Capital and Blume Ventures emerged as the most active investors last week, backing three startups each.

Rentomojo Files DRHP

• The furniture and appliance rental startup has filed its DRHP with SEBI for an IPO, which will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth up to ₹150 Cr and an OFS of up to 2.84 Cr shares.
• Meanwhile, RentoMojo cofounder and ex-COO Ajay Nain has moved the NCLT to halt the company’s proposed IPO, alleging oppression and mismanagement.
• Founded in 2014, RentoMojo operates a subscription-based platform for renting appliances and home essentials. It operates in 22 cities across India. The startup’s profits stood at ₹61.4 Cr in H1 FY26 against an operating revenue of ₹176.6 Cr.

Bear Grips New-Age Tech Stocks

• Startup stocks remained under selling pressure amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia. Forty one out of the 55 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage fell in a range of 0.2% to close to 16% this week, while 14 stocks gained between 0.34% to over 5%. 
• Fino Payments Bank and Traxcn emerged as the biggest losers last week, while Menhood and ixigo were the biggest gainers.
• As a result, the market capitalisation of the 55 new-age tech companies declined to $116.31 Bn at the end of last week as against $119.46 Bn a week ago.

Bellatrix Aerospace Bags $20 Mn

• The spacetech startup has bagged ₹189.7 Cr in its Pre-Series B round led by Cactus Partners to shore up customer deployments, expand its manufacturing capabilities and strengthen operations.
• Founded in 2015, Bellatrix builds a range of propulsion technologies for low earth orbit and geostationary satellites. It has secured $31 Mn to date.
• The funding comes amid growing investor interest in the spacetech space. The sector raised $157 Mn last year, up from $81 Mn in 2024. This has come on the back of rising regulatory push, launch of a state-backed deeptech fund and innovative local solutions.

RBI’s Payments Vision For 2028

• The central bank has released the vision document to promote inclusivity and deepen trust in India’s digital payments ecosystem over the next three years. Under this, RBI plans to focus on cross-border payments, explore electronic cheques, among others.
• The RBI has also proposed a framework for interoperability in the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS). It also plans to introduce a cyber key risk indicators framework to enhance security in the digital payments landscape. 
• Additionally, the central bank will work on a shared responsibility model, where both the customer’s bank and the recipient’s bank share liability in case of fraud. Right now, the responsibility largely sits with the customer’s bank.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

Can S45 Disrupt Merchant Banking With AI?

India’s listing boom has created a paradoxical crisis. While thousands of companies are now IPO-ready, the traditional investment banking industry remains trapped in a manual, high-cost boutique model. Trying to solve this problem is S45, a startup revamping IPOs with AI. 

The AI Analyst Layer: Founded in 2025, S45 is replacing human hierarchy with an AI-native stack. By automating data ingestion and document drafting, S45 claims it can evaluate a company’s financials in 90 minutes, a process that typically takes legacy banks 10 days. Its AI agents then utilise the information to build drafts, and validate outputs. The final layer is where the human enters the loop, making edits as required to move the deal forward.

Targeting The Middle Market: While giants focus on billion-dollar mandates, S45 is carving a niche in the ₹50-500 Cr range. The startup’s lean team of 12 has already facilitated 26 SME IPOs, cumulatively raising over ₹1,120 Cr. By operating at a 30% cost discount compared to traditional peers, the company is positioning itself as the go-to partner for high-growth SMEs looking to list on the bourses.

The Hybrid Model: Despite the AI-native branding, S45 emphasises that AI handles the grunt work, while humans remain at the judgment layer. This hybrid approach has helped the firm clock $2 Mn in revenue within eight months of inception, with a target of $10 Mn for the upcoming fiscal year as it expands into M&A and private placements. 

So, can S45 shrink the timeline of public listings from months to weeks with AI?

Infographic Of The Day

Swiggy and Zomato have raised platform fees from ₹2 to ₹17.58 in just 3 years— a 600% hike, rolled out so gradually that most users barely blinked. But that is not a coincidence, but their playbook…

The post Agentic AI Platform War, The Second-Screen Economy & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.