Domestic Funds To The Rescue, GobbleCube Nets $15 Mn & More

Domestic Funds Double Down On Indian Startups

Indian mutual funds and AIFs have stepped in to back Indian startups as foreign investors take a back seat due to geopolitical tensions. Domestic mutual funds (MFs) are cushioning the blow and increasing their exposure to giants like Eternal and Paytm. 

Eternal’s Shot In The Arm: Foreign portfolio investors slashed their holdings in Eternal from 47.3% to 32.6%, marked by the total exits of the Kuwait Investment Authority and Antfin Singapore. Countering this were domestic giants like SBI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund, which built sizeable positions exceeding 3.5% each in the company. 

Giants like Motilal Oswal and Aditya Birla Sun Life also added fresh exposure, while existing backers also scaled up and meaningfully increased their stakes. 

Paytm In A Similar Ship:  This trend emerged at Paytm too, where foreign holdings slipped to 49.4%, officially making it an Indian owned and controlled company (IOCC) for the first time. With domestic investors now holding 50.3% of Paytm, the fintech major has somewhat decoupled its cap table from foreign volatility.

Behind The Shift: The domestic institutional confidence is anchored in healthy fiscal performance. Eternal reported a 73% YoY profit jump in Q3, fuelled by Blinkit crossing the ₹10,000 Cr quarterly revenue mark and turning adjusted EBITDA positive. Similarly, Paytm solidified its recovery, posting a net profit of ₹225 Cr in Q3 on the back of its lending and payment momentum. 

The domestic buy-in suggests that Indian fund managers are no longer viewing these companies as speculative startups, but as mature, cash-generating pillars of the digital economy. While we keep an eye on who else will benefit from this boost, here is what’s driving local conviction in Eternal and Paytm. Let’s find out…

From The Editor’s Desk

GobbleCube Nets $15 Mn

• The analytics startup has raised nearly ₹139 Cr in its Series A round led by Susquehanna Venture Capital to enhance its AI capabilities, expand the footprint in the US and China, and ramp up hiring.
• Founded in 2022, GobbleCube offers an AI copilot that helps brands increase sales across online marketplaces by identifying revenue leaks, demand gaps, and high-growth micro-markets. Including the current round, it has bagged $20 Mn to date.
• The startup claims to have so far onboarded over 400 brands, including names like HUL, Nivea, Tata Consumer Products and ITC. It claims to have clocked a 10X revenue growth over the past year.

EMT Boss Pledges More Shares

• EaseMyTrip cofounder and chairman Nishant Pitti has pledged another 6.86 Cr shares, worth ₹55 Cr, to Motilal Oswal Financial Services. The pledge, which has been created for “personal use”, represents about 15% of the total 45.4 Cr shares held by Pitti. 
• With this, Pitti has so far pledged 44.87 Cr shares of the company, representing 98.89% of his total holding and 12.34% of EaseMyTrip’s total share capital.
• The pledges come as the OTA is trying to douse fires on multiple fronts. Its ticketing vertical is witnessing a slowdown, which has resulted in stagnant revenues and declining profits. On top of this, its bevy of acquisitions over the past few years is yet to take off.

Nexus Sells More Delhivery Shares

• The VC firm sold 40 Lakh shares of the logistics major worth ₹186 Cr via multiple block deals yesterday. Shares that flooded the market were lapped up by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Edelweiss, Nippon India and others.
• This comes barely a week after Nexus Venture Partners offloaded a much larger ₹530 Cr stake in the company via block deals. Since Delhivery’s listing in 2022, the VC firm has steadily trimmed its stake in the company from over 10% to 6.76% currently. 
• The sales come amid a strong run in Delhivery’s stock. This has come on the back of the company reporting strong revenues, improving profits, and expanding volumes and market share.

New Ecommerce Export Model On The Anvil?

• The Centre is evaluating a new ecommerce export model, under which marketplaces will be required to maintain separate warehouses for domestic and international inventory. This move aims to ensure exports are not pushed into the local market.
• The proposed framework also mandates foreign-funded ecommerce platforms to set up a separate Indian entity to purchase goods from local sellers for exports. This likely opens the door for enabling foreign direct investment in ecommerce exports.
• Ecommerce accounts for just 1% of India’s total exports. But the Centre is taking active steps, including setting up export hubs, sops and a proposed ₹10,000 Cr fund, to spur manufacturing and boost ecommerce exports to $100 Bn by 2030.

Big Techs Pulled Up Over Deepfakes

• The Gujarat HC has issued notices to global tech giants, including Meta, Google, X and Reddit, in connection with a case related to deepfakes hosted on these platforms. The Court has directed the intermediaries to file their responses by May 8.
• The PIL seeks a regulatory framework to curb the spread of deepfake content. It also warned that the widespread creation and circulation of AI-generated videos posed a serious threat to public order and the functioning of a healthy democracy.
• During the hearing, both the Centre and the Gujarat government maintained that the legal framework is already in place to curb deepfakes, but highlighted gaps in enforcement due to delays and non-compliance by intermediaries.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

Can DAAKit Reinvent Quick Commerce Logistics?

Quick commerce is reshaping how Indians buy everyday products, but entering the channel is still expensive and operationally complex for D2C brands. DAAKit is trying to remove this friction for businesses with its full-stack logistics solutions.

Solving The Infra Gap: Founded in 2024, DAAKit’s infrastructure stack allows brands to offer ultra-fast deliveries, without building the underlying network from scratch. It integrates warehousing, inventory management, and last-mile delivery to support rapid order processing and distribution. 

For brands, DAAkit turns quick commerce from a capital-intensive project into a plug-and-play model.

Growing Steadily: The startup claims that multiple D2C brands are already utilising its offerings, including names such as Gocattles, Asaya, Hummel, Too Yum and Dr Vaidya’s. It has also expanded to nine cities, including Delhi NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, signalling growing demand for outsourced quick commerce infrastructure.

With the Indian quick commerce market projected to cross $40 Bn by 2030, can DAAKit become the backbone that helps D2C brands scale into quick commerce?

Infographic Of The Day

IPL 2026 is turning into a fintech spending war. So, which fintech giants are pouring crores into cricket’s biggest stage and grabbing the most eyeballs?

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