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Bengaluru: Wealth management startup Centricity has raised Rs 280 crore led by SMBC Asia Rising Fund, as it looks to expand its technology platform and private wealth business in India and overseas.

Existing investors Lightspeed India Partners, Burman Family Office, RAAY Investments, Kuldeep Rathi Family Office, Stride Ventures and InnoVen Capital also participated in the round.

Founded in 2022, Gurugram-based Centricity provides technology and investment infrastructure to independent financial advisers, besides offering wealth management services to affluent clients. Its businesses include the One Digital distribution platform, Invictus Private Wealth and an NRI-focused global private client business.

The company said it currently manages more than Rs 15,000 crore in assets and works with over 20,000 partners and more than one lakh investors. It also serves over 250 family offices and employs more than 800 people. Centricity expects its revenue to cross Rs 150 crore in FY27 and said its business has grown nearly 200% over the past year.

Part of the fresh capital will be used to expand the company’s private wealth business and its offering for non-resident Indians.

Centricity plans to hire more than 50 private bankers for its domestic business and another 35-40 bankers focused on NRI clients. It is also expanding through GIFT City and Dubai International Financial Centre-based offerings.

“SMBC brings far more than capital. It brings the strength of one of the world’s leading banking groups, strategic banking and credit capabilities, and a long-term partnership that will accelerate our next phase of growth,” founder and CEO Manu Awasthy said.

Rajeev Kannan, senior managing executive officer and head of India division at SMBC, said India’s wealth management industry was being driven by greater adoption of financial assets, increasingly sophisticated investors and rising demand for technology-led advisory services.

Centricity had earlier raised $4 million in a pre-seed round in 2022 and $18 million in a seed round in 2024.

Electric mobility company Yulu has raised $93 million in its Series C funding round, comprising $63 million in equity led by GEF Capital Partners and $30 million in debt, as the company looks to expand its electric vehicle fleet and enter new urban mobility segments.

The Bengaluru-based company said the funding is its largest raise to date. Yulu plans to use the capital to quadruple its active fleet to 200,000 electric vehicles over the next two years, expand service hubs and deepen enterprise partnerships.

“We have raised $63 million in equity capital and $30 million in debt,” Amit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Yulu, told Moneycontrol.

Sources said around $5.5 million of Yulu’s $63 million equity fundraise was a secondary component, with a handful of seed-stage investors selling their shares.

Singapore enterprise AI company Whale has secured an additional $40 million in its Series C funding round, bringing the total amount raised in the round to $100 million, according to an announcement.

The extension was led by CMB International , through an AI-focused investment fund, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s SMBC Asia Rising Fund.

New investors included Krungsri Finnovate, Singtel Innov8, Hyundai Motor Group, and Charisma Partners. Existing Series C investors include Bosch Ventures, MTR Lab, MDI Ventures, Gentree Fund, and Linear Capital.

Whale first announced raising a combined $60 million in its Series C funding round in May last year to help businesses drive sales with its artificial intelligence assistant.

The company, founded in Singapore by former Meta data scientist Jerry Ye, develops an AI operating system that helps enterprises manage physical operations using data collected from cameras, sensors, and audio devices.

Its proprietary Business World Model processes real-world operational data to automate workflows and generate business insights.

Whale said the fresh capital will be used to accelerate its expansion in North America and Asia-Pacific, while laying the groundwork for entry into the Middle East and Europe.

• $15M (₹143 crore) led by Bertelsmann India to scale dark stores, tech, and last-mile delivery
• India’s first B2B quick commerce platform; 1,000+ products to kiranas in 60 mins; 20,000+ retailers added in 6 months
• Expanding to new metros, aims for 100,000 retailers this FY; Delhi NCR alone has 260,000–280,000 Kiranas

Grocery focussed B2B quick commerce firm Fairdeal.Market has raised $15 million in a funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments, the company said on Tuesday.

WaterBridge Ventures and Incubate Asia Fund also participated in the round.

“Fairdeal.Market, a B2B quick commerce platform building the replenishment infrastructure for India’s kirana economy has raised $15 million, about $143 crore, in a funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII),” the statement said.

Fairdeal currently operates across Delhi NCR and is actively expanding its retailer network, dark store footprint, and brand partnerships.

“The fresh capital will be deployed to scale dark-store operations across dense urban clusters, strengthen technology and data infrastructure, deepen retailer engagement, and expand last-mile delivery capabilities to redefine the retail business in India,” the statement said.

Fairdeal claims to be India’s first B2B quick commerce platform which delivers over 1,000 product range to kirana retailers across Delhi NCR within 60 minutes.

In the last six months, Fairdeal has scaled to over 20,000 active retailers across Delhi NCR.

India is home to over 13Mn kirana stores but inventory procurement for these retailers still largely depends on offline wholesale markets and fragmented distributor networks that were never designed for small-format, high-frequency retail, the statement said.

Fairdeal estimates Delhi NCR alone accounts for approximately 260,000-280,000 retailers.

“Building on its Delhi NCR foundation, Fairdeal will leverage this round of funding to accelerate its expansion into new metropolitan cities across India. The company aims to scale its retailer network to over 100,000 retailers within the current financial year,” the statement said.

Fairdeal, Co-Founder Prateek Bansal said India’s kirana stores are the backbone of the country’s retail economy, yet the procurement infrastructure serving them has barely evolved in decades.

Indian insurtech operator Plum has raised Rs1.93bn ($20.6m) in a Series B funding round led by Peak XV Partners.

The round also saw participation from GMO Venture Partners and existing backer Tanglin Venture Partners.

Citing CEO Abhishek Poddar, Reuters reported that the funding values the Bengaluru-based company at Rs11.81bn.

Plum was founded in 2019 by Poddar and Saurabh Arora.

It runs an employee health benefits platform used by employers to provide insurance and healthcare services to staff.

The company plans to use the new funding to strengthen sales and marketing as it expands in India’s corporate insurance segment; increase technology spending including AI-led claims processes; and build out services in preventive and primary healthcare.

Plum previously relied entirely on insurance broking for revenue, but its newer healthcare business is expected to form a larger part of the overall mix.

“If I look at the revenue distribution, 80% insurance and 20% healthcare. Very quickly, healthcare has become significant for us, and it is growing in triple ⁠digits,” Poddar was quoted by Reuters as saying.

“Our prediction is that healthcare within our corporate business would be roughly 40–45% within the next couple of years.”

Poddar also said the company has already seen operational gains from AI, particularly in claims processing.

“In the last four years, our claims volume has grown by around 50 times. We have been able to scale by 50 ⁠times with a team that would have grown by two times. That is the kind of scale advantage and efficiency advantage that you ⁠can generate using AI,” he said.

Plum’s previous funding round was a $15m Series A in 2021, led by Tiger Global and supported by Peak XV’s Surge, Tanglin Venture Partners, Incubate Fund and Gemba Capital.

Moneycontrol reported that Plum recorded close to Rs700m in revenue in fiscal year 2025, alongside six months of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) profitability.

The latest round follows the company’s first full year of EBITDA and cash flow profitability, amid a broader focus in insurtech on profitability and longer-term growth.

Peak XV managing director GV Ravishankar, as reported by Moneycontrol, said Plum’s emphasis on claims and customer experience leaves it well placed as employers put greater focus on employee well-being and smoother insurance delivery.

“Indian insurtech company Plum secures $20m in Series B round” was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand.

Medical equipment startup Pulse has raised $4 million in a funding round led by 3one4 Capital, with participation from Incubate Fund Asia, Stride Ventures and several angel investors.

The round also saw participation from angel investors, including the founders of logistics start-up BlackBuck and B2B agri-food processing start-up Agrizy.

Founded in 2025 by Anshul Sharma and Nishant Goel, Pulse designs and manufactures medical equipment for critical care, renal care and cardiac care. The company will use the funds to accelerate product development, secure regulatory certifications and set up a new research and development (R&D) hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The R&D facility is expected to become operational in March, Sharma told ET.

The Bengaluru-based startup works with nearly 20 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), particularly in regions such as Delhi NCR, Jammu, Gujarat, Kolkata, and Mumbai, to manufacture equipment, including blood tubing sets and anaesthesia machines.

According to Sharma, although many MSMEs have strong manufacturing capabilities, they often lack the resources to invest in branding, structured R&D and long-term quality systems.

“Medical equipment requires sustained investment in quality, compliance and brand building,” said Sharma. He added that many MSMEs focus on short-term sales and are unable to invest heavily in research, regulatory processes and nationwide distribution.

The company said that it addresses this gap by providing structured R&D support and quality frameworks, enabling Indian MSME manufacturers to compete with global players.

The funding comes in the wake of investments in healthtech plunging to their lowest level in five years in 2025, as ET reported in January, with investor interest in standalone digital solutions not integrated with care delivery waning.

Pulse currently operates with a 25-member team and is initially targeting mid-tier hospitals with 50–200 beds across India, offering products in critical and renal care. It plans to expand into larger hospital chains and broaden its product portfolio across additional medical specialties over time, Sharma said.

“India’s hospitals continue to rely heavily on imported critical medical devices that are expensive and often backed by inadequate service infrastructure, creating a clear opportunity for dependable, locally manufactured alternatives,” said Akshay Sharma, principal at 3one4 Capital.

Pulse is addressing a key structural healthcare gap by building reliable and affordable medical equipment locally, said Rajeev Ranka, India partner at Incubate Fund Asia.

Ledgerowl, an Indonesia-based SaaS bookkeeping firm, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Skystar Capital, with participation from Incubate Fund Asia.

The fresh capital will be channeled toward the company’s AI-powered accounting tool and expand its presence in Australia, co-founder and CEO Rey Kamal tells Tech in Asia. Ledgerowl uses AI to automate tasks such as data collection and entry, reconciliation, and transaction classification.