TCS Launches Autonomous Engineering Lab with NVIDIA to Accelerate Industrial AI Deployment

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global leader in IT services and consulting, has announced the launch of the TCS Autonomous Engineering Lab Powered by NVIDIA at its Global Axis campus in Bengaluru. This new facility is positioned as India’s first physical AI hub dedicated to accelerating industrial AI solutions, with a focus on mobility and manufacturing.

The lab represents a strategic expansion of TCS’ collaboration with NVIDIA, moving beyond technology integration into deeper capability building and enterprise-wide transformation. By combining TCS’ Industrial Autonomy & Engineering (IA&E) expertise with NVIDIA’s full-stack AI infrastructure, the lab provides enterprises with a scalable pathway to move from pilot projects into production-scale deployment.

Sreenivasa Chakravarti, Global Head & Vice President of Industrial Autonomy and Engineering at TCS, described Bengaluru as the “engine of India’s economy,” noting that the lab harnesses this energy to reimagine what’s possible with AI. He emphasized that the facility will enable rapid movement from concept to real-world impact, shaping the future of mobility and industrial systems. Alvin DaCosta, Vice President at NVIDIA, highlighted the importance of specialized infrastructure to bridge the gap between simulation and deployment, stressing that the lab offers enterprises a robust environment to validate and implement next-generation solutions.

The lab’s offerings span a wide spectrum of industrial AI applications. TCS DriveSphere™, an AI-led mobility platform, enables software-defined vehicles through digital twins, predictive analytics, and lifecycle management. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving capabilities, and intelligent perception systems are supported by NVIDIA’s AI stack. In manufacturing, AI is embedded into machines and plants to enable predictive maintenance, automated quality inspection, and real-time process optimization. High-fidelity digital twin simulations further accelerate design validation and scenario testing, reducing risks and improving time-to-market.

Beyond technology, the lab is designed to help enterprises reimagine products, operations, and business models. By embedding intelligence across the engineering and manufacturing lifecycle, businesses can transition toward intelligent, software-defined, and autonomous enterprises. The controlled environment allows for rapid prototyping and validation, ensuring that solutions are tested thoroughly before rollout.

This initiative builds on the longstanding partnership between TCS and NVIDIA in AI and accelerated computing. With the Bengaluru lab, the collaboration enters a new phase—one that emphasizes scaled deployment, client engagement, and transformative impact across industries worldwide.

For a global audience, the launch underscores India’s growing role as a hub for industrial AI innovation, while also highlighting how enterprises worldwide can leverage this facility to accelerate their journey toward autonomy and intelligence.

BiofuelCircle Raises ₹35 Crore to Accelerate India's Biomass Supply Chain and Bioenergy Ecosystem

Suhas Baxi, Group CEO and Co-founder, BiofuelCircle

BiofuelCircle, India's leading digital platform for biomass and biofuels, today announced that it has secured ₹35 crore in bridge funding from its existing investors to support the next phase of its growth by strengthening working capital and accelerating India's biomass supply chain.

The funding round was led by Spectrum Impact, with participation from Better Capital, Karma Capital and other existing investors through their respective investment vehicles.

The fresh capital will be deployed towards working capital requirements to support the company's planned growth trajectory by leveraging the biomass aggregation infrastructure and operational network built over the past years. The funding will also complement additional working capital financing facilities, enabling BiofuelCircle to deepen its role in building an efficient, transparent and reliable biomass ecosystem that supports India's clean energy transition.

Founded in 2020, BiofuelCircle has built a digital platform that connects farmers, biomass aggregators, suppliers, transporters and industrial consumers, enabling efficient biomass sourcing through technology-driven price discovery, logistics, quality assurance and trade facilitation. The platform helps unlock value from agricultural residue while ensuring dependable biomass availability for industries adopting cleaner fuels.

Over the past year, BiofuelCircle has continued to strengthen its market presence, recording significant business growth and expanding its network across 10 states , 800 villages , 1.7L + farmers, 1300+ biomass suppliers and 400+ industrial buyers. During FY26, the company expanded its Biomass Bank network by adding 50 new Biomass Banks and continued to strengthen its supply chain and its digital marketplace. The company remains focused on leveraging its existing infrastructure to sustain its planned growth momentum and make biomass procurement more organised, efficient and scalable for India's growing bioenergy sector.

Commenting on the funding, Suhas Baxi, Co-founder & Group CEO, BiofuelCircle, said, "This bridge round reflects the continued confidence of our existing investors in BiofuelCircle's long-term vision. Over the past few years, we have invested in building the infrastructure required to organise India's biomass supply chain at scale. With this foundation now in place, our focus is on leveraging this infrastructure to drive the next phase of growth. The capital raised through this round, along with additional working capital facilities, will enable us to accelerate biomass deliveries, create greater value for farmers, biomass suppliers and industrial consumers, and further strengthen India's clean energy ecosystem as we prepare for our next phase of growth."

India's push towards energy security, decarbonisation and circular economy models is creating significant momentum for sustainable biomass utilisation. As demand for biomass continues to grow across biofuels, industrial decarbonisation and clean energy applications, BiofuelCircle is well positioned to build the digital and physical infrastructure that powers this rapidly evolving ecosystem.

The latest bridge funding reinforces investor confidence in BiofuelCircle's vision of creating an organised, technology-enabled biomass supply chain that delivers economic value for farmers while enabling industries to transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy solutions. The company is now preparing for its next phase of growth ahead of its planned Series B round.

About BiofuelCircle

BiofuelCircle is a digital platform dedicated to building sustainable biomass supply chains by connecting farmers, rural entrepreneurs, and bioenergy producers. Through its digital and participatory business model, BiofuelCircle promotes India's transition to renewable energy while fostering rural economic growth.

BiofuelCircle is committed to transforming India's biofuel supply chain and driving scalable, sustainable energy solutions nationwide. As a testament to this mission, BiofuelCircle has been ranked 8th on LinkedIn's 2024 list of India's Top Startups becoming the first biofuel company to receive this recognition.

For more information visit www.biofuelcircle.com

Emergent Raises Series C at $1.5 Billion Valuation, Becomes Unicorn in a Year of Launch

L-R — Mukund Jha, Co-founder & CEO and Madhav Jha Co-founder & CTO

• Rapid global adoption fuels fivefold valuation growth, taking total funding to $230 million as users build over 12 million applications on the platform

Emergent, the fast-growing AI software creation platform that enables founders and business owners to build full-stack, production-ready web and mobile applications, today announced a $130 million Series C funding. The round was led by Creaegis, with MNI Ventures - Claypond Capital and Sentinel Global as co-lead investors, and participation from Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed, and Y Combinator.

The latest round values Emergent at $1.5 billion, increasing its valuation fivefold in just four months and making it a unicorn in a year after its public launch. The milestone places Emergent among the fastest-scaling AI companies globally, driven by the rising adoption of AI-powered software creation among entrepreneurs, small businesses and non-technical builders.

Since launch, more than 12 million applications have been built on Emergent by users globally, including many entrepreneurs and small business owners with no technical background.

Speaking on the funding announcement, Mukund Jha, Co-founder and CEO, Emergent said, “The real impact of the AI revolution will be a complete democratization of who gets to build what software, where they get to build it, and how much it costs. It’s about making software development accessible to the people closest to the problem, regardless of their technical knowledge. With a platform like Emergent, the people who have great ideas and deep domain expertise can now build and run the software their business needs to succeed at a fraction of the cost.”

Emergent is addressing one of the biggest barriers in technology creation: access to engineering talent. While businesses increasingly need custom software to operate and scale, traditional development remains expensive, time-intensive and dependent on specialized skills. Emergent changes this by allowing users to build CRMs, ERPs, marketplaces, mobile applications, internal tools, customer-facing products and operational systems through autonomous AI agents.

“We built Emergent for the non-technical entrepreneur and the small business owner, with 70% of our users having no prior coding experience,” Jha adds. “We give these users a new path beyond generic SaaS, slow and expensive dev shops, lightweight prototype tools, or waiting for technical talent to which they may never have access.”

“Small businesses today have a historic moment to build, automate, and operate using autonomous platforms and address their disadvantages in the previous era,” said Prakash Parthasarathy, Managing Partner, Creaegis. “Emergent is enabling every entrepreneur and business to embrace this change with production-grade software and automation.”

Emergent is building a future where software development moves closer to the people who understand the problem, the business, and the market. By removing technical barriers, the company aims to enable entrepreneurs, businesses and non-technical founders to create custom software faster and bring ideas to life without traditional limitations.

Emergent is available at http://emergent.ai

About Emergent:

Emergent is the fast-growing AI software platform that enables founders and business owners to create full-stack, production-ready applications using autonomous AI agents. Emergent’s vision is to enable ambitious people to move at the speed of their thought — to build faster, go bigger, and be unblocked from technical limitations. Launched in 2025, Emergent is backed by Creaegis, MNI Ventures - Claypond Capital, Khosla Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Lightspeed, Sentinel Global, Y Combinator, Prosus, Together, and Google’s AI Futures Fund. Its mission is to democratize who gets to build software and bring new ideas to life.

WeWork India Launches Member Services, Giving Startups Enterprise‑Grade Support Beyond the Workspace

• Bringing enterprise-grade business services to every business through one platform and a curated network of WeWork India-vetted partners. 
• Turns every WeWork India membership into a one-stop shop for the business services that exist beyond the desk

WeWork India Management Limited, the industry leader in the flexible workspace sector, today announced the launch of Member Services, a first-of-its-kind platform that redefines the value of flexible workspaces by giving businesses enterprise-grade advantages and access to a curated network of trusted service partners beyond the workplace. Available exclusively to WeWork India members, Member Services brings together a comprehensive suite of business solutions spanning administration and technology, human resources, finance and legal, sustainability and governance, and marketing, enabling businesses to access the support they need to grow - all through a single platform.

With Member Services, WeWork India is offering its members, especially startups & SMBs, a single, integrated gateway to enterprise-grade services. The launch reflects WeWork India’s continued commitment to creating greater value for its members by simplifying access to services that organisations rely on every day. Member Services is built on a simple but consequential premise: the value of a workspace should not end at its four walls. As businesses scale, they increasingly depend on multiple partners across functions such as hiring, employee wellbeing, compliance, transportation, tech infrastructure, and more. However, identifying, evaluating, and managing these relationships often remains fragmented and resource-intensive. Member Services addresses this challenge by bringing trusted partners onto a single platform. Instead of navigating multiple vendors independently, businesses can discover, evaluate and engage high-quality service providers through a trusted network designed to simplify operations and support growth.

Member Services spans five core categories of business need, starting with:

• Admin & IT - network-as-a-service, F&B, employee transportation service, IT hardware rentals & purchases, corporate merchandise
• HR - EOR staffing, employee wellness programmes, L&D, LMS platforms, HRMS solutions, relocation services, early and mid-career hiring, executive hiring, and insurance

Over the next few quarters, the categories will expand to include:

• Finance & Legal - legal retainer services, GST filing and accounting, compliance auditing, payroll compliance and processing, and IP registration and trademark filing
• Sustainability & Governance - ESG reporting and advisory, ISO certifications, carbon footprint assessments, DPDP Act readiness, labour code compliance, and waste management and recycling. 
• Marketing - digital marketing and SEO, public relations, and market research and consumer insights

For years, the conversation around workspace was about square footage and amenities. That conversation is now outdated, said Karan Virwani, Managing Director & CEO, WeWork India. Today, businesses are looking for far more than physical infrastructure; they are looking for a platform that can help them navigate complexity, operate efficiently, and scale with confidence. Over the years, we have observed a common challenge: while access to workspace has become simpler, access to the broader range of services required to run and grow a business remains highly fragmented. Member Services is our answer to that - a first-of-its-kind enterprise-grade business backbone made available to a ten-person startup with the same ease as a thousand-person enterprise.

Every partner within the Member Services platform is evaluated against defined service standards, enabling members to access trusted, high-quality solutions while reducing the complexity of vendor discovery and management. At launch, Member Services brings together partners across several critical business functions, including:

• VTT Mobility - 
• Leading enterprise mobility solutions provider - delivers technology-enabled transportation services across 55+ cities through a network of over 4,500 verified vehicles.
• 24×7 Integrated Command Centre equipped with live trip monitoring, SOS support, and centralized operational oversight.
• Serving startups, SMEs, and Fortune 500 enterprises, VTT Mobility offers scalable transportation solutions ranging from on-demand single rides to large-scale fleet deployments of over 100+ vehicles.
• Backed by robust safety and compliance standards, technology-driven operations, and real-time visibility.
• Offineeds -
• ISO 9001 and 27001 certified, GDPR compliant 100% eco-friendly corporate merchandise provider.
• Saved 50,000+ kg of plastic saved from landfills.
• Offering up to 15% discounts, complimentary logo branding, and free shipping across select locations.
• 1to1help -
• Over 25+ years in employee wellbeing, 1.2 million counselling sessions, 1,000+ organisations, 11 million lives covered, 500+ counsellors across 13+ languages, and 97% user satisfaction.
• Offering members up to 15% preferential pricing, exclusive leadership sessions and roundtables for founders and CXOs, and priority access to wellbeing products, services, and tools on the 1to1help platform.
• Welocity.ai - 
• A native AI platform that eliminates the first round entirely. 
• Conducts structured video interviews at scale and surfacing hiring-ready talent to members with deep assessment within hours.
• Members can gain direct access to a touchless AI talent delivery platform.
• Lagrange Point - Specialist executive search firm focused on leadership hiring, delivering bespoke, homegrown talent solutions to organizations across global markets. With successful leadership mandates across multiple industries - a trusted partner to leading VC funds, growth-stage companies, and multinational corporations for senior executive and board-level hiring.

Commenting on the partnership, the partners said - Shruthi M J, Director – Operations, VTT Mobility Pvt. Ltd., said: “WeWork India brings together one of the country’s most dynamic communities of startups, SMBs, and enterprises, making it an ideal platform to deliver high-quality mobility services at scale. We are delighted to partner with WeWork India to provide seamless, technology-enabled transportation solutions to its diverse member community. At VTT Mobility, we believe mobility is a strategic business enabler that can enhance employee experience, improve operational efficiency, and support productivity. This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to delivering safe, reliable, and efficient transportation services for businesses of all sizes. We look forward to supporting WeWork India’s members with scalable and customer-centric mobility solutions that evolve alongside their business needs and contribute to their continued growth.”

Srikanth Acharya, CEO, Offineeds, added, “We're excited to partner with WeWork India to bring curated merchandise solutions to a vibrant community of startups, SMEs and enterprises. By combining our expertise with WeWork India's member community, we aim to simplify branding needs while delivering quality, speed and exclusive value to businesses at every stage of growth."

Mahua Bisht, CEO, 1to1help, said: “The companies that get wellbeing right don't wait for a crisis to think about it — and they don't accept support that works in one office and falls apart in the next. WeWork India's Member Services platform lets us bring consistent, clinically-grounded evidence-based mental health support to businesses at every stage, from founding teams to global capability centres — so that clinically rigorous mental health is built in from the start, and delivered by people who understand the context its landing in.”

Sunil Bist, Co-founder & CEO, Welocity.ai, said: “We're excited to partner with WeWork India because it has built far more than a workplace network, it has built a thriving business community. Through Member Services, we're enabling members to access enterprise-grade AI hiring capabilities that help them build exceptional teams quickly, efficiently and at scale. Backed by NetConnect Global's three decades of technology and talent expertise and trusted by global enterprise clients, Welocity brings enterprise-grade hiring infrastructure to WeWork India's member community with zero upfront cost, and payment only upon a successful hire.”

Nikhil Jaiswal, Managing Partner, Lagrange Point said: “The right leadership can fundamentally change the trajectory of a business, but executive search has traditionally been less accessible for growing organisations. Partnering with WeWork India allows us to bridge that gap by bringing specialised leadership hiring and advisory services closer to its members, enabling them to build leadership teams with confidence as they scale.”

The launch of Member Services marks a new chapter in WeWork India’s member value proposition, reinforcing its focus on building a more connected and comprehensive platform that supports businesses beyond the workplace and across their broader operational journey. WeWork India is currently operational across 8 cities, with over 110,000 members, and robust relationships across key stakeholders such as landlords, IPCs, and members.

About WeWork India

Launched in 2017, WeWork India Management Limited is India’s leading premium flexible workspace operator and has been the largest operator by total revenue for the past three fiscal years. The Company operates 76 centres across 8.6 million sq ft in 8 cities - Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Noida and New Delhi - serving over 110,000 members across Fortune 500 companies, global capability centres, enterprises and startups. WeWork India was listed on the NSE and BSE in FY26.

Israel Eyes India for Iron Dome Missile Production

Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is reportedly in talks with Indian defence firms to locally produce Tamir interceptor missiles — the core of the Iron Dome air defence system — marking a major expansion of India–Israel defence cooperation. If finalized, India would become only the second country after the U.S. to manufacture these missiles outside Israel.

The Tamir interceptor missile is the core weapon of Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system, designed to destroy short‑range rockets, artillery shells, mortars, and drones with remarkable precision. Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, it has been operational since 2011 and boasts a success rate of over 90%.

Key Details of the Proposed Deal

• Parties Involved: Rafael Advanced Defense Systems (Israel) and multiple Indian private-sector defence firms
• Missile Type: Tamir interceptor — used in the Iron Dome system. 
• Purpose: Expand global production capacity beyond Israel and the U.S.; position India as a manufacturing and export hub
• Cost Advantage: Tamir missiles cost $40,000–$100,000 each, far cheaper than Patriot interceptors ($2–3 million)
• Operational Record: Iron Dome has intercepted 1,500+ aerial threats since 2011 with a success rate above 90%

Strategic Significance

• For Israel (Rafael): Diversifies supply chain; meets rising demand; leverages India’s competitive production costs
• For India: Strengthens role as global defence hub; aligns with “Make in India”; builds on collaborations like Barak 8; enhances supply-chain resilience

Comparative Snapshot of Tamir Production

Country	Production Role	Key Details
Israel	Primary manufacturer	Supplies IDF, exports globally
United States	Partner via Raytheon (R2S JV)	$1.25B Arkansas facility (2025)
India	New hub (proposed)	Would serve domestic + export markets

Risks & Challenges

• Negotiation Stage: Talks are ongoing; no final agreement yet
• Technology Transfer: Extent of joint production and tech sharing remains unclear
• Geopolitical Sensitivity: Regional rivals may view India’s role as escalatory
• Supply Chain Dependence: India must prove reliability during crises

Why This Matters for India

• Positions India alongside the U.S. as a trusted partner in Iron Dome production
• Expands India’s defence export potential, complementing deals like BrahMos exports. 
• Strengthens bilateral defence ties with Israel across missiles, drones, radars, and electronic warfare