From surveillance to video intelligence; Fostering the next generation of soonicorns

Hello,

Navi Group is about to see a change of guard.

Navi Group Co-founder Sachin Bansal is stepping down as CEO of its subsidiaries Navi Technologies Limited and Navi Finserv Limited, the company said on Friday. 

As part of the rejig, Bansal will transition to the role of Executive Chairman of the parent group, ceding operational leadership of the units to newly appointed CEOs Rajiv Naresh and Abhishek Dwivedi.

Elsewhere, Canva is expanding its footprint in India–its fourth-largest market globally–by introducing localised content and new AI-driven tools. Fun fact, Indian users created over 666 million designs on the platform in 2024. 

Speaking of AI, venture capitalists bet $110 billion on AI startups globally last year, according to analytics firm Dealroom. With about 33% of the total VC investment pouring into the AI space, who will emerge as the winners of this race remains anyone’s guess.

Lastly, the popular social media platform YouTube has turned 20. But how much YouTube do we all collectively watch? Is there a way to catalogue how many YouTube videos are there and what are they about? 

Turns out nobody really knows, as parent company Google keeps its cards (and its data) close to its chest.

Researchers are now doing the math to answer these questions. For a user-driven public platform, YouTube seems to hold many secrets. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• From surveillance to video intelligence
• Fostering the next generation of soonicorns
• Of queer romance in a straight world

Here’s your trivia for today: Which famous city bridge is known locally as "The Coathanger"?

Startup 

From surveillance to video intelligence

Government agencies and corporations get terabytes of video footage each year from thousands of CCTVs and drones. Yet, most of this data sits unused—buried in archives, only reviewed when an incident demands it. 

Enter VOGIC AI—a video intelligence platform founded by Arijit Biswas (CEO), Rahul Singh Thakur (CTO), and Nikhil Mehta (Co-founder) in 2024. The Gurugram-headquartered startup transforms raw video into a structured, searchable knowledge base, allowing users to retrieve contextual insights instantly by leveraging vision language models (VLM).

Actionable insights:

• Unlike traditional surveillance tools that rely on rigid parameters—detecting only pre-defined objects like shirt colours or license plates—the startup enables users to search, analyse, and set alerts using natural language queries.
• The video intelligence platform operates on a scalable AI SaaS model, offering two primary revenue streams designed for multi-sensor intelligence, including feeds from fixed, mobile, and aerial vision systems: an annual software licensing subscription plan, and a usage based model.
• VOGIC AI is in discussion to raise an institutional funding round soon to expand its operations in the Middle East and North America. It also aims to reach $5 million in annual revenue by 2027.

Top Funding Deals of the Week

Startup: ToneTag

Amount: $78M

Round: Series B2

Startup: SpotDraft

Amount: $54M

Round: Series B

Startup: Zeta

Amount: $50M

Round: Fresh

Impact Investment

Fostering the next generation of soonicorns

Marico Innovation Foundation—the CSR-arm of consumer goods company Marico—plans to accelerate six startups from its mentorship programme and help them achieve the soonicorn tag soon. 

The foundation’s Scale-Up acceleration programme, which offers bespoke mentorship to startups, has identified key areas of innovation across clean technology, plastic waste management, and agritech, in line with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Impact innovation:

• Startups are onboarded under three distinct verticals in the Scale-Up accelerator programme: clean tech, ie, any innovation in the space of clean air, clean water, or carbon sequestration; plastic waste management; and agriculture, shares Suranjana Ghosh, Head of Marico Innovation Foundation.
• The reason for the existence of this programme is to help startups in their journey to a Rs 100-crore ARR (annual recurring revenue). Regarding the revenue milestone, the programme currently has five to six startups in the fast lane, and the target is to have six soonicorns by 2026, according to Ghosh. 
• In the past eight years, the foundation has engaged with more than 30 startups. Some of the key performance metrics tracked are revenue growth, market reach, and choice of market. 

Romance

Of queer romance in a straight world 

Every February, new movie releases pair off a man and a woman in a perfect love, social media turns into a Valentine’s Day spectacle, and jewellery and matrimonial ads flood our pages, telling us why the best time to propose is now. All hum the same tune: love is straight, love is aspirational, love leads to marriage. 

But for India’s queer community—over 140 million strong, according to a new study by Godrej Industries Group, Radhika Piramal, and Keshav Suri Foundation—celebrating love on Valentine’s Day is more than just about companionship; it is a battle for survival—to exist, to be seen, to be oneself.

Love and identity:

• In India, the inability to legally marry compounds these challenges by denying queer individuals legal protections, social recognition, and relational stability. Without spousal rights, partners cannot make medical decisions for each other, inherit assets, or access joint financial benefits. 
• Living in a casteist society also means discrimination for queer Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi individuals is intensified by layering structural oppression, social exclusion, and violence on an already marginalised existence. To them, love is also about surviving caste hierarchies that dictate who they can love, where they can exist, and whether their relationships are seen as legitimate.
• Despite the challenges, India’s queer community is carving out its own definitions of love. Social media is making it possible to be exposed to different forms of love and interpersonal relationships that were invisible before, offering possibilities and hope to younger generations. 

News & updates

• Cyber scam: Crypto fraud revenue is estimated to have hit record levels last year amid a surge in so-called romance scams as cybercriminals leverage artificial intelligence and become more organized, blockchain research firm Chainalysis warns.
• Bollywood: A group of India's top Bollywood music labels, from T-Series to Saregama and Sony, is seeking to join a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI in New Delhi, highlighting worries about improper use of recordings to train AI models, legal documents show.
• Trade talks: New Delhi and Washington will work to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump on Thursday.

Which famous city bridge is known locally as "The Coathanger"?

Answer: Sydney Harbour Bridge

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