The Neocloud Era, AI Resets Hiring & More

India’s Neocloud Boom

AI is writing the new era of cloud computing. A new class of neocloud players is emerging to sell GPU-as-a-service (GPUaaS) in India as big tech giants struggle with AI capacity constraints and sovereignty concerns. So, can neocloud players become the next hyperscalers?

GPU-First Cloud: Neoclouds are cloud providers built specifically for AI workloads, offering GPUaaS with high-bandwidth memory and AI-optimised orchestration. These platforms rose sharply in 2023-24 as the demand for advanced GPUs soared and enterprises began deploying AI into production.

The Demand Engine: India’s neocloud race is led by players like Yotta, NxtGen, NeevCloud and E2E Networks. For them, demand is being created by hybrid and multi-cloud strategies and the pull from programmes like the IndiaAI Mission. Neocloud pricing can run meaningfully below traditional hyperscalers for comparable GPU capacity, bringing more demand.

The Fertile Indian Ground: For over a decade, hyperscalers powered India’s cloud adoption, but AI introduced a new bottleneck – GPU scarcity and rationed capacity. Industry executives argue that neoclouds can bridge this gap by offering accessible, scalable and local AI compute for startups and enterprises at affordable rates.

The Hard Part: However, building AI-native cloud infrastructure is capital intensive. GPU clusters, high-speed networking and high-density data centres pose high upfront costs and execution risk. As a result, many expect hyperscalers and neoclouds to coexist rather than compete head-on across all workloads. 

If neoclouds are the new horses powering AI, which Indian player can win the trust, capital, and enterprise workloads needed to survive the big tech onslaught? Let’s find out…

From The Editor’s Desk

AI Resets India’s Hiring Paradigm

• India’s education and skilling ecosystems are at an inflexion point as AI moves from experiments to production. Of the 200+ founders surveyed by Inc42, 60% said that they are leveraging AI for hiring support, operations, coding and content roles.
• The near-term shift will be role redesign – routine work will be automated, while specialists and data stewards will supervise, contextualise and own outcomes with AI as a coworker.
• Companies are also increasingly willing to fund short, role-specific reskilling tied to measurable outcomes because reskilling can be cheaper and more sustainable than acquiring talent.

Weekly Funding Rundown

• Indian startups cumulatively raised $130.5 Mn last week, up 36% from $95.6 Mn in the prior week. Deal count also rose marginally to 20 rounds compared to 18 in the preceding week, driven by larger cheque sizes and late-stage rounds.
• Ecommerce dominated by value and activity. Nine ecommerce startups raised $65.9 Mn across seven deals, meaning roughly half of the week’s total funding trickled into the sector.
• Peak XV Partners and Accel were the most active investors (two deals each) last week. Meanwhile, early stage fundraising continued to cool as only three seed deals, totalling $7.8 Mn, materialised last week, down 40% from $12.9 Mn a week ago.

Pilgrim’s Beauty Hack

• Even as the broader D2C beauty and personal space struggles with rising CAC and weak offline depth, Pilgrim has emerged as a rare breakout in the segment on the back of its globally inspired formulations that are locally manufactured.
• The brand clocked ₹408.3 Cr in top line in FY25, up 105% YoY, and is moving towards closing FY26 with a revenue of nearly ₹600 Cr. What is driving this surge is its tighter consumer feedback loops that feed into its R&D, pricing and marketing.
• Pilgrim’s inflexion point came as it went omnichannel in 2023, an expensive step that also brought repeat customers, discovery and trust through physical touchpoints. While offline contributes 20% of revenue, online remains the primary cash generator.

Myntra Gets A New CTO

• The Flipkart-owned fashion marketplace has appointed former Google executive Pramod Adiddam as its new chief technology officer. In his new role, he will oversee tech strategy and drive innovation. He will report to CEO Nandita Sinha.
• The hire plugs a key leadership gap after Myntra’s former chief technology and product officer Raghu Krishnananda stepped down in April last year after a five-year stint.
• The appointment lands amid operational tightening at Myntra. The ecommerce major is moving its Gurugram satellite operations to Bengaluru, which is expected to result in the relocation and retrenchment of 50 employees. 

Mixed Week For New-Age Tech Stocks

• Of the 52 new-age tech companies under Inc42’s coverage, 27 stocks gained in the range of 0.2% to 31% last week, while 25 others declined between 0.12% to 23%. 
• The cumulative market cap of these 52 startup stocks ended last week at $133.25 Bn, up about $3 Bn week-on-week. Q3 earnings season drove most of the price action.
• The week also saw nine startup stocks hit fresh lows across, suggesting an overhang from valuation resets, index flows and portfolio rebalancing.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

Can D-Propulse Power India’s Hypersonic Leap?

India’s high-speed defence platforms still lean on legacy propulsion, making systems bulkier, costlier, and harder to scale. Enter D-Propulse, a startup that is building engines that are moving the country towards speed-based deterrence.

The Hypersonic Thesis: Founded in 2025, D-Propulse is building indigenous rotating detonation engine (RDE)-based propulsion for high-supersonic and hypersonic platforms. Unlike conventional jet engines, RDEs have no moving parts in the combustor, making them mechanically simpler and potentially easier to manufacture for the startup. 

D-Propulse’s thesis is simple – RDEs can deliver thermal efficiency gains of over 25%, which allows for smaller engines with higher output. 

D-Propulse’s Defence Pull: The startup claims that it has reached a meaningful technology readiness level in air-breathing RDE combustors and is now advancing toward flight-capable demonstrators. It also says early engagements are underway with the Indian military, suggesting initial demand discovery in a space where domestic capability is still nascent.

Need For Speed: As integrated air and missile defence systems reduce the effectiveness of radar stealth, speed is emerging as a strategic advantage. D-Propulse aims to capitalise on this demand with its propulsion breakthrough. 

As India’s electric propulsion systems market stares at a $196.36 Mn opportunity by 2033, can D-Propulse Power India’s Hypersonic Leap?

Infographic Of The Day

In an AI-first economy, skilling only matters if it delivers outcomes. The winners won’t sell courses—they’ll prove jobs, productivity, and performance.

The post The Neocloud Era, AI Resets Hiring & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.