Startups In DPDP Maze, Flipkart Eyes $2.5 Bn & More

Can Startups Solve The DPDP Puzzle?

A regulatory scramble has ignited a ₹10,000 Cr compliance market. With a year left for enterprises to comply with the DPDP Act, a new wave of startups is racing to turn the privacy mandate into a billion-dollar infrastructure play. So, what is this hullabaloo all about?

Compliance Gold Rush: The DPDP Rules, notified last year, have set a tight deadline for enterprises – consent manager obligations begin in November 2026, while full core operational requirements must be met by May 2027. This roadmap has unlocked an estimated $1.2 Bn compliance-as-a-service market. 

Startups are racing to fill this readiness gap as implementation across the BFSI and ecommerce sectors remains dangerously uneven.

The New Frontrunners: Leading the charge is IDfy, which recently won the IT ministry’s challenge by beating giants like Jio Platforms as well as Zoop and Concur. However, they aren’t alone in this crowding ecosystem:

• Perfios has launched its DPDP Suite to operationalise consent for fintechs
• Cross Identity unveiled Vishwaas AI, a portal designed for identity and access management.
• IT giant TCS is also joining the fray, seeking consent manager permit under the Act.

The SME Woes: While tech giants possess the capital to build bespoke stacks, India’s millions of SMEs face a disproportionate burden. A failure to adapt could lead to slower tech adoption or severe penalties. In response, the market is pivoting toward accessibility. IDfy plans to open-source parts of its code to help smaller players achieve minimum compliance, while Cross Identity is offering its platform with zero licence fees for an initial period. 

That said, all eyes will be on India’s compliance ecosystem as the first major DPDP Act enforcement milestone looms in late-2026. So, can homegrown step up to the challenge or will they crumble under the regulatory pressure? Let’s find out… 

From The Editor’s Desk

Flipkart Mulls Mega Pre-IPO Round

• The ecommerce giant is exploring raising $2 Bn to $2.5 Bn in its pre-IPO round from Indian and foreign investors. The final call on the matter will be taken by parent Walmart, which is not keen on diluting its stake prior to the much-anticipated IPO.
• Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy is said to have held meetings with multiple domestic and global bankers (in the US, Singapore and UK) to discuss the potential fundraise and investor appetite for the listing. 
• This comes as the ecommerce major has been gearing up for its listing. Last month, the company, which was last pegged at $36 Bn, completed its reverse flip to India from Singapore. CFO Sriram Venkaraman also stepped down from his post last month.

Decoding Agnikul’s Cosmos Race

• As India’s spacetech story moves to commercial ambition, Agnikul Cosmos wants to become a key homegrown player in the sector. Its recent Agnite engine test-firing grabbed headlines for being the world’s largest 3D-printed single-piece rocket engine.
• Agnikul was founded nearly a decade ago, with a deliberate focus on affordable, flexible launches for smaller payloads. As a result, the company zeroed in on 3D printing for its core design choice, which trims the process from months to about a week.
• However, the startup’s real proposition is not raw lift capacity but mission control. It wants to give customers flexibility on timing, orbit and drop-off rather than forcing them into fixed schedules and routes, and claims it can price that experience competitively.

Krutrim’s AI Chatbot Goes Offline

• Ola Krutrim’s Kruti is no longer accessible on app marketplaces. The AI assistant app has also been removed from the Ola platform, with the Kruti website showing a “site not found” error message. 
• Launched in June last year, Kruti is an AI assistant capable of handling text, voice and image inputs. Built on Krutrim’s V2 model with 12 Bn parameters, it was integrated into Ola’s services for cab booking, food ordering and bill payments. 
• The disruption comes amid growing turbulence at Krutrim. The company has undertaken multiple rounds of layoffs since last year, while its offerings have seen limited adoption so far. Top-level exits have also marred the company in recent months.

Desi Farms’ FY26 Show

• The D2C dairy brand’s revenue crossed the ₹300 Cr mark in FY26, up about 8X YoY, on the back of the company scaling its business via acquisitions and expansion of distribution channels. It is eyeing ₹800 Cr revenue in FY27.
• Almost 38% of the startup’s FY26 sales came from the D2C channel, while B2C and B2B avenues contributed 34% and 28%, respectively. Value-added milk products brought in the majority of Desi Farms’ revenue during the fiscal.
• Founded in 2022, Desi Farms claims to deliver chemical-free and preservative-free milk and dairy products within 12-24 hours of milking. It claims to be present at over 10,000 outlets, and has raised more than ₹200 Cr till date. 

The Hosteller Bags ₹150 Cr

• The hostel chain has raised around $16 Mn in its Series B round co-led by PROMAFT Partners and V3 Ventures to strengthen operational capabilities and brand building. It also plans to set up 25,000 beds across the country in the next 36 months. 
• The startup is also looking to foray into the supper app domain by launching a dedicated app, which offers accommodation, F&B, mobility, and curated experiences under a single platform.
• Founded in 2014, The Hosteller currently operates more than 75 properties across 13 states. It also allows users to book private rooms or villas to stay in groups. It has raised more than $26.5 Mn to date.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

How Mafkin Is Disrupting Maritime Maintenance

India’s maritime maintenance ecosystem still depends heavily on manual labour, which makes work slower, costlier and riskier for operators. Mafkin Robotics wants to change this with an autonomous robotic fleet that can clean, inspect and repair maritime megastructures.

Robots For The Sea: Founded in 2023, Mafkin Robotics is building an autonomous robotic fleet for cleaning, inspection, analysis, report generation and minor repairs of assets such as ship hulls, cargo holds, and oil storage tanks. The company recently piloted its flagship vertical crawler Angad at L&T’s Kattupalli shipyard and Cochin shipyard.

The Safety Pitch: The startup claims its systems can reduce operational downtime and labour costs by up to 60%, while also improving safety and resource management. This is relevant in high-risk maritime environments, where manual inspection often remains the default despite multiple operational risks.

The Leasing Model: Instead of selling its fleet, Mafkin uses a contract-based model that allows maintenance operators to lease or rent the robots instead of making large upfront investments. That approach could make adoption easier in a sector where capital discipline matters and downtime can be expensive.

The startup operates in the ship hull cleaning and maritime maintenance services market, which is projected to cross $2.6 Bn by 2030. So, can Mafkin’s robots become the new standard for maintaining maritime assets?

Infographic Of The Day

India’s family offices are slowly but steadily carving out a niche in the homegrown startup ecosystem, mixing founder instincts with long-term conviction. Here are the family offices bankrolling India’s startup boom…

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