Author: Arabian Media staff

On every episode of The Playbook, produced by Sports Illustrated and Entrepreneur, we pair a business titan with an elite athlete to discuss their approaches to business and success. In this episode, real estate mogul Don Peebles sits down with Philadelphia 76ers center and two-time NBA All-Star Andre Drummond.Peebles got his start as a real estate developer in Washington, D.C. But when a major deal went south, he headed to Miami, where he won a bid to develop the Royal Palm Hotel. In doing so, Peebles became the first African American businessperson to own and develop a major hotel. Several…

I was exhausted. My B2B fulfillment business had grown rapidly and was doing $1.2 million annually, but finding new clients was a grind. I was trapped in an endless cycle of networking events, cold calls, and business card exchanges that yielded minimal results.Then I discovered what I now call the “Lumberjack Strategy” — and I started getting clients with ease. Better yet, I never had to attend another networking event again.Here’s how it works: Instead of hunting for individual customers in a vast networking forest, I realized I could connect with people who had already chopped down all the trees.…

FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd, which operates beauty and fashion platform Nykaa, has reported a 79% growth in consolidated net profit for the first quarter of FY26, helped by strong demand in its beauty and personal care (BPC) segment. Net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 24.47 crore, compared to Rs 13.64 crore in the same period last year.The company’s consolidated revenue from operations rose 23% to Rs 2,155 crore in the quarter ended June 30, compared to Rs 1,746 crore a year ago. On a sequential basis, its operating revenue was marginally higher than Rs 2,061.76 crore in the…

Electronics manufacturing firm Brandworks Technologies on Tuesday raised $7 million in a Series A round led by early-stage venture capital firm Cactus Partners. The round also saw participation from Gujarat Venture Finance Limited (GVFL), Legacy Assets, and the Hira Group. According to the company, the newly raised funds will be used fuel its research and development expansion, enter global markets, and scale-up its manufacturing capabilities. “This fundraise is fuel for a much larger mission — to make Brandworks a global leader in electronics R&D and manufacturing. We’re here to prove that world-class innovation can be imagined, designed, and built in…

From Manastu Space raising $3 million in an extended Series A led by Capital-A to Elever securing $1.1 million in a pre-Series A round targeting Rs 1,000 crore AUM, YourStory brings today’s special headlines that highlight significant developments across the ecosystem.Featured StoriesIndia Vision Foundation’s prison reform model scales across statesIndia Vision Foundation, founded by Kiran Bedi in 1994 with her Ramon Magsaysay Award, runs rehabilitation programmes inside and outside prisons across Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Maharashtra, reaching over 3 lakh beneficiaries annually. Its Inside Prison programme follows the “4S Model”—Shiksha (Education), Sanskar (Values), Swasthya (Health), and Skills—while early…

Seeds Fincap, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) focused on lending to underserved micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), has raised Rs 50 crore in a pre-Series B round led by existing investors Z47 and Lok Capital. New investors Norinchukin Capital and Alteria Capital also participated.The company said it will used the funds to expand into new regions, strengthen technology and risk infrastructure, and accelerate growth ahead of its planned Series B raise.Founded in 2021 by Subhash Chandra Acharya and Avishek Sarkar, Seeds Fincap operates through 120 branches across eight states and has disbursed over Rs 1,000 crore in loans. It…

UPI spending on online marketplaces has grown the fastest from April to July this year, outpacing all other retail segments, as more consumers moved to digital platforms.Spending via India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on online marketplaces climbed to Rs 8,053.72 crore in July from Rs 5,170.52 crore in April, clocking a 55.76% increase, according to data from National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).In July, a chunk of payments—about Rs 3.48 lakh crore—went to merchants categorised as ‘Others’, who could not be identified, making it the largest segment by value. This was followed by debt collection agencies, who clocked high credit…

Quick services platform Pronto on Tuesday said it has raised $11 million in a Series A round co-led by General Catalyst and Glade Brook Capital, to fund its expansion across top cities for instant househelp services. The round witnessed continued participation from existing investor Bain Capital Ventures. Ajay Agarwal (Bain Capital Ventures), Paul Hudson (Glade Brook), and Neeraj Arora (General Catalyst) are expected to join the company’s board.Launched in 2024, Pronto connects households with trained, background-verified workers for on-demand services such as cleaning, laundry, and utensil washing. The company operates on a shift-based model that gives workers predictable income and…

In a world where web development often acts as a barrier between ideas and execution, Launch wants to change the game. Founded by Prakash Sanker, the startup lets users build fully functional websites simply by typing in plain English. “We’re not just generating front-end templates,” says founder Sanker, who previously has worked with large language models (LLM) in cybersecurity. “We’ve built an AI agent that actually generates usable, production-grade code—backend and all,” he tells YourStory.The idea for the product was conceived in 2022 and stayed in stealth mode while being developed and refined. It was finally launched in June 2025…

Hello,Another day, another exit at Peak XV.After over a decade at the firm, Pieter Kemps will leave the company and its seed-stage accelerator, Surge, adding to a long list of senior-level departures. Kemps, who started in Singapore with Peak and has been in the Netherlands since the pandemic, is stepping down to explore entrepreneurial opportunities in the European Union, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told YourStory.Meanwhile, Rapido is looking to enter the bike and carpool lane with its new app, Hopr. More on that here.ICYMI: India’s pursuit for better health gets a pharma upgrade.In other news, Nvidia unveiled…