US-India Tech News Update for December 12th, 2025

ood morning, listeners! Let’s dive into today’s startup buzz. First up in tech news, Infibeam Avenues just secured board approval to rebrand as AvenuesAI, with Vishwas Patel stepping up as MD‑CEO to drive an AI‑first payments platform. The company is pouring a hefty 294 crore rupees into its AI arm Phronetic.AI for advanced fraud detection and video intelligence. In a parallel move, Freedom Chat disclosed a critical security flaw that exposed user phone numbers and PINs, prompting an emergency PIN reset and a fast‑track patch rollout. Over in the AI research arena, Google unveiled Deep Research, an AI agent built on Gemini 3 Pro that promises to automate literature reviews and hypothesis generation for developers. Meanwhile, Lightspeed’s new India Ascends accelerator will back deep‑tech founders under 25, offering up to three million dollars in funding and non‑dilutive credits from partners like Anthropic and Google Cloud.\n\nOn the funding front, solar‑geoengineering pioneer Stardust Solutions closed a massive 60 million‑dollar round, the biggest ever for a climate‑tech firm. In the consumer space, Toffee Coffee Roasters raised five crore rupees to scale its premium coffee operations, while NeoSapien secured two million dollars to mass‑produce its AI‑powered wearable Neo1, a device that monitors emotions and boosts focus. Eclipse Energy’s Series A brought in thirty million dollars to commercialize microbes that turn idle oil wells into hydrogen factories, valuing the startup at roughly two hundred million dollars. iSprout grabbed a six‑point‑six million‑dollar debt facility from Tata Capital to expand its coworking footprint across India’s metros.\n\nTurning to hires and departures, Meta India appointed former Amazon policy chief Aman Jain as senior director of public policy, signaling a push to navigate India’s regulatory landscape. OneCard is raising forty crore rupees in debt from Alteria Capital after a recent equity round valued it at 1.4 billion dollars. And in the M&A arena, Honasa Consumer is acquiring a 95 percent stake in men’s grooming brand Reginald for 195 crore rupees, a deal that strengthens its foothold in the fast‑growing male personal‑care market.\n\nNow for new technologies making waves: Spoor’s AI‑driven bird‑monitoring platform is helping wind farms cut turbine‑strike incidents by up to thirty percent, while Phronetic.AI continues to embed video intelligence into Infibeam’s payments suite. Lastly, in crypto and Web3, Binance’s Blockchain Yatra is touring five Indian cities to educate developers and students on DeFi, tokenisation and AI‑blockchain convergence. Tools for Humanity launched its super app “World,” blending crypto payments, encrypted chat and AI social tools after a 120 million‑dollar Series B. Bitcoin is currently at 92,400.34 dollars. Ethereum is currently at dollars. That’s your quick roundup – stay curious and keep innovating!