TechCapsules

India’s spacetech sector has entered a commercialisation phase, raising $252.9 million in 2026, nearly double the 2025 total. Skyroot Aerospace became the first Indian spacetech unicorn after a $60 million round and successfully launched its Vikram‑1 rocket, now pursuing a $200 million follow‑up. Pixxel, backed by Temasek, secured a record $100 million Series C, the largest single funding round for an Indian space company. Government funds—₹1,600 cr from IN‑SPACe’s Antariksh VC and ₹834 cr from the RDI fund—backed early‑stage ventures. Startups now face heightened [...]

ConsoneAI, a Wetherby‑based AI firm, has been named a finalist in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2026 Emerging Technologies Competition for its drug‑development platform, DioScor. The system predicts drug efficacy and side‑effects across genders, ethnicities, and age groups in 90 seconds, using AI to model human and animal responses while accounting for genetic and demographic variables. Founder Mo Kosar highlighted the platform’s potential to shorten drug approval timelines and reduce bias in clinical trials. DioScor also offers a [...]

Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, is unlikely to pursue an initial public offering next year, according to a senior Hyundai executive who declined to be named. The company has yet to deploy its flagship Atlas robots at scale and remains unprofitable, delaying a potential U.S. market debut. Hyundai’s robotics ambitions spurred a record‑high rally in its shares earlier this year, but the lack of a clear timetable or valuation target for a Boston Dynamics [...]

India is transitioning from a technology importer to a creator, with public research institutions, corporate R&D, and deep‑tech startups driving growth in semiconductors, communications, space, and healthcare. Patent filings have risen, and indigenous products are emerging, yet R&D spending remains low and commercialisation weak. Talent shortages and limited research capacity hinder full market penetration. Government policy pushes for innovation, but stronger industry‑research links, technology transfer mechanisms, and support for frontier technologies are needed to close gaps and [...]

VIT’s annual technology festival, graVITas’26, opened its second day with 227 events and an expected 40,000 participants. Students from mechanical, electronics, electrical, and communication engineering showcased projects in robo wars, drone racing, toycathon, big band theory, and map quest. Robo wars featured 15‑kg and 60‑kg categories, requiring teams to repair damaged robots within 20 minutes. Drone teams navigated obstacle courses over 200 m, with speed and precision determining winners. The fest also hosted a capital‑hunt startup pitch, attracting [...]

Vals, a San Francisco AI‑benchmarking startup founded in 2024, raised $40 million in a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz after an earlier seed round from 8VC and Bloomberg Beta. Co‑founder Rayan Krishnan, a former Palantir intern and Stanford AI lab student, says the company was created to address outdated public benchmarks that can be gamed by model developers. Vals offers private, industry‑specific tests—covering law, finance, coding and emerging areas such as mental‑health, cybersecurity and the law of armed [...]

Justin Fanelli, the U.S. Navy’s chief technology officer, has spent three and a half years reshaping how the service engages with commercial innovators. Moving from a “spaghetti chart” of entry points to a funnel‑like model, the Navy now pulls proven startups into its technology base as enterprise services. This week Fanelli, en route to a secret, overnight flight, announced a refreshed list of the Navy’s multi‑year technology priorities, vetted by a small group of venture investors before [...]

GasPulse, a free iOS app, delivers weekly gas price averages from the Energy Information Administration, offering state‑by‑state charts, up to five years of historical data, and forecast outlooks. Users can compare regional trends, set price alerts for up to six areas, and view updates via home‑screen and lock‑screen widgets or Siri. The app runs on iOS 18+, is ad‑free, and requires no subscription. It provides a comprehensive, data‑driven view of fuel costs without locating the cheapest station. [...]