Author: PIS Team

India’s direct-to-consumer jewellery space is evolving rapidly, with brands no longer competing only on designs and pricing, but also on storytelling, lifestyle positioning, and celebrity influence. In one of the latest high-profile moves in the category, GIVA has announced Bollywood actor and Hyphen co-founder Kriti Sanon as its newest brand ambassador and investor.  While the company has not disclosed the investment amount, the partnership is being positioned as much more than a traditional celebrity endorsement. Reports suggest that Kriti Sanon will actively contribute to brand-building, collection design, and customer engagement initiatives, making her involvement both strategic and creative.  For GIVA, the collaboration signals…

Career pivots are rarely easy, especially when they involve walking away from a high-pressure Wall Street career to build an ice cream brand in India. But for Tanvi Chowdhri, that leap became the foundation of Papacream – a fast-growing dessert startup that is now reshaping how Indian consumers experience premium ice cream.At a time when India’s food and beverage industry is seeing a strong shift toward affordable luxury and convenience-led consumption, Papacream has found its place by offering something simple yet highly relevant: premium-quality desserts that feel indulgent without feeling inaccessible.Today, the brand is rapidly expanding through dark stores and…

India’s skincare industry has exploded over the last few years, but one audience has quietly remained overlooked for far too long – teenagers. While shelves are filled with products for babies or adults, very few brands truly understand the needs of young, sensitive teenage skin.That gap is exactly what led Jayati Goel to create HeyTeen, a skincare brand designed specifically for teenagers. What makes the story even more remarkable is that the brand was not built out of a metro city startup ecosystem, but from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.In just six months, HeyTeen grew from a personal parenting concern into what…

As Indian parents become more conscious about what goes into their children’s meals, the demand for cleaner, minimally processed, and nutrition-focused food brands is growing rapidly. One startup drawing attention in this space is Little Cherry Foods, the millet-based baby food brand that recently gained visibility through Shark Tank India.Founded by Jyoti Srivastava along with co-founder Gaurav Goel, Little Cherry Foods is built around a simple but increasingly relevant idea – making fresh, home-style nutrition accessible for young children through traditional Indian ingredients and cleaner food choices.At a time when supermarket shelves are crowded with highly processed baby food options,…

India’s food delivery industry is entering a new phase of growth, and cloud kitchen brands are once again attracting strong investor attention. The latest company to join that momentum is DIL Foods, the virtual restaurant operator that has reportedly raised ₹72 crore (around $7.7 million) in a Series B funding round.The round was led by Bikaji Foods Family Office, with participation from V3 Ventures, MJV Ventures, and Alteria Capital.The investment highlights growing confidence in India’s rapidly expanding virtual restaurant and cloud kitchen ecosystem, where delivery-first food brands are becoming an increasingly important part of urban consumer lifestyles.Why Cloud Kitchens Continue…

Travel has changed dramatically for women over the last few years. More women are travelling solo, taking work trips, planning spontaneous weekend getaways, and prioritising experiences like never before. But while the way women travel has evolved, the luggage industry has largely stayed the same. Most travel bags are still designed with a generic approach – bulky compartments, impractical storage layouts, and “unisex” designs that rarely account for how women actually pack. Bengaluru-based startup NORI is trying to change that narrative. The women-first travel gear brand has raised $350,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by The Rebalance, with participation from Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma through VSS Investco and several angel investors.…

Fireside Ventures and L’Oréal’s BOLD Back the Dermatologist-Led D2C Startup  India’s beauty and personal care industry is witnessing a major shift. Consumers are no longer drawn only to influencer-led skincare trends or glamorous marketing campaigns. Instead, there is growing demand for products rooted in science, clinical credibility, and real results. Tapping into this fast-changing consumer mindset, CHOSEN by Dermatology has raised $5 million (approximately ₹47.5 crore) in a Series A funding round led by Fireside Ventures.  The funding round also saw participation from BOLD and Alkemi Growth Capital, along with notable angel investors including Avnish Anand and several practising dermatologists. With this latest round, CHOSEN’s total funding has now…

India’s healthy food market is no longer a niche corner reserved for fitness enthusiasts and calorie counters. From protein-packed snacks to gut-friendly dairy and clean-label desserts, consumers today are actively looking for food that feels indulgent without the guilt. And right at the centre of this shift is Epigamia – the brand that made Greek yogurt cool before wellness became mainstream. Now, the Deepika Padukone-backed food brand is entering a fresh chapter. Epigamia has appointed FMCG veteran Ritesh Gauba as its new Chief Executive Officer, marking a major leadership transition for the fast-growing D2C company. The move comes as the brand looks to expand beyond its yogurt-first identity…

What if the old notebooks lying in your drawer could do more than just take up space? What if yesterday’s newspaper or those unused printouts could quietly become a child’s next school notebook? That’s the simple yet powerful idea behind Little Leaf, a Pune-based initiative redefining how we look at waste. At a time when sustainability often feels like a complex lifestyle shift, Little Leaf proves that change can begin with something as basic and familiar—as paper. The Problem We Don’t Notice Enough Paper waste doesn’t feel alarming the way plastic does. It’s softer, biodegradable, easier to ignore. But the volume? That’s where the concern lies. From homes to offices, we generate paper waste daily- often without a…

There’s a quiet shift happening in sustainability and it’s not loud, flashy, or trend-driven. It’s happening inside labs, through science that most of us never see, yet will soon feel in what we wear, buy, and use daily. At the heart of this shift is Apratima Biosolutions, a Bengaluru-based startup founded by biotech innovator Dr. Kavyasree Manjunath. Her mission? To take one of the planet’s biggest problems- plastic waste and turn it into a resource that can be used again and again, without compromise. And if that sounds ambitious, it is. But it’s also exactly what the future of sustainable fashion needs. The Plastic Problem We’ve Normalised Plastic has quietly become part of everything. From water bottles to activewear, it’s deeply embedded in our lifestyles- especially…