OpenAI says Namaste India; ET Startup Awards are back

OpenAI is hiring in India as it prepares to open an office in the national capital. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.

Also in the letter:
■ ET Soonicorns Summit 2025
■ GST cut worries etailers
■ Ola Electric AGM

OpenAI to open first India office later this year

Sam Altman’s OpenAI is setting up shop in India, marking a major step in the company’s global expansion.

Driving the news: The ChatGPT maker plans to open its first office in New Delhi later this year, a move highlighting India’s growing importance as both a user base market and talent hub.

Building base: OpenAI has formally registered as a legal entity in India, enabling it to launch operations. It has also begun local hiring, with three open sales positions—account directors for Digital Natives, Large Enterprise and Strategics.

“Opening our first office and building a local team is an important first step in our commitment to make advanced AI more accessible across the country and to build AI for India, and with India,” Altman said in a statement.

India story: Speaking to ET earlier this month, Altman said India could eventually overtake the US as OpenAI’s largest market.

• ChatGPT’s weekly active users in India have quadrupled over the past year.
• India ranks among the top five developer markets globally on the OpenAI platform.
• It is also home to the largest number of student users.
• The company is actively engaging with Indian government bodies, first through former Twitter (now X) VP Rishi Jaitley and now via its only Indian employee, Pragya Misra.

More for less: Altman noted that OpenAI is working to expand its offerings in India while keeping them affordable. On Tuesday, it launched ChatGPT Go in the country at Rs 399/month.

Also Read: OpenAI’s GPT-5 release raises revenue risk for Indian IT firms

ET Startup Awards 2025: Unveiling the Bootstrap Champ & Top Innovator nominees

The Economic Times Startup Awards (ETSA) are back! We have been hard at work for the past few months to bring you the 11th edition of the prestigious honours.

Background: Launched in 2015 to celebrate the startup and new-age economy, ETSA has, over the past ten years, documented India’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.

And the nominees are…

An elite jury will meet in Bengaluru on August 28 to decide the winners of the 11th edition of The Economic Times Startup Awards. We unveil the nominees in two of the eight categories: Bootstrap Champ, entrepreneurs who have built startups without external funding, and Top Innovators, startups developing transformative technologies.

ET reached out to more than 100 of the country’s leading entrepreneurs, investors, industry groups and other stakeholders to come up with this list of the brightest entrepreneurial talent.

Bootstrap Champ

• Urban Vault
• SignDesk
• Suta
• Minfy Technologies
• Fyers

Read more about the nominees here

Top Innovator

• Quanfluence
• Chara Technologies
• Minus Zero
• Qure.ai
• Orbitt Space

Read more about the nominees here

ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 | Karnataka tier-II cities emerging as startup hubs: Minister Sharanaprakash Patil

Bengaluru may be the crown jewel of India’s startup ecosystem, but Karnataka’s tier-II cities are rapidly stepping into the spotlight. At the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025, state minister Sharanaprakash Patil said Mysuru, Manipal, Dharwad, Tumakuru, and Kalaburgi are emerging as fertile ground for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Beyond Bengaluru: Since 2020, Bengaluru startups have pulled in over $48.2 billion in funding, birthed 31 new unicorns (startups valued above $1 billion), and now host 85 soonicorns (startups valued between $100 million and $1 billion) and 317 minicorns (startups valued at $1 million or more), the minister said.

“Mysuru has attracted $40 million in funding; Manipal and Dharwad are nurturing startups linked to their academic and industrial strengths; and Tumakuru, with just a few startups, has already produced a minicorn,” Patil said.

Profitability talk: Meat and seafood home-delivery service Licious will likely turn profitable in six to eight months, said founders Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta during the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025. The company aims to maintain its growth without placing too much emphasis on profitability and similar metrics, they added.

AI vs jobs: One of the most talked-about themes at the summit was AI’s impact on employment. In a panel titled ‘AI and the future of jobs in India’, Traxcn cofounder and CEO Neha Singh said low-skilled content creation roles will be the first hit. “Companies are already getting fast and effective results with AI,” she noted.

Copanelist Raghav Gupta, founder of AI-skilling platform Futurense, agreed. “AI will create more opportunities. Will those opportunities translate into headcount? Maybe not,” he said.

Global ambition: Panellists also called for venture capitalists to weigh a startup’s global aspirations alongside its AI strategy before investing.

Also Read: ET Soonicorns Summit 2025: India sits on a data treasure trove, says Shiprocket CEO Saahil Goel

Online marketplaces prep brands for GST cut ahead of festive rush

The festive season could come with a twist: not just discounts, but tax cuts too. With the government planning to reduce goods and services tax (GST) slabs ahead of Diwali, ecommerce majors are already ringing up suppliers to brace for a potential demand wobble.

Tell me more: Flipkart and Amazon have begun prepping top brands for what could be a bumpy run-up to the holidays. Industry executives told us the platforms are worried shoppers might delay purchases—especially big-ticket ones like electronics—anticipating price drops once the revised GST rates kick in.

Zoom out: A Group of Ministers cleared the Centre’s proposal on Thursday to scrap the 12% and 28% GST slabs. That would leave two main rates: 5% and 18%, plus a 40% rate for sin and luxury goods. The final call is expected at the GST Council’s mid-September meeting.

Flagships under a cloud: The timing isn’t ideal. Flipkart’s Big Billion Days and Amazon’s Great Indian Festival – major sales events that drive a significant chunk of their annual revenue – will go ahead in September. Both have asked brands to stock up for a possible second sales surge in October, when revised rates could fuel fresh demand.

Ola Electric gets shareholder nod to reallocate IPO funds

Electric two-wheeler maker Ola Electric has secured shareholders’ approval to rejig the deployment of funds from its August 2024 initial public offering (IPO).

Driving the news: The company received near-unanimous backing, with 99% of shareholders voting in favour of the proposal at its first annual general meeting since listing. Ola Electric said the reallocation will accelerate growth across its electric vehicle and battery operations, while supporting debt reduction and general corporate activities.

Number-wise: Post-allocation, the unutilised IPO funds stand at:

• R&D investment: Rs 1,049 crore
• Organic growth initiatives: Rs 901 crore
• Debt repayment: Rs 395 crore
• Corporate purposes: Rs 248 crore

Quick recap: Ola Electric had raised Rs 5,500 crore in fresh capital during its IPO, with plans to spend it over three years on scaling EV cell output at its Tamil Nadu Gigafactory, R&D, and expansion.

Latest launches: At its Sankalp event on August 15, the company unveiled India’s first homegrown 4680 Bharat cell battery and a rare-earth-free motor. It also launched new variants of the S1 Pro+ scooter and Roadster X+ motorcycle with lower prices.

On the launch horizon: S1 Pro Sport in January 2026 and the high-end Diamond Head bike in 2027.

Also Read: Ola Electric to focus on capital discipline, risk management: CEO Bhavish Aggarwal after dismal Q4 earnings

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