The Ministry of Commerce and Industry shared a report on the participation of women in India's entrepreneurial landscape, with some significant progress over the last few years. According to the Indian Startup Ecosystem Report, over 73,000 startups in the country have at least one woman Director, the Startup India initiative said on December 25.

Edelweiss Mutual Fund CEO Radhika Gupta has asked entrepreneurs to be wary of the "startup romance". "There's now...increased air of 'startup romance' that paints startup life as working in chiller attire out of a fancy co-working space, raising funding rounds...hosting Friday evening drinks for colleagues. Don't fall for it," she said. Gupta added that "startup reality" hits soon.

A video showing a man asking a Zomato delivery boy to remove his Santa Claus costume in Indore has surfaced on social media. The man asked the delivery boy, "Do you ever dress up as Lord Ram on Diwali and go out for deliveries?" to which he replied, "No we don't, but the company has asked me to wear this."

During an interview, Shark Tank judge Anupam Mittal revealed that the "best thing" that happened to him was getting fired from his job in US. "My career was on steroids. I was a multi-millionaire in my early 20s. I got fired from my job. And that’s when I started...Shaadi.com," he said. He added that at the time he was "gutted".

Delhi-based startup is making waves with its one-of-a-kind designs, crafted by differently-abled youths. KobSook, a homegrown D2C footwear brand, founded by Aziz Kapasi, aims to provide these youths with meaningful employment opportunities and sensitise society. Started in 2021, the brand also empowers them by developing their skills in Photoshop, digital painting, and photo editing.

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI has raised $6 billion in a Series C funding round, valuing the company at reportedly over $40 billion. The round saw participation from A16Z, Blackrock, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Lightspeed, Morgan Stanley, Sequoia Capital, NVIDIA and AMD, among others. In May, the startup also raised $6 billion in a Series B round.

Razorpay has announced the allocation of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) worth ₹1 lakh to all its current employees. The announcement comes amid the Bengaluru-based company's 10th anniversary. Over 3,000 employees will be benefitted from this. An ESOP refers to a share of the company offered to employees that can be encashed after a specific period at a set price.

Aakash Institute founder Aakash Chaudhry's new venture Sparkl Edventure has reportedly raised $4 million in seed fundraise from Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath's Rainmatter Foundation and Zomato Founder Deepinder Goyal. The equity round was raised just months after Sparkl Edventure launched its platform in October. The company plans to close the round in January 2025.

An entrepreneur shared a screenshot showing Uber app quoting ₹52 extra on iPhone as compared to Android for the same trip. "This isn't a glitch - it's design thinking in action," she said. "This is an example of proxy bias...and digital discrimination," a LinkedIn user said. "[Uber] offers discounts...when it detects you may be using services of competition," said another.

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu congratulated Indian-American businessman Sriram Krishnan on being named the White House's Senior Policy Advisor on AI. Adding that he came across Sriram's blog in 2004, he said, "I was so impressed I wanted to recruit him but Microsoft already had recruited him." "Thank you Sridhar. You've been an inspiration to [Aarthi Ramamurthy] and me," Sriram replied.