Hosteller raises Rs 150 crore; Intellithink, Aliste, Cohoma secure funding; women's quota amendment slated for 2029

India’s startup ecosystem notched a string of fresh deals on Thursday as investor interest flowed into travel, industrial AI, energy management and consumer coffee brands. In parallel, the government set out a legislative timeline for women’s political representation during a special Parliament sitting.

Mumbai-headquartered hostel chain The Hosteller raised Rs 150 crore in a Series B round led by PROMAFT Partners and V3 Ventures, with participation from ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, Merisis Wealth Trust and family offices. The company said it plans to use the capital to expand across key travel destinations, strengthen operations and build its brand.

The startup claimed this is the largest institutional funding round raised by a backpacker hostel company in India. Industrial AI startup Intellithink announced a Rs 17 crore seed round led by Pentathlon Ventures, which invested Rs 6.5 crore through its India Fund II, alongside Anicut Capital and Veltis Capital.

The company’s IntelliVibe platform uses proprietary sensors and predictive analytics to detect faults early, addressing unplanned downtime and energy efficiency. Intellithink said it will expand its enterprise customer base across India and the Middle East and accelerate the commercialisation of its end-to-end AI solution.

Consumer brand Cohoma Coffee raised Rs 5 crore in a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures and Swishin VC. Founded by Paritosh and Kanika Birla, Cohoma offers specialty coffee products for home brewing designed to be prepared in under a minute without specialised equipment, and manufactures super-automatic machines for hospitality and corporates.

The funds will support international expansion and scaling of manufacturing, with go-to-market across retail, ecommerce and hospitality channels. Energy management startup Aliste Technologies secured Rs 30 crore in a pre-Series A round led by Big Global JSC, the corporate venture arm of the Bitexco Group, with participation from existing investor Yournest Venture Capital and manufacturing partner Hbeon Labs.

Founded in 2021 by Anant Ohri, Aakarsh Nayyar, Bhavya Kansal, Konark Gautam and Shreyansh Jain, Aliste said it will double down on research into energy-aligned solutions and improve distribution of its sustainable enterprise energy management offerings. Separately, LPL Financial is opening a global capability center in Hyderabad.

On the policy front, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that his government is resolutely moving forward for the empowerment of women during a three-day special sitting of Parliament scheduled from April 16 to 18. During this session, the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, commonly known as the Women’s Reservation Act, will be amended for its implementation in 2029.

In civil society, Bharati Ramachandran, CEO of the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO), said India’s cultural ethos and legal framework for animal protection are reasonably robust, but implementation remains the core challenge.

Under her leadership, FIAPO has focused on building a collaborative movement by supporting grassroots groups, scaling humane interventions such as Animal Birth Control programmes, and encouraging citizen participation.

With Parliament slated to take up the women’s reservation amendment and multiple startups planning expansions with fresh capital, the coming months will test both policy execution timelines and the pace at which new funds translate into scale across sectors.