🚀 Daily Tech & AI Update – Stay Informed, Stay Ahead (Jan-20-2026) and (Jan-21-2026)

🚀 Funding & Investments

• AI startup Humans& raised a huge $480M seed round at a ~$4.5 B valuation, indicating strong investor conviction in next-gen human-centric AI systems.

• Voice AI startup Bolna raised $6.3M from General Catalyst and others to advance multilingual voice intelligence tech.

• Spain-based asset-management AI provider Fracttal closed a $35M growth round led by Riverwood Capital to expand in Latin America.

• Simplex AI secured $6M in funding to build Lev8, a real-time AI people-intelligence platform for sales and recruiting teams.

• Upscale AI closed a $200M Series A to build specialized AI networking infrastructure/chips that optimize intra-cluster communication.

🧠 Acquisitions & Corporate Moves

• UST acquires Tailwind Business Ventures, with Zinnov advising—expanding UST’s AI/tech services footprint.

• Serve Robotics to acquire Diligent Robotics (~$29M+ earn-out) to expand beyond delivery into hospital AI robotics.

• Care.fi acquires Aldun to launch a 10-minute automated patient discharge service nationwide in India.

🛰️ Product Launches & Tech Initiatives

• Board launched Board Agents on Microsoft Foundry—AI agents natively embedded for enterprise planning (finance, supply chain).

• Kyndryl unveiled its agentic AI-powered “Clean Field” for SAP modernization, aiming to accelerate enterprise digital transformation.

🧪 AI Research & Development / Tech Progress

• Meta’s AI team delivered its first key internal models this month, a milestone for Meta Superintelligence Labs as it scales new AI capabilities.

• Reports from Davos signal rising industry focus on AI infrastructure demand (energy, workers) with comments from Nvidia leadership.

• Discussions at World Economic Forum highlight nuclear approvals to fuel AI data centers and national strategy for AI power needs.

🌐 Government / Policy Reports & Macro Tech Trends

• The White House released “Artificial Intelligence and the Great Divergence”, urging AI infrastructure investment and deregulation to drive U.S. competitiveness.

• Broader tech and AI sentiment coverage from global governance reports continues, focusing on sustainable AI adoption and regulation.

🇮🇳 India-Specific Developments

• L’Oréal announced a ~$383M AI-powered beauty tech hub in Hyderabad, creating ~2,000 tech jobs by 2030.

• StartupInvestors.ai launched a new AI platform to connect founders from Bharat (Tier-2/3 cities) with global investors.

• Exfinity Venture Partners launched its ₹1,100cr Fund IV targeting semiconductors, physical AI, advanced compute, and enterprise AI.

💡 Industry Insight & Market Signals

• VC exits in Indian deep-tech (including Kinara.ai, Locus, AI Palette) enabled full capital return for Exfinity’s previous fund — a strong signal of AI ecosystem maturity.

🧠 Quotes & Thought Leadership (Context from Yesterday)

• Microsoft’s AI chief projected intimate AI companions within 5 years, stressing emotional as well as functional AI roles.

• Deutsche Bank issued a warning that AI benefits may not yet be visible to most CEOs, suggesting caution in hype vs. delivery.

If you want, I can also provide top AI hardware & semiconductor deals or policy impact summaries from Davos in a follow-up.

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