Tech5: Apple, Samsung shine in Q3 global smartphone shipping; India's GenAI startups grow in number, and more

There are now 17 native GenAI language models and cumulative funding for GenAI startups in India is at $750 million, according to Nasscom. On the commercial front, 75 percent of startups are now earning revenue, up from 22 percent last year.

A hybrid approach is being taken by 43 percent of startups, meaning they are using both opensource and proprietary large language models. There’s been a 4x increase in the number of startups offering GenAI assistants in India, reflecting a pivot from traditional AI solutions.

Challenges include lack of patient capital, limited compute capacity hurting scalability of enterprise GenAI beyond proofs of concepts, customer hesitation, and a shortage of skilled AI talent.

Indium acquires majority stake in Experion

Indium Software, a Chennai-based digital engineering services company owned by private equity firm BPEA EQT Partners, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Kochi’s Experion Technologies, a product engineering services provider. The companies didn’t provide details on the terms or the value of the deal.

The acquisition combines Experion's 1,500 experts in product engineering with Indium's 3,500 engineers in advanced data and AI capabilities, positioning them in health care, financial services, and automotive industries.

Founded in 2006, Experion has strong capabilities in product strategy, engineering, cognitive computing, platform engineering and experience design, helping clients design, develop, deploy and maintain products and platforms with intellectual property. Experion’s global clientele includes large enterprise leaders in industries such as automotive, insurance, mining and transportation.

Indium’s co-founder and CEO Ram Sukumar targets a combined revenue of $150 million for the financial year ending March 2026. The companies didn’t provide details of current revenue.

Survey Monkey opens Bengaluru GCC in global expansion

SurveyMonkey has opened a new office in Bengaluru as part of its global expansion strategy, to tap the growing opportunity in India and the broader Asia-Pacific region, the company said in a press release. The company, which as its name suggests, provides online surveys and forms to large enterprise customer base, plans to double its local workforce to about 100 people by March 2025, focusing on HR, data, and security talent.

CEO Eric Johnson said in the release, “by establishing a presence here, we are not only enhancing our product development capabilities but also deepening our connection with a rapidly growing customer base in India, a market that is increasingly important to our global strategy.”

Xiaomi’s Redmi A4 5G raises entry-level bar in India

Xiaomi unveiled the Redmi A4 5G at the India Mobile Congress, promoting it as the country's first smartphone powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 4s Gen 2, raising the bar on entry-level Android smartphones in the market.

At under Rs 10,000, Xiaomi is positioning the device as one that makes 5G wireless accessible to many more people. Powered by the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2, the Redmi A4 5G offers enhanced CPU performance for a better multitasking and productivity experience, dual-band NavIC location support, audio with AI support, improved gaming and high-quality video streaming, according to a company press release.