VCs turn the screws; Ex-Paisabazaar CEO’s new bet

Happy Friday! Investors are rewriting the rules of engagement with founders after a rash of governance blowups. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:
■ Opendoor shuts India ops
■ Karnataka doubles down on deeptech
■ Anthropic CEO's warning

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Venture capital firms are tightening deal terms so governance lapses hurt founders where it matters most — equity. A new study shows nearly 76% of companies now have clauses that allow VCs to strip founders fired for cause of both vested and unvested shares, often at face value or cost.

Why it matters:

• Vested shares are the equity founders have already earned by sticking with—and building—the company over time.
• Yet only 2.8% of the companies studied let founders keep vested shares after a for-cause exit.
• This hard pivot follows a string of governance meltdowns at Byju’s, BharatPe, GoMechanic, Trell and Mojocare that pushed investors to scrutinise founder behaviour like never before.
  

Expert take:

• Lalu John Philip, founder of Boolean Legal and the author of the study, said the tougher treatment of vested shares directly responds to the governance flare-ups of recent years.
• Suraj Malik of Legacy Growth said such terms now show up in many term sheets, but enforcing them in founder-led businesses often proves messy.
• Rohit Jain of Singhania & Co. said founder awareness has also risen, with many now pushing back against sweeping provisions that can be triggered by mere allegations.

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Former Paisabazaar CEO Naveen Kukreja is in talks to raise the first institutional funding round for his new venture, two people in the know told us.

Tell me more:

• The startup is looking to raise about $9 million, with two venture funds and Kukreja himself expected to participate.
• Singapore-based Jungle Ventures is among the investors in talks, according to one of the people.
• “The funds will be used to secure distribution licences as required and, given the market is very competitive, the founders want to scale quickly,” one of the sources told us.
  

About the startup: The company is building a technology-led investment platform offering both advisory and distribution services. It also plans to obtain a registered investment adviser (RIA) licence to ensure it operates fully within the regulatory framework.

Also Read: Physical security startup Coram AI raises $35 million co-led by Ansa Capital, Battery Ventures


Maitrai Maka, CEO, Rekise Marine

Defence-tech startup Rekise Marine has secured $9.7 million in a round led by Accel and NKSquared to accelerate autonomous naval systems for the Indian Navy.

Round details:

• The round saw participation from Sameer Brij Verma (Northpoint Capital), Sandeep Singhal (WestBridge Capital), Industrial47 and Singularity AMC.
• Family offices, founder-operators and the company's own founders also invested.
• Rekise Marine will use the capital to hire engineers and fast-track development and testing of Jalkapi, its extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle being built under the Navy's iDEX ADITI programme.
  

Also Read: Manam Chocolate raises $9 million funding from Omnivore, Turner Morrison

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US-based real estate technology company Opendoor is exiting India and laying off all India-based teams as part of a wider restructuring.

What's happening? CEO Kaz Nejatian said the company is relocating India-based roles to the US to bring teams closer to customers. The company had nearly 250 employees in India when it launched its ‘Opendoor 2.0’ strategy a few months ago.

Tell me more:

• Opendoor has already shifted some roles to the US over the past few months.
• It is now moving the remaining operational positions as part of the transition.
• A small group will stay on temporarily to support critical workstreams.
  

Also Read: Microsoft's Xbox plans for major layoffs next month: Report

Why the move: Nejatian stressed that the move reflects a change in Opendoor’s operating model, not employee performance. He said the Indian teams made valuable contributions.

He added that Opendoor once leaned heavily on its India teams to run manual processes. System consolidation and AI-native customer-facing teams in the US have reduced the need for large offshore operations.

Also Read: Salesforce layoffs: Employees from Agentforce AI, Mulesoft IT teams handed pink slips

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Karnataka IT minister Priyank Kharge

Karnataka approves initiatives worth over Rs 27 crore: Karnataka's IT/BT department has approved four initiatives worth over Rs 27 crore, spanning startup acceleration, industry-academia partnerships, medical robotics and genome editing infrastructure.

Anthropic CEO warns of AI jobs reckoning: As companies continue to pitch artificial intelligence as a productivity miracle, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that the rapid adoption could trigger economic disruption faster than many expect.

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■ China builds a rival satellite constellation as SpaceX goes public (Rest of World)

■ Google DeepMind is worried about what happens when millions of agents start to interact (MIT Technology Review)

■ Anthropic walks back policy that could have ‘sabotaged’ AI researchers using Claude (Wired)