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VERIFIED JOURNALIST BYLINEActive

Imran Ahmad

Senior Venture Reporter

46
Published Works

Imran Ahmad is an editorial contributor and senior venture reporter at Venture Atlas covering early-stage venture funding, AI breakthroughs, and corporate governance.

Executive Briefs (46)

Failure
about 11 hours ago
Convoy: How a $3.8 Billion Trucking Startup Collapsed Despite Backing from Billionairesgeek wire

Convoy: How a $3.8 Billion Trucking Startup Collapsed Despite Backing from Billionaires

Convoy was a Seattle-based digital freight startup founded in 2015 by Dan Lewis and Grant Goodale. Backed by prominent investors, the company aimed to transform trucking through technology. Despite reaching a reported $3.8 billion valuation and raising substantial capital, Convoy shut down its core business operations ...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Finance
1 day ago
Policybazaar: How Selling Insurance Online Became a Billion-Dollar BusinessSTARTUP TALKY

Policybazaar: How Selling Insurance Online Became a Billion-Dollar Business

Policybazaar transformed how millions of Indians discover and compare insurance policies by bringing product information, comparisons and purchasing journeys online. Founded in 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar, the platform operates under PB Fintech, its publicly listed parent company. Its busine...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Unicorn
1 day ago
Sarvam AI: How an Indian AI Startup Reached a $1.5 Billion Valuationstartup pedia

Sarvam AI: How an Indian AI Startup Reached a $1.5 Billion Valuation

Sarvam AI is an Indian artificial intelligence startup building foundation models, voice technologies and enterprise AI products designed for Indian languages and use cases. Founded by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, the Bengaluru-based company raised $234 million in June 2026 at a reported $1.5 billion valuation, w...
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Imran ahmad
Crypto Web3
2 days ago
Ripple Gets Final US Banking Approval: What It Means for RLUSD and CryptoWIKIPEDIA

Ripple Gets Final US Banking Approval: What It Means for RLUSD and Crypto

Ripple announced on October 26, 2026, that it had received final approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish Ripple National Trust Bank. The proposed institution is designed to manage reserves backing Ripple USD (RLUSD), act as a collateral trustee and provide fiduciary digital ass...
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IMRAN AHMAD
AI
3 days ago
Planet Labs: How a Startup Turned Satellite Images Into a Data Businessorbital reader

Planet Labs: How a Startup Turned Satellite Images Into a Data Business

What if you could monitor forests, farms, cities, and shipping routes from space? Planet Labs has built a satellite-powered Earth intelligence business that transforms frequent images of our planet into valuable data for governments, businesses, and researchers. Its real opportunity lies not just in capturing images, b...
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Imran Ahmad
Case Studies
4 days ago
ASML: The Hidden Technology Giant Behind the World's Most Advanced Chipset telecome

ASML: The Hidden Technology Giant Behind the World's Most Advanced Chips

Most people know NVIDIA for AI chips and Apple for its devices. But behind the world's most advanced semiconductors is a Dutch technology company that builds the extraordinarily complex machines used to manufacture them: ASML. Its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology gives it a critical position in advanced...
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Imran ahmad
Crypto Web3
6 days ago
Binance: The Business Behind the World's Crypto Trading Machinereuters

Binance: The Business Behind the World's Crypto Trading Machine

Binance transformed cryptocurrency trading into a global financial technology business by building an exchange that connects millions of users with digital asset markets. Its business model revolves around trading fees, premium services, and a broader crypto ecosystem built around products such as BNB Chain and Binance...
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imran ahmad
Failure
7 days ago
FAST: The $124 Million Startup That Tried to Reinvent Online Checkout—But Ran Out of Timegrit daily

FAST: The $124 Million Startup That Tried to Reinvent Online Checkout—But Ran Out of Time

Fast had a simple but ambitious mission: make online shopping faster with one-click checkout across the internet. Founded in 2019, the startup attracted approximately $124.5 million in funding from investors including Stripe and Index Ventures. Yet, despite its ambitious expansion plans, Fast struggled to turn its tech...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Finance
9 days ago
How Banks Actually Make Money: The Business Behind Your Bank Balancevecteezy

How Banks Actually Make Money: The Business Behind Your Bank Balance

Banks do more than store your money. They earn revenue by lending, charging fees and providing financial services. The difference between interest earned on loans and interest paid on deposits is a major source of banking income. But behind this simple model lies a complex system of credit risk, liquidity management, r...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Crypto Web3
10 days ago
Deutsche Bank Is Entering Crypto: Why Traditional Banks Are Moving Into Digital Assetsserrari group

Deutsche Bank Is Entering Crypto: Why Traditional Banks Are Moving Into Digital Assets

Deutsche Bank is preparing to expand into cryptocurrency custody, reflecting growing institutional interest in digital assets. Its reported plans include a German launch followed by a potential expansion into Asian markets in 2027. The strategy highlights opportunities in secure crypto custody, stablecoin infrastructur...
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imran ahmad
Finance
10 days ago
Starlink vs Jio: Elon Musk's Satellite Internet Battle for India Has Entered a Critical PhaseEditorial Archive

Starlink vs Jio: Elon Musk's Satellite Internet Battle for India Has Entered a Critical Phase

Elon Musk's Starlink is pushing to enter India's satellite internet market, setting up a potentially significant contest with Reliance Jio and other satellite communication providers. On October 16, 2026, Starlink said it had spent more than five years working with Indian regulators and had established dedicated local ...
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imran ahmad
Finance
13 days ago
Ramp: How a Fintech Startup Built a $60 Billion Business by Reinventing Corporate Financelogowik

Ramp: How a Fintech Startup Built a $60 Billion Business by Reinventing Corporate Finance

Ramp has transformed corporate spending into a broader financial operations platform, combining corporate cards, expense management, bill payments and AI-powered automation. In October 2026, the company reportedly reached a $60 billion valuation, highlighting investor interest in software that helps businesses control ...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Unicorn
14 days ago
Canva: How Three Founders Turned Design Into a Billion-Dollar Businesspintrest

Canva: How Three Founders Turned Design Into a Billion-Dollar Business

Canva transformed graphic design from a skill-intensive process into an accessible online experience. Founded by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams in Australia, the company combined a freemium business model, intuitive design tools, reusable templates, and team collaboration to build a global visual com...
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Imran ahmad
Unicorn
16 days ago
Cursor AI: How a Young Startup Is Reshaping Software Developmentwww.makeuseof,com

Cursor AI: How a Young Startup Is Reshaping Software Development

Cursor AI is transforming software development by bringing artificial intelligence directly into the coding workflow. Built by Anysphere, the company created an AI-powered code editor designed to help developers understand codebases, generate code, fix errors, and build software faster. Its rise highlights a major shi...
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imran ahmad
Unicorn
19 days ago
IKEA: The Billion-Dollar Strategy Behind Affordable FurnitureDREAMS TIme

IKEA: The Billion-Dollar Strategy Behind Affordable Furniture

IKEA transformed furniture shopping through flat-pack packaging, self-service warehouses, affordable Scandinavian design, and a globally optimized supply chain. Founded in Sweden, the company built a distinctive retail model that shifts some assembly work to customers while focusing on design efficiency, product standa...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Crypto Web3
19 days ago
Tether (USDT): The Billion-Dollar Business Behind Digital Dollarsstock cake

Tether (USDT): The Billion-Dollar Business Behind Digital Dollars

Tether has become a major force in the digital asset economy by building USDT, a dollar-pegged stablecoin used across cryptocurrency exchanges, decentralized finance, and international digital payments. Its business model combines blockchain-based dollar transfers with income generated primarily from reserve assets, ma...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Unicorn
20 days ago
Anthropic: How Claude Is Challenging the AI Industry and Building an Enterprise AI BusinessPUNCHBOWL NEWS

Anthropic: How Claude Is Challenging the AI Industry and Building an Enterprise AI Business

Anthropic is an artificial intelligence company founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, and other former AI researchers. Best known for its Claude family of AI models, the company combines frontier AI research, AI safety, developer tools, and enterprise products to compete in the rapidly growing AI market. Its...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Failure
21 days ago
The $1.75 Billion Mistake: How Quibi Went From Hollywood’s Biggest Bet to a Startup Failurelinkdin

The $1.75 Billion Mistake: How Quibi Went From Hollywood’s Biggest Bet to a Startup Failure

Quibi raised approximately $1.75 billion to reinvent premium entertainment for smartphones, backed by Hollywood heavyweight Jeffrey Katzenberg and former HP CEO Meg Whitman. But after launching in April 2020, the streaming startup struggled to retain paying subscribers and announced its shutdown just months later — mak...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Unicorn
22 days ago
ChatGPT’s Biggest Trust Test: Lawsuits, AI Agents and the Battle Over AccountabilityDREAMS TIME

ChatGPT’s Biggest Trust Test: Lawsuits, AI Agents and the Battle Over Accountability

ChatGPT’s rapid expansion is entering a new phase where scale is no longer the only story. OpenAI is facing legal challenges over whether AI systems should be treated as products or services, while concerns around autonomous AI-agent behavior are putting safety, accountability and governance under greater scrutiny.
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IMRAN AHMAD
Founder Biography
22 days ago
AMD vs NVIDIA: Can AMD Break NVIDIA’s AI Chip Dominance?observer

AMD vs NVIDIA: Can AMD Break NVIDIA’s AI Chip Dominance?

NVIDIA has dominated the AI-compute market through a powerful combination of GPUs, CUDA software, networking and full-stack infrastructure. AMD is challenging that dominance with its Instinct AI accelerators and ROCm software ecosystem, but the real battle is whether AMD can close NVIDIA’s developer and ecosystem advantage.
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Imran ahmad
Crypto Web3
24 days ago
The Stablecoin Business: How Crypto Companies Actually Make Moneycato institute

The Stablecoin Business: How Crypto Companies Actually Make Money

Stablecoins have evolved from a crypto trading tool into a serious financial infrastructure business. Behind every dollar-pegged token is a business model built around reserves, payments, distribution, transaction flows and, in some cases, the income generated from the assets backing those tokens.
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Imran Ahmad
Unicorn
26 days ago
FieldAI: The $10 Billion Bet on a Universal Brain for RobotsINSTAGARM

FieldAI: The $10 Billion Bet on a Universal Brain for Robots

FieldAI, an Irvine, California-based physical-AI startup, is reportedly raising $700 million at a $10 billion valuation, up sharply from its reported $2 billion valuation in 2025. The company is building general-purpose AI models designed to operate across different robot platforms and complex real-world environments.
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IMRAN AHMAD
Crypto Web3
27 days ago
Volantis Raises $88M to Solve AI’s Hidden Memory Bottleneck With PhotonicsTECHNOLOGY NETWORK

Volantis Raises $88M to Solve AI’s Hidden Memory Bottleneck With Photonics

San Francisco-based semiconductor startup Volantis has raised $88 million in Series A funding to develop a photonic AI inference architecture designed to improve how computing chips communicate with memory. The round brings Volantis’ total funding to $97 million and comes as AI workloads increasingly face limits from memory bandwidth and capacity.
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Imran ahmad
Finance
28 days ago
The Startup Looks Successful. So Why Is Zepto Still Losing Money?adobe stock

The Startup Looks Successful. So Why Is Zepto Still Losing Money?

Zepto has built one of India's fastest-growing quick-commerce businesses, but its FY26 numbers reveal the other side of hyper-growth: operating revenue more than doubled to ₹22,623.6 crore, while net loss widened to ₹5,905.2 crore. With 64 crore orders, 4.79 crore annual transacting users and 1,139 dark stores, Zepto's...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Founder Biography
29 days ago
Why Did Meta Choose Kunal Shah to Lead WhatsApp?FACEBOOK

Why Did Meta Choose Kunal Shah to Lead WhatsApp?

In June 2026, Meta appointed CRED founder Kunal Shah as the global head of WhatsApp, succeeding Will Cathcart. The decision came alongside Meta's $900 million investment in CRED, valuing the fintech company at approximately $4.5 billion. Shah's founder experience, consumer-product background, global perspective and und...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Finance
29 days ago
Indian Markets Under Pressure: Why Nifty Fell 6.1% in September 2026dreamstime

Indian Markets Under Pressure: Why Nifty Fell 6.1% in September 2026

Indian equities ended September under significant pressure, with the Nifty 50 falling 6.1% to 22,620.45 and the Sensex declining 5.8% to 72,480.29. Foreign investors sold approximately $2.7 billion of Indian equities during the month, while elevated crude prices, higher global bond yields, geopolitical uncertainty and ...
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Imran Ahmad
Unicorn
about 1 month ago
Ando: The 2026 Startup Betting That AI Agents Will Become CoworkersFORBES

Ando: The 2026 Startup Betting That AI Agents Will Become Coworkers

Ando emerged from stealth in September 2026 with a $20 million funding announcement and a new approach to workplace messaging: AI agents are treated as active members of a team rather than simple software integrations. Founded by second-time founder Sara Du, Ando is building an agent-native communication platform desig...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Finance
about 1 month ago
Tata Sons’ New Finance Strategy: Tata Trusts Proposes Restructuring to Avoid a Public ListingWWW.alamay.com

Tata Sons’ New Finance Strategy: Tata Trusts Proposes Restructuring to Avoid a Public Listing

Tata Sons is facing a major financial and regulatory restructuring debate after the RBI rejected its request to surrender its Core Investment Company registration. On September 28, 2026, Tata Trusts proposed merging Tata Electronics Systems Solutions and Tata Consulting Engineers with Tata Sons, a structure intended to...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Crypto Web3
about 1 month ago
SEC Clarifies Ethereum Staking Rules as Crypto Regulation Enters a New Phasedecrypt.co

SEC Clarifies Ethereum Staking Rules as Crypto Regulation Enters a New Phase

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff has issued fresh clarification around Ethereum staking and certain liquid-staking arrangements, indicating that qualifying staking activities and receipt tokens may not constitute securities transactions under specified conditions. The development adds another layer of ...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Founder Biography
about 1 month ago
Rivet Raises $10.5M to Build a Community-Driven Dating Networkwww.ey.com

Rivet Raises $10.5M to Build a Community-Driven Dating Network

Rivet, a dating startup founded by former Tinder and Match Group executive Taru Kapoor and Rajat Sahni, has raised $10.5 million in seed funding from Peak XV Partners, Shine Capital and Blume Ventures. The startup is introducing a “Social Matching” model where users can help recommend potential matches instead of relyi...
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Imran ahmad
Failure
about 1 month ago
Alle: The AI Fashion Startup That Raised $3 Million, Pivoted Six Times and Shut Downideamensuch.com

Alle: The AI Fashion Startup That Raised $3 Million, Pivoted Six Times and Shut Down

Alle was an AI-powered personal styling startup founded in 2023 by former Meesho executives Prateek Agarwal, Harshit Madan and Pavan Patil. Backed by $3 million in seed funding, the startup attempted six pivots over roughly 2.5 years but could not find a sustainable business model or strong product-market fit. The comp...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Unicorn
about 1 month ago
Alexandr Wang: How a 19-Year-Old MIT Dropout Built Scale AI Into a $29 Billion AI Companywww.alo.com

Alexandr Wang: How a 19-Year-Old MIT Dropout Built Scale AI Into a $29 Billion AI Company

Alexandr Wang co-founded Scale AI in 2016 after leaving MIT at age 19, building a company focused on the data, evaluation and infrastructure needed to train reliable artificial intelligence systems. Scale later reached a valuation of more than $29 billion after Meta’s major investment in 2025. Wang, now 29, is Scale AI...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Case Studies
about 1 month ago
Firi: The 2026 Beauty Startup Turning AI Curation Into 9-Minute Commerceinc42

Firi: The 2026 Beauty Startup Turning AI Curation Into 9-Minute Commerce

Firi is a 2026-founded beauty-commerce startup built by former Uber India executives Vivek Madani and Karishma Rathaur. After an early pilot, the company began full operations in September 2026 and raised $3 million to expand its AI-curated beauty marketplace and quick-commerce infrastructure.
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imran ahmad
Case Studies
about 1 month ago
Koo: How India’s Twitter Challenger Ran Out of RoadANI NEWS

Koo: How India’s Twitter Challenger Ran Out of Road

Koo was India’s ambitious multilingual social media platform, created to challenge Twitter with a stronger focus on Indian languages. The startup attracted millions of users, prominent personalities and over $60 million in funding, reaching a peak valuation of around $285 million. However, weak monetisation, rising cos...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Finance
about 1 month ago
RBI’s Liquidity Move: Why India’s Banking System Is Entering a New Phasewww.gettogetherfinance.com

RBI’s Liquidity Move: Why India’s Banking System Is Entering a New Phase

The RBI has sharply reduced surplus liquidity in India’s banking system, from a record ₹11.16 lakh crore to ₹4.92 lakh crore. Bond sales, forex swaps and other liquidity operations are reshaping short-term financial conditions, with implications for banks, borrowing costs, bonds and the rupee.
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imran ahmad
Unicorn
about 1 month ago
Verda Becomes Europe’s Latest AI Unicorn After $189M Funding RoundTECHSTARTUP.COM

Verda Becomes Europe’s Latest AI Unicorn After $189M Funding Round

Helsinki-based AI cloud company Verda has become Europe’s latest unicorn after raising $189 million in a Series B round led by Emergence Capital. The company, formerly known as DataCrunch, is building full-stack AI infrastructure for high-performance GPU computing, with its valuation now above $1 billion.
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IMRAN AHMAD
Failure
about 1 month ago
PicSee: How Koo Co-Founder Mayank Bidawatka Shut Down His AI Photo-Sharing Startupmarketing mind

PicSee: How Koo Co-Founder Mayank Bidawatka Shut Down His AI Photo-Sharing Startup

PicSee was an AI-powered photo-sharing startup founded by Koo co-founder Mayank Bidawatka. The company attempted to build a new consumer social platform around AI-enhanced photo creation and sharing. In 2026, Bidawatka announced that PicSee would shut down after the startup struggled to achieve the momentum and product-market fit required for further scale.
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Imran ahmad
Crypto Web3
about 1 month ago
Bitcoin Breaks $86K: ETF Inflows, Short Covering and Renewed Crypto Momentum99BITCOIN.COM

Bitcoin Breaks $86K: ETF Inflows, Short Covering and Renewed Crypto Momentum

Bitcoin surged above $86,000 on September 21, 2026, reaching its highest level since January. The move came alongside renewed demand for U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, substantial short-position liquidations and broader risk-on sentiment across financial markets.
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IMRAN AHMAD
Case Studies
about 1 month ago
Perplexity: How an AI Search Startup Became a $20 Billion Information EngineBLOOMBERG.COM

Perplexity: How an AI Search Startup Became a $20 Billion Information Engine

Perplexity is building an AI-native alternative to traditional search, combining web discovery, cited answers, research tools and AI agents into one product. Founded in 2022, the San Francisco startup has rapidly moved from an early-stage search experiment to a multibillion-dollar private company, with its January 2026...
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IMRAN AHMAD
Unicorn
about 2 months ago
BYJU’S: How India’s Biggest EdTech Dream Turned Into a Startup CrisisFORBES

BYJU’S: How India’s Biggest EdTech Dream Turned Into a Startup Crisis

BYJU’S transformed online education in India and became one of the world’s most valuable edtech companies. Its rapid expansion, acquisitions and enormous fundraising created a global education giant. But mounting losses, debt, governance disputes and an aggressive growth strategy eventually pushed the company into a se...
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imran ahmad