War Hits Data Centres, IG Defence Bags $5 Mn & More

The War Cloud Over Data CentresWhen we think about the casualties of modern warfare, data centres rarely come to mind. That changed this month. Here’s what happened, what it means for global cloud infrastructure, and why India is suddenly part of the conversation.Strike That Shook The Cloud: Drone strikes linked to Iran’s armed forces damaged at least three Amazon Web Services (AWS) facilities — two in the UAE and one in Bahrain — earlier this month, marking one of the first times cloud infrastructure has been directly hit by military action. The attacks caused structural damage, power disruption, and fire-related water damage.Banks like Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank, along with ride-hailing platform Careem, reported outages. AWS has since advised affected customers to reroute workloads to regions in the US, Europe, or Asia Pacific.Data Centres As Targets: This incident signals something larger: as AI and big data increasingly drive military decision-making, the physical infrastructure powering those systems is becoming a strategic target. Iranian state media confirmed the strikes were intended to disrupt facilities believed to support US and Israeli military intelligence. With global public cloud spending projected to exceed $1 Tn in 2026, and the “Big Three” — AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud — controlling 60% of the market, the concentration of critical digital infrastructure in geopolitically sensitive zones is a genuine vulnerability.India’s Moment? As enterprises reassess geographic diversification, India is emerging as a credible alternative. The country hosts six AWS availability zones across cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kochi. AWS had already committed ₹60,000 Cr to Hyderabad expansion.Analysts at Gartner note that India’s stable policy environment, growing connectivity, and expanding data centre ecosystem make it a practical option — though any large-scale migration will need to navigate data sovereignty rules and workload complexity.So, as war hits global data centres, can India’s quiet data centre revolution become the world’s safest bet? Let’s find out…From The Editor’s Desk Ex-Peak XV Execs Float New FundFormer managing directors of the VC firm, Shailesh Lakhani and Harshjit Sethi, have banded together to launch an early stage fund with a target corpus of $250 Mn. Called Ambition Capital, the new investment firm will look to back 25-30 seed and Series A startups across sectors like AI, deeptech, and fintech.This comes amid a major leadership churn at Peak XV Partners. Last month, three other executives – Ashish Agrawal, Ishaan Mittal and Tejeshwi Sharma – also left the VC major to launch their own investment firm, IG Defence Bags $5 MnThe defence tech startup has raised nearly ₹46 Cr in its ongoing Pre-Series A round from India Accelerator, Finvolve and a clutch of family offices. The fresh capital was raised at a post-money valuation of ₹420 Cr.Founded in 2018, IG Defence builds drones and allied tech for defence and civil use cases. The startup grabbed the spotlight after supplying drones to the Armed Forces during Operation Sindoor last year. The startup claims to have clocked a 330% YoY jump in revenue to ₹22.4 Cr in FY25. IG Defence is eyeing ₹100 Cr in revenue in the ongoing fiscal (FY26) and plans to continue raising capital to support product development and expansion. Atomberg’s Latest ExperimentThe IPO-bound home appliance startup has forayed into manufacturing components for large appliances. Under the new vertical, it will design and make motors and controllers for ACs, refrigerators, and washing machines.To power its B2B arm, the startup is investing ₹150-200 Cr to build a 1.5 Lakh sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Pune. Besides onboarding clients like Godrej and Voltas, the company is also in talks with other OEMs to expand its customer base. The B2B play has come to fore as Atomberg looks to create alternate revenue streams ahead of its potential IPO by 2027. The startup is looking to file its DRHP for a $220 Mn IPO soon. VCats’ 10X Pee Safe ExitVenture Catalysts has exited the femtech startup with a 9.6X return on its initial investment at an XIRR of 30.53%. The investment firm sold its entire stake during Pee Safe’s $32 Mn fundraise in January this year. VCats was one of Pee Safe’s earliest backers, having first invested in the femtech startup during its $1 Mn round back in 2017.Founded in 2016, Venture Catalysts operates a syndication business that deploys capital through angel funds as well as a VC arm. It claims to have so far backed over 400 startups, including the likes of Renee Cosmetics, InsuranceDekho and BharatPe. BambooBox Nets $6.6 MnThe SaaS startup has raised nearly ₹55 Cr in a funding round led by Peak XV Surge to advance its AI capabilities, scale its account-based marketing (ABM) services globally, and shore up its GTM strategy.Founded in 2020, BambooBox’s AI-powered tools help enterprises analyse data from multiple customer touchpoints to identify buying intent. Using these insights, it helps businesses deliver targeted, personalised campaigns across channels. With customers across India and the US, the startup is eyeing a piece of the homegrown SaaS market, which is projected to become a $70 Bn opportunity by 2030.Inc42 MarketsInc42 Startup SpotlightCan YuVerse Own The Last Mile Of Enterprise AI?AI remains the flavour of the season, yet most enterprises still grapple with the technology’s last-mile problem. While models excel in demos, they struggle in production workflows. Yubi Group’s spinout YuVerse is trying to bridge this gap with a multi-modal orchestration layer. Yubi’s AI Arm: Founded in 2025, YuVerse functions as the intelligence layer for the Yubi Group, transforming complex financial data into actionable results. It provides an orchestration layer for AI models, across document NLP, alternate data scoring, voice AI, and video intelligence, to foster outcome-driven workflows.A Full-Stack Approach: The startup’s modular suite includes YuAlt for alternate-data credit scoring, YuAccess for document intelligence, and YuVoice that handles over 30 Mn monthly calls in various Indian dialects. It claims to have helped banks reduce collection costs by 57% and achieved 95% accuracy in document parsing. The Execution Moat: With banking clients like SBI, ICICI and IDBI in its kitty, the startup is now looking to expand into legal, healthcare, and insurance segments and deepen its video intelligence capabilities It is also moving beyond India, Sri Lanka and the UAE to Southeast Asia and the US. So, can YuVerse turn AI orchestration into the invisible moat enterprises crave?Infographic Of The DayCRED is no longer just a bill payments platform, but a super app that operates across lending, commerce, investments and insurance. Here is all about CRED’s growing product line…The post War Hits Data Centres, IG Defence Bags $5 Mn & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.