Connect with us

Technology

Mesa School of Business raises ₹110 crore to expand its portfolio of programmes for the AI era

Published

on

Series A co-led by Dharana Capital and Elevation Capital in India’s first startup focused business school

BENGALURU, India, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Mesa School of Business has raised ₹110 crore, comprising ~₹85 crore in Series A equity funding co-led by Dharana Capital and existing investor Elevation Capital, and ₹25 crore in venture debt from InnoVen Capital and Alteria Capital. New capital will be used to invest in AI-first curriculum for existing programs, launch & grow new programs and build strategic partnerships with the startup ecosystem.

Founded in 2023 by Ankit Agarwal and Varun Limaye, Mesa runs residential programmes built around learning by doing real things. Every student builds and runs a small business, and learns to use AI to build and launch a tech product. More than 100 founders have taught on campus, and students have worked on over 200 projects with startups. Mesa is also backed by founders including Kunal Shah (CRED), Vidit Aatrey (Meesho), Abhiraj Bhal (Urban Company) and Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm).

Mesa has grown from a single postgraduate cohort to over 550 students across three programmes in the last 3 years: a one-year Post Graduate Programme in Startup Leadership, a four-year undergraduate programme on business & entrepreneurship, and Forge, a one-year programme for fresh graduates.

Mesa School alumni either opt for full time jobs in startups or choose to build their own companies. First two PG cohorts got an average CTC of ₹26 lakh, with the top 25% averaging ₹36.5 lakh. All placed students joined top startups, including Zomato, Zepto, Urban Company, Scapia and Comet, 58% of them in founder-facing roles.

Nearly 20% of graduates became entrepreneurs themselves. 50+ student startups are currently incubated at Mesa Startup Lab, the school’s in-house residency. Put together, they have raised ₹25+ crore in funding and grants and have an annual revenue run-rate of ₹50+ crore. Their backers include Nikhil Kamath, Ronnie Screwvala, Campus Fund, BeyondSeed, Foundery, i-Venture@ISB and IdeaBaaz. Among them is Mumbai Pav Co. which has raised ₹9 crore. Two student founders have already appeared on Shark Tank India.

Mesa will use the funds in three areas. It will strengthen its leadership team and build its capabilities in AI-led programme design and delivery, setting the school up to scale both its existing and new programmes. It will deepen strategic partnerships with leading startups, which will help shape its programmes and offer students industry-led projects, mentorship and job opportunities. And it will invest in launching and scaling new programmes.

“The rapid evolution of modern tech has exposed a glaring disconnect in higher education: students feel unprepared for new-age roles, and companies can’t find job-ready talent. Mesa is bridging that gap by rethinking business education for an AI-first world, ensuring students develop proven, high-impact operational capabilities.” said Vamsi Duvvuri, Founder and Managing Partner, Dharana Capital.

“Higher education in India needs to be rebuilt for the AI era, not patched. We believe founder-led, mission-driven schools like Mesa will be the new-age builders of Indian education, and we’re excited to double down,” said Mukul Arora, Co-Managing Partner, Elevation Capital.

“In an AI-led world, what will set ambitious young people apart is judgement, a bias for action and an understanding of how the world actually works – and those come only from experience. That’s why at Mesa, every student builds a real business with real revenue, uses AI on live problems, and gets feedback from founders who are always in the room. That is why startups hire our students, and why so many of them go on to build their own startups,” said Ankit Agarwal, co-founder, Mesa School of Business.

“AI will take over much of back-office work. Young people shouldn’t spend their early careers in roles that are disappearing, but building, selling and launching things. That’s what Mesa trains them to do,” said Varun Limaye, co-founder, Mesa School of Business.

About Mesa School of Business

Mesa School of Business is a Bengaluru-based institution that prepares young people to build, lead and create value in an AI-first world. It was founded in 2023 by Ankit Agarwal (Harvard Business School, IIT Bombay; formerly BCG and Urban Company) and Varun Limaye (Kellogg School of Management; formerly Amazon). Mesa offers residential programmes for undergraduates, fresh graduates and early-career professionals, and its mission is to build India’s Stanford. www.mesaschool.co

About Dharana Capital

Dharana Capital is an India-focused growth-stage technology and consumer investment firm. Dharana Capital’s current investments include Urban Company, LAT Aerospace, MyGate, Vyapar, Temple, Itilite, Petpooja, Vayudh and Beyond Appliances amongst others. Dharana is backed by top US University endowments and other non-profit institutions.

About Elevation Capital

Founded in 2002, Elevation Capital is one of India’s leading early-stage venture capital firms, partnering with founders from seed through scale. Elevation has invested more than $2.5 billion across 200+ companies, backing category-defining businesses across consumer-tech, fin-tech, enterprise AI, healthcare and deep-tech, including MakeMyTrip, Paytm, Firstcry, Swiggy, Urban Company and Meesho. The firm remains committed to backing audacious founders building enduring companies from India for the world.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/mesa-school-of-business-raises-110-crore-to-expand-its-portfolio-of-programmes-for-the-ai-era-302905735.html

Continue Reading

Technology

Tongwei’s TNC 2.0 FULLX G12R-48: A New Residential Solar Module Designed to Get More from Every Rooftop

Published

on

By

CHENGDU, China, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tongwei Solar has introduced the TNC 2.0 FULLX G12R-48, a 48-cell residential solar module delivering up to 490 W at 24.5% efficiency in a compact 1,762 × 1,134 × 30 mm format. Available in Full Black and Black Frame versions, it combines high power output with strong energy generation, installation flexibility and a design suited to modern homes. Zander Yuan, Director of Product & Technology at Tongwei Solar, explains how the module helps homeowners get more from their available roof space.

What makes the TNC 2.0 FULLX G12R-48 stand out from other rooftop solar modules?

Residential rooftops often have limited space, so every module needs to deliver more. The TNC 2.0 FULLX G12R-48 reaches 490 W, around 30 W more than conventional TOPCon modules of a comparable format, helping homeowners install more capacity without increasing the number of modules.

A module’s rated power is only one measure of its performance. Under Tongwei’s test conditions, the module achieved an average 3.3% higher per-watt energy generation than copper-plated back-contact (BC) modules. This advantage is supported by lower leakage current and stronger low-light performance. Comparative testing shows that at an irradiance of 200 W/m², a TNC module retains 19.42 W of an initial 100 W, compared with 18.60 W for a copper-plated BC module. By reducing leakage-related losses and performing better under weak sunlight, the module can make more effective use of available sunlight, particularly in the early morning and late afternoon.

How do these performance advantages translate into real value for homeowners?

What matters to homeowners is how much electricity their system generates over time, not just the power rating on the module. In tests conducted in Yancheng, the TNC module achieved 447.56 equivalent full-load hours, compared with 433.27 for copper-plated BC modules. Its generation advantage reached up to 12.32% during early morning and late afternoon under the tested conditions.

These gains can help households make better use of their rooftop systems, including during periods when electricity prices are higher. Higher generation per watt can also create opportunities to reduce upfront costs. Based on specific pricing assumptions, a 485 W TNC module could deliver comparable energy output to a 500 W copper-plated BC module, potentially saving more than €400 in module costs for a 12-module system. Actual results and savings will depend on installation conditions, local electricity tariffs and product pricing.

How does the module adapt to different rooftops, and what about its appearance and durability?

Not every rooftop has an ideal orientation or remains free of dust. German-condition simulations showed lower low-light generation losses for the TNC module across different orientations than for the copper-plated BC module tested. It also recorded smaller power losses under light, moderate and heavy soiling conditions, helping maintain energy output when conditions are less than ideal.

Appearance matters too, particularly for residential installations. The TNC 2.0 FULLX G12R-48 comes in Full Black and Black Frame versions to suit different roof designs. Its zero-cell-gap layout and concealed current-collection features create a clean, uniform look without sacrificing performance. The dual-glass construction and protective sealing are designed to support long-term reliability in outdoor environments.

How does the TNC 2.0 FULLX G12R-48 fit into Tongwei’s vision for residential solar?

Residential solar needs to balance power, energy generation, installation flexibility and appearance. A module that performs well on paper must also make sense for the roof it goes on and the people who live beneath it.

The TNC 2.0 FULLX G12R-48 brings these priorities together in a compact format. Its high power output helps maximise installed capacity, its energy-generation performance supports better use of available sunlight, and its two design options give homeowners greater choice.

Ultimately, the goal is to make residential solar more practical and valuable, helping homeowners get more from every rooftop.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/tongweis-tnc-2-0-fullx-g12r-48-a-new-residential-solar-module-designed-to-get-more-from-every-rooftop-302906670.html

Continue Reading

Technology

Toku Brings Carrier-Grade APAC Connectivity to Zoom Contact Center

Published

on

By

Toku’s local numbers and voice connectivity for Zoom Phone now extend to Zoom Contact Center across 14 Asia Pacific markets.

SINGAPORE, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Toku Ltd. (SGX: TKU) (“Toku” or the “Company”, and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”), a Singapore-headquartered AI-powered customer experience (CX) platform, has extended its carrier-grade local numbering and public switched telephone network (PSTN) connectivity to Zoom Contact Center, giving enterprises a new choice of connectivity provider in Asia Pacific, selectable directly in the Zoom web portal. Toku has been a Zoom connectivity partner for Zoom Phone since 2021; the integration brings the same service to Zoom’s contact centre platform.

Contact centres place heavier demands on voice quality, local presence and regulatory compliance than internal telephony, and AI raises the bar again. Enterprises on Zoom Contact Centre can now deploy AI virtual agents that talk to their customers alongside human teams, and every one of those calls still needs a local number and in-country routing. Those pressures compound when operations span markets with different carrier and numbering rules.

That is why Toku was built from the network up. It owns the connectivity and the AI layer above it, and the volume of voice traffic it carried rose in the first half of 2026, as reported in July. Enterprises can deploy the full 360° CX Platform or take one element on its own, such as connectivity, alongside the software they already use.

“The most underrated line item in AI infrastructure is the carrier contract. A voice agent is only as fast as the network it answers over, and in Asia Pacific that is settled carrier by carrier, country by country. Toku exists to be the infrastructure that voice agents run on, and from today Zoom Contact Center customers can build on it without leaving the platform they have chosen,” said Thomas Laboulle, Founder and CEO of Toku.

To get started, customers select Toku as their provider in the Zoom Admin Center, while Toku contracts with the customer separately from the Zoom subscription for connectivity, numbering and usage. The service for Zoom Contact Center is available in 14 markets: Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Zoom Contact Center customers can find out more about Toku connectivity at toku.co/zoom.

About Toku

Headquartered in Singapore, Toku Ltd. (SGX Catalist: TKU) is a cloud-native, AI-powered customer experience platform purpose-built for enterprises operating in complex, multi-market environments. With deep roots in the APAC region and an expanding global footprint, Toku’s modular 360° CX Platform orchestrates customer interactions across voice, chat, email and digital channels while managing regulatory, linguistic and infrastructure complexity at scale.

Built on end-to-end ownership of its technology stack, from carrier-grade connectivity to AI applications, Toku delivers enterprise-grade security, reliability and deployment flexibility across commercial cloud, private data centres and hybrid environments. Its AI capabilities include transcription, summarisation, sentiment analysis, conversation analytics and governed virtual agents, designed to integrate seamlessly with enterprise systems and customer data.

Trusted by leading enterprises and public-sector organisations, Toku helps them streamline operations, scale customer engagement and deliver consistent experiences in fragmented markets worldwide.

For more information about Toku, visit toku.co

Zoom is a trademark of Zoom Communications, Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Toku’s expansion plans and business strategy. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Toku undertakes no obligation to update these statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Sponsor’s Statement

Toku Ltd. (the “Company”) was listed on Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the “Exchange”) on 22 January 2026. The initial public offering of the Company was sponsored by PrimePartners Corporate Finance Pte. Ltd. (the “Sponsor”). This press release has been reviewed by the Sponsor. It has not been examined or approved by the Exchange and the Exchange assumes no responsibility for the contents of this press release, including the correctness of any of the statements or opinions made or reports contained in this press release. The contact person for the Sponsor is Ms. Ng Shi Qing, 16 Collyer Quay, #10-00 Collyer Quay Centre, Singapore 049318, sponsorship@ppcf.com.sg.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/toku-brings-carrier-grade-apac-connectivity-to-zoom-contact-center-302906671.html

SOURCE Toku Ltd.

Continue Reading

Technology

Fibocom Showcases SC153 5G Smart Module at NetworkX, Leveraging a Qualcomm Platform to Accelerate 5G Smart Device Development

Published

on

By

VIENNA, Oct. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As AI applications increasingly extend to end devices, smart devices are evolving from basic data connectivity toward real-time interaction and intelligent experiences, creating greater demand for high-speed, stable, low-latency wireless connectivity.

At NetworkX 2026, Fibocom is showcasing its SC153 5G smart module for the first time. Built on the Qualcomm Dragonwing™ Q-4390 processor, SC153 addresses next-generation smart devices’ requirements for high-speed connectivity and complex applications, providing customers worldwide with a high-performance 5G connectivity solution that offers development flexibility.

The product is currently undergoing debugging, with mass production planned for the fourth quarter of 2026.

High-Speed 5G Connectivity Unlocks Device Potential

As applications such as high-definition video transmission, industrial data acquisition and smart device connectivity continue to develop, devices face increasing requirements for high-speed data transmission and stable network connectivity.

Designed with advanced 5G communications capabilities, SC153 supports 3GPP Release 16 and provides multimode connectivity across 5G NR sub-6 GHz and LTE, meeting the network performance and deployment flexibility requirements of different applications.

For connectivity performance, SC153 supports both 5G standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) network architectures, delivering maximum downlink speeds of 2.3 Gbps in SA mode and 2.5 Gbps in EN-DC mode. These capabilities enable stable, efficient data transmission for applications including high-definition video, industrial equipment and smart devices.

Flexible Design Meets Diverse Device Requirements

To support the rapid evolution of smart devices, customers need not only communications performance but also greater flexibility in hardware design and software development.

SC153 uses an LGA package and provides a wide range of interfaces, including MIPI display, MIPI camera, USB 3.1, UART, I²C and SD, while flexibly supporting Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 configurations to meet the design requirements of different device form factors.

SC153 also supports the Android operating system, providing a more flexible platform for software development, application expansion and device customization.

With its high-speed connectivity and development flexibility, SC153 can help customers develop a new generation of wireless products for smart devices, industrial equipment and high-speed data applications.

Working with Ecosystem Partners to Advance Device Innovation

Edward Ai, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Qualcomm Technologies, said:.

“5G and application processing capabilities are converging at an accelerating pace, creating more opportunities for product innovation in next-generation smart devices. Qualcomm Dragonwing platforms are designed to provide device manufacturers with platform capabilities for intelligent edge devices. We look forward to further strengthening our collaboration with Fibocom and extending advanced platform capabilities to more smart device applications.”

Thales Zhang, Vice President and Head of the Global Marketing and Computing Business Group at Fibocom, said:

“As smart device form factors become increasingly diverse, customers are placing greater demands on 5G connectivity and device development efficiency. SC153 is an important addition to Fibocom’s portfolio for next-generation 5G smart devices. We aim to leverage Qualcomm’s advanced platform to translate new connectivity capabilities more quickly into devices that customers can deploy.”

Looking ahead, Fibocom will continue working with industry ecosystem partners to accelerate the deployment of 5G connectivity across a broader range of smart devices.

About Fibocom

Fibocom, founded in 1999, is China’s first wireless communication module company listed on both the A-share and H-share markets. Fibocom leverages wireless communication and artificial intelligence as its core technologies to provide integrated hardware and software solutions that empower industry applications. These solutions accelerate the transformation from “Connect Everything” to “Intelligent Connectivity” across diverse industries.

Fibocom’s one-stop solutions encompass cellular communication, AI, automotive, and GNSS modules, as well as AI toolchains, supporting industry-side and mainstream large model integration, and providing AI Agent, global connectivity, and cloud services, driving the digital intelligence upgrades in industries such as robotics, consumer electronics, low-altitude economy, intelligent transportation, smart retail, and smart energy.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fibocom-showcases-sc153-5g-smart-module-at-networkx-leveraging-a-qualcomm-platform-to-accelerate-5g-smart-device-development-302906672.html

SOURCE Fibocom

Continue Reading

Trending