Nothing’s CMF Crosses Over To India
Nothing is spinning off its sub-brand CMF into an independent, majority Indian-owned company. With this, the smartphone maker aims to capitalise on domestic manufacturing incentives and local R&D to manufacture 100 Mn units annually in the country in the long run.
The Standalone Pivot: Launched in 2023, CMF is Nothing’s affordable and design-led sub-brand. Under the proposed plan, CMF will operate as a standalone entity, headquartered in India and with its own local team and R&D operations. Nothing will retain a stake and continue as a partner. However, the precise ownership structure, Indian shareholders and timing of the corporate transition are yet to be disclosed.
Engineered In India: Nothing founder and CEO Carl Pei argues that 99% of smartphones sold in India are now manufactured locally, but most product development and IP remain overseas. CMF’s spin-off is designed to plug this gap by localising industrial design, software, camera processing and supplier co-engineering, rather than relying solely on imported parts. In addition, the Nothing off-shoot will bring its engineering DNA, operating system, supplier relationships and brand engine into India.
What’s In It For Nothing? The spin-off lets the OEM retain a strategic stake and technology licensing relationship, while outsourcing the heavy capital demands of manufacturing to Indian partners. Having an Indian entity will also enable Nothing to leverage local manufacturing and policy incentives to scale exports, without diluting its core premium brand identity.
The Ambition Test: Scaling CMF to 100 Mn annual shipments will require surviving a low-margin smartphone segment dominated by established global giants. On top of this, the success of the India hive-off will hinge on creating proprietary IPs, supply chain execution and sustained R&D investment.
CMF’s ultimate test lies in achieving unit economics and localisation before rivals catch up. So, what does Nothing and CMF’s India pivot look like? Let’s find out…
From The Editor’s Desk
🔔 Moneyview Sets IPO Price Band
- The Accel-backed fintech platform’s public issue is all set to open on September 24. The startup has fixed a price band of ₹32-₹34 per equity share for its upcoming IPO, which will value Moneyview at ₹5,985 Cr at the upper end of the spectrum.
- The IPO will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth up to ₹750 Cr and an OFS component of up to 10.05 Cr equity shares. At the upper end of the price band, the total issue size works out to around ₹1,092 Cr.
- Founded in 2014, Moneyview offers loans, payments, investments and insurance. As of June 2026, it claimed to have 14 Cr registered users and managed AUM worth ₹22,520 Cr. The startup reported a top line of ₹1,041 Cr in Q1 FY27 against a profit of ₹173.8 Cr.
📉 WROGN’s FY26 Loss Widens
- The D2C fashion brand’s net loss rose 17% YoY to ₹88.4 Cr in FY26. This came even as operating revenue jumped 9% YoY to ₹243.9 Cr and EBITDA loss improved 34% YoY to ₹38 Cr in the fiscal under review.
- Expenses continued to bite and increased 9.5% YoY to ₹342.4 Cr in FY26. Meanwhile, the D2C brand is targeting ₹600 Cr in GMV in the ongoing fiscal year and is looking to expand its footprint to 100+ EBOs by March 2027.
- Founded in 2014, WROGN is a D2C fashion brand that sells a wide range of casual wear, footwear and accessories. Over the past couple of years, Aditya Birla Group’s roll-up arm TMRW has increased its stake in WROGN to 32.84%.
⛔ Thyrocare To Exit Radiology
- The PharmEasy-owned diagnostic chain plans to sell its radiology business, Nueclear Healthcare, to Trovera Healthcare for about ₹141.4 Cr in a cash-and-stock deal. The transaction is expected to be completed by November.
- Trovera will pay ₹81.9 Cr in cash and allot an additional 42,500 CCPS worth ₹59.5 Cr to Thyrocare. The CCPS, priced at ₹14,000 apiece, will represent nearly 4.5% of Trovera’s share capital and will be convertible into equity shares in a 1:1 ratio.
- If the plan materialises, the divestment will enable Thyrocare to exit the radiology business. The vertical’s underperformance and continued investment requirements have been key factors behind the proposed exit.
🛒 Snapdeal All Set For IPO
- The ecommerce platform’s parent AceVector Ltd has filed its RHP with SEBI for an IPO, which will now comprise a fresh issue of shares worth ₹287 Cr and an offer for sale component of 4.16 Cr shares.
- The OFS component will see participation from SoftBank, Nexus Venture Partners, Rupen Investment and Industries, Centaurus Trading and Investments and others. The IPO will open for subscription on September 25 and close on September 29.
- Apart from Snapdeal, AceVector is also the parent of listed ecommerce enablement platform Unicommerce and house of brands platform Stellaro Brands. The three entities were consolidated and brought under one roof in 2022.
💰 ADIA Dumps Lenskart Shares
- Abu Dhabi Investment Authority yesterday offloaded 3.5 Cr shares of the omnichannel eyewear giant in a block deal worth ₹2,390.6 Cr. This comes barely three months after the sovereign wealth fund sold 4 Cr shares of Lenskart for ₹1,960 Cr.
- The stake sale comes as Lenskart shares have rallied 51.3% on YTD basis, providing a fertile ground for early backers to register gains. Investors like SoftBank, Temasek and Alpha Wave have offloaded stake in droves in the company in the past few months.
- The bullish run follows positive outlooks from multiple brokerages, which have increased their price target price for the eyewear giant. Cushioning this is its financial performance as the company reported a 273% YoY jump in profits to ₹228.4 Cr in Q1 FY27.
Inc42 Markets
Inc42 Startup Spotlight
Can CubeAPM Build A Budget-Friendly Watchtower For Software?
As software systems scale, monitoring them can become a financial liability. Unpredictable bills, data-residency concerns and slow dashboards are pushing enterprises to reconsider incumbent observability platforms. CubeAPM is trying to plug this gap with an AI-assisted alternative.
Observability At Fingertips: Founded in 2023, CubeAPM claims to reduce enterprise monitoring costs by as much as 60-80%, while keeping customer data within their own cloud environments. This helps enterprises reduce transfer costs, improve dashboard latency, and simplifies compliance and data-residency requirements.
A Simpler Cost Model: The startup prices its products on the basis of data ingestion volume, bundling unlimited users, hosts and support into the price. CubeAPM claims that its proprietary compression can reduce 100 GB of incoming telemetry to roughly 4 GB of stored data. It also supports integrations with Datadog, New Relic and Elastic, allowing customers to migrate easily.
AI For Troubleshooting: The platform is also building AI workflows that let coding assistants, such as Cursor, Claude Code and Codex, to query telemetry data for conversational root-cause analysis. CubeAPM also expects AI-powered troubleshooting to become its primary product priorities over the next two years.
Healthy Enterprise Traction: CubeAPM claims to already serve around 50 enterprise customers, including Delhivery, RedBus, PolicyBazaar and Shadowfax. It claims nearly $1.5 Mn in ARR, strong renewal rates and profitability since inception. With the global observability market projected to become a $20 Bn opportunity by 2031, can CubeAPM build a trusted platform for enterprises to monitor complex software systems?
Infographic Of The Day
India’s spacetech boom is here. From satellites and propulsion to data and beyond, homegrown players in the sector are attracting investor interest, garnering policy support and achieving new technical milestones. Here is all about it…
