Ads In The AI Age, The Bear House’s Prowl & More

Advertising In The AI Age

The ₹30 Lakh trademark fine on Google in the Hindware case may be modest, but the ruling lands at a moment when AI is rebuilding search advertising. As keywords give way to AI-led targeting and automated ad placement, do old trademark rules still fit the new ad economy?

A Legacy Dispute: Last month, the Delhi High Court found that Google allowed rival advertisers to bid on the “Hindware” keyword, infringing the brand’s trademark. The case itself is old-school keyword warfare, but the timing makes it far more important – the ad system it concerns has already moved deep into AI-driven automation.

Changing Search Ads: Google Ads no longer work only through manual keyword selection. Products such as Performance Max, smart bidding and broad-match targeting increasingly let machine-learning systems decide which queries, audiences and placements are most likely to convert. Advertisers now feed budgets and goals into the system, while algorithms take over much of the targeting logic.

Liability Gets Blurrier: This AI backdrop is what makes the Hindware ruling interesting. In a human-led model, intent is clearer. If an advertiser bids on a rival’s brand, liability is easier to trace. In an AI-led model, the system may match a trademarked search term to a competitor automatically, raising harder questions about who actually “caused” the infringement.

Conversational Ad Frontier: In today’s AI age, AI giants are now colliding with ad giants as search, discovery and monetisation are shifting to machine-driven systems. What began as keyword-based advertising is moving toward automated matching and AI-generated placements, raising fresh questions about transparency, trademark use and ad accountability.

All said and done, history suggests that Google will likely appeal the Hindware ruling, and the eventual outcome could shape future disputes over AI-driven ad targeting. So, can legacy trademark laws pivot to effectively govern autonomous ads? Let’s find out…

From The Editor’s Desk

👗 The Bear House’s Prowl

• The D2C brand entered India’s premium menswear market in 2019 with the ambition of disrupting the space. But instead of chasing scale through discounts, it spent nearly six years building a long revenue pipeline through disciplined, profitable growth.
• The Bear House spent years building online traction before going offline, and it used those digital signals to open stores in high-affinity areas. It then outsourced production to vendors and redirected capital toward product quality and brand building.
• The brand’s FY26 numbers show how that patience has paid off. Operating revenue more than doubled YoY to ₹270 Cr and profits surged 5X YoY to ₹16 Cr. Now, the startup is aiming for ₹500 Cr in revenue by FY27 and 65 stores nationwide.

📻 Kuku FM Gears Up For IPO

• The audio entertainment platform has filed its DRHP with the SEBI via the confidential pre-filing route to raise up to ₹3,500 Cr via its IPO. The startup is targeting a valuation of up to ₹15,000 Cr for its D-Street debut.
• Kuku FM’s plans to list on the bourses have been in the making for some time now. Last year, it onboarded Kotak Mahindra Capital, Jefferies, JM Financial and Axis Capital as bankers to helm its IPO.
• Founded in 2018, Kuku operates vernacular audio and short-video apps as well as a microlearning platform Guru. It has raised $156 Mn to date and clocked a revenue of ₹1,4000 Cr in FY26, up 5.8X from ₹240 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

🔔 Ola Electric Wraps Up QIP

• The EV maker closed its qualified institutional placement yesterday, approving the allotment of 21.75 Cr equity shares at an issue price of ₹35.86 per share. This implied a fund raise of ₹780.2 Cr.
• This comes days after Ola Electric’s QIP opened on June 1, setting a floor price of ₹37.74 for the issue. This followed the company’s board approving a proposal to raise ₹1,500 Cr via various routes, including QIP.
• The fresh capital raise comes at a critical juncture for Ola Electric. While the company remains one of India’s largest E2W manufacturers, it continues to grapple with losses, stagnant revenues, intense competition and service-related challenges.

🔔 TrueFan AI Bags $10 Mn

• The enterprise AI startup has raised about ₹96 Cr in its Series A round led by Baring Private Equity Partners India and Z3Partners to enter new markets across Southeast Asia and the Middle East and scale its presence in the US.
• Founded initially in 2020 as a celebrity engagement platform, TrueFan AI later pivoted to launch a GenAI video platform that helps enterprises create hyper-personalised videos featuring celebrities. With 100 clients under its belt, it has raised $21 Mn to date.
• On the financial front, TrueFan AI’s revenue grew 131.1% YoY to ₹17.1 Cr in FY25, while losses declined 36.7% YoY to ₹8.8 Cr in the fiscal under review. Going forward, it plans to build real-time AI video agents for customer support, sales and onboarding.

🤖 SC Mulls Ban On AI-Led Adjudication

• The Supreme Court (SC) has released a comprehensive draft framework governing the use of AI in the Indian judiciary, proposing strict restrictions that ensure the technology remains purely assistive. It has invited public feedback by June 20.
• The draft norms also propose a complete ban on use of personal data for training AI systems, without prior approval. The framework also bars the usage of AI for predicting bail outcomes and flight risk of any person.
• The draft rules also propose the establishment of a permanent Apex Body to oversee the system. The panel will set standards, approve AI tools, monitor performance, and publish yearly reports. It will be supported by committees and AI units in High Courts.

🎓 CCPA Fines PhysicsWallah

• The Central Consumer Protection Authority has imposed a penalty of ₹5 Lakh on the edtech major for using dark patterns, including a pre-selected donation option via which it collected about ₹2.47 Cr from more than 21.36 Lakh users.
• The CCPA also held that PW violated provisions relating to consumer rights, misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices under the Consumer Protection Act. The body has directed the company to submit a compliance report within 15 days.
• Meanwhile, following outcry from critics, the edtech unicorn rolled back its recently unveiled plan to provide financing to students through its wholly owned NBFC subsidiary, FinZ Finance.

Inc42 Markets

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

Can Cellogen Democratise Cancer Cures For Indians?

For most Indian cancer patients, cutting-edge therapies like CAR-T remain out of reach. They are priced at hundreds of thousands of dollars globally and are scarcely available locally. Cellogen Therapeutics is working to close this gap with accessible cell therapies.

Treating Cancer: Founded in 2021, Cellogen Therapeutics is a cellular engineering startup focused on CAR-T therapies, a personalised approach where a patient’s immune cells are reprogrammed to target cancer. By indigenising critical inputs like lentiviral vectors and quality-control systems, Cellogen is targeting treatment costs of around ₹25 Lakh, significantly lower than global benchmarks.

Tackling Relapse: Cellogen’s lead therapy, XenCAR-T, targets two cancer markers (CD19 and CD20) addressing a key limitation of existing CAR-T treatments that often fail due to antigen escape. By hitting two targets, the therapy aims to reduce relapse rates and improve long-term outcomes in blood cancers.

AI-Powered Discovery: The startup has built proprietary AI tools like CelAbGen and CARMSeD, shrinking antibody discovery timelines from years to 24 hours. With a library of nearly 13,000 CAR constructs, Cellogen is rapidly advancing candidates toward clinical trials, redefining the pace of biotech R&D

As trials begin and commercialisation nears, can Cellogen make cancer cures both accessible and scalable for India and beyond?

Infographic Of The Day

India’s travel ecosystem is being rebuilt by startups. From electric mobility and AI-powered travel solutions, a new generation of startups is changing how Indians discover, plan and experience travel. Here’s a look at the country’s next travel tech wave…