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GetYourBrief Startups desk · October 19, 2026
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Rundown · Monday, October 19, 2026

Startups news on October 19, 2026

On Monday, October 19, 2026 the Startups desk recorded 4 news events, 2 of them carried by 5 or more outlets. The earliest report came from The Economic Times at 00:30 UTC.

  1. 01

    The Pant Project raises ₹109 crore to expand store network

    6 outlets · first: The Economic Times Funding

    Reported by The Economic Times, economictimes.indiatimes.com, Dealroom, BW Disrupt, Inc42 and Retail News Asia.

    • Inc42
    • The Pant Project

    Full coverage: every report, when each was published, and who was named (6 outlets)

  2. 02

    Mynt's 60.9 billion-peso IPO combines new shares and stock sold by holders

    5 outlets · first: Bloomberg Funding

    Machine summary Mynt's 60.9 billion-peso IPO combined newly issued shares with stock sold by existing shareholders, with new-share proceeds going to the company and secondary proceeds going to selling holders. Among the firm's supporters are Globe Telecom, Ayala Corp and Ant Group, while over 20 cornerstone investors pledged roughly $500 million, close to 60% of the base deal size.

    Reported by Bloomberg, Reuters, ua.news and WSJ.

    Full coverage: every report, when each was published, and who was named (5 outlets)

  3. 03

    Tenstorrent raises $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation

    4 outlets · first: Bloomberg.com Funding

    Machine summary Tenstorrent, the AI chip startup led by Jim Keller, raised $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation in a round co-led by Trace Capital and Innovation X, Bloomberg and TechCrunch report. By more than doubling the $2.6 billion valuation the company held in late 2024, the financing arrived about five months following reported interest in acquiring it from Intel and Qualcomm, at valuations reaching as much as $5 billion.

    1. Tenstorrent raised $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation, Bloomberg and TechCrunch report; Seeking Alpha describes it as a Series E round.
    2. The valuation more than doubled from the $2.6 billion the company fetched in late 2024, according to TechCrunch.
    3. According to TechCrunch, the round was co-led by Innovation X and Trace Capital, a firm newly launched by Ben Mahdavi, the co-founder of Quiet Capital, while Eclipse, Fidelity, Cadence Ventures, SanDisk and T. Rowe Price also provided backing.
    4. CEO Jim Keller told Bloomberg the company chose to remain independent and raise capital after its Galaxy servers ran DeepSeek models.
    5. TechCrunch reports Tenstorrent received acquisition interest from Intel and Qualcomm roughly five months earlier at valuations of as much as $5 billion.

    Reported by Seeking Alpha, Bloomberg.com, SiliconANGLE and techcrunch.com.

  4. 04

    Ex-Replika CEO Kuyda opens Wabi to all users after $20M pre-seed

    2 outlets · first: techcrunch.com Product launch

    Machine summary Wabi, a multiplayer assistant powered by personal AI and shipped as a messenger app, became available to every user on Monday, having been launched by Eugenia Kuyda, who stepped down as Replika's chief executive last year. TechCrunch reported a $20 million pre-seed round at Wabi's initial launch in 2025, when the product was described as a social platform for prompt-built mini-apps. The reports state the product has since shifted toward personalised, thread-based agentic software.

    1. Eugenia Kuyda launched Wabi for all users on Monday, October 19, 2026, twelve years after pitching the IO chatbot at TechCrunch Disrupt, according to TechCrunch
    2. TechCrunch reported a $20 million pre-seed round alongside Wabi's initial launch last year, when it was described as a social platform for prompt-built mini-apps
    3. Wabi is structured as a messenger app with multiple agentic threads for tasks and long-term goals, where users can build custom apps such as a weight-loss tracker or a children's events finder, the reports state
    4. Kuyda stepped down as CEO of Replika last year and founded Wabi; Luka, her original startup, later became Replika, per the reports
    5. Wabi enters a field of personal AI assistants including Muse and Instinct that promise inbox management and flight-deal finding, the reports state

    Reported by techcrunch.com and techweekly.co.za.

Each summary and its key facts are a machine summary of the reports linked under it; the outlets, times and counts come from those reports' own records. How a rundown is built.

Also covered for this desk

8 events homed on another desk that the Startups desk also carried on October 19, 2026.

  1. Oct 19 · Space & defense Seeking Alpha: “Musk pledges to give SpaceX shares to 'every kid in America’” 3
  2. Oct 19 · AI Clinical AI startup Healthleap raises $38m to widen condition screening 3
  3. Oct 19 · Space & defense Huosheng Aerospace starts 200-ton methane engine project in Ningbo 2
  4. Oct 19 · AI Aaru brings its AI-persona market research method to Asia-Pacific 2
  5. Oct 19 · Finance Anduril tender offer would value the drone maker at about $90B 2
  6. Oct 19 · AI Tolan raises $30M for AI companion 2
  7. Oct 19 · AI doubleAI's Maxwell targets the machine layer instead of source code 2
  8. Oct 19 · Finance Malaysia minister cites RM202.64 billion in KL20 startup proceeds 1

The days around it

Sources: the outlets' reports linked on this page; counts and times from GetYourBrief's record of those reports (methodology).