B2C Companies Find a New Opportunity in AI
Artificial intelligence is increasingly moving beyond being an internal efficiency tool for India’s large consumer technology companies. Businesses that accumulated significant operational experience, customer data and technology capabilities while scaling their core platforms are now exploring whether those capabilities can become independent revenue-generating products.
Eternal and CARS24 are among the companies pursuing this opportunity. Their strategies illustrate a broader shift in which consumer internet businesses are looking beyond their traditional markets and exploring enterprise-focused AI products.
Rather than building AI businesses entirely from scratch, these companies have an important starting advantage: some of the technology was originally created to solve problems inside their existing operations.
Eternal Expands Nugget Beyond Its Own Ecosystem
Eternal’s AI initiative, Nugget, began as an internal solution associated with Zomato's operations before developing into a standalone platform for outside businesses.
The platform offers capabilities including conversational AI, voice assistants, workflow automation and agentic systems. Its customer base has expanded across sectors such as banking, insurance, direct-to-consumer businesses and epharmacy.
Nugget generated ₹7.2 crore in revenue during FY26 and was reported to be cash-flow positive, indicating that Eternal’s experiment has moved beyond simply testing an internal technology product.
The development is significant because it shows how a large B2C platform can potentially turn technology expenditure into an additional business line. If such products attract customers outside their parent companies, AI could become a source of diversification rather than merely a tool for reducing costs.
CARS24 Takes a Different AI Route
CARS24 is also pushing into enterprise AI, but its strategy differs from the conventional software-as-a-service approach.
Its independent AI platform, Deployment Inc, is designed to help companies implement AI systems within their actual operations. The model involves deploying specialised engineers who can connect AI models with corporate data, redesign workflows and assess business outcomes. The company plans to initially hire 50 forward-deployed engineers for the initiative.
This approach reflects a growing challenge in enterprise AI: having access to an AI model is not necessarily enough. Companies also need to integrate the technology with existing systems, data and workflows before it can generate measurable commercial benefits.
More Consumer-Tech Players Explore Enterprise AI
The trend extends beyond Eternal and CARS24.
Paytm is looking at offering internally developed AI capabilities to merchants and businesses, while Razorpay is working on an agentic commerce initiative. Together, these moves suggest that Indian technology companies increasingly see AI intellectual property developed internally as something that can potentially be commercialised externally.
The attraction is understandable. Large consumer platforms already handle complex transactions, customer interactions and operational workflows at scale. Products tested under these conditions may have practical advantages when adapted for enterprise customers.
However, success in consumer technology does not automatically guarantee success in enterprise software.
Corporate customers typically demand stronger data governance, customised integrations, long-term support and clear evidence of return on investment. Enterprise sales cycles can also be considerably longer than consumer acquisition cycles. Established B2C companies will therefore have to prove that their AI products can succeed independently of their parent brands.
LEAP India IPO Reaches 49% Subscription on Day 2
Alongside the growing AI push, attention in the startup and technology ecosystem has also remained on the public markets.
LEAP India’s IPO was subscribed about 49% by the end of the second day of bidding on August 10. Investors placed bids for approximately 5.62 crore shares against roughly 11.5 crore shares available in the public issue.
Qualified institutional buyers were ahead of other major investor categories, with their reserved portion subscribed around 61%. The non-institutional investor category reached approximately 50%, while the retail portion was subscribed about 41%.
The ₹2,480 crore IPO consists of a fresh share issue of up to ₹480 crore and an offer for sale of up to ₹2,000 crore. Its price band has been fixed at ₹151-₹159 per share. At the upper end of the band, the issue implies a company valuation of approximately ₹7,004.5 crore.
Why LEAP India’s IPO Matters
LEAP India operates in the logistics and supply-chain asset pooling segment, making its IPO another test of public-market demand for businesses connected to India’s expanding logistics infrastructure.
The 49% subscription recorded after Day 2 indicates that a significant portion of the issue remained unsubscribed going into the final bidding day. At the same time, comparatively stronger participation from institutional investors provided an important signal of interest.
IPO demand can change sharply on the final day, particularly because institutional and non-institutional investors often place larger orders toward the end of the subscription window. Day 2 numbers therefore offer an interim picture rather than a final verdict on investor appetite.
AI Commercialisation Could Become a New Growth Engine
The AI initiatives emerging from major consumer businesses point toward a potentially important evolution in India's startup ecosystem.
For years, large consumer platforms invested heavily in technology primarily to improve customer acquisition, automate support, manage logistics or optimise internal operations. Generative AI and agentic systems are creating an opportunity to package some of those capabilities into products that can be sold to other companies.
That could create an additional revenue stream while allowing companies to extract more value from technology investments already made for their core businesses.
The challenge will be execution. Enterprise customers will judge these products on reliability, security, integration and measurable financial benefits rather than the popularity of the parent consumer brand.
Balanced Analysis
The developments around B2C companies and LEAP India represent two different paths through which India's startup ecosystem is maturing.
On one side, established consumer companies are attempting to monetise technological capabilities beyond their original businesses. AI could help them diversify revenue and reduce dependence on increasingly competitive consumer markets.
On the other, companies such as LEAP India are turning toward public markets for capital and liquidity.
Neither route guarantees success. AI businesses must establish sustainable demand outside their parent ecosystems, while IPO-bound companies have to satisfy public investors who typically place greater emphasis on financial performance, valuation and long-term profitability.
Together, however, the developments underline a broader transition: Indian technology companies are increasingly searching for growth beyond their original business models, whether through AI-led enterprise products or access to public capital markets.
This article is based on reporting published by Inc42.
