Temple seeks $500M valuation as Goyal prices wearable at ₹80K

Deepinder Goyal's Temple wearable startup is raising fresh funding at a $500 million valuation, according to people familiar with the matter. The company's debut health device, a non-invasive wearable that monitors blood flow in the brain, will be priced between ₹75,000 and ₹80,000 when it ships.

Goyal shared the funding plans in an internal memo. "We are seeing strong interest from external investors at a $500 million valuation. Before we close the next round, I want some of this value to reach the people who created it," he wrote. Temple has launched a partial ESOP buyback at a $375 million valuation, allowing eligible employees to sell up to 25% of their vested stock options.

What does the Temple wearable actually do?

Temple is positioning itself as a premium health-tech play. The device sits on the temples and measures cerebral blood flow, a metric most consumer wearables ignore entirely. Goyal developed the product through Continue, his longevity venture that studies how gravity affects human aging.

The ₹75,000-80,000 price tag includes lifetime access to Temple's health platform and a lifetime supply of medically approved adhesive tapes required to wear the device. That bundling strategy removes recurring subscription friction, though it also means Temple needs to nail hardware margins from day one.

Temple previously raised $54 million from Steadview and Peak XV Partners, among others. The jump from that round to a $500 million valuation signals confidence in the product's readiness, or at least in Goyal's ability to command premium terms.

PE-VC exits now favor block deals over IPOs

Private equity and venture capital investors are increasingly cashing out through post-listing block deals rather than IPOs, according to investment bank DC Advisory. Public market sales accounted for 77% of the $6.1 billion in PE-VC exits during the first half of 2026, and block deals drove most of that volume.

IPO activity has slowed sharply. Only 23 companies raised $2.3 billion through public offerings in H1 2026, down from 105 IPOs worth $18.7 billion in all of 2025. Even during last year's boom, offers for sale, where existing shareholders liquidate holdings, accounted for 64% of IPO proceeds.

“In most cases, the larger part of the liquidity comes not from the offer for sale, but after lock-ins expire, through block deals.”

— Klaas Oskam, CEO of DC Advisory India

Recent examples illustrate the pattern. In May, Peak XV Partners, Ribbit Capital, and Y Combinator sold a 4.7% stake in Groww for ₹5,325 crore after making ₹3,293 crore through the IPO itself. In June, SoftBank and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority offloaded Lenskart shares worth ₹2,873 crore and ₹1,960 crore respectively once their lock-in periods ended.

India's EV exports surge 14x on Maruti's e-Vitara

Indian electric vehicle exports jumped 14-fold in the June quarter. Shipments rose to 15,641 units from just 1,122 units a year earlier. That single quarter already exceeds half of the 28,652 EVs exported in all of fiscal 2025.

Maruti Suzuki's e-Vitara is driving the boom. The company plans to introduce four more EVs by 2030. Tata Motors is preparing premium EVs based on its Avinya platform for European markets, while Mahindra & Mahindra has begun developing new variants of its BE6 and XEV 9e SUVs for right-hand drive markets globally.

Foxconn bets on India beyond iPhone assembly

Foxconn is expanding its India ambitions beyond iPhone manufacturing. Jesse Chao, the company's head of AI and quantum computing, said Foxconn sees growing opportunities in semiconductors, advanced packaging, and electric vehicles. "India is a huge market for us. That's why we have had so many new footprints," Chao told ET.

The shift signals Foxconn's intent to move up the value chain in India rather than treating the country purely as a low-cost assembly hub. For Indian tech manufacturing, that's the difference between jobs and an actual ecosystem.

Source: Tech-Economic Times