eNews
Loop AI raises $14m series A to boost restaurant delivery operations
CALIFORNIA: Loop AI has just served itself a sizeable helping of fresh capital. The enterprise AI company focused on the restaurant and retail back office has raised $14 million in a Series A round, led by fintech investor Nyca Partners, signalling growing confidence in the future of food delivery as a profit engine rather than a margin killer.
Alongside the funding, Osama Bedier, former executive at Google and GoDaddy and now an investment partner at Nyca, will take a seat on Loop AI’s board. His arrival adds heavyweight experience as the company enters its next phase of growth.
Loop AI operates where artificial intelligence meets operational grit. Its platform helps restaurants manage the often messy realities of delivery, from margins and workflows to customer behaviour, using what it calls agentic workflows to automate and optimise back-of-house decisions.
Bedier believes the timing could not be better. With restaurants under pressure to deliver better customer experiences while running leaner operations, AI is fast becoming a necessity rather than a nice-to-have. He praised founders Anand Tumuluru and Sundar for building technology he sees as essential to the future of dining.
The backdrop is a delivery market that is ballooning fast. In 2025, the US delivery sector is estimated at $140 billion, accounting for about 10 per cent of the market. By 2035, that figure is expected to swell to $1 trillion, with delivery claiming nearly a third of all restaurant sales. What was once an add-on is quickly becoming the main course.
For Loop AI, delivery is not just another channel, it is the new drive-through. As eating habits tilt ever further towards takeout and doorstep dining, the company’s mission is to help restaurants grow without watching profits evaporate along the way.
Customers appear to be buying into the pitch. California-based casual dining brand Lazy Dog credits Loop AI with helping power rapid growth in its delivery business, while fast-casual chain Starbird says the platform has turned third-party delivery from a necessary evil into a viable growth lever.
Since 2024, Loop AI has grown sixfold and now supports thousands of restaurants. The new funding will be used to expand its product offering and hire across its offices in New York, San Francisco, Tampa and Bangalore.
In an industry where delivery has long been blamed for thin margins and operational headaches, Loop AI is betting that smarter systems can finally make the maths work. For restaurant operators juggling kitchens, couriers and customers, that could be a recipe worth following.
eNews
PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
