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Small Business Daily Podcast 12/27/2025
Welcome back, founders and operators. Today’s podcast episode was created from the following stories: a mix of funding, fintech, AI infrastructure, and market momentum that could shape your next move.
Merchants crack QR code to secure loans from NBFCs
NBFCs like Aditya Birla Finance, L&T Finance, Poonawalla Fincorp, and SMFG India Credit are using payment app data (Paytm, PhonePe, BharatPe) to offer small-ticket, unsecured merchant loans with daily repayments. Monthly disbursals sourced via these apps are in the thousands of crores, with low delinquency thanks to cash-flow-based underwriting and automated daily deductions. For shopkeepers, pre-approved offers and point-of-sale lending are speeding access to working capital banks have been slow to provide.
Scribe raised $75 million at a $1.3 billion valuation to fix how companies adopt AI. Read its pitch deck.
Workflow software startup Scribe became a unicorn with a $75 million Series C led by StepStone, fueling its push to help companies document processes and identify AI opportunities. Its tools capture expert workflows and analyze them to recommend improvements and automation, drawing on a database spanning 40,000 apps. With 75,000 customers and 44% of the Fortune 500 on board, the raise aims to accelerate rollout of its Optimize product.
From OpenAI to Nvidia, firms channel billions into AI infrastructure as demand booms
A cascade of mega-deals underscores a global arms race for AI compute, with commitments spanning chips, cloud capacity, and licensing across OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft, Oracle, CoreWeave, and more. Highlights include prospective multi-billion investments, long-term cloud contracts, and Nvidia’s push into specialized inference via Groq technology. For builders, this signals intense competition for capacity—and likely evolving pricing and platform choices in 2026.
NVIDIA Groq Partnership Signals Shift Toward Specialized Inference Chips as AI Workloads Scale
Nvidia plans to fold Groq’s inference innovations into its ecosystem by the end of 2025, anticipating a surge in real-time AI workloads. The move points to a broader industry shift from general-purpose training hardware to specialized, low-latency inference chips. Expect faster, more cost-efficient deployment options as vendors optimize for production AI.
Chip startup Groq’s Jonathan Ross will do ‘incredible things’ at Nvidia: Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya
Nvidia struck a landmark $20 billion deal to acquire assets and talent from Groq, bringing founder Jonathan Ross—who helped kickstart Google’s TPU effort—into the fold. Groq will keep operating its cloud business independently while Nvidia integrates specialized inference tech and engineers. Investors like Chamath Palihapitiya expect the combination to accelerate Nvidia’s edge in AI hardware.
US stock futures today: Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq hold gains post-Christmas — could the Santa rally be here?
U.S. futures were steady after record-setting sessions for the Dow and S&P 500, as investors eye a potential Santa Claus rally. Cooling yields, AI-driven dealmaking, and semiconductor strength—boosted by Nvidia’s Groq tie-up—kept risk appetite intact despite thin holiday volumes. Watchlists favor leaders holding key technical levels into year-end.
China Starts State-Backed Venture Funds to Support Tech Startups
China launched a national VC fund with 100 billion yuan and three regional vehicles to back strategic tech, aiming to cultivate long-horizon “little giants.” At least 70% of investments will target seed and startup stages, with caps designed to support smaller valuations. Focus areas include chips, quantum, biomedicine, brain-computer interfaces, and aerospace.
AI startup founder forgets US visa papers; delivery app saves the day by 15-minute miracle at Delhi embassy
When an entrepreneur realized she lacked key documents in the U.S. visa line, she used Blinkit to upload, print, and receive them in 15 minutes—securing an on-the-spot approval. The viral moment shows quick-commerce expanding beyond groceries into critical last-minute services. For founders, it’s a reminder to build redundancy into travel and compliance checklists—and to know your local on-demand options.
