This is a correction to a news release titled “PadUp Ventures and Unicity Labs Partner to Bring Agentic Commerce Infrastructure to India,” which was distributed by Unicity Labs via PR Newswire on February 27, 2026. The original headline contained a typo that was incorrectly transmitted by PR Newswire. The full, corrected release is provided below:

PadUp Ventures and Unicity Labs Partner to Bring Agentic Commerce Infrastructure to India

A new Agentic AI startup initiative will empower Indian entrepreneurs to develop commerce applications powered by AI agents on the Unicity Protocol.

ZUG, Switzerland, Feb. 27, 2026 — , and , a top startup incubator in India, have announced a strategic collaboration today to speed up the creation of agentic commerce infrastructure within India’s startup landscape.

This collaboration aims to find, guide, and finance Indian startups that are creating applications enabling AI agents to independently discover, negotiate, and complete transactions. These applications will range from automating sales for small and medium businesses (SMBs) to coordinating supply chains and facilitating cross-border payments.

The Agentic Commerce Opportunity

As AI agents grow more capable of representing businesses and consumers, they require infrastructure specifically designed for commerce at machine speeds. Current payment systems and marketplaces were built for human users, not for millions of agents conducting and settling negotiations at the same time. Conventional blockchains suffer from consensus bottlenecks, while centralized platforms lack trustlessness. Both approaches fail to meet the scaling requirements of an autonomous economy.

The Unicity Protocol addresses this challenge with an innovative peer-to-peer blockchain design that does away with the shared ledger completely. This allows for private negotiations, atomic settlement, and a capacity of over 300 million transactions per second, with finality in one second and fixed microcent fees.

“India is home to 63 million SMBs, the majority of which have limited resources,” stated Pankaj Thakar, Partner at PadUp Ventures. “They cannot support sales teams or round-the-clock customer service. AI agents completely transform this scenario, but only if there is infrastructure that allows agents to transact on a large scale. This is what Unicity delivers.”

What the Program Includes

PadUp is introducing a specialized Agentic Commerce Track as part of its PrepUp acceleration program, concentrating on startups developing on the Unicity Protocol. The partnership will pursue combined go-to-market initiatives aimed at Indian SMBs and enterprises. Startups that qualify will receive investment opportunities from both PadUp’s network and Unicity’s ecosystem fund.

• Dedicated Agentic Commerce Track: PadUp will establish a specialized acceleration track for startups developing on the Unicity Protocol.
• Go-to-Market in India: Collaborative initiatives to introduce agentic commerce solutions to Indian SMBs and enterprises.
• Funding: Eligible startups will be able to access investment from PadUp’s network as well as Unicity’s ecosystem fund.

Why India

India’s startup environment, currently the third-largest globally with more than 112,000 recognized startups, is exceptionally well-suited for adopting agentic commerce. The combination of a vast, underserved SMB market, extensive developer expertise in AI and blockchain, fast-growing digital payment systems, and well-established international trade routes to the UAE, Southeast Asia, and other regions positions India as one of the most promising markets for the autonomous economy.

“India doesn’t merely adopt technology; it scales it massively,” said Mike Gault, CEO of Unicity Labs. “UPI demonstrated this. We are confident that Indian founders will create some of the world’s most significant agentic commerce applications, and PadUp is the ideal partner to identify and back them.”

About Unicity Labs

Unicity Labs is developing the foundational infrastructure for an internet powered by autonomous agents. The Unicity Protocol substitutes shared ledgers with peer-to-peer cryptographic objects, allowing AI agents to autonomously discover, transact, and settle. Founded by experts in blockchain and cryptography, Unicity Labs has secured $3 million in seed funding led by Blockchange Ventures, with contributions from Outlier Ventures and Tawasal. The company is based in Abu Dhabi. The Unicity Foundation, headquartered in Switzerland, manages protocol development and community governance.

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About PadUp Ventures

Established in 2015 and based in Gurugram, PadUp Ventures operates as a Virtual Accelerator that delivers Programmatic Mentoring and Assured Funding, increasing the likelihood of success by 500% for Early Stage Technology Startups and entrepreneurs. Its structured, “programmatic” mentoring and acceleration initiatives have assisted hundreds of startups in attaining success and growth. PadUp has supported over 350 technology companies in India and the UAE, creating $200 million USD in value for their stakeholders. Its portfolio includes companies such as IntelleWings, TruScholar, and Olbrain.

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SOURCE Unicity Labs