Solethreads, a youth-centric open footwear brand, has announced the completion of its 13 Crore Series A round of funding. The round saw participation from leading VCs DSG Consumer Partners and Saama Capital. Solethreads is an innovative, digital-first brand that is known for its super comfortable yet stylish flip-flops.

The founders aim to build the go-to brand for leisure footwear in India. Solethreads is the brainchild of founders Sumant Kakaria and Gaurav Chopra, who bring with them over 13 years of collective experience in the footwear and retail industry. They were joined by co-founders Vikram Iyer and Aprajit Kathuria in early 2020.

Flip flops have forever been associated with indoors, tropical weather and the beaches. However, changes in fashion trends have led to their adoption for everyday use, both indoors and outdoors by fashion-conscious, younger consumers.

As flip-flops increasingly become the footwear of choice across occasions, the Solethreads team believes that the purchase of open footwear is an increasingly high-involvement decision for the consumer. An innovative product with a strong value proposition will beat out the competition.

Founder Sumant Kakaria said

While there are multiple footwear brands that are driving this change in lifestyle on the global stage, the need was largely unrecognized in India. The brand landscape in open footwear had been quite dull.

Existing players are by and large not willing to invest the necessary time and resources to understand consumer motivations and therefore unable to innovate according to market needs. It is a very clear opportunity for new age brands like us to occupy a large share in the open footwear category.

Solethreads takes pride in being the harbinger of innovation & technology in footwear design. Their products are developed through a rigorous process that involves testing multiple concepts with consumers and rapid product prototyping.

Ash Lilani, Managing Partner of Saama Capital, said

The team has a very strong understanding of the product category as well as the digital landscape, which makes them the best guys to drive this segment. Their biggest advantage is their passion for the product, and a huge innovation pipeline which should keep them ahead of the curve.

The open footwear category in India is over 1.5bn dollars growing at a CAGR of 15 percent and it is ripe for disruption.

Hariharan Premkumar, Executive Director at DSG Consumer Partners said

We were impressed with how they managed to achieve significant early traction in a sustainable manner within a year of launch. With the perfect product and positioning, the brand is well positioned to be the insurgent brand within the category that has the potential of changing the footwear landscape in India.

Solethreads has adopted an omni-channel go-to-market strategy. Online, the company sells its products through the Solethreads website and all leading ecommerce platforms including Amazon, Myntra, and Flipkart. They are also in the process of bolstering their offline presence and have recently partnered with premium footwear retailer Metro Shoes.

Solethreads was advised by Mumbai-based firm Moxie Capital.  The brand plans to invest the new resources in creating a truly delightful customer experience, fostering a sense of community among its users and strengthening its digital capabilities.

SaaS based Physical security and Smart buildings start-up Spintly, has raised Rs. 4.6 Crore in an extended seed round of funding. This round of investment was led by Silicon Valley based Riso Capital, along with SucSEED Indovation Fund from Hyderabad, Chicago based Nikhand Investments LLC, and Keiretsu Forum angel network.

Spintly provides SaaS based physical security solutions which enable frictionless smartphone-based door access, eliminating the need for key cards and elaborate wiring for access control and is one of the few start-ups in the country operating in this space. Brigade REAP, the first Proptech accelerator in the country and one of the top accelerators in the world has played a vital role in the growth of Spintly, having mentored the company.

Speaking on this development, Rohin Parkar, Co-Founder and CEO, Spintly, stated

We are extremely bullish about the future and are determined to transform the entire physical security and smart building ecosystem. We will utilise these funds to boost sales, marketing and research activities in order to enhance our position as pioneers in the wireless cloud-based access control technology space.

We offer the world’s first fully wireless mesh technology for access control which can also be used for smart building applications. We are humbled at raising a round of funding during COVID-19 and since then have been witnessing a steady growth in demand for contactless door access solutions. This is certainly an indication of trust from our customers and investors.

Commenting on the investment, Sri Purisai, Founder and Partner, Riso Capital said

RiSo Capital is excited to be part of Spintly’s journey as they continue to scale and deploy a flexible SaaS model to access control and building automation markets. Spintly brings an enterprise grade Access Control as a Service [ACaaS] stack offering to a growing building automation market.

The stack is versatile to run on various hardware topologies including Bluetooth mesh and other native IP protocols. We support the team’s vision and are confident in their ability to execute and deliver.

Vikrant Varshney, Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said

Security and RegTech is one of the six focus areas of SucSEED Indovation Fund and we found Spintly’s tech solution quite fitting to the growing segment of Smart buildings and Smart living. Collaboration with supporting ecosystem could be key in their growth strategy, which we feel we can help them with.

Nirupa Shankar, Director, Brigade REAP, commented

At Brigade REAP, our focus has always been to choose and mentor start-ups that can make a difference to real-world issues. We strongly believe that Spintly has immense potential and given the huge opportunity that lies ahead of them, are sure to grow even more.

We are proud to have been associated with them as mentors. Today Spintly is very well positioned to capitalize on this growth trend with their cloud-based SaaS platform.

Srikanth Rajan from Keiretsu forum Chennai said

Touchless authentication and access control is a big need of the post-Covid world. Spintly’s technology has applicability across all geographic markets, and in several verticals with additional potential from a future data play.

We are co-investing in Spintly along with RiSo Capital because we believe that between RiSo’s footprint in the US and ours in India, we can help Spintly rapidly grow its success in global markets.

Spintly was founded by two experienced founders Rohin Parkar and Malcolm Dsouza in late 2017. Both founders worked in the US in the wireless technology space before returning to India in 2017. They started Spintly with a goal of building technology-based products in India. The world is moving towards a keyless future where one will no longer carry a key around to unlock doors.

It will be done using one of our personal devices such as a smartphone or a smartwatch as a Key. The Spintly platform is built to accelerate the transition to this keyless future. Spintly believes that their Access Control as a Service [ACaaS] platform has a huge potential to enable use cases in smart buildings, as smart buildings move towards wireless infrastructure.

Spintly represents a breed of Indian start-ups which focus on deep-tech and have a potential to disrupt global ecosystems. The Access Control market is currently a $70B market expected to reach $84B by 2023. Out of the $70B market $42B is the SaaS component of the market which is a huge shift in this hardware centric world of physical security. As per a report from IPVM SaaS based Physical security start-ups raised a total of $300M in 2020.

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the industry including the Spintly business. After an initial slowdown during the lockdown phase the demand for Spintly products has increased steadily due to the need for contactless solutions which can be managed and operated remotely. Spintly has been quick to cease this opportunity and has expanded rapidly.

The future looks really promising for Spintly as the focus of the world has shifted away from China and towards India to deliver strong products for the global markets.

Onelife Nutriscience, which owns the consumer healthcare brand Onelife has raised funding from Wipro Consumer Care – Ventures, the venture capital arm of Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting.

Onelife has a diverse set of offerings focusing on wellness, immunity, and overall nutraceutical segment. The company will use the funds for its next level of growth. The Company was founded in 2019 by Gaurav Aggarwal, who has over 20 years of experience in the Nutrition Industry. Hailing from a family who are one of the leading producers of Vitamin B3 in the world, this is a natural progression for Gaurav to leverage his extensive experience and depth of knowledge to develop a promising B2C Healthcare Brand.

Commenting on the capital raised, Gaurav Aggarwal, Founder, Onelife said

We are delighted to have Wipro Consumer Care – Ventures as investors, and I welcome them to the Onelife family. We could not have hoped for a better choice of investor who understands the consumer so well and from whom we can get a lot of value.

We look forward to working closely with Wipro over the coming years as we build Onelife into a formidable player in the Nutrition and wellness space. Their backing is a great value addition to our growth plans in India as well as globally. The Nutraceuticals Industry is looking at growing exponentially, and we are excited to increase our market presence through innovative products.

Sumit Keshan, Managing Partner, Wipro Consumer Care – Ventures, said

We are excited at becoming part of Onelife in its growth journey. They have robust R&D capability, strong product knowledge, and a mature & passionate team. Health and immunity are on top of every consumer’s mind today.

They are increasingly getting conscious of the benefits of preventive health too. These offer immense growth potential for the company, and Onelife intends to address all these requirements of consumers in a holistic way.

About Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting

Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, an over $1 Billion USD business, is among the fastest growing FMCG businesses. Wipro Consumer Care’s businesses include personal wash products, toiletries, personal care products, wellness products, electrical wire devices, domestic and commercial lighting and modular office furniture.

It has a strong brand presence with significant market share across segments in India, South East Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It has 16 manufacturing units in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam and has state of the art R & D facilities in five countries.

Hemp Horizons is a GMP certified hemp seed processing company. It was founded by Rohit Shah, Kartikey Dadoo, and Kanishk Yadav in April 2017. Company contract manufactures hemp products and owns a brand called Health Horizons. Under its USFDA approved brand ‘Health Horizons’, the company sells top of the line hemp products.

They manufactured their first machine which helps in making hemp products in India after eight months of extensive research. The company launched three products including the Sativa Hemp Nubs [Hemp Hearts], Sativa Hemp Powder, and Sativa Hemp Oil. Quickly its product range grew to ten, all made from hemp and in the personal care range.

The company is launching – Two new hemp seed based products in 45 days. The company will use funds towards launching and marketing of Cannabis extracts, second gen hemp seed products.

Rohit Shah, CEO of Hemp Horizon, said

A plant that can feed us, cloth us, provide us medicine and give us shelter on top of being carbon negative. What other miracles are we seeking!! We are happy to see more and more individuals understanding the benefits of this plant and investment funds looking at companies like ours as a potential game changer in the health and wellness space.

Cannabis/Hemp can be a category in itself. In the next 5 years no industry will be left untouched by Cannabis/Hemp and its derivatives. 2021 is an exciting year for Cannabis/Hemp in India and the world.

Nandini Mansinghka, Co-promoter & CEO, Mumbai Angels Network commented

We believe Hemp Horizons to bring change in the way people see Hemp and its uses. We are excited to welcome Hemp Horizons to our portfolio and look forward to seeing them amaze everyone with their new products specially in the health and wellness space.

About Mumbai Angels Network

Started in 2006, Mumbai Angels Network is India’s premier platform focused on new venture investing. The network is today 500+ members strong, across 9 chapters [Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Goa, Pune, Jaipur, Chennai] and 25+ cities across the globe. The network today has one of the strongest portfolios in the country with 150+ companies, 70+ exits plus next round investments.

CropIn, a leading global artificial intelligence and data-led agri-tech organization empowering stakeholders to reimagine agriculture with data, has raised US$20 million in a Series C funding round led by ABC World Asia, an Asia-focused private equity fund dedicated to evidence-based impact investing.

Existing investors Chiratae Ventures, Invested Development and Ankur Capital also participated in this funding round. Other new investors in this round include CDC Group and Kris Gopalakrishnan’s family office Pratithi Investment Trust.

CropIn will use this capital infusion to focus on its global expansion, while continuing to innovate on its ML-based predictive analytics platform, SmartRisk to further strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities. CropIn is also investing to penetrate deeper in its target markets globally. Recently, CropIn opened an Amsterdam office, and will be hiring local leaders to drive growth in the European market.

CropIn’s data-driven farming solutions enable agri-enterprises and growers to ‘maximize per-acre value’. Its farm data and agronomy management platform, SmartFarm, empowers stakeholders to improve efficiency, productivity, predictability, and sustainability of their crop value-chains. SmartFarm enables agri-enterprises to adhere to food safety standards thereby ensuring farm-to-fork traceability.

The platform helps growers adopt sustainable farming practices to build long term economic viability and resiliency for local farming communities. CropIn has partnered with several global players in agriculture, including development finance institutions and government entities in 52 countries, to drive their digital and sustainability goals.

CropIn’s SmartRisk platform improves underwriting and risk assessment, enabling banks, insurance providers and other financial institutions to make informed underwriting decisions, identify new markets and expand product portfolios to service high-volume low-ticket opportunities.

By analyzing and interpreting farm-centric data for over 388 crops with nearly 9,500 variants across trillions of data points that grow every day, SmartRisk helps achieve high prediction accuracy at a plot-level. It does this by combining computer vision with deep-learning algorithms, on multispectral imagery derived from aerial scouting [satellites and drones], field scouting data, and hyperlocal weather.

The SmartRisk AI has processed more than 160 million hectares of land area, and has the potential to impact 70 million farmers globally in the next 3-5 years. Thus far, CropIn has positively impacted 13 million acres and 4 million farmers through the SmartFarm and SmartRisk platforms.

Smallholder farmers associated with CropIn’s clientele also observed their crop yields increasing by nearly 25 percent in the first year and subsequently experienced optimized yield improvements in the following years, by integrating the recommended advanced agricultural techniques and quality inputs into their farming practices through CropIn’s agri-tech platforms.

Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO of CropIn, said

The robust, predictive power of digitalization offers tremendous potential for the agriculture industry to leapfrog its many challenges in the coming years. The industry is capturing more data than ever, on everything from agronomy, weather and logistics to market price volatility, which has helped reduce acute data gaps throughout the value chain.

In order to improve yields, optimize production and improve resilience and sustainability, agri-businesses are increasingly relying on innovative agri-tech solutions like artificial intelligence, data analytics, and the internet of things. We, at CropIn, are excited to advance the ‘AI-Culture’ for Agriculture.

Based in Singapore, ABC World Asia invests in companies that demonstrate commitment to generating positive and measurable social or environmental impact, alongside the ability to deliver compelling risk-adjusted returns.

David Heng, Founder & CEO of ABC World Asia, said

Sustainable food and agriculture is a core investment theme for ABC World Asia. The agriculture industry is an important pillar of the global economy, in particular driving Asia’s growth and feeding the region’s rapidly increasing population. The industry now faces challenges more pronounced than before, with the COVID-19 global pandemic highlighting the vulnerability of global food supplies and impacting the livelihoods of many smallholder farmers.

Existing investors of CropIn include BeeNext and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Strategic Investment Fund. Over the last year, CropIn has established an advisory board comprising Barrett Mooney [Chairman of Board at AgEagle], Ranveer Chandra [Chief Scientist at Microsoft], TVG Krishnamurthy [Member of the Board of Directors at Ola], and Dr Iya Khalil [Global Head of the AI Innovation Center at Novartis].

According to Karan Mohla, Partner, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors

As active investors in the agri-tech space as well as in companies pioneering deep-tech and AI, we are truly excited about the innovative models that CropIn is building out in farm management and predictive analytics. In creating and building out a platform for multiple participants in the agriculture ecosystem, CropIn has established itself as a true global leader.

With the leadership of Krishna and co-founder Kunal Prasad, they have built out a tremendous world-class team and advisory board and are on the precipice of achieving massive scale as a global company.

Ambit Corporate Finance acted as the financial advisor to CropIn for this funding round. With this new round of investment, CropIn has raised a total funding of US$ 33.1 million to date.

As the first half of 2020 saw the eCommerce & retail landscapes changing profoundly due to the global crisis, Anchanto, a Singapore-based B2B Software-As-A-Service [SaaS] company specialising in eCommerce technology, managed to keep scaling and turned profitable.

Anchanto has received new C-funding as part of its ongoing Series C round, totaling $16.6 million raised till date. Taking part in the C-funding round were Asendia, a joint-venture of the French National Post La Poste and State-run Swiss Post, and MDI Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Indonesian telco firm Telkom Indonesia.

Anchanto will use the funds to strengthen its research & development portfolio to launch two new products, build data platform and expand to three more markets. The company will also invest in hiring skilled talents to enhance and accelerate the launch of its new products into markets – especially with the demand for SaaS solutions on the rise.

Vaibhav Dabhade, CEO and Founder of Anchanto, said

Achieving profitability in these times is an excellent performance; I feel this is a more significant achievement than raising $12 million in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. We are a capital-efficient company. 100% of our revenue comes from a SaaS subscription with a high gross margin; we do not buy inventory or run services shops or warehouses.

It took strong resilience, deep understanding of product design, engineering, marketing, sales, account management, and solid teamwork across seven countries to reach here.

This round also marks the start of Anchanto’s partnership with Asendia AG, an European cross-border eCommerce shipping and mail services giant, as a new shareholder. Aligned with Anchanto’s unique approach to raise C-funding from its key customers, Asendia is the fourth customer to turn into a shareholder after MDI [Telkom Indonesia], Transcosmos Japan, and Luxasia.

MDI Ventures is a corporate venture capital initiative by Telkom Indonesia – which increased its stake further by adding to their existing investment. Marc Pontet, CEO of Asendia, and Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures will be joining Anchanto’s board.

Marc Pontet, CEO of Asendia, said

Asendia intends to continue its journey along the cross-border eCommerce value chain and support the growth of an innovative technology company serving the international growth of global brands. We have high hopes for further co-operation with Anchanto and we expect that we are going to create additional growth and synergies for the company thanks to our logistics and technology capabilities.

Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures, said

In the current digitalization era, the necessity of multiple retailers and brands to go Omni Channel path is highly critical, especially with the current pandemic where the shift to online sales is inevitable.

Anchanto’s robust platforms are well position to highly capitalize this “New Normal” to tackle massive problems that are not only faced in Indonesia but also globally. We are also excited to welcome our new partner, Asendia, who will help to bring Anchanto enterprise grade solutions beyond SEA and the world.

As of last year, Anchanto’s platforms have helped streamline the eCommerce operations of more than 12,000 business and sellers consisting of over 300 global enterprises. Anchanto’s customers manage over 67 million+ Stock Keeping Units [SKUs] and 115 million+ listings, and have processed a combined Gross Merchandise Value [GMV] of nearly $2.71 billion via their platforms. Sellers process over 4 million orders per week on Anchanto’s systems, averaging at 1.6 order processed every second.

IPHM Services has raised a seed round of funding from India Angel Fund, most of them Women Entrepreneurs, also first time angel investors. New age healing assistance, IPHM Services [Integrated Personalized Health Care Management], helps design programs and workshops for the psychological well-being of individuals and employees of large organizations.

Founded by Dr. Sachin Bhavsar, IPHM believes that the Heart, Body, Mind and Soul are four pillars of life and an integrated system that needs constant nurturing. Their services aim to assist individuals to reach their own potential by developing skill sets within them, pertinent for their good health, emotional and mental well-being.

An influx of funds would mean training more individuals, employees and aspiring entrepreneurs to reach their potential growth and increase general productivity within an individual. Afterall, all these aspects are interlinked and a positive push in any direction would enhance our own offering.

Speaking on this fund-raise, Dr. Sachin Bhavsar, Founder – IPHM Services said

While we have always believed in nurturing the four attributes for a healthy living, there is also very little awareness of the real-time applications and the rapidly evolving technological advances in the healthcare system. This infusion would mean creating cognizance at the grass-root level and would definitely ameliorate the overall health economy.

Being a subject matter expert and an integral part of IPHM Services, Sneh Kulkarni, Co-founder – IPHM Services remarks

There was always a need-gap between awareness about mental health and real-time use of technology in the healthcare system. We are now one world that has been connected digitally and therefore, it becomes easier to really understand societal structures and socio-economic backgrounds. This enables us to understand the different cultures that people come from, and offer a personalized approach to helping these individuals.

First time angel investor and an alumni from IIM Ahmedabad, Monaliesa Sarkar said

I have been working actively with various NGOs and government bodies in Delhi NCR and I cannot stress enough on the need for more startups to emerge in the mental health space. I also love the fact that an inspiring person like Dr. Sachin is matched by a powerhouse of energy which is Sneh Kulkarni.

I am also kicked that this deal is led by women angels like me, Jyoti, Koel and Sabana and we have a woman entrepreneur like Sneh. I have always advocated that Women Angels should actively lead from the front and back other Women Entrepreneurs.

The third women angel investor on this project is a powerhouse with 17+ years of experience in corporate retail and also runs a successful startup. Koel Dutta said

Having been a professional for 17 + years and having successfully exited from my last startup TieKart, I am now making my first Angel investment thanks to my old friend Rahul Narvekar and I am sure we 4 women angel investors can work with mentoring Sneh on how to build this company, since I have also run a successful startup.

The 4th women Angel Investor Sabana Khatoon also an IIM A Alumni, wearing multiple hats as a business woman, active in various initiatives in Kolkatta from helping run TEDxChowringhee to various entrepreneur networks said

Being a single woman entrepreneur and having myself seen so many cases in the past few months of mental health issues, I am quite excited to make my first Angel Investment and that to with Sneh Kulkarni and Dr. Sachin.

India Angel Network has made another seed investment of Rs. 25 lakhs into IPHM Services. Speaking on this deal Rahul Narvekar, Co-founder IAF, said

Mental Health is a subject which has been amplified in mainstream conversations recently and especially in these times of uncertainty and fear and overall negative atmosphere, it has brought home the fact that we need to openly talk about this but also address and heal. I was introduced to Sneh and Dr. Sachin by Rajiv Dabhadkar and was completely awed by their dedication and deep domain expertise in this space.

Dr. Sachin’s personal journey is a story of grit and determination and that is the key ingredient for any entrepreneur. Interesting to note that this has turned into a women dominated deal. We have an awesome majority of women entrepreneurs and I believe that women make the best entrepreneurs, CEOs and Angel Investors. Women do multitasking routinely, are more open about sharing and are natural care givers and that’s what mental health platforms need. Also all the four Angel Investors are first time Angels and I would LOVE to see more women become Angel Investors.

About Integrated Personalized Healthcare Management Services

The USP of the IPHM service is ‘Nurturing health in heart, body, mind, and soul’. IPHM believes that this is an integrated system that works on these four pillars. If one fails then life becomes unbalanced. IPHM offers services such as Stress management, Women wellness, Child and Adolescent Psychology.

Integrated HR is the Programme designed by Integrated Personalized Healthcare Management for the Corporates. IPHM evolves into the mainstream functions of organisations, the remote work revolution predicts further possibilities and is here to stay. Every organization needs to make new strategic choices and also equally need to take care of employee’s mental health.

Ather Energy, India’s first intelligent electric scooter manufacturer, announced a fresh investment by Hero MotoCorp, as an extension of its Series C round that was led by Sachin Bansal. Hero MotoCorp has been a part of Ather’s growth story since 2016, when they first invested as a part of Series B. This round is a reinstatement of confidence by existing investors in Ather’s potential and success.

Ather is now entering an aggressive expansion phase on the back of its flagship product, the Ather 450X, and looking to scale to 20 cities by the end of 2021. The Ather 450X has piqued the interest of automobile and tech enthusiasts alike, and will soon be available in cities like Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai, with deliveries beginning in October 2020.

To meet the projected demand in the coming years, Ather is opening a new manufacturing facility in Hosur, which is designed to produce 100,000 units annually, and is scalable to half a million units.  Ather Energy will also set up Ather Grid fast charging points across the country over the next 5 years, making public charging easy and accessible to all electric vehicle owners.

In the past few weeks, Ather has been working on a slew of financing and ownership models, making electric vehicles more accessible for consumers everywhere. It introduced India’s first personal lease program for scooters, with monthly payments as low as INR 2589, which makes the intelligent electric scooter accessible to the Indian two-wheeler market.

It has also been a pioneer in the post sales experience innovation with subscription plans, Ather One, a one-stop daily usage solution that includes doorstep pick up and service, 24*7 roadside assistance, free charging at home and in public etc.

A unique aspect of the product line is the ability to add new features and functionality through OTA software updates. Ather has been rolling out OTA updates since September 2018, adding features like a dark theme, new ride modes, guide-me-home light, making them one of the fastest iteration cycles in the country.

Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Ather Energy, said

We are in a high growth phase of our journey, and while the last few months have been challenging, we have not altered our expansion plans. Our geographic expansion and the roll-out schedule for the Ather 450X are on track, and we will be using these funds to invest in our facilities to meet the demand we have seen for the Ather 450X across the country.

Commenting on the investment, Rajat Bhargava, Head of Emerging Mobility Business Unit [EMBU], Global Business & Strategy, Hero MotoCorp, said

We are excited to see the growth of Ather Energy in the recent years. We see immense potential for them to expand their market even further, especially given the likely growth of electric vehicles [EV] in the near future.

In addition to our efforts of developing a robust external eco-system for EVs, we are also aggressively working on our internal EV program. Our aim is to provide accessible electric mobility to customers across the globe. Sustainability and a clean, green environment remain central to our vision to be the future of mobility.