NiYO Solutions Inc., an emerging fintech startup for salaried employees, has raised $13.2 million [85 crore] in Series A funding to drive the continued expansion of its payroll and benefits platform in India. The investment was made by Social Capital, JS Capital LLC [the family office of Jonathan Soros], and Horizons Ventures with participation by existing investor, Prime Venture Partners. In total, the company has raised more than $14 million in venture capital. Adding on to its continued growth and popularity among businesses across India, NiYO aims to serve 5000 organizations and over 1 million salaried employees by the end of 2018.

NiYO was launched in July 2016 as a pilot in Bengaluru and has already clocked more than 500 corporates and is being used by over 100,000 salaried employees in these organisations, through its partnerships with YES Bank and DCB Bank. NiYO is a one-stop solution for all employee payouts; it’s solutions include salary accounts, meal cards, canteen solutions, corporate gift card, reimbursements account, international travel card and corporate credit cards.

With this fresh funding, NiYO plans to strengthen and expand its product suite for the salaried segment besides taking the product to tier 2 and 3 towns. The funding will also be used for further product development, team expansion and increasing presence in tier 1 cities. The addressable market is close to 75 million salaried employees in India who can benefit through a simple payroll & benefits solution which can increase the take home salaries and simplify financial planning & other banking needs.

Employee Payroll in India and around the world has traditionally seen very little innovation in the past several decades with banks hardly providing any differentiation to customers. This, coupled with inefficient, paper-driven processes mean that most employers and employees fail to take advantage of tax exemptions and other savings that the law provides for. Same holds true for investment and lending products for salaried class where the power of payroll is largely ignored in product design.

NiYO believes that it’s cutting edge technology and processes can combine the erstwhile unconnected worlds of Human Resources and Financial Services. The future is mobile and with support for disruptive platforms such as Aadhaar and the Unified Payment Interface [UPI], NiYO will enable its customers to simplify and control their banking, taxation & finance needs. All this while ensuring a transparent, compliant & efficient process for employers. NiYO has also filed multiple product & process patents in this space.

NiYO comprises of a corporate portal for salary disbursal, payroll card to receive salary and spend on ATM/POS/Online and a mobile app to track transactions and do basic banking functions like fund transfer etc. With eKYC and self-onboarding enabled on the NiYO app, users can easily access their account details and keep a tab on their expenditures and allowances digitally. It also has a capability to attach bill proof through mobile and also allow digital storage of bill and receipts on the cloud.

The mobile app allows employees to review all card transactions as well as check balances in real time. While it helps the organizations to digitize the benefits and payroll process and be more compliant and transparent, it also provides employees a unique experience of a single card for all requirements. The solution does not require either the corporate or the employee to change bank accounts.

Vinay Bagri, CEO & Co-founder, NiYO, said

These are exciting times at NiYO. We deeply believe that the rapidly growing number of salaried employees in India have not seen much innovation when it comes to their own payroll and benefits. They are mobile and app-savvy and very demanding. At NiYO, our core objective is to maximize employees’ effective salary by bringing innovations in payroll and benefits processes. Our aim is to optimize the product suite for employees in areas of taxation, lending and wealth. We have been fortunate to partner with JS Capital, Social Capital, Horizon Ventures and Prime – all of whom are top tier investors with deep fintech and operational expertise to take us to the next level.

Arjun Sethi, Partner, Social Capital, said

NiYO is digitizing the entire employee payroll and benefits value chain, making the process easier and more transparent for employers and employees alike. This is an area that hasn’t seen much innovation in the Indian technology ecosystem, despite the massive addressable market. We believe that India is on the brink of unprecedented consumer consumption, and that movement begins with infrastructure that manages people’s earnings in a reliable and modern way.

Sanjay Swamy, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners, said

NiYO’s strong growth since its inception is testament to both the innovative nature as well as rapid customer adoption of their solution which addresses a massive opportunity – providing effortless and innovative solution to manage payroll and benefits, powered by mobile. The combination of SmartPhone penetration and IndiaStack makes the timing right for NiYO’s patent-pending innovations to come to market. We are privileged to be associated with this stellar team from the start of their journey and be part of their vision to disrupt the payroll landscape.

About NiYO

Founded in 2015 by Vinay Bagri and Virender Bisht, NiYO’s mission is to increase cash flow for all salaried individuals by leveraging technology in areas of payroll & benefits. NiYo features an integrated solution comprising of a Multi-Pocket Card, a Mobile App and a digital account with multiple wallets.

Vinay has spent more than 18 years working with diverse organisations like Parle, 3M, ICICI Bank, SCB, ING and Kotak Mahindra Bank. He combines deep understanding of distribution and retail banking having spent over a decade in leadership roles across unsecured lending, retail liabilities, corporate salary and retail banking strategy.

Virender is a seasoned technology professional with 16 years of experience in creating world-class software products for companies like MobiKwik, Makemytrip (MMYT), StudyPlaces.com, Exponential Inc, GE Medical Systems and Tata Consultancy Services. Virender is a hands-on technologist and has a reputation for building scalable solutions for e-commerce and payments domain. For more information, please visit NiYO

Real-money online skill-based gaming startup 9stacks announced the close of more than Rs 10 Crore in angel funding [Pre-Series A]. Angel Investors include Swati Gupta [Founder, IndustryBuying], Purnima Khandelwal [Founder, INI Farms], Maheshwer Peri [Founder, Careers360], Sanjay Singh [Founder, Swas Healthcare], Anant Daga [MD, TCNS Clothing/W], Kartik Sheth [Chief Innovation Officer Airtel & CEO, Wynk], Kedar Gavane [VP, ComScore], Amit Diwan [Sr. Director, Hines], Mohit Sardana [CBO, GoFro] & Shubhajit Sen [ex-CMO, Micromax]. The round also saw participation from a number of VC and PE investors in their personal capacities.

Image Source – 9Stacks

9stacks currently offers online real-money poker to customers in 24 Indian states, who can access its modern and secure poker platform on 9stacks and on iOS, Android, MacOS & Windows native apps.

9stacks will utilize the funding to accelerate its product and technology development as well as scale to other geographies and other categories within the real money online gaming space. The company is also significantly investing in producing its own poker-specific content to help users develop their poker skills and connect with other poker players.

Sudhir Kamath, CEO and Co-founder, 9stacks, said

Our vision is to make 9stacks India’s best online poker platform With the backing of our angel investors, we want to make 9stacks the first choice for new users to play poker, with the most user-friendly interface, quickest pay-ins & pay-outs through seamless integration with payment gateways/bank accounts, and clear policies on tax deduction for a safe and hassle-free playing experience.

The real-money skill-based gaming segment includes companies offering rummy, poker and fantasy league contests, and has seen a number of investments and exits recently.

About 9stacks

Founded in April 2017, 9stacks aims to be India’s best real-money skill-gaming platform and is run by a close-knit group of founders from reputed institutions like the IITs and IIM Ahmedabad, with experience in companies like Groupon/Nearbuy, Nykaa, Zivame, McKinsey & Co & Boston Consulting Group.

9stacks is part of SparSkills Technologies Pvt Ltd, a company focused on technology development and branding/marketing in the space of real money online gaming in India. This Delhi-based start-up launched its first offering – online poker in October 2017. 9stacks is operational as a website on the URL 9stacks.com. For more information, please visit 9stacks

Nuvepro, a managed cloud environment solutions provider has raised $400K investment led by 1Crowd and its investor community. The investment will be used to deepen their R&D efforts and continue to expand into the worldwide market.

1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. It has more than 500 investors, 50 mentors and has made over 12 investments since March 2016. With the funds, the company will be able to leverage 1Crowd’s ecosystem of mentors, industry connects and investor community to benefit from strategic to operational support.

As part of the managed cloud environment solution, Nuvepro delivers ready-to-use infrastructure and applications on a single or multiple clouds, automates the resource provisioning, manages cloud resources & spend, ensures governance and compliance of cloud usage, integrates with your existing tools. All of this is done through a single-source self-service portal. The platform ensures that CIOs have complete control over resources, hierarchy, and subscription management. The embedded analytics provides insights that will help CIOs to track the cloud usage, optimize the resources and cut costs by over 50%.

Giridhar LV, CEO, Nuvepro said

80% of enterprises are using the cloud. However, the CIOs are still finding it challenging to increase the cloud adoption and utilization. The returns on their cloud investments are far from realized. Nuvepro was founded with a singular vision to make the cloud work, help CIOs make the most of their cloud investments and enable them to take the competitive-edge. We do it by taking complete ownership through managed cloud environment so that CIOs don’t need to worry about provisioning, governance, security, skill building, shadow IT and managing multiple clouds.

Anup Kuruvilla, Co-Founder of 1Crowd, said

Along with a well-respected, experienced and dedicated team, Nuvepro addresses key modern day challenge of cloud adoption. Microsoft Azure and Amazon web services have made strong strides in moving resources to the cloud and making the value proposition for enterprises attractive. We believe Nuvepro would be able to form a crucial bridge between enterprises and cloud providers by driving faster adoption. The underlying business model of providing ready to use cloud infrastructure available on a subscription or pay per go basis is also a strong pull for enterprises.

Janakiraman, Chairman, Nuvepro said

The debate on cloud is over. The focus now is to improve the cloud adoption and utilization. 1Crowd’s trust and investment in this vision gives us extra push to enable more CIOs to realize the true benefits of the cloud.

The startup was founded in 2014 by Janakiraman S, Giridhar LV, Umesh Bhatt, Moyukh Goswami and Rajesh Vasudevan, all having significant years of professional experience.

About Nuvepro

Nuvepro enables organizations to improve the cloud adoption and utilization. They do it through ‘managed cloud environment solution’ where we take complete ownership in providing ready-to-use infrastructure and applications on any cloud, automating the resource provisioning, managing cloud resources & spend, and ensuring governance and compliance of cloud usage. For more information, please visit Nuvepro

About 1Crowd

1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on investing in early stage ventures. 1Crowd and its investor community has made 12 investments since last year. 1Crowd has close to 500 investors on board and over 50 eminent people as mentors. For more information, please visit 1Crowd

Noida based startup, AHA Taxis [a division of WAAH Taxis Pvt Ltd], India’s leading online aggregator for outstation travel, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding from ah! Ventures and Lead Angels Network. The company plans to use the funding to expand its reach to newer geographies, and further strengthen the operations and service offering to customers.

The  IIT-IIM team led venture, AHA Taxis is set out to make inter-city travel easy, convenient and enable a user to save 40~50% on outstation taxis in over 350 cities across India, with 24*7 availability on mobile and web.

Amit Grover, Founder of AHA Taxis said

Three years back, we set out to solve a uniquely Indian problem of affordable and available outstation taxis. I am proud to have built a solution which caters to thousands of customers and drivers every day. Our investors’ show of confidence in our approach, despite the presence of biggies like Ola/Uber, is a big positive.

Traditionally, inter-city taxi operators charge a return fare from customers even for one-way trips, as they are not assured of passengers on the return journey. AHA Taxis addresses the issue of double fare charges for outstation taxi travel by integrating technology, marketing and operational efficiency, leading to a highly viable alternative to trains and buses.

Giving an investors’ perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founding Partner & CEO of ah! Ventures, said

Since ah! Ventures’ seed round investment in AHA Taxi, the company has grown over 10X to 1,000 cities and 10,000 routes. Besides, despite the immense competition through applications such as Ola and Uber, AHA Taxi has created their own space and doing consistently well in maintaining the set standards and providing satisfaction to their customers. The positive reactions from their customers is a clear indication that AHA Taxi is on the right track and will create their own niche space in the near future. We are positive of their service offering & technology and also of their ability to create significant shareholder value.

In 2015, AHA Taxi had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from ah! Ventures platform. Besides ah! Ventures now backing them again in the current Pre Series-A round, more new investors from Lead Angels Network have also participated.

Sushanto Mitra, Founder – Lead Angels Network, said

The estimated $12B market of inter-city taxi services market has seen many causalities, however, with their focus on unit economics and frugal operations AHA Taxi has ensured its place in this high potential market.

Post it’s seed funding round in 2015, AHA Taxis has grown 10X on key metrics and already achieved operational break-even on monthly basis. Its taxi network today covers far-flung areas including Haldwani, Kasol, Kharagpur, Rameswaram, Somnath apart from all metros. AHA Taxis has developed key technologies for automatic driver allocation, auto-pricing, vehicle tracking, number masking and all of this has been done by its in-house technology team.

Bengaluru based home maintenance services start-up, Gapoon Online Consumer Services Pvt. Ltd, has raised USD 250,000 in a Pre-Series-A round. The investment is led by Vida Ventures and other independent and seasoned investors including Snehal Mantri, Anshu Bahadur, Partner at Cognizant and angel investors from their previous round Pankaj Kapoor, Director at one of the leading investment banks and Chandrasekhar BV, a veteran in the telecom industry.

Founded in 2015 by IIT Kanpur graduates Apoorva Mishra, Ankita Asai, Ankit Bindal and Nikhil Gupta from IIT Delhi, Gapoon is a one-stop shop for maintenance services. The company has pioneered subscription packages offering annual maintenance cover for homes & businesses resulting in long term partnerships with house owners, developers, property management aggregators, restaurants & retail outlets. It also operates on an on-demand basis for handymen services like plumbing, electrical, deep cleaning, pest control, mason/civil work, etc.

Founders of Gapoon

Apoorva Mishra, Co-founder and CEO, Gapoon, said,

This investment comes at a crucial point; Gapoon is very close to becoming the first start-up in the industry to achieve net profitability while maintaining the growth targets. The in-house developed, intelligent mapping algorithm and fully automated system has helped us achieve the favourable unit economics and offer superior service quality to our customers. This investment will be used for new initiatives towards product and technology enhancements. In the coming months, we are focused on penetrating deeper into market segments and replicate the success in other cities as well.

While customers [both homes and businesses] avail the benefits of our subscription product, the vendors earn up to 40% higher compared to other aggregators. This model drives a favourable unit economics which is easier to replicate in multiple cities. I believe this win-win-win model for customers, service providers and aggregators in the only way towards sustainable organisation of this market.

Lead investor, Ankit Solanki, Advisor at Vida Ventures, said,

We have always believed in the opportunity in the on-demand and subscription-based services for property maintenance. It was a question of finding the right balance. Gapoon’s technology optimizes all elements of the equation, which are cost of acquiring supply, clients and the cost of servicing clients. This round of investment will enable them to expand their lead in Bengaluru and replicate their model in other demand hotspots across the country.

Apart from the convenience of offering a wide range of services under one umbrella, Gapoon’s key features include its year-long warranty on all services, exceptional service quality owing to proprietary attribute mapping algorithm for vendor allocation, and the exceptional vendor training and loyalty program that drives vendors to give their best.

About Gapoon

Gapoon is a Bengaluru-based startup that operates an on-demand as well as subscription-based model for services such as deep cleaning, electricians, appliances maintenance, plumbing, civil, painting, pest control and carpentry. Gapoon has pioneered maintenance subscription packages in India – Gapoon Maintenance Cover [GMC]. It offers a comprehensive solution to any property with unlimited scope of services, trusted professionals, cashless transactions and yearlong convenience.

 

You have a path-breaking idea and willing to quit your job to start-up on your own, great! But depending on the idea and the market that you are targeting e.g. mobile, software, IOT, etc. you need to figure out whether you need to look out for external/institutional funding or continue being a bootstrapped startup [on the lines that you at least have an MVP ready]. If you are a hardware startup, you might also think of starting a Kickstarter campaign.

Wrike, a project management software products platform that is used by high-performance teams has come up with a very informative infographic titled 7 Ways to fund your startup. We liked the overall presentation due to which it can be an informative guide for a newbie entrepreneur or for someone who is willing to take their startup to the next phase.

7 Ways to Fund Your Startup
Infographic brought to you by Wrike project management software products

Do leave your feedback in the comments section…

Bengaluru based Datasigns Technologies has raised USD 1.5 million Pre-Series A funding from SRI Capital, Beenext and Pravega. Datasigns Technologies, founded by Monish Anand, Rahul Sekar, Anand Barua and Tushar Patel, had earlier raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Sanjai Vohra [former MD of JP Morgan], V. Bunty Bohra [Managing Director and India CEO of Goldman Sachs] and Peeyush Misra [Ex- Partner and MD at Goldman Sachs].

Image Source – Fund Raising

SRI Capital’s portfolio includes Fab Hotels, Healthify and Yellow Dig among others, Beenext has invested in – Droom, Citrus pay, No Broker, Faasos and Pravega Ventures has invested in Crofarm – an agri-tech company, Innovaccer – big data platform for enterprises.

Datasigns Technologies is a mobile first lending platform, which lends via their android application called Shubh Loans. Shubh Loans is a vernacular language app which builds a proprietary credit score and report for loan applicants, thereby helping them understand their credit standing holistically.

Sashi Reddi, Founder & Managing Partner of SRI Capital said

Proud to back a rockstar team, led by Monish Anand, in the consumer lending space in India. Many massive companies are going to be built in this space, finally being able to lend to the next 200 million consumers—Shubh Loans will be one of them.

Shubh Loans score is dynamic and changes with applicant’s financial and non- financial behaviour. Using the Shubh Loans app, users can apply for a loan of up to 2 Lacs with maximum 2 years tenure. Datasigns has partnered with multiple banks and NBFCs, helping them in building their loans books.

Monish Anand, Founder & CEO of Shubh Loans stated

We are excited to have these great investors on board, at the same time we are even more determined to stay disciplined and execute our plan well.

Rahul Sekar, Co-Founder & Chief Data Scientist said

The lending business in the country is at an inflection point, our focus is on creative and responsible use of data to bring financial literacy and credit to people who deserve it the most.

Shubh Loans takes pride in its aim to democratise credit by making it available to all and believes that an unserved customer doesn’t make for an unservable one. Shubh Loans has set its sight on bringing over 10 lacs people into the formal banking system as part of its mission 2020.There are currently growing at 50% month on month and have tied up with over 9 lending institutions.

Kings Learning, a technology-driven spoken English learning startup, has raised USD 2.5 million in funding from Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, together with other US based tech investors. The organization aims to address the employability issue in India amongst underserved youth owing to poor English language and communication skills, through offline, online and blended delivery channels.

Image Source – 1, 2

Enguru, Kings Learning’s mobile-based spoken English app, allows users to self-learn both general spoken English and employability-focused conversational English.  It also allows users to learn English in their native language and currently supports 28 different languages. The app has been downloaded about 2 million times till date, and is currently being used to improve spoken English skills by more than 120,000 active users monthly. The app’s platform is adaptive & gamified with real time assessments, which makes it easier for not just individuals but also corporates to use it for their employee training modules.

Arshan Vakil, Co-Founder and CEO, Kings Learning, said

Our goal is to leverage innovative technology and creative content to deliver high quality and engaging English education to all. We are excited to partner with our investors as we move into the next phase of our growth which will primarily be focused on scaling up our offerings like Enguru, strengthening our technology and analytics engine and expanding the Kings Learning team.

Prachi Windlass, Education Director, India, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, said

English has become a ticket to enter the booming knowledge-driven job economy of India, however, few have access to quality English language training. Almost half of the graduates in India, primarily from underprivileged backgrounds, are considered unemployable in most of the sectors due to lack of spoken English skills. Thankfully, mobile internet explosion, supplemented by exemplary work undertaken by technology-driven organizations like Kings Learning, is helping address this problem. We are excited to support Kings Learning’s efforts in their journey ahead.

About Kings Learning

Founded in 2014, Kings Learning is an ed-tech startup aimed at providing employability focused English language & communication skills training through technology products. For more information, please visit Kings Learning and EnGuru App Website