iBus Networks & Infrastructure private Limited, leading provider of connectivity solutions inside buildings; raises Series ‘A’ growth capital of Rs 150 Million from Vallabh Bhanshali of Enam, N Squared Management LLC, USA & family office of Mr. Jagdish & Sandeep Mehta

iBus has also announced the appointment of Sanjay Kapoor, former Micromax chairman, as the Non Executive Chairman of the company and Mohandas Pai, ex-Infosys board member and will be an advisory board member. Mr. Kapoor will steer and provide strategic direction to the company and Mohandas Pai will mentor and advise the team both Mr.Kapoor & Mr.Pai are early investors in iBus.

[From left Mr. Sunil Menon, Mr. Ram Sellaratnam and Mr. Subash Vasudevan]

The funding will be used to drive deployment of iBus solutions across the country and multiple segments to deliver connectivity inside buildings

Reflecting on the infusion of growth capital, Ram Sellaratnam, CEO, iBus said

Today connectivity is basic utility. When people look at premises, they check water, electricity and connectivity. If connectivity is poor, the location will suffer. Inside buildings connectivity is a multi-dimensional problem. Our patent pending technology platform comprehensively solves voice, data, proximity marketing and machine to machine connectivity problems. That makes us a unique and innovative solution provider.

Cipher-Plexus has been an exclusive Investment Banker to the transaction as well as one of the Investors. Kunal Kumthekar, Founder & Managing Director of Cipher-Plexus said – We are extremely happy to be associated with iBus team and will keep on adding value as we have been doing so far.

About iBus Networks & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd

iBus Networks & Infrastructure Pvt Ltd was founded in 2012 by technology professionals with proven executive experience from Airtel & Infosys. iBus is a leading provider of connectivity solutions inside buildings. It not only provides for ‘Talk solutions’ but data, proximity marketing as well as building IOT- Internet of Things solutions using proprietary technologies.

IBus endeavours to work closely with all eco-system players including Service providers, device players, content & storage partners etc. to enhance in building data experience of consumers. All major telecom provider are partnet and all major malls, hotels, commercial premises, hospitals etc. are clients for iBus. iBus is promoted & led by Mr. Ram Sellaratnam, Mr. Subash Vasudevan and Mr. Sunil Menon who bring many years of operating experience from companies like Infosys, Airtel, Essar etc. For more information, please visit iBus Networks

AHA Taxis [a division of WAAH Taxis Pvt Ltd], India’s leading online aggregator for outstation travel has raised an undisclosed round of angel funding from ah! Ventures, a startup focused growth catalyst bridging ideas and money. The deal was solely advised and syndicated by ah! Ventures and led to closure on its private equity investment platform, CLUBah.com

AHA Taxis was founded in April 2015 by Amit Grover [ex-Infosys, Asian Paints, Onida, IIT-IIM alumnus], along with Praveen Samariya [ex-Times Internet, IIT alumnus], Kunal Krishna [ex-Headstrong, Copper Mobile], Kumar Arayan [ex-Swiggy, Askmebazar, NIIT] & Shivam Mishra [ex-Crazzy, college dropout]. The team complements each other on several fronts of technology, operations and marketing, all of which are critical to success in the outstation taxi sector in India. Additionally, AHA Taxis has roped in marquee advisers including Puneet Gupt of Times Internet and Vikas Taneja of Games247

AHA Taxis helps travellers save cost on outstation travel by charging only for actual kilometers travelled. Traditionally in Indian road travel, the taxi owners charge a return fare from customers even for one way trips, as they are not assured of passengers on return journey. AHA Taxis provides service in 100+ cities currently and is expanding to another 100 cities by mid-2016. Customers can book an AHA Taxi by going on the website as well as mobile app available on Android Playstore.

Amit Grover, Founder, AHA Taxis, explains

Very few of the present cab providers offer intercity ride, “AHA” being one of them. Having said that, the primary problem with a regular cab is that you get charged for the return trip too.  Here, “AHA Taxis” takes the lead by providing you the taxi and charging you only for the actual kilometers travelled. We are aggregating demand and supply using website and mobile app to make it a win-win situation for all stakeholders – taxi owners, customers, society and environment.

 AHA Taxis has served outstation trips across 100+ cities for thousands of happy customers. AHA acts as an online bridge between drivers and customers offering significant value addition – it charges the customers for only one way trips rather than double fare for pick and drops. The drivers get a matching customer for their journeys instead of going empty, which enables them to earn more without extra investment.

Amit Grover further elucidated

Taxi sector has been developing by leaps and bounds in India, with OLA and Uber serving local travel, we felt that there is a gap in outstation travel which needs to be addressed by using technology and marketing. Our brand promise is to make taxis affordable, easily available and focus on customer safety – something none of the past and present players have been able to solve simultaneously at scale. After last few months of discovering our product market fit, we felt the need for investments to grow and ah! Ventures has come in at the right time to support us in this venture.

This deal was concluded through ah! Ventures’ private equity investment platform, CLUB ah!. CLUB ah! is India’s first full-spectrum startup investment network and platform comprising of over 550+ investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VCs.

CLUB ah! platform today has over 5000+ startups, 475+ seed/angel investors and over 75 VCs & institutional investors, making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups. The network also recently secured its first profitable exit from Ed-tech venture Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. CLUB ah! has till date invested close to INR 60 Cr in over 20 startups spread across varied industries and domains, including AHA Taxis.

AHA Taxis plans to use the funds raised by investing equally in technology, marketing and operations. Having an asset light model, the company can efficiently scale up capabilities on consumer and vendor support side. Currently the company is clocking almost 100% MOM growth on all metrics, and with angel investors backing, aim to achieve 10x growth within a year. The company plans to expand to newer geographies, with a focus on tier 2/3 towns, and start coverage of non-tourism sector beyond usual routes like Delhi to Jaipur, Agra, Haridwar and Chandigarh. AHA Taxis intelligent technology coupled with human acumen will help the company cater to the long tail of the consumer demand. In long term, AHA Taxis’ vision is to provide an alternate to Indian Railways!

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

Taxi aggregators typically don’t own any cabs or employ drivers; they connect customers with drivers through a tech platform, the front-end for the customer being an app. This is the same asset-light model that AHA Taxis has implemented. Besides, big money is making its way into this sector.

According to the Association of Radio Taxi India, the taxi business in the country is growing at 20-25 per cent a year. The organised taxi sector accounts for just four to five per cent of the industry and totals $800 million. By 2020, it is expected to grow almost 10 times to $7 billion. Revenues for taxi service providers are expected to grow at a CAGR of about 25% during 2014-19. Also, over the last decade, the consumer base in India is moving from a price sensitive mind-set to a convenience-first mind-set fuelling further demand for such services.

Our Investment in AHA Taxis is at the opportune time as we believe strongly in the potential of the business in India. They are already clocking 100% MOM growth on all metrics. As such, we are extremely confident of the team led by Amit and had no second thoughts on wanting to be early investors in AHA Taxis. We are positive of their service offering & technology and also of their ability to create significant shareholder value.

AHA Taxis is ah! Ventures’ second investment in this month. Earlier this month ah! Ventures invested USD 250K in an online game-based engagement learning startup Shirsa Labs. Besides they recently closed two back to back investments of over 1M USD each in Origa Leasing and Ewya Media.

ah! Ventures is in the process of closing 2 more deals in the coming weeks

About AHA Taxis

AHA Taxis [a division of WAAH Taxis Pvt Ltd] is India’s leading online aggregator for outstation travel. They offer online taxi booking to customers for one way fares, return journeys and multi city booking. Their vision is to give freedom of choice to their customers worldwide for traveling safely where they wish to while saving costs and at the same time benefit the taxi drivers with increased profits.

[Image Credit* – AHA Taxis]

Goodbox, a conversational-commerce mobile app has raised $2.5 million from Nexus Venture Partners. Goodbox allows businesses to create a commerce-ready store within minutes that provides seamless discovery, ordering and payment. Consumers can buy from their trusted stores across multiple categories without having to download multiple apps.

The company had earlier raised seed funding from the Manipal Group, Aprameya Radhakrishna [co-founder, TaxiForSure] and Charan Padmaraju [co founder, redBus].The current funds will be used for merchant acquisition & building the team.

Goodbox allows businesses to create a store on the Goodbox app that resembles the physical environment where the merchant can chat with their customers, upload their product/services catalog for search and discovery, take orders, accept payments and get logistics support. Most customers and merchants already use generic messaging apps to place an order over a message. Goodbox significantly improves the customer experience by integrating e-commerce capabilities with messaging and with time saving features for quick or repeat orders. Customers can buy from and pay their trusted businesses through one window and reduce app fatigue of having to download multiple apps for multiple things.

Goodbox is operational in Bangalore with over 1200 merchants already signed up, including supermarkets, restaurants, laundry chains, rental providers, movers & packers, canteens, salons and thali services. The company’s mission is to get every business to create their store on the app and make that their primary way to interact with consumers.

Sandeep Singhal, Co-founder & MD, Nexus Venture Partners says

Goodbox is empowering businesses by getting them online and helping them engage with their customers. We are excited about partnering with a team that has great product thinking and proven operational strengths.

Abey Zachariah, Co-founder & CEO, Goodbox said

At Goodbox, we are committed to enabling businesses with technology by giving them a ready store on our app in a matter of minutes. We wanted to partner with someone who believes in our vision and is willing to support us in accomplishing the gargantuan mission we’ve set for ourselves. We found such synergy of thought with Nexus Venture Partners. The funds will be earmarked for our expansion in the coming months.

Goodbox has been co-founded by Abey Zachariah [ex-redBus core team], Anand Kelaginamani [IIM-B], Charan Raj [ex-Accenture), Mahesh Herle [ex-National Instruments], Mayank Bidawatka [ex-redBus core team& co-founder The Media Ant], Mohit Maheshwari [IIM-B] and Nithin Chandra [NIT-K & IIM-B].

About Goodbox

Goodbox gives an app presence to businesses. It enables a business to create a storefront on the Goodbox app. Businesses want to adopt new technologies such as being on app, having a storefront and being able to interact with their consumers real-time. However, creating or maintaining an app is a very costly and complex affair. Goodbox enables SME businesses with an app presence within 5 minutes at an unbelievably low price, along with a payment gateway. Businesses can host their menu on the app and create their business profile as well. Every business can now be on the Goodbox app and start conducting commerce with their consumers. Goodbox app for Android can be downloaded from here

YourDOST, a technology start-up aiming to establish a unique platform for mental well being and emotional support, has completed its first round of Angel funding. The venture which has been operational since December 2014 through the web portal, offers complete support to people looking to discuss any kind of emotional issues by providing them instant online access to experts along with the much required anonymity. YourDOST is also available to people on mobile now with the launch of its mobile app on android platform and available for free download from Android Play Store.

Commenting on the venture, Richa Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, YourDOST

With YourDOST we aim to create awareness and reduce the stigma associated with mental wellness in our society. We all face problems, stress, and anxiety at some point in our life but mostly we are not willing to talk about these fearing social implications, being judged and for the fear of being judged. We are confident that technology combined with empathy and right kind of experts will go a long way in helping people going through a various emotional and mental challenges and equipping them to better deal with it.

Bootstrapped for initial period of its operations, YourDOST has raised close to USD 400,000 [Rs. 2.5 crores] in Angel round to fund its marketing and expansion needs. Owing to the uniqueness of the idea, the start-up has been able to attract established entrepreneurs and professionals like Phanindra Sama [Redbus Founder], Aprameya Radhakrishna [TaxiForSure Founder], Aneesh Reddy [Capillary Founder], Nagesh Grandhi [Hyderabad Angels] and many more into its investor portfolio.

Started by Richa Singh, an IIT-Guhawati alumnus in partnership with Puneet Manuja, IIM-B alumunus & Prakhar Verma, a computer science graduate from BMSCE, Bangalore, in last 10 months of its operations, YourDOST has received tremendous response from the market with close to 70,000 users so far and the number growing at about 40% month on month. With 10,000 registered users currently, a team of 75+ experts service around 300 one to one interactions on a daily basis.

Adding further, Richa said

We are delighted with the response received from the users so far. We have received very good traction from the users by word of mouth and it is very encouraging for a young team like us. With the first round of funding in place and having such experienced people on board with us as investors and mentors, we are certain that YourDOST will benefit immensely from their association and guidance

YourDOST – Addressing the need gap

Access and awareness towards mental & emotional well-being is very restricted in India and comes with several taboos associated with it. Here are some facts highlighting this challenge

• According to government estimates, 1 in 5 people in India need counselling, either psychological or psychiatric
• For an estimated 70 million+ people living with psycho-social problems and disabilities, there are less than 50 government mental health establishments.
• According to a report by WHO in 2011, 1 out of 7 people in India i.e. 15% of Indian population was suffering from depression in 2015, this has seen an alarming rise with 20% of Indian population being depressed today.
• 50% of corporate India is suffering from chronic stress. In fact as per a survey by ASSOCHAM earlier this year, highlights that the rate of emotional problems such as anxiety and depression has increased by 45-50% among corporate employees in the last eight years.
• According to medical experts, 4 in 5 people suffering from severe mental ailment in India choose not to treat it which causes early death by at least 15-20 years as compared to mentally healthy people

Dealing with societal pressure, pressure to perform and excel at work, family and marital issues, stress of studies, constant lifestyle comparison with the peer group due to over exposure to social media and several other factors have led to severe disturbances in our emotional stability. While the stress is on a constant rise, discussing it openly or dealing with it medically is still a taboo in our country.

This huge need gap and Richa Singh’s personal experience of a friend losing her life at IIT due to placement pressure led to birth of YourDOST to provide people with convenient yet anonymous access to experts consisting of life coaches, psychologists and other experienced individuals. Through this online platform which is available as a free service both through web portal and mobile app, users can choose to get into a live chat, find answers over email or book an appointment with the expert of their choice.

YourDOST team strongly believes that awareness at this stage is key; people need to know and acknowledge the importance of mental wellness, then comes the next step of seeking help.

About YourDOST

YourDOST is one of its kind online emotional wellness platform to get support from experts consisting of life coaches, psychologists and other experienced individuals. Launched in December 2014, YourDOST is available to people via its web platform & also on mobile through its recently launched mobile app on android platform. YourDOST allows instant access to users to a team of 75+ experts and share their problems through an online interface be it a live chat or email query or even book one on one interaction with the expert of their choice. The key aspect of this venture is that people are kept completely anonymous throughout the platform.

YourDOST aims to reduce the stigma attached to seeking help for mental wellness in our country and with the use of technology wants to make expert help widely and instantly available to people looking for emotional and mental well-being.

[Image Source* – YourDOST Blog]

ORIGA leasing, a highly innovative asset financing companies has raised INR 7 CR from ah! Ventures, 500 Startups and other high profile investors across sectors.

ORIGA Leasing was set up by Shrirang Tambe in May 2013 with a core philosophy of ‘Access to Finance’. It provides alternative financing through its asset leasing solutions to high growth companies across segments such as healthcare, sanitation, waste management, alternative energy, manufacturing and service oriented businesses.

ORIGA Leasing focusses mainly on leasing of assets which generate revenues for its clients. It has developed an highly innovative solution of Asset Life Cycle Management [ALCM] which helps its clients conserve their capital for working capital and marketing while ORIGA takes care of their assets in totality. Thus, the internal accruals and leasing funds the next expansion plan.

ORIGA is the first company in the alternative financing ecosystem with respect to asset leasing for high growth business models. According to industry reports, the market for alternative financing is conservatively estimated to be $50 billion.  There is a huge gap between the conventional financing available and the need of new age companies. ORIGA is critically positioned right in between to bridge that gap.

Shrirang who is excited to have a technology fund ‘500 Startups’ as its investor said

One of the key aspects of ORIGA Leasing is to invest significantly in building a robust technology-right from customer acquisition to asset management. In addition to innovativeness in our leasing products, we also aspire to become world’s largest fintech leasing company. We expect to touch an asset book for USD 100 million within the next three to four years just in India. Fund raised will be used towards leasing of assets, people and technology.

According to Ulhas Deshpande, Investor and Board member ORIGA

It is an innovative business model that would immensely help mid size entrepreneurs gain access to much needed funding. In fact the market opportunity is huge considering that 46% of the SME financing in Europe and 72% of SME financing in America takes place through asset leasing. In India, it is less than 1% of the total credit disbursed.

ORIGA is upbeat about having strong technology in place to deliver the leasing product. This, it believes, will not only scale up the business but will also provide opportunities to take it to other geographies facing a significant credit gap.

Giving an investors’ perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founder & CEO, ah! Ventures says

ORIGA  Leasing is one of the first companies in India to provide asset leasing solutions for the high growth unbanked and under-banked SMEs. Their hybrid model offers a perfect blend between online discovery and offline delivery of financial products thus helping achieve scale. We believe that the each vertical of Origa has the potential to touch millions of dollars by themselves and ORIGA could, within the next decade, very well aspire to become a bank and contribute to the ongoing financial inclusion drive of India.

Pankaj Jain, Partner at 500 Startups said

The most exciting thing about ORIGA is that it is democratizing how SMEs in India can procure and manage assets that typically have a high capex. This is an incredibly large market that’s been underserved by traditional sources of credit. It’s another example of disrupting the status quo in Indian finance and we are thrilled to be a part of the story.

Both ah! Ventures & 500 Startups invested in ORIGA through the CLUB ah! platform. CLUB ah! is India’s first full-spectrum startup investment network and platform comprising of over 500 investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VCs.

The network also recently secured its first profitable exit from Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. CLUB ah! has till date invested close to INR 30 crores in over 13 startups spread across varied industries and domains.

CLUB ah! platform today has over 4000+ startups, 460+ seed/angel investors and over 68 VCs & institutional investors, making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups. The network also recently secured its first profitable exit from Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. CLUB ah! has till date invested close to INR 55 crores in over 17 startups spread across varied industries and domains, including ORIGA.

Nitesh Damani, Director of Sugal & Damani Group and one of the key investors said

ORIGA Leasing, through its business model, will contribute significantly to various initiatives of the Government such as Swacchh Bharat Abhiyan, Make in India and Startup India. It was exciting to see that all the sectors ORIGA started off with in 2013 are foremost in the initiatives taken by the present Government.

Shrirang concludes saying

Financing through asset leasing for revenue generating assets creates capacities, capacities creates jobs and income, which finally goes towards contributing to the GDP of the nation. We are inculcating a new thought – financial inclusion at B2B level.

About ORIGA

Guided by the philosophy of “Access to Finance”, ORIGA extends asset leasing solutions to enterprises that aim for business expansion. ORIGA puts more emphasis on innovation and high growth business model than on the credit history of the applicant. It thus acts as a growth engine for entities at all stages. The leasing solutions offered by ORIGA to the entities help them build capacities that empower them financially to scale up and provide the last mile delivery of their services and goods in a highly effective manner. For more information, please refer ORIGA