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The Chennai Angels [TCA] announced an investment of $1 million in Chai Kings – Chennai’s largest Chai Retail chain along with Hyderabad Angels and TiE India Angels, who have also participated in this round.

Piyush Bhandari who lead the investment from TCA, said

We are very excited to partner with Chai Kings in the bridge round. We believe the company has a strong leadership team with immense potential to grow and expand across India. The new investment reiterates our commitment towards building a sustainable and scalable Indian QSR.

Jahabar Sadique, CEO of Chai Kings, said

We are happy with the success and progress of our brand ‘Chai Kings’ in Chennai and this funding round will help us expand into newer cities. We hope to enter Coimbatore, Bangalore and Hyderabad in this current year and get closer to our target of 100 stores in 5 years. Apart from expansions, bulk of this funding will be utilized to strengthen our operations and supply chain management.

Chai Kings, founded in 2016 is the Chennai’s largest Chai Retail chain operating with 40 stores. Chai Kings offers a sumptuous range of chai in exotic flavours, in the most hygienic ambience and at perfectly justifiable prices. Chai Kings also delivers Chai at your doorstep anywhere in Chennai, uses food grade use-and-throw heat retaining chai flask for safe consumption also ensuring the Chai is piping hot for at least an hour. With the vision to be the favourite chai place across India, Chai Kings is expanding rapidly with the target of 100 stores in 5 years.

The Chennai Angels is one of India’s most active angel investing groups. Founded in the year 2007, it is comprised of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders with a track record of starting and scaling large enterprises. Additionally, several seed and venture capital firms hold institutional membership in the group. Though it is located in Chennai, TCA’s investing members and portfolio investments are not limited by geography.

Unusually for an angel investing group, TCA has a diversified portfolio that goes well beyond a restrictive tech focus, reflecting the diversity of its members’ interests. TCA portfolio companies benefit from the collective expertise and rolodex of its members.

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University Admissions & Career Guidance platform Leverage Ed-tech Private Limited has raised over $1.5 Million from its existing investors. DSG Consumer Partners & Blume Ventures have co-led the latest funding round. Saama Capital founder Ash Lilani & PayU CEO Amrish Rau also participated in this round.

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Founded by Akshay Chaturvedi in January 2017, Leverage Ed-tech operates education platforms LeverageEdu.com and Univalley.com. The Company aims to be the go-to brand for university admissions and career guidance for the millennials.

Leverage Edu provides students enrolled on its platform with a seamless college application journey which includes personalized mentor-led 1:1 workshops, portfolio build-up sessions, access to pre-program internships & online courses, and exclusive scholarship options. The company also helps students with post-admit services through their partners for education loans, accommodation options and much more. In September 2019, the company has also launched a new business vertical Univalley.com, which provides advisory, tech and recruitment solutions to partner universities across the globe.

About a million students visit the LeverageEdu.com platform every month to learn more about higher education options & careers they are interested in. The platform also has an AI tool that helps students predict what options are best suited for their profile, and the company continues to focus on making its free tools grow faster and have wider access.

This financing round takes the company’s total capital raised to over $3 million. Presently in Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, the company will also expand their presence to more tier 2 and 3 cities in the next few quarters.

Founder & CEO of the three-year old company, Akshay Chaturvedi, said

We have been massively obsessed with student experience on the LeverageEdu.com platform and clear well-defined student success outcomes – which has led to an exceptional revenue growth in the last 9 months, as well as early signs of building a trusted brand. Focusing on few core areas and executing them really well has helped.

Fortunate to have phenomenal investors who understand what it takes to build a company in this space, and who’ve been extremely helpful while scaling up. I am absolutely thrilled that they have decided to back down on us. Excited to continue to execute and build a leading global full stack company in this space – one happy, relaxed, confident student journey at a time!

Deepak Shahdadpuri, Managing Director of DSG Consumer Partners, said

DSGCP first invested in LeverageEdu and partnered with Akshay a year ago. In that short period Akshay & his team have demonstrated very strong execution capabilities and have positioned LeverageEdu as a leading emergent higher education & career advisory brand.

A large part of their success to date is the unrelenting focus on making the student the core of everything that company does. We are very excited about the next phase of growth as LeverageEdu expands into becoming a full stack service provider and expands operations to more Indian cities.

Karthik Reddy, Managing Partner at Blume Ventures, said

Akshay and team have put in place strong frameworks for building a large long-term company, in this first year of our partnership. The scale of the overseas education opportunity set is even more massive than we initially imagined and the pace at which the team has executed has meant that we are happy to see ourselves co-leading a second round with DSG into an early breakout from fund III.

About Leverage Edu

Leverage Edu initially began as a higher education mentorship marketplace in Silicon Valley’s Draper University’s 2015 cohort by Akshay Chaturvedi, and formally launched as a company later in January 2017. The company is now a full stack university admissions player, using AI to help students work with best-matched mentors from around the world in personalised career workshops.

Leverage Edu has demonstrated industry-leading student outcomes in the last three years, and now also helps students with value added services like education loan, accommodation options, on-campus/long-term mentoring, and more. It’s recently launched vertical Univalley.com partners with select universities across vetted courses and programs, to help students with an end-to-end curated discovery-to-dorm room journey across select regions globally.

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WitBlox, an edu-tech startup, has raised a funding of INR 1.3 crores from Mumbai Angels Network.  Witblox was founded in 2014, headquartered in Mumbai by Amit Modi. WitBlox is creating an ecosystem of gamified robotics learning for children aged (8-16 years) through plug and play hardware toolkits across science, technology, engineering and maths [STEM].

The company was earlier incubated with Neotech, an incubator and accelerator from Ambuja Neotia.

24 investors from the Mumbai Angels Network have participated in this round. Amit Modi, Founder and CEO of Witblox, said

MA not only helped me raise funds seamlessly, it connected me to its vast network of Investors across cities in India. With these funds, we plan to bring about significant changes in our strategy.

Mumbai Angels Investor, Aditya Sanghi said

I am happy to be associated with the next phase of growth of Witblox. While helping children learn by building is rewarding in itself, I think this is a great team with potential to build a big business. To make it big, business needs a motivated passionate team propelled by a purpose catering a growth market. I think Witblox has the right ingredients and it is time to execute heads down.

Mumbai Angels Investor, Vivek Lodha said

A lot of people I meet want kids to be learning fast without using iPad and other gadgets. This is a perfect way to make your kids grow smart with  real experiential learning and I’m glad to back WitBlox to achieve this.

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

We are happy to welcome witblox in our expanding diversified portfolio. We see increasing activity in edutech space and are hoping that Witblox becomes a star in our edutech portfolio.

About WitBlox
Techshiksha is a private limited company based out of Mumbai, India. WitBlox is an edu-tech startup creating an ecosystem of gamified robotics learning for children aged (8-16 years) through plug and play hardware toolkit across science, technology, engineering and maths [STEM].

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Onelife Nutriscience Pvt. Ltd. which owns the consumer healthcare brand ‘Onelife – Live it right‘ has raised Pre-Series a funding of INR 50 million from a group of HNIs from Pharma/Healthcare & Chemicals Industry.  Onelife has over 100 products in the nutrition, wellness and beauty space with presence in more than 15 cities across West and North India.

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Onelife is geared up for its next level of growth post this round of capital. It will leverage the infused funds for geographical expansion, online & offline expansion, marketing and team building.

The Company is founded in 2017  by Gaurav Aggarwal  who has over 20 years of experience in the Nutrition Industry. Hailing from a family who has been one of the leading producers of Vitamin B3 in the world, this is a natural progression for Gaurav to leverage his extensive experience and network to develop a promising B2C Healthcare Brand.

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

We are very happy to have experienced an early acceptance of our products from the customers at a time when the Nutraceuticals Industry is looking at an exponential growth. The funds raised will help us strengthen our product range, expand geographies, increase online & offline presence, invest in marketing & brand building and add further talent. We are targeting to achieve 3x growth over next 18 months from our current levels.

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Starting a business and helping it grow over many years can be one of life’s most rewarding experiences. On the other hand, even especially successful business owners often reach a point where it feels like a change of direction could be in order.

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At such junctures, it frequently makes sense to consult with some experts in private equity to see what they have to offer. There are a number of reasons why it can be productive to negotiate a deal with private equity investors.

Relatively few companies ever reach the point of having initial public offerings, with the vast majority remaining private throughout their lifespans. Although publicly traded firms do account for around one-third of all private-sector employment in the United States, that leaves the rest to companies where shares of ownership cannot be bought on public markets at all.

This might make it seem as if publicly traded companies had definite, unconquerable advantages over those that remain privately held. While there are certainly benefits inherent in going public, private companies have options of their own.

Investors and firms that specialize in working with or taking over privately owned businesses, for instance, oversee an increasingly important segment of the economy. Accounting for somewhere around $500 billion in activity worldwide in 2013, private equity deals are quickly closing in on the trillion-dollar mark.

Business owners who reach a certain stage of life or who simply want to explore new options quite often find that private equity arrangements make excellent sense. Some of the reasons why entrepreneurs and others most often partner or make deals with private equity firms include:

Growth

Even businesses that have ready access to capital in the form of bank loans and lines of credit can find it wise to look for other ways of funding growth. Guarantees, usage restrictions, and loan officers who lack understanding often make turning to private equity investors far more viable. Professionals in the field of private equity tend to be a lot more interested in funding innovative, ambitious ideas than is typical of staid, conservative bankers. Even though a deal will generally mean giving up some equity in a company, the growth it enables can easily repay that many times over.

Liquidity

Selling a business can prove a lot more difficult than expected, even when the firm in question is one of the most competitive in its market. Some investors who approach retirement find themselves feeling forced to stick around to wait for an appropriate buyer. Private equity investors will often be a lot more responsive than other potential buyers and be better funded, as well. Having access to liquidity on demand might be the key needed to segue gracefully into a new stage of life.

Expertise

Even especially successful entrepreneurs can easily find themselves reaching their limits at certain points. Bringing on a private equity partner can provide access to highly developed skills and huge amounts of relevant experience. That will sometimes allow a business which had started to seem a bit boring or stagnant to become every bit as thrilling and full of potential as it had been in the past.

For reasons like these and a number of others, business owners regularly find that it makes excellent sense to at least look into what private equity investors might have to offer. Although there will sometimes be more appropriate options, entrepreneurs in a wide variety of common situations more and more often opt to sign private equity deals, as the statistics show.

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Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons to invest an undisclosed amount in Pune-based electric vehicle start-up Tork Motors, just before the commercial launch of its flagship product T6X. In past, the company has raised funds from Bharat Forge and Bhavish Aggarwal [Founder of Ola Cabs].

Tork Motors, is a maker of indigenously developed electric vehicles. The ‘Made in India’ product is built as a culmination of years of extensive research and development.

Powered by lithium ion batteries, T6X, the electric motorcycle, is engineered to travel at a top speed of 100 kmph, and runs 100 km on a single charge. The battery can be charged up-to 80% in an hour.  Tork Motors continues to further its state-of-the-art electric motorcycle technology with their signature TIROS [Tork Intuitive Response Operating System], the intelligence that will power the T6X.  Apart from analysis and compilation of data for every ride, power management, real time power consumption and range forecasts, TIROS also likes to learn how you ride.

Speaking about the investment, Mr. Ratan Tata, an avid thought leader in the EV space, said

In last few years, there has been a sea of changes in the attitude towards electric vehicles. This industry is changing rapidly and I place good value on the sound logic and the approach that the team at Tork Motors has taken.

Overall, I am very impressed and feel that this is the kind of spirit that should be present in every Indian entrepreneur.

This is a milestone moment in the journey of Tork Motors, as they gear up for the launch of their flagship electric motorcycle in the next few months. Speaking on the investment Kapil Shelke, Founder & CEO of Tork Motors said

Mr Tata is one of the most prominent business leaders in the world. I am glad that his office representative visited the factory, understood the concept, evaluated the product, and had ridden the motorcycle post which Mr. Tata took an informed decision.

An investment by him is an endorsement of the long-held belief by us that the Indian auto sector is going through a phase of huge growth and transformation. We are privileged to have him come on-board as an investor. Now with his support, guidance and mentorship, we are even more confident about carrying out our vision of promoting e-mobility in India.

Our business model is distinctively differentiated with an emphasis on an in-house development in technology and product advancement, with innovation at the core of our offerings. This investment gives us a great opportunity to gain more experience from the master himself. 

About Tork Motors

At Tork Motors consists of a team of problem solvers who are building electric vehicles that provide an elevated experience and raise the bar for the entire automobile industry. They put People, Planet and Purpose before everything else and our products are built to seamlessly drive us towards eliminating any barrier that exists between an individual, organization or region’s intention to adopt sustainable mobility and them actually getting to do it.

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emids, a leader in digital engineering and transformation solutions to the healthcare industry, has partnered with New Mountain Capital, a leading growth-oriented investment firm with over $20 billion in assets under management.

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As part of the transaction, emids management and other select stakeholders will remain invested in the Company, while current investors Baird Capital and Council Capital are exiting. The investment by New Mountain sets the stage for the continued accelerating growth of emids as the healthcare industry’s preferred partner for digital transformation.

Jack Qian, Managing Director at New Mountain, said

This partnership is the result of our continued efforts to identify and back innovative platforms that enable healthcare stakeholders to meet the rapidly changing needs of a digital world.

We are thrilled to be partnering with Saurabh and the emids management team. We look forward to supporting the Company’s continued growth by identifying both organic and inorganic initiatives to help the Company realize its full potential.

Baird Capital Partner Jim Pavlik complimented emids’ unrelenting focus on customer service and quality during its rapid expansion

We’ve witnessed the emids commitment to keep its customers front and center. It’s a differentiator and key ingredient in their success.

Grant Jackson, Managing Partner – Council Capital, said

We are pleased to have been able to successfully leverage the Council Model to partner with the emids management team with our deep bench of industry and functional experts, as well as facilitate new customer relationships. We wish Saurabh and his team much continued success in this next phase of their growth.

Credit Suisse served as exclusive financial advisor and DLA Piper LLP as legal counsel to emids in this transaction. Ropes & Gray LLP provided legal counsel to New Mountain.

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PlayShifu, the award-winning technology startup raised a $7 million Series A round of funding led by Chiratae [formerly IDG Ventures India], Inventus Capital and Bharat Innovation Fund [BIF]. Existing investor, IDFC-Parampara Fund also participated. A pioneer in the field of creating highly engaging and immersive AR experiences for children that encourage early STEM skills, PlayShifu has an aggressive strategic plan in place to expand on its tech prowess with this round of funding.

With $8.5 million raised to date, the company’s primary focus will remain tech innovation, continued research on unique phygital interactions and new product developments. PlayShifu also plans to update current products significantly and expand the diverse retail presence from 15 countries to 30+ countries in 2020 and beyond.

Vivek Goyal, CEO, and Co-Founder of Playshifu, said

We are extremely excited to have investors who are highly focused on consumer tech, on board in our journey to make early learning fun and accessible to children around the world. We have an exhaustive product pipeline, an incessantly creative and passionate team of innovators, and now, the right partners to make an extremely positive impact on the educational foundations of generations to come.

PlayShifu’s first flagship product, Shifu Orboot, is an AR-based globe that promises an adventure around the world. The user base has crossed 250,000 kids worldwide, but that’s not all. Orboot has seen unprecedented engagement among 4-8-year-olds. While the best of the children’s apps/toys retain approximately 8% of kids after the first month, Orboot boasts more than 40% of kids retained in the second month! In other words, the amount of time spent on the app, thanks in large part to the breadth and depth of learning, has resulted in an impressive frequency of play, and month-after-month retention equal to 4~5 times that of kids-app category benchmarks.

In less than a year, teachers and technology integrators from hundreds of schools in the US, Europe, India discovered PlayShifu and experimented with adopting the innovative products in their tech-friendly classrooms. Today, more than 65% of these schools use Orboot every week in their classes. With Orboot 2.0 launching soon [student profiles and progress tracking, teachers’ portal, detailed lesson plans], this engagement will only increase from here, as PlayShifu prepares to expand its reach in schools by 10x this year.

The newest addition, Shifu Plugo, combines the charm of classic physical consoles with new-age digital interactions. Helping kids conquer STEM skills with super-fun characters, captivating storylines, and enriching tactile play, Plugo will soon replace tons of toys in your kid’s toy box.

The physical consoles bring alive the alphabet, math, engineering, music, steering, and more. With two consoles available today, PlayShifu plans to introduce four more by the end of 2019. PlayShifu’s global appeal is evident from the fact that they have managed a deep-rooted retail presence in key markets and countries around the world, including the US, Canada, UK, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Hong Kong, South Africa, Middle East, and Japan.

Dinesh Advani, Co-Founder, and COO, said

We are experiencing incredible demand from international markets across the world, purely due to the reason that our innovative products make early learning agnostic to markets and languages. Our products make an instant connection with kids and parents alike. We now have the tools at our disposal to execute against an even more impactful retail strategy and presence, while we continue to strengthen our position as the segment leader and disruptor in the early learning space.

About PlayShifu

Founded in 2016, PlayShifu has offices in Bay Area and Bengaluru. The co-founders Vivek Goyal and Dinesh Advani, graduates of Stanford GSB and IIT Kharagpur, are two dads who juggle toddlers, tech, and toys in their daily lives. They are revolutionizing the toy industry by creating groundbreaking AR experiences with a passionate pack at PlayShifu.