All Posts in Funding

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Internet-based startup Fixpocket secured USD 250,000 seed funding from La Gajjar Group, a private investment group based in Ahmedabad. Following the venture, the two companies together formed Kasova Ventues Private Limited, which currently owns and operates Fixpocket.

Image Source – FixPocket

The capital would be utilized for setting up the initial team, design & development of technology and early stage marketing activities. Fixpocket launched the first version of its web portal in April 2017. It consists of more than a hundred categories identified to serve different micro services in the market. With a constant effort to make the portal reach its targeted audience, the marketing team at Fixpocket are working on a number of ground level and digital strategies. Fixpocket also launched its iOS and Android apps in July-end to make it easier for the buyers to access these services.

[L-R] Kaivan Shah & Soham Thacker , Co-Founders, Fixpocket

So far, around 17,000 people have enrolled as members of Fixpocket for providing one or more of its 3,500 services. The freelance marketplace has also been able to establish tie-ups with more than 200 corporate enterprises and fulfilled over 2,000 orders since the launch of its website.

Soham Thacker, Co-Founder, Fixpocket said

Fixpocket was conceptualized by identifying the gap of micro services in the freelancing market. People in India possess a variety of skills but the market lacks a platform for these skills to be publicized and monetized.

We have established a special Corporate Management team that reaches out to large and mid-sized companies, educating them about the beneficial use of Fixpocket and how it can help them reduce fixed overheads by outsourcing their work. Fixpocket also has the vision to create an international marketplace for the workforce of over 15 million freelancers that India has to offer.

Kaivan Shah, Co-Founder, Fixpocket, said

Fixpocket’s vision is to create an Online Market place where Digital Micro services are offered by Working Professionals & Freelancers at a reasonable & fixed price. These services then can be purchased by Individuals, SME’s & Start-ups who are looking for freelancers or project based content providers.

We have a mission to establish Fixpocket as a brand which is known for its quality services offered at highly competitive prices. We want to develop valued trust amongst all the buyers by ensuring on time delivery. The idea is to set Fixpocket as a benchmark for any requirement in the field of digital services such as Graphics, Social Media Content, SEO, Content Writers and various other categories.

You can have a look at FixPocket here.

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

GoBumpr, a Chennai-based automobile aftermarket platform has raised around $600k in Pre-Series A funding led by the existing investors – The Chennai Angels [TCA], Keiretsu Forum and individual investors. The investment round was led by Vinod Kumar Dasari [MD, Ashok Leyland] and saw participation from Shankar V [Director, Acsys Investments], Ramaraj R [Founding Member, Elevar Advisors], Priyamvada Balaji [Wholetime Director, Lucas Indian Service] from TCA to name a few. Ramesh Mangaleswaran [Senior Partner, McKinsey] and Gopal Mahadevan [CFO, Ashok Leyland] have also invested in the company as part of this round. Earlier, GoBumpr raised $420K in Jan 2017 in their first round of investment.

Started in Oct 2015 by IIM grads Karthik Venkateswaran, Nandha Kumar Ravi and Sundar Natesan, GoBumpr leverages mobile technology to standardize and automate the ~ 80% unorganized automobile after-sales market [$10bn in annual revenue]. Currently, GoBumpr, is India’s largest player in the online automobile services aggregation space in terms of number of workshops getting business via the platform and the number of daily service transactions. GoBumpr currently active in Bengaluru and Chennai, does 7000+ B2C transactions monthly servicing Rs. 3 Crore in billing value. GoBumpr earns commission on the business generated to it’s partner workshops.

Vinod Kumar Dasari [MD, Ashok Leyland] who has invested in the company in both the funding rounds, said

GoBumpr has scaled the B2C service business across 2 major metro cities delivering value to both workshops and vehicle owners. Beyond being able to deliver quality business to workshops, GoBumpr’s ability to become an overall technology platform in the automobile aftermarket tapping multiple revenue streams is the key to emerging as winner in this space.

Beyond services, extension of GoBumpr’s platform to spares, tyres, accessories, used cars has worked really well for the company and this overall aftermarket tech platform will be a boon to the industry.

Mahalingam K [Partner, TSM Group] who has invested in GoBumpr in both the rounds and advises the core team, said

GoBumpr, though started as servicing platform, has now evolved into a much bigger play with the extension of their tech interface to tyres, batteries, spares, used cars etc. This allows GoBumpr to be a one stop shop for all of the car owners need and also for the workshop owners to get their inventories in place. GoBumpr’s branding of their premium workshops [similar to OYO rooms] and 100% capacity fulfillment is a game changer for the company.

Karthik Venkateswaran, CoFounder of GoBumpr, said

We have established presence and scaled GoBumpr services in Bangalore & Chennai in the last 12 months. With our success in these two metros, we are confident of scaling the platform not only to other metros but also to other businesses within the automobile aftermarket. As such automobile is one of the oldest industries and at GoBumpr, we are keen to digitize the after-market space and be India’s most trusted auto commerce solution for consumers.

Nandha Kumar Ravi, who heads the overall operations for GoBumpr, said

We are working on AI enabled platform leveraging data from OBD and existing service records of the car owner to provide tech enabled smart service assistance to car owners. This would significantly disrupt the way vehicle owners and workshops diagnose repairs and handle service.

GoBumpr is a ‘go-to’ pitstop for end-to-end car and bike service needs right from regular servicing, repair jobs, body works – denting, tinkering & painting to 24*7 on-road assistance. GoBumpr.com also provides door-step car wash, engine oil change, tyres and battery replacement services at door step. With over 2.5 Lakh+ customers and 2500+ service workshops in their platform, GoBumpr transforms the automobile servicing process into a seamless & hassle-free experience with real-time tracking of vehicle service status till payment and delivery. GoBumpr also provides automated service reminders to vehicle owners. GoBumpr is currently available in Chennai & Bengaluru and would soon be available in other metro cities. 

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.

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Sqrrl Fintech, an app based investment platform, has raised $1 million during its Pre-Series A round of funding from investment firm Equanimity Venture Fund. The founders of the innovative startup state that by 2019 they want to reach one million customers and already boast customers in more than 500 of India’s cities. Fintech startups in India are riding high at present and Sqrrl have worked hard to be the leader of the pack.

Image Source – Funding

Startup success

Sqrrl was founded in May 2016 by Samant Sikka, Dhananjay Singh and Sanjeev Sharma. The app was developed specifically for young Indians to increase their saving and investment opportunities by offering high performing mutual funds based on investment needs and risk horizons and goals. The venture proved successful as following the launch of the app in March 2017, the company have reached 150,000 users on Android and iOS devices. And in little more than two years of creation they hit the $1 million mark.

Securing customers

76% of Sqrrl’s current users are aged under 35. Meanwhile, 61% of their user base live outside of India’s top 15 cities. The company are also working tirelessly to ensure their product reaches as much as the Indian population as possible by offering users the option of 9 different Indian languages. To achieve such growth in such a short amount of time, fintech creators have to work hard by cementing their idea and putting together a strict business plan to ensure they get the appropriate financial backing to allow them to progress forward with their startup.

The future of Sqrrl

Speaking about the $1 million raised, Sqrrl have promised that

The funds will be used to pursue aggressive growth and add to product suite. In addition, we aim to invest in new age technologies, particularly machine learning and artificial intelligence, to sharpen its product recommendation and further smoothen its on-boarding process.

Following a successful funding round, the Managing Partner of Equanimity Investments, Rajesh Sehjal will now join the board of Sqrrl to help push them further towards hitting their next business aspirations.

Sqrrl have managed great success in such a short space of time, proving that hard work, dedication and an innovative product can go a long way in the fintech industry. The future looks bright for the Indian fintech market and Sqrrl are pushing themselves to ensure they stay at the top of their game.

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Bahrain Development Bank [BDB] announced that the Al Waha Fund of Funds has successfully closed its $100 million fundraising round, making it the first active venture capital fund of funds in the region. The announcement marks an important milestone for the region’s growing startup ecosystem. It will provide additional capital to innovative and technology-driven startups in Bahrain and across the Middle East through venture capital funds currently established in Bahrain, and by attracting new funds to the region.

Image Source – Startups

The Limited Partners [LP] Advisory Committee met for the first time last week to close the US $100 million, setting the strategic direction of the fund, and approved the allocation of $35 million into a series of venture funds. The LPs include Mumtalakat, National Bank of Bahrain, Batelco Group, Tamkeen and Bahrain Development Bank, amongst others and where BDB is the GP managing the fund.

Commenting on the announcement, Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa, Chairman, Al Waha Fund of Funds Advisory Committee, said

We are very pleased to announce the successful closure of the fund and we have already made encouraging progress in allocating the capital raised. One of the key constraints on the development of the startup and technology ecosystem in the region is lack of access to capital – this fund can help to make a significant difference to that challenge, enabling entrepreneurs to realize the potential of their ideas.

The announcement follows the launch of the Al Waha Fund of Funds at Gateway Gulf Forum last month. Gateway Gulf Forum, brought together more than five hundred global investors and business leaders to explore how to unlock the opportunities being created by the economic transformation in the GCC.

Bahrain’s startup ecosystem has benefitted from a number of significant initiatives and reforms in recent years, as part of the Economic Vision 2030, delivered under the leadership of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Chairman of the Bahrain Economic Development Board [EDB]. These include a reduction in the minimum capital required for starting a business, measures to enable onshore crowdfunding in conventional and shari’a-compliant finance and the introduction of a regulatory sandbox.

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Accion Venture Lab, the world’s leading seed-stage investor, YourNest, an early stage venture capital fund & few prominent angels have jointly invested Rs. 9 crore  in the Hyderabad-based fintech startup CredRight, a data driven lending platform that provides credit to unserved & underserved Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises [MSMEs].  CredRight partners with chit funds – which are similar to Rotating Savings & Credit Association [ROSCAs] in the United States but use a reverse auction to distribute pooled funds – across India to acquire customers and use previously untapped chit data, along with other data points, to underwrite a loan for a customer.

Image Source – CredRight

Neeraj Bansal, Co-founder and CEO, CredRight said

CredRight is aiming to disburse Rs. 100 Cr in the next 12~15 months. With this new injection of capital, CredRight plans to further invest in technology, grow its team, and continue its expansion plans to reach even more unserved & underserved customers. Chit funds are the most underappreciated financial inclusion story in India. Registered chit funds, well regulated by States & RBI, cater to more than $10 bn credit demand in India, addressing more than 5 mn missing middle of India for over a century. With digital channels and complimentary lending, the industry has the potential to grow many folds and expand the financial inclusion story even further.

CredRight has partnered with chit funds companies that allows access to MSE’s & their entire past credit history related to chit fund payments and defaults data.  It is a data driven lending platform that provides credit to MSMEs. CredRight partners with chit funds across India to acquire customers and use previously untapped chit data, along with other data points, to underwrite a loan for a customer. RBI Registered chit funds in India have 5 million subscribers, with 50% being MSME subscribers.

By leveraging its proprietary machine learning based credit algorithm, CredRight is able to build significantly better picture of cash flows, ability to repay, and willingness to repay for any applicant. Due to its end-to-end digital process, CredRight can approve loans within 24 hours and disburse funds within three business days.

Paarul Dudeja, Director of Investments for India, Accion Venture Lab, said

With tens of millions of India’s MSMEs cut off from formal financing, CredRight’s innovative new model and use of often-overlooked data can help small businesses thrive.

Sunil Goyal, Managing Director & Fund Manager, YourNest Venture Capital, said

For decades chits are a trusted source of savings and credit in India. CredRight team has intelligently built an algorithm to use the reliable data on the members available with the chit funds. This strong digital platform allows CredRight to have a lower operational cost, conduct multivariate analysis and a continuously evolve its credit model.

The inherent savings led re-payment plan, and the obvious benefits of the fraternities build around friendships, brotherhoods and neighborhood allows better adherence of loan re-payments. We find CredRight has gained access to hitherto untapped alternate credit data-sets to build and roll out a product for ‘Bharat’.

T. S. Sivaramakrishnan, General Secretary of All India Chit Fund Association, said

Chit funds have been serving the financial needs of Lakhs of households in India and like Yoga or Ayurveda, has stood the test of time. With the advent of companies like CredRight who are inducing a healthy dose of digital technologies and risk-based algorithms, Chit Funds can prepare for the oncoming era better and meet the unstated needs of their subscribers better as well as reach out to young generation with more confidence.

More information about CredRight can be found here

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Milkbasket, India’s first & largest daily grocery delivery service, has just announced the successful closure of $7 million in Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital with participation from Singapore based BeeNext and its existing investors, Unilever Ventures and Blume Ventures.

Image Source – Milkbasket

Started in early 2015, Milkbasket revolutionized the online grocery space by introducing an early morning, contactless, micro-delivery model akin to the prevalent newspaper and milk supply chain models in India. Starting with milk and breakfast products, Milkbasket today fulfills the entire grocery needs of a household with a reach of over 40,000 households in 180+ communities in Gurgaon.

Commenting on the investment, Vani Kola, MD at Kalaari Capital said

Strong founding team, focus towards data-based decision making, operational rigor, and incessant focus on customer delight, backed by a large market opportunity in the grocery space culminated into us leading a $7M Series A round into Milkbasket.

The company is going to use these funds for further innovations in supply chain efficiencies and last mile logistics, creation of unique customer propositions and delivering exceptional customer experience, and expand into other geographies while penetrating deeper in existing communities.

Founders of MilkBasket

Teruhide Sato, Founder of BeeNext, said

Our investment in Milkbasket provides us with meaningful participation in one of the fastest growing e-grocery markets globally. We are excited to partner with one of India’s best grocery delivery platforms and believe that this investment will accelerate their ability to build scale in India.

Three unique attributes of Milkbasket that impressed us were; a great founder with a solid team and great execution; a user friendly service suitable for Indian local habits; and highly frequent consumer touch points. Milkbasket instigates a sense of community among users, and there is no doubt that they will become the daily habit of India in a few years.

Founded by INSEAD alumnus Anant Goel with his co-founders Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain and Yatish Talvadia, Milkbasket operates with a full stack in-house supply chain model, achieved positive unit economics within first six months of inception and have introduced industry’s first flexi-ordering till midnight, delivery by 7:00 AM, no minimum order and free delivery model.

Speaking on the funding, Anant Goel, CEO at Milkbasket said

We are very excited to have Kalaari and BeeNext join us in the journey to crack the online grocery space in a sustainable manner. This funding will help us to continue investing in the 3Ts that we hold close to our hearts – Talent, Technology and Territory, and in achieving our vision to create the most convenient grocery fulfilment model for today’s busy households.

About Milkbasket

Launched in early 2015, Milkbasket is India’s first and largest grocery delivery service. Built on the unique Indian habit of getting fresh milk delivered at home every morning, Milkbasket is today fulfilling the entire grocery needs of a household everyday before 7:00 a.m. To enable frequent and friction-less buying, Milkbasket has innovated micro delivery, flexi-ordering and contactless delivery – all a first in the e-commerce industry – and favorites of Milkbasket customers.

With a daily reach to over 40,000 households, Milkbasket’s vision is to become the default mom & pop shop for over a million households in the next 3~5 years. Having achieved positive unit economics within the first six months of the launch, Milkbasket is the most capital efficient model in the online grocery space as compared to its domestic and global peers. For more information, please visit MilkBasket

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

mfine, an app-based on-demand healthcare service, announced it has raised $4.2 Million in Series A funding. Prime Venture Partners led the round alongside existing investors, Stellaris Venture Partners and healthcare entrepreneur, Mayur Abhaya. The company will use the fresh funds to build the hospital network across cities, and further strengthen the technology team. The company is planning to achieve over One Lakh consultations by the end of 2018 and also partner with more than 50 top hospitals across the country.

Launched in December 2017, mfine follows a unique model of partnering with leading and trusted hospitals instead of aggregating individual doctors on the platform. Hospital partnerships enable mfine to make high-quality care of trusted doctors available on a digital channel – for the first time in the country.

Top doctors from more than 15 leading and reputed hospitals in Bengaluru such as CloudNine, Aster, and Ovum consult with patients across nine specialties. For the hospitals, mfine is their new center on the cloud bringing in more patients and offering premium services, long-term care programs, super specialties without any upfront investments.

Within the first five months of launch, mfine has clocked more than 10,000 consultations. mfine’s platform ensures that patients can reach the doctors on the network within 60 secs and start the consultation. Users get access to the same doctors and other integrated experiences as visiting a hospital, virtually and when they need. mfine will soon launch additional services such as monitoring of vitals, collection of sample for lab tests and medicine delivery at home.

mfine has built an AI-powered technology system that improves doctors’ efficiency & effectiveness dramatically. The system is built on the foundation of standard medical ontologies and protocols and is able to learn and replicate high quality diagnosis and treatment methods. The system takes care of structured data collection, reminders for follow up based on signs/symptoms and execution of care protocols for chronic conditions, thereby building a platform that’s unique and globally competitive. 

mfine was founded in February 2017 by Ashutosh Lawania [Myntra Co-founder] and Prasad Kompalli, a former business head at Myntra. The founders were later joined by Ajit Narayanan, ex-Myntra CTO, Arjun Chaudhary, ex-Myntra head of growth marketing and Dr. Jagadish Prasad, an interventional neuroradiologist, and founder of Femiint Health, a hospital in Bengaluru. Including the current funding round, the startup has raised over $6 million and has 50 employees in Bengaluru.

[L-R] Prasad Kompalli [CEO & Co-Founder], Ashutosh Lawania (Co-Founder]

Prasad Kompalli, CEO and Co-Founder, mfine said

We see a huge opportunity to bring the much needed, tech-driven transformation in the $50B primary healthcare delivery. With our deeply tech driven approach and working with reputed providers, we are effectively creating a ‘cloud clinic’ where quality healthcare can be accessed on demand from anywhere. We believe we can scale this across the country and beyond and help people gain much more control over their health.

Shripati Acharya, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners said

Teleconsult and on-demand healthcare is poised to fundamentally transform healthcare delivery in India. mfine has taken an innovative hospital-first approach where experienced doctors and specialists from established hospital brands are available directly on the app. It is backed by a stellar team with passionate founders who have deep experience building startups and getting them to scale and succeed.

Ritesh Banglani, Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners said

We are pretty excited about what mfine has built up so far both in the product and the provider network. The impressive consumer traction they have achieved in a short time reinforces our belief in this space and mfine’s differentiated approach. We are excited to back them in their journey to create large and impactful health-tech business.

Rohit M A, Co-founder & MD, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals said

Digital health is the future of primary health care as it offers much more convenience and continuity to the couples in our care. Mfine’s connected care platform augers very well into the Digital Engagement strategy at Cloudnine and we are excited about the new reach and the extended clinical care programs for fulfilling varied needs of our customers.

Dr. Adarsh, Chairman and Medical Director Ovum Hospitals, Ovum Hospitals

With mfine video consultation, I can meet my patients virtually and that makes online consultation much more easy and safe. mfine app is super simple to use with almost zero typing. I can provide much detailed prescriptions on mfine including nutrition and growth chart.

The mfine app is currently available in English on Google Playstore & Appstore and can be downloaded from here.

|In: AI|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Avaamo, the AI-driven company specializing in conversational interfaces to solve specific high impact problems in the enterprise, has raised a $14.2 million Series A financing round led by Intel Capital with additional investment from Ericsson Ventures, Mahindra Partners, Wipro Ventures and WI Harper. This funding brings the company’s total investment to $23.5 million to date. Avaamo will use the latest funding to expand its sales and marketing to meet demand in the enterprise for conversational AI solutions in the growing global market.

Image Source – Avaamo

The Avaamo platform enables enterprises to deploy omnichannel intelligent assistants in the areas of supply chain, HR, sales support, claims processing and insurance advisory. Operating quietly under the radar for the past three years, Avaamo has built fundamentally new AI technology that automates judgment-intensive, multi-turn responses to complex, domain-specific customer queries with a very high degree of accuracy – even with sparse training data.

Ram Menon, Founder & CEO of Avaamo, said

Avaamo’s conversational intelligent assistants are already deployed globally in more than 40 countries and even greater global expansion is on the horizon as enterprises seek an AI-based conversational computing solution to improve last mile automation.

Avaamo’s full stack conversational AI platform with a specific focus on vertical machine learning, has enabled the company to acquire customers in the finance, mutual funds, telco, retail and healthcare industries, while providing measurable ROI to enterprises driven by high volumes, intense regulatory oversight and stringent security guidelines. Intelligent assistants in these industries require deep domain machine learning, as well as integration to proprietary data residing in legacy systems with support for security, encryption and addressing GDPR and HIPAA requirements.

Fiaz Mohamed, head of Industry Solutions, Artificial Intelligence Products Group at Intel Corporation, said

Intelligent agents are an emerging area that’s already impacting how consumers interact with enterprises, while reducing costs and improving workforce productivity. Because Avaamo’s secure architecture allows for easy integration with existing enterprise systems, combining its emerging conversational technology with Intel’s platform focus on AI has the potential to provide a disruptive platform for large enterprises.

Additionally, Intel is excited to add Avaamo as a member of the recently launched AI Builders program, opening up new channels for marketing and sales enablement for Avaamo.

Albert Kim, Head of Ericsson Ventures, said

Ericsson has time and again proven instrumental in enabling new ecosystems. Conversational AI technologies is one such ecosystem that we believe is expected to experience rapid growth. We are very excited to partner with other strategic investors in supporting Avaamo’s revolutionary journey going forward, as it continues to disrupt large existing markets while creating a differentiated technology stack.

Venu Pemmaraju, Co-head of Wipro Ventures, said

We took an early position in Avaamo after being impressed with their technology. Since then, we have achieved significant joint customer traction in the Finance, Telco and Retail verticals worldwide. We continue to be excited about Avaamo’s technology and customer traction and pleased to support in expanding their footprint.

Parag Shah, Managing Partner of Mahindra Partners, the $1 billion private equity arm of the Mahindra Group, said

Mahindra Partners enjoys helping entrepreneurs to build great companies. We were impressed with Avaamo’s strong focus on execution, the partnerships and emerging ecosystem Avaamo is building in the conversational AI market for large enterprises and are excited to partner with them to support further expansion.

Director Arun Chetty led the investment for Intel Capital and will join Avaamo’s board. RRam Menon and Sriram Chakravarthy founded Avaamo and previously worked together at TIBCO. They have assembled a team with over 150+ years of experience in enterprise software.

About Avaamo

Avaamo is a deep-learning software company that specializes in conversational interfaces to solve specific high impact problems in the enterprise. Avaamo is building fundamental AI technology across a broad area of neural networks, speech synthesis and deep learning to make conversational computing for the enterprise a reality. For more information, please visit Avaamo