The Tech Panda takes a look at recent funding events in the ecosystem, seeking to know where the cash is flowing.
eCommerce enablement company GoKwik raised US$35 million in a Series B round led by Think Investments. The round also saw participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Matrix Partners India & RTP Global.
The startup will utilise the newly obtained funds to broaden its e-commerce enablement stack and grow its network of brands, further optimise their conversion results, and also provide customised solutions.
It is further committed to building an eCommerce sanctuary and plans to enable more payment options, increase the prepaid success rate and also ensure financing alternatives to help partner brands provide affordability to an aspiring “Bharat”.
It is working closely with other eCommerce enablers and is striving to create a thriving eCommerce ecosystem for brands and consumers. To support its mission, GoKwik will also utilise the funds to hire new talent extensively across the tech, product, and data science domains.
Delhi based pet tech startup, sploot has raised US$500K as part of its seed funding round led by Info Edge (India) backed Redstart Labs.
The company will use the funds to nurture a close-knit community of pet parents, create educational content with experts on the sploot app, and pilot revenue generating streams like dog walking and affordable fresh food.
“Various studies value India’s pet care market at over $500 million, and is likely to grow multifold at 20% annually. Along with this growth comes an increase in demand for pet care products, services and experts. sploot’s first-in-the-industry pet care community is bound to create a super platform for pet parents to get everything they need in one place,” said Vibhore Sharma, Partner, Redstart Labs.
ApnaKlub, FMCG wholesale platform for low population density markets, has raised $10M in its Series A funding from Tiger Global. This follows the $4 million round they raised from Sequoia India’s Surge, Blume Ventures, Whiteboard Capital and Flourish Ventures in August 2021.
The funding will be used to deepen infrastructure in key states, expand the platform from 5000 to 20,000 partners and build out the credit product.
John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global, said, “Indian CPG retail is a $100 Billion opportunity and kirana stores own the majority of current distribution channels. ApnaKlub is arming retailers and brands with the digital supply chain and credit tools to win across online and offline channels. Shruti and Manish have built a rapidly growing platform based on deep customer insights.”
BharatX, a Y-Combinator backed company, has raised US$4.5 million in a seed round from Y Combinator, 8i Ventures, Multiply Ventures, Soma Capital and other investors to enable embedded credit in the Indian market. Existing investor Java Capital also participated in the round.
The funds raised will be used to build and expand the team, enhance and develop the product further and for market expansion. Powered with a “credit approval rate” of 45 – 55%, which is 3-4X the market standard, BharatX aims to increase the credit stack on offer by launching new product verticals such as UPI Credit, Pay in 3 and 15/30 day cycle products like Credit Cards.
Arash Ferdowsi, Co-founder, Dropbox, adds, “I’ve been very impressed by Mehul and the BharatX team. They have a clear vision for the future of e-commerce in India and the talent to make it a reality. In a short time, they’ve made the “buy now, pay later” experience seamless and instantaneous for both brands and consumers. I can’t wait to see what they build next.”
Contract Management firm, Attort Legal Consultancy Pvt Ltd (known as The Legal Capsule or TLC), has raised an undisclosed amount from Hyderabad based SucSEED Indovation Fund and many known Angel Investors including S Ramadorai (Former CEO of TCS), Kiran Deshpande (Former CEO of Tech Mahindra), Ravi Nigam (Founder and Former MD of Tasty Bite), Shashank Deshpande (Managing Partner at Pentathlon Ventures) , Vineet Patni (Managing Partner at Wepartner Consult), Shantanu Deshpande (Founder of Bombay Shaving Company) and few others.
Gautami Raiker, Co- Founder and CEO of The Legal Capsule said, “This seed funding will help us to strengthen our efforts on client acquisition, accelerating team hirings and global expansion strategy. Most importantly we are delighted to have got access to a set of well known mentors in Industry, who have invested in our company”.
Fashinza, the AI-driven B2B marketplace and real-time global supply chain for fashion brands and retailers, raised a $100 million in Series B funding round led by Prosus Ventures (f.k.a. Naspers Ventures) and Westbridge along with participation from existing investors Accel, Elevation, and DisruptAD. The round also saw participation from angel investors Naval Ravikant, Jeff Fagnan, Jake Zeller, Nivi, and Nitesh Banta. The funding round is a combination of equity and debt financing.
Fashinza will utilize the funds towards creating a sustainable supply chain for the global fashion industry and in expanding the company’s presence globally. This includes monetizing fintech offerings, expanding into raw material procurement, helping Indian SME apparel manufacturers with supply chain financing, creating a sustainable (i.e. net positive) supply chain by 2030 and Industry 4.0 solutions for SMB manufacturers.
“The Fashinza team has quickly evolved in a space that needs to go beyond the traditional channels. Their exceptional team, dedication to mission, and business acumen at scaling their customer growth are why this investment is important to us,” says Ashutosh Sharma, Head of India Investments at Prosus Ventures.
Smytten, Indian tech-enabled product discovery and trial platform which is revolutionizing the pre-purchase experience for millions of online consumers, has raised INR 100cr in Pre-Series B led by Fireside Ventures and Roots Ventures. The round also saw participation from Sharrp Ventures (Harsh Mariwala family office), Waao Partners (Pratul Shroff Family Office), Survam Partners (Munjal Family Office) and Sattva Group Family Office.
The new investment will primarily be used for building many industry-first tech and data solutions with advanced applications of AI & ML to optimize the marketing funnel for D2C brands starting from new product development to consumer acquisition and retention. Also, the platform is going to invest heavily in creating a best-in-class servicing infrastructure across the country, to widen the product trial touch points and strengthen the online service delivery to better the pre-purchase buying experience for consumers at scale.
Japan Vyas Managing Partner at Roots Ventures quoted, “Smytten has grown more than 12X by revenue since the time we invested. We have participated in every round of fund raise they had and will continue to back them in future with even stronger conviction. We are very confident that Smytten is going to be a very large, profitable and fundamentally strong business in the consumer-tech space globally.”
Hyderabad-based tech-powered construction aggregator, Hocomoco, has recently rebranded itself to Wehouse and raised USD 1 million from Anthill Ventures and a group of angel investors in its first funding round. The funding will be utilized to upgrade the technology platform and hire for key roles in its expansion to cities pan-India.
Sripad Nandiraj, Co-Founder and CEO, Wehouse, said, “Our recent funding is an indication that we are moving in the right direction, and it gives us immense pleasure that investors are showing faith in our brand and traction thus far. The funding will be used to bolster our tech and prime us for scalability. Currently, more than 2000 workers are indirectly employed on different projects across Wehouse’s projects. We want to keep increasing this number and give these workers more jobs as we grow.”
Sailesh Sigatapu, Partner at Anthill Ventures said, “We are thrilled to invest in Wehouse. As a company, they are redefining how technology is being applied to construction and home-building, and we are excited by their vision and innovation in this space. We firmly believe that a startup like Wehouse with its technology-first approach and deep domain expertise has a large opportunity to organize this fragmented market.”
Bengaluru-based relocation platform HappyLocate has raised $1.1Mn in a Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures. VM Ventures, RMZ Management also participated in the round. The funds raised will be utilized towards enhancing operational excellence and corporate reach.
Vinay Bansal, Founder and CEO, Inflection Point Ventures, says, “As we see business growth bouncing back after 2 years of lull, the war for talent is making companies jump through the proverbial hoops. Many companies are hiring people from other cities and helping them relocate.
“HappyLocate, with a track record in this market has emerged as one of the preferred partners for enterprises to use their relocation services. Since our last round in the company, we have seen the growth to be manifold and believe that the canvas is much bigger because with digitally enabled services, unorganized markets present a huge business opportunity for the company.”
SuperBottoms, Indian D2C brand for baby-care products, raised US$3 million from Saama Capital, DSG Consumer Partners, and Venture Catalysts. Their core product is an innovative reusable diapering range.
The funds will be utilised for building a robust senior team that can expand the company’s reach to increase their base of loyalist consumers.
Pallavi Utagi, Founder & CEO, SuperBottoms said, “We have been doubling every year until now – thanks to a very strong product, solid customer support, and an immensely loyal customer community of 1 lakh+ parents whom we are always grateful to. Going ahead, we wish to further strengthen our leadership position with strategic hires at key levels, who can take the brand to newer regional markets and expand in offline channels as well.”
ZincSearch, the company redefining search engine technology, announced a $3.6M seed funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners with participation from Dell Technologies Capital, Secure Octane, Cardinia Ventures and technology leaders including Anand Babu Periasamy, Balaji Parimi, Rob Skillington, Anshu Sharma, Luke Kim, Awais Nemat, Dan Pinto, and Alex Gallegos. Abhishek Sharma, managing director at Nexus Venture Partners, will also join the ZincSearch Board of Directors.
Abhishek Sharma, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, said, “Machine-generated data volumes are exploding. There are growing complaints that current log search solutions are complex and bloated. Their pricing is misaligned with value. Developers are in dire need of a powerful log search solution that’s easy to set up, fast time to value, cost-efficient, and scalable. We believe ZincSearch can become a game-changer here.”
RAS Luxury Oils, an Indian farm-to-face luxury skincare and personal care brand, secured $2 million Pre-Series A, a funding from Sixth Sense Ventures, India’s top domestic consumer-centric venture fund. RAS will utilise this fresh infusion of capital to further deepen inroads into the luxury skincare market in India and overseas, and accelerate its product innovation. RAS is the first investment by Sixth Sense in a company backed by all women founders, and its workforce comprises over 70% women.
Nikhil Vora, Founder & CEO of Sixth Sense Ventures, said, “RAS is perfectly aligned with our investment philosophy of betting on challenger brands. There is a white space within luxury skincare as a category in India, and it is growing 2-3x faster than the personal care category because it is brand starved.”
Shubhika Jain, Founder & CEO, said, “The Sixth Sense Ventures investment in RAS is a testament to our vision, and we are elated by their vote of confidence. This funding will help us continue on our journey of creating a luxury skincare brand that is distinguished by its premium quality ingredients and unique science-backed formulations. We plan to transform the global beauty and skincare market as a Made-in-India brand that speaks to a discerning global consumer. Nikhil Vora’s business insights, strategic direction and the Sixth Sense platform are valuable to us. They have invested in differentiated brands with global aspirations and deeply understand our vision. We are privileged to be a part of an exciting cohort of companies.”
Ving Hybrid Technologies India Pvt Ltd, has raised funds from Hyderabad headquartered SucSEED Indovation Fund.
Amitabh Patney, Cofounder & CBO of Ving Hybrid Technologies said, “The pre-seed investment from SucSEED Indovation Fund will help us fast-track the build of a scalable, secure next generation collaboration platform for the emerging Hybrid work scenarios.”
Vikrant Varshney Co-Founder & Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said, “According to Mordor Intelligence Report, The global video conferencing market was valued at $9.2 Bn in 2021 and expected to become $22.5 Bn by 2026 with 20% CAGR. There are a total 9 Mn VC rooms in 2020 and with the boom in the hybrid work model, it will lead to 30 Mn video conferencing rooms by 2026 at a CAGR of 38%. With COVID-19, the entire workforce has experienced a transition toward remote working, paving a way for video conferencing solutions and hardware products.
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