The Tech Panda takes a look at recent funding events in the ecosystem, seeking to know where the cash is flowing.
Startup: Seekho
Sector: Edutainment
Amount: INR 3.75 crore
Led by: We Founder Circle
We Founder Circle (WFC), an early-stage startup investment platform led by a global community of successful founders and strategic angels, has led seed round worth INR 3.75 crore in an edutainment startup Seekho.
The current round witnessed participation from We Founder Circle, SucSEED Innovation Fund, along with Toppr’s Co-founder Hemanth Goteti and other top executives.
“At We Founder Circle, we are pleased to have invested in Seekho since they have demonstrated the will and smart idea required to run a start-up. The start-up has the potential to revolutionise the education system and benefit the society in a great way. We pledge our mentorship and support to Seekho, and we intend to cover all aspects of their development, including business strategy, product development, community building, and connecting with potential business mentors,” said, Gaurav VK Singhvi, Co-founder, We Founder Circle.
Seekho plans to use the investment to expand into new languages and expand their already diverse premium content library.
Startup: Shri Chyawan Ayurved
Sector: Healthcare
Amount: US$ 200,000
Led by: Dhaval Shah & Vibhor Kanodia
Shri Chyawan Ayurved, a firm providing herbal products, has raised US$ 200K (1 crore and 53 lacs) in its SEED round. The round was led by Dhaval Shah and Vibhor Kanodia, Raipur-based Chartered Accountants and Angel Investors.
The funds raised in the seed round will be used for research and development of Shri Chyawan Ayurved Product, expansion and marketing activities of EHO Healthcare App.
Devkar Saheb, Founder, Shri Chyawan Ayurved affirmed “We are delighted with the investments received so far. We are happy with the trust and commitment that our investors have shown. At Shri Chyawan, we are motivated by the vision of revolutionizing the healthcare segment. Healthcare in India is expensive and the majority of the population cannot afford medical bills. Through EHO Healthcare people can access proper medical facilities at a reduced cost. In order to extend this service to the people of India, we needed a helping hand and are glad to have investors who share our vision. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration.”
Startup: Geekster
Sector: EdTech
Amount: US$ 1.30 million
Led by: Inflection Point Ventures & MyNavi Corporation
Career-focused EdTech platform Geekster has raised US$ 1.30 million (INR 10 CR) in a Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures with participation from MyNavi Corporation, Japan. Existing investors We Founder Circle and Ah Ventures also participated in the round. The brand has raised a total of USD 1.5 mn including the current round.
The fund raised will be primarily utilized towards expanding the team. A part of the raised investment will also be exhausted in expanding the portfolio of offerings, adding new programs, and building scalable learning & hiring platforms.
Ankur Mittal, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures says, “Gone are the days, where a graduate certificate would be more than enough to secure a job in your respective field. With the growing competition, job seekers are expected to be more skilled to be a cut above the rest. Geekster has been successful in designing a tech education platform with its unique model of skilling which allows tech graduates to hone their skills at zero cost until they get a paying job. And at the same time, it engages industry professionals as educators on the platform keeping the content relevant and practical. The company has won the trust of leading companies to hire highly skilled tech workforce and IPV looks forward to further scaling this platform and creating a pool of talented and top-notch industry-ready professionals.”
Hidekazu Ito, My Navi Corporation, expressed, “With an aim to contribute towards the upliftment of India’s Education and Human Resource space, we identified that many university students face economic difficulties in paying tuition fees, living costs, and other financial obligations, which is challenge for their careers. Geekster is addressing the challenge very well, and by supporting Geekster we together will be able to achieve our common goals.”
With this fundraise, Geekster aims to move another step ahead toward its mission of making a million students work-ready in the next 5 years.
Startup: AppViewX
Sector: SaaS
Amount: US$20 million
Led by: Brighton Capital
AppViewX, the leader in automated machine identity management (MIM) and application infrastructure security, announced that the company has raised US$20 million in Series B funding led by growth equity firm and existing investor, Brighton Park Capital (“Brighton Park”). The additional investment will help maximize AppViewX’s go-to-market operations, product development and overall revenue growth strategies on its mission to help Global 2000 organizations reduce risk by securing and orchestrating enterprise identities and applications. The company announced the inauguration of its 100-seater global center of excellence in Bengaluru.
“Brighton Park prides itself in investing in companies that are revolutionizing or disrupting their market,” said Mike Gregoire, Partner and Co-Founder of Brighton Park, adding, “AppViewX is doing just that, automating Machine Identity Management to help some of the world’s biggest organizations prove success on board level topics like business risk reduction and compliance. We look forward to continuing our partnership with AppViewX as the company continues to innovate and advance the Machine Identity space forward.”
Startup: Creative Galileo
Sector: EdTech
Amount: US$7.5 million
Led by: Kalaari Capital, Affirma Capital, East Ventures, Valiant Employee Investment Fund
India’s leading early learning EdTech platform Creative Galileo announced it has raised US$7.5 million in a Series A funding round from Kalaari Capital, Affirma Capital, East Ventures, Valiant Employee Investment Fund, and angel investors. This brings Creative Galileo’s total funding to US$10 million, including a pre-series A round of $ 2.5 million announced in October last year.
With over 7 million downloads, the company will use the newly infused funds to scale up, accelerate hiring across the teams in multiple geographies, introduce regional languages and further strengthen the research and development of the platform.
Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, says, “We are excited to strengthen our partnership with Prerna and Nikhil as they continue their journey of transforming learning experiences for children across the globe. In the last six months, they have achieved strong growth with low marketing spends. Creative Galileo has also consistently ranked among the top #20 educational apps on India’s play store – the only early learning app to achieve this distinction. This is a testament to the founders’ relentless focus and strong execution.”
Startup: The Healthy Company
Sector: Health & wellness
Amount: Undisclosed
Led by: Inflection Point Ventures
Health and wellness platform The Healthy Company has raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds raised will be utilized for marketing, research & development, and channel expansion.
Vinay Bansal Founder & CEO, of Inflection Point Ventures, says, “Healthy choices are now a way of life, and it cuts across age segments. THC’s offerings have helped consumers to enjoy being on diet and achieve their weight loss and fitness goals. We understand this segment quite well and can provide insights to the team on scaling their business. The organic synergy between IPV and THC has led to closing this round with the company.”
Founder Ackshay Jain says “We have continuously focused on improving the outcomes of each and every user on our integrated wellness platform. With some of the highest user retention metrics on our mobile app in the category, IPV’s wide network offers us significant opportunities for market connections and partnerships that can help us scale up rapidly.”
Startup: ChefKart
Sector: At-home cooking services
Amount: US$2 million
Led by: Blume Ventures & Pravega Ventures
ChefKart, a Gurugram-based at-home cooking services platform, has raised US$2 million in seed round of funding led by Pravega Ventures and Blume Ventures, with participation from Deepinder Goyal, Titan Capital, Kunal Shah, Tremis Capital, Lets Venture, and other prominent angels. ChefKart upskills local cooks into trained & professional home chefs who deliver world-class cooking services.
The capital raised will be utilized to further Chefkart’s vision to become the lead provider of subscription-based at-home cooking services in Gurugram and expansion to other geographical territories.
Mukul Singhal, Co-Founder and Partner at Pravega Ventures said, “ChefKart is driven by the idea to digitise an essential service that is largely unorganised. They are the pioneers in streamlining an industry with tremendous untapped market potential in capturing customer food wallets. By also empowering the local community, they are on their way to developing a complete ground-to-customer supply-demand chain. It may be a challenging process, but the positive cash cycle model of ChefKart has significantly changed the way at-home cooking functions in India.”
Startup: Better Opinions
Sector: Prediction markets
Amount: US$2.5 Million
Led by: Metaplanet VC
Better Opinions, a Y-Combinator backed company, has raised $2.5Mn from investors including Metaplanet VC and Goldwater Capital. The investors participating in the seed round include YCombinator, Taurus VC, Original Capital, Tremis Capital, Super Capital, and other investors, including angel investors.
The funds raised will be used to build & expand the product and tech team, towards marketing and user growth. Soumyajit Das, Co-founder CTO, says, “Some of our investors’ portfolio companies include The Boring Company, TikTok, Reddit and Binance. It’s heart warming to see such investors having faith and belief in our product and team. The funding will also help with our tech and infrastructure scale up plans.”
Rauno Miljand, Managing Partner, Metaplanet, says, “Better Opinions developed and operated real cash prediction market is contributing greatly to increasing critical and accountable decision-making abilities and financial literacy of their user base. It is rare to see ventures having a positive impact on epistemic hygiene while also appealing to the mass market – Better Opinion is one of few.”
