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PlaySuper raises $500K in seed round led by IAN Group and 100X.VC

EntrackrEntrackr · 5m ago
PlaySuper raises $500K in seed round led by IAN Group and 100X.VC
Medial

Snippets PlaySuper raises $500K in seed round led by IAN Group and 100X.VC Gaming commerce startup PlaySuper has raised $500K in its seed round led by IAN Angel Fund and 100X.VC. The round also saw participation from angel investors including Uday Sodhi, KRS Jamwal, Pratham Mittal, Rajit Bhattacharya, and Ankit Das, among others. The proceeds will be used to accelerate product development, expand market reach, and strengthen hiring. PlaySuper is set to launch its next-gen, hyper-personalized in-game store, allowing easy integration without requiring updates. The Gurugram-based brand also plans to expand into Southeast Asia (SEA) within six months, followed by MENA and LATAM. Additionally, it will bring in a Product Head and expand its B2B partnerships team to onboard more gaming studios. Founded in April 2024 by Shouradeep Chakraborty, PlaySuper enables gamers to shop inside their favorite mobile games while playing. It integrates real-world shopping experiences within mobile games. Shouradeep and Upamanyu previously co-founded LectureNotes, an edtech platform that raised $2.5 million in 2022. They bring extensive experience from the gaming, Web3, and edtech sectors. Over the next year, the company will focus on launching its in-game store, scaling its reach into new markets, and deepening its collaborations with game developers.

Agri-focused deeptech startup Ecozen raises $30 Mn

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Agri-focused deeptech startup Ecozen raises $30 Mn
Medial

Agriculture-focused deeptech startup Ecozen has raised $30 million in a mix of debt and equity from Nuveen Global Fund and other existing equity investors, and new debt support from InCred Credit Fund and International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC). In January last year, the Pune-based startup secured $25 million led by Nuveen. It has raised around $70 million across debt and equity to date. Ecozen plans to expand its current offerings and extend its market reach to Africa and Southeast Asia, the company said in a press release. Ecozen offers climate-smart deep tech solutions and core technology stacks including motor controls, IoT, and energy storage that leverage solar power. The company has two core products Ecotron and Ecofrost. The company claims to have grown 5X over the last two years, with profits growing 3X as well. Ecozen anticipates doubling its revenue in the current fiscal year, and plans to leverage its advanced tech stack to enter new segments. Ecozen added that these solutions will decarbonise sectors like milling, mobility, retail and industry, just as the company’s pumping and cooling solutions did for agriculture. As per startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Ecozen’s revenue surged by 139% to Rs 293.24 crore in FY23 from Rs 122.57 crore in FY22. The sale of solar and related products accounted for 90% of its collections in the fiscal year ending March 2023. The firm also turned profitable with Rs 5.76 crore profits in FY23 as compared to a loss of Rs 37 lakh in FY22. The firm is yet to file its annual report for FY24. Ecozen competes with Powerflex, Inficold and Khetworks.

CargoFL raises seed funding round

EntrackrEntrackr · 6m ago
CargoFL raises seed funding round
Medial

CargoFL, a B2B technology ecosystem for logistics, has raised Rs 6.75 crore in its seed round, led by YourNest Venture Capital. The round includes Rs 4.7 crore from YourNest, Rs 50 lakh each from Real Time Angel Fund (RTAF) and Peaceful Progress Angel Fund, Rs 25 lakh from Sanchi Connect Accelerator, and Rs 80 lakh from angel investors, including Dinesh Chandra Agarwal, Dinesh Gulati, Murugavel Janakiraman, and Rajesh Sawhney. The Pune-based company had previously raised $135K from HPCL and others. The proceeds will be utilized to build a sales engine for growth in India, Southeast Asia (SEA), Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and North America, enhance product capabilities, including logistics & supply chain automation, and client onboarding & implementation across geographies. Co-founded in 2017 by Deepesh Kuruppath and Wasim Khan, CargoFL is an AI decision intelligence platform for logistics and supply chain. The company serves as an AI operating system specifically designed for the supply chain and logistics industry with focus on large enterprise customers. It helps companies enhance their logistics operations by leveraging AI to address critical tasks such as transport management, route optimisation, demand forecasting, and real-time tracking. CargoFL focuses on transforming the logistics landscape and aims to empower enterprises with advanced Vertical AI solutions for logistics & supply chain. The company offers a comprehensive operating system for logistics, which fosters seamless collaboration among stakeholders like carriers, distributors, and suppliers. CargoFL provides AI-driven platform tailored for enterprises in retail, pharma and manufacturing sectors. Its current client roster includes over 25 large enterprises, such as Puma, Godrej, Schaeffler, Metro Brands and Decathlon. It aims to achieve an ARR of $3 million over the next 18-24 months by onboarding more than 25 customers in India and several in international markets.

Superfone raises $1.9 Mn in pre-Series A round

EntrackrEntrackr · 7m ago
Superfone raises $1.9 Mn in pre-Series A round
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Superfone, an all-in-one business phone and CRM app for SMBs, has raised $1.9 million in its pre-Series A funding round. The round was led by YourNest Venture Capital with an investment of $950,000, along with participation from Ankur Capital, Finsight Seed Fund, and a consortium of angel investors. The funding comes as part of the YourNest-SanchiConnect Velocity Program 2024, an accelerator initiative by YourNest and SanchiConnect to support high-growth startups. The Bengaluru-based company had previously raised $1.84 million from Ankur Capital and others back in July 2021. The proceeds will be used to acquire national-level telecom licences, strengthen its engineering and product teams with key senior hires, and scale its customer acquisition efforts to maximize its reach and impact, Superfone said in a press release. Co-founded in 2021 by Pradeep Dodle and Nikhil Goenka, Superfone aims to empower the landscape of business phone numbers by replacing traditional SIM cards with a fully app-based solution that integrates advanced tools such as CRM, lead management, WhatsApp marketing, and AI-powered agents. This approach addresses the critical communication and operational challenges faced by SMBs, empowering more than 10 million small businesses in India to accelerate growth, enhance customer engagement, and streamline operations. According to Superfone, it leverages a software-first approach to provide SMBs with a powerful, intuitive telecom platform that integrates communication, CRM, and marketing tools to drive growth and efficiency. The company plans to expand globally in the future, eyeing high-growth markets in Southeast Asia (SEA) and Latin America. Superfone claims that it has recently secured a Unified Licence (VNO) with Access Service for the Karnataka telecom circle and a Unified Licence (Audio Conferencing/Audiotex/Voice Mail Service) for Pan-India from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [5 - 10 Feb]

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [5 - 10 Feb]
Medial

Funding infusion in the startup ecosystem surged 2.4x this week compared to the previous seven days. Of 39 startups which scooped up $240 million cumulatively this week, 29 deals belonged to the early stage startups. Remaining eight deals went to growth stage startups. Two startups did not disclose the amount it raised. Last week, 13 early and growth stage startups collectively raised around $84.5 million, including two undisclosed deals. [Growth-stage deals] This week, eight growth startups raised nearly $140 million funding. Electric vehicle manufacturer River spearheaded the lot with $40 million fundraise followed by real estate consultancy firm Anarock and clean energy firm Lohum which raised $24 million and $23 million B funding, respectively. E-commerce roll-up firm GlobalBees and electric vehicle financing platform Mufin Green Finance also raised notable funding to make it to the top five deals. Agritech startup BigHaat, vernacular news aggregator DailyHunt’s parent Verse Innovation and D2C apparel brand Bombay Shirt Company also raised capital this week. [Early-stage deals] Among the early-stage startups, 29 startups secured funding worth $100 million. Smart home automation firm Keus is on top of the list with a $12 million fundraise followed by two-wheeler electric vehicle finance platform OTO, biotechnology startup Pandorum, creator-focused commerce startup Wishlink and office space provider DevX. The list further includes SaaS startup Attentive, EV firm Vidyut, cleantech company Metafin, healthtech entity Khyaal and home appliance firm Upliance.ai. During the week, the manufacturer of reusable rockets that bring both the stages of the rocket back into earth, EtherealX and digital infrastructure innovations startup PlanckDOT also raised capital but did not disclose the funding amount. For more information, visit TheKredible. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of city-wise number of funding deals, Bengaluru-based startups again led the list with 12 deals. This was followed by Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Chennai. Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Vadodara, Navi Mumbai and Thane are next on the list. The complete breakdown of the city and segment can be found at TheKredible. [Series wise deals] This week, equivalent to 17 startups raised funding in their seed round followed by Series A (11) and Series B (4) deals. The list also counts debt, pre-Series A, Series C and pre-Series C funding deals. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding soared 184% to $240 million as compared to $84.5 million in the previous week. The average funding in the last eight weeks stands around $251 million with 24 deals per week. [Departures] The week also saw a few notable departures. Ather Energy’s CFO Deepak Jain is departing the company, with Sohil Parekh taking over his role. Swiggy’s independent director Mallika Srinivasan has resigned after a year, and Freshworks’ CRO Pradeep Rathinam is stepping down after almost four years, to be succeeded by Abe Smith as the new global field operations leader. Shinjini Kumar and Manju Agarwal have reportedly quit Paytm’s payments bank board. [Fund launches] Cactus Venture Partners (CVP) closed its first fund at over Rs 630 crore, while GrowthCap Ventures, led by former BharatPe executive Pratekk Agarwaal, has reached the first close of its debut fund at Rs 20 crore. Additionally, Orient Growth Ventures has closed its second fund for India and Southeast Asia (SEA) at $90 million. [Layoffs/Shutdown] This week, Licious and Blissclub laid off a part of their workforce, affecting 3% and 18% of employees respectively. Meanwhile, Muvin shut down operations due to RBI regulations on UPI co-branding. [Merger & Acquisition] The week also witnessed six M&A deals including the acquisition of Spartan Poker by OneVerse, Kuvera by CRED, LotusPay by Juspay, and Qdigi Services by Onesitego. Healthtech firm Thyrocare and logistics firm Deliver.sg also joined the list with the acquisitions of Think Health Diagnostics and BusyBee, respectively. Visit TheKredible to see series wise deals and amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, departures and more insights. [New launches] ▪️ Cleartrip launches Out of Office to foray into the corporate travel space ▪️ Meesho launches logistics marketplace Valmo ▪️ Flipkart introduces 3-hour fresh flower delivery service [Financial results this week] ▪️ Leverage Edu revenue spikes 3.2X to Rs 69 Cr in FY23 ▪️ Infra.Market posts Rs 11,846 Cr gross revenue in FY23; remains profitable ▪️ FabHotels reports Rs 219 Cr revenue and Rs 5 Cr loss in FY23 ▪️ Chingari crosses Rs 100 Cr revenue in FY23; losses decline 70% ▪️ Hike’s revenue soars 8X to Rs 150 Cr in FY23; losses up 24% ▪️ Zomato posts Rs 3,288 Cr revenue and Rs 138 Cr profit in Q3 FY24 [News flash this week] ▪️ Vanguard marks down Ola’s valuation to $1.88 Bn ▪️ Zoho, Juspay, Decentro get RBI nod for payment aggregator biz ▪️ Orios Venture gets 45X returns in a partial exit from Country Delight [Entrackr’s analysis] Evident from the numbers, weekly funding has made a strong comeback with investments worth nearly $240 million. The back-to-back startup focused fund announcements also hint at the optimism in the Indian startup ecosystem. Continuous layoffs and business closures, however, give a hard reality check to the sector, which is trying to recover from the so-called funding winter. US-based asset management company Vanguard has marked down Ola’s valuation, pegging it at less than $2 billion. This marks the third consecutive devaluation of Ola by Vanguard since February 2023. Meanwhile, several prominent players have secured payment aggregator licenses from the central bank. This includes SaaS unicorn Zoho and fintech firms Juspay and Decentro. Additionally, early-stage venture capital firm Orios Venture Partners took a partial exit from dairy startup Country Delight with a 45X return on the firm’s initial investment. In a positive development, publicly traded companies such as Zomato, MamaEarth, and Nykaa have persistently remained in green, indicating their steady progress towards evolving into sustainable enterprises.

Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [30 Sep - 05 Oct]

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [30 Sep - 05 Oct]
Medial

During the week, 21 Indian startups raised around $92.63 million in funding. These deals count 4 growth-stage deals and 12 early-stage deals while 5 startups kept their transaction details undisclosed. Last week, 29 early and growth-stage startups cumulatively raised over $461 million in funding. [Growth-stage deals] Among the growth-stage deals, 4 startups raised $33.58 million in funding this week. Agriculture supply chain firm Waycool spearheaded a $12 million debt funding round. Fintech startup Basic Home Loan raised $10.6 million followed by D2C millet-based snack brand Troo Good and lending startup True Balance with $8.6 million and $2.38 million in funding, respectively. [Early-stage deals] Further, 12 early-stage startups secured funding worth $59.05 million during the week. Chemical manufacturing platform Mstack led the list followed by sports tech platform Str8bat, furniture retailer Furnishka, mental health startup LISSUN, and tech-enabled EV mobility platform ZEVO among others. Meanwhile, Digilogic Systems India (DSPL), Aikenist, SanchiConnect, Garuda Aerospace, and Sugar.fit also raked in funding but did not disclose the transaction details. For more information, visit TheKredible. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of the city-wise number of funding deals, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR-based startups co-led with 7 deals each followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai. Segment-wise, Healthtech startups are on the top spot with 5 deals. E-commerce, Fintech, Aerospace, Agritech, Chemicals, and Dronetech startups followed the list among others. [Series-wise deals] During the week, seed funding deals are on top, with 7 deals followed by 5 pre-Series A, 5 Series A, 2 Debt, and 2 Series B deals. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding dwindled 80% to $92.63 million as compared to around $461 million raised during the previous week. The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $395.36 million with 27 deals per week. [Fund launches] Singapore-based angel investment network, ThinKuvate has announced the first close of its India fund at Rs 25 crore. While Venture capital firm Trillion Dollar Ventures (TDV) launched its second fund with a total corpus of Rs 50 crore, doubling its corpus size from the first fund. The new fund aims to support early-stage tech startups in India. [Key hirings and departures] The startup ecosystem witnessed eight notable key hirings this week. Vishal Mehta joined Rediff.com as a Chairman and MD, MediBuddy hired Nijil George, Ferns N Petals onboarded Gaurav Sharma, and Secret Alchemist welcomed Samantha Prabhu, among others. Meanwhile, Indifi’s Co-founder Siddharth Mahanot and OLA Electric’s Secretary and compliance officer resigned. [Mergers and Acquisitions] This week, four notable acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. Adda247 acquired PrepInsta, Pluckk purchased Upnourish, Capital IQ took over Karman Drones, and UST acquired Information Services Group’s automation unit. [Shutdown] Agritech startup Greenikk is shutting down operations due to funding challenges and adverse market conditions. Visit TheKredible to see series-wise deals along with amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, and more insights. [New launches and partnerships] Uber partners with Shadowfax to integrate two-wheeler fleet Swiggy launches 10-min food delivery service ‘Bolt’ PhonePe partners with Jar to offer daily savings in digital gold [Potential Deals] InCred Capital to raise $50 Mn led by family offices Semiconductor startup FermionIC Design to raise $6 Mn [Financial results this week] CRED nears Rs 2,500 Cr revenue in FY24; cuts operating losses by 41% D2C brand Minimalist posts Rs 350 Cr revenue in FY24, doubles profit Classplus revenue spikes 2X to Rs 260 Cr in FY24; cuts losses by 57% 10-year-old Josh Talks posts Rs 19 Cr revenue in FY24, cuts losses by 25% Navi’s FY24 operating profit falls 50% as loan write-offs surpass Rs 400 Cr Groww’s stock broking unit posts Rs 2,900 Cr revenue and Rs 298 Cr profit in FY24 [News flash this week] Upstox delivers 10x return to Ratan Tata following buyback Ola Electric’s two-wheeler market share falls to 27% in September UPI sets new record with more than 15 Bn transactions in Sept Titan Capital launches Indicorns index showcasing profitable startups BharatPe announces settlement with Ashneer Grover Invesco marks up Swiggy’s valuation to $13.3 Bn Mamaearth parent Honasa to appeal Dubai court ruling Peak XV Partners reduces fund size and fees Co-working space provider DevX to go public; files DRHP Swiggy gets the nod to increase IPO fresh issue size to Rs 5,000 Cr CarDekho planning a $500 Mn IPO next year Blackstone targets $10 Bn for India-focused New Asia Fund Good Capital Co-founder Rohan Malhotra passes away [Conclusion] After a healthy funding inflow in the past few weeks, the weekly funding slipped around 80% to $92.63 million this week, the lowest in the last 35 weeks. During 29 January to 3 February, the weekly funding shrank to $84.5 million. The week also saw two startup-focused fund launches namely ThinKuvate and Trillion Dollar Ventures. Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth, is facing ongoing legal challenges in Dubai. A Dubai court has upheld a previous order to attach the company’s assets. Honasa has filed an appeal against this decision and continues to dispute claims made by its former distributor, RSM General Trading. Swiggy has received approval from its shareholders to increase the size of its IPO fresh issue from Rs 3,750 crore to Rs 5,000 crore. This will allow the foodtech company to raise a total of $1.4 billion through the IPO, at a likely valuation of $15 billion. Swiggy has also introduced a new 10-minute food delivery service called Bolt. The service focuses on delivering quick-to-prepare meals from selected restaurants within a 2-kilometer radius. Bolt is currently available in major cities in India and plans to expand further. Swiggy’s rival, Zomato, previously discontinued its 10-minute food delivery service. Venture capital firm Peak XV Partners has reduced the size of its $2.85 billion fund by 16%. The firm has also lowered management fees and carry on growth investments. Despite these changes, Peak XV remains optimistic about the Indian and Southeast Asian markets and expects strong performance from its portfolio. Blackstone, a leading private equity firm, is raising a new Asia-focused fund with a target of at least $10 billion. India will be the primary focus of the fund, with significant allocations also planned for Japan and Australia. The firm is currently marketing the fund and aims to close the first round of fundraising in January 2025.

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