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Technodysis secures Rs 10 Cr in debt from Recur Club

EntrackrEntrackr · 4m ago
Technodysis secures Rs 10 Cr in debt from Recur Club
Medial

Technodysis secures Rs 10 Cr in debt from Recur Club Bengaluru-based IT startup Technodysis has secured Rs 10 crore in debt funding from Recur Club, a debt marketplace for startups and SMEs. This funding is intricately structured, blending both secured and unsecured debt, spanning the fiscal years 2023 and 2024. The proceeds will be utilized to enhance its ability to scale operations, develop product offerings, and strengthen its presence in key international markets, Technodysis said in a press release. Founded in 2020 by Nithyananda Nayak, Technodysis specializes in a range of IT services, including software development, cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analytics, and AI applications. With a growing footprint, it has expanded to establish offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Dubai, in addition to its headquarters in India. Technodysis states that it leverages cutting-edge technology to drive digital transformation and optimize business operations. It continues to focus on delivering tailored solutions that enhance operational efficiency and foster innovation across a diverse client base. "It’s inspiring to witness Technodysis’s rapid growth. We aim to empower high-potential startups like Technodysis with the financing they need to succeed. This partnership exemplifies our commitment to fostering innovation and supporting the scaling of technology solutions," said Eklavya Gupta, co-founder & CEO of Recur Club. Technodysis has escalated its revenue from Rs 6 lakh in FY 2021 to Rs 20.25 crore in FY 2024. Looking ahead, the company projects revenue of Rs 35 crore for FY 2025, with a target of achieving Rs 200 crore over the next three years.

uEngage aspires to be Shopify for restaurants in India

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
uEngage aspires to be Shopify for restaurants in India
Medial

If you’re a new restaurant owner, you will probably get your joint listed on Zomato and Swiggy at the earliest. The listing helps with instant discoverability in the operational area and access to the delivery fleet among other benefits. The catch, however, is the steep commission charges restaurant owners have to pay these food aggregator platforms. This is one of the reasons why you see different pricing on Zomato and restaurants’ own menu cards. Chandigarh-based uEngage is looking to fix this exact problem for restaurant owners in the country. The startup offers a wide range of services such as Edge (which lets you start your own ordering app), Flash (which helps manage deliveries and riders), and Prism (which helps automate marketing). The startup is also active on ONDC, enabling businesses to join the open network for digital commerce. We spoke to uEngage CEO and founder Sameer Sharma to learn more about his platform, what it is trying to accomplish, and future roadmap. Here are the edited excerpts: What are the key problems that uEngage is trying to address? When Zomato, Swiggy, and other aggregators entered the picture, we couldn’t understand why they kept increasing commissions and pressuring merchants. Initially, it was 14%, which seemed high. Now, it’s beyond 22% for a major list of merchants, with some newer brands facing rates up to 32-35%. But that’s just the beginning. Beyond base commissions, there are additional costs like payment gateway charges, marketing click payments, often without clear, and cancellation charges without go ahead from the merchant. Recently, I met a leading Zomato-listed restaurant in Chandigarh. Despite generating sales worth Rs 30 lakh, they received only Rs 14.91 lakh, over 50% of their revenue. This has been happening for a while, and this is why we started uEngage. While aggregators offer great technology, demand generation, and modern logistics, there are downsides. Merchants lose control over brand positioning, customer relationship and face significant financial constraints. While aggregators aren’t necessarily evil, there’s much at stake for restaurants in the given circumstances. Please touch upon how the platform works, and how your growth has been so far? uEngage is Like Shopify for restaurants. Being a food-specific platform, we have been able to go deeper and offer extensive plug n play solutions to our restaurant partners. Initially launched as digital ordering platform for restaurants, uEngage has extended the platform into 3 different products covering: Direct Ordering (Mobile Apps, SEO First Websites, WhatsApp Ordering and KIOSk Ordering) – uEngage EDGE Customer Marketing and Omni Channel Loyalty – uEngage PRISM Last Mile Delivery and Tracking (Self Delivery and 3PL) – uEngage Flash At one end we have integrated industry leading POS and Billing Players like Petpooja , POSIST, Urban Piper, TM Bill, etc. to make life simpler for outlet staff, on the other end, we work closely with leading logistics players such as Dunzo, Zomato Xtreme (Zomato’s B2B service), Shadowfax, Loadshare, and Rapido. Together, they form a comprehensive Direct Ordering stack, including commerce, marketing, and logistics components. This ecosystem enables us to provide a holistic solution to our clients. As far as our financial growth goes, last year, our revenue stood at Rs 5.7 crore. This year, we anticipate closing it around Rs 13 crore to Rs 14 crore. This year, we’re projecting a GMV of around Rs 310 crore rupees for our brands. Orders from partner platforms to our revenue; they belong to the respective brands. However, they contribute to the GMV we generate for them. Our focus as a bootstrap company remains on profitability, and we’ve been profitable for more than two years now. Regarding our partnerships, we currently work with close to 4,000 outlets for our Direct Ordering Business and overall 15000+ Outlets for all our offerings including ONDC. What are your plans for the ONDC network? The ONDC is still at a nascent stage but a significant contributor to our revenue. Currently, we have around 15,000 outlets. Our target is to reach 50,000 outlets within the next three to four quarters.

Wow! Momo crosses Rs 400 Cr revenue threshold in FY23

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Wow! Momo crosses Rs 400 Cr revenue threshold in FY23
Medial

Quick service restaurant chain Wow! Momo scaled 3.8X during the last two reported fiscal years as its revenue rose to Rs 413 crore in FY23 from Rs 106 crore in FY21. Despite this spurt in growth, the Kolkata-based company’s losses increased marginally during FY23. Wow! Momo’s revenue from operations surged 87.7% to Rs 413 crore in FY23 from Rs 220 crore in FY22, its consolidated financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies show. Launched in 2008 by Sagar Daryani and Binod Homagai, Wow! Momo Foods operates three QSR brands—Wow Momo, Wow China, and Wow Chicken. The firm claims to have 630 outlets across 35 cities and directly employs 6,000 people. The sale of its products was the sole source of revenue for the Tiger Global-backed firm. It also made Rs 3 crore from the interest on deposits and current investments which took its overall income to Rs 416 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2023. For the Quick service restaurant, the cost of procurement of materials formed 34% of its total expenditure. This cost increased by 66.7% to Rs 160 crore in FY23. Wow! Momo paid Rs 62 crores of rent during FY23. Its employee benefits, electricity, advertising cum promotional, commissions, and other overheads pushed the firm’s overall expenditure to Rs 471 crore in FY23 from Rs 275 crore in FY22. Check TheKredible for the detailed expense breakup. The impressive scale and controlled expenditure helped Wow! Momo to keep its losses in check which increased only 13.1% to Rs 60.5 crore in FY23 from Rs 53.5 crore in FY22. Its ROCE and EBITDA margins improved to -11% and -1.8% respectively. On a unit level, it spent Rs 1.14 to earn a rupee in FY23. FY22-FY23 FY22 FY23 EBITDA Margin -7% -1.8% Expense/₹ of Op Revenue ₹1.25 ₹1.14 ROCE -15% -11% Wow! Momo has raised over $120 million to date including its $51 million Series D round led by Khazanah. According to the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Tiger Global is the largest external stakeholder followed by LightHouse. The company has current assets of Rs 131 crore including cash and bank balances of Rs 54 crore during the fiscal ended March 2023. As per TheKredible estimates, its enterprise value to revenue multiple is 6.8X. As a bonafide and well recognised fast food brand, Wow! Momo is on record with an aim to reach a topline of Rs 650-700 crore in the just closed fiscal year (FY24). That seems perfectly possible considering its wide distribution and increasing acceptance. The brand deserves credit for sticking it out in a tough situation post 2020, and making it work as a standalone product based offering. While its menu has expanded, the firm remains nimble enough to make quick changes where required. Despite a relatively low franchise fee, the firm seeks better control over locations and quality. Competition, specifically in the momos space remains limited yet, at the mid-range it occupies. Momos continue to enjoy growing acceptance, with many regions to be conquered yet. The firm certainly has a runway long enough to keep pace with the ambitions of its stakeholders.

Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [26 - 31 Aug]

EntrackrEntrackr · 10m ago
Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [26 - 31 Aug]
Medial

During the week, 31 Indian startups raised around $490.32 million in funding. These deals count 7 growth-stage deals and 19 early-stage deals while 5 startups kept their transaction details undisclosed. During the previous week, 21 early and growth-stage startups cumulatively raised $144.46 million in funding. [Growth-stage deals] Among the growth-stage deals, 7 startups raised $443.8 million in funding this week. Quick commerce brand Zepto spearheaded with a $340 million Series F round. Specialty coffee retailer Blue Tokai Coffee raised $35 million followed by lending firm Yubi, agri-inputs platform AGRIM, post-sales service firm Servify, beauty and personal care D2C firm Pilgrim, and Robotics startup Miko with $30 million, $17.3 million, $10 million, $9 million, and $2.5 million in funding, respectively. Swiggy also raised undisclosed funding this week from Amitabh Bachchan’s Family Office. [Early-stage deals] Further, 19 early-stage startups secured funding worth $46.52 million during the week. Full stack marketplace for resale home HouseEazy led the list followed by conversation intelligence platform Convin, energy storage solutions startup Clean Electric, fintech firm Finarkein Analytics, and edtech startup Kreedo among others. As many as 4 startups that did not disclose the funding amount raised are; Metaman, Better Nutrition (Greenday), BiUP Technologies, and OneMoney. For more information, visit TheKredible. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of the city-wise number of funding deals, Bengaluru-based startups led with 8 deals followed by Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Dehradun, Jodhpur, and Lucknow. Segment-wise, E-commerce and Fintech startups are in the top spot with 6 deals each. SaaS, Edtech, Foodtech, Healthtech, Proptech, and Agritech startups followed this list among others. [Series-wise deals] During the week, Seed funding deals are on top with 11 deals followed by 6 Series A, 4 pre-Series A, 3 Series C, 2 Series B, 2 pre-Seed, and 1 Series F deal. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding tripled and went up 239.42% to $490.32 million as compared to around $144.46 million raised during the previous week. The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $254.80 million with 26 deals per week. [Fund launches] Two new funds launched this week to support startups in India. Velocity, a cash flow-based financing platform, has introduced a Rs 400 crore fund to assist D2C and e-commerce brands during the upcoming festive season sales. Meanwhile, Whiteboard Capital, a sector-agnostic early-stage venture capital firm, has successfully closed its second fund at Rs 300 crore. [Key hirings] Sumer Juneja, formerly with Softbank, has joined OYO as a non-executive director. Swiggy Instamart onboarded former Flipkart executive Amitesh Jha as CEO, Medikabazaar appointed Dinesh Lodha as the Group CEO, Sukoon Health onboarded Dr. Vipul Rastogi as Clinical Regional Head, and 3i Infotech hired Raj Ahuja as CEO. Evera and Zalon appointed Saurabh Kumar and Abhiishekk Rakj Pandey respectively as their Independent Director and Co-founder and CEO. [Mergers and Acquisitions] Several significant acquisitions have taken place this week in the Indian tech industry. VerSe Innovation, the parent company of Dailyhunt and Josh, has acquired Valueleaf Group, a digital marketing firm. In the SaaS space, Browserstack has acquired Bird Eats Bug, a bug detection and reporting platform, for $20 million. ANSR, a business consulting company, has acquired hrEntries, an HCM platform, to strengthen its global team management capabilities. Yudiz Solutions, a listed blockchain and IT development company has acquired a majority stake in ABCM App Private Limited, a consultancy and technology solutions company. In the FMCG sector, GRM Overseas has acquired a 44% stake in Rage Coffee, a D2C food and beverage brand. [Shutdown] Two significant shutdowns have occurred this week in the Indian tech industry. My Tirth India, a spiritual tech startup, has announced its closure due to a funding crisis. This is surprising given the growing popularity of the spiritual tech sector. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel has decided to discontinue its music streaming app, Wynk Music, although it will retain the employees involved. Visit TheKredible to see series-wise deals along with amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, and more insights. [New launches and partnerships] OPEN launches Bharat Billpay for business Zoho forays into payment space with the launch of a payment gateway BharatPe ventures into the consumer payments space CarDekho Group partners with SaaS platform BiUP Technologies [Potential Deals] Eruditus to raise $150 Mn at $2.3 Bn valuation [Financial results this week] Rebel Foods posts Rs 1,420 Cr revenue in FY24; losses down by 42% Square Yards posts Rs 261 Cr revenue in Q1 FY25; projects Rs 1,500 Cr in FY25 CaratLane crosses Rs 3,000 Cr revenue in FY24; remains profitable [News flash this week] Customer conversation platform Exotel suffers data breach BigBasket to completely pivot to quick commerce Amazon India to enter quick commerce D2C meat delivery startup Zappfresh files DRHP Ola Electric’s products to hit ONDC next week Infra.Market lined up 8 investment banks for its $700 Mn IPO: Report Moglix initiates next-day delivery to join the rapid delivery bandwagon [Conclusion] The weekly funding jumped over 3X to $490.32 million this week. Meanwhile, two startup-focused funds launched this week namely Velocity and Whiteboard Capital. Ola Electric’s co-founder, Bhavish Aggarwal, has announced that all of the company’s electric scooters, including the S1 X series, S1 Pro, and S1 Air, will be available on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) starting next week. This move aims to expand Ola Electric’s market reach and make its products more accessible to consumers across India by leveraging ONDC’s infrastructure. Aggarwal has been a strong advocate for ONDC, comparing it to the revolutionary impact of UPI on digital payments. D2C meat delivery startup Zappfresh has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for an IPO on the BSE SME platform. The IPO will consist solely of a fresh issue of 59.06 lakh equity shares and will not include any offer for sale. Zappfresh intends to utilize the proceeds from the IPO to fund potential acquisitions, marketing and capital expenditure, working capital requirements, and general corporate purposes. Several major e-commerce players are entering the quick delivery space in India to cater to the growing demand for faster delivery of goods, especially among small and medium-sized businesses. Moglix, a B2B platform, has launched a next-day delivery service for industrial goods, expanding its reach to 12 cities and aiming to expand further to 40 cities in the coming months. Amazon, Flipkart, and Tata Digital-owned BigBasket are also making significant moves in this market. Amazon plans to enter the quick commerce space in early 2025, while Flipkart and BigBasket have already launched their own quick delivery services.

D2C brand Minimalist posts Rs 350 Cr revenue in FY24, profits double

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
D2C brand Minimalist posts Rs 350 Cr revenue in FY24, profits double
Medial

Minimalist continues to be one of the strongest stories, and the fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brands in India, with the Jaipur-based startup touching the Rs 350 crore revenue mark. This is a notable 89% year-on-year growth in FY24. Additionally, the four-year-old firm doubled its profit in the last fiscal year. Minimalist’s revenue from operations surged to Rs 347 crore in FY24, up from Rs 184 crore in FY23, according to its consolidated financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies. The company also earned Rs 2.16 crore from non-operating activities, bringing its total revenue to Rs 349.56 crore in FY24. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Mohit and Rahul Yadav, Minimalist is a skin and hair care brand offering products such as serums, toners, and moisturizers. The sale of these products was the sole source of revenue for the brand in the last fiscal year. Minimalist retails through its own website, as well as third-party e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Nykaa, and Flipkart, among others. Like many other D2C skincare and beauty brands, Minimalist allocated a significant portion of its expenditures—35%—to advertising and promotion. These costs nearly doubled, rising to Rs 117 crore in FY24 from Rs 65 crore in FY23. In line with its revenue growth, the cost of materials consumed spiked by 88.1%, reaching Rs 94 crore in FY24 compared to Rs 50 crore in FY23. Additionally, expenses related to employee benefits, distribution (commissions to marketplaces), and transportation surged, contributing to an 84.1% increase in the company’s total costs, which rose to Rs 331 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2024 from Rs 180 crore in FY23. Despite increasing marketing costs, Minimalist achieved over two-fold growth in profits, reaching Rs 10.83 crore in FY24, up from Rs 5 crore in FY23. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, its EBITDA margin and return on capital employed (ROCE) stood at 4% and 9%, respectively. On a per-unit basis, the startup spent Re 0.95 to earn a rupee of operating revenue in the last fiscal year (FY24). Minimalist has raised around $17 million to date, including its Series A round led by Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital), which holds a 27.9% stake as the largest external shareholder. Its co-founders, Mohit and Rahul Yadav, together control 62% of the company, as per TheKredible. The startup was last valued at a relatively conservative Rs 565 crore ($75 million), which is approximately 1.6 times its revenue of Rs 347 crore in FY24. As of March 2024, Minimalist had a cash and bank balance of Rs 30.27 crore. While having a focused portfolio we see that in FY24, the firm’s focus has shifted to skincare, from haircare earlier. It’s also time for a fresh fund raise or cost control, which might impact growth going forward. Will a fund raise lead to margin erosion as we have invariably observed? It remains to be seen, although going by Minimalist’s past record it does seem likely that the firm will surprise yet.

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