Wow Express raises $4.5 M in Series A; social startup Muskaan Dreams gets Rs 1.5 Cr funding

Mumbai-based logistics startup Wow Express announced it has raised $4.5 million (Rs 30 crore) in a Series A round of funding. Existing seed fund investors including the Tamarind family trust of the Mansukhani family participated in the funding round. Altogether, the company has raised $7.2 million. Founded by Sandeep Padoshi, Jaysh Kamat, and Mazhar Faruqi in 2015, Wow Express provides first mile, last mile and warehousing and e-fulfilment solutions for ecommerce deliveries, and follows an asset-light business model.

Technogram Solutions has raised Rs 5 crore in equity financing from a group of angel investors. Co-founded by Ashu Gupta and Sanjay Khurana, the company is a SaaS offering for corporate and B2B travel consolidators. Some of Technogram Solutions' use-cases include self-booking tools for companies, customised feature addition and subtraction based on use, customised reporting, agent markup and commission, incorporating deals, etc.

Muskaan Dreams, a youth-driven non-profit social startup, has raised Rs 1.5 crore from Hindustan Zinc Limited, part of the Vedanta Group. Muskaan Dreams was started in 2014 by social entrepreneur Abhishek Dubey (24), and is currently operating in three cities of Madhya Pradesh – namely Gwalior, Bhopal and Indore. The funds raised will be used to transform 100 rural government schools in MP into digital learning spaces.

The perfect marriage, they say, is built by two imperfect people who refuse to give up. Sounds similar to the story of most startup founders? Entrepreneurial couples aren’t new but the startup ecosystem is now witnessing the rise of a new band of couple founders, entrepreneurs who work side by side every day and return home hand in hand. The life-partners-turned-business-partners may not have found favour with investors a few years back, but these entrepreneurial pairs are showing us how couples can mix their personal and professional lives successfully.

Uber’s rival in the US – Lyft - has raised $600 million at a valuation of $15 billion. A report by Axios says the round was led by Fidelity Management and Research company, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments. Senator Investment Group, a hedge fund is also said to have participated in the funding round. Till date, according to Crunchbase, the company has raised $4.91 billion in funding.

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