Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (October 4, 2021)

Fintech startup Progcap grabs $30M Series C investment from Tiger Global, others (Funding)

Fintech startup Progcap on Monday raised $30 million in Series C round from existing investors Tiger Global Management and Creation Investments. Sequoia Capital India — which had led the last two funding rounds for Progcap — also participated in this financing.

The startup will use the capital to build a broader and deeper supply chain banking platform for its merchants and corporate network in India. Progcap aims to reach $1 billion in disbursals by March 2022. 

Proposed ecommerce policy to be balanced with robust framework, says Goyal

Union minister Piyush Goyal has assured that every stakeholder's interest will be taken into consideration while framing the ecommerce policy, which would be robust and in the interest of every Indian.

Goyal, who heads commerce and industry as well as consumer affairs ministries, said that he welcomes all the feedback on the draft ecommerce rules, but comments about inter-departmental issues on the draft rules are totally unwarranted.

Blue-collar workforce management platform Smartstaff raises $4.3M (Funding)

Blue-collar workforce management platform Smartstaff (previously Qikwork) has raised $4.3M in funding from Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Arkam Ventures, along with Gemba Capital and some angels. 

Founded in October 2020 by ex-colleagues at Runnr – Arpit Dave, Viral Chhajer, Gnanesh Chilukuri, and Aravind Reddy, Smartstaff helps businesses hire and manage their blue-collar workforce by digitising workforce management practices. The startup's goal is to enable 100 million blue-collar workers in India to get access to better work by leveraging the power of technology.

D2C eco-friendly home fashion brand D’Moksha Homes raises $575K in seed round

D’Moksha Homes — a D2C environment-friendly home fashion brand — on Monday said it raised an angel seed round of $575,000 from Venture Catalysts, among several others. The direct-to-consumer brand focuses on providing exquisite, handcrafted home linens using only sustainable fabrics like linen, hemp, and lyocell, among others. 

The round was led by Apoorva Sharma, Co-founder, Venture Catalysts, The Chennai Angels, and Karthik Bhat (Founder, Force Ventures).