[Funding roundup] OWO, EsportsXO, ARAPL RaaS, The Gourmet Jar, Zorgers, BangDB raise investments

OWO raises $3 million in seed capital 

OWO Technologies, an ecommerce startup offering online beverages and packaged drinking water, has raised a total seed funding of $3 million from marquee investors.

Founded in 2020 by Ajay Changani and Hardev Sahu, OwO has launched WaaS (water as a service) for over 7,000 customers.

“In a short span of just one year, we have already established OWO as the most reliable micro delivery app in a highly-competitive B2B ecommerce space,” Ajay Changani, Co-founder and CEO, OWO technologies. “The company has now entered a D2C model to deliver the healthiest water to every Indian home through a water subscription model.”

The funding will be used to scale its technology platform and to launch operations in Delhi, Noida, Jaipur, and Pune. The company aims to expand to 75 cities by March 2023.

EsportsXO raises its seed round of $1.1 million

EsportsXO, a SaaS-based tournament discovery platform for gaming enthusiasts, has raised its seed funding of $1.1 million in a round led by We Founder Circle, a founder-backing-founder based early-stage startup investor

Founded in 2020 by Utsav Umang, Rohit Raj and Vikas Goel, EsportsXO is building a global community of gamers and enthusiasts across console, PC, and mobile through esports tournament management, and content creation. It also offers gamers the opportunity to grow their careers as professional players.

The platform has accumulated over 150,000 users within 90 days with a 20 percent month-on-month growth.

The round witnessed participation from Wami Capital, and other esteemed investors such as SOSV, Mumbai Angels Network, SucSEED Indovation Fund, The Gaming Lounge, and FAAD Network.

This is the first investment from Gaming Lounge, a gaming syndicate by Eximius Ventures which was launched on December 27, 2021. 

The founders had invested $200,000 in their personal capacity to launch the brand before raising this first investor round.

ARAPL RaaS raises $700,000 

ARAPL RaaS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Affordable Robotic and Automation, has raised $700,000.

Founded in 2021, ARAPL is a turnkey robotic automation solution provider for automotive industries and parking automation in the realty sector that offers RaaS (Robotics as a Service) on a pay per use basis. It uses AI and Machine Learning to automate every aspect of the service they provide. ARAPL’s focus on 10-minute delivery in supply management has been the driving factor that helped raise this capital for the company.

The startup plans to use the fresh capital to build a world-class completely automated robotic experience zone for warehouse automation and make Swarm Robotics AI which will include fleet management for 120 robots; robot path optimisation; shortest robot path, and its own Wms.ai.

“We are building a robust ecosystem for robot as a service (RaaS) which will change this industry from capex to opex model,” said Milind Padole, MD of Affordable Robotic and Automation Ltd. (ARAPL). “This automation will make the backend ready for a 10 minute delivery model. ARAPL RaaS aims to enable instant commerce with end to end solutions for warehouse automation that will help to reduce their cost per pick by more than 50 percent, which will be a game-changer.”

With the help of this funding, the company will continue to produce customer-centric and B2B products and services that will help in bringing about necessary changes in the tech and automation space. The funding will also be used to create an experience zone to address the confidence of the customer, where they will be able to witness the solutions for full-scale operations. 

Hair Forever raises angel round worth $150,000

Hair Forever, a hair extension manufacturing startup, has raised funds worth $150,000 from an array of angel investors in pre-seed round

Founded by Co-founder Ashish Tiwari in 2021, Hair Forever has set up the facility in Gurugram, Haryana, and has plans to go aggressive in the terms of manufacturing, to accomplish its target of cutting a thicker slice in the market share in the top four Indian markets — Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Chandigarh, and Pune, by mid of 2022.

“Hair Forever will offer people a quality product that otherwise is inaccessible to the Indian audience at a reasonable cost,” said Ashish Tiwari. “We at Hair Forever will not just serve overseas but also set foot tight in the domestic market.”

The Gourmet Jar raises $150,000 funding

The Gourmet Jar, a Noida-based leading artisanal brand of spreads, dips, preserves, sauces and pestos, has raised $150,000 funding in a round led by DevX Venture Fund, the investment arm of DevX Co-working and Accelerator.

The Gourmet Jar, founded in 2012 by Apeksha Jain, provides a range of preserves, mustard, dips, sauces, spreads and honey following a made-from-scratch, small-batch philosophy in developing their products for creating a gourmet culinary and gastronomic experience at home. It has a 14,000 square feet production facility in Noida which is an all-women production team.

The round also saw re-participation of the existing investors.

On the investment, Apeksha said, “The funding from DVF comes at an exciting time as we are bullish on developing our online channels, introducing new products, strengthening our logistics and building even stronger customer networks.”

She further added that the funding will help to increase its customer base, expand production and synergise logistics along with growing our technology stack. “We aim to be the brand of choice in more and more homes and the HoReCa segment as well and the funding is a definitive step in that direction,” she said.

Zorgers raises angel round from Ritu Marya Family Office

Zorgers, a home healthcare startup, has raised an angel round from Ritu Marya Family Office.

Founded in 2013 by Varun Gupta, Anil Kumar, and Abhinav Gupta, Zorgers specialises in at-home healthcare and provides services like ICU at home, critical care, end-of-life palliative care, and many more, along with a plethora of clinical procedures. The start-up currently has a fleet of 4500 healthcare professionals across the country, including more than 50 doctors on board.

 Varun Gupta, Founder and CEO, Zorgers, said, “At Zorgers, over the last eight years, we have received an overwhelming response for our quality of care and our patient-centric approach. This investment further strengthens our mission towards making Zorgers a preferred partner for high-quality home healthcare,”

The funds will be used towards expanding their presence across geographies, and for mobilizing 50,000 healthcare professionals in the next two years.

BangDB raises bridge funding round from Ten Innovate

BangDB, a pioneer in AI-based Converged NoSQL database technology, has closed a bridge funding round led by Ten Innovate.

BangDB (IQLECT), founded as part of IQLECT in 2015 by Sachin Sinha, had more than 120,000 active users for BangDB across different verticals and with several key account additions and high profile partnerships during 2021.

After the success of BangDB Server 2.0, BangDB will use the new funding to accelerate product development and marketing along with the upcoming BangDB as a service release in the first quarter of 2022.

“Since the 2.0 release of BangDB last December, BangDB’s growth has been remarkable,” said Sachin Sinha, Founder and CEO of BangDB. “The bridge funding has come at an opportune time and will be used for research and product development along with enhancing the user base for BangDB coupled with establishing new sales channels to allow us to win high profile enterprise accounts.”