[Funding roundup] Hospals, HYPD, Oben EV, SustainKart raise early-stage rounds

Cross-border healthcare startup Hospals raises $3.5M in Pre-Series A round

Hospals, a cross-border health benefits and travel platform, has raised $3.5 million from Inflection Point Ventures, 9Unicorns, Singapore-based Wavemaker, and prominent angels like Kunal Shah, Sanjeev Mishra, and Razorpay founders. 

Hopals, founded by Danish Ahmed and Suneel Kapur, enables international patients to access healthcare across India, UAE, Turkey, and Thailand. It has served 22,000 patients across 38 countries to get medical advice, teleconsults, and surgical treatments across its network of 100 hospitals. 

The startup plans to use the funds to expand its operations geographically to reach $900 million in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), serving 1.5 million subscribers and patients to get quality medical and cosmetic treatments across the world. 

"We’re rapidly expanding our network of hospitals and collecting data points across the spectrum to help patients find the best surgeons and clinics across Asia. We’re solving problems in accommodation, remittances and medicine delivery across the border," said Danish. "We’ll soon launch fintech services like medical loans and crowdfunding to help patients finance their treatments beyond insurance coverage, so that each human has access to the best healthcare globally.” 

HYPD, enabler of Asia’s first creator-owned marketplace, secures $1.5M in seed round 

HYPD, an enabler of a creator-owned marketplace, closed its seed funding round, raising $1.5 million from investors. The seed funding round was led by three different cohorts, that is, VCs such as Better Capital, Sauce VC and others; creators/influencer networks such as Bhuvan Bam, Tanmay Bhatt, and more; and sector experts such as CXOs of unicorn companies.

HYPD Stores was founded in 2021 by Ashwarya Garg and Akshay Bhatnagar. The creator-tech platform allows content creators to launch their own multi-brand stores/businesses. 

The company plans to use the funds to tap into one million content creators, as well as for the marketing and development of startups. 

"HYPD is a product at the intersection of a booming consumer D2C business and swelling influencer marketing economy. The creators are often treated as virtual billboards, but with the commoditization of business infrastructure, any creator can transform their audience into a scalable empire," said Ashwarya.

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Oben Electric raises additional $1M in seed round

Two-wheeler EV maker OBEN EV raised an additional $1 million in seed funding from Krishna Bhupal of GVK Power and Infra, and Shajikumar Devakar of IIFL Wealth and other investors. The company had previously raised $1.5 million in December 2021 led by We Founders Circle (WFC). 

Bengaluru-headquartered Oben Electric was founded in 2020 by Madhumita Agarwal and Dinkar Agarwal, and plans to launch its first indigenously developed performance electric bike in 2022.

The startup will use the funds to expand their business capacity, set up a bigger manufacturing infrastructure, accelerate new product development, expand experience centres, and strengthen their distribution plans, as the foundation to create the platform for the coming period to create value for the business in the ecosystem, the company said. 

"The electric two-wheeler growth in India is at a very early stage and ripe for disruption, with the GOI playing the role of a catalyst with tax breaks and other incentives," said Krishna Bhupal. "We believe the Oben Electric team has that edge in the business due to their deep IP and patent portfolio of 16 patents with a product that represents what the consumer needs in a two-wheeler country like the rest of Asia.”

Sustainable products ecommerce marketplace SustainKart raises $500,000

SustainKart, a sustainable products marketplace, has raised $500,000 in its pre-seed round led by India Accelerator. 

The Hyderabad-based ecommerce marketplace was launched in January 2021 by Shilpa Reddy and Kanthi Dutt. It offers a range of eco-friendly, green and clean products across all lifestyle categories — from fashion to decor, food and nutrition, kids care, pet care, furniture and furnishings to home care — all under one roof, and already has 950 brands and 68,000 stock keeping units on its platform. 

The round saw the participation of several HNIs and industry experts as part of India Accelerator's network. 

 “We plan to launch a series of private labels with A-lister celebrity co-founders to have a stronger foothold in the sustainable D2C space. Multiple strategic seed-stage D2C brand acquisitions are planned for this year”, says founder Kanthi Dutt.

Super Scholar raises $400,000 from Magic Fund, 2am VC, others

Super Scholar, an edtech platform, has raised $400,000 in a recent funding round from investors such as MAGIC Fund, 2am VC, Astir VC, JITO Angel Network, and others. 

The startup was founded in 2019 by Rohan Lodha and Priyes Bamne to make online courses affordable to every student with scholarships and grants.

It has more than 16,000 users presently and aims to reach one million users by the end of 2022.

“Super scholar is aiming to solve a real pain point for Indian Gen Z learners. What got us excited was Super Scholar’s aim to help learners with their own self-learning discovery. We felt their mission aligns well with India’s Gen Z desire to shift away from a forced reactive type of learning to a personal and desired based proactive type of learning.”, said Hershel Mehta, Co-founder and Partner, 2am VC.

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Edtech firm Klassroom raises additional $175,000 in Pre-Series A2 Round 

Klassroom Edutech, an edtech startup, has raised an additional $175,000 in Pre-Series A2 round from investors led by ah! Ventures, taking its total fundraise to $600,000 in the last six months. 

Founded in 2016, Mumbai-based Klassroom Edutech solves problems such as affordability, accessibility, accountability, and flexibility in the education ecosystem through live lectures on its website and application. The startup works on a  hybrid model, and on-the-ground partner network of over 160 local coaching centres. 

This round saw the participation of several angel networks like StartupLanes, Startup Angels Network, Meteor Ventures, and Hem Angels along with marquee angel investors.

“Klassroom’s growth last year underlines its students-first approach and deep focus on learning outcomes. We are excited to make a follow-on investment in Klassroom, to support its mission of transforming the education sector in India,” said Abhijeet Kumar, Co-founding Partner, ah! Ventures. The startup has grown six times in revenue and doubled its valuation in under six months.