[Funding roundup] LivFin, Courseplay, Campus 365, Bambrew, others raise early-stage rounds; IndiaMART acquires 26.01pc stake in EasyEcom

Bambrew raises $2.35M in Pre-series A round led by Blue Ashva Capital, Supack Industries

Bambrew, a one-stop innovative solution provider of sustainable packaging as an alternative to single-use plastic, has raised Pre-Series-A round of $2.35 million led by Blue Ashva Capital and Supack Industries. The round also saw participation from Mumbai Angels and notable angel investors.

The latest infusion of funds will be utilised to build India’s first tech-enabled platform for sourcing green packaging, increase the supply capacity, expand in multiple cities, invest in R&D of new sustainable materials and further strengthen the team.

Fintech NBFC LivFin raises $2 Mfrom venture debt player BlackSoil

Delhi-based LivFin India Private Limited has raised $2 million in venture debt from BlackSoil, a leading NBFC and noteworthy player in the credit space. 

LivFin, operational since January 2018, provides supply chain finance to mid-to-large corporates by setting up programmes to lend to their suppliers/vendors and distributors/dealers/retailers through an ‘Anchor’-based financing model. 

LivFin is backed by SAR Group promoters (a conglomerate established in 1988) and has attracted investments from German DFI – DEG. It has disbursed $285+ million to date and they claim that there have been no write-offs. The company has partnered with 15+ anchors and 200+ end borrowers. 

Employee growth enablement platform Courseplay raises Rs 3 Cr in seed round

Employee growth enablement platform Courseplay raises Rs 3 crore in a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds raised will be used to focus on customer acquisition and bringing new AI-powered capabilities to the market. The company will continue to expand operations across India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Courseplay is an AI-powered employee experience platform (EXP) founded by Arjun Gupta and launched in January 2016. It features over 100,000+ activities in the form of e-learning titles, behavioural scorecards, coaching evaluations, performance management, assessments, and more.

Courseplay brings to the table end-to-end solutions in training delivery, employee engagement, workflow automation and impact measurement. In 2020, the startup engaged almost 400,000 employees across India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Campus 365 has raised Rs 21.5M led by Angel Investors

Educational technology startup Campus 365 has raised Rs 21.5 million in seed funding, led by angel investors based out of Bengaluru.

The latest round of funding will be used by the company to accelerate the development and rollout of new product offerings, increase its school network in Tier II and III cities, hire talent across domains, and make strategic acquisitions.

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Quantum tech company QNu Labs raises fund from Speciale Invest, others

QNu Labs, India’s first quantum-safe cybersecurity technology company, has raised funding from deeptech venture capital firm Speciale Invest. WAOO Partners LLP and another venture capital fund along with a few marquee angel investors and promoters also participated in the fresh funding round for the company.

QNu Labs plans to utilise the investment for extensive R&D advancements, extending products and technology to a wider customer base through key Go To Market associations in the US and Europe and building partnerships for satellite-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology.

The company has plans to hire seasoned product and technology industry experts to strengthen their core team extensively.

Founded in 2016 by deeptech enthusiasts, QNu Labs is working to solve the organisational challenges of protecting the integrity and confidentiality of data and information by offering quantum-safe cybersecurity. 

One Impression raises investment from marquee investors in a strategic round

One Impression, a global influencer marketing platform founded by the brother duo — Apaksh Gupta and Jivesh Gupta, has secured strategic personal investments from a pool of marquee investors, entrepreneurs, and celebrities. The company is one of the few startups in India to have bootstrapped its business to a large multi-million dollar revenue with strong profitability. With a base of over 6.5 million creators, One Impression is one of the largest influencer networks globally.

The strategic investment round saw participation from well-renowned investors and entrepreneurs such as Karandeep Anand (Former VP, Head of Business Products, Meta); Co-founders of Vedantu — Varun Alagh (CEO and Founder, MamaEarth), Anupam Mittal (CEO, People Group), Rohit MA (CEO, Cloudnine Hospitals), Ramakant Sharma (Co-founder, Livspace) along with 30 other market leaders. Celebrities such as Olympian Neeraj Chopra, Stand up comedians Zakir Khan and Kanan Gill, and lifestyle influencer Masoom Minawala, also participated in the round.  

Bootstrapped since its inception, One Impression plans to use the investment to build a more robust product solution for both brands and creators, accelerate hiring, and scale operations both in India and across key global markets. One Impression will also be investing in building further creator growth and monetisation opportunities to become an end-to-end solution for the ecosystem. 

IndiaMART acquires 26.01pc stake in EasyEcom, invested around Rs 13.3 Cr

B2B marketplace IndiaMart, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Tradezeal Online Private Limited, has made an investment of approximately Rs 13.3 crore to acquire a 26.01 percent stake in EasyEcom (Edgewise Technologies Private Limited).

Edgewise Technologies, under the brand name ‘EasyEcom’, is an AI-driven omnichannel inventory and warehouse management solutions company that offers SaaS-based online commerce enablement solutions to merchants. Its flagship inventory and warehouse management solutions allow merchants to allocate, track and reconcile inventory across various online and offline sales channels. It also offers additional modules which automate other back-office functions of merchants, such as shipping related payments reconciliation and returns reconciliation.

The Mainstreet Marketplace raises undisclosed amount in seed round

The Mainstreet Marketplace, one of India’s largest sneaker resale platforms, recently announced that they have raised a seed round of funding, an undisclosed amount.

The round saw participation from Kunal Shah - Founder of Cred; Raj Shamani - entrepreneur, Digital Content Creator, podcaster and investor; Varun Duggirala - Founder of Glitch; Rohan Batra - MD , Cravatex Brands; Prashant Iyer; Rohit Raj - Founder, Glitch; Bhavisha Dave - Founder, Capsul; and entrepreneur Keshav Hingorani.

The funds raised will be used to expand on their current line of limited edition sneakers and develop technology to scale the platform. They will also be utilised toward building, strengthening and bettering their community experience.