[Funding roundup] Kaagaz, The Renal Project, Zama Organics, others raise early-stage funds

Scrut Automation raises funds from Lightspeed and Endiya Partners

Scrut Automation, the Bengaluru-headquartered information security compliance platform, has raised a seed round of $3 million from Lightspeed India Partners and Endiya Partners. The startup will use the capital to expand its operations to the US, European Union, and Asia, and enhance its automation capabilities. 

It will also create a marketplace for information security resources such as auditors, subject matter experts, and penetration testers.  

Founded in 2021 by Ayush Ghosh Choudhury and Kush Kaushik, Scrut offers companies a single platform as a virtual chief information security officer (CISO), reducing the burden of information security compliance by as much as 70 percent for the compliance teams and CTOs.

At present, it works with companies in India, Singapore, and the US, and addresses multiple infosec standards, providing a unified view of an organisation’s compliance status.

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Kaagaz to join Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 batch

Workplace productivity app Kaagaz has received an investment from Y Combinator as part of the global accelerator’s Winter 2022 batch. Backed by the likes of Pravega Ventures and Axilor, Kaagaz started as a document scanning app and has added multiple products to its suite of products, including PDF reader, PDF editor, document management, and cloud storage.

Founded in 2020 by Snehanshu Gandhi, Tamanjit Bindra, and Gaurav Shirshrimal, Kaagaz claims to have over 2.5 million monthly active users (MAUs) and has registered 10 million downloads. 

The startup will utilise the capital from Y Combinator to add new features to its mobile-first set of tools for users in non-metro cities.

Dialysis chain The Renal Project raises funds from Shark Tank

The Renal Project, a Mumbai-based affordable dialysis centre chain, has raised undisclosed equity capital from Thapar Vision LLP, an affiliate of Namita Thapar, ED at Emcure Pharmaceuticals, and Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, Co-founders of boAt Lifestyle.

“We are very happy to complete this much-publicised capital raise and welcome Namita, Aman, and Sameer onto the cap-table. The synergies with the Emcure Pharma Group are significant, and this will have a profoundly positive impact on the firm and its partnerships with nephrologists and hospitals, among other things,” said Shashank Modhia, Founder of The Renal Project, in a statement.

A part of the first cohort of 100X.VC, The Renal Project — founded in 2019 — collaborates with hospitals to set up dialysis centres at their facilities, apart from providing at-home dialysis services.

Eco-friendly brick manufacturer ZERUND raises pre-Series A round

Guwahati-based startup Zerund has raised an undisclosed pre-Series A round from NEDFi Venture Capital, taking the total capital raised by the company to Rs 4 crore.

Founded in 2018 by Rupam Choudhury, Mousum Talukdar, and David Pratim Gogoi, ZERUND manufactures eco-friendly, cost-effective, earthquake-resistant Plastic Embedded Lightweight Bricks. 

The startup will utilise the capital to set up a new manufacturing facility with five times the capacity of its current centre in Pathsala, Assam. 

“We have witnessed 85 percent monthly traction in terms of sales, and further to the demand are looking forward to expanding rigorously. By the end of this fiscal year, we are expecting to register 500 percent year-on-year growth. The growth path for entire North East in the recently announced budget by Finance Minister gave us bigger hope to grow faster,” said David Pratim Gogoi, Co-founder and CEO, ZERUND.

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Zama Organics raises pre-Series A round

Zama Organics, a Mumbai-headquartered Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) organic grocery brand, raised an undisclosed pre-Series A round from a clutch of marquee angel investors, including Ajay Kaushal of BillDesk, Arjun Lamba of Guardian Advisors, and Jay Mehta of Mehta Group. 

The startup will use the capital for brand building and expanding its geographical footprint to newer cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi, and Pune. It will also deploy the capital to develop its technology product and increase headcount. 

Founded by Shriya Naheta Wadhwa in 2016, Zama Organics provides a farm-to-table supply chain for organic produce, groceries, and artisanal food items through a network of farmers.

Bengaluru-based AI startup CyborgIntell raises pre-Series A round

Bengaluru-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) product startup CyborgIntell raised $1.19 million in a pre-Series A round from SenseAI and Pentathlon Ventures, apart from investments from returning investor Ghosal Ventures.

The startup will use the capital to hire talent across sales and marketing, apart from customer acquisition and geographical expansion.

Founded in 2018 by Suman Kumar Singh, Amit Kumar, Mohammed Nawas, and Varun Mohanpuria, CyborgIntell offers an automated ML platform to data scientists to enable them with consistent solutions.

"With our funding underway, we aim to enhance our focus on financial services sector – banking, insurance, and lending companies in India, South Africa and APAC to create the next phase of Data Science evolution," said Suman Singh, Co-founder and CEO, CyborgIntell, in a press statement.