[Funding roundup] Spacejoy, BRIGHTBLU, Better Opinions, Prolance raise early-stage rounds

Spacejoy raises $4 million led by Accel Partners

Spacejoy, a design-led ecommerce platform, has raised a $4 million Pre-Series A round led by Accel Partners. 

The startup, founded in 2019  by Arnab Saharoy and Vinay Indresh, is an ecommerce platform that enables busters to instantly visualise their space with the products they want to and acts as a one-stop-shop to discover unlimited options for home brands. 

The round also saw participation from TI Platform and TiE SoCal Angels, including angel investors and real estate/proptech founders such as Larry Braitman, Venkat Tadanki, SquareFoot CEO Jonathan Wasserstrum, Jeroen Bertrams, and Landis founders Cyril & Tom. 

“Our customers value discovering new products and furnishing their homes with personality,” said Arnab Saharoy, Founder and CEO, Spacejoy. “This new investment and partnership will allow us to scale the business and reach new customers in the US.”

The funds will allow Spacejoy to continue to capitalise on a fast-growing market, support the development of its core platform and strengthen AI technology for product discovery.

Dutch conglomerate Koolen Industries invests $1.6 million in BRIGHTBLU 

BRIGHTBLU, an electric vehicle charging solutions company, has secured a $1.6 million investment from Dutch clean energy conglomerate Koolen Industries. 

The Mumbai-based startup was founded in 2019 by Wybren van der Vaart, Santoshram Somasundaram, Saket Anandakrishnan, and Yash Chitalia. It has developed and designed the entire intelligent charging technology stack in-house. 

“Our current strategy with onboarding a strong and focused new shareholder creates momentum for our vision to become a global supplier of high quality intelligent charging solutions that accelerate the global adoption of electric vehicles,” said Wybren van der Vaart, Co-founder and CEO, BRIGHTBLU.

The funds will help the company accelerate its international expansion, furthering in-house research and development of both plug-and-charge and vehicle-to-grid solutions and the startup is in the process of setting up a new high-tech research and development centre in Pune where the funds will be used to hire talent and create new charging technologies.

Better Opinions raises over $1 million in pre-seed round from Java Capital, Soma Capital

Better Opinions, an even trading platform, has raised over $1 million in a pre-seed round from Y Combinator, Java Capital, Soma Capital, and some angels.

These angels included Mayank Kumar of UpGrad, Sudhanshu Raheja of GoTo Financials, and Pratyush Prasanna of Gojek, among others. 

Founded in 2021,  Gurugram based Better Opinion is a skill-based gaming startup that allows users to trade their opinion on an outcome of events in various categories such as cricket, football, finance and entertainment, and allows users to trade on events while matching them with a person with a complimentary trade.

“Our aim is to make the app inclusive for all. The stock market unfortunately can be very technical and opaque and therefore isn’t always accessible for all. However, when we start allowing trading in categories such as cricket, politics and entertainment, not only do we make trading more relatable, but we also help improve their financial literacy. In the process, they also start experiencing the excitement of trading,” said  Samay Jain Co-founder and CEO, Better Opinions. 

The funds raised will be used to build and expand the product and tech team, grow the existing user base and educate the users about events trading.  

Interior design automation platform Prolance raises $533,515 in Pre-Series A round

Prolance,  a manufacturing platform for interior design companies, has raised $533,515 (Rs 4 crore) in pre-series A round from including Srini Anumolu of GrowthStory, Karthik Bhat of Force Ventures, and Tarun Matta of IIMJobs.

The Bengaluru-based startup was founded in 2020 by Rama Harinath K, Vivek Parasuram, Raghunath Gururajan, Jaisimha Sathyanarayana, and Manoj K. Its B2B technology-enabled cloud manufacturing platform caters to interior designers and design firms, architects, contractors, materials suppliers and processing factories, making the interior design projects execution simple, accurate and effortless. 

“Our cloud manufacturing and procurement platform brings all the stakeholders of the interiors ecosystem on one platform driving efficiencies for all stakeholders. The whole platform’s value proposition is underscored by the tremendous response we have received from our clients and users,” said Rama Harinath K. 

“With this investment, we are now ready to execute the next stage of our growth and expansion strategy and reach more cities,” he added. 

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Runo raises $5,00,000 in Pre Series A from Unicorn India Ventures

Runo, a call management CRM software, has raised $500,000 in a Pre-Series A round led by Unicorn India Ventures.

Founded in 2018, Runo was founded by Rajsekhar Pattnaik and PV Vamsi. The startup provides a call management CRM solution with SIM-based calling solution with call tracking, call recording, team live status and analytics as principal features.

Runo plans to use the funds raised for the product roadmap and expand to the Middle East, SEA, and the US market in a phased manner.

“What differentiates us from others is our easy to use user interface, ease of work from home and track team’s performance virtually. We believe our services are at par for the businesses which are affordable yet powerful," said Rajsekhar Pattnaik, Founder and CEO, Runo. "We have witnessed a huge acceptance from businesses across sectors and believe that India is a high potential market for us. This fund raised is a stamp of UIV faith in us as we continue to register growth across different sectors. It will help us scale and expand in international markets,” he added.

F Sharp raises funds from Public Media Solution

F Sharp, a retail venture dealing in musical instruments, has raised $60,020 (Rs 45 lakh) from Public Media Solution, a digital marketing and PR agency based in Pune.

Based in Pune, F Sharp provides its customers with a range of musical instruments and accessories. 

Kunal Pradeep Jadhav, the CEO of F Sharp, said “With Public Media Solution on board, we would be able to cater to the needs of young and passionate music lovers in the city by providing them with affordable musical instruments without compromising their quality.”

Premium D2C lifestyle brand Eské Paris raises funding from Fluid Ventures

Eske´, a Mumbai-based premium D2C lifestyle brand. has raised $332,831.75 (Rs 2.5 crore) in a seed funding round led by Fluid Ventures. Other investors in the round include Divij Bajaj of Power Gummies and Ankit Gera of Junio.

Eské Paris is an emerging premium lifestyle Indian that sells leather and vegan products that represent European Fashion.

“Our C2M model will be the world's leanest and most efficient distribution model, and we plan to be the first in our category to achieve this. Our vision for Eské is extremely ambitious. Digital-first brands in our space have been able to scale to over $150 million in revenue within five years. I believe we have the depth, hunger, and commitment to improve this and build one of the largest global D2C brands of the decade," said Shivam Khanna, Founder of Eské Paris. 

The current fundraise will be utilised to expand the brand's product range, and accelerate the international launch.

Pankaj Tripathi invests in agritech startup Krishi Network

Krishi Network, an agritech platform, has onboarded Indian actor Pankaj Tripathi as an investor and brand ambassador, as it makes efforts to reach out to the masses and help connect with farmers at the grassroots level.

“Coming from a farmer background, I have always believed in supporting initiatives that help farmers with access to information to grow their business. Back in my days as a farmer, genuine and correct information always used to be a concern, and seeing how Krishi Network is supporting farmers is commendable,” said Pankaj Tripathi.

Founded in 2018 by IIT Kharagpur alumni Ashish Mishra and Siddhant Bhomia, the startup platform eases information accessibility for farmers and enables them to generate higher profits from their land.

Ashish Mishra, Founder, Krishi Network, said, “We started Krishi Network with a vision to transform Indian agriculture by enabling farmers to adopt change with confidence. We are growing their horizon by reliably connecting them to experts and other agri-businesses beyond their local area.