[Funding roundup] Jimmy’s Cocktails, Rises.ai, WickedGud, others raise capital

Beverage startup Jimmy’s Cocktails raises Rs 14 Cr in a pre Series-A round led by Roots Ventures; valuation jumps 2.5x

Jimmy's Cocktails, a two-year-old Gurgaon-based FMCG/ beverage startup that manufactures and sells low-calorie, non-alcoholic spirits mixers, has raised Rs 14 crore in a bridge round ahead of its Series A, led by Roots Ventures. 7Square Ventures and several startup founders via an AngelList led by Vishesh Khurana, Co-founder Ship Rocket and Varun Alagh, Co-founder Mama Earth, also invested in this round.

Existing investors Keki Mistry, Vice chairman and CEO, HDFC Ltd; Vidur Talwar, Chairman T&T Motors; Anirudh Somani, VP CLSA also chipped in.

The startup plans to use the newly raised funds to expand its geographical footprint both in India and International markets, invest in brand awareness and launch new SKUs.

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Founded by Ankur Bhatia and Nitin Bhardwaj in 2019, Jimmy’s Cocktails claims to have moved ahead of all other star-ups competing in the same space, having served over six million cocktails in 2022. 

8 startups raise more than 70 lakh in the first round of funding under UPES incubation program ‘Runway’

In December last year, UPES, a multidisciplinary university in Dehradun launched an ambitious incubation program ‘Runway’, to work with startups within and outside the university to help them transition into scalable businesses. Completing a quarter, Runway initiated its first pre-incubation cohort in a two-day event hosted at UPES with selected 82 start-up ideas from over 400 applications.

In the first round of pitching, eight startups out of the selected 82 raised more than INR 70 lakhs from a group of investors that included Rahul Narvekar, CEO- The India Network, Dr Ram Sharma, Pro VC at UPES, Mudit Verma, UPES Alumni and Gagan Ghai, Angel Investor- Director Crest Innovation, a first instance in UPES and Uttarakhand where funds were raised on the spot.

The eight startups that raised funding were- Elteridium, DAAC, W&W Organic, AAGYO, Vindyavasini, Buzzinga Chicken Chips, Anime Devta and Roadz.

The selected startup founders also had an opportunity to interact with entrepreneurs such as Naveen Rawat and Manish Ahuja of Holisol Logistics; Sarika Panchhi, Founder-Jivisa Wellness; Richa Bansal, Founder-Saarathee, Mudit Verma, CEO- RayMach Technologies; Taranjeet Singh, Founder-Innvocon; Kuldeep Parashar, founder of Pension Box and Rahul Narvekar, CEO of The India Network.

Healthtech startup Rises.ai raises seed funding led by angel Investors from Kuwait and USA 

Pune-based health-tech company rises.ai, today, announced that it has raised seed funding led by angel investors from Kuwait and USA.

Rises Analytics Solutions is an AI (artificial intelligence) and Blockchain integrated high-tech startup focused

on healthcare-oriented solutions. Rises has developed medical treatment response assessment modules and AI solutions for Cancer, TB, COVID-19 and other pulmonary conditions. Rises’ algorithm analyses medical data like X-Ray, CT, MRI and EMR.

This capital infusion will help accelerate Rises Analytics Solutions Pvt. Ltd.'s growth and market expansion. The funds from the seed round will be used for product enhancement, enhancing the Technical team and improving market outreach. 

Luxury Chocolate Brand SMOOR is now valued at upwards of $50M, Rebel Foods acquires majority stake

Rebel Foods, the world’s largest internet restaurant company, today announced its investment in the luxury chocolate brand, SMOOR. 

This is in line with Rebel Foods' recent announcement of investing $150 million over the coming years, as part of its focus on investing and acquiring promising brands to serve more food categories from its cloud kitchens. With this investment, SMOOR aims to grow by 3x in the year 2022-23.

SMOOR has witnessed tremendous growth and customer love even on online platforms and this partnership would further help in the brand growth, claims the brand.  

WickedGüd raises $340K in pre-seed round led by Titan Capital, marquee investors

WickedGud, a comfort food D2C (direct-to-consumer) brand, has raised $1 million in a seed round, led by Mumbai Angels and other marquee investors.

The capital raised will be used for brand and community building across D2C channels, acquiring more customers online by resonating with the GenZ and young millennials to support its growth, strengthening the core team, and international expansion, according to a statement.