Startup news and updates: daily roundup (April 26, 2022)

CredAvenue acquires majority stake in credit underwriting company Corpository

Unicorn debt marketplace CredAvenue has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in corporate credit underwriting platform Corporsitory. The deal valued the company at Rs 100 crore and marks the second acquisition by CredAvenue. It had acquired nearly 75.1 percent stakes in digital collections platform Spocto in February, 2022. 

Ahmedabad-headquartered Corporsitory’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform helps evaluate, underwrite and monitor corporate credit history from over 50 public data sources such as MCA, credit rating agencies, GST filings, and others. Founded in 2016 by Jignesh Parmar, Aniket Shah and Nipam Shah, Corporsitory has a database of more than 2.5 million Indian companies and will help lenders on CredAvenue’s marketplace to keep track of developments at the borrower side.

Cactus Communications acquires SaaS platform Mind the Graph

Technology company focused on scientific advancement, Cactus Communications, has announced the acquisition of SaaS-based illustration and graphic design tool for scientific figures, Mind the Graph. The acquisition will help Cactus offer AI-powered scientific communication solutions to researchers, academic publishers and the life sciences industry.

The acquisition of the Brazilian company will help Cactus’ business division, Impact Science, scale up faster by offering customers to create accurate scientific figures and improve the reach of their research. 

Cactus had previously acquired Denmark-based AI and NLP company UNSILO which specialises in text analytics, linguistics and data science. It has also invested in Scholarcy which applies ML to extract structured data and knowledge summaries from scholarly content. Cactus also has a sizeable stake in AI analytics powered networking and communications tracking platform, Kudos. 

KreditBee offers digital gold investment in partnership with SafeGold 

Fintech platform KreditBee has announced the launch of its digital gold investment product, KreditBee 24K Gold in partnership with SafeGold. Customers can now invest from Rs 1 to Rs 3 lakh in digital gold with 99.5 percent purity on the KreditBee app at live market rates. 

As part of the offering, customers can also convert the purchased gold into physical coins or bars starting from 0.5 grams, which can be home delivered or stored in a vault.

The digital gold investment is the latest offering by KreditBee which offers personal loans and credit-line backed prepaid cards to its customers. The company plan on diversifying its product portfolio to secured loans, home loans and credit lines, and adding financial services like insurance, credit score report and others to its portfolio. 

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CarDekho launches consumer financing platform Ruppy

Used and new car transaction platform CarDekho has announced the launch of end-to-end customer financing platform Ruppy. The digital financing platform will enable customers to complete video e-KYC, e-NACH and e-Agreement for their car loan at the Point of Sale. 

Ruppy will be integrated with partner banks and NBFCs and will absorb CarDekho Financial Services arm under the brand.

In a statement issued by the company, CEO of Ruppy Namit Jain said that the platform will reduce the turnaround time for customer loan to be approved from an average of five days to minutes. 

CarDekho FInancial Services registered an annualised run rate of Rs 5,000 crore for FY 2021-22 and achieved a monthly run rate of Rs 400 crore in used car finance disbursals for the month of March, 2022. With Ruppy, the company plans on adding more categories and co-create financial products for the automobile sector. 

Relevel by Unacademy partners with NSDC for upskilling youth

Online hiring platform Relevel by Unacademy has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to test 20 lakh youth and upskill them as per industry requirements on the Relevel platform over the next five years. 

Relevel will support candidates who clear the test with placement opportunities. As part of the MoU, Relvel will jointly develop courses for Higher Educational Institutions with a focus on aspirants from Tier-II and III cities. Relevel co-create and co-design programmes for new-age skills and emerging technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, cybersecurity and other emerging technology fields.

It will also collaborate with NSDC’s offline network of training centres such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra and other affiliated institutions for career counseling and  upskilling activities. 

Relevel will also offer short-term bridge courses, aligned to destination country job roles for direct placement in international markets, apart from offering personalised solutions and culture training sessions to prepare candidates for test and interviews. 

GoldenPi partners with Axis Securities and IIFL Securities

Bengaluru-based GoldenPi which offers an investment marketplace for bonds and debentures to retail investors, has announced partnership with broking and investment advisory firms Axis Securities and IIFL Securities.

Founded in 2017 and backed by Zerodha, GoldenPi offers daily price discovery and high liquidity on its SaaS based investment platform. 

The company features daily inventory up to Rs 5,000 crore for investors looking to invest as little as Rs 10,000 on its platform. GoldenPi currently partners with over 16 financial institutions in the debt market and plans on reaching out to investment service and product providers to increase awareness on alternative fixed income investment solutions.