[Funding roundup] Josh Talks, GoldenPi, Multipl, NutriTap, Agatsa, among others raise capital

Josh Talks raises $3.5 million led by Ankur Capital

Josh Talks, a regional content and upskilling platform, has raised $3.5 million led by Ankur Capital with participation from angel investors such as Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital, Vineeta Singh of SUGAR Cosmetics, Ritesh Agarwal of OYO, and Ankur Warikoo, among others.

Josh Talks will utilise the freshly raised funds to refine its product and scale its social learning platform for Bharat, Josh Skills. It will also experiment with new product lines catering to the aspirations of this user segment.

According to this startup, its app has reported more than 3.2 million downloads since its launch and has over 200,000 paid subscribers from Tier II and III cities of India.

“Over the last two years, we have doubled down on two things, growing our distribution across 10 languages and creating a product that monetises this distribution network,” said Supriya Paul, CEO and Co-founder of Josh Talks.

Multipl raises $3 million in Pre-Series A round

Fintech startup Multipl has raised $3 million in a Pre-Series A round led by Blume Ventures, GrowX Ventures, IIFL, and Kotak Securities Limited.

It plans to utilise the funds to widen investment options and help customers plan their expenses better under its “Plan Now, Pay Later” programme.

Launched in 2020 by Paddy Raghavan, Jags Raghavan, and Vikas Jain, Multipl rewards users for saving for future expenses by encouraging ethical and more conscientious consumption.

Founder Paddy Raghavan said, “Our vision is that all Indians adopt the efficient way of saving and spending and never leave money behind on any of their future expenses.”

GoldenPi raises $2 million in Pre-Series A round

GoldenPi Technologies, a fintech platform for retail investors focused on fixed-income investments, has raised $2 million in Pre–Series A round through domestic capital, which also includes certain high-net-worth individuals.

This startup plans to use this capital to ramp up its technology stack and outreach programmes and expand its team across the country. In 2021, it had raised Rs 3.5 crore from Rainmatter Capital, the investment fund of Zerodha.

Founded in 2017 by Abhijit Roy and Samir Pratihar, GoldenPi is an aggregator for bonds and debentures. It claims that it has a daily inventory of Rs 5,000 crore.

Co-founders Abhijit and Samir said, “Over the last few years, we have successfully facilitated over 1,000 options—bonds and debentures—for individuals and larger households. More than 8 lakhs of individual investors have benefited from the platform directly or indirectly across our channels. We’re committed to creating an ecosystem where bonds and debentures become a part of mainstream discourse and investment options in India.”

NutriTap Technologies raises $1.5 million

Retail tech startup NutriTap Technologies raised about $1.5 million in a Pre-Series A round from Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, IK Capital, Elysian Fintech, and HNIs from the retail industry.

Founded in 2018 by Rajesh Kumar and Priyank Tewari, NutriTap creates alternate retail channels for brands to do Direct-to-Customer (D2C) retail. The startup’s full-stack retail expertise includes smart kiosk technology and a simplified distribution mechanism.

“In India, kiosk-based retail is now accepted as an alternate mode of retailing. To make sure that customers get the right retailing solution, you need to have the right technology to do that. At NutriTap, we are building the technology to address this alternate channel market which stands at $10 billion,” said Rajesh.

NutriTap is currently operating over 250 smart retail kiosk locations across Tier-I and metro cities of India.

Agatsa raises Rs 12.5 crore from angel investors

Medtech startup Agatsa has raised Rs 12.5 crore from angel investors as it looks to grow its business operations and expand the product line.

This round of funding saw participation from well-known personalities from the healthcare industry, especially in the cardiac care segment. Now, Agatsa will look at expanding its reach into the B2B segment through tie-ups with hospitals and telehealth having made its presence in B2C.

SanketLife is the flagship product of Agatsa, which is an Internet of Things (IoT) platform consisting of a portable and touch-based ECG machine that has been designed to make heart health screening easier and more affordable for everyone via the Smartphone app and a cloud platform.

In a joint statement, Agasta co-founders Neha and Rahul Rastogi said, “This is our fourth round of funding, and we intend to grow our footprints in international markets along with growing rapidly in the domestic market aggressively with this funding.”

Humpy Farms raises Rs 5 crore in angel round

Organic farming startup Humpy Farms has raised Rs 5 crore in an angel round of funding, which also includes funds secured during the Shark Tank India programme.

This startup aims to utilise the capital towards its technology and enhance its D2C brand strategy, and for market expansion and hiring.

Founded in 2017 by Malvika Gaekwad and Jaywant Patil, Humpy Farms practises end-to-end climate-smart regenerative digital organic farming thus cutting down on carbon footprint.

Malvika Gaekwad, Co-founder of Humpy Farms, said, “We firmly believe that you are what you eat; organic and sustainable farming is a need of the hour and Humpy Farms is committed to driving this revolution across India.

ForeignAdmits raises Rs 3.26 crore from Unicorn India Ventures

ForeignAdmits, a platform that assists in the overseas study, has raised Rs 3.26 crore led by Unicorn India Ventures with participation from SEA Fund. Angel investors Beerud Sheth of Gupshup, Zishaan Hayathof Toppr, and Keshab Panda, former CEO of L&T Infotech, also participated in the round.

ForeignAdmits will be using this capital for enhancing its tech platform and business development. The startup claimed it has grown 10X in the last 12 months and sees 2 lakh monthly traffic organically. It has a team size of close to 100, and is currently serving students in India and 10 other countries and has over 35 university partnerships.

ForeignAdmits co-founder & CEO Ashwini Jain said, “We want to become a global leader in the overseas education space and help anyone, from any country, access the world’s best education to achieve their full potential using our technology.”

Sploot raises $500k in seed funding led by Redstart Labs

Pet startup Sploot has raised $500K as part of its seed funding round, led by Info Edge (India) backed Redstart Labs.

The startup will use this capital to nurture a close-knit community of pet parents, create educational content with experts on the sploot app, and pilot revenue-generating streams like dog walking and affordable fresh food.

Sploot is a community-led platform for better pet parenting with the aim to create happier and healthier lives for pets by empowering pet parents with the right knowledge, support system, and access to products and services. Currently, it has 30K members on its app and over 26k followers on Instagram.

“The idea for sploot came from seeing generations of pet parents learn by making the same mistakes over and over again with their pets. We want to harness this collective learning by helping pet parents learn from each other and experts in the space. We believe that education about pet parenting is the first step towards influencing purchase decisions,” said Garima, Co-Founder, sploot.

FirstCure Health raises $350k from angel investors

Healthcare startup FirstCure Health raised $350K in a Pre-Seed round of funding from angel investors.

The startup aims to make modern surgical care safe, seamless, accessible, and affordable. The funding will be used for expanding its operations.

Founded in 2021 by Nikhil Bansal, FirstCure Health aims to simplify the surgery experience by bringing the best surgeons with modern and safe procedures at affordable costs. It has over 40 surgeons, 40 plus hospitals and clinics catering to 50 different kinds of treatments in New Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad, and Bhopal.

Redbasil raises Rs 2.5 crore led by Mumbai Angels

Redbasil, a tech-driven and zero-inventory marketplace for wholesale food supply for restaurants and cloud kitchens, has raised Rs 2.5 crore as seed funding led by Mumbai Angels with the participation of SAT Industries, Plan B Capital and other investors.

Redbasil will primarily use the capital to expand its ground operations and sales team in the Delhi-NCR region and invest in engineering resources and tech infrastructure. The platform also aims to onboard 500+ outlets and clock a monthly GMV of over Rs 1.5 crore with the funding.

Redbasil Founder and CEO Naman Dayal said, “Redbasil was founded with a simple idea: making wholesale food supply reliable and convenient. It was conceptualised as a digital marketplace to address these challenges for commercial kitchen operations in India.”

Nova Benefits raises funding from SHL Capital

Nova Benefits, an employee wellness platform centred on corporate health insurance, has raised an undisclosed round of funding from SHL Capital, a fund by Sahil Lavingia, CEO at Gumroad.

Nova Benefits enables companies to avail customised health insurance plans for their employees and add additional health and wellness benefits around physical and mental health.

Nova Benefits CEO and co-founder Saransh Garg said, “We want to focus on holistic wellbeing encompassing physical and mental health while making sure that employee insurance is disseminated seamlessly.”