[Funding roundup] STAN, Polymerize, TaxBuddy.com, Almo, SaveIN, HALA raise early-stage funding

Polymerize raises $4.2M in Series A funding led by Elevation Capital 

Polymerize, a material informatics platform for R&D in chemical companies, said it has raised $4.2 million in Series A funding led by Elevation Capital. The round also saw participation from InfoEdge Ventures who had previously invested in their seed round.

Founded in 2020 by Kunal Sandeep and Abhijit Salvekar, Polymerize is a SaaS platform that helps R&D teams in chemical companies simplify the process of formulation development and data-management.

“Both Kunal & I were struck by the inefficiencies in R&D for materials formulation. Not only are the current methods inefficient and don’t leverage data from previous iterations of experiments, they also run the risk of missing out on the formulation of materials with unique properties. Polymerize’s deep tech solution not only allows companies to save on time and money, it also ensures the best possible end-level output," Abhijit said in a statement. 

Polymerize will use the new funds to ramp up hiring and to expand their geographical footprint.  

Blockchain-based esports fan engagement startup STAN raises seed funding

STAN, an esports fan engagement startup, has raised $2.5 million in its seed round, led by General Catalyst, alongside other venture capital firms including Better Capital and Eximius Ventures.

Angels such as Aadil Mamujee from Opensea, and Nakul Gupta from Coinbase also participated in the round. 

"The amount raised in this round will be utilised by STAN to provide unparalleled, best-in-class experiences to today's gaming and esports fans worldwide by launching its flagship platform, as well as to extensively partner with a plethora of top gaming organisations and players across India and other countries in parallel," the startup said in a release. 

STAN offers a one-stop platform for esports fans in India and the world to engage, play and grow closer to their idols in the gaming and esports space using digital collectibles and/ or mutable NFTs.

Mumbai based Fintech TaxBuddy.com completes a $2.1M round with participation from existing investors

TaxBuddy.com, a Mumbai-based fintech, raised $2.1 million in a round led by UAE-based fund Zenith Global. The startup had previously raised  $1 million in early-stage funding in December 2020. 

The startup was launched in late 2019 as an online tax advisor, offering subscription-based plans of tax advisory. Its tax filing platform has more than 4.5 lakh users across India. 

Men’s Innerwear brand Almo raises $2M in pre-Series A 

Almo, a direct-to-consumer brand in the men’s essential wear space, closed its pre-Series A funding of $2 million led by Inflection Point Ventures along with LetsVenture, AngelList India, and leading angels from the industry.

It will use the capital to improve branding and marketing efforts along with setting up its research and development lab to continue innovating on sustainable product lines.

Launched in June 2020 by Abhishek Shah, Muskaan Jain, and Chhavi Bhardwaj, Almo is a men's premium essential wear brand. 

SaveIN raises addition $1.1 million in seed round

SaveIN, a Y-combinator-backed fintech startup, has raised an additional $1.1 million in an extended seed round led by Bayhouse Capital based in Guernsey, it said in a release. 

The latest round takes its total funding to over $5 million. It had raised $4 million last month from investors from Silicon Valley and Europe.

The Gurugram-based startup offers Buy Now, Pay Later solutions in the healthcare segment and partnered with over 600 healthcare providers across 15 cities. 

The company plans to deploy this capital towards product development, growing in-house teams, and market expansion.

HALA raised $1M in funding led by Magnifiq

HALA, a ride-sharing platform, said it has raised $1 million in a round led by Magnifiq Securities.

The startup was founded in 2019 by Srikanth Reddy Kalakonda, Snehith Reddy Meda, and Anand Pareek to solve last-mile connectivity problems. It is operational in five different cities including Mumbai, Vizag, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai. 

HALA said it will use the funds to increase the number of electric vehicles by 5X times, improve infrastructure for swapping, and research and develop new product offerings.

PreSkale raised pre-seed funding round

Tech start-up PreSkale has raised a $500,000 pre-seed funding round led by BoldCap with participation from PointOne Capital and angel investors including Sathya Nellore Sampath, Ajith Sowndararajan, Vaidhyanathan, Jayagopal and Archana Priyadarshini.  

PreSkale was founded in 2021 by Ajay Jay and Prashanth Ganesh to improve product adoption early in the sales cycle and connect PreSales insights with go-to-market teams. 

Drone logistic start-up TSAW raises $325,000 led by We Founder Circle 

TSAW Drones(Technology in Space and Aero Works), a drone logistics provider, has raised $325,000 in a seed round led by early-stage start-up investor We Founder Circle. 

Investors including Kartik Hajela (Founder Log9 materials), Soonicorn Ventures, early-stage startup accelerator Pedal Start and Zypp Electric also participated in the round. 

Founded in 2019, by Kishan and Rimanshu, TSAW is a Gurugram-based startup. It has developed drones capable of carrying a 5kg payload to a distance of 40kms. 

The startup said it will use the funds in team-building and fuelling operations.  The rest of the fund will be equally divided to go towards marketing and R&D.

CashYear raises $60,000 in early-stage funding

CashYear, a fintech startup, raised a seed funding of $60,000 from Sahu Group, SIF Fund, and others.

The startup, based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, was founded by Virendra Singh, Lovin Agarwal, Aditya Mishra, and Rahul Srivastava in 2020. The startup is recognized by Startup-India and is a member of NASSCOM 10000 Startup Hub.

It helps its users to get their cards with a checkout credit limit without having any bank account. The funding will be primarily utilized for stock, product improvement, and marketing. CashYear plans to raise the next round of funding by September 2022.

OMTV raises  $51,533 in seed funding, to scale the production of original content

OMTV, an OTT network that showcases content related to Indian Sanatan culture, said it has secured a funding of $51,553 (Rs 40 lakh) led by Silicon Valley-based investor Raj Kumar Jalan and Bahrain-based investor Subhash Jalan. 

The company said it will use the fund to cover its current operational cost and ramp up the production of original content. 

Founded by Nitin Jai Shukla during the pandemic, OMTV intends to be the aggregator of the content that deals with Indian Sanatan culture. The app is available on both Android and iOS and is based on subscription video on demand.