[Funding roundup] Phyllo, Mool, Finverv, AutoNxt Automation, MetaMorphoSys, others raise capital

Phyllo raises Rs 120 Cr in Series A

Phyllo, today, announced it has raised Rs 120 crore in a Series A round led by RTP Global, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Better Capital, and iSeed.

It builds APIs for secure and easy access to creator data drawn directly from platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Discord, Spotify, TikTok, and others.

With this funding, Phyllo will accelerate product development, expand its customer base and grow its developer-first API platform aimed at powering the growth of companies seeking to capitalise on the $100 billion creator economy. Phyllo is also looking to expand and grow the team across all functions.  

Cactus Venture Partners raises Rs 350 crore in the initial close of its debut fund

Cactus Venture Partners(CVP) announced raising Rs 350 crore in the initial close of its maiden fund. The fund will focus on investing primarily in clean-tech, healthtech, and B2B SaaS companies in India.

The fund is in active discussions with several domestic and international institutional investors and anticipates the final close of its fund target of Rs 750 crore by December 2022. With a significant 15% commitment from the General Partners, the fund plans on deploying this capital over the next 3-4 years.

Founded by Anurag Goel (co-founder of Cactus Communications, global science communication, and technology company), Amit Sharma (a seasoned venture investor), and Rajeev Kalambi (a former investment banker and early-growth private equity investor), CVP has been investing in technology and direct-to-consumer (D2C) startups in the early growth stage since 2021.

Mool nets a seed round of funding from NextGen Technology Fund

Mool Innovation Labs, which operates as a SAAS Tax saving & salary optimisation product, has received seed funding from Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS) of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). Pontaq Ventures India LLP is the fund manager of the aforesaid fund. 

Mool is planning to invest the funds into charging up their go-to-market strategy, product development, and expanding the team.

 Founded by Seemant Shrivastav and Subhashree Mishra in 2019, Mool aims to fundamentally change the way people deal with money starting from salary. It employs smart algorithms and machine learning technologies to personalise finance and taxation and offers smarter investment and borrowing options.

Lending infrastructure platform Finverv raises pre-seed funding led by Antler India

Finverv, an embedded lending infrastructure platform has raised pre-seed funding led by Antler India. This round also saw participation from Force Ventures, Asan Ventures, Luckbox Ventures, and notable angels like Ashish Taneja (GrowX Ventures), Anuj Khosla (CEO, Hitachi Payments), Nitin Gupta (CEO, Uni Cards), Pravan Malhotra (Malacca Ventures), Vibhor Sahare (CEO, ANS Commerce), Avinash Kumar (Founder, Credence), and others.

Founded in November 2021 by repeat entrepreneurs Sangeet Verma and Siddharth Bhardwaj, the Gurgaon-based startup is a plug-and-play embedded lending infrastructure for tech platforms.

AutoNxt Automation raises Rs 6.4 crore in seed round

AutoNxt Automation secured funding of Rs 6.4 crore from HNIs in a seed round of funding under the leadership of Swadeep Pillarisetti, who is also one of the board members at AutoNxt Automation. 

The funding round was led by Keiretsu Forum, Virya Mobility 5.0 and a few marquee angels like Ayad Khalil Chammas (experienced oil and gas professional now an international investor in the EV space), Chand Das (former CEO of ITC), Nitin Johar (CFO for IDO at Govt of Ras Al Khaimah), Suveer Sinha (India head for KKR Capstone), and Ravichandran Sargunaraj (former Executive Director at TVS Logistics Services Ltd), among others.

The company used this funding very efficiently in R&D, tooling and testing of India’s First electric tractor for 3 years.

Redeminds raises $220k in angel round from Surfboard Ventures and Contentstack

Redeminds, a career discovery edtech startup for children, has closed an initial funding round of $220,000 from Surfboard Ventures and Contentstack. The company will use this financial investment towards hiring for key leadership roles, including the role of Chief Business Officer, scaling up its engineering, operations, product and game design teams, expansion of career options on the platform, and achieving entry into 500+ schools by 2024 and onboarding 10,000+ students.

Co-founded by Nabarupa Chatterjee and Shiv Shankar Patnaik in 2021, Redeminds is an end-to-end career guidance platform for school students. It blends AI and behavioral sciences to offer a personalized map that empowers students to discover their true potential and help build skills for the world of the future.

PickMyAd secures pre-seed funding led by Kissflow’s founder

PickMyAd, an influencer discovery and booking platform, announced it has raised an undisclosed sum in its second pre-seed funding round led by Suresh Sambandam, CEO of Kissflow. The round also witnessed participation from Prashanth (VP - Amwell, US), Mohan K (CEO - IppoPay), and Prabhu Rangarajan (Co-Founder - M2P Fintech), among other angel investors of India and the US.

PickMyAd connects brands with influencers in a few clicks and manages the entire influencer marketing journey on a single platform. It helps brands of all sizes find more flexibility and connects creators with more opportunities.

E-commerce startup BuyEazzy raises $1.3 million in seed round

Neighbourhood ecommerce startup BuyEazzy has announced its seed funding round of $1.3 million, led by Incubate Fund India and M Venture Partners, along with participation from angels like Superb Capital and others.

Launched in Mysore, BuyEazzy is building an online beauty destination for Bharat through neighbourhood stores. The startup is founded by Rahul Aggarwal, Gold Medalist Chartered Accountant and ex-Project Lead at Boston Consulting Group, and Hariher Balasubramanian, ex-BCG Consultant and alumnus of INSEAD.

BuyEazzy plans to utilize these funds towards Product enhancement, team building and expansion.

YES BANK announces investments in Venture Catalysts Group Funds

Yes Bank announced today that it has invested with Venture Catalysts Group Funds (Venture Catalysts), which is an integrated incubator that offers funding, mentorship, and network to startup founders from the idea inception stage to the growth stages of the startup journey.

The fund has also sponsored two platforms, Beams Fintech Fund that invests in growth stage companies operating at the intersection of Financial Services and Technology, and 9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund, an early-stage sector agnostic investor.

With these investments, YES BANK aims to further its mission of catering to the ‘Future Tech Businesses of India’, bolster innovation in the technology space including the financial sector, and potentially partnering with leading tech startups that Venture Catalysts has invested in—Beams Fintech Fund and 9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund.

AI-powered deep tech solar startup Renkube bags Rs 2.4 crores in a seed round

Renewable energy-focused deep tech startup, Renkube has announced that it has secured $300K (Rs 2.4 crore) in a seed round led by CIIE.CO. JITO Angel Network and K4 Forum Mumbai Network also participated in this round.

Halliburton Labs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton Company is participating via Renkube’s selection to its clean energy accelerator. Renkube is the world's first company to offer a motion-free tracking solution embedded in the glass design for solar panels.

Founded by Balaji Lakshmikanth Bangolae, Dr Lakshmi Santhanam, Deepika Gopal and Dr Janardhana Vittal Rao in 2017 to build a sustainable future by producing cutting-edge products in the renewable energy field, the company plans to use the fresh funds to build industrial-scale manufacturing of this solar panel, secure necessary certifications and demonstrate the technology with top industrial customers in India, the US and Australia.

Insurtech startup MetaMorphoSys raises Rs 23 Cr in a seed round

Insurtech startup MetaMorphoSys, today announced that it has secured Rs 23 crore ($3 million) in a seed round led by Capital2B (Technology Fund Backed by Info Edge) with participation from prominent angels Pavitar Singh and Dhruv Dhanraj Behl. In 2020, the company also raised funding from Good Capital.VC (Rohan and Arjun Malhotra) and Rahul Khanna, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Trifecta Capital.           

MetaMorphoSys will leverage the funding to further innovate the SaaS-based Digital Insurance Platform, expand the product and sales team to other geographies and invest in out-of-box legacy integrations.

MetaMorphoSys was founded in 2016 by Amit Naik and Kewal Vargante with a vision to provide the global insurance industry with an innovative B2B SaaS Insurance Platform.

D2C Personal Care brand Zlade raises Rs. 1.1 crore from Velocity

Premium D2C Personal Care brand Zlade has raised Rs 1.1 Crores from Velocity, a revenue-based financier, across 3 rounds of financing. The brand is also in advanced talks to raise another 6-8 Crores in Equity funding from some marquee investors and family offices based in India and the US.

Pune-based Zlade was founded in 2015 and is one of India's leading brands in the shaving and manscaping category. With a strong focus on quality, Zlade’s vast line of products such as razors, shaving kits and body hair trimmers. Zlade has also recently partnered with a European maker of quality razor blades to bring world-class shaving products to India.