Startup news and updates: daily roundup (August 23, 2022)

LegalPay elevates Kashish Grover as Chief Operating Officer

Legaltech startup LegalPay has promoted Kashish Grover as its Chief Operating Officer, who will now lead the startup's domestic and global operations, accelerating its long-term growth strategy.

Kashish, who joined LegalPay as Chief Investment Officer in January 2021, will be responsible for building new initiatives within legal payments infrastructure, both domestic and international. He has previously worked with PWC and Goldman Sachs in the deal advisory and investment management division.

Founder and CEO Kundan Shahi, said, “Kashish has been successfully leading both our verticals—litigation financing and interim financing—and has closed landmark transactions in both during the last two years. As we double down on growth while consistently increasing revenues, Kashish’s experience as a resilient leader and organisation builder will play a pivotal role.”

LegalPay, backed by marquee investors such as 9unicorns, Amity Incubation Fund, Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, and other family offices, raised its seed round in April 2021 and a pre-Series A round in January 2022.

KreditBee partners with Cashfree Payments to offer online checkout finance

Fintech startups KreditBee and Cashfree Payments have partnered to offer customers an option to convert their online purchases into EMIs at the time of checkout for non-credit card holders.

Cashfree Payments’ merchants can offer this cardless EMI option to all eligible and new customers with a KreditBee app. The checkout finance loans range between Rs 2,400 and Rs 2 lakh with a tenure of three to 18 months. 

Powerplay reports 3X growth in OS business

Construction management startup Powerplay reported a 3X growth in its OS (operating system) business. All three modules—task, labour, and material management—in the application have seen a surge in usage in the first half of 2022, compared to the whole of CY 2021.

Powerplay had 12,000+ OS businesses using the platform from January-June 2022, compared to 4,400 in the entire CY 2021.

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Edtech unicorn upGrad increases ESOP pool size by 300K options

IIT Madras Incubation Cell, NativeLead Foundation partner to help Tamil Nadu startups

IITM Incubation Cell has partnered with Nativelead Foundation to help Tamil Nadu startups. The partnership will identify, nurture, and help scale startups from institutes, and incubators, particularly in Tier II, III, and IV cities, and local entrepreneurs address local challenges and build solutions for wider impact.

IITMIC and NativeLead will provide mentorship, market access, training for incubated startups at IITMIC and its partner institutes/incubators across the state. The major focus will be on domains, including agritech, retail, healthtech, edutech, and cleantech, with social impact and ESG compliance.  

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[Funding roundup] Winuall, Indium Finance, and Growfitter raise early-stage deals

T-Hub partners with Hyderabad Angels to drive venture investment opportunities for startups

Through its vast network, Hyderabad Angels will provide access to investment opportunities from India, the US, the UK, Singapore, Dubai, and the UAE, among other countries, to the startups.

It will also have a presence at the new facility of T-Hub, creating substantial synergies between Hyderabad Angels and T-Hub stakeholders, especially the startups. The collaboration paves the way for the technology-driven startup with growth opportunities and global exposure.

The partnership will empower T-Hub entrepreneurs to scale globally enduring homegrown technology startups with access to capital, mentorship, and guidance from the Hyderabad Angels. Besides, this will enable T-Hub to introduce Hyderabad Angels to its tech innovation ecosystem and facilitate exclusive meetings with startups and other stakeholders.

Bizongo expands senior leadership to strengthen its product offering

Bizongo appointed former Freshworks Director Deepanjan Chattopadhyay as its Vice President of Product.

The announcement follows a series of acquisitions, including Clean Slate and Hexa to enhance Bizongo’s tech stack.

Deepanjan’s appointment will help bolster the startup's efforts of delivering an integrated experience to its customers, enhancing product offerings to digitally transform the entire supply chain for MSMEs, and driving improved business performance.

In his new role, Deepanjan will oversee the product strategy and implementation with a keen emphasis on managing market-focused product development and driving innovation across Bizongo’s product roadmap.

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upGrad launches job-enabled courses for college freshers and working professionals

Protium crosses over Rs 3,000 Cr in disbursements

Fintech startup Protium has disbursed over Rs 3,000 crore in the last two years and has built a strong loan book of Rs 1,750 crore.

The startup caters to the credit requirements of MSMEs, consumers, and educational institutions across India with its wide array of financial offerings, including secured, unsecured, and platform-specific cashflow-based products.

Protium has serviced more than 500,000 customers, of which over 100,000 are MSMEs who have accessed credit in the range of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 crore.

The company claims that 80% of its loan book is secured/asset-backed with the lowest NPA of 0.22% as of the end of July 22. It has over 80 branches spread across over 60 cities.