[Funding roundup] Intellemo, Infinity Box, Goldsetu, Carapace raise fresh capital
YourStory brings you daily funding roundups from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Thursday, October 20, 2022.
Carapace raises $2.5M in a pre-seed round
raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round from NFX, Titan Capital, and other top investors, to its development company Starlings Lab and the launch of its test version.
The funds will be used in growing the technical team and launching the protocol.
Co-founded by Taisuke Mino and Rohit Sabnis, Carapace is building a protocol for decentralized protection against default risk in unsecured crypto loans.
The protocol will create a market that protects against default risk for under-collateralized DeFi loans and will pilot with Goldfinch, a crypto credit protocol, said the press release.
India will be a key focus for the startup in terms of hiring.
Goldsetu raises $1.1M, acquires BuymyJewel
Founded in 2021 by Vikas Verma and Anuj Sachdev,
has raised $1.1 million in additional funding as part of its extended seed round of $2.3 million.Goldsetu is a SaaS-enabled marketplace for jewellery retailers.
The raised funds will be used to scale the startup's B2B procurement offering, launch supply chain financing, invest in automation, and expand its offering and tech platform.
The round was led by 2am VC, Broom Ventures, and Magic Fund. with participation from Cloud Capital, and saw participation from prominent angels like Harshil Mathur (Razorpay), Shashank Kumar (Razorpay), Varun Alagh (Mamaearth), Akshay Saxena (Avanti), and Pankaj Raina (Zephyr Peacock).
The company also announced the acquisition of BuymyJewel, a B2B jewellery ecommerce platform. Rajat Gaur, Founder of BuymyJewel, has joined Goldsetu as a co-founder.
Goldsetu will also be launching the industry's first formal B2B BNPL product for the jewelry supply chain.
“We are proud to support the Goldsetu team as they build Goldsetu to serve Jewellery store owners and modernise the Jewellery market in India” said Jeff, General Partner, Broom Ventures.
This IIT Delhi-incubated startup is offering an air purifier you can wear
Infinity Box raises $800K in funding led by WEH Ventures
The reusable packaging platform working to replace disposable packaging,
has raised pre-seed funding of $800,000, led by WEH Ventures.The startup was co-founded by Shashwat Gangwal and Keshav Godala in 2019.
The raised funds will be used in expanding its operations and investing in onboarding restaurants and corporates.
The round witnessed participation from Nithin Kamath’s Rainmatter, Kolte Patil Family office, Ankit Kedia of Capital A, and Gaurav Thakkar of Rockstud Capital, amongst others.
“For us at Infinity Box, this funding is a bigger validation of the cause and the solution we have built to reduce the use of plastic waste," said Shashwat Gangwal in a press note.
Digital marketing startup Intellemo raises Rs 3 Cr in a seed round
Gurugram-based digital marketing platform
raises Rs 3 crore in a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures.The raised capital will be used to expand the tech team, scale video ads tech, provide instant landing pages, and integrate other ad platforms, said the press note.
The round saw participation from Kunal Shah (Founder, CRED), Soonicorn LLP, Rahool Sureka and Saurabh Aggarwal (Co-founders, Fitso), Amit Gupta, (Co-founder, Badri Ecofibers), and other notable investors.
The startup was co-founded in 2018 by Founder and CEO Saurabh Gupta, COO Tusha Agrawal, and CMO Shivam Gupta.
As a digital marketing solution provider, Intellmo is focused on supporting small business owners to scale their marketing operations.
Edtech startup TokSkill raises pre-seed funding from Elina Startup Support Pvt Ltd.
Bengaluru-based startup TokSkill has raised an undisclosed sum in the pre-seed funding round from Elina Startup Support Pvt Ltd.
Founded by Aqeel Abbas, Mo Arbaz, and Jaithra Boppana, TokSkill is a social learning platform for aspiring creators, makers, and skilled educators in multiple languages.
The platform is focused on educating Gen Z and Y to increase their productivity and transform them into creators.
The funds will be used to build a strong team, invest in core business by strengthening its technology platform, and expand its business in India, with global ambitions, said the press note.
LenDenClub Alpha launches ‘The Bharat Fintech Program,’ setting aside Rs 2 Cr for investments
, a corporate venture capital (CVC) of , has launched ‘The Bharat Fintech Program’ in partnership with Startup Réseau.
A corpus of Rs 2 crore has been set aside for investments under the initiative.
The objective is to encourage and support innovative Indian startups in semi-urban and rural areas and provide momentum to budding entrepreneurs from tier two and tier three in the Indian fintech space.
LenDenClub is a peer-to-peer lending platform, co-founded by Bhavin Patel and Dipesh Karki, in 2015.
“With the Bharat Fintech Program, we are on a mission to identify the most innovative businesses arising out of Bharat. We are talking about bringing the impact to the lives of 800 million who reside in 6 lakh villages across the geographical expanse of the country. We currently have a significant chunk of users coming from Tier II cities, semi-urban and rural areas in our P2P business. We believe that we can expand the services offered to us with the support of our investee companies. The ultimate aim is to improve rural livelihoods,” said Bhavin Patel, on the launch.
To amplify the programme's reach, LenDenClub Alpha will run start-up engagement drives in states like Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Rajasthan, Delhi, said the press release.
(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)
Edited by Kanishk Singh