Blod.in, Neuron Energy, Hexo, others bag early-stage investments
YourStory presents daily funding roundups from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Wednesday, December 14, 2022.
Healthtech startup Blod raises pre-seed funding
Chennai-based has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding from angel investors including M2P Fintech's co-founder Prabhu Rangarajan and IppoPay's Mohan K.
bitsCrunch's co-founder Vijay Pravin and CTO Ashok Vardharajan; Savitha Ramasamy, Senior Scientist, Institute for Infocomm Research, A*Star; Karthick Sivaram, Co-founder of Backspace Tech; Mohammed Farouk, Vice-President at Rela Institute; and Bhopan Krishnan, Founder of Outline Systems, also invested in the startup.
Founded by Varun Nair, Blod.in connects blood banks to hospitals to create a centralised blood management system. It hopes to use funds from the round to invest in infrastructure, and build its tech stack.
The startup recently launched the beta version of its product.
Neuron Energy to invest Rs 50 Cr in EV batteries
Manufacturer of EV two-wheelers and three-wheelers, plans to invest Rs 50 crore in producing lithium-Ion battery packs to meet the increasing demand for electric vehicles.
Of the total planned investment, Rs 35 crore will be put up by the company from its working capital, while Rs 15 crore will come from promoters and strategic partners.
Around 40% of the total investment will be used to fulfil large orders from OEMs, Neuron Energy said.
"Towards our mission of transforming the EV industry, we are planning to expand our production capacity and enhance research and development. Also, in order to further the EV 2W and 3W segment in the country, we have always been focused on producing high-quality, user-friendly batteries," said Pratik Kamdar, co-founder of Neuron Energy.
"This investment will help us equalise the demand-supply ratio for batteries," he added.
Neuron also plans to set up a mega-plant by 2025 to manufacture more EV two and three-wheelers.
Martech startup Contlo raises $3.5M
Customer data and marketing platform has raised seed funding of $3.5 million from investors such as Kae Capital, Better Capital, and Titan Capital.
A clutch of prominent angel investors such as MamaEarth's Varun Alagh, along with Razorpay's Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar also participated in the round.
Bengaluru and Delaware-based Contlo helps ecommerce and D2C brands grow quickly by targeting customers using omnichannel customer engagement tools. It uses email, SMS, Whatsapp, mobile and web notifications to enhance the shopping experience.
Contlo said it will use funds to expand its go-to-market operations, increase marketing and sales activities, hire across job functions, expand into international markets, and improve its product capabilities, and R&D.
"We believe SaaS software is getting rewritten due to three major tailwinds of AI, verticalization and product-led growth. Contlo sits at the intersection of these mega-trends...," said Gaurav Chaturvedi, Partner at Kae Capital.
AI startup Hexo raises $270K in pre-seed funding
Open-source image integration platform said it has raised a pre-seed round of $270,000 from Antler India.
Hexo is an AI-based image generation and editing platform that lets people build images as per their specific needs.
The startup was founded by Kunal Bhatia and Vignesh Baskaran, who specialises in deep learning.
"Generative AI is a new technology platform that will need a set of infrastructure, and tooling companies to lay the rails to make it easier for organisations, startups and individuals to leverage its power," said Nitin Sharma, Partner at Antler India.
Lending startup Credit Fair raises Rs 15 Cr
Digitial lender said it has raised Rs 15 crore from the State Bank of India in a bid to grow its platform and create new products.
Founded in 2018 by Aditya Damani, Credit Fair offers unsecured loan options to residents and businesses of lower-tier India at points-of-sales. It claims it will reach 5,000 active merchant partners and has disbursed loans worth Rs 10,000 to Rs 50 lakh.
It lends mainly for green energy, home renovation, healthcare, and dedication, and hopes to disburse $100 million in loans in the coming year.
The startup had earlier raised $25 million from investors including LC Nueva Alternative Investment Fund, Capital A, and others.
We Founder Circle to invest $100K-$150K in 10 startups in Telangana next year
Investment company said it plans to invest an average of $100,000 to $150,000 each in 10 startups in Telangana in 2023.
"For a lot of startup verticals like auto service, Web3, SAAS, etc, Hyderabad has become the Launchpad," said Neeraj Tyagi, Co-founder of We Founder Circle at the TiE Global Summit 2022.
"We are planning to explore deeper into verticals like—agritech, SaaS, Web3, deep-tech, EV, and AI. It is about further propelling the growth of emerging technologies and contributing to the rising tech hub in the country. We are foreseeing Hyderabad as the next “Bengaluru"," he added.
The investment firm said it will invest in over 50 startups in Telangana in the next five years.
WFC has already invested around $12 million in 33 startups in 2021, it said.
SaaS startup ProfitWheel raises Rs 10 Cr
Consumer intelligence startup says it has raised Rs 10 crore in a Pre-Series A funding round from a host of investors including Ashutosh Garg, CEO and Co-founder of Eightfold AI; Amit Singhal, former SVP at Google Inc and Head of Google Search; and Nigel Morris.
Existing investors such as Netcore Cloud also participated in the round.
ProfitWheel said it will use the fresh capital infusion to expand into the US, hire salespeople, and improve its product.
The startup was co-founded by Vivek Bhargava, Aman Khanna, and Gautam Mehra in 2020.
"ProfitWheel helps its customers release the power of their first-party data, allowing them to expand insights and unpack deep audience passions to inform and drive more effective and efficient growth strategies," said Nigel Morris, Chair of The Upside and Investis Digital, Director at Landvault, and former CEO at Dentsu Americas and EMEA.
"It is helping brands and businesses transform growth opportunities from product and geographic priorities to creative strategy and media targeting," he added.
Seed-stage accelerator Startup Stairs invests Rs 9.6 Cr in various startups
Gurugram-based said it has raised Rs 5 crore from seed-stage accelerator Startup Stairs after winning the company's 'Growth Acceleration Program with 4i'.
The highest funding of Rs 5 crore was awarded to Kart4U, followed by Rs 2 crore to upskilling aggregator platform R Sai; Rs 1 crore to RATH, an auto and taxi-driver aggregator platform; Rs 1 crore to Soltech; and Rs 60 lakh to Maa Boli, an upskilling platform for the media and entertainment industry.
"I am glad that we were able to provide these impressive startups working for the upliftment of the informal sector in India with the support they need to make a mark and fuel the economy in the years to come," said Deep Sisai, Advisor at Startup Stairs.
Pet grooming platform Zoivane raises Rs 5 Cr
Gujarat-based pet training and grooming startup said it has raised Rs 5 crore in a seed round from GVFL, Ahmedabad.
Backed by We Founder Circle, Zoivane Pets says it hopes to utilise the funds to hire more people, market its products, and further develop its products.
Founded in 2019 by Nishma Singhal and Kshitij Singhal, Zoivane provides pet training, sells pet products such as treats and grooming items, and grooming services across the country.
The startup claims it has sold more than 50,000 units of products, to date, and has a presence in 300-plus cities. It also retails on Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, Nykaa etc.
(Corrects second para under headline 'Lending startup Credit Fair raises Rs 15 Cr' to clarify company aims to reach 5,000 active merchant partners, and not has already enrolled 5,000 active partners; corrects 4th paragraph under same headline to say $25 million, not Rs 25 million)
Edited by Kanishk Singh