Investorey, Blockfenders raise funding in early-stage deals
YourStory presents daily funding roundups from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Thursday, February 9, 2023.
Turno raises $13.8M in Series A led by B Capital, Quona Capital
, a platform for commercial electric vehicle (EV) distribution and financing, said it has raised $13.8 million in Series A funding co-led by global venture capital firms B Capital and Quona Capital.
Existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners and Avaana Capital, along with new investors Alteria Capital and InnoVen Capital, also participated in the round.
The Bengaluru-based startup will use the capital to build a proprietary battery technology platform that would help repurpose EV batteries to large-scale energy storage systems—a move it believes would result in reduced costs, which would make EV ownership cheaper.
Aptos partners with Chingari to expand India presence
Layer-1 blockchain has partnered with , specifically with its GARI protocol, to expand its India presence. Aptos has infused undisclosed equity funding into Chingari in order to do so.
This also allows Chingari a chance to diversify its base beyond Solana and gives its users options to pick between multiple protocols.
In the pipeline are plans to do roadshows, hackathons, and other physical events across India. GARI will also replicate similar products on Aptos, already on its Solana ecosystem, including Decentralised Applications (DApps), wallets, and other products with interoperable features.
Investorey raises $1M in seed round
, a real estate investment aggregator platform, has raised $1 million in a mix of both equity and debt in its seed funding round.
The round saw participation from Sumit Gupta (Co-founder, CoinDCX), Deepak Ahlawat (Founder, Gameskraft), Nikhil Bhandarka (Founder, Panthera Peak Capital), Sahil Kejriwal (Managing Director and CEO, GSE Renewables), Ahana Gautam (CEO and Co-founder, Open Secret), and Harshit Sharma (Co-founder of 56 Secure), among others. The debt funding was led by Panthera Peak Capital.
The startup will use the funds to "expand its real estate investments, improve transaction technology, develop market insights, and risk assessment tools".
Founded in 2021 by Manisheel Gautam and Shikhar Daydar, Bengaluru-based Investorey enables individuals to invest in real estate, including commercial and residential real estate, farmland, and renewable energy assets, with capital as low as Rs 5,000.
Blockfenders raises $1.5 million in pre-seed funding
Data analytics startup raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round from a bunch of institutional and angel investors on Thursday.
Blume Ventures, Together Fund, Veda VC, Behind Genius Ventures, Better Capital, Arka Venture Labs, Global Devc, FortyTwo, Eximius Ventures, GSF Fund, Pointone, Upsparks, and Persistent Systems' Anand Deshpande, engineering leader at Microsoft Rashid Mayes, IndiaMART Founder and CEO Dinesh Agarwal, among others participated in the round.
The startup, founded in 2022, plans to use the funds to expand its team, build new capabilities, and increase its presence in industries, including healthcare, banking and financial services, enterprises, and technology.
Co-founders Viraj Phanse (CEO) and Niranjan Ingale (CTO) started Blockfenders to make it easier to securely exchange data across borders.
Recode Studios raises undisclosed pre-Series A round
D2C cosmetics and skincare brand raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A round led by investor Sanjay Katkar. Founded by Dheeraj Bansal and Rahul Sachdeva in 2018, the company is now valued at Rs 100 crore, the company said in a statement.
The Ludhiana-registered company, which gained fame in the second season of Shark Tank India, said it will utilise the funds to hire senior vertical leadership and strengthen its team, scale up its research and development efforts and expand its product range.
Co-founder and Director Dheeraj said they want to also use the funds to expand its retail presence by launching new stores and outlets across the country.
ZOFF bags Rs 1 Cr from boAt's Aman Gupta on Shark Tank India 2
Spice brand Zone of Fresh Food (ZOFF), part of Asquare Food and Beverages Pvt. Ltd, raised Rs 1 crore from Aman Gupta, Co-founder and CMO of boAt Lifestyle, in the second season of Shark Tank India. Aman now owns 1.5% equity in the company.
The company, bootstrapped until now, is valued at Rs 80 crore with the funding round. will deploy the funds to diversify its product offerings, increase marketing efforts to acquire new users, and scale its business.
ZOFF claims to be India's first brand to use air-classifying mills to grind its spices that supposedly maintains "the original purity, oil, aroma, and pungency of the products". It says it is also the first in the country to use air-tight packets that can be resealed such that the contents need not be transferred to containers.
TABP Snacks and Beverages raises Rs 20 Cr in pre-Series A round
Coimbatore-based TABP Snacks and Beverages raised Rs 20 crore in a pre-Series A funding round led by LC Nueva AIF, managed by LC Nueva Investment Partners, and angel investor Arun Mukherjee. Koushik Chatterjee (CFO of Tata Steel) and Aniruddha Sarkar (Chief Investment Officer of Quest Investment Advisors) also participated in the round.
The company, which sells beverages at Rs 10 and snacks at Rs 5 targeting low-ticket customers, will use the funds for geographical expansions, research and development, and increasing production capacity.
TABP said it is on track to achieve Rs 100 crore in gross merchandise value in FY23. Set up less than four years ago by Prabhu Gandhikumar, it operates in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Odisha.
Acceldata bags $50M in Series C funding
Enterprise data observability platform raised $50 million in Series C funding led by March Capital, supported by Sanabil Investments, Industry Ventures, and existing investor Insight Partners.
The company will use the funds for accelerating innovation and expanding go-to-market efforts for its Data Observability Platform.
Acceldata will also use the fresh round to further expand its footprint into the Global 2000, the top 2,000 public companies in the world, besides supporting the company’s existing partnerships with Snowflake, Databricks, and leading data and analytics services providers, including Wipro and others.
It also said it is expanding its integrations with cloud service providers and independent software vendors.
With this, the San Jose-based company has raised close to $100 million over four rounds. It counts Lightspeed, Sorenson Ventures, and Emergent Ventures among its other investors.
(The story will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)
Edited by Suman Singh