Winston, Simple Energy, Mensa Brands, others raise funding

Simple Energy raises $20 million

Electric vehicle and clean energy startup Simple Energy has raised over $20 million in an ongoing bridge round. The company said it will use the funding to ramp up production of its premium and affordable electric scooter, the Simple ONE.

Since opening booking slots for this scooter, it claims to have received over one lakh bookings. The investors who participated in this round are, Dr Arokiaswamy Velumani (Founder, Thyrocare Technologies Limited), Ashwin Hinduja (Gokaldas Group), Sanjay and Sandeep Wadhawa (Owner of Nash Industries), Sripriya Kalyanasundaram (Chief Strategy and Evangelist to CEO’s office, Lambda Test), Purple Moon Ventures, along with existing investors like Manish Bharti and Vasavi Green Tech.

Founded in 2019, the company recently inaugurated a facility in Shoolagiri, Tamil Nadu, with an initial Rs 100 crore investment.

Mensa Brands raises Rs 300 crore in debt from TradeCred

Bengaluru-based Mensa Brands has raised Rs 300 crore in debt from TradeCred, a Mumbai-based alternative debt platform. 

In a statement, the company said it plans to use the funds for brand acquisitions, product development, supply chain integration, and working capital investment. 

"We are pioneering the path to an industry-first tech-led house of brands with our five breakout category leaders," said Ananth Narayanan, Founder and CEO of Mensa Brands. "With this additional capital, we will be able to double down on our growth ambition." 

Fifty ultra-high-net-worth individuals collectively participated in the Rs 300 crore financing arrangement.

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Winston secures funding Rs 1 crore from Shark Tank

Winston, an emerging personal care brand that brings salon care at home while integrating technology into the personal care routine, raised Rs 1 crore during the second season of Shark Tank.

The beauty startup is funded by investors Anupam Mittal and Vineeta Singh for equity of 10% on a valuation of Rs 10 crore.

Winston India was started in 2021 to provide high-quality products and modify the way women see personal care. The brand introduced easy-to-use high-end technology-embedded products with which individuals can access professional beauty results at home.

It offers all technology-driven beauty solutions, from facial care to body care, to all top appliances, including epilators, eyebrow trimmers, blackhead removers, hair stylers, and much more to revitalize your beauty.

Surat-based RoyalPOS raises $60K from TVS Electronics Limited, Chennai

RoyalPOS, a Surat-based B2B SaaS cloud startup, has raised seed funding of $60,000 from TVS Electronics Limited, Chennai. 

It helps small and medium size neighbourhood restaurants and retail stores to digitise their business—billing, inventory, payments, and reporting—from a single outlet or multiple outlets. RoyalPOS says it has already digitised 1,300+ businesses across more than 15 countries.

In a statement, Co-founder Mayuri Ruparel said the startup is receiving great responses from the market since the beginning. It has already recorded 50,000 app downloads and 16,000+ users in a very short span of time. "We have been bootstrapped so far, and now we are aiming to scale the business in multiple folds," she added.

Lighthouse Canton leads venture debt funding round in LoanTap

LoanTap Financial Technologies (LFTPL) has raised Rs 24 crore in a venture debt funding round led by Lighthouse Canton through its Category-II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF). 

As part of the funding, Loan Tap has received one of the first cheques for its digital lending platform, LTFLoW. Lighthouse Canton’s total share in this round amounts to Rs 15 crore, among other investors.

The AIF—part of Lighthouse Canton’s Southeast Asia and India venture debt strategy—has a capacity of Rs 550 crore and a greenshoe option of an additional Rs 550 crore, and it successfully reached a first close of Rs 155.4 crore earlier this year. 

LoanTap offers end-to-end lending through LTFLoW for sourcing, delivery, and asset management. This AI-driven technology platform has been adopted by over 30 ecommerce sourcing partners.

Pickmyad raises Rs 1.3 crore in funding

PickMyAd, an influencer marketing platform, has raised Rs. 1.3 crores in its second pre-seed funding led by Saravanakumar Kandasamy (SK), co-founder at Cookr.

The funds will be used by the firm to expand its services across India and to build out its tech, as per Prabhu Das, Co-founder and CEO of Pickmyad. It will also look to to strengthen its booking platform by introducing additional modules that help collaboration and creator tools that will enable the influencers to monetise in a number of ways.

According to the company, it has gained significant traction in the south of India. The platform has handled influencer marketing campaigns for over 100 brands. The platform’s database extends to over 5000+ influencers on Instagram and Youtube, till date it said in a statement.

(The story will be updated with the latest news throughout the day.)