Startup news and updates: daily roundup (February 20, 2023)

upGrad to add 8 new experience centres in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

Edtech unicorn upGrad is set to launch eight new Offline Experience Centres (OEC) in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to accelerate its regional penetration in FY24. With six existing touchpoints, upGrad has recorded a 400% increase in counselling sessions during previous January to this year.  

The company's 35+ pan India centres have dedicated and skilled counsellors/coaches to guide visitors, potential learners and their families through the market trends, explain to them how upskilling could add another layer of expertise, and also address certain other academic and non-academic queries.   

D2C ethnic wear brand Shobitam acquires fashion brand ‘House of Blouse’ 

Global ethnic wear brand Shobitam acquired Indian fashion house brand designing custom and designer blouses, House of Blouse, for an undisclosed sum. With this, Shobitam would be able to expand its product offering and provide customers with the experience world over.

In the future, Shobitam and House of Blouse will aim to expand their presence globally and add more products to their portfolio to create a ethnic brand from India to the world.

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Y-Combinator, Rapyd Ventures backed Decentro expands to Singapore

Banking and payments platform Decentro has set its foot in the Asia-Pacific region with the commencement of the Singapore operations.

The company has also brought Saksham Shubham, a former Grab senior member and WingPay Chief Business Officer, as Business Head for South East Asia to drive the business operations in the Asia-Pacific region. With over 10 years of experience centered around building brands and businesses from scratch, Saksham has a penchant for understanding businesses, scaling them, and building operationally profitable models.

Decentro has clocked an average of 120 million annualised API transactions across 2022. The platform said it has grown by more than 35x since its seed round in October 2020, with its valuation growing 3.3x. The firm recently closed its Series A funding round of $4.7 million from investors such as Rapyd Ventures, Leonis VC from Europe, and Uncorrelated Ventures based out of California, US. 

Molbio Diagnostics acquires majority stake in Prognosys Medical Systems

Molbio Diagnostics, a unicorn in the medical devices sector and inventor of multi-disease real-time PCR platform Truenat has acquired a 70% stake in Bengaluru-based Prognosys Medical Systems, a manufacturer of the Prorad range of digital X-Ray units and C-arms and developer of a comprehensive digital health platform.

This acquisition further strengthens Molbio’s vision of taking health care to the people and adds one more significant weapon to its armoury to help India and the rest of the world, battle against deadly communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Prognosys builds radiology and fluoroscopy solutions under the brand name PRORAD at its facility based out of Bengaluru.

Molbio and Prognosys are already working together on mobile solutions for end-to-end screening and diagnosis of MTB and e-clinics for delivering comprehensive health care to the last mile.

Tiger Global-backed WoW Momo appoints IFIM alumnus Mithun Appaiah as CEO 

QSR brand Wow! Momo Foods has appointed Mithun Appaiah as CEO of its FMCG business. He holds an MBA in Business Administration and Management from IFIM Business School Bangalore.

An FMCG expert in food and beverage industry, Mithun Appaiah has experience spanning across the spectrum of marketing, sales, key account management, customer marketing, business development, SCM, R&D, P&L management, developing new business channels, ecommerce, and startup acceleration.

Over the last two decades, he has worked across verticals with brands like Nestle, UB Group, and Britannia and has also been instrumental in building brands like ID Fresh foods and Sumeru.

In his new role, Mithun Appaiah will use his expertise across brands and roles to build an FMCG vertical with categories across Momo’s, sauces, noodles, beverages, and many more. 

He will also focus on creating a vertical for select global markets where the branded range of WoW would be marketed.

TVS Capital wins BFSI Investor of the Year Apex Award

TVS Capital Funds has won the prestigious BFSI Investor of the Year Apex Award, instituted by Venture Intelligence, a leading data service provider. At the annual PE-VC Summit of Venture Intelligence, which saw the participation of more than 200 delegates from the PE-VC Industry, TCF was awarded the Apex award.

TVS Capital Funds is a growth private equity fund and has invested in more than 35 companies across its 3 funds. The firm is investing currently from their 3rd fund, a ₹ 2,000 Cr fund. TCF has invested in 15 companies in the financial services space, the most recent being their investments in PhonePe and Insurance Dekho.

Veefin crosses $12B in annualised disbursements in Supply Chain Finance; appoints over 25 banking experts to expand global footprint

Supply Chain Finance platform Veefin claims to have crossed $12 billion in annualised disbursements globally. The tech firm has seen a 146% Y-o-Y growth in disbursements through its SCF suite since Jan 2022. 

Veefin has partnered with 25+ experts, each with 20+ years of experience across Banking, Financial Solutions and SCF to bolster its market outreach across these regions.  

The company has a full-stack platform offering anchor/vendor/dealer onboarding, credit underwriting, and  transaction management services across the broadest range of SCF products (including Embedded  finance and Deep Tier Vendor Financing - lower-tier vendors avail finance based on Tier 1 approved  invoices).

Freshworks appoints Sandie Overtveld as Senior Vice President for APJ & MEA

Software-as-a-Service company Freshworks has appointed Sandie Overtveld as the Senior Vice President for its Asia-Pacific, Japan (APJ) and Middle East and Africa (MEA) markets. The new role will be based in Singapore.

Overtveld will look after Freshworks' growth efforts in the APJ and MEA region and work with brands to aid the overall focus of the business on customers and employees. This will involve collaborations with companies to evolve and elevate their customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies. 

One Friday onboards Neha Dhupia as brand ambassador

One Friday has roped in film actor, former Miss India, MTV Roadies leade, Neha Dhupia, as its brand ambassador

Neha has been an active part of the One Friday journey since its inception.

"I clearly remember when the first set of products from One Friday arrived for both my kids—I fell in love. I became a fan of the brand and have never looked back since. Honestly it feels like the universe conspired to have me be associated with them, as their brand ambassador," says Neha.

SaaS startup GetWork raises Rs 7 Cr in Pre-Series A

SaaS startup GetWork has raised Rs 7 crore in a Pre-Series A round from a clutch of investors such as Samarthya Investment Advisors, NVS Wealth Managers, and Artha Venture Fund.

Investors including Betterplace’s Pravin Agarwala, NoBroker’s Saurabh Garg, and DSP Group Family Office’s Shuchi Kothari also participated in the round.

The Gurugram-based startup said it will use the funding to onboard 2,500-plus colleges, over 12,000 employers, and expand into international markets.

Founded in 2019 by Rahul Veerwal and Sumit Gupta, GetWork is a B2B SaaS platform that helps college graduates find jobs at startups and with corporates based on their skill sets and experience.

(This article was updated to clarify Veefin crossed $12B in annualised disbursements.)