The Ayurveda Co, OmniBRx, and Raaho raise early-stage funding
YourStory presents daily funding roundups from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Monday, March 13, 2023.
The Ayurveda Co receives $12.2 million in Series A
Lifestyle direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand raised $12.2 million (nearly Rs 100 crore) in a Series A round led by consumer-centric fund Sixth Sense Ventures. Actress Kajal Agarwal, some startup founders, and venture debts participated in the round.
The company will use the funds to enhance product manufacturing, invest in research and development, and expand its offline presence. It will also invest in digitising Ayurveda through an app, expected to be launched by mid-2023.
Founded by Shreedha Singh and Param Bhargava in 2020, the company offers Ayurveda-based products across face, skin, and hair segments. The team, comprising over 60 people, claims to have sold over two lakh units to over a lakh customers. It has 20 brand outlets, and its products are available in over 5,000 retail stores.
OmniBRx Biotechnologies raised Rs 30 Cr in Series A from SIDBI Venture Capital
Bioprocess engineering company Biotechnologies received Rs 30 crore in a Series A funding round from SIDBI Venture Capital.
With this round, the company is looking to expand its business in the international markets, besides investing in capacity addition and building manufacturing facilities to ramp up its production capabilities.
Delhi-based boutique investment bank Indus Capital was the sole financial advisor to OmniBRx for this deal.
"The CellBRx Single-use Bioreactors from OmniBRx is the world’s largest and most efficient vaccine manufacturing platform for large-scale vaccines and viral vector production. OmniBRx is also the creator of the world's first integrated seed train development platforms in close-loop sequentially programmed bioreactor systems,” said Ravindra Patel, Founder and CEO of the Ahmedabad-based company.
Raaho raises Rs 20 Cr in pre-Series A extension round
Trucking marketplace raised Rs 20 crore in an extension to its pre-Series A funding round from existing investors led by Inflection Point Ventures, Roots Ventures, Blume Founders Fund. and angel investors, including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Kunal Shah, K Krishna Kumar, Venkatesh Vijayaraghavan, and Aseem Khurana.
Raaho said the additional capital infusion increased its valuation 4X over the last year at Rs 396 crore. The company will utilise the funds to enter new markets in India and bolster its data science and machine learning capabilities.
It is present in over 15 Indian cities, including the National Capital Region, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai, Kanpur, and Ahmedabad.
Edited by Suman Singh