Funding

CapitalSetu raises $350K in seed round of funding

Financial Services startup CapitalSetu, has raised $350k in a seed round of funding led by Real Time Angel Fund with participation from other angel investors such as Ashish Kacholia, Vikas Khemani, Rajat Mehta, Sunaina Bhattacharya, and others.

CapitalSetu will use the secured funds for new technology products, hiring, business-related activity and growth of the market share. This startup is an aggregator in supply chain financing focused on making credit available for MSME and Non-MSME Corporates.

"We are thrilled to have secured this seed funding round, which is a significant milestone for us. The supply chain financing market is highly competitive, but we believe that our user-friendly platform, competitive prices, and personalised approach set us apart,” said Pankaj Goel, Founder & CEO - CapitalSetu.

Others

Marico Innovation Foundation announces new head

Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF) has announced Suranjana Ghosh as the new Head of the Foundation. She has taken over from Priya Kapadia and will be reporting to Harsh Mariwala, Founder, Marico Innovation Foundation.

Suranjana is an expert in International Development, Business Transformation, Brand and Product Marketing with 20 years of experience across FMCG (L'Oréal, Kellogg), broadcast media (BBC World News, CNBC-TV18) and the social impact sector (Dasra, Newsworthy Studio, Power for All). In the social impact sector, she has contributed to projects funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation, CIFF and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Crayons Advertising set Rs 62-65 as price band for IPO

Crayons Advertising, a homegrown integrated advertising agency, said that it had set the price band of Rs. 62-65 per share (Rs 10 paid up) for its forthcoming public offering through the book-building route.

The issue, which will open on May 22, 2023, will close for public subscription on May 25, 2023. Of the total 64.30 lakhs equity share offered, 30.52 lakh shares for QIB, 9.18 lakh shares for HNI and 21.38 shares will be provided to the public. The company will raise Rs 41.79 crore at the upper price band of the issue. The public issue proceeds will be used for capital expenditure on infrastructure & cutting-edge technology.

Incorporated in 1986, Crayons Advertising has been promoted by Kunal Lalani. The company provides an end-to-end ad-tech communication solutions platform for advertising media services consisting of brand strategy, events, digital media, Print Media, and Outdoor (OOH) Media services.

Israel partners with IIT Madras for water tech

The government of Israel is partnering with India through the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) to establish an ‘India - Israel Center of Water Technology’ (CoWT) in Water Resources Management and Water Technologies at IIT Madras.

A key objective of this new centre is to ensure the implementation of Israel’s best technologies being practised in a tailor-made context for the Indian requirements and work on sustainable management solutions for the Indian water sector.

The governments of India and Israel, through the India-Israel Centre of Water Technology at IIT Madras, will also work towards enhancing cooperation in specific areas of capacity-building of Indian water professionals at all levels, demonstrate the projects with latest technologies and put up exhibition of Israeli water companies.

The two Governments also intend to jointly identify specific projects relating to integrated water resources management, urban water supply and non-revenue water, water and sewage recycling, IoT solution and online monitoring, water harvesting, smart data management and AI, among other areas, with the objective of demonstrating most advanced technologies in the field.

Myntra onboards NYX Professional Makeup

Myntra has on-boarded NYX Professional Makeup, a leading player in the color cosmetics industry, further strengthening its catalogue of international offerings in the Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) segment.

To add to the brand's visibility on the platform, Myntra will enable NYX with an Online Brand Store (OBS), while also activating its social commerce propositions, M-Live and Myntra Studio for the launch of the brand.

Cashfree Payments forms partnership with Tazapay

Cashfree Payments, a payments and API banking company, has partnered with Tazapay, Singapore-based cross-border payments company to facilitate the transactions of Indian exporters

The partnership allows Tazapay to settle all cross-border payments directly to Indian exporters' local bank accounts in Rupees (INR) in one business day. Previously, Indian exporters faced challenges with e-FIRS (Foreign Inward Remittance Statement) generation, which required 2-3 weeks and multiple bank follow-ups. With this partnership, Cashfree Payments will provide e-FIRS to Tazapay merchants, complete with remitter & buyer details, for all their transactions within one business day.

Betterhalf achieves $2 million revenue run rate

Betterhalf, a matrimony app has claimed it has achieved an annualised revenue of $2 million for FY23 and aims to touch $5 million for current fiscal.

According to Betterhalf, it has recorded more than 3X surge in the number of registered users in nine months with 2,56,130 users in FY23 with an increase in website traffic from 30k to 535k users and mobile users jumping from 400k to 600k during the same period.

Betterhalf gains traction from across the country with Delhi as the leading state followed by Mumbai and Bangalore in driving the maximum number of users on the platform. The startup claimed this business growth has come after the platform’s recent foray into the wedding market. It has embedded online matchmaking, courtship services, and wedding planning services in one super app.

CIIC bags award for ESG related initiatives

Crescent Innovation & Incubation Council (CIIC), a private startup incubator, has bagged the ”ESG Rising Star Award” from UBI Global (Sweden) during the World Incubation Summit held in Belgium.

CIIC has been chosen as the Rising Star based on its performance in supporting sustainable startups, women startups, livelihood startups, social impact startups, Cleantech startups & circular economy startups & governance mechanism.

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