Startup news and updates: daily roundup (July 4, 2023)

Funding

Frigate raises $1.5M seed round

Manufacturing startup Frigate has secured seed round funding of $1.5 million led by Arali Ventures, with participation from Capital-A, Java Capital, and other strategic angel investors.

The capital will enable Frigate to expand its digital manufacturing ecosystem and better serve its global customer base, it said in a statement,

Frigate was founded in 2021 by Tamizhinian Vasanthan, Karthikeyan Prakash, Chandrasekar C, and Iniyavan Vasanthan. It operates as a B2B cloud manufacturing platform, offering a range of manufacturing services to medium and large-scale companies worldwide.

50Fin raises $525K pre-seed round

Fintech company 50Fin has raised Rs 4.25 crore from 100X.VC and other investors.

The funding round was led by 100X.VC, Keynote Capital, and Arun Venkatachalam, with participation from angel investors including KRS Jamwal, Aniket Nikumb (Founding Member of Mensa Brands), Manish Kumar (Founder of KredX), Sumit Khadria (CFO of Ebix), Rajesh Sawhney (Founder GSF Accelerator), Dinesh Agarwal (Founder, IndiaMart), and others.

The funds will be utilised to enhance the company's embedded solutions, improve its product portfolio, and enhance customer servicing, the startup said in a statement.

Founded in 2022 by Aditya Srinivas Prasad and Darpan Samir Tanna, 50Fin specialises in providing instant loans against mutual funds and shares to its customers.

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Other news

Instoried launches AI gen tool for videos

Instoried, an AI-based content analysis firm, has introduced Cathie.ai, an AI-based video generation and analysis tool. Cathie offers users the ability to analyse existing videos and swiftly generate videos using text prompts, the startup said in a statement.

Similar to ChatGPT, the tool automatically analyses the provided text input to produce high-quality videos that align with the content.

Cathie's video generation tool can be particularly useful for digital marketers, content creators, and educators seeking to develop impactful short videos driven by narrative, according to the startup.

Enigma, EZFinance partner to finance electric scooters

Enigma, a Make-in-India electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer based in Madhya Pradesh, has formed a strategic partnership with EZFinance, a financial institution.

Enigman said this collaboration will strengthen its ability to provide financing support to its dealers and ensures a streamlined purchasing experience for customers nationwide.

Enigma's dealers across the country will now have exclusive access to EZFinance's extensive range of financing solutions.

Pincode app launches in 10 cities

Pincode, a local shopping app built on the ONDC platform, has officially launched in 10 cities across India.

The cities where Pincode is now available include Mumbai, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Kolkata. The expansion aims to enable consumers in these cities to purchase groceries and order food from local shops and restaurants through the Pincode app.

The Pincode app was launched in Bengaluru in April, where it has already delivered over one lakh orders, according to a statement.

Meesho and Vision & AI Lab collaborate on Gen AI project

Meesho has entered into a one-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Vision & AI Lab (VAL) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for industry-academia collaboration.

The primary objective of this partnership is to support Meesho in advancing developments in significant domains such as generative artificial intelligence and multimodal large language models (LLMs).

As per the MoU, Meesho's data scientists will have the opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers from the IISc's Vision & AI Lab. The joint efforts will be focused on multimodal representation learning and generative AI capabilities, with the aim of making a substantial impact on the ecommerce industry.

Quick Heal appoints new CEO

Quick Heal Technologies, a global cybersecurity solutions provider, has appointed Vishal Salvi as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective immediately.

With over 29 years of experience in the cybersecurity and information technology domains, Salvi held key positions at Infosys. He served as the Global Chief Information Security Officer, Business Head of Cybersecurity Service Line, and Senior Vice President.

During his tenure, Salvi played a pivotal role in shaping the information and cybersecurity strategy for the Infosys Group.

Pepper Money hires new CFO

Pepper Money India, a subsidiary of the global consumer finance company Pepper Group, has appointed of Hardeep Singh as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

In his role, Hardeep will be responsible for driving financial strategy and management to accelerate the growth of Pepper Money India's business.

This leadership appointment comes as Pepper Group recently made a commitment to invest $150 million in India. The investment aims to introduce personal finance products to the rapidly expanding market of young aspirational consumers in Tier II and III cities.

Garuda Aerospace secures order for 400 Agri Kisan Drones

Drone manufacturer Garuda Aerospace has secured an order of 400 Agri Kisan Drones from the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) in the first quarter of the year.

This order has expanded Garuda Aerospace's total order book to 10,000 drones for this year within three months.

The Garuda Kisan Drones, which have received dual certification from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), will be showcased at the IFFCO Drone Yatra in Karnataka.

These advanced drones are equipped with technology that enables farmers to utilise nano urea spraying through Precision Agriculture Drones, thereby maximising efficiency and productivity in their farming practices.

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