Startup news and updates: Daily Roundup (November 17, 2023)

Funding News

Comfort clothing startup Happie Curves bags funding from angel investors

Gurugram-based plus-size innerwear and comfort clothing startup Happie Curves has raised an angel funding of Rs 20 lakh against 30% equity dilution from two prominent startup founders-cum-angel investors–Rikant Pittie, Co-founder of EaseMyTrip and Aparna Thyagarajan, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Shobitam Inc.

The equity funding deal was secured by Happie Curves through their recent participation in the show Indian Angels streamed on Jio Cinema.

The startup, which has remained bootstrapped since inception, will utilise the funds to fuel various strategic interventions aimed at growing and expanding its business operations and brand value, and for bringing its products to a wider audience base nationwide.

“These investments in Happie Curves reaffirms and strengthens our belief that every woman deserves to feel good from outside and within. And to enable that, diverse body type inclusive clothing is the way to go. Beyond the funding support, the immense experience and knowledge of these Angels will help us to learn valuable entrepreneurial lessons, grow, and be able to scale the brand rapidly and efficiently in the upcoming months and years,” said Sonal Somani, Founder, Happie Curves.

Vaastu ghee aces maximum investment of 2crore at fundraising show, Indian Angels

Indian startups showcased their innovation prowess on the 3rd and 4th episodes of Indian Angels, the angel investment show on OTT where viewers can also invest in the participating startups.

HESEOS secured 25 lakhs for 5% equity and 25 lakhs debt for 9.5% RoI from Ankit Agrawal and Kunal Kishore. REGRIP secured 50 lakhs for 1% equity from Aparna Thyagarajan and Rikant Pittie, while SHAKTI secured 75 lakhs for 9% equity from Aparna Thyagarajan, Ajinkya Firodia, and Rikant Pittie.

Vastu Ghee claimed the season's largest funding, securing Rs 2 crore at 2.67% equity from a consortium of five influential angels - Rikant Pittie, Kunal Kishore, Ankit Agrawal, Shreedha Singh, and Ajinkya Firodia, pooling their investments collectively.

The distinguished panel of angel investors featured Ajinkya Firodia, Managing Director Kinetic Group; Ankit Agrawal, Founder and CEO InsuranceDekho; Aparna Thyagarajan, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Shobitam; Kunal Kishore, Founder of Value 360; Rikant Pittie, Co-founder EaseMyTrip; and Shreedha Singh, CEO and Co-founder of T.A.C – The Ayurveda Co.

Other News

New Relic deepens relationship with AWS to provide AI monitoring

New Relic, the all-in-one observability platform for engineers, announced that New Relic AI Monitoring (AIM), an APM solution for AI-powered applications, has now integrated with Amazon Bedrock, a fully-managed service by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that makes foundation models from leading AI companies accessible via an API to build and scale generative AI applications.

AWS customers can now use New Relic to gain greater visibility and insights across the AI stack, making it easier to troubleshoot and optimise their applications for performance, quality, and cost.

AI tech stacks include new components like large language models and vector data stores, and generate additional telemetry to track such as quality and cost. AIM solves these new challenges by bringing APM to the AI stack.

Klub backed Daalchini aims to cross ₹100 crore ARR in one year

Retail tech startup Daalchini Technologies has said it aims to cross ₹100 crore ARR in the next 12 months. The startup, founded in 2018 by ex-Paytm executives Prerna Kalra and Vidya Bhushan, and backed by revenue-based financing company Klub, operates through a network of more than 1,600 vending machines across 45+ cities in India.

These IoT-enabled 'phygital' (physical+digital) vending machines and smart stores are transforming the snacking landscape, offering affordable and healthy snacks, along with home-style meals. Daalchini has doubled its turnover with ₹25 crore net revenue and achieved 123% CAGR. Currently, the Daalchini app has more than 5 lakh monthly active users.

"With Klub's support, we've redefined the retail-tech landscape, and our focus remains on delivering innovative snacking solutions while maintaining financial sustainability," said Kalra.

Entropik launches Decode CoPilot for augmented consumer research experience

Entropik has announced the launch of Decode CoPilot, a new feature in Decode, an integrated consumer research platform.

Decode leverages Behavioral AI, Emotion AI, and Generative AI to revolutionise both qualitative and quantitative research, consolidating all research services into a single, unified platform for brands. The new feature, built to further transform and enhance customers’ experience with Decode, aims to deliver seamless data analysis capabilities to its users.

Decode CoPilot boasts advanced capabilities to answer questions based on comprehensive analysis conducted on various research data available within the Decode workspace. The platform offers benefits such as instant answers, effortless natural language interaction, supercharged efficiency, tailored insights, and the ability to analyse emotion and behavior data at scale.

The Decode CoPilot assists users in obtaining rapid insights from historical and contemporary research data, PDFs, PPTs, transcriptions, and other sources. Users can effortlessly inquire with CoPilot using everyday language, as if engaging in a conversation with a research analyst.

VerSe forays into children’s entertainment with HappyTopia collaboration

Local language focused tech unicorn VerSe has entered into a strategic collaboration with HappyTopia, a leading player in the children’s entertainment product space, diversifying its ecommerce portfolio.

Spearheaded by its 18-year-old founder and CEO Kunzang Chawla, HappyTopia has joined forces with homegrown short video app Josh to introduce co-branded HappyTopia capsules, enhancing the engagement and fun for children and parents alike. Josh will leverage its technology expertise to further elevate the convenience and efficiency of the shopping experience through HappyTopia’s smart vending machines.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with Josh. Leveraging Josh’s extensive expertise in entertainment and state-of-the-art technology, this partnership allows us to reach an even wider audience and enhance the way families access and enjoy HappyTopia’s products. We look forward to a successful journey ahead,"

says Kunzang Chawla, Chief Executive Officer at HappyTopia.

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