Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (April 15, 2024)

Funding News

Clientell raises $2.5M led by Blume Ventures

Clientell, an early-stage RevOps startup, has raised $2.5 million in a seed round of funding led by Blume Ventures with participation from Chiratae Ventures, Artha Venture Fund and Silicon Valley-based Z5 Capital. The company had previously raised $600,000 from Chiratae Ventures’ sonic cohort at the end of 2021, co-led by Artha Venture fund.

The funds currently raised will be used for strengthening the product and expanding the team.

Clientell deploys custom forecasting processes and ML models for each customer. There is a conversational interface that can be used anywhere running from google sheets, email, LinkedIn, slack, teams or wherever the user is working rather than they having to learn a new tool.

Clientell’s users are primarily Chief Revenue Officers and Go-to-market leaders using their AI-copilot to boost GTM execution and optimise pipeline governance and forecasting. The company is currently working with initial design partners and early adopters spanning growth-stage SaaS companies and large pharmaceutical companies.

GrowthCap Ventures makes maiden investment in Advance Mobility

GrowthCap Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, has made its maiden investment in the mobility sector with Advance Mobility. The investment signals GrowthCap Ventures' commitment to fostering innovation and driving growth within the rapidly evolving mobility industry.

Advance Mobility is an innovative ridesharing mobility startup that has been working to overcome prevalent challenges in the mobility ecosystem, offering solutions that benefit market players, customers, and drivers alike.

ElectriFI doubles down on Husk Power Systems with $4M investment

Husk Power Systems, provider of decentralised solar-hybrid minigrids, and ElectriFI, the EU-funded impact investment facility managed by EDFI Management Company, confirmed Husk's securing of an additional $4 million in debt financing from ElectriFI. This builds upon ElectriFI's initial $6 million investment in September 2022.

Husk's strong performance, made possible in part by ElectriFI's initial investment, enabled them to secure additional investments in a Series D capital raise of $43 million, a statement said.

Other news

Citi’s Arvind Vashistha to continue as Head of India Equity Capital Markets

Citi has announced that Arvind Vashistha will continue in his role as Head of India Equity Capital Markets, reporting to Udhay Furtado and Ken Chow in Hong Kong.

India remains one of our key global markets and Citi has raised more than $4 billion. Vashistha's ongoing leadership will continue to be crucial to driving our franchise forwar, a statement from the company said.

Zeeve expands to provide RaaS support for Optimism’s Superchain

Zeeve, the Rollups-as-a-service (RaaS) provider, has collaborated with Optimism to become a key infrastructure provider and official implementation collaborator for OP Stack chains. This will help businesses quickly launch and manage enterprise-class Rollups for gaming, DeFi, payments, social, and more with just a few clicks.

The OP Stack introduces a standardised, open-source, shared developer stack, tailored for rapidly deploying optimistic rollups. Its architecture, charactersed by modularity, is designed to provide for ease of use and sophisticated customisation, addressing diverse project requirements.

Zeeve users will now have more options for launching scalable L2 rollup chains. This benefits over 30,000 web3 startups and 40+ institutions already on the platform, along with those who want to be a part of the Optimism ecosystem.

Decentro taps into KYC industry, updates its DigiLocker Stack

Decentro, a banking infrastructure company, has announced key additions to its existing DigiLocker & KYC stack. With these new upgrades, Decentro’s Fabric module can reduce customer onboarding drop-off rates by more than 20% and accelerate customers' GTM timelines by around 10X.

Decentro’s Digilocker stack (part of the larger Fabric module) helps companies make the KYC process faster by enabling pinless Digilocker signups with additional enhancements on the Digilocker workflow to add multiple documents and issuers.

"Over 60% of the typical companies that need to do KYC do not have the time or bandwidth to build

automated KYC workflows. Hence, empowering them with our Fabric module became

imperative for us," said Rohit Taneja, Co-founder & CEO at Decentro. "With Decentro’s DigiLocker stack, companies can easily integrate KYC workflows onto their platform, reducing onboarding costs by more than 20% and reducing go-to-market timeline by 90% while keeping their customer data secure," he added.

Former CTO of Agrifi.ai joins eFeed to lead precision livestock technology

eFeed has brought Raghuchandra KR, ex-Chief Technology Officer at AgriFi, on board, to lead their Precision Livestock Technology.

Raghu's background in precision agritech spans over 12 years with a strong focus on precision technology for the past eight years. At Cropin, he played a pivotal role in building a robust engineering team.

At eFeed, Raghu will spearhead the refinement of precision livestock technology, with a particular emphasis on utilising data from smartphones to enhance livestock nutrition. This includes predicting diseases, tailoring feeding plans to local conditions, and estimating milk production accurately.

Deepika Padukone's 82°E announces multi-channel partnership with Reliance's TIRA

After a year of promoting the skincare brand in India and across the globe, 82°E is now poised for accelerated growth with a strategic partnership with Reliance Retail’s beauty platform, TIRA. The company is expanding its reach by making its popular Skincare, Body Care, and Men’s range available on TIRA.

82°E products, previously accessible through the D2C platform, will now extend their reach to the TIRA platform, marking their offline debut at handpicked TIRA stores in select markets across North, West, and South India. This collaboration marks a significant expansion from 82°E’s D2C model to first-time retail experience in the country through an online and offline presence.

ZEVO appoints Jeet Chandan, India’s youngest VC and co-founder, BizDateup, to Board

BizDateUp Technologies, the ecosystem enabler for startups, has announced the appointment of its Co-founder, Jeet Chandan, as a Board Member of ZEVO, a tech-enabled electric vehicle (EV) mobility

supply chain platform.

At 22, Jeet has already made a substantial impact on the startup landscape, with investments in over 25 startups, raising over $10mn, and achieving remarkable exits exceeding 8X returns.

ZEVO is an Electric Vehicle Supply Chain as a service platform enabling end-to-end supply chain solutions including first-mile procurement, last-mile delivery, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery, forward and reverse logistics, and agricultural supply chain electrification.

Droom launches new products marking 10th Founding Day Anniversary

Droom, an online marketplace for buying and selling used cars, celebrated its 10th Founding Day anniversary on April 15 by unveiling a suite of four new products - MyDroom, AdReach, GoDigital, and Chairman Club.

MyDroom is an app that offers a personalised dashboard, smart diagnostics with proactive alerts, effortless tracking of service schedules and renewals, seamless expense management, secure document storage, and multi-car management capabilities. AdReach is a tech and data-driven performance marketing platform offering solutions for both web publishers and advertisers.

GoDigital is a self-service, easy-to-use plug/play e-commerce platform to let any business of any size to an E-Commerce site and App. Chairman Club will be a comprehensive suite of seller services designed to elevate the success of Indian auto dealerships and OEMs. Chairman Club provides a full spectrum of automobile services, including procurement of used vehicles at attractive prices, affordable dealer financing solutions, cutting-edge digital marketing tools, and self-service E-Commerce stores, among others.

Yulu launches services in Kochi with Zeco Mobility

Electric two-wheeler mobility player Yulu has announced the launch of its services in Kochi in partnership with a city-based firm, Zeco Mobility. The rollout in Kerala’s commercial capital took place on Vishu day. City-based clean energy and mobility entrepreneur R Shyam Shankar, who leads Zeco Mobility, will independently operate Yulu’s electric vehicle (EV) service across Kochi, with infrastructural and technological support from Yulu.

The launch of Yulu’s and Zeco’s service in Kochi represents another milestone for the Yulu Business Partner (YBP) initiative, a unique industry-first franchise partner-led model for democratising shared mobility outside India’s metros. Kochi is the second partner-led rollout for Yulu after the company launched its service in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, earlier this month.

Zeco Mobility has placed Yulu’s EVs at four zones, viz. Saradhy Sports Centre and JLN Stadium Zone (at Kaloor) and Menaka Zone and Broadway Zone (at Marine Drive).

Zomato brings out AI-Integrated ads for restaurant partners for IPL Season

Zomato has brought out a series of AI-generated advertisements for its restaurant partners as part of its ongoing campaign during the Tata IPL 2024 season.

Conceptualised by Zomato’s in-house creative team and brought to life by populatr directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, the ads prominently feature Zomato’s brand ambassador and actor Ranveer Singh, alongside actor Samantha Prabhu and cricket icon Cheteshwar Pujara.

The AI-generated ads are cautiously crafted to capture the essence of friendship and love for watching a cricket match together and the joy of ordering your favorite food online. The AI films highlight each restaurant partner's name and a signature dish, serving as a tailored promotional tool during the high-demand cricket season. The campaign has been produced by Ryde productions.

Logic Fruit Technologies appoints Akshaya Sharma as CEO, US operations

Logic Fruit Technologies INC has onboarded Akshaya Sharma as the new CEO to oversee the company’s US operations. Sharma has an experience of more than two decades in engineering and business leadership. As part of his new role, he will be responsible for formulating impactful go-to-market strategies and driving sales growth.

"I am honoured to lead the US operations of a disruptive deep-tech company that has revolutionised the market with its innovative engineering capabilities. I look forward to working with the talented team to drive innovation, deliver exceptional solutions, and contribute to the company's continued success," he said.

“Akshaya Sharma's skills and leadership will help drive the company’s international expansion and undoubtedly, his role will contribute significantly to our continued success,” said Sanjeev Kumar Co-founder and CEO of Logic Fruit Technologies Pvt Ltd.

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