Startup news and updates: daily roundup (November 13, 2024)

Funding

BiteSpeed raises $3.5M funding led by Peak XV’s Surge 

Ecommerce AI Startup BiteSpeed has closed its $3.5 million Pre-Series A funding round led by Peak XV’s Surge, with participation from Whiteboard Capital, Gaurav Munjal (CEO, Unacademy), Aakash Anand (CEO, Bella Vita), and Dhruv Vohra (APAC Head, META), amongst others. 

With the newly-raised capital, BiteSpeed plans to accelerate its hiring efforts across marketing, sales, and technical departments to support its global expansion. Key growth regions include North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. 

The company also aims to deepen its research and development efforts, particularly in generative AI, to further enhance its suite of products for ecommerce brands.

Founded in 2019 by Vinayak Aggarwal, BiteSpeed is an AI-powered marketing, support, and chatbots suite designed for eccommerce brands. The company’s AI-powered platform enables online brands to engage with customers and drive sales across multiple channels to streamline the entire ecommerce journey from retargeting to customer support.

This round brings BiteSpeed’s total capital raised to $5.6 million, following two previous rounds totaling $2.1 million led by Peak XV’s Surge and Whiteboard Capital, along with 30+ prominent angel investors such as Kunal Shah (Founder, CRED), Ritesh Malik (Founder, Innov8), and Gaurav Sharma (Founder, SaaSLabs) among others.

Other news

GoKwik onboards Sharad Gupta as Senior Director

GoKwik, an ecommerce enabler, has onboarded Sharad Gupta as Senior Director, Products. 

His strategic role will focus on enhancing and scaling solutions that simplify the checkout and payment journey for shoppers across diverse ecommerce platforms.

With over a decade of experience, Gupta is set to drive GoKwik’s mission of enhancing digital shopping experiences, enabling brand growth and strengthening the overall ecommerce ecosystem in India by leading the custom checkout vertical.

Before joining GoKwik, Gupta held positions at Swiggy, Dineout, and Paytm. His diverse background in product strategy and consumer experience aligns seamlessly with GoKwik’s objectives, according to the company.

GoKwik houses over 10000 brands in its network including Lenskart, Neemans, Man Matters, Shoppers Stop, etc, ranging from fashion, beauty, health and nutrition, electronics and other key categories of the online shopping space.

PW School of Startups opens applications for Aarambh 2

PW School of Startups, an initiative by PhysicsWallah, has opened the applications for Aarambh 2.0, which is set to begin on November 19, 2024, at the Noida campus. 

The second cohort is building on the first leg (Aarambh 1.0), which wrapped up after bringing together aspiring entrepreneurs from across India.

During the programme, enrolled students presented a diverse range of ideas aimed at creating local impact. Some of the projects included a platform connecting local shopkeepers with nearby customers and an eco-sustainable solution offering organic fertilisers to support farmers, among many other ideas.

This next programme intends to build on the momentum, bringing together another group of aspiring entrepreneurs from across the country, including cities like Patna, Bhopal, Indore, Lucknow, Jaipur, and more. 

PW School of Startups aims to nurture young talent and give India’s future founders the support they need to take their ideas to the next level. PW School of Startups aims to back aspiring entrepreneurs with both mentorship and financial resources.

Edtech PlanetSpark partners with Shark Tank India fame Vobble

PlanetSpark, a K12 edtech platform for communication skills learning, has partnered with Vobble, an audio content platform for children aged between 4 to 12 years. 

Under this partnership, PlanetSpark students will become voiceover artists for audiobooks and podcasts on Vobble, leveraging their verbal communication mastery to gain real-world exposure for a growing global audience.

This collaboration comes as a unique Children’s Day initiative, wherein select PlanetSpark students will record their voice overs with Vobble in a state-of-the-art studio in Bangalore. The recording sessions will continue throughout the year, with students lending their voices to various podcasts, series, and shows. 

PlanetSpark and Vobble plan to hold a selection process twice a year, ensuring a steady stream of talent and opportunities for students to participate.

Intellecap, Sankalp Forum to host Sankalp Bharat Summit

Intellecap and Sankalp Forum will host the Sankalp Bharat Summit 2024 in Varanasi this month.

The Summit promises to engage over over 1,000 delegates including more than 150 global leaders, 400 entrepreneurs, 200 investors, private sector, multilaterals, bilaterals and govt. agencies to discuss, define, and drive forward the critical levers of entrepreneurial success.

The Summit will also lay the emphasis on local and regional innovators shaping the future of Indian entrepreneurship and will feature ground breaking enterprises making waves on the global stage.

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