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.

Zeplyn secures $3M in seed funding round led by Leo Capital 

Zeplyn, an AI assistant designed to streamline wealth management workflows, has raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by Leo Capital. The round saw participation from several angels and marquee VC fund - Converge. 

The company will use the raised capital to expand its team, accelerate product development, and beef up sales and marketing efforts.

Founded by former Google engineers of Indian origin, Era Jain and Divam Jain, Zeplyn reduces the administrative burden placed on financial advisors, improving the advisor-client experience by automating time-consuming tasks and making client intelligence more accessible. 

The company’s AI meeting assistant, designed specifically for financial advisors and wealth management firms, takes unstructured conversational data and turns it into accurate notes.

“The startup brings the Wealth Management industry into the age of AI, enabling better outcomes for advisors, RIAs, wealth management firms and ultimately, investors,” said Shwetank Verma, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Leo Capital.

Pikndel bags $1M in seed funding round led by VC Grid

Pikndel, a logistics technology company, has bagged $1 million in a seed funding round led by VC Grid, a syndicate fund.

The funding round saw participation from other investors, including D2C Insider Angels, Breathe Capital, Venture Catalysts, and industry leaders such as Akash Gupta from Zypp, Keshav Bhajanka and Sanjay Agarwal from Century Plywood, and Kanishka Sethia from Western Carriers, along with family offices from Kolkata.

The seed funding will power Pikndel’s growth plans, enabling the company to expand and scale its operations while enhancing its technology infrastructure. The investment will also support the strengthening of last-mile delivery capabilities and the development of additional service offerings for brand partners.

Founded in 2022 by Siddharth Batra and Tullika Batra, Pikndel’s approach enables brands to offer multiple delivery options ranging from 1-hour to next-day delivery.

LegalKart raises Rs 6.5 Cr from existing investors

LegalKart, a legal consultation platform, has raised Rs 6.5 crore in its latest funding round from its existing investors. 

The newly infused funds will be strategically utilised to fuel the company’s growth, introduce new AI-driven products, and expand LegalKart’s presence in Tier II and III cities.

Founded in 2019 by Dr Arvind Singhatiya, LegalKart was established with the vision of making legal services more accessible and affordable for all.

LegalKart aims to strengthen its AI ecosystem, empowering legal professionals to efficiently manage their services and client relationships, creating a seamless and more effective experience for both practitioners and their clients.

Other news

Karnataka Government, The/Nudge Institute launch third cohort of IAF

The Government of Karnataka is extending its partnership with the The/Nudge Institute to launch the state’s third cohort of the Indian Administrative Fellowship (IAF). 

Applications are now open for this 18-month programme, which offers senior executives (CXOs/ VPs) from the private sector the distinct opportunity to work with civil servants in the Government of Karnataka. 

This encourages socially conscious corporate leaders to collaborate with senior government officials to transform governance, accelerate tech-led innovation across livelihood programmes, and help inform local policy priorities to create scalable impact on the lives of millions of citizens. 

The incoming cohort’s fellows will work with six key government departments to effect meaningful change and impact millions of lives – Rural Development, Horticulture, Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare, Commerce and Industries, and Tourism. 

IAF’s previous two concluded cohorts, across Karnataka and Punjab, have demonstrated great success in advancing action towards social development, unlocking over Rs 1000 crore of government funding towards the Fellows’ livelihood-focused projects and impacting over 18 lakh citizens. 

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.

Fireside Ventures appoints Adarsh Menon as Operating Partner

Fireside Ventures, an early-stage venture fund investing in consumer brands, has appointed Adarsh Menon as operating partner to strengthen its leadership team.

Menon will be a part of Fireside’s leadership team and serve on the boards of select portfolio companies, providing expert guidance. His strengths lie in  building and leading high-performing teams, mentoring industry leaders, and driving business growth.

With over 23 years of experience in sales and marketing, Menon brings a wealth of expertise from his previous leadership roles at Flipkart, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare, etc. 

Launched in 2017, Fireside Ventures with its three funds is currently managing Rs 3,000 crore ($395 million) of AUM with investments across consumer brands in sectors such as health & wellness, food and beverages, beauty & personal care, nutraceuticals, lifestyle and home products, etc. 

Lohum appoints Arun Mittal as CEO of India business

Lohum, a producer and processor of sustainable critical minerals, has appointed Arun Mittal as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Lohum India, a part of Lohum Corporation, effective immediately. 

Mittal, who brings nearly three decades of battery industry leadership to Lohum, joins Lohum from Exide Energy, where he served as Managing Director and CEO.

His extensive experience includes spearheading Exide’s lithium-ion technology initiatives for e-mobility applications and expanding the company’s presence in Southeast Asia. 

As a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Institute of Company Secretaries of India and the Institute of Cost Accountants of India, he combines deep industry knowledge with strong financial and governance expertise.

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.

Tira unveils its flagship luxury beauty store at Jio World Plaza

Tira, the beauty retail chain of Reliance Retail, has unveiled its luxury flagship store today at Jio World Plaza, Mumbai.

This store, spanning over 6200 sq ft, has been designed with meticulously crafted details that immerse shoppers in a world of luxury and beauty.

At the heart of this flagship lies 15 shop-in-shop boutiques featuring an assortment of prestigious, global brands, such as Dior, Estée Lauder, Yves Saint Laurent, La Mer, Prada and Valentino to name a few.

The store also includes a curated selection of ultra-luxury skincare brand, Augustinus Bader, which is exclusive to Tira in India. 

This flagship store will leverage cutting-edge technology tools in the beauty space, such as virtual try-ons and personalised recommendations, to further enhance the shopping experience.

India Accelerator enters Pune with new coworking space

India Accelerator, a multi-stage fund-led accelerator and coworking space provider in India, has entered Pune with the launch of its sprawling coworking space, dedicated to startup founders in the city. 

The new coworking space has a total capacity of almost 500 seats and caters to startups, small businesses, freelancers, and large enterprises alike.

To elevate the coworking experience, IA hosts regular events like workshops, speaker sessions, and networking meetups as part of its community-building. 

The startups sitting in that region can look forward to being backed by Finvolve, the multi-stage VC fund that has invested substantial capital in the startups across the stages through its multiple SEBI and GIFT City funds.

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.)