Augmented Reality based In-Restaurant Ordering App peAR Raises INR 4.2 Cr in Pre-Series-A Led by 1Crowd and Chennai Angels

L-R Dharmin Vora (Founder),Parth Ashwin Vora (Co-Founder) ,Dhruvesh Mehta (Co-Founder)

• peAR is Augmented-Reality based in restaurant ordering app.
• The funds raised will be utilized to scale the company's current suite of solutions across geographies and to address more restaurant challenges.
• peAr is one of the only 7 startups which was incubated at Zone Startups as part of the Zone Startups 1st Pre-Accelerator program ZSI Booster.
• Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) has so far invested over INR 550 Cr across 170+ deals

peAR, one of the first startups in Asia-Pacific to make an augmented-reality based in-restaurant ordering app, has raised Rs 4.2 crore in a Pre-series A led by 1crowd and Chennai Angels and co-Led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). The funds raised will be utilized to scale the company's current suite of solutions across geographies and to address more restaurant challenges as well as building a suite of integrated restaurant-tech solutions.

PeAR was founded in 2019 by then-college students Dharmin Vora, Dhruvesh Mehta, and Parth Vora with the goal of developing AR-based digital assets for businesses across industries. Their vision is to change the way people view and order food inside a restaurant. peAR helps users visualize the dish before ordering, thus making sure customers have a delightful experience at the restaurant. They use Augmented Reality to solve this. Their proprietary tech to transform the food choices on the menu into 3D images has enabled them to convert boring paper menus into interactive 3D Menus. This helps restaurants upsell as the orders are also placed digitally. Restaurants can now have the valuable data they were missing out on for dine-in customers. peAR has evolved into building Toast for India. peAR is building a full-stack integrated ecosystem for 30L+ restaurants in India & emerging markets.

Mitesh Shah, Co-Founder, IPV says, “Post covid, the Horeca sector has been adopting tech on the front end to further refine the dining experience of the customers. From QR-coded menus to digital payments integration is now a norm across restaurants. However, the first POC is when shortlisting the order. Many customers are often left surprised at the food they order because a standard menu can’t show the quantity, plating, and overall look and feel of the dish. peAR has understood this gap well and using their tech, they are addressing both the front end and the back end making their app more useful for restaurant owners. 3D image projection helps customers understand their order better before placing it and it also helps restaurants gather a deep understanding of their customers’ profile and their preferences. We have seen the adoption of peAR’s tech rising steadily and decided to back the company in this round also.”

Dharmin Vora, Founder, peAR says, “Our association with IPV has been wonderful from the beginning. They have backed us time and again & this just shows their approach to back their start-ups. Their guidance & CXO members helps us create a wide pool of people whom we can connect with and learn from. They have also done a fantastic job on keeping the members active & involved in every manner. Their immense support & efforts stands out amongst all investors. "

India has over 30 Lakh+ restaurants & the dine-in market is over $40Bn. It is expected to touch $60 billion in the next 5 years. The dine-in market is 4 times larger than the delivery market or online ordering for restaurants, in India. peAR is trying to address the dine-in market & help restaurants increase their bill value, repeats, manage operations smoother & save time with their full-stack ecosystem.

peAR is currently processing over 35k+ orders monthly, across 800+ restaurant partners, doing Rs 17Cr+ annualized GTV on their ordering platform. They are a team of 45 members, building the leading AR-tech solutions for Indian restaurants to increase their business & streamline operations. They are also building an integrated stack of solutions that not only makes restaurant operations smoother but helps them increase their bottom line as well. They are also launching their full-stack ecosystem solution with loyalty, payment integrations, hardware integrations & end to end suite to manage a restaurant.

About peAR

Founded in 2019 by then college students Dharmin Vora, Dhruvesh Mehta, and Parth Vora, peAR was started to develop AR-based digital assets for enterprises across industries. We started with the restaurant dine-in industry. Customers can visit any of our partnered restaurants, Scan QR code available on the table & see the Menu in 3D & AR. Customers can order, pay bills & earn rewards via the same. We have gamified the complete ordering process, helping users have a better dine-in experience & restaurateurs earn 25-30% more revenue due to increased bill value, repeats, up-sell, cross-sell & data availability. Today, the complete dine-in process is on paper & pen & there is no data available to anyone about dine-in ordering. With our software, we are digitising the complete restaurant industry.

Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) is an angel investing platform with over 7400 CXOs, HNIs, and Professionals to together invest in startups. The firm supports new-age entrepreneurs by providing them with monetary & experiential capital and connecting them with a diverse group of investors. IPV has announced the launch of a $50 million CAT 2 AIF Physis Capital to invest in pre-Series A to Series B growth-stage start-ups.

Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions Raises $2.3 Mn in Pre Series A Funding

[L-R] Mridula Shridhar and VK Manikandan_Kreedo Founders

The new capital will be used towards Kreedo’s goal of partnering with 7000+ schools and positively impacting the lives of 1 Million+ children annually in India

Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions, a Bengaluru based company that provides end-to-end solutions to transform the way early learning is delivered, has raised $2.3 Million in Pre Series A Funding. The round was led by Switzerland based UBS Optimus Foundation, Spectrum Impact, Gray Matters Capital and 1Crowd, with participation from Innospark Ventures, IIM-CAN and The Chennai Angels. The latest round of funding will be used towards accelerating Kreedo’s next phase of growth and expansion.

Founded in 2012 by husband-wife duo Mridula Shridhar and VK Manikandan, both alumni of IIM-C, Kreedo is on a mission to change the way early learning is delivered in budget private schools and preschools. India has an estimated 3,50,000+ budget private schools, which charge less than Rs 30,000/- per year and mostly cater to students from low-income families. Learning outcomes are quite low in most of these schools with the majority of them still following rote methods and having limited resources to support or train their teachers.

Kreedo Lab

Kreedo is transforming the learning experiences of children in these schools via a structured and immersive learning process through its 6T Learning Framework that has Play Based Learning at its core and includes Toys, Technology, Theory (books), Teacher Training, Timetable, and Teamwork (peer learning). By setting up activity labs and consistently training teachers, Kreedo offers a comprehensive solution that empowers schools to significantly improve learning outcomes.

Kreedo Team

Commenting on the investment, Mridula Shridhar, CEO, Kreedo, said, “Our vision is to democratize quality early education. We have an overwhelming response from our partner schools who are looking for the most affordable and simplest way to improve foundational learning. The new round of funding will enable us to take Kreedo to 7000+ schools across multiple cities in India”

Dhun Davar, Head of Social Finance, UBS Optimus Foundation, said “We see Kreedo’s business model as a unique way to create social change by making quality early education accessible to every child from lower income communities.”

Girichandra, Partner at 1Crowd added “In Manikandan and Mridula, we found a team that is passionate about their cause and extremely clear on how to mitigate learning poverty in budget schools”.

Pranay Adhvaryu, Head of Investments, Gray Matters Capital adds, “The pandemic has adversely impacted the already distressed early education sector, and now Kreedo is seeing tremendous traction as they address a massive learning gap which schools need help to fill.”

Mirik Gogri of Spectrum Impact said, “We are excited to be a part of their growth story and support their vision of impacting 1 Million+ children annually in India, especially from lower income families, by 2025.”

Over the years, Kreedo has demonstrated impressive growth and impact, transforming the way schools understand and deliver early learning and emerging as a key player in the low-cost early education category. With the massive demand for in school learning post the pandemic, and a significant focus on foundational literacy and numeracy in NEP, Kreedo is well placed to accelerate rapidly.

Kreedo partners with budget private schools and preschools and transforms the way learning is delivered in early years. Kreedo has so far impacted 2,00,000+ children by implementing its curriculum in 400+ budget private schools and 1500+ preschools and has measured learning outcomes that are 50% better than market in budget private schools based on an independent study done by FSG.

Website: https://kreedology.com/

Nuvepro Raises ₹6 Crores and Appoints Industry Experts as Advisors to Deepen its Cloud Labs Reach in the EdTech Sector

• Advisors to help reach global markets
• The versatile platform to transform delivered over 3M hours in just few months
• Plan to grow the user-base by 10X for upskilling and reskilling needs

Nuvepro, the leading 'Cloud Labs for Education' provider, today announced that it has raised INR Six Crores in another round of funding from the existing investor, 1Crowd. The company also announced the appointment of leading industry experts, Apratim Purakayastha (AP) and Milind Chalisgaonkar as advisors.

Giridhar LV, CEO, Nuvepro said, "We had a great journey so far and really proud of the progress we made in solving a key issue of technical learning with our hands-on Cloud Labs. We are prime for the next level of growth and very excited to welcome AP and Milind to our advisory team. We had 3X growth already this year and plan to use the additional round of funding from 1crowd to accelerate our growth plans by investing more into Product Development, Sales and Marketing."

Prateek Goyal, Partner, 1Crowd said, "We are delighted to partner with Nuvepro in addressing the compelling needs of the upskilling / reskilling market in India and overseas. Over the last couple of years, Nuvepro has built a robust technology platform which gives its customers efficiency & flexibility while providing high quality Cloud Labs experience. We are excited by the vision of the team, their continuous endeavors to reach new heights in this space and look forward to the growth ahead." 

Apratim Purakayastha said, "The rapid worldwide adoption of cloud technologies requires millions of trained professionals to have the practical skills to manage cloud deployments. Hands-on training is a must for proficiency. Nuvepro's unique solution provides such training that can be embedded into any curriculum or assessment systems. I am very excited to be part of the talented Nuvepro team."

Milind Chalisgaonkar, said, "Nuvepro's Cloud Labs solve a key problem for learners - access to a readymade platform for practicing the IT skills taught in a course, using real-world context. The platform is flexible and scalable, making it ideal for training organizations, universities and corporate trainers. I'm confident that Nuvepro is going to be an important part of the technical learning ecosystem."

Janakiraman.S, Chairman, Nuvepro said, "The role of technology in Education is going to be critical in the future and we are excited to have Apratim and Milind to guide it to newer heights. It is equally exciting that 1Crowd continues to trust our leadership and solution that is making Nuvepro a key partner in bringing more hands-on learning to the current education system."

Nuvepro's co-founders Rajesh Vasudevan, Moyukh Goswami, and Umesh Bhatt expressed their excitement on the appointments and investments to take the organization and Cloud Labs to the next level.

About Nuvepro

Nuvepro is a leading Cloud Labs provider for hands on technical training for users from enterprise, educational institutions and online training platforms. With over 250+ hands on labs, Nuvepro is used by over 100K learners in a month. The rich labs cover Cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), Big Data, AI / ML, Cybersecurity which are the underlying technologies for Digital Transformation 4.0. Visit us at www.nuvepro.com

About Apratim

Apratim Purakayastha (AP) is the Chief Technology Officer for the Skillsoft group of companies, including the Skillsoft and SumTotal brands. He leads product development and delivery across all products in the Skillsoft group of companies. He has extensive experience in rapidly growing technology companies. Prior to Skillsoft, he was the General Manager of SaaS at SevOne, responsible for its on-demand/ SaaS business segment. Prior to SevOne, AP was the Group President and General Manager of the SaaS division at ACI Worldwide, a payment software company. AP started his career at IBM where he developed IBM's first SaaS product offering as Director of Software. AP has a PhD in Computer Science from Duke University, an MS in Computer Science from Washington State University and a BS in Computer Science from Jadavpur University, India.

About Milind

Milind Chalisgaonkar is Engineer & MBA with 30+ years of experience. As President/CEO/Director he has managed the inception, rapid growth and turnaround of businesses in IT / BPO / Insurance / Manufacturing. His experience helps the Nuvepro team in improving processes and scaling up the business.

Tech-based Cataloging Company Text Mercato Raises $646K in Funding Round led by 1Crowd

Text Mercato, a Bangalore-based technology company serving the digital cataloguing and associated content needs of e-commerce platforms and online retail, has raised INR 4.85 crores (USD 646,000) in a round lead by 1Crowd. Hong Kong-based startup accelerator Betatron, and angel investors Andrew Dell, former CEO of HSBC Africa, and Raaj Shah, the CFO of Sequent Software, also participated in the round.

Text Mercato was founded by Kiran Ramakrishna and Subhajit Mukherjee in 2015, primarily to solve the content needs of digital companies. It is noteworthy to mention that the Company had filed profits for the three initial years. 

1Crowd is an early-stage venture investment fund and a platform set up in 2015 to provide an institutionalized approach to investing in startups. Over the last 5 years, it has created a unique ecosystem of investors, startups and mentors. The venture capital firm has invested over Rs. 100 crores in 31 startups across sectors ranging from enterprise tech and deep tech to B2C startups. It marked the first close of its fund at Rs 23 crores in 2018. The targeted AUM of the current fund is Rs 75 crores.

While working on clients’ content needs, Subhajit and Kiran identified the area of digital catalog-creation as a formidable problem to solve. The segment had little technology play beyond the use of CRMs. The team identified the need for a full-stack cataloging solution which could enable sellers to take their products online accurately, swiftly and at scale.

Towards the end of 2018, the AI-based Cataloging Product was conceptualized, and today the team has put together Cataloging.Ai, a suite of machine-learning-based products that are instrumental in the creation of structured digital catalogs. These include image and text recognition, text generation, online data processing and AI-based character recognition. In addition, Text Mercato has an extensive network of freelancers who form the services layer to enhance the process of catalog and content creation.

‘The absolute base on which any digital selling happens is the catalog of a product, and this also plays an important role in discoverability and customer experience. We started challenging ourselves to take products online with better quality, and at a scale the market hadn’t seen. Soon, we were the go-to catalogers for some leading Indian marketplaces. Today, we are asking ourselves, why can’t a catalog be virtually ready even before the product is up for selling?! At Text Mercato, we are trying to solve it using technology which is at the core of our business and operating models’, says Subhajit.

“Our aim is to disrupt the multi-department and multi-role problem of listing and marketing a product into one single seamless process. The company will focus on end-to-end stack, single sign-on, central management and scale across languages,” says Kiran.

” E-commerce adoption as a secular trend across market segments globally got a further boost in the last few months due to the pandemic situation. Text Mercato’s content and catalog automation solutions enable brands, online vendors and marketplaces with effective product listings at scale, while also being faster and economical. We are delighted to partner with Text Mercato in their quest to establish themselves as the leading cataloging automation solutions provider.” says Anup Kuruvilla, the co-founder at 1Crowd.

Text Mercato currently serves over 100 clients which include several leading online retail and e-commerce players like Myntra in India, The Luxury Closet in Dubai. The clients span industry segments like fashion, electronics, FMCG, hospitality, etc. Indian customers account for 75% of its revenue, while 25% comes from international clients.

CleanTech-led Logistics Startup Tessol Raises Follow-on Funding from 1Crowd, Infuse Ventures and Ankur Capital

Tessol, a Mumbai-based startup in the CleanTech-led cold chain logistics space, has recently raised an undisclosed amount in follow-on equity funding from early stage venture capital firm 1Crowd, and existing investors Infuse Ventures and Ankur Capital.

Founded in 2013 by IIT Delhi – Harvard alumnus Rajat Gupta, Tessol (Thermal Energy Service Solutions Private Limited) aims to revolutionize the cold chain distribution in India using its proprietary "Energy Storage" technology based solutions. These products and solutions, while being environmentally sustainable, reduce the lifetime cost of cooling by more than 50% therefore making cold chain on low value products viable. Over the last few years, TESSOL has developed solutions ranging from farm level collection to home delivery and works with the largest FMCG, food processing and e-commerce players in India. Funds raised in this round would be utilized by TESSOL for strengthening the current product suite and bringing some disruptive products that were under development to pilot and commercialization.

It may be recalled that, last year in May, the startup was among the 6 winners of the Startup Energy Transition Awards organised by the Deutsche Energie–Agentur, the German Energy Agency (dena) for recognizing innovative business ideas in clean tech and energy transition area from across the world.

“There are huge gaps in the Indian food supply chain and while there are several cold chain products available in the market, there is a dearth of viable solutions. At TESSOL, we believe in partnering with our customers and working out system level solutions that can drastically impact costs while improving the performance,” said Rajat Gupta, CEO of Tessol, who has several years of past industry experience.

“We see Tessol occupy a sweet spot at the intersection of India’s underserved cold chain architecture and a vacuum in environmentally-friendly clean energy solutions. Tessol’s farm-to-fork product range serves myriad use cases, application segments and customer profiles, and the breadth and depth of their client roster bears ample testimony to the efficacy of their innovation-driven offerings,” said Anil Gudibande, co-founder of 1Crowd.

“Tessol is one of the very few innovation-driven cold chain product companies. With their superior energy-efficient technology, already adopted by many marquee clients across industries, the company is well-positioned to service the growing demand for cold chain infrastructure,” said Amber Maheshwari, Vice PresidentatInfuse Ventures.

“We are excited about the rapid growth in TESSOL’s range of cost efficient, high performance cold-chain solutions, which is bringing in new, quality-conscious customers across end-user segments. We believe TESSOL’s technology can, over the longer-term, aid significant reduction in losses in the agri/food chain from the current high levels,” said Krishnan Neelakantan, Senior Directorat Ankur Capital.

In April, 1Crowd led $650K investment of an another logistics segment startup, Mojro, a Bengaluru-based smart urban logistics platform, which offers a machine learning driven intra-city logistic planning and optimization.

Earlier this month, 1Crowd, along with government’s BIRAC, has invested undisclosed amount in Pune-based healthcare startup SynThera Biomedical Private Limited, which focuses on R&D, manufacture and commercialization of affordable biomaterials-based medical devices.

[Top Image Via - dena.de]

CleanTech-led Logistics Startup Tessol Raises Follow-on Funding from 1Crowd, Infuse Ventures and Ankur Capital

Tessol, a Mumbai-based startup in the CleanTech-led cold chain logistics space, has recently raised an undisclosed amount in follow-on equity funding from early stage venture capital firm 1Crowd, and existing investors Infuse Ventures and Ankur Capital.

Founded in 2013 by IIT Delhi – Harvard alumnus Rajat Gupta, Tessol (Thermal Energy Service Solutions Private Limited) aims to revolutionize the cold chain distribution in India using its proprietary "Energy Storage" technology based solutions. These products and solutions, while being environmentally sustainable, reduce the lifetime cost of cooling by more than 50% therefore making cold chain on low value products viable. 

Over the last few years, TESSOL has developed solutions ranging from farm level collection to home delivery and works with the largest FMCG, food processing and e-commerce players in India. Funds raised in this round would be utilized by TESSOL for strengthening the current product suite and bringing some disruptive products that were under development to pilot and commercialization.

It may be recalled that, last year in May, the startup was among the 6 winners of the Startup Energy Transition Awards organised by the Deutsche Energie–Agentur, the German Energy Agency (dena) for recognizing innovative business ideas in clean tech and energy transition area from across the world.

"There are huge gaps in the Indian food supply chain and while there are several cold chain products available in the market, there is a dearth of viable solutions. At TESSOL, we believe in partnering with our customers and working out system level solutions that can drastically impact costs while improving the performance,” said Rajat Gupta, CEO of Tessol, who has several years of past industry experience.

“We see Tessol occupy a sweet spot at the intersection of India’s underserved cold chain architecture and a vacuum in environmentally-friendly clean energy solutions. Tessol’s farm-to-fork product range serves myriad use cases, application segments and customer profiles, and the breadth and depth of their client roster bears ample testimony to the efficacy of their innovation-driven offerings,” said Anil Gudibande, co-founder of 1Crowd.

“Tessol is one of the very few innovation-driven cold chain product companies. With their superior energy-efficient technology, already adopted by many marquee clients across industries, the company is well-positioned to service the growing demand for cold chain infrastructure,” said Amber Maheshwari, Vice PresidentatInfuse Ventures.

“We are excited about the rapid growth in TESSOL’s range of cost efficient, high performance cold-chain solutions, which is bringing in new, quality-conscious customers across end-user segments. We believe TESSOL’s technology can, over the longer-term, aid significant reduction in losses in the agri/food chain from the current high levels,” said Krishnan Neelakantan, Senior Directorat Ankur Capital.

In April, 1Crowd led $650K investment of an another logistics segment startup, Mojro, a Bengaluru-based smart urban logistics platform, which offers a machine learning driven intra-city logistic planning and optimization.

Earlier this month, 1Crowd, along with government’s BIRAC, has invested undisclosed amount in Pune-based healthcare startup SynThera Biomedical Private Limited, which focuses on R&D, manufacture and commercialization of affordable biomaterials-based medical devices.

[Top Image Via - dena.de]

Healthcare Startup SynThera Raises Seed Funding from 1Crowd & Govt.'s BIRAC

Pune-based healthcare startup SynThera Biomedical Private Limited, which focuses on R&D, manufacture and commercialization of affordable biomaterials-based medical devices, has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding investment from two investors – equity crowd-funding platform 1Crowd and the government’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) SEED scheme via Venture Center, an inventive enterprises incubator hosted by CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune.

Founded in 2015 by Dr.Nilay Lakhkar, SynThera Biomedical aims to become India’s first and foremost company to indigenously research, develop, manufacture and commercialize bioactive and other specialty glass and ceramic products for healthcare and other sectors.

The funding will help startup to achieve expansion, approvals and launch of our first line of bone graft substitute products in the market, together with further development and testing on our patented bone graft product line, according to Nilay Lakhkar, founder and chief executive of SynThera Biomedical, said.

SunThera has two flagship products - SynOst and PoroSyn, that are synthetic bone graft substitute products made from bio-active glass materials. Both products can be used in dental and orthopaedic surgeries as implantable materials for repair and regeneration of bone that is lost or damaged due to disease, injuries or congenital deformities.

[caption id="attachment_125034" align="alignleft" width="700"] SynOst & PoroSyn by SynThera [/caption]

SynOst will be launched by December 2018 and PoroSyn by May 2019.

“SynThera is an innovative biomaterial sciences company, with patented technology, which we believe can address a global opportunity through an array of technology lead products. 1Crowd seeks to invest in ventures that are at the cusp of knowledge and technology, and SynThera is a fine example of that. With investments in over 17 startups, 1Crowd has built an ecosystem, that startups such as SynThera can leverage, which includes an investor community, a mentorship panel and industry connects.” Said Anil Gudibande, co-founder of 1Crowd.

“BIRAC’s SEED – Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development – scheme was set up to support life sciences start-ups, with a funding of up to Rs. 30 lakh. The investments raised by Venture Center's incubatee company SynThera will enable it to move faster towards regulatory approvals, production and sales. SynThera has unique technology capabilities and intellectual property, and will be the first bioactive glass company from India. It will be uniquely positioned to provide valuable biomaterial solutions to dental and orthopaedic surgeons.", said Dr. Premnath, Director, Venture Center, the incubator that supports SynThera Biomedical.

It must also be recalled that Government of India and the World Bank have recently signed a $125 million loan agreement to support India in developing an innovative bio-pharmaceutical and medical devices industry, and in this agreement is supporting Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Program -- BIRAC -- by providing the ingredients that are currently missing in India’s biopharma innovation ecosystem.

Speaking about 1Crowd, it is an angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. In March, 1Crowd made investment in Karma Healthcare, a Rajasthan-based health-tech startup.

Launched in 2015, 1Crowd has announced its first close of debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million), in March this year.

Healthcare Startup SynThera Raises Seed Funding from 1Crowd & Govt.'s BIRAC

Pune-based healthcare startup SynThera Biomedical Private Limited, which focuses on R&D, manufacture and commercialization of affordable biomaterials-based medical devices, has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding investment from two investors – equity crowd-funding platform 1Crowd and the government’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) SEED scheme via Venture Center, an inventive enterprises incubator hosted by CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune.

Founded in 2015 by Dr.Nilay Lakhkar, SynThera Biomedical aims to become India’s first and foremost company to indigenously research, develop, manufacture and commercialize bioactive and other specialty glass and ceramic products for healthcare and other sectors.

The funding will help startup to achieve expansion, approvals and launch of our first line of bone graft substitute products in the market, together with further development and testing on our patented bone graft product line, according to Nilay Lakhkar, founder and chief executive of SynThera Biomedical, said.

SunThera has two flagship products - SynOst and PoroSyn, that are synthetic bone graft substitute products made from bio-active glass materials. Both products can be used in dental and orthopaedic surgeries as implantable materials for repair and regeneration of bone that is lost or damaged due to disease, injuries or congenital deformities.

[caption id="attachment_125034" align="alignleft" width="700"] SynOst & PoroSyn by SynThera [/caption]

SynOst will be launched by December 2018 and PoroSyn by May 2019.

“SynThera is an innovative biomaterial sciences company, with patented technology, which we believe can address a global opportunity through an array of technology lead products. 1Crowd seeks to invest in ventures that are at the cusp of knowledge and technology, and SynThera is a fine example of that. With investments in over 17 startups, 1Crowd has built an ecosystem, that startups such as SynThera can leverage, which includes an investor community, a mentorship panel and industry connects.” Said Anil Gudibande, co-founder of 1Crowd.

“BIRAC’s SEED – Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development – scheme was set up to support life sciences start-ups, with a funding of up to Rs. 30 lakh. The investments raised by Venture Center's incubatee company SynThera will enable it to move faster towards regulatory approvals, production and sales. SynThera has unique technology capabilities and intellectual property, and will be the first bioactive glass company from India. It will be uniquely positioned to provide valuable biomaterial solutions to dental and orthopaedic surgeons.", said Dr. Premnath, Director, Venture Center, the incubator that supports SynThera Biomedical.

It must also be recalled that Government of India and the World Bank have recently signed a $125 million loan agreement to support India in developing an innovative bio-pharmaceutical and medical devices industry, and in this agreement is supporting Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Program -- BIRAC -- by providing the ingredients that are currently missing in India’s biopharma innovation ecosystem.

Speaking about 1Crowd, it is an angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. In March, 1Crowd made investment in Karma Healthcare, a Rajasthan-based health-tech startup.

Launched in 2015, 1Crowd has announced its first close of debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million), in March this year.

Intracity Logistics Tech Startup Mojro Raises $650K Funding from 1Crowd, Naga Limited and Others

Bengaluru-based Mojro, a smart urban logistics platform, today announced that it has raised $650K investment led by 1Crowd and its investor community.The investment will be used for technology development, team expansion for marketing and building partnerships with fleet owners.

As Urban Logistics is a growing and sizable problem, Mojro’s offers a machine learning driven intra-city logistic planning and optimization platform.The platform can be used by large and medium businesses to optimize their logistic needs in terms of fleet utilization, space utilization and cost optimization. Mojro has also struck partnerships with fleet owners providing them modern day techniques to improve service quality and providing businesses the opportunity to plan and execute for their logistic needs through a single platform.

Kishan Aswath, CEO, Mojro, said, “Mojro envisions to be the world’s largest technology enabled Logistics Platform that seamlessly automates end to end logistics needs of business entities and provides them an efficient & effective means to store, package and move goods."

Anup Kuruvilla, Co-Founder of 1Crowd, said, ​"Along with a well-respected, experienced and dedicated team, Mojro addresses key modern day challenge of urban logistics. While there are several players in the logistics market, Mojro has the unique value proposition of being the only player in the market that has Optimization and On the Ground Execution as two cornerstones of its platform. The company has positioned itself as a technology-assisted platform solution company solving several issues of fleet capacity, route planning and Fleet Supply & Operations, helping fleet owners maximize the benefits from their assets."

The startup was founded in 2016 by Kishan Aswath, Amit Kulkarni, Ranganath Seetharamu and Swaminath Jeyachandran all having significant years of professional experience. Veteran banker M.A. Ravi Kumar and angel investor Sounder Kannan would join the Board of the company.

Sounder Kannan, Director, Naga Limited said,“With a clear focus on optimizing the fragmented intra-city supply chain, Mojro aims to be providing world class solutions with aright blend of Physical & Digital services at scale."

Mojro aims to bring efficient planning, optimization of resources complemented by transparent execution to intra-city logistics. The platform uses machine learning, big data analytics, heuristics, and cognitive science for optimization of route, vehicle, space utilization and cost taking into account various constraints for both shipper and receiver including time, SLAs, type of goods & load distribution.

The Indian logistics industry is pegged at $307 Bn by 2020. Currently valued at $130 Bn, around 35%-40% of the market is in the intra-city space.

Related Reading - 5 Logistics Apps To Transport Your Goods Safely To Anywhere in India

Speaking about 1Crowd, it is an angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. It has recently invested undisclosed amount in Gurgaon-based fintech startup Creditas Solutions. Prior to which , it has also made investment in Karma Healthcare, a Rajasthan-based health-tech startup.

It has more than 600 investors, 70 mentors and has made over 13 investments since March 2016.With the funds, the company will be able to leverage 1Crowd’s ecosystem of mentors, industry connects and investor community to benefit from strategic to operational support.

1Crowd and Its Recent Investments -

Launched in 2015, 1Crowd has recently announced its first close of debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million) followed by $500,000 investment in Rajastan-based Karma Healthcare. Last November, it invested in a fintech startup Nuvepro. In April 2017, 1Crowd invested in deep technology startup Nanosniff Technologies, prior to which it had invested in Zipgrid, a tech-enabled community services platform.

Additionally, Bangalore-based community building platform Fourth Ambit, which recently tied-up with AICTE, also raised $600,000 from 1Crowd in May 2017. Prior to this, Genext Students — India’s first hybrid ed-tech tutoring platform — raised equity financing of $ 200,000 from 1Crowd, in August 2016.

Intracity Logistics Tech Startup Mojro Raises $650K Funding from 1Crowd, Naga Limited and Others

Bengaluru-based Mojro, a smart urban logistics platform, today announced that it has raised $650K investment led by 1Crowd and its investor community. The investment will be used for technology development, team expansion for marketing and building partnerships with fleet owners. 

As Urban Logistics is a growing and sizable problem, Mojro’s offers a machine learning driven intra-city logistic planning and optimization platform.The platform can be used by large and medium businesses to optimize their logistic needs in terms of fleet utilization, space utilization and cost optimization. Mojro has also struck partnerships with fleet owners providing them modern day techniques to improve service quality and providing businesses the opportunity to plan and execute for their logistic needs through a single platform.

Kishan Aswath, CEO, Mojro, said, “Mojro envisions to be the world’s largest technology enabled Logistics Platform that seamlessly automates end to end logistics needs of business entities and provides them an efficient & effective means to store, package and move goods."

Anup Kuruvilla, Co-Founder of 1Crowd, said, ​"Along with a well-respected, experienced and dedicated team, Mojro addresses key modern day challenge of urban logistics. While there are several players in the logistics market, Mojro has the unique value proposition of being the only player in the market that has Optimization and On the Ground Execution as two cornerstones of its platform. The company has positioned itself as a technology-assisted platform solution company solving several issues of fleet capacity, route planning and Fleet Supply & Operations, helping fleet owners maximize the benefits from their assets."

The startup was founded in 2016 by Kishan Aswath, Amit Kulkarni, Ranganath Seetharamu and Swaminath Jeyachandran all having significant years of professional experience. Veteran banker M.A. Ravi Kumar and angel investor Sounder Kannan would join the Board of the company.

Sounder Kannan, Director, Naga Limited said,“With a clear focus on optimizing the fragmented intra-city supply chain, Mojro aims to be providing world class solutions with aright blend of Physical & Digital services at scale."

Mojro aims to bring efficient planning, optimization of resources complemented by transparent execution to intra-city logistics. The platform uses machine learning, big data analytics, heuristics, and cognitive science for optimization of route, vehicle, space utilization and cost taking into account various constraints for both shipper and receiver including time, SLAs, type of goods & load distribution.

The Indian logistics industry is pegged at $307 Bn by 2020. Currently valued at $130 Bn, around 35%-40% of the market is in the intra-city space.

Related Reading - 5 Logistics Apps To Transport Your Goods Safely To Anywhere in India

Speaking about 1Crowd, it is an angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. It has recently invested undisclosed amount in Gurgaon-based fintech startup Creditas Solutions. Prior to which , it has also made investment in Karma Healthcare, a Rajasthan-based health-tech startup.

It has more than 600 investors, 70 mentors and has made over 13 investments since March 2016.With the funds, the company will be able to leverage 1Crowd’s ecosystem of mentors, industry connects and investor community to benefit from strategic to operational support.

1Crowd and Its Recent Investments -

Launched in 2015, 1Crowd has recently announced its first close of debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million) followed by $500,000 investment in Rajastan-based Karma Healthcare. Last November, it invested in a fintech startup Nuvepro. In April 2017, 1Crowd invested in deep technology startup Nanosniff Technologies, prior to which it had invested in Zipgrid, a tech-enabled community services platform.

Additionally, Bangalore-based community building platform Fourth Ambit, which recently tied-up with AICTE, also raised $600,000 from 1Crowd in May 2017. Prior to this, Genext Students — India’s first hybrid ed-tech tutoring platform — raised equity financing of $ 200,000 from 1Crowd, in August 2016.

Machine Learning-based Fintech Startup Creditas Secures Pre-Series A Funding Led By 1Crowd

Few days after leading investment round of Karma Healthcare, equity crowd-funding platform 1Crowd has again lead the fresh funding round of Gurgaon-based fintech startup Creditas Solutions. Creditas raised pre-series A funding however the amount raised was undisclosed.

Among other participants in this round of funding were Infina Finance, an investment company jointly owned by Kotak Mahindra Bank and Uday Kotak family, noted angel investors Dr. Aniruddha Malpani (leading IVF specialist), Daud Ali (entrepreneur and business leader) and S Sriniwasan (Managing Director – Kotak Investment Advisors).

The funds raised will be used by the startup to expand its team, data science capabilities and to make investments in technology, particularly to focus on providing banks a single platform to manage the entire delinquency cycle.

Founded in 2015 by Anshuman Panwar and Madan Srinivasan, Creditas is an innovative fintech venture that uses Machine learning and technology to help financial Institutions find better ways to reach and interact with their customers. It helps banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs) optimise customer acquisition, cross-sell, delinquency detection, financial literacy and debt recovery, validates and enhances creditor data to create accurate customer profiles. Creditas also provides free credit reports to consumers through its platform www.clearmydues.com.

"This new round of funding not only gives us the capital to scale exponentially but also validates the faith the Banking sector is reposing in our Solutions," said Creditas co-founder Anshuman Panwar.

Creditas has recently on-boarded Yes Bank group's President Neeraj Dhawan as an advior to the startup.

The above news was first reported in ANI News.

FinTech Startups' Funding in Last Few Months -

Last month, a Mumbai based fintech startup Fincash.com raised $150,000 in funding from angel investors including like Mohammed Khan (Founder of Rediffusion), Sameer Narayan (ex- Fund Manager BNP Paribas), among others. Prior to that, a Bengaluru-based fintech startup NiYO Solutions raised $13.2 million in its Series A funding from investors including Social Capital, JS Capital LLC (the family office of Jonathan Soros), and Horizons Ventures and existing investor Prime Venture Partners.

Last November, an Artificial intelligence-powered fintech startup Active.Ai raised $8.25 million in Series A funding led by Vertex Ventures, Creditease Holdings and Dream Incubator.

Other fintech start-ups that have raised funds recently include ZipLoan, Cash Suvidha, Kissht, Shubh Loans, Stashfin, LoanMeet and others.

To recall, according to a NASSCOM report published in November 2017 Fintech and healthcare are most funded segments of startups in India, in past one year. The total number of startups in the fintech space has gone up to 360 from 275 in 2016, thus registering 31% growth in the number of startups.

1Crowd and Recent Investments -

Launched in 2015, 1Crowd has recently announced its first close of debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million) followed by $500,000 investment in Rajastan-based Karma Healthcare. Last November, it invested in a fintech startup Nuvepro. In April 2017, 1Crowd invested in deep technology startup Nanosniff Technologies, prior to which it had invested in Zipgrid, a tech-enabled community services platform.

Additionally, Bangalore-based community building platform Fourth Ambit, which recently tied-up with AICTE, also raised $600,000 from 1Crowd in May 2017. Prior to this, Genext Students — India’s first hybrid ed-tech tutoring platform — raised equity financing of $ 200,000 from 1Crowd, in August 2016.

Machine Learning-based Fintech Startup Creditas Secures Pre-Series A Funding Led By 1Crowd

Few days after leading investment round of Karma Healthcare, equity crowd-funding platform 1Crowd has again lead the fresh funding round of Gurgaon-based fintech startup Creditas Solutions. Creditas raised pre-series A funding however the amount raised was undisclosed.

Among other participants in this round of funding were Infina Finance, an investment company jointly owned by Kotak Mahindra Bank and Uday Kotak family, noted angel investors Dr. Aniruddha Malpani (leading IVF specialist), Daud Ali (entrepreneur and business leader) and S Sriniwasan (Managing Director – Kotak Investment Advisors).

The funds raised will be used by the startup to expand its team, data science capabilities and to make investments in technology, particularly to focus on providing banks a single platform to manage the entire delinquency cycle.

Founded in 2015 by Anshuman Panwar and Madan Srinivasan, Creditas is an innovative fintech venture that uses Machine learning and technology to help financial Institutions find better ways to reach and interact with their customers. It helps banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs) optimise customer acquisition, cross-sell, delinquency detection, financial literacy and debt recovery, validates and enhances creditor data to create accurate customer profiles. Creditas also provides free credit reports to consumers through its platform www.clearmydues.com.

"This new round of funding not only gives us the capital to scale exponentially but also validates the faith the Banking sector is reposing in our Solutions," said Creditas co-founder Anshuman Panwar.

Creditas has recently on-boarded Yes Bank group's President Neeraj Dhawan as an advior to the startup.

The above news was first reported in ANI News.

FinTech Startups' Funding in Last Few Months -

Last month, a Mumbai based fintech startup Fincash.com raised $150,000 in funding from angel investors including like Mohammed Khan (Founder of Rediffusion), Sameer Narayan (ex- Fund Manager BNP Paribas), among others. Prior to that, a Bengaluru-based fintech startup NiYO Solutions raised $13.2 million in its Series A funding from investors including Social Capital, JS Capital LLC (the family office of Jonathan Soros), and Horizons Ventures and existing investor Prime Venture Partners.

Last November, an Artificial intelligence-powered fintech startup Active.Ai raised $8.25 million in Series A funding led by Vertex Ventures, Creditease Holdings and Dream Incubator.

Other fintech start-ups that have raised funds recently include ZipLoan, Cash Suvidha, Kissht, Shubh Loans, Stashfin, LoanMeet and others.

To recall, according to a NASSCOM report published in November 2017 Fintech and healthcare are most funded segments of startups in India, in past one year. The total number of startups in the fintech space has gone up to 360 from 275 in 2016, thus registering 31% growth in the number of startups.

1Crowd and Recent Investments -

Launched in 2015, 1Crowd has recently announced its first close of debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million) followed by $500,000 investment in Rajastan-based Karma Healthcare. Last November, it invested in a fintech startup Nuvepro. In April 2017, 1Crowd invested in deep technology startup Nanosniff Technologies, prior to which it had invested in Zipgrid, a tech-enabled community services platform.

Additionally, Bangalore-based community building platform Fourth Ambit, which recently tied-up with AICTE, also raised $600,000 from 1Crowd in May 2017. Prior to this, Genext Students — India’s first hybrid ed-tech tutoring platform — raised equity financing of $ 200,000 from 1Crowd, in August 2016.

Rajasthan-Based Karma Healthcare Raises $500K from 1Crowd and Ankur Capital

Karma Healthcare, an Udaipur, Rajasthan-based startup in the technology-led healthcare space, has recently raised INR 3 crore (~ USD 500,000) in equity funding from early stage investment firm 1Crowd, existing investors Ankur Capital, Ennovent Capital and Beyond Capital, and angel investors including Mr Anil Chatta (an experienced healthcare professional based in the Middle East).

Founded by ISB Hyderabad alumnus Jagdeep Gambhir, Karma Healthcare aims to provide high quality, affordable, equitable and reliable healthcare to India’s under-served population via a differentiated business model.The company has combined the human touch of a nurse with the scalability of shared doctor services via real-time online video consultations, and delivers healthcare to consumer via its e-Doctor clinics. Karma Healthcare’s overarching vision is to disrupt the healthcare landscape, by establishing a pan India network of healthcare clinics.The company thus seeks to make definitive large scale impact and in-turn take significant steps towards 'healthcare for all'.

Karma has completed over 50,000 consultations, and currently operates 10 e-Doctor clinics in the states of Rajasthan and Haryana which deliver a comprehensive ecosystem of clinical treatment, quality medicines and diagnostics at competitive rates. With the new funding, more than 10 lakh patients in the underserved communities of India will be able to access quality healthcare services through Karma’s network of e-Doctor clinics. The company has developed an in-house technology suite that helps it deliver standardized care, including a bespoke Clinical Decision Support System, and is extending its capabilities to deep learning driven diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. Karma is supported by marquee organizations such as the Tata Trusts, UBS Optimus Foundation and WISH Foundation.

“We are grateful to all our investors for reposing faith and commitment in our work. This new funding will help us scale our operations as well as enhance our technology offering to improve quality of care and provide great patient experience,” said Jagdeep Gambhir, CEO of Karma Healthcare, who has several years of experience in rural healthcare and previously worked with Goldman Sachs in India and the US.

“Karma has vividly demonstrated that a viable business model, with enormous socio-economic impact can indeed be targeted at the lower half of the pyramid. The simplicity with which they combine knowledge and technology, makes for a unique venture. We look forward to working with them as they enter a very exciting phase of growth,” said Anil Gudibande, co-founder of 1Crowd.

“Karma’s deep engagement and understanding of healthcare deliveryhas allowed it to develop an impressive healthcare analytics and decision supportsystem. We look forward to working with Karma in rolling this out to a much wider set of consumers in the next phase of their growth,” said RituVerma, co-founder and managing partner at Ankur Capital.

Speaking about funds for early-ventures working in healthcare, recently India's largest hospital chain Apollo Hospitals has launched seed fund for healthcare startups in India. According to a report published by Nasscom in last November, funding in healthcare tech segment has witnessed 129% increase in funding from $70 million in FY17 to $160 million in FY18. Attributing to the increased traction in these segments to innovation.

To recall, in last December, health-tech startup KiViHealth raised $400K funding from Claris Capital and Chandigarh Angels followed by $350,000 seed funding of Kolkata-based EasyBuyHealth.

Speaking about 1Crowd -- Launched in 2015, 1Crowd has recently announced its first close of debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million). 1Crowd’s portfolio companies include Creditas Solutions (FinTech), Idea Bubbles (healthcare), Nanosniff Technologies (nanotechnology), Nuvepro (enterprise technology) and Zipgrid (tech-led managed services).

Additionally, Bangalore-based community building platform Fourth Ambit, which recently tied-up with AICTE, also raised $600,000 from 1Crowd in May 2017. Prior to this, Genext Students — India’s first hybrid ed-tech tutoring platform — raised equity financing of $ 200,000 from 1Crowd, in August 2016.

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Rajasthan-Based Karma Healthcare Raises $500K from 1Crowd and Ankur Capital

Karma Healthcare, an Udaipur, Rajasthan-based startup in the technology-led healthcare space, has recently raised INR 3 crore (~ USD 500,000) in equity funding from early stage investment firm 1Crowd, existing investors Ankur Capital, Ennovent Capital and Beyond Capital, and angel investors including Mr Anil Chatta (an experienced healthcare professional based in the Middle East).

Founded by ISB Hyderabad alumnus Jagdeep Gambhir, Karma Healthcare aims to provide high quality, affordable, equitable and reliable healthcare to India’s under-served population via a differentiated business model.The company has combined the human touch of a nurse with the scalability of shared doctor services via real-time online video consultations, and delivers healthcare to consumer via its e-Doctor clinics. Karma Healthcare’s overarching vision is to disrupt the healthcare landscape, by establishing a pan India network of healthcare clinics.The company thus seeks to make definitive large scale impact and in-turn take significant steps towards 'healthcare for all'.

Karma has completed over 50,000 consultations, and currently operates 10 e-Doctor clinics in the states of Rajasthan and Haryana which deliver a comprehensive ecosystem of clinical treatment, quality medicines and diagnostics at competitive rates. With the new funding, more than 10 lakh patients in the underserved communities of India will be able to access quality healthcare services through Karma’s network of e-Doctor clinics. The company has developed an in-house technology suite that helps it deliver standardized care, including a bespoke Clinical Decision Support System, and is extending its capabilities to deep learning driven diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. Karma is supported by marquee organizations such as the Tata Trusts, UBS Optimus Foundation and WISH Foundation.

“We are grateful to all our investors for reposing faith and commitment in our work. This new funding will help us scale our operations as well as enhance our technology offering to improve quality of care and provide great patient experience,” said Jagdeep Gambhir, CEO of Karma Healthcare, who has several years of experience in rural healthcare and previously worked with Goldman Sachs in India and the US.

“Karma has vividly demonstrated that a viable business model, with enormous socio-economic impact can indeed be targeted at the lower half of the pyramid. The simplicity with which they combine knowledge and technology, makes for a unique venture. We look forward to working with them as they enter a very exciting phase of growth,” said Anil Gudibande, co-founder of 1Crowd.

“Karma’s deep engagement and understanding of healthcare deliveryhas allowed it to develop an impressive healthcare analytics and decision supportsystem. We look forward to working with Karma in rolling this out to a much wider set of consumers in the next phase of their growth,” said RituVerma, co-founder and managing partner at Ankur Capital.

Speaking about funds for early-ventures working in healthcare, recently India's largest hospital chain Apollo Hospitals has launched seed fund for healthcare startups in India. According to a report published by Nasscom in last November, funding in healthcare tech segment has witnessed 129% increase in funding from $70 million in FY17 to $160 million in FY18. Attributing to the increased traction in these segments to innovation.

To recall, in last December, health-tech startup KiViHealth raised $400K funding from Claris Capital and Chandigarh Angels followed by $350,000 seed funding of Kolkata-based EasyBuyHealth.

Speaking about 1Crowd -- Launched in 2015, 1Crowd has recently announced its first close of debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million). 1Crowd’s portfolio companies include Creditas Solutions (FinTech), Idea Bubbles (healthcare), Nanosniff Technologies (nanotechnology), Nuvepro (enterprise technology) and Zipgrid (tech-led managed services).

Additionally, Bangalore-based community building platform Fourth Ambit, which recently tied-up with AICTE, also raised $600,000 from 1Crowd in May 2017. Prior to this, Genext Students — India’s first hybrid ed-tech tutoring platform — raised equity financing of $ 200,000 from 1Crowd, in August 2016.

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India's Early Stage Investment Firm 1Crowd Hits $3.5 Mn Debut VC Fund

1Crowd, an India based early stage investment firm and startup ecosystem, has announced the first close of its debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million). The firm’s interests span across investments from the seed to pre Series A spectrum, incubation programs and virtual acceleration programs.

1Crowd began its journey by setting up an equity crowd funding platform in September 2015, bringing to market a differentiated investment model where it leads every investment and invites investor members on the platform to participate in the investment on the same terms. The firm has completed over 15 investments, including participation in 3 follow-on rounds for its portfolio companies. These investments are in areas such as FinTech, healthcare, education, enterprise technology and deep technology (including BioTech, NanoTech and CleanTech).

The fund has a target corpus of INR 75 crore, including a greenshoe option of INR 25 crore. It is uniquely positioned to co-invest with the equity crowd funding platform, effectively anchoring each investment with 30-50% of the total funding round. The fund is largely sector agnostic and plans to invest in approximately 20 companies. While 1Crowd seeks to invest roughly USD 500,000 in first round investments, it will look to increase its stakes in subsequent rounds for some of its investee companies.

The firm’s investor base includes prolific angel investors such as Ganesh Natarajan (Chairman, 5F World), Dr Aniruddha Malpani (leading IVF specialist), Krishnakumar Natarajan (Co-founder & Executive Chairman, Mindtree), MA Ravi Kumar (former CEO, American India Foundation), Dr Venkat Srinivasan (serial entrepreneur based in Boston who founded EnglishHelper, eCredit and Rage Frameworks), and Vivek Sharma (CEO of a global pharma services company based in Boston). Several captains and accomplished professionals across the spectrum of banking, private equity, information technology, healthcare, consumer and academia are backers of 1Crowd.

“We’re delighted with the positive reception from investors. The fund offers investors a unique strategy to optimize capital invested and maximize returns. The fund would invest in tandem with 1Crowd’s equity crowdfunding platform, building a diversified portfolio. Fund investors may co-invest via the platform at inception and in subsequent rounds, growing positions in portfolio companies that are successful” said AnilGudibande, Co-founder of 1Crowd.

“The 1Crowd fund is one of the few funds approved under SEBI’s revised Angel Fund guidelines and we would like to congratulate SEBI on this initiative. This is one more tool in our toolkit to support India’s nascent startup ecosystem and is targeted not at the super wealthy but at the growing affluent middle class which is seeking to make returns from startup investing and diversifying away from traditional investment classes like real estate or the public equity markets. We are now beginning to establish ourselves as a serious player in the startup ecosystem with an outstanding team of investment professionals backed by committed accredited investors in both the 1Crowd platform and 1Crowd fund,who have demonstrated their belief in us and Indian startups by consistently supporting our initiatives with their capital” said Anup Kuruvilla, Co-founder of 1Crowd.

1Crowd’s investment framework seeks to identify promising early stage ventures at the cusp of knowledge and technology, backed by high quality founding teams, regardless of the sector or industry they operate in. The firm has a sharp focus on actively supporting its portfolio companies in the areas of overall strategy, business development, sales & marketing, organization building and financial management. 1Crowd’s portfolio companies include Creditas Solutions (FinTech), Idea Bubbles (healthcare), Nanosniff Technologies (nanotechnology), Nuvepro (enterprise technology) and Zipgrid (tech-led managed services).

Additionally, Bangalore-based community building platform Fourth Ambit, which recently tied-up with AICTE, also raised $600,000 from 1Crowd in May 2017. Prior to this, Genext Students — India’s first hybrid ed-tech tutoring platform — raised equity financing of $ 200,000 from 1Crowd, in August 2016.

India's Early Stage Investment Firm 1Crowd Hits $3.5 Mn Debut VC Fund

1Crowd, an India based early stage investment firm and startup ecosystem, has announced the first close of its debut venture capital fund at INR 23 crore (USD 3.5 million). The firm’s interests span across investments from the seed to pre Series A spectrum, incubation programs and virtual acceleration programs.

1Crowd began its journey by setting up an equity crowd funding platform in September 2015, bringing to market a differentiated investment model where it leads every investment and invites investor members on the platform to participate in the investment on the same terms. The firm has completed over 15 investments, including participation in 3 follow-on rounds for its portfolio companies. These investments are in areas such as FinTech, healthcare, education, enterprise technology and deep technology (including BioTech, NanoTech and CleanTech).

The fund has a target corpus of INR 75 crore, including a greenshoe option of INR 25 crore. It is uniquely positioned to co-invest with the equity crowd funding platform, effectively anchoring each investment with 30-50% of the total funding round. The fund is largely sector agnostic and plans to invest in approximately 20 companies. While 1Crowd seeks to invest roughly USD 500,000 in first round investments, it will look to increase its stakes in subsequent rounds for some of its investee companies.

The firm’s investor base includes prolific angel investors such as Ganesh Natarajan (Chairman, 5F World), Dr Aniruddha Malpani (leading IVF specialist), Krishnakumar Natarajan (Co-founder & Executive Chairman, Mindtree), MA Ravi Kumar (former CEO, American India Foundation), Dr Venkat Srinivasan (serial entrepreneur based in Boston who founded EnglishHelper, eCredit and Rage Frameworks), and Vivek Sharma (CEO of a global pharma services company based in Boston). Several captains and accomplished professionals across the spectrum of banking, private equity, information technology, healthcare, consumer and academia are backers of 1Crowd.

“We’re delighted with the positive reception from investors. The fund offers investors a unique strategy to optimize capital invested and maximize returns. The fund would invest in tandem with 1Crowd’s equity crowdfunding platform, building a diversified portfolio. Fund investors may co-invest via the platform at inception and in subsequent rounds, growing positions in portfolio companies that are successful” said AnilGudibande, Co-founder of 1Crowd.

“The 1Crowd fund is one of the few funds approved under SEBI’s revised Angel Fund guidelines and we would like to congratulate SEBI on this initiative. This is one more tool in our toolkit to support India’s nascent startup ecosystem and is targeted not at the super wealthy but at the growing affluent middle class which is seeking to make returns from startup investing and diversifying away from traditional investment classes like real estate or the public equity markets. We are now beginning to establish ourselves as a serious player in the startup ecosystem with an outstanding team of investment professionals backed by committed accredited investors in both the 1Crowd platform and 1Crowd fund,who have demonstrated their belief in us and Indian startups by consistently supporting our initiatives with their capital” said Anup Kuruvilla, Co-founder of 1Crowd.

1Crowd’s investment framework seeks to identify promising early stage ventures at the cusp of knowledge and technology, backed by high quality founding teams, regardless of the sector or industry they operate in. The firm has a sharp focus on actively supporting its portfolio companies in the areas of overall strategy, business development, sales & marketing, organization building and financial management. 1Crowd’s portfolio companies include Creditas Solutions (FinTech), Idea Bubbles (healthcare), Nanosniff Technologies (nanotechnology), Nuvepro (enterprise technology) and Zipgrid (tech-led managed services).

Additionally, Bangalore-based community building platform Fourth Ambit, which recently tied-up with AICTE, also raised $600,000 from 1Crowd in May 2017. Prior to this, Genext Students — India’s first hybrid ed-tech tutoring platform — raised equity financing of $ 200,000 from 1Crowd, in August 2016.

Nuvepro Secures $400K Seed Funding Through 1Crowd To Fuel Growth

Nuvepro, a managed cloud environment solutions provider, today announced that it has raised $400K investment led by 1Crowd and its investor community. The investment will be used to deepen their R&D efforts and continue to expand into the worldwide market.

1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. It has more than 500 investors, 50 mentors and has made over 12 investments since March 2016. With the funds, the company will be able to leverage 1Crowd’s ecosystem of mentors, industry connects and investor community to benefit from strategic to operational support.

As part of the managed cloud environment solution, Nuvepro delivers ready-to-use infrastructure and applications on a single or multiple clouds, automates the resource provisioning, manages cloud resources & spend, ensures governance and compliance of cloud usage, integrates with your existing tools. All of this is done through a single-source self-service portal. The platform ensures that CIOs have complete control over resources, hierarchy, and subscription management. The embedded analytics provides insights that will help CIOs to track the cloud usage, optimize the resources and cut costs by over 50%.

Giridhar LV, CEO, Nuvepro said, “80% of enterprises are using the cloud. However, the CIOs are still finding it challenging to increase the cloud adoption and utilization. The returns on their cloud investments are far from realized. Nuvepro was founded with a singular vision to make the cloud work, help CIOs make the most of their cloud investments and enable them to take the competitive-edge. We do it by taking complete ownership through managed cloud environment so that CIOs don’t need to worry about provisioning, governance, security, skill building, shadow IT and managing multiple clouds.”

Anup Kuruvilla, Co-Founder of 1Crowd, said “Along with a well-respected, experienced and dedicated team, Nuvepro addresses key modern day challenge of cloud adoption. Microsoft Azure and Amazon web services have made strong strides in moving resources to the cloud and making the value proposition for enterprises attractive. We believe Nuvepro would be able to form a crucial bridge between enterprises and cloud providers by driving faster adoption. The underlying business model of providing ready to use cloud infrastructure available on a subscription or pay per go basis is also a strong pull for enterprises.”

The startup was founded in 2014 by Janakiraman S, Giridhar LV, Umesh Bhatt, Moyukh Goswami and Rajesh Vasudevan, all having significant years of professional experience.

Janakiraman, Chairman, Nuvepro said, “The debate on cloud is over. The focus now is to improve the cloud adoption and utilization. 1Crowd’s trust and investment in this vision gives us extra push to enable more CIOs to realize the true benefits of the cloud.”

Community Services Platform Zipgrid Raises $500K from JLL and 1Crowd

Leading international property consultancy JLL India today announced an investment into Zipgrid, India's fastest-growing technology and knowledge services provider in the community management space. This marks the closure of Zipgrid’s pre Series-A round of $500K. It is also JLL’s third investment by its JLL Technology Ventures platform, a dedicated vertical for making investments into real estate technology firms. The round saw active participation from Zipgrid's current investors represented by the 1Crowd platform.

"The asset management space is transitioning into a managed services model where technology is starting to play a major role,” says Anuj Nangpal, Head - JLL Technology Ventures. “We aim to partner with technology platforms with flexible architectures that can integrate with best-in-class technology tools. Zipgrid’s tech-enabled property and asset management platform offers a seamless experience for residents, society managements and the property managers. This platform is significantly more matured than any similar options on the market, and we are keen to implement this solution in residential and commercial complexes across the APAC region."

Over 35 million households reside in organized communities in the top 50 city clusters in India. This platform represents a market opportunity of over US$ 2 bn and is slated to grow aggressively as such households increase to over 100 mn by 2025. Zipgrid’s service model dovetails very favourably with the strict norms enforced by RERA and also addresses a market opportunity that will transcend beyond India into Asia Pacific with the support of the global JLL platform.

The investment will be used to fund upgrading and upscaling of existing technology and operations, and to deploy a range of collective commerce solutions for individual residents as well as residential communities. Zipgrid had earlier raised US$ 250K from 1Crowd that counts a number of C-level professionals as active members on its platform.

Zipgrid, founded in August 2013 by Kunal Gupta and Jaydip Popat, provides tech-driven services to hundreds of housing and commercial communities. Its platform comprises of a full suite of integrated tools and applications that promote:

• Highly efficient property management
• Community engagement
• Financial as well as legal compliance
• Accounting management
• Compliance management
• Builder-to-society transition services
• Vendor management
• Billing and payment solutions, and
• Records digitization.

Jaydip Popat, Co-founder - Zipgrid says, “We are delighted to partner JLL, a global real estate leader in Property and Asset management services. We intend to combine our technology and management solutions with JLL’s network and understanding of this space to improve living experiences in communities while bringing significant economic benefits to residents. We are also thankful to 1Crowd for their continued support and participation in this round. It is a significant vote of confidence for us.”

Natasha Kothari, Co-founder - 1Crowd says, "1Crowd's start-up ecosystem supports companies like Zipgrid that are using technology and knowledge to bring efficiency and convenience to all. Zipgrid is on a very strong growth trajectory and has made significant progress since the time we made our investment last year. In this heavily fragmented market, Zipgrid has managed to provide systemic efficiency to the housing and commercial communities."

​​Community Building Platform Fourth Ambit Raises $600K from 1Crowd

Bangalore based startup Fourth Ambit, has raised $600,000 (Rs 4 crore) from 1Crowd and its investor community. Fourth Ambit was founded by four college-mates: Jikku Jolly, Shyam Menon, Ruby Peethambaran & Rahul Das. Having spent more than 40 years between them in the corporate world, their roots at Govt. Model Engineering College, Kerala was the primary driving force to set up the company. Fourth Ambit is a specialist online platform for colleges that helps them to build and nurture vibrant student/ alumni communities. Fourth Ambit has on-boarded more than 1100 college communities including marquee brands like IIM Bangalore, NIT Trichy, NMIMS Mumbai, Manipal University etc.

Talking about the fund raise, Mr. Rahul Das, Co-founder & CEO of Fourth Ambit said, “This round of fund-raise has positioned us at the cusp of disrupting the education ecosystem. Expanding our college footprint is the key imperative. Product excellence, Strategic collaborations and People power are the building blocks for the same. We are delighted to have a partner in the form of 1Crowd. Along with the funding, their inputs in terms of building strategy and connects to further our proposition is immensely valuable.”

Talking about the investment, Mr. Anup Kuruvilla, co-founder of 1Crowd said, “We seek start-ups which are addressing a critical problem statement in the ecosystem and have the potential to scale. College communities have not seen either good engagement or participation on the official portals. Fourth Ambit aspires to disrupt this state by transforming college portals into vibrant engaged communities. The ecosystem at 1Crowd allows angel investors to participate and co-invest with us in early stage start-ups and benefit from our institutional approach to the entire process, right from origination to evaluation, due diligence and most importantly post-investment monitoring and mentoring.”

Even as Fourth Ambit looks at expanding its college footprint, they are cognizant of the need to keep their customers happy. “We take pride in the fact that more than 95% of our customers have renewed their contracts with us over the last 3 years. Customer Delight is however the next frontier for us, Customer Satisfaction is not good enough! Empowerment through the product and Energizing through the consultants are two key drivers for the same. Our ultimate aim is an ecosystem where every student and alumni continue to derive value at every stage of their life through community collaboration”, says Rahul.

1Crowd Invests $300K In Deep Technology Startup Nanosniff

Nanosniff Technologies, an IIT Bombay incubated company has raised Rs 2 crores ($300K) from 1Crowd and its investor community as part of a broader funding plan. Nanosniff is a deep technology company working on high impact offerings in MEMS domain with applications in healthcare and security markets. It had previously raised an undisclosed amount from a group of angel investors.

​​Talking about the investment, Mr. Anil Gudibande, co-founder of 1Crowd​ said, “The ecosystem at 1Crowd allows our community of angel investors to participate and co-invest with us in early stage start-ups and benefit from our institutional approach to the entire process, right from origination to evaluation, due diligence and most importantly post-investment monitoring and mentoring. We seek start-ups which are at the cusp of knowledge and technology. Nanosniff is an exemplary case where genuine IP has been created from robust R&D to address healthcare and security markets.”

Founded by alumni and professors from IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi, Nanosniff is a commercial spin-off from the Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics (CEN) at IIT Bombay and was formed to commercialize products from technologies developed during research work conducted at CEN. It has filed multiple patents in MEMS sensor technologies and commercialized products using these technologies that have applications in detection of industrial hazards, security and surveillance systems and point of care medical diagnostic devices.

1Crowd which has around 300 investor members as part of its ecosystem, has previously invested in five start-ups and is also engaged with five startups through its incubation and acceleration programs. Nanosniff would be able to leverage 1Crowd’s ecosystem of mentors, industry connects and investor community to benefit from strategic and operational support during the subsequent phases of its evolution.