PadCare Labs Raises $3 Mn in Pre-Series A Led by Nithin Kamath's Rainmatter with Participation From 3one4 Capital and Brigade REAP

• The Pre-Series A round comprises a mix of equity and debt financing
• The startup operates across 24 cities in India, managing over 2,000 sites and serving more than 685 enterprises, manufacturing, and residential community clients. 
• The company has remained PAT positive for two consecutive years, delivering EBITDA margins of 26%

PadCare Labs, a clean-technology startup focused on sanitary waste recycling, has raised $3 million in a Pre-Series A funding round to scale its recycling capacity to 2,000 MT annually by March 2027 and launch Orbit, an app-based offering for housing societies. Led by Rainmatter by Zerodha, the equity and debt mix round witnessed new participation from 3one4 Capital, Brigade REAP and PKRBCV Shroff Trust, and backing from existing investors Lavni Ventures, 3i Partners, and debt partners EXIM Bank and ICICI Bank.

The company plans to deploy the fresh capital to scale its recycling operations across Bengaluru and the Delhi NCR region while strengthening leadership and core operating functions. Building on this, PadCare will accelerate its R&D efforts, advance diaper recycling capabilities, and expand Rebirth, its portfolio of recycled corporate stationery and paper products. As the world’s first sanitary-waste disposal and recycling system, the company is now eyeing expansion into new APAC markets, with entry targeted by 2027.

Speaking on the fundraise, Ajinkya Dhariya, Founder and CEO of PadCare Labs, said, “Sanitary waste management remains one of the most under-addressed challenges within India’s waste ecosystem. As regulations evolve with Solid Waste Management (SWM) 2026 rules and enterprises are held to higher sustainability and compliance standards, the need for organized, transparent recycling infrastructure is becoming unavoidable. This fundraise enables us to expand capacity, strengthen leadership, and build the operational backbone required to scale a circular economy for hygiene waste.”

Ajinkya Dhariya, CEO and Founder, PadCare Labs

Founded in 2018 by Ajinkya Dhariya, PadCare has developed patented technology for the scientific recycling of used sanitary waste, enabling the recovery of value-added materials for industrial applications. The company operates across 24 cities in India, including Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and serves over 685 clients like Infosys, Wipro, Mahindra Group across more than 2,000 sites. PadCare works with large enterprises, manufacturing facilities, educational institutions, institutes, and residential communities to deliver scalable and sustainable sanitary waste management solutions.

Nithin Kamath, CEO of Zerodha and Rainmatter, said, “Sanitary waste is a structurally ignored problem with significant environmental and public-health implications. PadCare has demonstrated that this category can be addressed through the right combination of technology & operational discipline. We have seen the company scale responsibly over the years, which is why we chose to reinvest in PadCare. We will be supporting them as they build long-term, circular infrastructure for India.”

Nruthya Madappa, Partner, 3one4 Capital, added, "Sustainable waste infrastructure is essential for India's urban future, and PadCare is leading the way. Ajinkya Dhariya and the team have deployed their patented technology across multiple markets, building a solution that works environmentally, operationally, and economically. With proven traction and strong unit economics, PadCare is ready to scale nationally. We're excited to partner with PadCare as they expand operations and deepen their impact.

Nirupa Shankar, Joint Managing Director, Brigade Group, said, “Personal hygiene waste management is an area that has been overlooked over the years, and it is heartening that Ajinkya and the team at Pad Care are leveraging true innovation for solutions in a space that really needs it. This investment represents our belief that impactful change comes from backing entrepreneurs who successfully combine technology with purpose. Their pioneering work in scalable sanitary waste recycling not only addresses a critical gap in the ecosystem but also sparks louder conversations and creates greater visibility around topics such as menstrual health and effective hygiene products.”

Sanitary waste, while recognized under India’s solid waste management framework, has historically lacked scalable and compliant recycling solutions, resulting in most of it being sent to landfills or handled unsafely. PadCare addresses this gap through an end-to-end model that integrates on-site collection infrastructure, compliant logistics, scientific recycling, and transparent reporting aligned with sustainability and ESG requirements.

Notably, the company has sustained EBITDA profitability over the last two years, maintaining EBITDA margins of 26%, reflecting strong operating leverage and a resilient business model. It has recorded a 136% CAGR and continues to see strong customer stickiness, with a 99.5% client retention rate. In 2025 alone, PadCare recycled approximately 256 MT of sanitary waste, resulting in an estimated reduction of 512 MT of CO₂-equivalent emissions. The company also holds three granted patents, with seven more in the pipeline, and operates at TRL-9 technology readiness. To date, the company has raised $5 million in funding from investors including BIRAC’s LEAP Fund (Venture Center) and Social Alpha, and secured a landmark four-shark investment on Shark Tank India Season 2 from Piyush Bansal, Anupam Mittal, Vineeta Singh, and Namita Thapar.

About PadCare

PadCare is an India-based clean-technology company building patented recycling solutions for sanitary waste. The company enables compliant, transparent, and circular management of sanitary waste for enterprises, institutions, and residential communities using their patented sanitary waste recycling technology. PadCare operates across 24 cities in India with a mission to eliminate landfill disposal of sanitary waste through scalable recycling infrastructure.

Website: www.padcarelabs.com

Mobile Game Publisher Felicity Games Secures $3 Mn in Seed Round Led by 3one4 Capital

Felicity Games, a leading global mobile game publisher, has raised $3 million (INR 25.8 crore) in a seed funding round led by 3one4 Capital, with participation from international investors such as T-Accelerate Capital (Singapore) and MIXI Global Investments (Tokyo). The funding round also saw strong follow-up investments from existing backers DeVC and Visceral Capital, further emphasizing investors’ confidence in Felicity’s long-term vision.

The fundraising follows a period of rapid growth for Felicity, which has now surpassed $1M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and crossed 1 million downloads across its top-performing titles, Seek & Find and Nova Solitaire. Founded in 2023 by Anurag Choudhary, Felicity Games is focused on pioneering a scalable playbook for global game publishing by tapping into India’s burgeoning game development ecosystem. Specializing in hybrid-casual games publishing, the company combines data-driven insights with a strong execution model to deliver high-performing mobile games to audiences worldwide. The company closed February with over $100K in gross revenue, marking a 4X scale-up from November 2024.

With this new round of funding, Felicity Games plans to expand its publishing infrastructure and deepen its relationships with Indian game studios. The company is committed to scaling its successful titles and using the funds to test additional games by the end of 2025. This investment will also support the company’s mission of becoming the go-to partner for studios looking to scale their games profitably and sustainably.

In 2024, Felicity Games forged partnerships with over 10 Indian studios to test and scale several games, further strengthening its publishing infrastructure and its position in the competitive global market.

Speaking on this Sonal Saldanha, VP at 3one4 Capital said, "The gaming industry has changed significantly, with mobile adoption and new advertising rules reshaping how games are built, discovered, and monetized. These shifts create opportunities for new companies to emerge. Felicity is taking a first-principles approach to building a substantial gaming business from India by leveraging exceptional talent, operational efficiency, and rapid execution. We share Anurag’s vision and are excited to support an industry-defining gaming company emerging from India,”

“We are building the next generation of global gaming successes from India," said Anurag Choudhary, Founder & CEO of Felicity Games, “At Felicity, we take a tech- driven, execution-focused approach to systematically identify and scale global hits. By tapping into India’s studio ecosystem and top global talent in UA, Monetization, and Live Ops, we’re accelerating learning and innovation. This fundraise fuels our mission to double down on innovation, partnerships, and growth”

Through this latest round of funding, Felicity Games is poised to bridge the gap in the mobile gaming ecosystem, providing studios with the technology, insights, and comprehensive support needed to compete and succeed on a global scale.

Narayana Murthy and T.V. Mohandas Pai Discuss India’s Growth Story, Corporate Governance & Entrepreneurship in 3one4 Capital’s New Video Series ‘The Record’

The inaugural episodes of the video series, in association with Catamaran, aim to inspire change through ideas and life journeys of India’s veteran industry leaders

3one4 Capital, Bengaluru-based early-stage venture capital firm, announces the official launch of 'The Record,' its latest video series. This insightful series is positioned to provide exceptional insights into the spheres of entrepreneurship and leadership. Notably, the inaugural episodes of 'The Record,' in collaboration with Catamaran, feature Narayana Murthy and T.V. Mohandas Pai, underscoring the series' significance within the corporate landscape, offering a platform for inspiring dialogues and meaningful ideas.

'The Record' by 3one4 Capital aims to highlight the transformational journeys of India's industry leaders and to explore the strategies through which they navigated challenges on their paths to large outcomes. This series offers a distinctive opportunity for audiences to immerse themselves in the fundamental elements of thriving entrepreneurship in India, the dynamics of effective leadership, the complexities of corporate governance, principles for positive-sum market expansion, the forces guiding India's growth trajectory, and much more.

The collaboration with Catamaran, the esteemed family office of Narayana Murthy, adds a significant dimension to the inaugural episodes of 'The Record.' Catamaran is widely known in the industry and has played a pivotal role in fostering successful ventures. This collaboration underscores the commitment of both organizations to empower the entrepreneurial and leadership ecosystem in India.

Commenting at the launch of The Record, Narayana Murthy said, “Catamaran is happy to partner with 3one4 Capital on this inaugural episode. History has a lot to teach us, and candid dialogue on platforms like this will help reveal the intricate journey of entrepreneurship and leadership.”

T.V. Mohandas Pai said, “The Record is an intentional initiative by 3one4 Capital to support a dialogue on governance, startup growth, managing the path to building large institutions, and many other matters related to the transformational journey of entrepreneurship. The inaugural episodes of The Record with Narayana Murthy on corporate governance, building a constructive board, building great teams, and ensuring that corporates are run with the highest standards of governance and ethics will go a long way in helping entrepreneurs across the ecosystem. What Narayana Murthy brings to the dialogue is very rich experience and standard setting, steps that he's taken in building a legacy at Infosys. It's important for us to learn from the best entrepreneurs India has produced over time, and I look forward to more such dialogues soon.”

Pranav Pai, the Founding Partner of 3one4 Capital, introduced the launch of 'The Record, "We have designed ‘The Record’ to support young Indians and the wider startup and corporate ecosystem in their search for focused insights from industry leaders who have successfully built some of India's most distinguished enterprises. We aspire for this video series to serve as a compass for the country's entrepreneurs and operators as they build towards sustainable and inclusive technological and socio-economic advancement."

As 'The Record' continues its episodic releases, 3one4 Capital remains committed to hosting similar conversations with a diverse group of industry leaders from across the nation. These discussions will delve into their unique journeys, sharing experiences, challenges, and achievements as valuable learning opportunities. Each upcoming episode will grant access to the strategic frameworks and transformative ideas that have driven these individuals to success. The collaboration with Catamaran in the inaugural episodes reflects 3one4 Capital's dedication to offering viewers an exceptional opportunity to tap into the collective wisdom of these industry experts in the future.

The first episode was released on October 26, 2023, on 3one4 Capital and Catamaran's website and social channels.

Teaser 

Episode 1

About 3one4 Capital

3one4 Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Bangalore, India.

The firm works in select market categories and in the intersection of adjacencies that are large, growing, and ready for unique products and services. The themes pursued are SaaS, Enterprise & SMB Digitization, Fintech, Consumer Internet, and Digital Health, with a focus on areas such as machine-driven actionable intelligence services, climate tech, ambient intelligence technologies, logistics and distribution, IP-led deep tech, and full stack engineering solutions.

3one4’s investments are biased towards companies exploiting technology to create, grow, or dominate large markets in India. The firm also invests a portion of its capital in global-GTM companies that have feedforward effects into the themes being pursued in India. With a focus on margins and on delivering uncompromised end-user experiences, the firm aims to detect new growth opportunities, manage risk, and return rewarding outcomes to all the stakeholders involved.

3one4 Capital has specialized in utilizing its deep access to strategic corporations and investors in building grounds-up theses that preempt the mainstream while exploiting macro trends. The firm has developed a proprietary sourcing engine to discover the next set of generational companies from the early stage. Once invested, the firm works through a deep involvement strategy with founding teams and subject-matter experts to prioritize and strategize for product-market fit, and then optimize for defensibility and growth in revenue and impact. The firm’s in-house Governance & Business Integrity, Growth & Capital Development, Finance, Research, and Platform teams act as strategic partners to the founders over multiple vectors to amplify the execution, growth, and reach of the portfolio companies.

At 3one4, the team has intentionally built a long-term commitment to responsible investing and to support the evolution of an ecosystem conducive to RI. This active commitment has helped the firm secure the signatory status to the UN PRI, making 3one4 Capital the first Venture Capital signatory from India and the fifth overall asset management firm approved from the country.

3one4 Capital has been ranked by Preqin, a global reference database for asset management, as India’s top performer for two of its funds in its Alternative Assets report. The seed and early-stage funds managed by the firm have been recognized for their performance amongst the India-focused venture capital funds in this Asia Pacific-focused report published in 2021. With industry-leading Net IRRs, 3one4 Capital’s Rising I & Fund II are the top two amongst the best performing India-focused VC funds between the vintage years, 2010-2018.

The firm manages INR 4,100 Cr (USD 510M) of committed capital and a combined portfolio of over 100 investments.

About Catamaran

Catamaran is the family office of Narayana Murthy and is a catalyst for creating innovative enterprises in India. It manages over $1 billion across asset classes. It invests in innovative ideas from passionate and value-based entrepreneurs to help them build successful enterprises. The company partners with respected global corporations to create enduring enterprises in India. Catamaran invests in listed companies catering to large markets, with high standards of corporate governance and the ability to stay resilient across economic cycles.

Mobile Games Developer HighXP Raises $2.2 Mn in Seed Funding from 3one4 Capital

Bengaluru based HighXP, a mobile games developes is building social casual games, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by 3one4 Capital with participation from Prime Venture Partners and Gemba zee.

Angel investors such as Anuj Tandon (CEO-Gaming at JetSynthesys), Rahul Bhardwaj (Junglee Games co-founder) and Giri Patil (VP, Engineering at Propertyfinder) also participated in the funding round.

HighXP will use the freshly raised funds to accelerate the growth of its debut game Doodle Me, which is currently available as a free download on Google Play store and Apple App Store as well as help them launch more games. Doodle Me is a social drawing and guessing game designed for players aged 5 and above.

HighXP was founded in 2021 by seasoned industry veterans Shankara Seethappa and Raghu Sankar, who played key roles in the creation of 20 games at well-known gaming developers such as Zynga, Microsoft, and Big Viking Games.

Earlier in March, Simple Viral Games aka SVG, a hyper-casual mobile gaming platform, raised Rs 4 Cr in a pre-seed round led by WEH Ventures, along with participation from Eximius Ventures, PointOne Capital, Force Ventures & a few angels including Ankit Agrawal (Founder & CEO of InsuranceDekho), Prashant Sachan (Founder & CEO of AppsForBharat).

Earlier this month, in a first-of-its-kind study on online gamers in India, it was revealed that the growing trend of gaming is emerging as a career option in India and not just being limited to a means of entertainment. Based on the study, 83% of the respondents consider gaming as either a primary or secondary source of income, highlighting the paradigm shift towards gaming being a viable option that can be pursued professionally.

YC-backed Health-Tech Startup Breathe Well-being Raises $1 Mn in Pre-Series A Led by 3one4 Capital

• Breathe Well-being helps people prevent, manage and reverse Type 2 Diabetes
• The clinically proven digital program uses a personalised coach driven, community first approach through interactive gamification to help people with Type 2 Diabetes reduce HbA1c, lose weight & stop medication eventually
• Funds raised to be used to scale up the tech platform, strengthen the coaching academy and team expansion

L to R - Aditya Kaicker(cofounder & COO) and Rohan Verma(co-founder and CEO), Breathe Well-being

Gurgaon, June 1st, 2021: Breathe Well-being, a health-tech startup that helps people prevent, manage and reverse Type 2 Diabetes has raised $1 million in Pre-Series A round led by 3one4 Capital. Prolific angels investors like Ashish Gupta (ex-MD Helion Ventures, investor in Flipkart, MMT & naukri.com), Anjali Bansal (Founder Avaana Capital, Former Chairman Dena Bank- Bank of Baroda), Suhail Sameer (Group President BharatPe) & Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs India (SAE India) also participated in the round. Silicon Valley based prestigious accelerator Y Combinator known for backing global companies like Airbnb, Stripe & DropBox and Meesho, Razorpay & Cleartax in India also invested in Breathe Well-being during its winter 2020 batch.

The Gurgaon based health-tech startup was founded in 2020 by Rohan Verma (ex-McKinsey) & Aditya Kaicker (ex-Accenture) who are 2nd-time founders in the healthcare space. Since its inception, Breathe Well-being continues to achieve a 30% m-o-m growth rate and has seen a 22X increase in its membership base. The team will invest the current fund raise to strengthen its coaching academy, build the core team, and upgrade its technology platform.

Breathe Well-being’s clinically proven digital program uses a personalised coach driven, community first approach through interactive gamification to help people with Type 2 Diabetes reduce HbA1c, lose weight and stop diabetes medication eventually.

Rohan Verma, Co-founder and CEO, Breathe Well-being says, “Breathe Well-being is attempting to address a complex problem beautifully which is seeing a high growth rate due to strong word of mouth. Our clinically proven program addresses 70 million diabetic people who feel that they have no choice but to stay on medications. This number is set to touch 130 million by 2025. We, at Breathe Well-Being, want to engage pre-diabetes and diabetes patients and help them manage/reverse their condition to lead a healthier life. The current fundraise comes at a crucial point in our journey as we are seeing significant traction both on the users and coaches side. The funds raised will help us grow our capabilities both from tech and coaches perspective and also enable us to scale exponentially.”

The Breathe Well-being outcome-driven digital therapeutics program is based on 3 pillars of coaching, community and curriculum. The year-long program is split across 10 levels. The program can be accessed via the Breathe mobile app that is available on the App Store and Play store. The company’s clinically proven program has helped 10,000+ members to lose weight, reduce blood sugar and prevent health complications.

Anurag Ramdasan, Principal & Head of Investments, 3one4 Capital, says, "Breathe Well-being is unique in its direct to consumer, community and coach driven, healthcare delivery model and we are firm believers of this approach to health care. Rohan and Aditya have shown amazing insights in building this company and their strong approach to first principles and fundamentals have us excited to lead their round. Breathe Well-being has a phenomenal team with deep expertise in healthcare, community and lifestyle management and we think are perfectly positioned in creating a healthcare revolution in the digital delivery space and we are super excited to be part of this journey.”

Given the raging pandemic currently, Breathe Well-being has decided to provide a complimentary extension of one month for all their members who are undergoing the program. Additionally, they have launched Covid Special Yoga classes for all their customers free of cost to help them with immunity and address Covid related symptoms, especially as they also have to focus on managing diabetes which is a complicated health issue when clubbed with Covid. The company's major focus right now is to humanise the workplace and its biggest goal is to care for the team. Breathe Well-being has launched medical insurance and a mental wellness therapy program for its employees to help them deal with the Covid crisis and bereavement in their families.

India is the diabetes capital of the World with 150 million patients suffering from chronic lifestyle diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes, PCOD, thyroid and hypertension. It has been reported that 24% people across age groups are prediabetic. The company is on a mission to help 10 million Indians over the next 5 years to reverse and manage Type 2 Diabetes while building a trusted and loved community for people with chronic conditions.

About Breathe Well-being

Founded in 2020, by Rohan Verma and Aditya Kaicker, Breathe Well-being is helping 70 million Indians to prevent, manage and reverse Type 2 Diabetes. Breathe Well-being’s clinically proven digital program uses a personalised coach driven, community first approach through interactive gamification to help people with Type 2 Diabetes reduce HbA1c, lose weight and reduce medication dependability.

Vernacular Podcasting Platform Kuku FM Raises Funding from Shunwei Capital, others

Mumbai-based podcasting and audiobooks platform Kuku FM has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from China's Shunwei Capital and Indian venture capital firms India Quotient and 3One4 Capital, reported LiveMint.

Founded in 2018, by Lal Chand Bisu, Vinod Meena and Vikas Goyal, Kuku FM is a podcast platform that is re-inventing the traditional radio by allowing listeners to easily discover new, emerging and diverse audio content, and engage with their favorite creators.

Kuku FM gives a platform to some of the best content creators in India to launch and expand their very own podcasts.

Kuku FM provides production, distribution and marketing support for creators, and claims to have over a million listeners spending over 50 minutes a day on the platform. This includes famous feeds like Quora and Quorans from Quora, Dainik Bhaskar and dozens more.

Kuku FM has a library of 2 Lakh+ audios with most of them in Hindi language. The platform, with its app, also provide bestselling English books translated in Hindi as well as the famous Hindi books. The Audiobooks has range of categories like motivation audiobooks, self help audiobooks, spiritual audiobooks, business audiobooks along with a diverse library of fiction audiobooks from genres like Love, Crime, Horror, Comedy & Kids.

Kuku FM is aiming to be the biggest vernacular platform in that space, enabling the regional superstars to get their voices heard. We currently have content in Hindi and are actively onboarding creators from the 23 major languages of the country.

Vernacular News Platform Lokal Raises $3 Mn from 3one4, Y Combinator, others

Local language news aggregator and knowledge platform Lokal has raised $3 million (~ Rs 21.2 crore) in a funding from a clutch of investors, including the Bengaluru-based 3one4 Capital and Y Combinator, reported VCCircle.

Singapore-based boutique venture fund RB Investments, SOMA Capital also contributed to the round, along with existing investor India Quotient, which had previously invested an undisclosed amount in the startup, in August last year.

Lokal will use the funds to enhance its product, team expansion, foray into new markets.

Founded in 2018, by Jani Pasha and Vipul Chaudhary, Lokal is serving a largely under-served market in India which got access to the internet recently because of Jio and cheaper smartphones. Lokal gets its news from qualified freelancer ground journalists. The company claims to delivers local news quicker than any other news platform.

Besides local online platforms, global online giants are also witnessing is a rise in the number of content viewers in vernacular languages including Hindi, Tamil and Bengali in smaller cities and towns. In September, Google-owned video platform YouTube announced that there is a significant amount of content is being created in vernacular languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam.

Last month, Matrubharti, also a vernacular content platform, has raised about Rs. 3.24 crores in angel round of funding from US-based Gujarati NRI angel investors.

In July last year, vernacular knowledge platform Vokal had raised $5 million in a Series A round of funding lead by China’s Shunwei Capital, and 500 startups. Vokal also acqui-hired StupidChat Technologies, a quizzing app startup, in an all-stock deal, in May this year.

Neo-banking Startup Open Raises $5 Mn from Beenext, Speedinvest and 3one4 Capital

Bangalore-based fintech startup Open Financial Technologies Pvt Ltd (Open), which offers a digital neo-banking service for SMEs, announces its Series A funding of 5 million USD led by Beenext, Speedinvest and 3one4 Capital.

Prior to this, the startup had raised undisclosed amount in May last year, whi was its pre-series A funding led by Unicorn India Ventures and Recruit Co. Ltd, through its investment subsidiary RSP India Fund LLC. Existing investors ISME-ACE and Vaibhav Domkundwar’s BetterCapital AngelList syndicate

Open offers a business account in partnership with banks that helps SMEs
automate and run their finances effectively. The account has all the tools that’s required by a small business to
send and receive business payments combined with an automated bookkeeping tool to
integrate banking into their business workflows.

Founded
in 2017, Open is solving business banking challenges faced by SMEs and the platform
today has grown to over 30,000 SMEs and processing over 2 Billion USD in
transaction run rate adding over 7500 SMEs every month and is the fastest SME
focused neo-banking service globally. Open plans to use the funding to scale up
the team and launch a few new products.

The
series A round was led by Beenext – Asia’s top-tier early-stage fund investing
across SEA, India and Japan. Speedinvest - a leading early stage VC fund in Europe
which also backed leading neo-banks like N26, Holvi and Tide. Existing
investors Unicorn India Ventures and Angellist Syndicate also participated in
this round.

According
to Anish Achuthan, Co-founder & CEO of Open “Banking is broken for
small businesses as traditional business banking services have not focused on
the needs of these businesses. This presents us with a large opportunity
to disrupt this segment in partnership with banks. The funding will help
us accelerate customer acquisition and growth as we target to onboard 1 million
small businesses into the platform in the next two years.

Speaking on the investment, Dirk Van Quaquebeke, Managing Partner, Beenext says, “I have been looking at the neo-banking space globally for the past 5-6 years and must say that I have not seen this kind of growth and robustness of an SME Neo product at this young stage of a company. I am deeply impressed by Anish and his team and what they have achieved in such a short period of time.”

Just a few days back, Beenext had also contributed in $8 million funding round of Smallcase, a Bangalore-based financial technology startup.

Speaking on the investment, Stefan Klestil, General Partner, Speedinvest, said “Tech is enabling the financial inclusion of small businesses everywhere in the world. Based on our track record in Europe, and together with Beenext, our trusted regional partner, we have started to back strong, proven founders like Anish in the Indian market with its practically unlimited growth prospects. We are very excited about our first tech investment in India." 

Founded in May 2017, by by serial entrepreneurs Anish Achuthan, Mabel Chacko and Ajeesh Achuthan along with ex-TaxiforSure CFO Deena Jacob, Open has raised investments from Recruit Japan, Unicorn India Ventures, DICE fintech and other angel investors that include Sweta Rau, Citruspay founder Jitendra Gupta, TaxiforSure founder Apremaya Radhakrishnan, Chiranth Patil of BetaPlus Ventures, Archana Priyadarshini of Unicorn India Ventures and Vaibhav Domkudwar’s BetterCapital AngelList Syndicate.

Japan's Sojitz Corp Acquires Stake in 3one4 Capital, A VC Firm by Mohandas Pai's Sons

Japan’s Sojitz Corporation has signed a contract to invest in Continuum I, a venture fund operated by 3one4 Capital Advisors LLP, a Bangalore-based early-stage venture capital firm by Mohandas Pai's sons -- Pranav Pai and Siddarth Pai.

Sojitz Corporation is a sogo shosha (general trading company) based in Tokyo, Japan that also invests in various sectors and conducts financing activities.

With this investment in 3one4’s venture fund, Sojitz aims to obtain a broad range of information on market trends and promising startups with innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

3one4 Capital has recently raised its second fund with commitments of Rs.250 crore and in last month, it led a $8 million funding round of LoanTap, a Mumbai-based online platform that offers flexible loan products to salaried professionals.

Additionally, Sojitz also plans to open an office in Bangalore, India by April 2019 to partner with startups and create new businesses geared towards Indian and overseas markets. Sojitz plans to use information from Continuum I to enter unexplored business areas as well.

Welcoming the investment, Consul-General of Japan in Bengaluru Takayuki Kitagawa said “This is the first successful case ever since the Ministry of Economy along with JETRO started the Indo-Japan Start-up Hub last May in Bengaluru.”

“Sojitsu, one of the major trading companies in Japan, has now invested in Bengaluru exclusively for the purpose of start-up initiatives. This trend will accelerate other Japanese investors to invest in Bengaluru. This will further be facilitated by the new direct flight from Tokyo to Bengaluru that has been announced recently. The business set-up is now ready to take-off. Even though Japan has been a late comer, we are now catching up fast,” he added.

3one4 Capital launched its first fund of Rs 100 crore in 2016 and has so far invested in more than 40 companies including Faircent.com, OnlineTyari, Tracxn, Charmboard, and YourStory.

Via ~ Redact | Source - NNA.jp, Business Line

Online Lending Startup LoanTap Raises Over $8 Mn from 3one4 Capital, Others

Mumbai-based LoanTap, an online platform that offers flexible loan products to salaried professionals, has raised over $8 million in a funding round led by 3one4 Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund based out of Bangalore, reported Financial Express.

The funds raised is a combination of equity and debt instruments, between October to December 2018. Existing investors including Shunwei Capital, Kae Capital, India Quotient, Tuscan Venture and angel investor Ashish Goenka also participated in the round.

LoanTap was started in 2016 by Satyam Kumar and Vikas Kumar, LoanTap claimed to have turned profitable within the first five quarters of operation even as its loan book is growing at 12% monthly.

To date, the startup has raised a total of about $21 million in funding over four rounds including the latest one. In August 2016, the startup had raised $3 Mn in a Series A investment round led by Mumbai-based HNIs including Abhishek Pandey and Jaysukh Sapra.

LoanTap competes with likes of Capital Float, Lendingkart, and InCred.

“3one4 Capital brings in a unique blend of expertise in core tech investing and a deep sectoral understanding along with an immense network that includes its marquee LPs,” said LoanTap CEO Satyam Kumar.

"By giving their customers more choice, better information, reduced complexity, and allowing for personalization, the LoanTap team has demonstrated a true understanding of the elements that go into building an institutional presence in their space,” said Pranav Pai, Founding Partner of 3one4 Capital.

3one4 Capital, which also counts P2P lending firm Faircent as its investee startup, has invested in startups like investments include Tracxn, Licious, DarwinBox, BetterPlace, Tonetag, Tripoto and Bugworks.

In October, Delhi based instant lending startup RevFin had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a group of angel investors including Harash Jain (CEO, Litejoy International, and UK based businessperson), Anil K Goyal (Founder, Anil K Goyal, and Associates), Anil Lanba (Senior Technology Executive, EVP Pyramid Consulting) and Krishan B Singh (Investor based in New York).

In the same month, Bangalore-based NIRA, a consumer finance fintech venture focused on financial inclusion, had raised $1 million seed funding from angel investors in the UK and India.

Prior to this, Mumbai headquartered micro-lending platform Upwards raised $5 million in series A financing round led by China's ShunWei Capital.

[Top Image - LoanTap Team | Credit - YourStory.com]

Machine-Intelligence Driven Personalisation Platform Wigzo Raises Funding Led by 3one4 Capital

Personalisation platform Wigzo has raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by its existing investor 3one4 Capital. The round also saw the participation of its existing investor Aarin Capital and Advantedge Partners and Rohit Malik (DMA Cap) and new investors including Arjun Sharma of Select Hospitality, Mohit Gulati of Altius Ventures and Vic Kaul (Ex-Executive - VMware).

Speaking on the amount of information people consume today, Umair Mohammad, the CEO said, “Trillions of marketing messages are sent daily, and almost 740 Billion of them go in spam. Users today are overburdened with information, a lot of which is not relevant to them. Consider a user landing on an e-commerce site and seeing something they don’t want to buy - if the user is not interested in that offering, he is essentially being spammed. We believe that users should only see things that they are interested in and we use 1:1 communication driven by behavioral data and machine intelligence to make it happen.”

Intelligent personalisation has evolved as the hottest space in digital marketing technology, with the industry growing at 24% CAGR, according to Gartner. More than one-third of the marketers believe personalisation is the way forward across the web, mobile web, and apps. It has emerged as one of the key focus areas for marketers across industries, but only 10% of digital marketing teams are satisfied by their current efficiencies.

Wigzo has a Plug and Play Solution that helps marketers effectively personalize all customer touch points across email, the web, mobile, push notifications, and on the page. It provides the most comprehensive set of tools built for marketers, making launching a machine-intelligence driven personalised campaign a matter of a few clicks.

User experience is adversely affected by a product that does not show relevant information to their users. This is a global problem faced by all companies that wish to connect with and engage their customers meaningfully. Such non-personalized, traditional marketing has led to significantly lower clickthroughs and poor conversion rates for brands. Wigzo aims to solve this issue by making their clients reach out to their audience in real time, with the right message, the right content, on the right device, and at the right time. Through Wigzo, users are assured to receive highly relevant and contextual communications from the brands.

Wigzo, which was founded in 2013 by Umair Mohammad, Himanshu Kaushik along with Shamail Tayyab and Mohammed Atyab, currently empowers more than 300 brands across 7 countries. Brands like Awok, Mr. Button, and W for woman are using Wigzo to boost their customer lifetime value. The tactic has proven to be far more effective at engaging and converting customers than traditional methods.

Wigzo uses state of the art data analysis and machine learning techniques to help their clients communicate with their users in a more personalized manner. Wigzo’s proprietary technology seamlessly maps user behavior on the application to the users’ preferences and can deliver contextual communication in real time increasing the relevancy of the message to the end user. Wigzo’s customers have witnessed an average 7x ROI, 23% increase in clickthroughs, and 14% increase in conversions. In 2016, over 1 Billion personalized messages and 100 Million recommendations were sent using Wigzo’s platform. Over a billion data points are captured monthly on the platform.

“Wigzo is already profitable, and is growing at 15% Month on Month, and we are targeting to reach 1 Million MRR in 18 months,” said, Himanshu Kaushik, Co-founder & CMO, Wigzo.

Wigzo, which has partnerships already in place across Japan, Indonesia, and Australia, plans to utilize the fresh round of funding to expand into North and South America. Speaking of the potential scale of the market and technology, Umair said, “Since the product addresses the problem global in nature and we have huge demand coming from overseas markets, it makes perfect sense to actively expand in new regions.”