India’s official Funding based Show ‘Horses Stable’ Opens Registration for Season 1 Applications powered by ah! Ventures

Horses Stable, India’s first-ever business-based show that empowers young entrepreneurs to raise funding for their business associates with a Mumbai-based VC firm ah! Ventures. The show format allows participating entrepreneurs to pitch their business ideas to a panel of renowned investors a.k.a Horses and persuade them to invest in their startups.

Horses Stable aims to be a global funding platform to motivate and give wings to the dreams of ambitious entrepreneurs. To accelerate the vision, Horses Stable has collaborated with ah! Ventures to magnify its capabilities of accommodating participants on a larger scale. The VC firm will help the show unveil unprecedented opportunities with its network of over 62,000 entrepreneurs and 3,000+ global investors. 

As a part of the partnership, ah! Ventures will curate the registration process of Horses Stable Season 1 to spread the word and invite enormous participation while welcoming a new set of Investors and Deal Masters. Registrations will be open from September 1^st to 25^th 2020 on both the portals.

Commenting on the partnership, Prashant Agarwal, Co-Founder – Horses Stable, stated, “I believe collaborative culture is a powerful tool to create a competitive edge. The credibility of the new platform is multiplied to manifolds when produced together by two expert and experienced entities. Hopefully, Horses Stable Season 1 powered by ah! Ventures is going to be an example of one such platform.”

Amit Kumar, Partner, ah! Ventures added, “We are very excited to join hands with HS and believe that the show will provide a big boost to entrepreneurs and add the X-factor to the world’s 3^rd largest startup ecosystem. The passion of the HS team fueled by our experience will surely make Season 1 a big hit.”

Horses Stable Season 1 will potentially be a common ground for entrepreneurs and investors to connect and work together to expand their business and profitability. Along with generating funding, entrepreneurs will get an enriching experience to meet prominent names of the industry. Heating the excitement, Horses Stable will be announcing the launch of their pitch season on one of the prominent OTT platforms in India. However, the team is yet to reveal the details, so stay tuned.

About Horses Stable- 

Horses Stable is a flagship web series of Singapore-India based media house Horses Productions Pvt. Ltd. Based on business-oriented content, the web series offers first of its kind platform to aspiring entrepreneurs and investors to connect and grow together. It is a platform where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business model to a panel of investors and persuade them to invest money in their business. The startup aims to help businesses find the ideal investor and open up exciting opportunities for investors too.

About ah! Ventures- 

ah! Ventures is one of India’s largest and most curated fundraising platform for early stage startups raising up to US$ 10 Mn. Presently it has over 62,000+ entrepreneurs, 2,000+ Seed / Angel investors and over 1,000 VCs & Institutional Investors associated with it. Their Angel (for investment up to US$ 1 Mn) and High Tables (for investments from US$ 1 to 10 Mn) platforms till date have invested close to ₹ 180 Cr (~ US$ 25 Mn) in over 43 startups spread across 57 investments and have announced 9 successful exits.

Hourly Hotel Booking Firm MiStay Raises funding from ah! Ventures Angel Platform, others

An online hotel booking company that offers booking hotels by the pack of hours, MiStay has raised an undisclosed amount of investment through ah! Ventures angel platform and a group of investors led by Hyderabad based ex-entrepreneur, Sumit Nagpal. MiStay will utilize the fund to grow the leadership team and also to build up the brand.

Founded in 2016 by alumni of IIT Madras, Sandeep Jaiswal & Pranav Prabhakar, MiStay had previously raised the first round of seed investment in late 2017. Later, the company pivoted from the initial focus on the B2B corporate market to the consumer market in mid 2018. Since then, MiStay has grown 5 times and hit operational profitability in June this year.

“Travellers today no longer want to plan their trip based on the hotels’ check-in time. The hotel industry is poised to transform to meet these evolving travellers’ needs. This transition, however, requires disrupting the age-old technological ecosystem in hotel industry and raising operational capabilities of hotels. We are building the entire ecosystem ground up to enable the flexible hotel stay and be the leader in this market”, said Sandeep Jaiswal, the Co-Founder & CEO at MiStay.

The average hotel occupancy rate in India stands at around 65%, thus the unsold hotel rooms constitute around 6 Billion Dollars of missed revenue opportunity for hotels. MiStay creates a new demand of customers who require hotels with early check-in, short-stay or day-use rooms which hotels can tap into to maximize their occupancy and revenue.

“The micro-stay model brings a unique revenue optimization opportunity for the hotels. Our product helps hotels realize their full revenue potential by unlocking the value in hotel inventory during the hours it remains unutilized. Hotels can in fact run at more than 100% occupancy”, said Pranav Prabhakar, the Co-Founder & CTO at MiStay.

MiStay is currently operational in 100 cities with around 1500 hotel partners. Unlike other counterparts who focus on couple-friendly hotels, MiStay sees business travellers or travellers having long layover as the primary target audience. The partner hotels of MiStay include many premium hotel brands such as The Park, Radisson, Holiday Inn as well as mid-scale hotel chains such as Lemon Tree, Mango Hotels, Mint Hotels, 1589 Hotels, Treebo, and others.

“Currently we have divided a full-day into 3 smaller slots of a few hours which costs as low as around 30% of the full-day tariff. We are working closely with the hotels and aim to bring even more flexibility to travellers. Obsession with customer experience has been and will remain the guiding principle for our every move”, added Nupur Singh, who leads customer success at MiStay.

Abhijeet Kumar, Founding Partner at ah! Ventures said “Hotel booking is a very large market and the unique approach of MiStay for inventory optimization will change the way hotel industry operates. The market opportunity and the efficiency with which the founding team has scaled the business so far, made the investment decision a no brainer. We are very excited to be backing their vision.”

About Mistay

MiStay is an online hotel booking company that offers booking hotels by the pack of hours. MiStay is an attempt to empower people to achieve their travel dream. Bringing flexibility into hotel bookings is just the beginning. We aim to eventually disrupt and drive innovation in every facet of the travel industry. We aspire to be the leader of the next generation of travel.

Ex-Googler's Learning App OckyPocky Raises Angel Funding from ah! Ventures

Gurgaon-based WhizKidz Media Pvt Limited, which owns and runs OckyPocky, a learning app for pre-school kids, has raised an undisclosed amount in angel investment through ah! Ventures, a startup-focused growth catalyst firm.

Founded by Amit Agrawal, an ex-Googler who was earlier heading YouTube Content Operations of South & South-East Asia, OckyPocky will use the freshly raised capital to expand the user base by growing its outreach into tier 2 and tier 3 cities, along with exploring the NRI market for kids with cultural connect to India through a Hindi learning curriculum. It also plans to scale its operations and strengthen its technology platform.

The app was conceived and launched in 2015 and claims to be India's first personalized learning app for pre-school kids. The app uses artificial intelligence, speech recognition and vernacular languages to create a magical experience for Indian kids all over the world.

"OckyPocky’s mission is to change the way over 160 million preschool kids learn, starting at age 2. Language is a key skill they start learning, but many of them in Tier II and Tier III towns lack access especially to early-stage English language learning solutions. Existing internet content is often unsafe for them. We aim to change this with OckyPocky,” said Amit Agrawal.

The startup was also part of the first cohort of impact investor Gray Matters Capital's mobile ed-tech accelerator programme GMC Calibrator, launched in April this year.

A very similar app (Vernacular) called Vokal, which is a peer-to-peer (P2P) knowledge-sharing platform in Indian languages, has raised $5 million in funding led by China’s Shunwei Capital and 500 startups.

Also Read - BYJU’S Launches Parent Connect App, Offers Real Time Update On Child's Learning Progress

ah! Ventures, a startup focused growth catalyst, provides a platform for investors and entrepreneurs to create growth opportunities for both. It was founded by Abhijeet Kumar and Harshad Lahoti in 2015. Some of its successful investments include FreightBazaar, crypto assets trading platform Unocoin, news and media platform Inc42, among many others.

In May this year, ah! Ventures had participated in Pre-Series A round of funding of FreightBazaar, a Hyderabad-based startup which that connects Truck suppliers with Truck users online.

Earlier this month, an another kids learning startup, Flintobox raised $875,000 from InnoVen Capital, a venture debt and specialty lending firm backed by Singapore's Temasek Holdings.

Prior to that, an early childhood learning startup, Magic Crate raised an undisclosed amount in its third round of institutional funding led by Fireside Ventures.

[Top Image - GMC Impact@Twitter]

Ex-Googler's Learning App OckyPocky Raises Angel Funding from ah! Ventures

Gurgaon-based WhizKidz Media Pvt Limited, which owns and runs OckyPocky, a learning app for pre-school kids, has raised an undisclosed amount in angel investment through ah! Ventures, a startup-focused growth catalyst firm.

Founded by Amit Agrawal, an ex-Googler who was earlier heading YouTube Content Operations of South & South-East Asia, OckyPocky will use the freshly raised capital to expand the user base by growing its outreach into tier 2 and tier 3 cities, along with exploring the NRI market for kids with cultural connect to India through a Hindi learning curriculum. It also plans to scale its operations and strengthen its technology platform.

The app was conceived and launched in 2015 and claims to be India's first personalized learning app for pre-school kids. The app uses artificial intelligence, speech recognition and vernacular languages to create a magical experience for Indian kids all over the world.

"OckyPocky’s mission is to change the way over 160 million preschool kids learn, starting at age 2. Language is a key skill they start learning, but many of them in Tier II and Tier III towns lack access especially to early-stage English language learning solutions. Existing internet content is often unsafe for them. We aim to change this with OckyPocky,” said Amit Agrawal.

The startup was also part of the first cohort of impact investor Gray Matters Capital's mobile ed-tech accelerator programme GMC Calibrator, launched in April this year.

A very similar app (Vernacular) called Vokal, which is a peer-to-peer (P2P) knowledge-sharing platform in Indian languages, has raised $5 million in funding led by China’s Shunwei Capital and 500 startups.

Also Read - BYJU’S Launches Parent Connect App, Offers Real Time Update On Child's Learning Progress

ah! Ventures, a startup focused growth catalyst, provides a platform for investors and entrepreneurs to create growth opportunities for both. It was founded by Abhijeet Kumar and Harshad Lahoti in 2015. Some of its successful investments include FreightBazaar, crypto assets trading platform Unocoin, news and media platform Inc42, among many others.

In May this year, ah! Ventures had participated in Pre-Series A round of funding of FreightBazaar, a Hyderabad-based startup which that connects Truck suppliers with Truck users online.

Earlier this month, an another kids learning startup, Flintobox raised $875,000 from InnoVen Capital, a venture debt and specialty lending firm backed by Singapore's Temasek Holdings.

Prior to that, an early childhood learning startup, Magic Crate raised an undisclosed amount in its third round of institutional funding led by Fireside Ventures.

[Top Image - GMC Impact@Twitter]

Hyderabad's Truck Aggregator FreightBazaar Raises Pre-Series A Funding from Omphalos and ah! Ventures

Hyderabad-based FreightBazaar, which that connects Truck suppliers with Truck users online, has raised undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round of financing led by Omphalos Ventures India along with participation of ah! Ventures, reported BWDisrupt.

FreightBazaar platform addresses the challenges of unorganized and unreliable long-haul transportation by instituting a set of technology based processes, transparent communication, and automation along with rigorous operational procedures that enable companies to continuously monitor KPIs and improve performance.

Founded in 2013 by Bhaven Shah and Ganesh Rewanwar, FreightBazaar has a unique cloud based integrated B2B freight collaboration platform that improves reliability and efficiency of freight transportation. In October, the company had completed its GPS integration which can work with any third-party GPS and launched a cashless payments card as well.

As a proven Freight Transportation Platform enables shippers and truck suppliers to manage the end-to-end transportation process including truck sourcing, freight rates negotiations, delivery tracking, payment and documentation. FreightBazaar has received validation from key customers and eco-system partners including India's top 3PL, manufacturing and supply chain companies. Companies of various sizes are using the platform to move freight of various kinds such as food, cement, chemical products, automotive components, electronics, tyres and telecom components. The platform also has a proprietary advanced Freight Intelligence analytics framework to provide various real-time decision-making and historical insights for continuous improvement of company's transport operations.

Ganesh Rewanwar, Co-founder & CEO, FreightBazaar, said: "For the past few years, we have been working tirelessly to bring much needed structure, technology, efficiency and reliability into the way long-haul transportation has been managed in India. The funding will enable us to scale up our operations, convert strong demand pipeline and expand our presence in key cities & build more automation".

Besides reducing the total cost of ownership for shippers, FreightBazaar has developed a set of tools and value-added services for supplier partners and drivers, as they are key stakeholders in the eco-system.

Mr Sagar R, Partner - Omphalos Ventures India LLP, stated "FreightBazaar has a unique integrated offering in the growing logistics space and has a strong team of seasoned professionals, giving them the ability to scale while keeping the business sustainable. We at Omphalos believe that FreightBazaar will redefine the boundaries of logistics business in India."

Giving an investor's perspective, Abhijeet Kumar, Co-Founder of ah! Ventures, said, "Indian transport market is expected to grow worth $300 billion by 2020, which in itself makes the sector a lucrative one to invest in. In addition to that, given the background of the founders and their in depth understanding of the business, this enterprise has from the very beginning started off on the best foot possible. Transport business in India, as is in any part of the world, closely related to the country's infrastructure and the social & financial condition of the people working in this sector and only a team with understanding of this fact can successfully drive a business in this sector, to the top. We at ah! Ventures see that spark in Frieghtbazaar's team and we are sure to see them being game changers in this industry."

Speaking about recent fundings in logistics tech startup in the country, recently Chennai-based logistics tech startup FreightBro has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from Suresh Kumar, former global CIO of Bank of New York Mellon.

Last month, Bengaluru-based Mojro raised $650K in a funding round led by 1Crowd and its investor community followed by $2 million funding of Chennai-based Pando, in a seed funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners.

AHA Taxis Raises Pre Series-A from ah! Ventures and Lead Angels

Noida based startup, AHA Taxis (a division of WAAH Taxis Pvt Ltd), India's leading online aggregator for outstation travel, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding from ah! Ventures and Lead Angels Network. The company plans to use the funding to expand its reach to newer geographies, and further strengthen the operations and service offering to customers.

The IIT-IIM team led venture, AHA Taxis is set out to make inter-city travel easy, convenient and enable a user to save 40-50% on outstation taxis in over 350 cities across India, with 24x7 availability on mobile and web.

Founder of AHA Taxis, Amit Grover stated, “Three years back, we set out to solve a uniquely Indian problem of affordable and available outstation taxis. I am proud to have built a solution which caters to thousands of customers and drivers every day. Our investors’ show of confidence in our approach, despite the presence of biggies like Ola/Uber, is a big positive.”

Traditionally, inter-city taxi operators charge a return fare from customers even for one-way trips, as they are not assured of passengers on the return journey. AHA Taxis addresses the issue of double fare charges for outstation taxi travel by integrating technology, marketing and operational efficiency, leading to a highly viable alternative to trains and buses.

Giving an investors’ perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founding Partner & CEO of ah! Ventures, said, “Since ah! Ventures’ seed round investment in AHA Taxi, the company has grown over 10X to 1,000 cities and 10,000 routes. Besides, despite the immense competition through applications such as Ola and Uber, AHA Taxi has created their own space and doing consistently well in maintaining the set standards and providing satisfaction to their customers. The positive reactions from their customers is a clear indication that AHA Taxi is on the right track and will create their own niche space in the near future. We are positive of their service offering & technology and also of their ability to create significant shareholder value."

In 2015, AHA Taxi had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from ah! Ventures platform. Besides ah! Ventures now backing them again in the current Pre Series-A round, more new investors from Lead Angels Network have also participated.

“The estimated $12B market of inter-city taxi services market has seen many causalities, however, with their focus on unit economics and frugal operations AHA Taxi has ensured its place in this high potential market”, commented Sushanto Mitra, Founder Lead Angels Network.

Post it's seed funding round in 2015, AHA Taxis has grown 10X on key metrics and already achieved operational breakeven on monthly basis. Its taxi network today covers far-flung areas including Haldwani, Kasol, Kharagpur, Rameswaram, Somnath apart from all metros. AHA Taxis has developed key technologies for automatic driver allocation, auto-pricing, vehicle tracking, number masking and all of this has been done by its in-house technology team

Online Wedding Planning Startup Shaadisaga Raises Funding From ah! Ventures, Anupam Mittal, Kunal Shah & Others

Shaadisaga, a Delhi based online wedding services marketplace, is taking the Indian wedding market by storm. This venture has recently closed an undisclosed amount of funding as a part of its Pre Series A round from ah! Ventures and other marquee investors. Industry stalwarts like Anupam Mittal (People Group), Kunal Shah & Sandeep Tandon (Freecharge.com), Dheeraj Jain (Redcliffe Capital), Rohit Chokhani (White Unicorn Ventures) along with other angel investors participated in this round.

Gone are the days when a wedding was merely an event in a person’s life, acknowledging the change in the living. It is soon becoming a milestone that marks the grandeur celebration of new beginnings and with each passing year, the show is becoming all the more interesting. From the pre-wedding photo shoots to inviting the gambolling celebrities, the wedding industry has witnessed a drastic change in the recent past and this is nothing but music to the ears of entrepreneurs like Himanshu Kapsime and Manish Garg, co-founders of Shaadisaga.

Shaadisaga, is an online platform that caters to the to-be-weds in terms of their wedding needs, focusing primarily on weddings ranging between INR 10 Lakhs to 1.5 crores. With the focus of being convenient and cost effective, Shaadisaga offers the couples and their families a host of wedding services, making itself a one stop shop solution for all the wedding needs. Started by Himanshu Kapsime and Manish Garg, IIT-Delhi graduates, Shaadisaga truly understands that today’s users expect high degrees of personalization and cross comparison is the key to conversions. With requirements being tailored at every step, the company, with a strong team of 25 employees, offers its users an option to choose from a pool of around 2500 best vendors, as per their requirements and hire them directly with price and quality assurance – The ShaadiSaga Seal of Trust.

Shaadisaga is the brainchild of two IIT Delhi graduates, Himanshu Kapsime and Manish Garg. Himanshu Kapsime, the CEO and Co-Founder of the organization is a 2012 graduate with prior experience in working with a US based MNC. He is actively responsible for managing the technological and product development portfolio for the company. Manish Garg, the COO and Co-Founder of the organization is a 2011 graduate with prior experience in working with an Indian startup unicorn. Apart from the co-founders, the company has a workforce of 10 employees with a permanent set up in Delhi.

[caption id="attachment_108800" align="aligncenter" width="700"] occasion dresses [/caption]

Commenting on the unique proposition of Shaadisaga, Co-Founder Himanshu Kapsime said, “At ShaadiSaga, we provide the best planning experience to couples. From idea & inspirations to hiring different service providers, we are focussed on making the entire process a piece of cake. Couples are able to gain the same level of trust with us as they do when they hire services through reference of their own friends and family members. Our team uses technology to essentially bring the offline wedding planning experience onto an online platform, while adding convenience and cost effectiveness.” Manish Garg, Co-founder of ShaadiSaga, continued, “ShaadiSaga is the best suited solution for couples to plan their wedding as they save around 20-30% of wedding budget and 2 months of planning time with us, while ensuring better quality and experience. We are currently 25 people strong team and will be adding more people as we expand in further cities.”

Commenting on the investee company, Anupam Mittal, Founder of Shaadi.com opined, “This is a high touch industry and a really tough business to crack. It will take a determined & passionate team with loads of perseverance. I saw the commitment in Himanshu & Manish, so decided to back them.” Dheeraj Jain, Managing Partner of Redcliffe Capital said, “The revenue of INR 50 lakhs per month and growing, stands testament to the incessant progress of the company. Given the astute business acumen of the core team at ShaadiSaga, we are excited to back these entrepreneurs and their journey to take Indian wedding industry by storm.”

The recent fund infusion will be utilized for increasing the base of partners associated with the platform and building technologies ensuring better customer experience, faster onboarding, smoother communication, and higher conversion rates.

Giving an investor’s perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures said, “Statistically the Indian wedding industry, valued at $40 billion, is proving to be one of the sturdiest in today’s market. Considering the high growth rate of 25-30% yoy, promising start-ups in this space were deserving investors attention and Shaadisaga was undoubtedly cut above the rest. From the very beginning, we witnessed Shaadisaga take calculated business decisions making them the rare breed of startups who knew their priorities. The venture focuses on taking one key step at a time, - be it a technological advancement or on-boarding of key partners - and that according to us has been the edge that sets them apart. We at ah! Ventures are confident of seeing Shaadisaga as a pioneer in this industry.”

ah! Ventures is India's first full-spectrum (seed, angel & VC) investment network and platform comprising of over 800+ investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VCs. Founded in 2010, ah! Ventures has systematically disrupted the early stage funding ecosystem of India through its innovative approach toward startup investing. First of its kind initiatives like the CLUB ah! platform, ah! Angels (India’s largest angel network), ah! Seeders and ah! VC networks (India’s first seed & VC investment networks), have brought together and integrated the previously segregated startup funding lifecycle, under one roof. CLUB ah! platform today has over 12500+ startups, 725 seed/angel investors and over 85 VCs & institutional investors, making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups. The network also last year secured its first profitable exit from Ed-tech venture Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. ah! Ventures has till date pumped in close to INR 90 crores in over 29 investments spread across varied industries and domains.

ah! Ventures is in the process of closing another investment in the coming week.

Kickstart Jobs Raises Series-seed Funding from ah! Ventures, Others

Kickstart Jobs, a Gurgaon-based entry-level talent acquisition startup, raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its Series-seed round. Led in collaboration with ah! Ventures, this round saw investments from marquee investors like Vivek Joshi – Founder, Wyzen Tech; Mohit Satyanand – Chairman, Team Works Art; Amit Banati – President (Asia Pacific), Kellogg’s; Arun Khanna – President (Asia), Dun and Bradstreet and a few others including ah! Ventures themselves.

India, as a country, in addition to its existing market, has seen a tremendous spurt in its entrepreneurial outlook and is soon becoming a utopian land of thriving businesses. Unfortunately, this turn of events has still not transcended into the concurrent employment it should encourage, especially in the blue and grey collar jobs market. The core of this rut lies in the fact that there has been no bridge that connects the eager job seekers with the right employers. This is where Kickstart Jobs, a startup focusing on the niche talent acquisition in the entry level workforce, comes into the picture.

Started in August 2015, Kickstart Jobs birthed to solve an inherent problem in the highly fragmented entry level workforce ecosystem. The company aims to create a scalable platform to connect entry level candidates with prospective employers and vice versa. Within a year of its commencement, Kickstart Jobs is already operational in the key north Indian territories of Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon, with a workforce of 10 employees and 2 promoters. It has, in this short span of time, registered more than 5000 candidates, enlisted about 3000 vacancies, conducted more than 2000 interviews and boasts of a month on month growth of 100% in the number of candidates scheduled for interviews via their platform.

The conceptualization of the enterprise is credited to its two founders, Samriddhi Malhotra and Abhishek Srivastava. Samriddhi Malhotra, an XLRI Jamshedpur alumna, comes with a rich experience of working with numerous rural communities on a grassroot level. This background of hers helps her thoroughly understand the core requirements and competencies of the workforce at the entry level section. Samriddhi heads the product development and operations at Kickstart Jobs. Abhishek Srivastava, a mechanical engineer from ISM Dhanbad, comes with years of experience in managing domestic and international operations at a multinational corporation. Given his wide exposure, he spearheads the strategy and business development at Kickstart Jobs.

Kickstart has developed a unique operational proposition, wherein ‘Leaders’ are identified among the communities of job seekers and are in turn collaborated with, to utilize their strong network and connect with the entry level job seekers. The company believes in empowering these leaders with technology, currently in the form of a  mobile app, thus bettering the process of data mapping.

Giving an investor’s perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures opined, “As an investor, the growth that is about to unfold in this entry-level jobs sector in the near future is evident to me. This growth and spurt of service offerings in the sector is especially lucrative for the currently existing workforce of over 500+ million in the blue & grey collar ecosystem of India. And, given the fact that this number is increasing at about 12 million per year, the need to effectively harness these human resources becomes all the more essential. ah! Ventures and it's investors saw that potential in Kickstart Jobs, not only in terms of their strong team but also in their unique methodology in operating and creating value for both, the job seeker & the employer. In our opinion such a product was long overdue, especially in a growing market like India, and we are sure to see stupendous success in the future of Kickstart Jobs.”

ah! Ventures is India's first full-spectrum startup investment network and platform comprising of over 750+ investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VCs. The CLUB ah! Network today has over 10000+ startups, 675+ seed/angel investors and over 80 VCs & institutional investors, making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups. The network last year secured its first profitable exit from Ed-tech venture Harness Handitouch within two years of its investment. CLUB ah! has till date invested close to INR 85 crores in over 25 startups spread across varied industries and domains.

On working with ah! Ventures, co-founder Abhishek Srivastava said, “ah! Ventures has been most helpful during our period of fundraise. We approached ah! Ventures to close our funding requirement and they proactively helped us close in 5 days, in which they also participated. Their network is huge and the response has been extremely prompt. We wanted to bring ah! Ventures onboard as their reach and connections will keep us in good stead for future. We hope to use their industry and investor connects to scale our business.”

ah! Ventures is in the process of closing 2 more investments in the coming week.

Hindi Language Social Media Startup ShabdaNagari Bags Follow-on Bridge Funding From ah! Ventures

ShabdaNagari,a social media start up catering to the niche Hindi content consuming audience, raised an undisclosed amount of bridge funding from ah! Ventures. Through ah! Ventures the start up has been strongly backed by key investors like Yogesh Chaudhary from Jaipur Rugs, Anirudh Damani from Artha Energy Project and Abhimanyu Singh from TaskUs.

A brainchild of 3 founders, Amitesh Misra, Nikhil Tiwari and Amaresh Chandra Misra, with varied core competencies, gives ShabdaNagari its entrepreneurial and executional edge over the others. Amitesh Misra is a 2007 IIT Bombay alumnus comes with a rich corporate experience of working with numerous multinational organizations prior to entering the entrepreneurial circuit. Nikhil Tiwari, a B-Tech in Information Technology, is one of the key cornerstones in the enterprise as his par excellence programming skills. He helps the platform offer one of the best user experiences to the audience. Amaresh Chandra Misra, a lawyer with over 25 years of experience, offers the enterprise a completely different and vital support in terms of compliance and legal aspects. ShabdaNagari, now has a strong team of 15 employees and has recently included 2 new promoters, Kalpnesh Gupta and Gopal Sutwala, who primarily handle the marketing activities of the company.

The startup has, in a short span of time, witnessed around 2 lakh unique hits and 8 lakh page views on the platform and high downloads of the ShabdaNagari Android App launched last September, this fresh round of funding proves to be a much needed fuel. The company aims to utilize the funds mainly for its product development, marketing and promotional activities.

Commenting on ShabdaNagari as an offering to the ever growing Hindi speaking market, co - founder, Amitesh Misra says, "ShabdaNagari is the first platform on internet that offers social media services in Hindi. Competition in this space is scarce and still catching up. ShabdaNagari has a number of benefits on ease of access and usability. Availability of 5 different input options for typing Hindi on the platform is the one of the biggest advantages on ShabdaNagari over others". With more than 80% of the traffic coming from India and around 10% coming from USA, UAE and Canada, this platform is seeing a surge in the number of users on the domestic as well as on the international front.

In addition to the ah! Angels like Yogesh Chaudhary, Anirudh Damani and Abhimanyu Singh, ShabdaNagari has also been backed by investors like Abhishek Singhania from the JK Group, Manoj Agrawal from Kanpur Plastipack and Rakesh Suri from Suri Shoes.

With internet usage on a continuous rise in tier II cities and villages of India, consumption of vernacular content shall inevitably be on the rise. ShabdaNagari is ready to be the forerunner in catering to this market and is in the process of making a few branding revamps to connect with the audience in a better and a simpler way.

With 15 employees, this Kanpur based start up has already received around 2 lakh unique hits and 8 lakh page views on the platform.

On Demand Driver Solutions Provider DriversKart Raises Funding from ah! Ventures, Others

DriversKart, an innovative startup based out of Chennai, has closed an undisclosed amount of funding as a part of its Pre Series A round from ah! Ventures and others. In collaboration with ah! Ventures, this round was also led by Sidharth Pansari, Apurva Salarpuria, Saket Agarwal and Ayush Patni, Silicon Valley investors and was joined by Namit Agarwal.

DriversKart is accurately providing a much needed solution to a problem faced by commuting individuals. An on demand availability of drivers, be it for an occasional trip to the hospital or a daily necessity like office drop offs, DriversKart is delivering value to these growing demands in the market.

Started in September 2015, this organization is already operational in 5 major cities; Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Chennai and has a strong team of 20 employees. The operational model of DriversKart is simple, easy to use and is primarily dependent on its app, available on App store and Playstore.

An integral part of the offering, is their quality. With verified drivers and a strict filtering process, all the drivers available are trained not only in terms of their driving capabilities but also in terms of their behavioural conduct and etiquettes. Kopal Maheshwari, the Head of Operations at DriversKart, firmly believes that the uniqueness of the offering comes from the fact that it is for the first time that an on-demand chauffeur service in India, is in addition to all the available services, offers a unique subscription service as well. The team at DriversKart is backed by their strong experience in the entrepreneurial process and hence their focus on quality service takes precedence over anything else.

The key idea of DriversKart was coined by its Founder and currently the CEO, Vinit Srivastava, an IIM Calcutta alumnus with corporate and entrepreneurship experience of over 10 years. His firm belief in the concept of DriversKart, birthed from his thinking about experiencing and valuing one's time.

Commenting on the urgent need for a product like DriversKart, Vinit Srivastava says, "There exists a latent demand for organized chauffeurs even among professionals who commute to work. With car density per 1000 people at mere 13, the car ownership will continue to see exponential growth resulting in time lost during traffic and parking. With on demand chauffeur, customers will be able to dedicate their time to add more value to their personal and professional life." Vinit was joined by Saksham, an IIT Mandi alumnus, an expert in Mobility and currently the Chief Technical Officer at DriversKart

This strong team has been cautiously and consistently maintaining a structured approach to its growth and development. The current funds raised, will constructively be utilized for a threefold purpose of: 1. Technological Enhancements, 2. Enhanced Driver On-boarding/Training and 3. Marketing and Team building.

Giving an investor's perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures said, "DriversKart, has shown us a promising future, mainly because it aims to solve an inherent problem. Their ability to efficiently replicate the driver-on-demand model across cities will help them to aggressively expand pan-India. The team at DriversKart is well equipped in terms of the operational wherewithal and the entrepreneurial acumen necessary to successfully operate & scale this business. ah! Ventures and its investors believe in the team and we confidently see this venture becoming a pioneer in the industry."

ah! Ventures is India's first full-spectrum startup investment network and platform comprising of over 700+ investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VCs. CLUB ah! platform today has over 8000+ startups, 625+ seed/angel investors and over 75 VCs & institutional investors, making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups. The network also last year secured its first profitable exit from Ed-tech venture Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. CLUB ah! has till date invested close to Rs, 75 crores in over 23 startups spread across varied industries and domains, including DriversKart.

ah! Ventures is in the process of closing 2 more deals in the coming weeks.

On Demand Driver Solutions Provider DriversKart Raises Funding from ah! Ventures, Others

DriversKart, an innovative startup based out of Chennai, has closed an undisclosed amount of funding as a part of its Pre Series A round from ah! Ventures and others. In collaboration with ah! Ventures, this round was also led by Sidharth Pansari, Apurva Salarpuria, Saket Agarwal and Ayush Patni, Silicon Valley investors and was joined by Namit Agarwal.

DriversKart is accurately providing a much needed solution to a problem faced by commuting individuals. An on demand availability of drivers, be it for an occasional trip to the hospital or a daily necessity like office drop offs, DriversKart is delivering value to these growing demands in the market.

Started in September 2015, this organization is already operational in 5 major cities; Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Chennai and has a strong team of 20 employees. The operational model of DriversKart is simple, easy to use and is primarily dependent on its app, available on App store and Playstore.

An integral part of the offering, is their quality. With verified drivers and a strict filtering process, all the drivers available are trained not only in terms of their driving capabilities but also in terms of their behavioural conduct and etiquettes. Kopal Maheshwari, the Head of Operations at DriversKart, firmly believes that the uniqueness of the offering comes from the fact that it is for the first time that an on-demand chauffeur service in India, is in addition to all the available services, offers a unique subscription service as well. The team at DriversKart is backed by their strong experience in the entrepreneurial process and hence their focus on quality service takes precedence over anything else.

The key idea of DriversKart was coined by its Founder and currently the CEO, Vinit Srivastava, an IIM Calcutta alumnus with corporate and entrepreneurship experience of over 10 years. His firm belief in the concept of DriversKart, birthed from his thinking about experiencing and valuing one's time.

Commenting on the urgent need for a product like DriversKart, Vinit Srivastava says, "There exists a latent demand for organized chauffeurs even among professionals who commute to work. With car density per 1000 people at mere 13, the car ownership will continue to see exponential growth resulting in time lost during traffic and parking. With on demand chauffeur, customers will be able to dedicate their time to add more value to their personal and professional life." Vinit was joined by Saksham, an IIT Mandi alumnus, an expert in Mobility and currently the Chief Technical Officer at DriversKart

This strong team has been cautiously and consistently maintaining a structured approach to its growth and development. The current funds raised, will constructively be utilized for a threefold purpose of: 1. Technological Enhancements, 2. Enhanced Driver On-boarding/Training and 3. Marketing and Team building.

Giving an investor's perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures said, "DriversKart, has shown us a promising future, mainly because it aims to solve an inherent problem. Their ability to efficiently replicate the driver-on-demand model across cities will help them to aggressively expand pan-India. The team at DriversKart is well equipped in terms of the operational wherewithal and the entrepreneurial acumen necessary to successfully operate & scale this business. ah! Ventures and its investors believe in the team and we confidently see this venture becoming a pioneer in the industry."

ah! Ventures is India's first full-spectrum startup investment network and platform comprising of over 700+ investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VCs. CLUB ah! platform today has over 8000+ startups, 625+ seed/angel investors and over 75 VCs & institutional investors, making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups. The network also last year secured its first profitable exit from Ed-tech venture Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. CLUB ah! has till date invested close to Rs, 75 crores in over 23 startups spread across varied industries and domains, including DriversKart.

ah! Ventures is in the process of closing 2 more deals in the coming weeks.

Ah! Ventures registers its first exit from startup Harness Handitouch

 

Ah! Ventures, a Mumbai based startup, has just recorded its first ever exit in startup Harness Handitouch. The Chennai based company is currently going in for a series A investment of an undisclosed amount from Luxembourg based Armat group. The startup had successfully raised a funding of Rs. 1 crores two years ago from investors, members of Club Ah!, part of Ah! Ventures, a platform which brings together entrepreneurs and investors.

"It was a profitable exit for us. The Series A investors wanted all the existing angel investors to exit," said Abhijeet Kumar, founder, Ah! Ventures in a statement to Economic Times.

"In all 12 investors have exited in this round; including 9 of our investors, and financial transactions have been closed. We are targeting to have many more such exits in near future and we shall be doing so by investing into high quality startups and entrepreneurs," added Kumar.

Founded by an IIT Madras and ISB Hyderabad alumnus, Subramanaian Viswanathan, Harness Handitouch is an education technology company that leverages tablet and the cloud to create connected learning. The company has an aim of enhancing the teaching experiences through its platform.  The company though headquartered in Chennai, India, also has a corporate office in the United Kingdom.  It currently sells in six countries and has over ten thousand learners in these countries. Apart from this, Handitouch also works in areas such as corporate training and online coaching.

The Mumbai based Ah! Ventures has made around ten investments through the help of its network of investors since the year of its existence and the startup has some big plans in store for this year.

"We will be investing in 10 to 15 startups this year through our network of investors, and plan to invest in ticket size of around Rs 6 crores ($1 million). We are sector agnostic but are picking good teams before backing them” Kumar said.

Ah! Ventures registers its first exit from startup Harness Handitouch

 

Ah! Ventures, a Mumbai based startup, has just recorded its first ever exit in startup Harness Handitouch. The Chennai based company is currently going in for a series A investment of an undisclosed amount from Luxembourg based Armat group. The startup had successfully raised a funding of Rs. 1 crores two years ago from investors, members of Club Ah!, part of Ah! Ventures, a platform which brings together entrepreneurs and investors.

"It was a profitable exit for us. The Series A investors wanted all the existing angel investors to exit," said Abhijeet Kumar, founder, Ah! Ventures in a statement to Economic Times.

"In all 12 investors have exited in this round; including 9 of our investors, and financial transactions have been closed. We are targeting to have many more such exits in near future and we shall be doing so by investing into high quality startups and entrepreneurs," added Kumar.

Founded by an IIT Madras and ISB Hyderabad alumnus, Subramanaian Viswanathan, Harness Handitouch is an education technology company that leverages tablet and the cloud to create connected learning. The company has an aim of enhancing the teaching experiences through its platform.  The company though headquartered in Chennai, India, also has a corporate office in the United Kingdom.  It currently sells in six countries and has over ten thousand learners in these countries. Apart from this, Handitouch also works in areas such as corporate training and online coaching.

The Mumbai based Ah! Ventures has made around ten investments through the help of its network of investors since the year of its existence and the startup has some big plans in store for this year.

"We will be investing in 10 to 15 startups this year through our network of investors, and plan to invest in ticket size of around Rs 6 crores ($1 million). We are sector agnostic but are picking good teams before backing them” Kumar said.