‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات Alteria Capital. إظهار كافة الرسائل
‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات Alteria Capital. إظهار كافة الرسائل

DesignCafe Raises Rs.40 Crore Led by Westbridge Capital, Mirabilis Investments and Alteria Capital

DesignCafe Raises Rs.40 Crore Led by Westbridge Capital, Mirabilis Investments and Alteria Capital
The company will utilise funds raised to expand the geographical footprint of both its brands - DesignCafe and Qarpentri, across the country.

Bengaluru-based home interior solutions brand DesignCafe has raised a follow-on Series B round of funding of Rs 40 crore, led by marquee private equity fund WestBridge Capital, Mirabilis Investment Trust along with venture debt fund Alteria Capital.

Existing investors Sixth Sense Ventures as well as DesignCafe’s founders Shezaan Bhojani and Gita Ramanan also participated in this round.

"This round is an affirmation of the many decisions we have made to build a profitable and scalable business in the home interior and decor segment. In the last year, we have made significant progress towards profitability. Our margins have increased significantly and we are operationally profitable across all citiesShezaan Bhojani, Co-founder and CEO, DesignCafe said.

This round will help us take both our brands to newer markets across India, as we continue to deliver 60-70% CAGR growth annually. More importantly, with improving EBITDA numbers we expect to soon be profitable, it is with great confidence that we as founders also decided to re-invest in the company at this stage,” he added.

DesignCafe launched in 2015, with a mission to democratise great home interior design and provide a hassle-free and affordable experience to Indian homeowners. The company is currently operational in ten Indian cities and is rapidly expanding.

"We are very excited about expanding Designcafe and our new brand Qarpentri across India, Qarpentri is truly a differentiated offering: it is not only India’s FASTEST Home interior brand with a 15-DAY DELIVERY GUARANTEE, but also India’s MOST AFFORDABLE, with Kitchens starting at just Rs. 49,990/- and a 2BHK home in under Rs. 2 lakhs. In just 6 months since launch, we have become market leaders in this category with over 4x growth and are profitable to boot, ” said Gita Ramanan, co-founder and CEO, DesignCafe.

With the continued support of our existing investors and interest from new partners combined with the hard work and passion of the team at DesignCafe, we have been able to take our offering across India to over 10,000 homeowners, " she commented.

DesignCafe
DesignCafe was founded in October 2015, by award-winning architects and interior designers Gita Ramanan and Shezan Bhojani. With the vision of democratising home interiors & decor, they are India’s first home-tech brand to have a vertically integrated business model, with their own designers, workforce, and a 65,000 square feet factory in Bangalore, manufacturing all their products to deliver homes that are designed and built from end to end in 30 days with a 10-year warranty. The company is currently present in 10 cities and has raised over Rs. 250 Cr in capital from investors like Westbridge capital, Fireside ventures and Sixth Sense ventures For more details - www.designcafe.com

About Qarpentri

Qarpentri was founded by DesignCafe in 2022 to deliver to first-time, value-conscious homeowners, the true potential of designing and delivering modular home interior solutions, thereby creating a new standard for home interior solutions in the country. With the launch of Qarpentri, India gets its first direct-to-consumer (D2C), made-to-measure home interior brand that aims to provide quality home interiors for all, at revolutionary, factory to consumer (F2C) prices. Qarpentri is leading the way in simplifying the home interior business with three core offerings: 15-Day Delivery, a 5-Year Warranty, and Unbeatable Prices (25% lower than the local contractor). Qarpentri achieves this feat by taking advantage of the expertise in design and production of its parent company DesignCafe, while removing the intermediaries. As a result, the brand offers its home interior products at prices that are 25% lower than those of traditional contractors. Qarpentri currently operates ten stores in Bangalore, and 1 each in Hyderabad and Pune, and will soon expand to Chennai, and Mumbai, with additional availability at all of DesignCafe's 15 experience centres, including those in Mysore and Coimbatore. Qarpentri's pilot phase has already delivered more than 200 homes to happy homeowners.

Greenhouse Agritech Platform Clover Raises ₹7 Cr in Venture Debt from Alteria Capital

Clover announced today that it has raised INR 7 crore in venture debt from Alteria Capital. This is on top of the INR 39 crore (USD 5.5 million) Series A round, announced in February 2020, that was raised from Accel, Omnivore, and Mayfield.

Clover is a greenhouse agritech platform, which partners with farmers across India and markets premium quality, branded, greenhouse-grown fresh produce through B2B and B2C channels. 

Clover’s business model centers around demand-led cultivation, a managed farm network, and full stack agronomy. Demand-led cultivation means that Clover grows high quality, consistent, and traceable fresh produce for specific and predictable client demands. The managed farm network of greenhouses are based in peri-urban and rural areas surrounding urban consumption zones, thereby ensuring freshness and reducing spoilage. Clover provides a full stack agronomy solution to the greenhouse farmers in the network, improving yields and standardizing output quality. 

Based in Bangalore, Clover was co-founded by Avinash BR, Gururaj Rao, Arvind Murali, and Santhosh Narasipura. Avinash previously worked as a venture investor with Aavishkaar and earlier spent almost a decade at Bosch across engineering and corporate strategy roles. Gururaj previously worked in general management and analytics roles for Myntra, CallidusCloud, and Info Edge. Arvind was earlier based in the Gulf in various sales management roles while Santhosh worked in his family’s manufacturing business. 

According to Avinash, Co-Founder of Clover, “Alteria has been tracking our progress since the early days and we are excited to have them onboard. The recently closed Series A round alongside Alteria's current investment will help us achieve our vision to reshape the supply chain for greenhouse-grown fresh produce.” 

Commenting on the transaction, Vinod Murali, Managing Partner of Alteria Capital, said “We are excited to partner with Avinash and the team at Clover in their journey to reimagine the supply chain for fresh produce. Agritech is a segment which continues to see tailwinds despite COVID-related issues and Clover provides high quality produce consistently, which is at an even higher premium currently.” 

Clover is a greenhouse agritech platform, which partners with farmers across India and markets premium quality, branded, greenhouse-grown fresh produce through B2B and B2C channels. For further information on Clover, please visit: https://www.clover.ag/ 

Alteria Capital is India’s leading venture debt fund focused on innovative startups backed by strong VC sponsors. The fund has a corpus of Rs. 962 Cr with a strong mix of domestic institutional investors as well as family offices and founders. Alteria provides venture debt to high growth, innovative Indian startups with a cheque size range of Rs. 2 Cr – Rs. 100 Cr. Alteria’s current portfolio of 25+ companies includes Rebel Foods, Lendingkart Zestmoney, Portea, Toppr Technologies Ltd, Spinny, Stanza Living, Raw Pressery, Vogo, Dunzo, Vinculum, Mfine, Loadshare, LBB, Maverix, Generico, Country Delight and Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd (Wrogn, Imara & Ms. Taken brands).

Alteria Capital Makes its Single Largest Investment of ₹80 crore in Lendingkart

Mumbai-based Alteria Capital, a Venture Debt fund focussed on innovative startups, has has made its single largest investment of ₹ 80 crore (~ $11.46 Mn) in digital lending firm Lendingkart, marking one of the largest startup venture debt transactions in India.

The investment, made in the non-banking financial (NBFC) arm of Ledingkart, is also the largest fundraise by the startup, which was founded by Harshvardhan Lunia and Mukul Sachan in 2014.

Lendingkart, which operates through two divisions -- Lendingkart Finance, a NBFC entity, and Lendingkart Technologies. The company focusses on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with the ability to service deals pan-India.

Vinod Murali, managing partner, Alteria Capital, said in a statement to a business daily, "The last few quarters have witnessed a lot of volatility in the NBFC space but the companies which have robust underwriting platforms and a strong equity cushion have been able to turn this into an opportunity for growth. While liquidity has not been easily available for the broader market, Lendingkart has grown sharply during this phase."

Venture debt is an alternative form of financing for startups which helps augment equity capital. It enables founders to reduce dilution and improve their ownership as it is predominantly in the form of debt with a small equity kicker.

Based out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Lendingkart group has raised a total of about $167 Mn in funding over eight rounds including the latest one. The startup counts Singapore's Fullerton Financial Holdings, State Bank of India, Sistema Asia and Mayfield among its investors.

Lendingkart with other players including Capital Float, Neogrowth and IndiaLends, that offer small ticket-size loans, mostly unsecured credit, to borrowers with limited credit history.

Scooter Rental Firm VOGO Raises Fresh $3.46 Mn in Venture Debt Funding from Alteria Capital

Already backed by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal and cab aggregator Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd), dockless scooter rental startup VOGO Rentals has raised a fresh funding of ₹25 (~ US$3.46 Mn) in venture debt funding from Alteria Capital, which VOGO will use exclusively for scaling up iits fleet of two wheelers.

For Mumbai-based Alteria, which has a maiden debt fund with a corpus of ₹800 crore, this is second fund infusion into Vogo, as in last October, the Venture debt firm had invested ₹8 crore into Vogo, as part of Vogo’s $7 Mn Series A round led by Ola, Stellaris Venture Partners and Matrix Partners.

With this, VOGO has raised a total of about US$120 Mn in funding over six rounds.

Since April last year, VOGO has scaled from around the then 5,000 vehicles to currenr fleet of 12,000 vehicles across 5 cities including Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Talking about the recent investment, Vinod Murali, managing partner at Alteria Capital, said, "We have seen the rapid growth in this segment over the last 9-12 months and Vogo has consistently surpassed expectations on operating performance and driving demand. While there are many more execution aspects to tackle as they scale, we feel this team is well placed to emerge as a strong player in the urban mobility category."

Started in 2017, the Alteria fund has already secured commitments from anchor investors such as IndusInd Bank and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

In March, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal had invested an undisclosed amount in VOGO. Prior to that in December last year, Vogo raised $100 million from Ola, which would allow the later to add fleet of two-wheelers to the Ola app to enable its users to rent the two-wheeled devices.

Healthcare Firm Portea Raises ₹25 Cr in Venture Debt Funding from Alteria Capital

Bangalore-based Health Vista India, which owns and operates Portea Medical, a provider of in-home medical care, has raised Rs 25 crore in venture debt funding from Alteria Capital, a Mumbai-based specialty financing firm .

Touted as India's largest and fastest growing provider of in-home medical care, Portea has recently introduced specialised and critical care services, including critical care at home, respiratory services, sleep apnea care, palliative care, cancer support services, post-trauma care, specialised rehab services and end-of-life care.

“They (Alteria Capital) are quick to understand the needs of the business and are long-term partners. Venture debt is a great alternative source of capital for high-growth businesses like Portea,” Meena Ganesh, CEO of Portea, said in a statement to Economic Times.

Founded in 2012 by Zachary Jones and Karan Aneja, Portea was sold to serial entrepreneurs Krishnan Ganesh and his wife Meena Ganesh in 2013 for an undisclosed amount in an all-equity deal.

The startup has raised a total of $76 million in funding over four rounds including this one. The investors in Portea include Accel Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, private equity firm Sabre Partners and Worl Bank affiliated IFC.

Portea operates across primary care, chronic disease management, elder care and post-operative care. It offers services such as physiotherapy, doctor consultations, new mother-and-baby care, specialty pharmacy, nutritional wellness, diabetic care, surgery discovery and tele-consultation.

“Providing affordable, convenient healthcare services at home is a massive value proposition which is relevant for not just the Indian market but other emerging markets as well,” said Vinod Murali, managing partner at Alteria Capital.

Just a couple of months back, Alteria Capital made the second close of its maiden Alteria Capital India Fund I with commitments of more than Rs 625 crore. Anchor investments to Alteria’s fund included those from IndusInd Bank, SIDBI and a large domestic office family fund.

Alteria provides venture debt to startups with cheque sizes ranging from Rs 2 crore to Rs 100 crore. The firm, cofounded by Murali and Ajay Hattangdi, who previously helmed the venture debt play at Temasek-backed InnoVen Capital India, counts some of India’s top consumer and technology startups in its portfolio, including Fingerlix, Toppr Technologies, Raw Pressery, Vogo Bikes, Dunzo and Vinculum.

Recent funding in in-home medical care space include Mumbai-based HealWell24, which has raised $200K in its Pre-Series A round of funding from bunch of angel investors, in May this year. Other players in this sEgment are Care24, NRI Family Health, and Lybrate.

In September 2015, Portea Medical had raised $37.5 million in a Series B round of funding led by existing investor Accel Partners. In June last year, Medwell Ventures had raised $10 million in its Series A round investment from Fidelity Growth Partners India and Fidelity Biosciences.

In April 2016, Portea had acquired home medical equipment provider Health Mantra India for an undisclosed amount in cash and stock. Prior to this in January same year, the startup had also picked up a majority stake in healthtech startup, PSTakeCare, a platform that connects key stakeholders in the healthcare delivery ecosystem. The investment in PSTakeCare follows Portea’s acquisition of speciality pharmaceutical distributor, MedybizPharma in November 2015.

Source - Economic Times

[Top Image - Portea Medical founder and CEO Meena Ganesh | Credit - ANITH.com]

Edtech Startup Toppr Raises $35 Mn from Kaizen PE, Alteria and Brand Capital

After e-commerce boom its Edtech startups in India that are having a good times when it comes to raising the massive capital, as after couple of whopping fund raises by Byju's and recently becoming the biggest edtech firm in the world, an another startup firm in edtech space, Toppr, has raised an impressive $35 million in Series D round of funding led by education-focused investor Kaizen Private Equity, venture debt firm Alteria Capital and Brand Capital, the investment arm of Times Group media house.

Toppr's existing VC investors Eight Roads Ventures, Helion Ventures and SAIF Partners also participated in this round.

So far, Toppr has raised a total of $58 million in funding over nine rounds including this one. Additionally, Toppr is talking to investors to raise about $80-$100 million more.

The freshly raised funds will primarily be used for branding in order to compete with other players especially Byju's. The funds will also be used for product development, increasing engagement and investing in technology Post this funding, the valuation of Toppr is expected to be between $150 million and $200 million.

Founded in 2013 by Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti, Toppr.com is an online preparation platform for entrance exams in India. It claims to have changed how students prepare for competitive exams in India.

Despite the rigorous brand marketing by Byju’s, Toppr have been able to get 6 million downloads and one million monthly active users, says Zishaan Hayath, CEO & co-founder of Toppr. The Mumbai-based startup now aims to increase its marketshare, especially among students in lower grades.

One of Toppr's key offerings is an Artificial Intelligence-backed chat application for students that uses natural language processing for immediate responses. Toppr also has a team of 29,000 online tutors.

Toppr co-founder Zishaan Hayath is an angel investor himself, and has invested in quite a few tech startups such as Ola, Zo Rooms, Squadrun, Edu4Share, Pickingo and DoorMint.

Besides Byju’s massive $540 million fund raise, Reliance Industries had also announced that it will invest $180 million in Embibe.

Just Yesterday, Bengaluru Based Edtech startup DataTrained raised second round of funding of Rs. 12 Crore (~ US $1.68 million) from a pool of 3 HNIs. Last week, Gurugram-based EdTech startup PlanetSpark had raised ₹1.6 crore funding from FIITJEE, India’s leading education company.

Prior to that, in last month, AI-led Edtech startup Genius Corner raised angel funding of Rs 2 Crore from Ranbir Singh, Mahesh Mohta and Lakshmikantan Sundereswaran, This was followed by funding of Perspectico, a Delhi-based career-tech platform, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from SSCBS Innovation & Incubation Foundation of government of Delhi.

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