Fintech Startup Mysa Raises $3.4M Co-led by Blume Ventures and Piper Serica

Indian fintech startup Mysa has raised $3.4M in a Pre-Series A round of funding co-led by Blume Ventures and Piper Serica, with participation from new investors Ikemori Ventures, Raise Financial Services, QED Innovation Labs, and existing investors Antler, IIMA Ventures & Neon Fund. This brings the total funding raised so far to $6.2M.

Mysa gives companies tighter control, built-in auditability, and savings of lakhs each year by eliminating manual inefficiencies, fraud, and tax leakages. Mysa achieves this by simplifying Vendor Management, Accounts Payable, Expense Management, GST ITC checks and Multi-bank payment operations for India’s fast growing mid-size companies.

The company will deploy the new capital to deepen its AI capabilities and its banking product offerings, including AI-enabled procurement, UPI-driven expense management, and a corporate credit card offering. Mysa also plans to unlock embedded financing opportunities by leveraging its growing vendor network, helping businesses access capital more efficiently, while continuing to expand bank partnerships and scale distribution across India’s mid-market segment.

In less than a year of its public launch, Mysa has scaled to processing ₹1,500+ crore in annualized transaction volume, driving payments to over 40,000 bank accounts across the country.

Since launching a year ago, Mysa has rapidly expanded its banking footprint, enabling integrations with 15+ banks—including key players such as Axis Bank, YES Bank, IDFC First Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.

Mysa is currently used across sectors, including omni-channel commerce brands, quick commerce, manufacturing, hospitality, fintechs, and real estate companies with customers such as Dhan, Wint Wealth, Swish, DrinkPrime, Vaaree, Handpickd, Guru & Jana, Accel Data, Atomic Work, DPDZero, Material Depot, and more.

“Finance teams today are expected to move faster while managing more complexity, but the underlying infrastructure hasn’t evolved,” said Arpita Kapoor, co-founder and CEO of Mysa. “We’re building an AI-driven automation platform that plugs seamlessly into legacy ERPs and banks, enabling teams to scale without adding operational risk—at zero upfront cost and with no migration required.”

“We are excited to co-lead this investment. This is a massive, under-served opportunity in India, where mid-size businesses continue to struggle with fragmented and inefficient financial & banking workflows, paying service companies upfront fees to solve for gaps in legacy ERPs. Mysa is creating a new category by combining AI-driven automation with deep bank integrations. Backed by an exceptional founding team, the company is well-positioned to redefine financial infrastructure for India’s backbone economy”, added Ajay Modi, Director Investments at Piper Sercia.

Joseph Sebastian, VP at Blume Ventures, mentioned, “We’re excited to double down on our investment in Mysa. The team has a deep, first-principles understanding of finance teams’ real-world pain points—reflected in strong customer referrals and near-zero churn in the product’s first year cycle. The platform’s multi-banking architecture and AI-first approach make it a natural upgrade layer over legacy systems.

“We welcome Blume and Piper Serica, and are excited to double down on Mysa, where we’ve seen Arpita and Mohit’s clinical execution since Day 1. Mysa’s product suite will be the best AI-enabled operating system for the modern Indian finance teams - solving automation in the right way, from AP to expense management and more”, added Nitin Sharma, Partner at Antler India.

In the next 5 years, over a million mid-sized Indian companies will need intelligent, bank-integrated finance spanning payments, tax, treasury, and embedded financial services. Mysa is uniquely positioned to serve this market and emerge as a category-defining B2B fintech company.

Battery Tech Startup Volt14 Raises $1.87 Mn Led by Blume Ventures

Battery tech startup Volt14 has raised USD 1.87 million in a Pre-Series A round of funding led by Blume Ventures with participation from Beyond Next Ventures, Spectrum Impact, Supermorpheus and previous investor Cocoon Capital. This brings the total funding raised by the company so far to US $4.02M, inclusive of this investment. Since its last fundraise, Volt14 has made substantial progress from the development of its core material technology to now offering its anode products, ready for adoption and manufacturing, to cell producers.

Volt14 will utilise the funds raised for scaling up manufacturing of its anodes and to strengthen the team.

Silicon is a next generation anode material being adopted by the lithium ion battery industry to improve battery energy density which results in longer battery life of consumer electronics and a range of electric vehicles. Volt14 leverages its proprietary technology that allows it to boost silicon content in anodes while maintaining performance stability.The company has been engaging with multiple battery cell companies for the adoption of its silicon rich anode products for their next generation battery cell products. Volt14 has developed an in-house cylindrical EV-format battery cell that demonstrates state-of-the-art energy density using its silicon anode product.

Volt14 was founded in 2019 by Animesh Kumar Jha who has a materials science background and is a Forbes 30 Under 30 alumni. Last year, Dr Puneet Gupta, a veteran from the silicon industry with over two decades of management experience joined the company’s Board of Directors. Ex Tesla, Lucid and CTO of SERES and EV and battery industry veteran Yifan Tang has also joined Volt14 as an advisor.

Animesh Jha, Founder, Volt14, said, “We are delighted to have the backing and vote of confidence from such high-quality investors — Blume Ventures, Beyond Next Ventures, and Spectrum Impact. Over the past five years, our focused and resilient team has made outstanding progress in commercializing our high-performance silicon anode platform. Electrification is an irreversible trend, and in this paradigm we are excited to help our partners unlock tangible product advantages through superior battery performance. Volt14’s technology delivers a substantial boost to energy density, can leverage installed cell production capacity, and scales efficiently — positioning us strongly for the future.”

Arpit Agarwal, Partner, Blume Ventures, added, “We are excited to lead this investment round in Volt14, a company that is fundamentally reimagining the future of battery technology. Their breakthrough silicon anode innovation represents a step-change in energy storage capabilities that could push the boundaries of what's possible with Lithium-ion batteries. Under the very capable leadership of Animesh and Puneet, whose technical expertise and vision are world-class, we have full confidence in Volt14's ability to scale this company globally. We look forward to supporting their journey as they revolutionize energy storage solutions for a more sustainable future.”

“As Japan’s top deep tech fund, we invest early in startups that align with our fund thesis of Healthy Planet, Happy People. Our investment in Volt14 is a step in that direction. Volt14 and the founders’ disruptive vision for a sustainable world by innovating in the battery chemistry space perfectly resonates with our mission to back the pioneers building a happy planet, mentioned Jay Krishnan, Partner, Beyond Next Ventures.

The global lithium-ion battery market is experiencing rapid growth, driven by the accelerating adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and expansion of renewable energy storage solutions. and is expected to surpass US$300 billion by 2034 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 15% (source). According to the International Energy Agency (source), nearly one out of every five cars sold in 2023 was electric with the global electric vehicle fleet expected to grow twelve fold by 2035. Lithium ion battery cell manufacturing is today a strategic national priority in key economies, including India and the United States with multiple incentive schemes and subsidies to blister domestic production.

Youth Hostel Brand goSTOPS Secures Rs 35 Cr in Series A Funding Led by Blume Ventures to Scale Across 100 Locations

• Funding to fuel 4X expansion, tech upgrades & enhanced experiences for young travellers
• The funding round also saw participation from 1Crowd along with other existing investors

goSTOPS, India’s leading youth travel hostel brand, has raised INR 35 Crore ($4.2 million) in its Series A funding led by Blume Ventures with continued support from co-lead investor 1Crowd. Other existing investors, including Mumbai Angels, Chennai Angels, Indian Angel Network, Lead Angels, and Yuj Ventures, also participated in the round, reaffirming their confidence in goSTOPS' vision and its strong growth trajectory.

With this fresh infusion of equity capital, goSTOPS is set to expand its capacity from 2,500 to 10,000 beds across 100 locations in the next 24 months, achieving 4X growth. The funding will be used to strengthen operations, enhance technology, and elevate the social and experiential aspects of its existing properties, reinforcing goSTOPS as the preferred travel and lifestyle brand for India’s youth. In addition, the company is also finalising debt partnerships to expand its war chest for the brand’s expansion.

Founded by Pallavi Agarwal and Pankaj Parwanda, goSTOPS has redefined travel for India’s youth. Over the past few years, the company has demonstrated remarkable resilience, scaling rapidly despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, as travel surges and young travellers increasingly choose hostels over hotels, goSTOPS is leading this shift with its vibrant, community-driven spaces.

Pallavi Agarwal, Founder & CEO at goSTOPS

Pankaj Parwanda, Co-Founder, goSTOPS

Commenting on the fundraise, Pallavi Agarwal, Founder & CEO at goSTOPS, said, "At goSTOPS, we are redefining how young travellers experience India—offering vibrant, social, and design-led spaces for the new generation. This investment reflects the trust our investors have in our vision and the category we are building. With their continued support, we are set to scale goSTOPS into India’s most preferred youth travel brand—by expanding our footprint while staying true to our promise of making the transformative power of travel accessible to young Indians.

Talking about the investment, Ashish Fafadia, Partner at Blume Ventures said, “goSTOPS has built a category-defining brand by combining deep operational expertise, smart asset management, and tech-driven efficiencies. Their ability to optimise unit economics while scaling rapidly is a testament to the team’s tenacity and strategic vision. We are excited to back their journey as they continue to expand and transform the youth travel experience in India.”

Anil Gudibande, co-founder of 1Crowd, who has co-lead the funding, said, “As an early backer of goSTOPS, we always believed that the brand was more than just a hostel chain — it’s a youth brand with the potential to shape travel and lifestyle choices. The founders’ ingenuity, and deep understanding of their audience have been key to their success. Their team isn’t just about asset utilisation; it’s about creating experiences that resonate with young travellers. This belief has been central to us leading the company's multiple rounds of equity financing, and we are now excited to see the next phase of their growth.”

According to market research, 70% of young travellers now prefer hostels over traditional hotels, underscoring the growing demand for the category. goSTOPS is leading this shift with its company-managed hostels, ensuring full control over service quality and customer experience. Designed for digital-native travellers, the brand creates dynamic spaces where guests can connect, grow, and explore new destinations together.

About goSTOPS:

goSTOPS is a leading youth travel hostel brand, redefining travel for youth with its vibrant, design-led social spaces.

Founded in 2014 by Pallavi Agarwal and Pankaj Parwanda, goSTOPS has rapidly expanded to 30+ locations, offering 2500+ beds designed for the new-age traveller.

More than just a place to stay, goSTOPS is a community-led, tech-first brand that creates immersive experiences for digital-native young travellers.

With bold aesthetics, dynamic social spaces, and seamless technology, it’s where exploration meets connection.

With the ethos of “goMORE. beMORE.”, goSTOPS empowers young adventurers to explore freely, connect deeply, and experience travel as a way of life

Finance & Banking Platform Mysa Raises $2.8 Mn Led By Blume Ventures

• Streamlines finance and accounting operations for businesses with INR 10-300 cr revenue
• Partners with Yes Bank and already onboarded by companies like DPDZero and Kouzina
• By 2031 over a million mid-size companies will need automation for finance, accounts and banking workflows in India

Mysa, a unified Finance and Banking platform for mid-size businesses, announced its launch with $2.8M in seed funding led by Blume Ventures. The funding included participation from Emphasis Ventures (EMVC), Antler, Neon Fund, and CIIIE, along with notable founders as angels, including Sriharsha Majety (Swiggy), Mohit Kumar (Ultrahuman), Naiyaa Saagi (MyGlamm), Nitin Gupta (Uni), and Nishith Rastogi (Locus). The funds are being used to build the core platform capabilities, expand the team, and accelerate customer growth.

By unifying banking, finance operations, and accounting, Mysa empowers companies to streamline operations, enhance control, and make informed financial decisions. The platform connects every part of the financial workflow - from bill collection to tax compliance, payment execution, and ERP syncs into a single, seamless system.

The company is partnering with Yes Bank to provide integrated current account operations, targeting businesses with annual revenues/spends between INR 10-300 crore.

Mysa has already onboarded prominent companies across sectors including DPDZero, Kouzina, Guru & Jana, Swish and Rigi, demonstrating strong market validation for its unified approach.

Mid-sized companies are stuck with fragmented legacy banking and ERP systems that do not meet the demands of the modern business environment. Compliance demands for active tax enforcement (GST, TDS) have increased and need higher real-time accuracy. There are stronger audit requirements for companies. Venture funds also demand stricter financial controls for portfolio companies.

Mysa Smart Scan is AI-powered and automatically generates contextual narratives for bills, predicts due dates, and categorizes expenses. This intelligence extends to invoice collection via bots and intelligent payment routing, while the mobile app ensures banking accessibility on-the-go.

The founding team brings deep expertise from their successful exits and experience at leading financial institutions. Co-founders Arpita Kapoor (CEO) and Mohit Rangaraju (Product Head) previously built Mech Mocha, a social gaming startup acquired by Flipkart, while founding team members Ashutosh Panigrahi (CTO) and Mohit Jain (Head, Partnerships & Sales) bring extensive experience from Myntra, CRED, CITI Bank, and Axis Bank.

Arpita Kapoor, Co-founder & CEO, Mysa, said, “We are just getting started. Mysa aspires to run the Banking & Finances for the largest GDP contributing companies of India. As part of our ambitious roadmap, Mysa has successfully obtained a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) license from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). This milestone sets the stage for the development of an AI-enabled Treasury Management product, specifically designed for mid-size businesses to manage their excess cash”.

Gaurav Goel, the National Head of Start-up, Fintech, and New Economy Business at YES BANK, stated, "Mysa is revolutionising how businesses approach financial management by seamlessly integrating its platform with modern banking solutions. This partnership exemplifies how innovation and collaboration can address mid-sized companies' unique challenges, empowering them with unparalleled efficiency and control."

Joseph Sebastian, AVP at Blume Ventures, added, “We are thrilled to renew our partnership with Arpita and Mohit for their second venture. Mysa is a much-needed solution that tackles the day-to-day challenges in banking and finance that many Indian companies face. By streamlining these processes, Mysa will usher in a new era of efficiency in costs as well as on controls. With its AI-powered capabilities, Mysa is set to redefine finance operations for modern enterprises”.

By 2031, over a million mid-sized companies will need automation for workflows like bill payments, accounts receivable automation, and treasury management integrated with banking solutions seamlessly. Mysa addresses their unique Indian challenges and is on path to build a category defining company in the B2B fintech segment.

About Blume Ventures

Blume Ventures is an early-stage India-focused venture fund that backs startups with both funding as well as active mentoring. Blume typically invests in Seed and pre-Series A rounds in tech-led startups led by founders obsessed with solving hard problems for the Indian market and from India for the world.

Blume presently invests out of Fund IV, a $290M vehicle supported by leading institutional LPs and family offices. With the close of Fund IV, Blume now has an AUM (Assets Under Management) of over $600m, managed by an investment team based across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, and San Francisco. Some of the leading startups we have backed included Purplle, Unacademy, Spinny, Ultrahuman, Slice, Carbon Clean, and GreyOrange.

Check out this fun video about Mysa Launch Video Film

Fintech Startup DPDzero Raises $3.25 Mn in Seed Round Led By Blume Ventures and IndiaQuotient

Founding Team — Ranjith Ramachandra & Ananth Shroff

The company is building fintech infrastructure to make credit accessible and affordable

Credit penetration in India is a serious problem and needs a lot of attention. Without the right infrastructure, extending credit to the unserved and underserved would remain a dream. With this vision to build a robust infrastructure, fintech startup DPDzero has announced raising $3.25 million in Seed Funding led by Blume Ventures and IndiaQuotient. Prominent banking and fintech leaders like Sunil Gulati and Nikhil Kumar have also participated in the round.

This influx of capital is intended for strategic allocation, primarily to enhance product distribution, expedite product development, and assemble a high-calibre team to achieve the company's ambitious objectives.

The duo Ananth Shroff and Ranjith Ramachandra founded DPDzero in March ‘22 with an aim to fix the root cause of delayed repayments. The startup today solves for delinquencies across all stages and has developed unique behavioural models to predict and prevent defaults. This is going to bring transformation to the risk management practices in the lending industry.

"Our journey is in its early stages, but our commitment to reshape the financial landscape is unwavering. We know lending is hard, but collection is harder. We want to solve the hardest problem first." - Ananth Shroff, CEO and Co-Founder of DPDzero, shared his vision.

In a span of 10 months, the firm has witnessed 700% growth in revenue from its AI-powered collections and debt recovery platform. It has partnered with ambitious NBFCs like Tata Capital, KreditBee, Cashe, Lazypay, Snapmint and has witnessed strong interest from top private banks.

“At 55% of GDP, India's credit penetration is far below the global average of 148%. With economic growth, credit is set to rise, further driven by initiatives like AA & OCEN. This will onboard many New To Credit (NTC) customers but there is a risk of increasing NPAs, necessitating a focus on collection. Blume’s thesis on collection tech saw us investigating this space deeply. DPDzero stood out amongst all, and the collection product that Ananth and Ranjith have built, impressed us. DPDzero has an exciting roadmap for improving the credit landscape and we’re proud to support their journey.”-Sajith Pai, Partner at Blume Ventures shares his excitement with this partnership.``

Anand Lunia, Partner at IndiaQuotient, We are big believers in DPDzero's vision to build infrastructure that enables traditional and non-traditional lenders to manage risk and collections. Ananth, Ranjith and the DPDzero team have an exciting roadmap for the future of the credit landscape in India and we're proud to support their journey. 

"With the strong tailwinds from India stack scale-up, adding the next 200M people into formal credit could be sooner than expected. Risk and collections will go through a massive innovation, and DPDzero is in the best position to take all the advantage." Nikhil Kumar, co-founder of Setu, shares his views on DPDzero’s opportunity.

Revenue is the north star and over the next 12-18 months DPDzero envisions to see significant scale in increasing quality revenues from its land and expansion strategy. The company is investing aggressively in information security and is all geared up to work with large Banks, NBFCs and ARCs.

Data Analytics Startup Blockfenders Raises $1.5 Mn in Pre-seed Funding from Blume Ventures and Others

(Left-Right) Viraj Phanse, CEO, and Niranjan Ingale, CTO

Blockfenders unlocks unhindered data sharing potential for companies as it secures funding from Blume Ventures and others

Zettabytes of enterprise data are locked, siloed and kept inaccessible. Ex-AWS, Oracle, IBM, and Allscripts team at Blockfenders are redefining enterprise data sharing with a zero trust and no-code solution.

Data sharing in businesses is broken and current mechanisms are not secure, resulting in data breaches, insider threats, ransomware attacks and unauthorized access. Addressing this impasse, data analytics startup Blockfenders is today announcing a $1.5m pre-seed funding round from a range of institutional and angel investors to remedy the problem and enable businesses to achieve their goals.

The round saw participation from investors including Blume Ventures, Together Fund, Veda VC, Behind Genius Ventures, Better Capital, Arka Venture Labs, Global Devc, FortyTwo, Eximius Ventures, GSF Fund, Pointone, Upsparks, and industry leaders like founder and chairman of Persistent Systems, Dr. Anand Deshpande, engineering leader at Microsoft, Rashid Mayes, founder and CEO at IndiaMart.com, Dinesh Agarwal, COO at IndiaMart.com, Dinesh Gulati, investor and sports presenter/producer, Gaurav Kapur, General Partner at Wagmi Ventures, Henry Zitou, and CEO and joint MD at Nazara Technology, Nitish Mittersain.

Blockfenders has removed the burden on IT and data engineering teams to enable complete data sharing with its enterprise-grade, no-code platform in a zero trust environment while preserving data privacy. It combines the best of blockchain, cloud and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) like Hedera and Hyperledger to create an enterprise data exchange network that simplifies fine-grained and controlled data exchange between multiple parties without revealing raw data.

Without any code and just using the Blockfenders user interface, companies can establish data exchange channels with their internal or external partners so that they can start sharing data securely and granularly with zero trust from any data source including databases, data warehouses and other data platforms. Zero trust which is central to Blockfenders enables protecting the actual data resource instead of perimeter of security, adds tamper evident data verifiability and lineage, and allows data owners to control on-demand or scheduled data access using smart contracts and a cryptography based passwordless access control.

It automates data workflows and expedites transparent data agreements. Blockfenders minimizes liabilities associated with data sharing using end-to-end encryption, tamper proofness of raw data, and increases data utility at 80% lower costs.

According to Gartner, companies that encourage data sharing will surpass their competitors in terms of business performance. However, Gartner also predicts that only a small fraction (less than 5%) of data sharing initiatives will be successful in identifying and accessing trustworthy data sources. Further, in a recent survey of Chief Data Officers, Forrester Research found that more than 70% of global data and analytics decision-makers are increasing their capacity to utilize external data.

Blockfenders co-founder & CEO Viraj Phanse commented: “Data sharing has been limited to direct access to data sources, data views, APIs, sending data via emails and ETLing. Each of these mechanisms are resource intensive, cost prohibitive and technically complex to implement, thus increasing the dependency on IT and data engineering teams. Because of failing data sharing methods that result in increasing data liabilities, CIOs, CISOs and Chief Data Officers are unable to unlock the true potential of data and maximize its business value. Consequently, zettabytes of enterprise data is locked, siloed and kept inaccessible leading to failed digital transformation initiatives. In spite of spending millions of dollars on cybersecurity and data management, organizations are unable to prevent attacks that cause a lot of brand and reputation damage."

From left to right- Anurag, Nileesha, Amol, Purshotam, Niranjan, Mayur, Viraj, Vaibhav

Co-founder & CTO at Blockfenders Niranjan Ingale added: “Enterprises, healthcare and financial services organizations want to share data internally and externally to meet their business and operational goals. Although this is a top priority of their IT, data and security leaders, data sharing while enhancing data privacy and security, is not easy and secure. If performed incorrectly, it can lead to brand and reputational damage with heavy penalties. Blockfenders solves these challenges by making data sharing as simple as sharing photos on the phone. We are democratizing data sharing by enabling business, research and non-technical folks to share data from their own environment without writing any code or worrying about privacy, security and implementation. Now organizations can easily establish a single source of truth of data and share data in a fine-grained manner while meeting stringent regulations and compliances.”

Headquartered in Palo Alto, Blockfenders was co-founded in 2022 by friends of 20 years Viraj Phanse and Niranjan Ingale with the aim of making it easier to securely exchange data across borders. Both co-founders have extensive global experience in the tech industry, with Viraj having held leadership roles at AWS, Oracle, Persistent and Aerospike, and Niranjan leading engineering teams at AllScripts and Persistent.

In just nine months, Blockfenders has grown to a team of 10 and plans to use its pre-seed funding to grow the team further, build new capabilities like supporting multiple data sources and tokenization, and expand its presence in industries such as healthcare, banking and financial services, enterprises, and technology.

Speaking about the investment into Blockfenders, Sanjay Nath, the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Blume Ventures, said, “What excited us about Blockfenders was Viraj and Niranjan’s articulation of the expansive scope of the problem statement and the promising tailwinds associated with it. Enterprises and Healthcare & BFSI companies today struggle with setting up and managing zero trust data-management platforms and Blockfender’s unique positioning and inherent technology moat is well poised to solve for that.”

Rashid Mayes, Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft and co-founder at Philanthropy.AI, who is also an angel investor into the current round, added, “Businesses will face a greater reliance on securely and efficiently operationalizing data from diverse sources to meet the growing analytics/actionable insights, intelligence, end-to-end observability, and personalization needs of modern applications and services. Blockfenders’ platform enables organizations to break data silos and drive more value from data without sacrificing privacy, governance, or integrity.”

Blockfenders has already gained traction for its innovative approach to help customers collaborate with internal and external partners across boundaries. The company has attracted two major industry players in the USs, including a digital health company in the eye care industry and a global employee engagement platform provider. Both partners are currently undergoing proof of concept and pilots. Blockfenders has also seen keen interest from two global banks for secure data sharing.

About Blockfenders

Blockfenders was co-founded in 2022 with the aim of making it easier to securely exchange data across borders. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, United States with an operational office in Pune, India. Learn more at https://www.blockfenders.com/ or follow via LinkedIn

Indian Languages OTT Platform Stage Raises Rs 40 Cr in Funding Round Led By Blume Ventures

Indore-based STAGE, World's first OTT platform in local Indian languages/dialect, has raised Rs 40 crore in funding round led by Blume Ventures, reported Economic Times.

STAGE is an Indian language content platform (OTT) for artist led entertainment such as poetry, comedy and storytelling etc.

Other investors who participated in the latest round of funding include NB Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, TSM Ventures, WeFounderCircle, Mumbai Angels, and Tarmac Ventures, among others, reported Economic Times.

Existing investors Better Capital, IPV, TCA, and Venture Catalysts also participated in the funding round.

The startup plans to use the freshly raised funds in going deeper into Haryana and Rajasthan region, and create more original content and grow the product.

The startup also plans to capture 10% of the 25 million-plus households watching video content in Haryana and Rajasthan by mid-2024. By 2027, STAGE plan to launch in the top 20 dialects of the country, which have the potential to reach 200 million-plus Households.

Founded in 2019, by Praveen Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav and Vinay Singhal, STAGE allows the artists to create local standup content for the local audience in their local context and dialects, a "STAGE" that allows the artists to distribute and monetize their content, a STAGE that allows the audience to discover highly curated local standup content that connects with them.

Last year in March, STAGE raised Rs 3.5 crore in an angel round led by Inflection Point Ventures. Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma also participated in the funding in his personal capacity, along with Sprout Investment Fund and Giridhar Malpani, founder of Climber Capital. 

Currently, STAGE offers content in Haryanvi and Rajasthani languages only and is available on Mobile (android and iOS), TV, Web and Tablets.

STAGE also offers a VIP service which allows users to consume premium web series and videos through a subscription.

Finance Automation Platform Bluecopa Raises $2.3 Mn from T-Hub's T-Fund, Blume Ventures, Titan Capital and Others

• T-Hub Startup Bluecopa Raises USD 2.3 Million in the Seed Funding Round
• The startup received funding from T-Hub’s funding initiative T-Fund (a co-investment fund led by the Telangana government) and Blume Ventures, along with other notable investors.
• The funding will enhance Bluecopa’s platform's capabilities, hire talent, and grow the company’s consumer base.

T-Hub, which leads India’s innovation ecosystem, today announced that it has co-invested in Bluecopa through T-Fund along with Blume Ventures and other notable investors like Titan Capital, Speciale Invest, Bharat Founders Fund, T2D3, Amplify, and Force Ventures. Finance operations automation platform, Bluecopa raised USD 2.3 million in this seed funding round. Also joining the funding round are seasoned entrepreneurs Krish Subramanian, Rajaraman Santhanam, Founders of Chargebee, Rohit Chennamaneni, Founder of Darwinbox, Asad Khan and Jay Singh, Founders of LambdaTest.

T-Fund is primarily a Co-Investment Fund, which invests alongside established Angels, Angel Networks, and venture capitalists. T-Hub is the Investment Manager and will formulate investment and business development strategies for this fund. It will source startups from various sectors, including but not restricted to Information Technology, Cleantech, Agritech, Fintech, Healthtech, Logistics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Hardware, Blockchain, and Consumer tech.

In addition to the funds, T-Hub, through T-Fund, will support Bluecopa with its market entry and go-to-market strategy efforts by connecting them with mentors and industry experts. The startup will also gain access to T-Hub’s robust innovation ecosystem to engage with potential clients, corporate and investor connections. The capital raised will be used to enhance the platform's capabilities, hire talent, and grow the company’s consumer base. Bluecopa caters to enterprises across the globe with a vision to free up finance teams and empower them to focus on strategic finance.

MSR, CEO of T-Hub, said, “We are thrilled to support the team and vision of Bluecopa through our funding initiatives, enabling them to empower the finance leaders to make informed business decisions faster. We believe that Bluecopa has an incredible opportunity to transform the Fintech landscape with its powerful automation solution, enabling finance teams to focus not just on business growth and on accelerating it. Moreover, with the passionate founding team, growth trajectory and market position, it has significant potential to scale in the global market.”

Satya Prakash, Co-founder of Bluecopa, said, “With the proliferation of SaaS tools across organisations, real-time business observability is fragmented for finance teams, which means data to decision cycles are significantly high and error-prone. As a result, there is an increasing dependency on data teams, expensive and complex tools, and clunky Excel spreadsheets to understand business drivers. This is a hair-on-fire problem, particularly in high transaction volume industries such as e-commerce, logistics, financial services etc. Solving these aspects can increase sales by 20 per cent and profitability by 30 per cent. Bluecopa supports the 10 million finance community across the globe to significantly reduce time to decision cycles and focus on the numbers that matter.”

Anirvan Chowdhury, Vice President of Blume Ventures, added, “Having the right financial observability and signals is mission critical for companies with high transaction volumes in today's age. We loved Bluecopa's data-infra-focused approach to solving this critical problem for finance teams, which will be their key differentiator. With Satya having deep expertise in building a strong data infra product and getting a sizable exit to Apple, Neel's strong credentials as an enterprise sales maestro, and Raghava's hands-on experience in finance, we couldn't have asked for a better team to solve a problem that every industry across all geographies is grappling with.”

Bluecopa was founded in 2021 by Raghavendra Reddy, Satyaprakash Buddhavarapu and Nilotpal Chanda. They are a second-time entrepreneurial team with rich experience building products and scaling companies in Fintech, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), AI, and data-engineering domains. Satyaprakash’s first startup “Tuplejump'' was a Machine Learning platform and was acquired by Apple in 2016.

Bluecopa is built for finance teams in high-growth companies, helping Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and finance leaders get a real-time view of the business KPIs, actionable insights, and strategic direction to business leaders. The platform also manages day-to-day finance operations such as business planning, scenario modelling, and variance analysis. In essence, it accelerates the digitalisation of the finance function to handle scale and complexity. It provides an easy-to-use and intuitive excel-like interface and can process millions of transactions in real-time.

Traditionally, finance operations and automation tools have been seen as table stakes but not drivers of the bottom line or top line. However, the next generation of such solutions will change this paradigm, and it is a massive market opportunity. According to estimates, the market for Finance Operations automation solutions is a USD 20 billion opportunity globally.

T-Hub recently disbursed USD 189K to three startups through T-Fund and will continue to curate and work on funding initiatives like these along with the government’s support.

Chefkart Raises $2 Mn Led by Blume Ventures and Pravega Ventures

L-R Aman Gupta, Vaibhav Gupta, Arpit Gupta

Upskills local cooks into trained & professional home chefs

15%MOM growth since it was founded in 2020

Serves 1400+ families and 2100+ cooking sessions daily

ChefKart, a Gurugram-based at-home cooking services platform, has raised $2 million in seed round of funding led by Pravega Ventures and Blume Ventures, with participation from Deepinder Goyal, Titan Capital, Kunal Shah, Tremis Capital, Lets Venture, and other prominent angels. ChefKart upskills local cooks into trained & professional home chefs who deliver world-class cooking services.

The capital raised will be utilized to further Chefkart’s vision to become the lead provider of subscription-based at-home cooking services in Gurugram and expansion to other geographical territories. The products and services offered aim to revolutionize the end-to-end kitchen needs of users. One of the immediate goals for the business is to improve the customer experience and increase tech adoption among service providers.

According to a FICCI – PwC report, the Indian Food Services market is valued at INR 5,52,000 crores in 2022, with the unorganised sector claiming over 57% of the market share. There is a huge demand for reliable cooking services. ChefKart aims to bridge this gap by transforming this untapped sector’s workers into reliable service providers.

ChefKart is transforming the hospitality industry by upskilling the unorganized home cooking spacer. The company has also built hyperlocal marketing and established supply control in Gurugram, with strategic plans for the upcoming expansion to other regions. ChefKart launched new lines of business i.e. Chefs for parties, and the team is also working on expanding through adjacencies available in the business.

ChefKart was founded in 2020 by Vaibhav Gupta, Aman Gupta and Arpit Gupta to solve the problem of the lack of reliable at-home cooking services.

Vaibhav Gupta, CEO & Founder, ChefKart, said, “We have served over 3200+ families and are managing over 2300+ cooking sessions daily with a 15% MOM growth. 3 co-founders being Guptas, cost-saving is our DNA. Urban Company shutting down their chef services again makes us the market leader and proves our mantle of running and building a large-scale enterprise.”

As organizations slowly realise that subscription-based services are the future, it makes it critical for the company to build a much-needed platform and thrive in this market. India’s at-home cooking industry is set for the next wave of growth with digitization. ChefKart targets an essential requirement of every household and aims to simplify at-home cooking services. The company forecasts aggregation on top of the grocery delivery space, with a goal to capture the time spent by consumers planning their daily meals and their arrangements.

Mukul Singhal, Co-Founder and Partner at Pravega Ventures said, “ChefKart is driven by the idea to digitise an essential service that is largely unorganised. They are the pioneers in streamlining an industry with tremendous untapped market potential in capturing customer food wallets. By also empowering the local community, they are on their way to developing a complete ground-to-customer supply-demand chain. It may be a challenging process, but the positive cash cycle model of ChefKart has significantly changed the way at-home cooking functions in India.”

“On the partner front, we are relentlessly working towards streamlining our home chefs' onboarding and state-of-the-art training process. This is just the beginning, and a majority of the people are realising that multi-cuisine delicacies can be made in the comfort of their home and according to their taste easily through our platform”, Arpit Gupta, COO, ChefKart, added.

Traditionally, customers tend to pay for food-related services after consumption, but the subscription-based concept is dramatically changing how this market works.

Solar Fnancing Platform Aerem Raises $2.5 Mn Led by Blume Ventures

Solar financing platform Aerem has raised $2.5million in pre-Series A funding led by Blume Ventures. Aerem is pioneering a full-stack solution with a vision to build India’s first asset finance and quality platform for solar. The capital raised will be used for growing the loan book, building out the tech platform that would enable end to end digital and seamless interaction with various stakeholders and to hire teams including leadership in technology, product, finance, and operations.

Aerem’s platform innovatively addresses key points of friction hindering adoption of rooftop solar for MSMEs. The startup services a massive and highly scalable space and is future ready for the evolving and unfolding sustainability era.

By nature of its business, Aerem has a huge impact on mitigating carbon emissions and also leads to increased profitability of MSMEs, making them more competitive. Aerem plugs a glaring product gap that is preventing mass adoption of solar rooftops and works with solar installers and EPC companies by helping finance their solar customers leading to increase in their business and employment potential.

Aerem was founded in 2021 by Anand Jain who comes with a strong background in both financial services and solar. An MBA from Yale University, he worked as an investment banker with Lehman Brothers in New York before returning to India in 2009 to pursue his passion for solar. Aerem team brings on board deep domain expertise in both finance and solar and is best placed to enable and scale the sector.

Anand Jain, Founder, Aerem, said, “Aerem is on a mission to democratize the adoption of rooftop solar and build a better, greener and sustainable future. Our innovative SolarTech platform includes AAA (Aerem Asset Assurance) ensures quality rooftop solar systems, which combined with financing from our in-house NBFC or partner banks enable significant reduction in power bills of MSMEs. We offer a fully digitalized, hassle free and seamless experience to MSMEs.”

Ashish Fafadia, Partner, Blume Ventures, added, “We are impressed with Anand’s vision and Aerem’s platform approach that includes credit. Their full stack solution provides end to end engagement and is ahead of the market by 1-2 years. Solar is in a sweet spot where macro (top down) and micro (bottom up) factors are incredibly aligned. This is extremely rare for any sector. India has targeted 280 GW of solar capacity and 50% of its energy requirement from clean energy by 2030.”

Aerem is targeting 20mn industrial MSMEs in India. The market potential is over USD 200 billion just in the MSME space.

SaaS Startup Glamplus raises $700k in Funding Led by Blume Ventures and Ramakant Sharma

(From L-R) Cofounders - Vatsalya Agarwal, Divyanshu Singh and Rohan Singh

• Glamplus is a SAAS enabled beauty marketplace for salons and spas in the SMB segment. With this platform- salons, spas, gyms can manage their customers’ engagement, staff management, and suppliers through a simple data driven dashboard.
• This is IPV’s 2nd round of investment in Glamplus
• IPV crosses 107 deals landmark with Rs. 326 crore investment

SaaS enabled marketplace startup Glamplus raises $700k in a Pre-Series A round from Blume Ventures, Ramakant Sharma (COO- Livspace) and participation from existing investors IPV. The funds raised will be utilised in vertical tech SAAS capabilities along with expansion of B2B marketplace business to scale to 10,000 partners and monthly revenues of INR 5crore/month by Mar '22.

Glamplus is a SaaS enabled curated B2B marketplace which helps and enables large, medium & small salons/spas to adopt technology and grow their businesses digitally. Glamplus has created a one stop platform -salon CRM for managing customers, ERP for managing staff as well as enabled B2B marketplace compounded on SAAS platform parallelly allowing to run any type of promotional offers / communication with D2C audience.

Anirvan Chowdhury (Vice President, Investments - Blume Ventures) shares “We have a strong thesis on vertical SAAS enabled marketplaces and believe that Glamplus has done a stellar job at solving a lot of friction in the workflow for salons/spas through their SaaS solution, which has enabled them to drive marketplace revenue at a rapid pace. When we met the team around a year back they had only a concept and in the past year they’ve not only built out a solid product but also in the 6 months since launch, they’ve been able to drive phenomenal growth while maintaining very strong retention numbers! 4000+ salons with 25 lakhs monthly SaaS revenue and 3Cr. monthly marketplace GMV in 6 months with a +ve CM1 is no mean feat, and we are super excited to be part of this journey.”

Glamplus has an AI based CRM platform, which enables salon/spa owners to manage their operations and services end to end through an online web or android mobile app. This has helped them improve the overall salon experience for their customers and staff. Platform also allows to preimmunize the salon owner's offering via B2B2C interaction to the end customer and also integrates scheduling appointments, generating digital invoices, offer promotional offers through Bulk SMS/WhatsApp & loyalty schemes for customers. The salon owner can track the efficiency of the stylists, monitor revenue generation on daily, weekly and monthly basis, inventory management of products and services offered by the salon.

Mitesh Shah, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures says, “With the rise in disposable income and more women joining workforce in tier 1cities, beauty and wellness services have witnessed an upsurge. People are now more conscious about their appearance and are willing to spend. To cater to this rising need more efficiently, Glamplus has created an end-to-end B2B2C solution for salons, spas and gyms which will help them to run their operations smoothly. Since January 2021, the company has successfully tied up with 4000 partners and plans to grow faster in the coming year. The fast pace growth trajectory clearly shows the need for this solution in the emerging market and IPV looks forward to extending their support in their journey.”

Divyanshu Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, Glamplus says, “Salon/Spa beauty industry is highly fragmented despite presence of more than million plus salons in the country. We were clearly determined and destined to solve for this highly undeserved SMB market and creating moat around it by going vertically deep, has also been recognized by our marquee investors. New Funds will be utilised in enhancing tech capabilities, going deep in the marketplace segment and driving growth along with efficiency. Our solution will create a complete digital ecosystem for salons and spas and help transform their lives.”

Glamplus has scaled to 4000 paying partners in less than 8 months across 6 cities- Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Pune. Glamplus has grown from a team of 3 individuals to 40+members in less than 6 months. Founders understand the nerve of SMB salon/spa market really well which helped them in developing the product as per core needs of SMB market and thus creating immense stickiness for partners to engage on a regular basis.

With the rise in awareness about holistic wellbeing, spending on beauty and wellness products and services has increased. According to the Indian Beauty & Hygiene Association (IBHA), the beauty and wellness market in India is expected to reach Rs 2,463.49 billion by 2024, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~18.40 percent during the 2019-2024 period. India caters more than 1 million registered with 30% over and above unregistered. Glamplus aims to move the $200 billion SMB-dominated offline economy to a well data-driven engagement platform followed by curated beauty order marketplace on SAAS platform

About Glamplus

Glamplus was founded in July 2020 by 3 co-founders- Divyanshu, Rohan and Vatsalya, all of them have worked in a start-up environment, scaled and contributed businesses grow from 0 to 1 and then from 1 to 100. Speed and right execution vis-à-vis market understanding makes Glamplus product highly adaptive among customers

About IPV

Inflection Point Ventures is an angel investing platform with over 6000 CXOs, HNIs and Professionals to together invest in start-ups. The firm supports new-age entrepreneurs by providing them monetary & experiential capital and connecting them with a diverse group of investors.

Agritech Robotics Startup TartanSense Raises $5 Mn in Series A from FMC, Omnivore, Blume Ventures

TartanSense Team

Agritech robotics startup TartanSense announced today that it has raised USD 5million in Series A funding. The round was led by FMC Ventures and Omnivore, with participation from existing investor Blume Ventures. This brings the total funds raised by the company to USD 7million, after raising a USD 2million Seed round in March 2019. TartanSense builds small agricultural robots, equipped with AI-assisted computer vision, to help small farms reduce their expenditures and improve their incomes.

TartanSense is helping smallholder farmers who struggle with low yields, primarily driven by two reasons - poor chemical spraying techniques and unreliable farm labour. TartanSense's robots are an affordable precision agriculture solution for all major farming activities - sowing, spraying, weeding, and harvesting - which simultaneously drive down cultivation costs while improving crop yields.

BladeRunner, TartanSense’s latest robot, can identify, precisely locate, and mechanically uproot undesirable weeds as well as spot spray on the desired crop - reducing chemical usage by 45% as well as increasing weeding efficiency by 7 times. The future of agriculture is this combination of machine learning software and frugal hardware, helping farmers move from farm-level decision making to plant-level decision making.

Bladerunner

 
Based in Bangalore, TartanSense was originally founded in 2015 by Jaisimha Rao, an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University who returned to India after working as a quant on Wall Street. He soon assembled a core team of Carnegie Mellon alumni with rich experience in robotics, computer, electrical, and mechanical engineering. The Carnegie Mellon linkage at TartanSense even extends to the company name since students and alumni of CMU are referred to as Tartans.

Jaisimha Rao, Founder, TartanSense, said --

Our mission is to make smallholder farmers wealthier by shipping monetizable robots. TartanSense will have the world’s largest fleet of agriculture robots in the next 18 months. We are grateful to have amazing investors like FMC Ventures, Omnivore, and Blume Ventures backing us in our passion to empower farmers.

Amar Singh, Managing Director at FMC Ventures, remarked, “TartanSense is a pioneer in ground-based precision spraying in India. With growers’ interest in mind, it has developed a unique, low-cost precision application technology with a very high level of accuracy. FMC Ventures is excited to support TartanSense as they combine artificial intelligence and robotics to improve how growers apply crop inputs.”

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, observed, “TartanSense’s innovation in precision agritech can accelerate the transformation of Indian agriculture. We were privileged to be one of the first institutional investors in TartanSense and remain so as the startup reaches new milestones.”

Karthik B Reddy, Managing Partner, Blume Ventures, said, “Jaisimha and team TartanSense have been committed to solve large scale agri problems for farmers since we first met 3 years ago. By building one of the most robust computer-vision led weeding technologies for Indian conditions, we are excited to invest further. We believe TartanSense will reach many corners of global farming and will best solve for several precision farming use cases”.

India is the largest grower of cotton in the world, with 33 million acres under cultivation and an average weeding spend of $100 per acre. The market potential only for weeding in cotton is over 3 billion USD annually. TartanSense aims to focus on cotton as well as several other crops with high cost of weeding.

TartanSense builds small agricultural robots, equipped with AI-assisted computer vision, to help small farms reduce their expenditures and improve their incomes. For further information on TartanSense, please visit: http://www.tartansense.com

FMC Ventures, the venture capital arm of FMC Corporation, invests in startups and early-stage companies that are developing and applying emerging technologies in the agricultural industry. For further information on FMC Ventures, please visit: https://www.fmc.com/en/fmc-ventures

Omnivore is a venture capital firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. For further information on Omnivore, please visit: http://omnivore.vc

Blume is an early-stage venture fund that backs startups with both funding as well as active mentoring. For further information on Blume Ventures, please visit: https://blume.vc

Rural Fintech startup Jai Kisan Raises ₹30 Cr in Funding from Arkam Ventures, NABVENTURES (NABARD), Blume and Global Financial Leaders

Jai Kisan, a Mumbai-based fintech platform for rural emerging markets that facilitates a suite of financial products to rural customers, has closed an INR 30 cr Pre-Series A round of funding led by Arkam Ventures (previously known as Unitary Helion) with participation from NABVENTURES Fund I (backed by NABARD, an apex DFI with AUM of INR 525,000 cr). Jai Kisan is NABVENTURES’ first investment.

The fresh round of fundraising saw participation from existing investors including Blume, Prophetic Ventures and Better Capital. The round also saw participation from prominent leaders in finance and agri like an affiliate of The Chatterjee Group (TCG), Rajiv Sahney (New Vernon Capital), Sanjay Mariwala (Omniactive) and others.

Jai Kisan was founded by Arjun Ahluwalia and Adriel Maniego – graduates of Texas A&M University who quit their jobs in private equity and restructuring, respectively to move to India with a clear mission to change the way finance is delivered to the rural customer.

Over the past 6 months, Jai Kisan has disbursed over INR 50 cr in loans of top tier credit quality to a diverse set of 5500+ borrowers from various income groups across 10 states. Jai Kisan's financial products and robust technology platform is able to onboard a diverse set of borrowers varying from a lady farmer with minimal documentation in a tribal village with no electricity in the Nilgiris to a large grape producer and exporter in Nashik.

“Adriel and I started Jai Kisan to facilitate rightly priced credit (and other financial services) to rural borrowers. It didn’t make sense to us that a poor woman borrower in the middle of nowhere is expected to generate over 24% IRR on a small 50K type loan – (and that too from a formal lender!), while in our previous jobs (private equity) we were expected to generate a meagre 12% IRR for our LPs armed with billions of dollars in capital. We set out on the mission to change the way financial services are delivered to rural customers. Over the past few months, we have built a diverse book while ensuring delivery of credit instantly and more importantly – cheaply, across 10 states including the most backward parts of the country.” said Arjun Ahluwalia, Co-Founder and CEO of Jai Kisan.

Jai Kisan is building the first rural fintech full-stack platform to cater to the financial needs of customers in rural emerging markets. Today, Jai Kisan provides cheap financing options for equipment, input and invoice financing for rural borrowers accessible at their fingertips or at any of Jai Kisan’s partners’ tech enabled locations.

“Very few startups have the commanding view of a large untapped space. Even fewer startups have the luxury of tail winds in these challenging times. Jai Kisan is a rare combination of both of the above along with a unique business model that adds value to multiple participants of the agri supply chain. We are very excited to lead this new round of financing in Jai Kisan”, said Rahul Chandra, Managing Director of lead investors - Arkam Ventures.

Mr. G. R. Chintala, NABARD Chairman, remarked, “We appreciate the efforts of Jai Kisan to emerge as a frontline agri/rural fintech player on the strength of its tech prowess, low cost of operations along with reasonable security levels”.

Rajesh Ranjan, CEO of NABVENTURES, added that, “Jai Kisan is charting a new course in agri/rural digital lending. Even in a COVID scenario, it has delivered stellar growth. NABVENTURES would continue to back such tech-driven agri/rural startups which are at the forefront of agri/rural transformation in India.”

Jai Kisan deploys a B2B2C approach driven by technology, partnering with businesses that sell (inputs, equipments, etc.) or procure (buyers, processors, dairies, poultries, etc.) across the agri, dairy and poultry value chains. Driven by technology end-end and leveraging these deeply rooted networks, Jai Kisan is able to facilitate cheap financing to rural borrowers at unprecedently low interest rates, with a seamless process flow and quick turnaround.

"We are delighted to continue to partner with Arjun and Adriel. Jai Kisan’s robust growth, excellent asset quality and expanding national food print have made them a highly differentiated and scaleable fintech partner for all rural stakeholders. The company's unique offering will continue to propel the growth engine of rural India. We are confident that Jai Kisan will become a large exchange and platform of choice for all things rural related." Sajid Fazalbhoy, Venture Advisor at Blume said.

Today, less than 50% of households dependent on agriculture have access to credit with even lesser having access to rightly priced credit. Rural borrowers often find it difficult to access financial services from banks and other traditional sources due to the lack of documentation, credit/transaction history, visibility of cashflow and operations.

Jai Kisan is also working closely with banking partners to expand the offering of financial products to the bottom of the pyramid to further enhance their livelihoods (more credit products, savings, etc.) while also securing (insurance, etc.) the livelihood of the rural customer.

Jai Kisan is partnered with 3 blue chip banks and 5 NBFCs, including being a key Fintech partner for Avanti Finance India Pvt. Ltd. (An NBFC promoted by Mr. Ratan Tata, Mr. Nandan Nilekani and Dr. Vijay Kelkar) to drive Financial Inclusion in India.

“Jai Kisan is helping Avanti in its mission of delivering affordable credit to the Agri and MSME sectors in India through their extensive reach as well as innovative credit assessment process. We look forward to continue to deliver sustainable impact through this partnership.” said Sunil Tadepalli - Chief of Partnerships, Avanti.

LambdaTest Receives Another Pre-series A funding of $2M led by Blume Ventures and Leo Capital

LambdaTest, one of the leading browser compatibility and automation testing platform announced it has received Pre-Series A funding of $2 million. The round was led by Blume Ventures along with active participation from Leo Capital. Previously, the company had raised a funding of $1 Million which was led by Leo Capital in December 2018.

LambdaTest will use the funds to enhance its existing platform by investing in technology and research to introduce exciting features, scale infrastructure and increase performance. Additionally, onboarding new talent to the team is one of the areas of focus as well.

LambdaTest was started with the aim of developing an integrated cloud based test execution ecosystem to eliminate the effort of testers and developers in building, maintaining and scaling inhouse test infrastructure.

Currently, LambdaTest provides users with instant access to 2000+ different mobile and desktop browser and OS combinations. Users can perform both automation and live interactive testing their scalable cloud infrastructure. It also brings over 50+ integrations which include project management, CI/CD platform as well as test automation frameworks. In a short span of time, LambdaTest has acquired over 110,000 active users from 130+ countries.

Asad Khan, Co-founder & CEO, LambdaTest

Speaking about the funding, Asad Khan, Co-founder & CEO LambdaTest said, “LambdaTest has been able to create a distinct name in the cloud based testing space because of its breakthrough technology, best in the industry performance, fast customer support, and amazing features. We offered a complete package to our customers and this round of funding showcases the confidence that the industry and the investors have in us. With our continuous & agile approach to offer new features, we believe that LambdaTest has the potential to outperform other platforms.

Jay Singh, Co-founder LambdaTest

Our mission from the start has been to make a seamless and easy to use testing platform for web developers, testers, and others. This update only validates our efforts and motivates us to keep working on new features and providing excellent support to our customers,” said Jay Singh, Co-founder LambdaTest.

Sanjay Nath, Co-founder & Managing Partner for Blume Ventures, said, “At Blume ventures, we were actively looking to partner with a Deep tech SaaS platform as the industry is witnessing rapid growth. LambdaTest in just two years has done an amazing job in the cross browser testing and automation testing space and we believe in coming years it is poised be a significant new challenger in this exciting and ever-changing market of cloud testing.”

Pricing & Availability

LambdaTest offers a try before buy version of its Automation feature where all users can play with the tool for 200 minutes. Users can also avail unlimited access to run automation tests at as low as $79 per month on a subscription basis. The pricing also includes all the features of LIVE testing as a package.

About LambdaTest

LambdaTest is cloud-based cross browser testing platform that helps users make sure that they ship quality cross browser compatible products. The platform allows you to perform live interactive testing or run selenium automation test scripts over an on-cloud infrastructure of 2000+ different browser combinations. With LambdaTest, not only can you perform cross browser testing of your live website or webapps, you can also test your locally hosted or privately hosted pages as well. In addition, LambdaTest has easy integrations with project management tools, bug tracking tools, codeless automation tools, automation frameworks, and CI/CD platforms.

Fashion Rental Platform Stage3 Raises $2 Mn in Funding led by Blume Ventures

Stage3, India’s leading fashion-rental and styling platform bringing the largest selection of celebrity endorsed designer outfits and accessories to millennial India’s closets has raised USD 2 million in a Pre-Series A funding round. The funding round was led by Blume Ventures, and highlighted the strong interest of investors in India’s growing fashion rental market. Stage3 has successfully established itself as the leading purveyor of design-led glam wear for men and women in the affordable luxury category.

The current funds will be utilized to amplify the brand experience, boost its offline footprint and augment its data capabilities. Furthermore, Stage3 plans to collaborate with several prominent celebrities, influencers and designers within the coming year, adding to the extensive network it has already created.

Stage 3 has registered a strong revenue growth of 350% YoY and high engagement metrics, further reinforcing the investors’ decision. The company has consistently recorded high repeat rates and unit economics. Its asset light model with revenue share inventory is another advantage, accounting for 80% of its current inventory.

Founded in 2016, the company was envisioned to make glamorous fashion affordable, sustainable and, most importantly, easily accessible to Indian consumers. It targets today’s fashion-forward millennials via a two-pronged approach. First, by making expensive designer wear available to them at a fraction of the MRP through a rental business model. Second, it simultaneously sells capsule collections of “elevated basics” via its home-grown fashion brand “Alaya”, by leveraging collective purchase trends and data insights from customers. These curated collections perfectly straddle the line between exclusivity, style and cost, and are co-developed by designers and celebrity stylists.

Stage3’s proposition fits perfectly into the sharing economy ecosystem in India where fractional ownership is bridging the gap between aspiration and access. In a true case of buyer empowerment, Stage3 also lets its users list their own designer wear to be rented by others via the platform. All of the platform’s offerings are complemented by the company’s in-house stylists, who provide fashion and styling advice to users for free.

[caption id="attachment_136771" align="alignleft" width="262"] Sabena Puri[/caption]

Commenting on Stage3’s proposition, Sabena Puri, CEO and co-founder said that dress up is undergoing transformational changes with millennials interested in engaging in a variety of fashion experiences rather than a owning a closet full of clothes that they no longer have interest in or use of. Constant exposure to the best of designs and creations the world over, their desire to experience such fashion is high. Platforms that make accessing such products easier for the buyer have great potential for success. “Through our offerings, we want to bridge this gap and help our customers be on top of today’s fashion game without having to worry about high pricing, seasonality or storage woes”. At Stage3, we have proven that the sharing economy is going to change the way we consume fashion in India”.

[caption id="attachment_136772" align="alignleft" width="217"] Sanchit Baweja[/caption]

Commenting on the investment, Sanchit Baweja, CBO and co-founder added, “We are excited that Blume Ventures has extended their support to us to add to our strong ecosystem of investors and advisors, including Nisha Kumar, Ex-CFO, Rent the Runway and Anaita Adajania Shroff, Fashion Director, Vogue India. Our growth is going to be omni-channel and data-driven. We plan to invest heavily in enhancing our data capabilities as well as focus on building greater awareness amongst our target audiences about the rental model we are operating with.”

Speaking on the funding, Karthik Reddy, Managing Partner, Blume Ventures said, “We’ve known Stage3 and its founders for a few years now. We love their commitment to the model and its ability to take aspirational brands and designs from great designers and luxury wardrobes to a growing mass of aspirational consumers. Rental culture and recycling or reuse is here to stay as youth understand wastage more than the last generation or two. By providing choice, convenience and prices that special occasions demand in their lives, Stage3 is providing coolness with sustainability in the new India.”

About Stage3 –

Founded in 2016 by Sabena Puri, Sanchit Baweja and Rina Dhaka, the Delhi-based company focuses on providing today’s fashion-forward millennials affordable access to on-trend, glamorous fashion through rental and sales. Stage3’s unique, expansive ecosystem comprises 100+ designers, fashion enthusiasts and a network of relations with 25 celebrity stylists, 150+ leading bloggers, influencers and 50+ celebrities. The company’s board members are some of the biggest names in the business.

Health Tech Startup HealthAssure Raises $2.5 Mn in Funding led by Blume Ventures

Mumbai-based HealthAssure, a health-tech platform, has raised U$ 2.5 million (over Rs 17 crore) in series A round of funding led by Blume Ventures. With this, the startup has so far raised US$4 million in funding to date

HealthAssure will use the funds to augment its platform, create sharper products that serve various primary care needs more effectively including insurance OPD products, build better data capabilities leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, and strengthen distribution.

"We plan to accelerate our business through both organic and inorganic routes. We are looking at acquisitions in areas of nutrition fitness analytics," said HealthAssure founder and CEO Varun Gera .

The company is also looking at strengthening its operations further in Dubai and establishing presence in another international market next year.

Founded in 2011, by Varun Gera, former CEO of United Healthcare, HealthAssure provides access to 4,500 primary care centres across 1,100 cities and connects insurers and corporates through its platform.

HealthAssure is currently clocking annual revenue run rate of Rs 70-80 crore. The company plans to expand operations within India to about 1,500 cities, Gera said.

"We have extended services to more than 1.5 million customers and our aim is to serve millions more in the coming year," he said.

Industrial Automation Startup Ethereal Machines Raises $1 Mn from Blume Ventures, Others

Bangalore-based Industrial Automation startup Ethereal Machines Pvt. Ltd, has raised $1 million (~ Rs 7 crore) in its pre-Series A round of funding led by early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures with contributions from PayU India managing director, Jitendra Gupta, and founders of Grey Orange Robotics - Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta, reported VC Circle.

The startup will use the fresh capital in expansion of its sales and distribution network in the domestic as well as international markets, improving its product portfolio and build relations with application partners.

Founded in 2014, by Kaushik Mudda and Navin Jain, Ethereal Machines solves problems related to manufacturing faced by industries, engineers and makers through its machines and aid the growth of small-scale and mid-scale entrepreneurs by equipping them with affordable machines.

Notably, Ethereal Machines was CES (Consumer Electronic Show) 2018's Best of Innovation Award Honoree under 3D Printing category. The startup received the award fr its flagship product called 'Ethereal Halo', which the startup claims as the world’s first consumer oriented 5-axis 3-D printer and 5-axis CNC Mill. The Halo can equip an entire spectrum ranging from the hobbyist to the industrialist with quick prototyping and manufacturing abilities.

[caption id="attachment_130471" align="aligncenter" width="826"] Ethereal Halo
Image - Etherealmachines.com[/caption]

The startup, which specializes in technologies related to subtractive manufacturing and additive manufacturing, is recognized as a start-up under the Government of India's 'Start-up India' and 'Make in India' scheme.

The startup makes its Hybrid concept manufacturing machines locally and says the machines are priced at roughly a third of those made by its likes.

HR Tech Startup Skillenza Raises $1 Mn from CBA Capital, Blume Ventures and Tracxn

Bangalore-based VH Education Services Private Limited, which own and operates HR tech startup, Skillenza, has raised $ 1 million in a pre-Series A investment round, led by CBA Capital's Education Catalyst Fund (ECF) and contributions from existing investors Blume Ventures and Tracxn Labs Other new investors LetsVenture, CIO Angel Network, Keiretsu Forum, Hyderabad Angels also contributed to the round, reported Times of India.

The funds raised would be utilised to create new modules for assessment of software engineers and expand into tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India, a statement from the company said.

Subhendu Panigrahi, CEO, Skillenza, said in a media statement, "We are working on credentialing students coming out of engineering colleges and creating a global repository of final year undergraduates. These verified and ranked profiles will help companies to hire talent quickly."

Skillenza was founded in 2016 by Subhendu. Essentially, it is a an online platform for professionals that hosts challenges, coding assessments and hackathons to help companies hire engineers and for professionals, it allows to showcase their skills and build an experience graph. The data generated from each challenge is recorded on the platform and is used to create a very personalized experience graph for each user.

"With the infusion of new capital, we foresee that the team will execute ideas that will aid companies to hire the best talent at scale in India to start with and eventually at a global level," said Ashish Fafadia, partner, Blume Ventures.

Vishal Bharat, MD, CBA Capital, said, “What attracted us to Skillenza is its offering that combines the creative process with 21st century skills. It enables participants to explore their skills in the areas that are close to their heart.” The current round would be utilised to create new modules for assessment of software engineers and expand into tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India, a statement from the company said.

"We are working on credentialing students coming out of engineering colleges and creating a global repository of final year undergraduates. These verified and ranked profiles will help companies to hire talent quickly," said Subhendu Panigrahi, CEO, Skillenza.

"With the infusion of new capital, we foresee that the team will execute ideas that will aid companies to hire the best talent at scale in India to start with and eventually at a global level,” said Ashish Fafadia, partner, Blume Ventures.

Recommended By Colombia Vishal Bharat, MD, CBA Capital, said, “What attracted us to Skillenza is its offering that combines the creative process with 21st century skills. It enables participants to explore their skills in the areas that are close to their heart."

It may also be recalled that in March, Bengaluru-based ePoise Systems, a HR Tech startup that offers a cloud based SaaS solution, got acquired by global SaaS-based suites giant Zoho, for an undisclosed amount.

Prior to that, in last November, Bangalore-based Hush, an employee-focused HR tech firm founded by two former Yahoo employees, has raised ₹ 4.5 crores in funding.

In March 2018, Gurgaon based HR Technology startup Benepik had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from a group of investors.