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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About peAR

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

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

3D Modeling Company MY3DMeta Raises ₹10.5 Cr+ from The Chennai Angels, IIT-IIM Angels, and Others

MY3DMeta a 3D Modelling tech company, secured an investment of over Rs. 10.5cr from The Chennai Angels, Dholakia Ventures, AccelNest, Karn Nagpal, Badri Raghavan, IIT-IIM Angels, Hyderabad Angels, and others. MY3DMeta plans to utilize the fund for building tech, IP, and business development.

Founded in 2016, MY3DMeta is making cutting-edge progress in 3D modelling with the aim to enable humans to freely express themselves by enabling the creation of 3D characters, 3D NFTs, 3D digital humans, 3D objects as well as realistic and funky avatars. The company is building the world's fastest 3D modelling Technology Engine that will empower the creation of 3D assets around the globe.

Currently, MY3DMeta empowers both consumers and businesses in creating super realistic, life-like, and accurate next-generation 3D models of avatars for humans & pets in one-tenth of the industry average time, at a fraction of the cost.

Harsha P. Deka CEO & Founder - My3DMeta said "Over the last 6 years, we have been building our database of 3D assets. We now have the largest database of 3D models of humans, pets, and a massive database of objects. My3DMeta is currently leveraging its large database and designers' intuition in building a very powerful patent-pending ML platform to create, edit, store, manage, deploy, and distribute a plethora of realistic high-fidelity 3D models of humans, objects and characters created from any photo or just a description in natural language in real-time which can work on animation, gaming, web3, and the metaverse. The platform will even generate AAA characters for AAA games in real-time."

K Chandran, The Chennai Angels Lead Investor & CEO of SSN Incubation Foundation said “Be it animation, NFTs, web 3.0, video games, or even the Metaverse, 3D Modelling will be the essential requirement. My3DMETA presents a game-changing solution that addresses the existing shortcomings across gaming, design, and other creative industries. Moreover, it is time and cost-efficient with unparalleled accuracy. We at The Chennai believe that the team at My3DMETA has the drive and passion to scale and grow this futuristic tech business exponentially.”

About MY3DMeta

My3DMeta’s mission has been to provide Phygital identity that allows people to celebrate important moments in their lives. With the increased use of 3D in gaming, digital humans, NFTs & advent of metaverse & Web 3.0, they create cutting-edge progress in 3D modelling with the aim to enable humans to freely express themselves. My3DMeta is building an indispensable patent pending tech platform that empowers both consumers and businesses in creating 3D Models of characters, accessories, objects, 3D NFTs as well as super realistic, life-like, and accurate next generation avatars for humans & pets in real time and fraction of cost for the gaming, animation, 3D printing, web 3 and metaverse space.

About The Chennai Angels

The Chennai Angels (TCA, www.thechennaiangels.com) is one of India’s most active Angel Investing groups. Founded in the year 2007, it is comprised of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders with a track record of starting and scaling large enterprises. Over the years, TCA has invested in over 75 start-ups. TCA portfolio companies benefit from the collective expertise and rolodex of its members.

Low Code Automation Platform Twixor Raises $2.4 Mn from Season Two Ventures, Axilor Ventures and The Chennai Angels

The intuitive solutions CX platform for intent-driven and micro-engagement solutions is planning an aggressive scale-up

Twixor, a Singapore HQ, low-code no-code (LCNC) conversational AI and process automation platform that helps businesses build hyper-personalized engagement solutions has announced that it has raised $2.4 Million in Series A round from Season Two Ventures (an Indo-US corridor VC firm), Axilor Ventures and The Chennai Angels.

Twixorsimplifies the way organizations integrate consumer interactions/engagements in their business processes to give enterprise customers better AI-driven cognitive experiences. With 6 global patents in its kitty, the CX automation platform powers accelerated conversations by driving seamless, low-friction, multi-lingual, and app-less interactions and transactions. The company is looking to aggressively scale up its reach and operations. The new funds will be utilized for further theirinnovation journey, to strengthen strategic partnerships, global expansion, and hire talent.

Twixor will shortly launch its global SaaS platform: ‘Twixor AIM’, a no-code omni-channel messaging engine, and ‘Twixor Compute’, a low-code process automation engine.

Speaking on this occasion, Ashok Anand, Founder & CEO, Twixor, said “Twixor helps businesses create superior customer experiences by enabling them to deliver intuitive solutions, address complex use cases, accelerate time to market and reduce total cost of ownership. This investment comes at a strategic moment in our growth journey. It will help us accelerate our twin objectives of technology innovation and global scale-up.”

Sajan Pillai, Managing Partner, Season Two Ventures said, “Twixor’s trajectory from ideas to success is rooted in the right culture to promote innovation and growth, which is very well aligned with our vision of digital transformation, especially in banking tech. We are excited to back Twixor's ambitions to scale their initiatives regionally and internationally. We look forward to supporting the company in realizing its full potential and unlocking new markets through our deep networks in banking and fintech”.

Season Two Ventures is focused on tech-enabled, early-stage start-ups in the enterprise SaaS, Health-tech, FinTech, logistics/supply chain and retail space.

Ganapathy Venugopal, co-founder & CEO, Axilor Ventures said, “It is time to see enterprise platforms for large global verticals being built from India. Twixor is a great example of this”

Axilor Ventures is a leading seed fund with a strong enterprise SaaS portfolio which includes companies like Detect, Maximl, Switchon and Leucine.

Mr Sameer Mehta (Chief Investment Director of Atlas Family and Vice Chairman at Dr. Mehta's Hospitals), and Angel Investor (The Chennai Angels) said, "Twixor is one of the fastest growing companies as every company they work with are able to show long term benefits and savings within 3 months. AI-assisted rapidly-deployable enterprise solutions at the best.”

The Chennai Angels is one of India's leading Angel Investment Networks.Twixor experienced 100% revenue growth in 2021 and is looking to double its revenue in 2022.

About Twixor:

Twixor drives seamless, low-friction multi-lingual app-less banking transactions – in contrast to a banking branch, website, mobile app, or call center – all of which have varying degrees of friction. This leads to a significant impact on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and cost of acquisition, service, and retention, including time to open an account (reduced by 80+%), time to access required information or complete banking transactions (reduced by 65+%) or estimated cost optimization at a call center (reduced by 70+%).

BRINC and the Chennai Angels Launch Techblazers Accelerator Program

Innovative Indian start-ups are invited to apply by September 27 to join this new online accelerator program targeting AgriTech, FoodTech, HeathTech and FinTech sectors.

The Chennai Angels (TCA) a leading angel investor network, and BEINC, one of the world’s leading global venture accelerators, today announced the launch of an online acceleration program for AgriTech & FoodTech, HealthTech, and FinTech start-ups, for which applications are now open.

The three-month intensive program will provide participating start-ups a minimum investment of 50,000 USD and the opportunity for further funding based on their performance and initial traction. Start-ups will be fully supported through their product development and will receive business and investor connection/matchmaking to facilitate growth.

"The Chennai Angels is delighted to partner with Brinc on this initiative to support start-ups in HealthCare, FinTech, AgriTech, and food processing industries. Not only will we be able to extend much-needed seed capital but also to expose start-ups to an elite network of mentors who will work with them to achieve initial revenue traction. TCA looks forward to the launch of TechBlazers with much anticipation, as we wait to see which of the start-ups successfully pass vetting and are invited to be part of this cohort.", said, Mr K Chandran, CEO of The Chennai Angels

TechBlazers is open to India-domiciled start-ups and will run virtually for three months. Start-ups will be, among other things, supported with:

• Access to international and local mentors.
• A full spectrum of manufacturing services in Asia
• Sales and marketing strategies to help grow their businesses
• Support to develop their business models
• Negotiation mock sessions to improve skills in connecting with Investors
• Pitch practice and support to improve pitch decks and promo materials
• Multiple group and individual training sessions on technical feasibility, financial viability, and market desirability

In addition to funding received upon selection to the program, start-ups will benefit from access to Brinc and TCA’s extensive network of mentors, investors, corporates and industry experts. To support growth beyond the program graduates will get a dedicated Portfolio management team.

"Brinc is excited to launch this program with TCA and showcase our further commitment to the development of high-quality start-ups in India. Over the years we have seen the potential of the Indian ecosystem and we have been impressed by the quality of start-ups we have worked with. We are happy that this opportunity expands and cements our presence in India allowing us to join our global network of resources with TCA’s to help motivated founders solve the most challenging problems that India is facing," Said, Mikhail Zenchenkov, Program Director for India, Brinc

Application Information

• Interested start-ups may apply here and learn more through the links below.
• AgriTech & FoodTech: https://www.brinc.io/accelerators/accelerators/agritech-india-program/
• FinTech:
  https://www.brinc.io/accelerators/accelerators/fintech-india-program/
• HealthTech:
  https://www.brinc.io/accelerators/accelerators/healthtech-india-program/

Application Deadline is Sep 27, 2021.

Brinc is a global venture accelerator that runs 15+ sector-focused programs across six global locations. Over the years, Brinc has developed unique methodologies in scouting, selecting, and accelerating innovative start-ups to deliver value to our partners. Brinc also values post-program support and provides invaluable assistance beyond the runtime of their programs. Among Brinc partners are global governments, corporations, investors, and start-up graduates who have grown their ventures from pre-seed to Series A and beyond through the program. Learn more at www.brinc.io.

The Chennai Angels (TCA) is one of India’s leading Angel Investment Networks. In an effort to help a new generation of entrepreneurs, a group of prominent successful entrepreneurs came forward to form a consortium called The Chennai Entrepreneurship Trust Fund in Nov 2007, which is now The Chennai Angels (TCA). These members and those that followed have successfully built, run and in many cases exited enterprises across multiple domains. Besides providing capital, TCA members act as mentors for those venturing into the business world. TCA has among its members several Venture Capitalists who are available to partner with TCA on more significant outlays. TCA investors can handhold the entrepreneur through the fundraising life cycle and open doors to customers and partners of a very high order. As of today, TCA has invested over INR 110 Cr across 60+ Start-ups. Learn more at https://www.thechennaiangels.com

Ed-Tech Firm uFony Services Raises Funds from Chennai Angels for Its School Diary® Platform

uFony Services Pvt. Ltd., the Pune-based Ed-Tech company, has raised funding from The Chennai Angels & other independent investors for School Diary®, an interactive platform that brings education to smartphones. School Diary® is a user-friendly platform that caters to K12 schools, helping them engage students and conduct classes virtually without compromising on privacy.

It is an integrated virtual classroom with online teaching, virtual PTMs, instant academic and non-academic updates, and even an online store where parents can shop for school products. The platform also has an administrator interface to collect online payments, automate accounting, manage transport, track live busses, monitor driver/staff behavior, manage payroll, inventory & accounts, and much more.

Running profitably for the last 3 (three) years, uFony is a leading player in the K12 Education space. The company provides SAAS solutions to 1000+ educational institutes including colleges, schools, coaching, pre-schools, and daycares across 10+ countries. Post-COVID, uFony aims to bring about a change in traditional teaching methods and make them more compatible for the future.

“School Diary® is being leveraged by Schools across Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. It is generating interest from a lot of School Districts in the USA,” said Ashish Chaturvedi, Founder of uFony Services Pvt. Ltd. “With smartphone penetration on the rise and digital learning to gain acceptance, we expect more and more schools in the USA and other countries to sign up for School Diary®. Our recent raise is to enhance our digital presence and enroll business partners to scale up quickly in the international market.”

The education industry is rapidly changing to adapt to an unstable situation. “The great thing about Ufony is its constant efforts to rediscover themselves and to provide greater value to their existing customers. By providing new features constantly, Ufony unfolds new ways of using its services at little or no extra cost and certainly with minimal efforts,” said R. Narayanan (Naru), the Investment Director. “Take for example its latest feature of video. With the mere addition of a tripod on which the cellphone can be perched, the teacher is able to instantly include an ailing child who is unable to attend class. Just at the press of two or three buttons on a phone, the sick child is transported right into the class where they can view their teachers and friends as well. Great application to a video conferencing function. Even greater addition to School Diary®’s functionality.” 

Chandran Krishnan, CEO of The Chennai Angels says, “The traditional education system that schools followed pre-COVID has led to a disruption in studies for students across the globe. Platforms like School Diary® have paved the way for education to be advanced, accessible, and most of all fun. Students seem to enjoy the idea of online classes, a trend that might become essential in the near future. We are excited to see the growth of School Diary®, which brings school to students’ smartphones.”

Established in November 2007, The Chennai Angels (TCA) is one of the leading angel networks in India. TCA is sector and geography agnostic, and has made 52 investments till date, with a 20% exit track record, in enterprise solutions, consumer products, education, healthcare, automotive, gaming and other sectors. TCA is a member-driven network with 100+ successful industry leaders, technocrats, and business professionals in its network. 

Automobile Aftermarket Platform GoBumpr Raises $600K Funding via Chennai Angels and Keiretsu Forum

Chennai-based automobile aftermarket platform, GoBumpr, has raised around $600k in Pre-Series A funding led by the existing investors - The Chennai Angels (TCA), Keiretsu Forum and individual investors. The investment round was led by Mr. Vinod Kumar Dasari (MD, Ashok Leyland) and saw participation from Shankar V (Director, Acsys Investments), Ramaraj R (Founding Member, Elevar Advisors), Priyamvada Balaji (Wholetime Director, Lucas Indian Service) from TCA to name a few. Ramesh Mangaleswaran (Senior Partner, McKinsey) and Gopal Mahadevan (CFO, Ashok Leyland) have also invested in the company as part of this round. Earlier, GoBumpr raised $420K in Jan 2017 in their first round of investment.

Started in Oct 2015 by IIM grads Karthik Venkateswaran, Nandha Kumar Ravi and Sundar Natesan, GoBumpr leverages mobile technology to standardize and automate the ~ 80% unorganized automobile after-sales market ($10bn in annual revenue). Currently, GoBumpr, is India’s largest player in the online automobile services aggregation space in terms of number of workshops getting business via the platform and the number of daily service transactions. GoBumpr currently active in Bangalore and Chennai, does 7000+ B2C transactions monthly servicing INR 3 Crore in billing value. GoBumpr earns commission on the business generated to it’s partner workshops.

“GoBumpr has scaled the B2C service business across 2 major metro cities delivering value to both workshops and vehicle owners. Beyond being able to deliver quality business to workshops, GoBumpr’s ability to become an overall technology platform in the automobile aftermarket tapping multiple revenue streams is the key to emerging as winner in this space. Beyond services, extension of GoBumpr’s platform to spares, tyres, accessories, used cars has worked really well for the company and this overall aftermarket tech platform will be a boon to the industry “said Mr. Vinod Kumar Dasari (MD, Ashok Leyland) who has invested in the company in both the funding rounds.

“GoBumpr, though started as servicing platform, has now evolved into a much bigger play with the extension of their tech interface to tyres, batteries, spares, used cars etc. This allows GoBumpr to be a one stop shop for all of the car owners need and also for the workshop owners to get their inventories in place. GoBumpr’s branding of their premium workshops (similar to OYO rooms) and 100% capacity fulfillment is a game changer for the company” said Mr. Mahalingam K (Partner, TSM Group) who has invested in GoBumpr in both the rounds and advises the core team.

“We have established presence and scaled GoBumpr services in Bangalore & Chennai in the last 12 months. With our success in these two metros, we are confident of scaling the platform not only to other metros but also to other businesses within the automobile aftermarket. As such automobile is one of the oldest industries and at GoBumpr, we are keen to digitize the after-market space and be India’s most trusted auto commerce solution for consumers” said Mr. Karthik Venkateswaran of GoBumpr.

Commenting on GoBumpr’s AI powered Smart Service, “We are working on AI enabled platform leveraging data from OBD and existing service records of the car owner to provide tech enabled smart service assistance to car owners. This would significantly disrupt the way vehicle owners and workshops diagnose repairs and handle service” said Nandha Kumar Ravi, who heads the overall operations for GoBumpr.

Also Read - 10 Notable Digital Automobile-Based Startups In India Right Now

GoBumpr is a 'go-to' pitstop for end-to-end car and bike service needs right from regular servicing, repair jobs, body works – denting, tinkering & painting to 24*7 on-road assistance. GoBumpr.com also provides door-step car wash, engine oil change, tyres and battery replacement services at door step. With over 2.5Lakh+ customers and 2500+ service workshops in their platform, GoBumpr transforms the automobile servicing process into a seamless & hassle-free experience with real-time tracking of vehicle service status till payment and delivery. GoBumpr also provides automated service reminders to vehicle owners. GoBumpr is currently available in Chennai & Bangalore and would soon be available in other metro cities.

The Chennai Angels, which was founded in the year 2007, is one of India’s most active angel investing groups. Last year, it had invested Rs. 40 lakhs in Iradium Automobiles Private Limited, which owns and manages SparesHub.com, an online marketplace of automobiles parts through which anyone can buy and sell automobiles parts throughout India.

To recall, Gurgaon-based online marketplace for used automobiles and auto services, DROOM had recently raised $30 million from Toyota Tsusho Corp, a subsidiary of world's largest automaker Toyota.

Automobile Aftermarket Platform GoBumpr Raises $600K Funding via Chennai Angels and Keiretsu Forum

Chennai-based automobile aftermarket platform, GoBumpr, has raised around $600k in Pre-Series A funding led by the existing investors - The Chennai Angels (TCA), Keiretsu Forum and individual investors. The investment round was led by Mr. Vinod Kumar Dasari (MD, Ashok Leyland) and saw participation from Shankar V (Director, Acsys Investments), Ramaraj R (Founding Member, Elevar Advisors), Priyamvada Balaji (Wholetime Director, Lucas Indian Service) from TCA to name a few. Ramesh Mangaleswaran (Senior Partner, McKinsey) and Gopal Mahadevan (CFO, Ashok Leyland) have also invested in the company as part of this round. Earlier, GoBumpr raised $420K in Jan 2017 in their first round of investment.

Started in Oct 2015 by IIM grads Karthik Venkateswaran, Nandha Kumar Ravi and Sundar Natesan, GoBumpr leverages mobile technology to standardize and automate the ~ 80% unorganized automobile after-sales market ($10bn in annual revenue). Currently, GoBumpr, is India’s largest player in the online automobile services aggregation space in terms of number of workshops getting business via the platform and the number of daily service transactions. GoBumpr currently active in Bangalore and Chennai, does 7000+ B2C transactions monthly servicing INR 3 Crore in billing value. GoBumpr earns commission on the business generated to it’s partner workshops.

“GoBumpr has scaled the B2C service business across 2 major metro cities delivering value to both workshops and vehicle owners. Beyond being able to deliver quality business to workshops, GoBumpr’s ability to become an overall technology platform in the automobile aftermarket tapping multiple revenue streams is the key to emerging as winner in this space. Beyond services, extension of GoBumpr’s platform to spares, tyres, accessories, used cars has worked really well for the company and this overall aftermarket tech platform will be a boon to the industry “said Mr. Vinod Kumar Dasari (MD, Ashok Leyland) who has invested in the company in both the funding rounds.

“GoBumpr, though started as servicing platform, has now evolved into a much bigger play with the extension of their tech interface to tyres, batteries, spares, used cars etc. This allows GoBumpr to be a one stop shop for all of the car owners need and also for the workshop owners to get their inventories in place. GoBumpr’s branding of their premium workshops (similar to OYO rooms) and 100% capacity fulfillment is a game changer for the company” said Mr. Mahalingam K (Partner, TSM Group) who has invested in GoBumpr in both the rounds and advises the core team.

“We have established presence and scaled GoBumpr services in Bangalore & Chennai in the last 12 months. With our success in these two metros, we are confident of scaling the platform not only to other metros but also to other businesses within the automobile aftermarket. As such automobile is one of the oldest industries and at GoBumpr, we are keen to digitize the after-market space and be India’s most trusted auto commerce solution for consumers” said Mr. Karthik Venkateswaran of GoBumpr.

Commenting on GoBumpr’s AI powered Smart Service, “We are working on AI enabled platform leveraging data from OBD and existing service records of the car owner to provide tech enabled smart service assistance to car owners. This would significantly disrupt the way vehicle owners and workshops diagnose repairs and handle service” said Nandha Kumar Ravi, who heads the overall operations for GoBumpr.

Also Read - 10 Notable Digital Automobile-Based Startups In India Right Now

GoBumpr is a 'go-to' pitstop for end-to-end car and bike service needs right from regular servicing, repair jobs, body works – denting, tinkering & painting to 24*7 on-road assistance. GoBumpr.com also provides door-step car wash, engine oil change, tyres and battery replacement services at door step. With over 2.5Lakh+ customers and 2500+ service workshops in their platform, GoBumpr transforms the automobile servicing process into a seamless & hassle-free experience with real-time tracking of vehicle service status till payment and delivery. GoBumpr also provides automated service reminders to vehicle owners. GoBumpr is currently available in Chennai & Bangalore and would soon be available in other metro cities.

The Chennai Angels, which was founded in the year 2007, is one of India’s most active angel investing groups. Last year, it had invested Rs. 40 lakhs in Iradium Automobiles Private Limited, which owns and manages SparesHub.com, an online marketplace of automobiles parts through which anyone can buy and sell automobiles parts throughout India.

To recall, Gurgaon-based online marketplace for used automobiles and auto services, DROOM had recently raised $30 million from Toyota Tsusho Corp, a subsidiary of world's largest automaker Toyota.

How Chennai Startups Are Playing Heroes For India's Troubled Economy

Chennai's startup scene has seen a slow but steady growth over the years. While there have been sharp ups and downs seen in other Indian Startup ecosystems, Chennai's Startup ecosystem has always held its ground and as a result of, it is now emerging as a thriving startup ecosystem. From hi-tech labs housed within research institutions to 24x7 active co-working spaces, Chennai has it all.

Over a period of last 6-7 years, Chennai has been successful in establishing its name as an enterprise or SaaS (Software as a Service) hub. In fact, it has been witnessed that even the investors who grace the city for a pitch, most often make a request for SaaS companies before going for their meetings with the founders. According to Venture Intelligence's Arun Natarajan's statement to a national daily, Zoho and Freshdesk can be credited for establishing a clear branding in the favour of Chennai city.

The city isn't just home to business models that have been tried and tested in other Startup ecosystems. While there's no denying the fact that established business models are aplenty in the city, but Chennai is also a welcome place for new business models. Incubators like The Startup Centre, the Paypal Startank, IIT-M Research Park and Anna University Incubator have provided a great atmosphere of innovation and research to aid budding entrepreneurs in coming up with new, out-of-the box ideas.

Chennai has also caught the fancy of various famous industry bodies like CII, Nasscom etc. The city witnesses sessions for city entrepreneurs being arranged by the CII and The Indus Entrepreneurs. Last year saw Naascom opening the door of its Tidel Park warehouse to 13 startups, which included names like Furnify, Klenty and Paperflite.

Akshay Sasikumar, Manager of 10,000 startups, Nasscom feels that Chennai has seen a flurry of startup activity after the opening of the Startup warehouse. He also added that, since inception Nasscom has been working as a facilitator for startups to get connected to the industry, and the body strives to do the same for the Chennai ecosystem.

According to Pick Your Trail's co-founder Hari Ganapathy's statement to TOI, the Chennai Startup ecosystem is finally taking shape. Events, group discussions, and an active angel community, which are some of elements considered crucial for a startup ecosystem, have now all come together in Chennai.

While everything seems to be going on smoothly, some startups feel that the city's infrastructure needs to be improved drastically. This is mainly because infrastructure plays an important supportive role in the success of a startup ecosystem, and for the Chennai startup ecosystem to be able to compete at a global level, the city will have to do something about its infrastructure issues.

So, while India's economy currently flounders, the Chennai Startup ecosystem seems to have its back.

Betaout Raises $1.5M In Pre Series A Round Of Funding

Noida-based Betaout Inc., a customer intelligence and marketing automation platform for E-commerce companies has raised $1.5M in its Pre Series A round of funding. The funding comes from an esteemed group of investors including Beenext, Stanford Angels, Letsventure, Chennai Angels, Hyderabad Angels, and Mumbai Angels. Match Group CEO, Sam Yagan who had participated in Betaout’s seed round funding through Corazon Capital also participated in this round.

Betaout will use this round of funding for customer acquisition in the Indian market, and expansion in other Asian markets. The funding will also be used to hire professionals across Technology, Marketing, and Account Management. The company will also focus on developing its mobile offering, and other features on its platform such as machine learning, conversation-commerce, etc.

Betaout, founded in October 2014 launched a SaaS based offering for B2C/ E-commerce companies that provides customers real time big-data, segmentation based on business rules and machine learning, and omni channel personalization that reaches customers with personalized marketing via push, email, sms, re-targeting, in-app, in-web etc. The company’s revenue model is based on a monthly recurring subscription that is determined by the number of addressable contacts and messages sent.

Industry experts peg the E-commerce opportunity in India at $25 Billion. Customer retention and personalization capabilities are going to be key in differentiating the front-runners from the rest. Betaout’s target market is SMBs, a large category in India and naturally companies enabling E-commerce for this category will see a surge in demand for their products and in the number of users. Companies managing a large volume of users want to know their audience intimately and market well to them. This is where Betaout comes in.

Betaout's tools enable its customers to build amazing marketing experiences for their customers, and drive more customer engagement and revenues.

On the funding, Ankit Maheshwari, CEO and Co-founder, said, "This round of funding, by respected and reputed names in the investor community has energized us to pursue our business objectives with focus and alacrity. This would be an absolute necessity given the pace at which the E-commerce and B2C market, which we serve, is growing in India. Our plans for 2016 include growing our existing customer base in the Indian market and expanding to other Asian markets including Indonesia and Malaysia."

Sam Yagan via Croazon Capital who is also CEO of Match Group one of the key investors in the Pre Series A round of funding said, “We are impressed with the progress Betaout has made in India in a short span of time. Their product has already been embraced by some of the big names in the E-commerce space validating the value their customized toolset adds to E-commerce companies in their drive for more engagement and conversion across all channels.”

"Betaout’s product gets to the heart of all E-commerce marketers’ goal, which is to help them have an understanding of the customer that the product or service speaks for itself. Betaout through a single tool is helping its customers achieve the same and we are enthused to be part of their journey." said Teruhide Sato Founder and Managing Partner at BEENEXT.

In its earlier seed round, the company had raised $500,000 from a distinguished group of CEOs/Founders of companies including, Snapdeal, Paytm, Match Group (okcupid, Tinder), Groupon India, Freshdesk, Redbus, Slideshare, Goibibio, Shaadi, Slideshare, Better Inc etc.