GSF Accelerator Announces $1 Mn Investment in 4 Startups for its 6th Batch

Global Super Angels Forum (GSF), a startup accelerator as well as an early-stage fund, has announced USD $1M investment into 4 startups as a part of its sixth batch. GSF has so far funded 50 startups.

“This year, we have invested in 4 deep tech startups Their focus ranges from Manufacturing Tech to vernacular content marketplace, from AI driven sales analytics to deep learning legal & FinTech. These 4 startups are at seed stage and have innovative solutions with paying customers. Our global ecosystem of mentors, advisors, investors and EiRs has helped these 4 startups over the last 6 months” said Rajesh, founder of GSF Accelerator.

As part of this multi-country program, the startups have been mentored by top founders, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in Bangalore and have recently completed an immersion program in the Silicon Valley. Next, they will visit China and Japan for exposure to the investment and startup communities in these countries.

Founded in 2011, GSF team consists of founder Rajesh Sawhney, Operating Partner Rajat Harlalka and EIRs Nirmal Shah and Bhargavi Vijaykumar. All four are tech founders themselves.

The four startups are:

Chizel is a Cloud platform that offers a convenient way to manufacture engineering components. The platform employs self-learning AI algorithms that harness the full potential of digitally connected machines to provide complete manufacturing solutions to the customers.

Khabri is a fast growing digital platform for vernacular audio content. Khabri Mobile app allows content creators to create channels and programmes and reach millions of vernacular listeners across India and overseas.

Slintel: is a Technographics powered discovery and AI driven recommendation platform helping companies improve their sales conversion rates by predicting who their next customer would be.

Vaultedge: is a smart AI platform that helps Banks & BPOs perform Loan Underwriting and Contract Abstraction in real-time.

GSF has a strong track record of success with its portfolio companies: Here are a few portfolio companies of GSF Accelerator:

Little Eye Labs acquired by Facebook, their only acquisition in India

Pokkt raised capital Jafco, Singtel, Jungle

Silverpush raised series A from IDG, M&S, and others

Dailyrounds raised series A from Accel, Beenext, and others
Docsapp raised series A from Bessemer Capital, Rebright Capital and others.

Browntape raised series B from Gati, Seed Fund, Growthstory and others
HackerEarth raised series A from DHI Group, Prime Venture, Bennett and others.

Pluss App raised Series A from IDG and others and acquired by Netmedics.

Zapr raised series B from Fox Media, Flipkart, Saavn, and others

Whatfix raised series B from Stellaris, Helion and others.

Flintobox raised a Series A funding from Lightbox and others

Quizziz raised a series A round from Nexus, Prime Venture and others
Orowealth raised a series A round from Money Forward, Powerhouse Venture, M&S Partners and others

IIT-Roorkee Alumni Launches India's First Distributed Manufacturing E-Commerce Platform

We are all familiar with the concept of 3D printing. 3D printing is going to be one of the strongest pillars of the 4th industrial revolution. In a short span of time, the 3D printing market has grown immensely and is now estimated to reach $46 million in the next three years. This Pune-based startup by three IIT Roorkee graduates plans to capture this market with their idea Chizel, which is basically a design studio. They have very high ambitions for this technology and their ideas, and believe that it will make a fantastic combination!

The startup claims to be India's first distributed manufacturing e-commerce platform. That means that the company does not hold any inventory. Every product is made on-demand within 3 working days and shipped to consumer. On top of that, the startup assures its manufacturing happens closest to consumers location which helps the startup in lowest shipment cost and fastest logistics.

THE IDEA

Chizel is a future of e-commerce design studio. It has taken 3D printing to a whole new level and is planning to use it on a much larger scale.  It sells premium lifestyle products customizable as per users’ interest and self-expressions. They are building a revolutionary online platform that enables their consumer to explore real and different designs which never hit the market because of the various manufacturing limitations. The customer here has the option of customizing the existing design as per his/her wishes.

After they receive an order, every product is then manufactured-on-demand using smart manufacturing technology like 3D printing. Hence they do not keep any inventory at all.

The entire concept is built upon mass customization and distributed manufacturing. In this increasingly competitive market, a user-centric, collaborative approach to design has the potential to result in beautiful digital products that delight clients and their end users. That’s their ultimate goal.

MEET THE MAKERS

Yash Rane (promote and CEO): Yash is an IIT Roorkee graduate. His branch was Mechanical engineering. He has 8 months of professional work experience in Behr as a Purchase Manager. Yash overviews daily operations, sales, marketing, and design.

Ravi :Ravi is also from IIT roorkee and he is a Mechanical engineer as well. He has had  8 months of work experience in Reliance Industries. He worked in Reliance, Vadodara as a Maintenance Engineer. He heads operations in Chizel and is responsible for project management, execution, customer relations and repeat business.

Akash:Akash is again from IIT Roorkee and is also a Mechanical Engineer like his co-founders. He has 6 months of work experience in MIDAS, South Korea. He has worked briefly as a sales consultant. He heads Business Development in Chizel and is responsible for sales and expansion.

How Chizel Is Different

Their major competitors are companies like Chumbak, HappilyUnmarried and Bewakoof.com which are selling unique designer products. They feel that the consumer has been looking for designer products and seeking customization for a long time now. But what their competitors offer is a change of graphic design. On the other hand, they provide the customer with an automated system to help them change the entire product design. For example, on one side you get custom made T-shirt where you can only customize text, logo, color etc. On the other hand, here you can get a t-shirt cut and stitched only for you. Hence their market is fairly new.

As of now the startup is focused on serving its customers with 3D designer mobile cases.

FUNDING

They are looking for funding at this stage.

MILESTONES

Based ou of Pune, their team has been developing this product for the last two years. To sustain their development team, they have developed a non-core vertical that offers customized product manufacturing services to architects, heavy machinery, and event management firms. Their turnover through their services has crossed USD 100,000 this year. Their main focus is now to launch their product faster in the market so that they can gradually discontinue non-core services.

They are currently incubated by NDBI (Incubator run by NID Ahmedabad) for past one-year that has helped them reach the artist community of India.

PLAN OF ACTION

They are the future of design and manufacturing. Chizel’s vision is to provide highly customized products which are also uniquely crafted for every individual consumer. Customers have some tentative projections in their mind as to how they want their product to be and that is what Chizel provides them with. They are trying to extract every individual’s thoughts as a variable input for their algorithm as every customer is unique for them. Their technology converts the input into customizable range in the form of a slider. Now if you slide the slider, it will create a unique geometry that can be further customized depending on what you want. Their design team has already achieved it in offline mode. They are looking for design entrepreneurs who can financially assist in taking their vision forward.