DeepTech Startup Chara Raises $4.75 Mn Pre-Series A Round Led by Exfinity Venture Partners

Chara, a Bangalore-based deep-tech start-up, has raised a pre-series A round of $4.75M led by Exfinity Venture Partners, a Bengaluru based VC firm known for its B2B focus and deep-tech expertise. This round also had participation from Vietnam based Big Capital, venture arm of Bitexco and Log9 Materials. Kalaari Capital and ciie.co who are existing investors participated in this round as well.

There has been a global shift towards e-mobility, greenification of supply chain and other electrification trends. The existing motor technologies which were designed about a century back need a major overhaul to meet these emerging needs in an efficient and cost-effective manner. To this end, Chara is building a scalable, cloud-controlled, and rare-earth free platform for designing, building, and deploying electric motors for EV, HVAC and various other applications. Chara’s proprietary Drive Control FIrmware (DCF) is the brain of our motor controller. DCF is a suite of packages consisting of advanced motor control algorithms at its core. The state-of-the-art motor control algorithms are developed to extract maximum performance from in-house designed Chara Motors. Using Model-Based Design (MBD), DCF gives peak motor performance while ensuring optimum efficiency, thermal management and smooth, ripple-free torque delivery.

The motors will be based on a specialized patent-pending variation of the well-known SRM (Switched Reluctance Motor) and SynRM technologies and other magnet-free motor technologies. These ‘Make in India’ motors are currently being field-tested and will be in production in the second half of 2023.

Chara was founded in November 2019 by Bhaktha Keshavachar, Ravi Prasad Sharma, and Mahalingam Koushik. The founders are serial entrepreneurs, veteran product experts, and motor technologists with decades of experience developing cutting-edge products and technologies. The Chara story began with an initial grant from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

So far, Chara has built motors for 2-Wheeler (hub and mid-mount), 3 & 4-Wheeler LCVs and HVAC use cases. The motors and its matching controllers are being field tested and are expected to go into production later this year. Chara also has several projects lined up to build motors and controllers for heavy commercial vehicles. Chara’s current motor range starts from fractional kW to 10’s of kW with voltage ranges from 48V to 400V. Higher voltages and powers will be built in the near future. Chara has filed patents in Motor design, controller design and Control algorithms for these Motor technologies.

Commenting on the deal, Mr. Bhaktha Keshavachar, Founder & CEO, Chara Technologies, said “At Chara, we pride ourselves in being disruptors and 2023 is going to be a year of realizing our electric dreams. We're working towards turning the current motor tech on its head, doing away with inefficient and rare-earth-dependent practices.We are building rare-earth-free, hyper-efficient, cost-effective, intelligent motors and controllers for EV, HVAC, and other industries. We are very excited to work with Exfinity, BigCapital, Log9, Kalaari, and CIIE to bring cutting-edge technology to OEMs in India and in the future to the world.”

Speaking on the fund raised, Mr. Chinnu Senthilkumar, Managing Partner at Exfinity said "To build SRM/Hybrid version of SRM motors, an interdisciplinary team with backgrounds in Electro-mechanical, power electronics and software domains is a must. We found that the Chara founding team is exemplary in this regard. Exfinity strongly believes that the EV story for South Asia & similar markets has to be contextualized and not replicated from the US and European markets. After our earlier investment in Log 9 Materials, Chara is part of our continued belief in this thesis. Chara Motors is also a great example for Atmanirbhar Bharat as it delinks the permanent magnet supply chain dependency from China and other countries."

Speaking on the investment, Mr. Preetinder Singh Panjrath, CFO - BIG Capital, said “BIG Capital continues to support innovative technologies that will power the world of the future. As part of our commitment to environmentally friendly solution for land and aerospace markets we were especially attracted to Chara motors with the focus on rare earth free electric motors that are safer for the planet, more cost efficient and offers better efficiency compared to the legacy solutions. We are delighted to be part of Chara motors journey to not only power the EV and Power Market but also do so in an environmentally responsible way.”

Speaking on his continued interest and investment, Mr. Ravinder Singh, Partner at Kalaari, said “Chara is a remarkable global deeptech institution in making, with a rare practical approach to paint the civilization’s future which is rare-earth free and geo-political neutral.”

About Exfinity Venture Partners

Exfinity Venture Partners is an early-stage technology focused fund investing in the domains of deep technology, SaaS and platforms. Exfinity’s core founding principles are to focus on B2B-sector investments with a practitioner driven approach, and they are the pioneer fund in India in these aspects. Exfinity is uniquely positioned to enable scaling of cross border startups building world class enterprise solutions for customers across the globe, and also facilitate growth stage investments for their portfolio companies. Their other investments include Log 9 Materials, Kinara, Pixis, MoEngage, Ati Motors, Awiros etc.

About Big Capital

BIG Capital invests in early to mid stage startups globally with a focus on deep tech, innovation and next generation technologies. Investments focus on Aerospace Technologies, Green Economy focused companies, Healthcare and Fintech. BIG Capital was founded in 2018 and is the largest shareholder of a Space Tech unicorn in the United States.

EdTech VFX Startup 3rdFlix Raises $5 Mn led by Exfinity Ventures

3rdFlix Visual Effects Pvt Ltd, an immersive experiences EdTech company based out of Hyderabad, has raised $5M in a Pre-Series A round led by Exfinity Ventures and joined by YourNest, IDFC Parampara and HNIs.

Shailesh Ghorpade, Managing Partner and CIO - Exfinity Venture Partners LLC, said “3rdFlix is founded by a stellar founding team that is driven by a mission to democratise effective learning by supplementing teachers with content that is immersive, modular and conceptualised by veteran academicians. In India there is an acute problem of imparting effective knowledge and 3rdFlix attacks this core issue by ensuring that its cutting edge content can make teaching effective and increase student engagement.”

3rdFlix, founded in 2014, by Subbarao Siddabattula, Ilangovel Thulasimani and Charu Noheria, all having extensive experience in launching multiple successful products across the globe. The founding team has extensive technology and operations experience in the US working in various senior management positions and worked with who’s who of the internet commerce industry. Looking at the Indian start-up ecosystem brewing, they have joined hands to bring their complimentary skill sets and global executive experience to build and launch world class EdTech and VFX products, thereby helping millions of students in reaching their learning goals and be part of the excitement themselves.

“With amazing advancements in spatial computing combined with artificial intelligence, we are looking at a new era of intelligent, interactive and immersive content that will change the way we learn” said Subbarao Siddabattula, Founder & CEO of 3rdFlix.

3rdFlix focuses on interactive and experiential learning to increase retention and engagement levels among students. The company uses VFX and technologies such as ML/AI, AR, VR, and MR to create life-like intelligent shared experiences for enhanced learning.

The company offers two key products - an AI enabled learning platform under the brand name Corsalite and yet-to-be launched immersive content product under the brand name 3rdFlix.

Sunil Goyal, MD – YourNest Venture Capital, remarked “Education is one sector that has a positive, cascading effect down the line and 3rdFlix is at the forefront by developing technologies to make the delivery of learning highly effective. The joy of learning using their tools will inculcate a student in us, once again, and we are delighted to be a part of this journey that promises to set new benchmarks, globally.”

3rdFlix plans to use the capital raised to increase its current market penetration from 1.5+ lakhs in 6-12th segment and launch immersive & experiential content later this year. The company has aspirations to launch in international markets in the next 18 months, particularly USA, Africa, UAE, and South East Asia (SEA), as the immersive media market is growing globally. Currently, USA is leading market in Immersive Media spending with about one-third of total global spend. By 2022, the market is expected to reach $179Bn growing at 76% CAGR, and other markets, such as China, UK, Japan and South East Asia, are expected to emerge as key markets.

Sridhar Rampalli, General Partner - Parampara Capital, mentioned “We believe that 3rdFlix's high quality digital content coupled with its adaptive learning platform will assist in enhancing the students' learning experience and will enable seamless collaboration between Schools and Students.”

Devendra Agrawal and Manish Gupta from Dexter Capital advised and worked closely with the founders for this transaction.

AI based Infosec Assesment Startup 'CloudSEK' Raises ₹14 Crores from Exfinity Venture and StartupXseed

Singapore and Bengaluru-based CloudSEK, an information security (Infosec) risk management SaaS-based startup, has raised ₹14 Crores (~ US$1.96 million) in its Pre-Series A investment led by Exfinity Venture Partners and StartupXseed.

CloudSEK, which provides intelligence needed to tackle online threats, will leverage the freshly raised funds to evolve its flagship product XVigil, a unified risk management platform. The company will also use the funds to expand its footprints in India and South East Asia. After establishing itself as a preferred cybersecurity solution in the financial, e-commerce and transportation sector, CloudSEK now plans to target the pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and retail industry.

Founded in 2015 by Rahul Sasi and Sourabh Issar (Left to Right in picture above), CloudSEK offers cybersecurity platform powered by machine learning and promises to build a risk-free digital security ecosystem.

The startup entails Rahul’s journey from being a college dropout to becoming a successful tech entrepreneur. Being criticized for dropping out of engineering college and predicted for a career failure, Rahul continued his journey as an ethical hacker and security expert through his successful career. Before co-founding CloudSEK, he has worked with Citrix Systems, one of the biggest names in the software industry.

Commenting on the post-funding plan Sourabh Issar, the CEO, CloudSEK, said; “Being a product-only organization, our revenues are primarily generated through license sales. This investment for us is a vote of confidence from some of the eminent architects of the Indian IT Industry. We plan to utilize the funds to develop the existing products and expand our presence in India as well as South East Asia."

X-Vigil, CloudSEK’s SaaS-based flagship product is an outcome of the company’s four years of diligent research and development efforts. Cloudmon, another product by CloudSEK, tracks network and application related security issues associated with the client. The start-up was seed funded in 2015 by M.E. Meeran Foundation, the investment arm of Kochi-based Eastern Group.

"The dark web is moving faster than Law Enforcement agencies. The losses due to cyber-related crime, worldwide, is estimated to be upwards of USD 600 Billion. Globally, Cyber Attacks are on the rise and about 500,000+ Cyber Attacks have already been reported in India in 2018. Many of these attacks are targeted towards BFSI networks, Government Departments and may potentially end up targeting power grids, oil and gas pipelines which have the potential to cripple any economy. With companies increasingly adopting cloud solutions, CloudSEK's unique non-intrusive solution can detect digital footprint leakages of any enterprise in real-time helping the CSOs to strengthen the Cyber-Defence," said Chinnu Senthilkumar, General Partner & CTO, Exfinity Venture Partners.

Speaking of its investment, Mr. Ravi Thakur, Partner, StartupXseed Ventures said, “Technology is redefining the way Risk Management is being practiced and CloudSEK has forayed into that space with applications in Cyber Security. Looking at their product, clientele and growth rate, they have struck the right chord to crack the business. Moreover, what fascinated us is their way of solving the problem which is very effective and scalable at large along with strong team background and execution capabilities.”

CloudSEK already includes leading banks, e-commerce and technology organizations in its clientele. Federal Bank, Go-Jek, Bank Bazaar, HDFC Bank and Grab Taxi are in CloudSEK’s client list, five of which are unicorns.

Talking about the association with CloudSEK, Shalini Warrier, CFO, Federal Bank, said, “Federal Bank and CloudSEK have had a relationship since July 2017 and it is a relationship that has grown over the last few months. Cybersecurity is a key risk for the financial services industry and CloudSEK has played an important role in mitigating some of the risks we experience in the fast-changing digital world. Through this association, we have been successful in unearthing potential points of compromise in our security posture and they have worked with us to address these concerns. Their threat intelligence has been very useful to us. We wish Rahul and CloudSEK the very best in their future endeavors.”

"It has been a great experience working with the team at CloudSEK, their focus on building a Machine Learning driven Digital Risk Management platform is commendable,” said Sameer Ratolikar, EVP & CISO of the largest stable Indian Private Sector Bank, while speaking about the relationship with CloudSEK.

CloudSEK has been helping organizations by providing them timely, specific and actionable intelligence, thereby preventing digital security infractions. The start-up promises to build a risk-free cyber security ecosystem in Asia. The exclusive gamut of cyber security tools offered by CloudSEK is all set to make India ready for what is being assumed to be the next phase of the digital revolution.

Exfinity Venture Partners is an early-stage frontier technology fund backing enterprise companies (B2B) in India and across the India-US business corridor. With established connections and ecosystem across India and USA, Exfinity focuses on pioneering startups that are ready to scale across the global stage.

About StartupXseed, it is a Seed-stage VC firm founded in 2015 by bureaucrat-turned-VC investor Mr. B.V. Naidu. It is backed by former Infosys board members Mr. V Balakrishnan and Mr. TV Mohandas Pai, along with Mr. Ramakrishnan (Ex CDO and M&A head – HCL), Mr. Siddhartha Mookerji (Founder – Software Paradigm International) and Mr. Ravi Thakur (Entrepreneur). It invests from Aaruha Technology Fund, whose focus is Deep Technology Start-ups creating products for B2B Businesses.

Exfinity Venture Partners Raises Rs 300 Cr for Its Second Fund, Exfinity Technology Fund - Series II

Exfinity Venture Partners (Exfinity), a technology venture capital firm, has announced the final close of its second fund - Exfinity Technology Fund - Series II, with a corpus of Rs. 300 crores. The Fund is fully subscribed and investors include CXOs, Marquee Industrialists, Family Offices, UHNIs and Institutions.

This is Exfinity’s second fund which followed its first fund that earlier raised Rs. 125 crores. With this close, Exfinity’s total AUM across funds now stands at Rs 425 crores.

Exfinity is a deep technology venture capital fund backing B2B companies mainly in the US-India corridor. Exfinity’s investments are predominantly focused on emerging areas in technology including Cloud, Analytics, Mobility, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cyber Security, etc.

Speaking at the final close, V. Balakrishnan, Chairman Exfinity Venture Partners LLP said, “Our fund thesis of investing in deep tech product/IP companies in the enterprise technology space resonated well with our investors. We received strong commitments from high quality marquee investors; resulting in the increase of our fund size to Rs. 300 crores from the initial planned size of Rs. 250 crores. Our deal flow is proprietary and we have strong conviction about the approach we are taking that is manifested in our fund thesis.”

Shailesh Ghorpade, Managing Partner and CIO of Exfinity Ventures opined that Exfinity has a practitioner driven approach towards its portfolio. “Exfinity works closely with the portfolio companies in bringing to bear its network and perspectives on strategy, organization design, Go-To-Market decisions, Capital raising, etc., which entrepreneurs appreciate” added Shailesh Ghorpade.

“Enterprise technology startups, by virtue of their business, require deep understanding of their domain and seasoned entrepreneurs. Over the years the US-Indo Tech corridor has been accumulating this talent pool, through various R&D hubs in India, which have emerged as ideal transition spots for B2B start-ups,” emphasized Partner & Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Chinnu Senthil Kumar.

In May 2016, Logistics management platform, Locus had raised $2.75 million in Series A funding led by Exfinity Venture Partners with participation from Blume Ventures, BeeNext and Rajesh Ranavat (MD, Fung Capital). And in September this year, Chennai-CA based artificial intelligence startup Mad Street Den Systems Pvt. Ltd secured an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding round from Sequoia Capital India and its existing investors Exfinity Venture Partners LLP and GrowX Venture Management Pvt. Ltd.

Logistics Management Platform Locus Raises $2.75M in Series A Funding Led by Exfinity Venture Partners

[caption id="attachment_105795" align="alignnone" width="701"] Locus Founders - Nishith Rastogi and Geet Garg[/caption]

Logistics management platform, Locus has raised $2.75 million in Series A funding led by Exfinity Venture Partners with participation from Blume Ventures, BeeNext and Rajesh Ranavat (MD, Fung Capital). Existing investors also participated in this round. The startup received seed funding from growX, Bhupen Shah, Manish Singhal, Amit Ranjan and others mid last year. Locus enables enterprises with technology to manage their deliveries, with features including, automated smart dispatches, tracking, and fleet visualization, proprietary geocoder and proprietary route deviation engine. The funding will be used to strengthen its technology offerings and expand the team.

Locus helps local companies and enterprises in courier, e-commerce, food delivery, FMCG and other verticals to optimize their logistics. The startup offers two capabilities to clients - to Build - using a cluster of APIs, to enable developers embed it into their apps, and track delivery using Locus’ platform, and to Customize, that large clients can brand for themselves.

Nishith Rastogi, Co-founder & CEO, Locus, adds, “Supply chain, delivery and logistics are critical challenges and key to competitive advantage for enterprises. We at Locus, have created high-end algorithms & systems, unlike any existing solution, to take care of this problem so businesses can focus on offering their customers a delightful experience.”

Urban Ladder has been one of the earliest users of Locus. Kaustubh Chakraborty, Vice President, Operations, Urban Ladder, says, “Locus is a fantastic product with a clear interface for easy adoption and usage. For a customer focused, fast growing company like ours, management of on-time, efficient deliveries is super important. Locus has helped improve our productivity by 25% in 3 months. The team has been very engaged and committed towards finding solutions for problems specific to us.”

Locus provides solutions for on demand businesses for dispatching, route optimization, real-time driver tracking, managing the on-field workforce, mobile messaging, ETAs, tracking and sms alerts for end-customers and predictive analytics. The company offers the entire logistics technology stack in the form of a PAAS (platform as a service).

Locus was founded mid last year, by Nishith Rastogi (BITS Pilani alumnus) and Geet Garg (IIT Kharagpur alumnus), who worked together at Amazon, and has emerged from RideSafe, an app they built over a route deviation engine for travel safety for women.  The core team at Locus comprises ex-AWS engineers and PhDs from TIFR with rich experience in data science, mobile and design.

growX Ventures has so far invested in over 15 Indian startups including Mad Street Den, Claron Energy and Quandl among others.