DaveAI Raises Pre-series Funding led by Mumbai Angels to Humanize Digital Conversations with Virtual Avatars

Bengaluru based Artificial Intelligence sales augmentation platform, DaveAI said it has raised an undisclosed amount in their pre-series round of funding from Mumbai Angels Network, GHV Accelerator, IIIT Technology Venture partners and Mr. Mohan Kumar, CEO of Crestere Technologies.

From replacing chat bots with virtual avatars to creating contactless experiences in physical spaces, the startup's patent pending Empathetic AI technology is creating a new dimension for product discovery moving away from the traditional websites and four walls of stores & banks. DaveAI's avatars can be deployed on web, Kiosks, VR and AR. DaveAI is a Nasscom Deeptech club member and part of Intel's Maker Lab.

"We are pleased to be backed by investors who understand technology & believe that world class deep technology products can be built in India. DaveAI is an enterprise grade AI platform for creating next generation of Sales Experiences. This investment will help us enter new markets & sustain this growth at a global scale", said Sriram, Co-founder & CEO – DaveAI.

Founded by Dr.Ananthakrishnan Gopal, Ashok Balasundaram & Sriram P H, this is the founding team’s second venture. Ananth has a PhD in Speech technology & ex Samsung R&D, Sriram was a client partner at HCL & Ashok was a retail entrepreneur.

Virtual Sales Solutions have seen a surge in interest in the Post Covid world. With enterprises like Maruti Suzuki, Pidilite Industries, Landmark Group and some leading banks as customers, the startup recorded 230% revenue growth last quarter amidst a global slowdown.

Talking about their engagement with DaveAI, Mr.Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki said, “We at Maruti Suzuki are constantly working towards bringing Innovative solutions to provide superior experience to our customers.

Our corporate accelerator, MAIL (Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab) provides an excellent platform to startups to collaborate and work with Maruti Suzuki to co-create solutions which will be quickly implemented in our business and ecosystem. We are collaborating with DaveAI winner of our MAIL program (cohort 2) to implement multiple AI based solutions to enrich the customer experience on our digital platforms. We are confident that with this partnership, we can set new benchmarks to enhance business performance and improve customer interface.”

Talking about the investment, Vikram Upadhyay, Chief Mentor of GHV Accelerator said, 'DaveAI faired extremely well to showcase the impact of their technology with Maruti Suzuki MAIL, powered by GHV Accelerator, a signature industry co-creation program. This not only gave DaveAI a strong Industry validation, but also a confidence to GHV about their potential. DaveAI forms a part of GHV’s AI vision, where we would be deploying along with other co-investors INR 100 crore from our network, out of which 25% is already executed.’

This round was led by Mumbai Angels Network. Nandini Mansinkha, Co-promoter and CEO Mumbai Angels Network commented, “Innovation of using Digital human avatars for having digital conversations is the best way to merge the physical and digital world altogether. We believe this innovation is going to progress in future by transforming enterprises. AR/VR technology has a vast market that offers a potential new way of interaction between customers and the world around us.”

PIMCO ex-MD Makato Takano Commits to Invest Rs 30 Cr in the Indian Startup Ecosystem Through GHV Accelerator

Makato Takano, Ex-PIMCO Japan Managing Director, CEO of Atomixmedia Inc., Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Japan and CEO of MT Partners K.K, has committed to invest Rs 30 Cr in the Indian Startup Ecosystem through GHV Accelerator. Mr Takano has also held senior roles at Goldman Sachs and Daiwa Securities earlier. He is also establishing a new VC fund - D4V, in association with Ideo, Palo Alto. This commitment from Mr. Takano for the Indian startup ecosystem, through GHV, will further strengthen and empower GHV to add more value to the Indian startup ecosystem. GHV helps startups build scalable and global businesses, with their feet firmly grounded on strong unit economics and hygienic business practices. To this partnership, as a part of the board of GHV Accelerator, Mr. Takano brings with him expertise in fund raising and ecosystem building.

Leveraging the strong growth in the India-Japan collaboration, GHV Accelerator founded by Vikram Upadhyaya in 2014, had partnered with WiL– World Innovation Lab and MT Partners, for the Indian venture capital funding space. This partnership has enabled GHV to have other strong corporate partnerships with Fortune 500 companies of Japan like Mizuho, SMBC, 7i Holdings and many more. Apart from being an Accelerator, GHV is also an early stage Venture Capital fund. This makes it a strategic VC fund with acceleration capacity.

According to Mr. Makoto Takano - "I visited India in 2016, in order to understand the Indian market better, and the potential it has to offer. I observed the scope of development and innovation in the country, and witnessed the innovation being done as of now. I believe, with the intellectual capital India has, along with the strong innovation empowerment ecosystem, where GHV is playing a key role, India is poised to be one of the leading economies especially in the new innovation space. This seems to be the perfect time to empower innovation in India, and I found a great partner in GHV, which has been doing this quite well, and I happy to be onboard with GHV to empower their portfolios further."

Earlier, WiL, one of the largest Japanese VC fund, based out of Silicon Valley, had committed a similar amount to be invested in GHV Accelerator’s portfolio.

Mr. Masataka Matsumoto, CoFounder and General Partner at WiL says, “Knowing India quite well, and having experience of working with Indian counterparts in the past, I understand and appreciate the opportunity offered by the Indian market. We partnered with GHV in 2014, and have also committed our investment to empower the Indian startup ecosystem through GHV. Over the last 2 yeas, we have seen the focused approach and vision that GHV has pursued. It has been a great journey, and as a strong partnership, we are delighted to work with GHV to empower the Indian Startup ecosystem, and looking to further strengthen our partnership with the launch of the upcoming fund of GHV.”

Mr. Takano and Mr. Matsumoto are visiting India in first half of April 2017 to meet the Indian startup ecosystem, policy makers and Entrepreneurs, along with the GHV team.

With this commitment, GHV is on track for launching the INR 350 crore fund for Indian startups very soon. The focus of the fund will be around health tech, fintech, adtech and B2B marketplace. Vikram Upadhyaya, the Chief Mentor, Accelerator Evangelist and the man behind GHV is spearheading this growth. Within two years of launch, the Accelerator has played a crucial role for over 200 Japanese corporates, 70 angels, 40 mentors, 11 startups with 25 entrepreneurs and 12 team members across India, Japan, and the US. Many Indian startups have grown with the acceleration imparted by GHV such as MyTaxiIndia, FitMein, AdurCup, Applop, Pindrop Music, PickMyLaundry & RoadGods, and are looking at next levels of sustainable growth. Corporates and family run business enterprises are traditionally hesitant to invest in start-ups unless there is absolute clarity on its sustainability, viability and scalability.

However, recently, they have started construing GHV as a great platform for curated startups.. This is due to the fact that they understand the credibility, rigorous evaluation, transparency and business support that GHV follows and provides to its portfolio startups, which are essential to create fundamentally strong and scalable business models. One such recent example is Adurcup, that announced raising an investment from renowned corporates and family offices, in March 2017.

Says Vikram Upadhyaya, Chief Mentor and Evangelist at GHV Accelerator, “For GHV, this was a natural sequence of events. Having said that, we are truly humbled by Mr. Takano’s belief in us and hope to take this partnership to a level that will add tremendous value to the Indian startup ecosystem.”

Applop Raises Bridge Round from GHV Accelerator

Applop Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a software-as-a-service provider that enables users to make their own mobile app, has raised a bridge round of funding from GHV Accelerator.

The Gurgaon-based startup has received nearly $250,000 so far and is seeking to close this round at $500,000. The start-up is looking to use the added moolah on technology development and expanding operations to Southeast Asia. A part of the monies will also be used for marketing and brand building.

Applop is a mobile app that enables Smartphone users to create and customise their mobile apps without any coding; all under 5 minutes! In the long run, Applop could prove to be a complete game-changer for the way business is done in India – on the mobile! India is the 4th largest app economy in the world, followed by US, China, and Brazil. This makes the business model highly scalable.

It assists business owners in providing text-based solutions, digital marketing and payment integration solutions. Applop has already helped create about 900 mobile apps till date for its users and almost half its users are paid customers. They have added 3,000+ clients on their platform; in a whopping 127 languages in a hundred cities; with revenues of $66,700 till June. They have the tools/technology to improve Social Media Followers for anyone.

“The world is going to bet high on the Indian mobile app industry. There has been a paradigm shift from dotcom to apps, as users shifts from desktops to Smartphone,” said Vikram Upadhyaya, chief mentor and accelerator evangelist, GHV Accelerator.

The start-up, which is also a part of the NASSCOM Startup Warehouse, had last year raised $100,000 funding from GHV Accelerator, on joining their unique accelerator program.

Rahul Singhal, Co-Founder Applop, said, “This is just the beginning of our journey. The market is huge, the opportunity is large. We are focusing on technology and strategic partnerships that can give us the right platform to scale nationally.”

Jyoti Singhal, Co-Founder Applop, said, “With almost 70% of women on our workforce, we have the industry best W:M ratio – 70:30.”

Rajat Tandon, senior director at NASSCOM 10,000 Startups, said “Looking at the growing need of mobile apps owing to better Smartphone and Internet penetration, Applop is an intelligent next step after the Internet boom.  They have a highly scalable model and an ambitious team who knows their business and how to generate profits with limited resources. They proved to be an extremely well deserved proposition and NASSCOM 10,000 start-up is proud of them.”

Gurgaon-based GHV Accelerator mentors start-ups and provides $100,000 in seed funding. In February, it had invested $100,000 each in personal stylist app IStyleYou and ad network AdUrCup. It has previously invested in car rental platform My Taxi India, food-tech startup Foodport, online laundry services provider PickMyLaundry and FitMeIn, an online platform that provides access to multiple fitness studios for a monthly membership fee.

Gurgaon's GHV Accelerator Ties-up With LetsVenture

Gurgaon-based Green House Ventures (GHV) Accelerator has tied-up with deal discovery platform LetsVenture to allow seed startups under its program to have easier access to capital or funds.

For startups listed on LetsVenture, this partnership gives them access to high value mentoring and increases chances of funding.

LetsVenture which enables startups looking to raise seed/angel money to create investment ready profiles online, and connect to accredited Investors. Once a startup has verbal commitments from investors, LestVenture help them in the funding closure process through our Commitment-to-Closure package.

GHV accelerator is first of its kind in india . The program will accelerate incubated startups for Series A round and growth to 10x in 12 mnths with SeedCapital.

GHV Accelerator was founded by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Vikram Upadhyaya. "We are going to look at all the startups in LetsVenture, who have the potential to grow 10x." said Vikram Upadhyaya.

"LetsVenture has access to good quality startups. With this partnership we will get access to good curated startups, and it reduces our time frame for evaluation since one level of curation will be done," said Anurag Kapoor, executive director and co-founder, GHV.

"The idea is to partner with a lot of players in the ecosystem who can help these startups go to the next level. We're also helping GHV curate some of these startup companies," said Shanti Mohan, founder and CEO, LetsVenture. Once they have completed the acceleration program, GHV will bring them back to the platform for early funding.

GHV's program houses 10 startups at a time through a one-year long program. Each startup can get seed funded with up to $100,000 in exchange for equity to .

Recently, LetsVenture has also tied-up with IDG Ventures, an India-focused technology venture capital fund. IDG Ventures will provide funds of around Rs.3 crore for seed-funding early-age startups via LetsVenture.

All New Startup Accelerator Green House Ventures Launches in Gurgaon

Serial entrepreneur and angel investor Vikram Upadhyaya has launched an all new startup accelerator called - Green House Ventures Accelerator (GHV), which will be based out of Gurgaon near Delhi. The new startup accelerator will fund and mentor startups between the incubation and venture capital stages.

GHV Accelerator will be first of its kind in India. The program will accelerate 25 incubated startups for Series A round and growth to 10x in 12 mnths with upto $100K of seed funding. Interested startups may apply here to GHV accelerator program.

"GHV will house startups at preventure capital stage but post incubation," said Upadhyaya, chief mentor at GHV who has invested in companies like Druva, Stayzilla, Merinews, Viedea and IndiaCollegesearch.

"Only 1 per cent startups are successfully able to achieve a Series A or VC funding. Most accelerator programs help companies get past the POC (Proof of Concept) stage, and then leave the startups to fend for themselves while raising growth-capital. As an angel investor, I had felt this need gap for my portfolio companies and hence realised the need of GHV program so that we identify high-potential startups and nurture them to be ready for Series A funding," says Vikram Upadhyaya, Entrepreneur Evangelist and Chief Mentor, GHV.

Unlike others in India, GHV does not work on a batch system. Instead, the sector agnostic accelerator will house 10 startups at a time through a yearlong programme. Each startup will get seed funding up to $ 100,000 in exchange for equity up to 20 per cent.

GHV’s unique sélection criteria - T.E.S.T. (Team, Execution capabilities, Scalability in the business model and Technology) & POC (Proof of Concept), will help determine whether a startup can benefit from mentoring and the GHV accelerator program.

GHV accelerator has received interest from 350 startups, of which 10 will be short-listed over the next 10 months. Entrepreneurs are required to be resident at GHV once a month for a week to get mentored. Startups choosed will work in a controlled environment where specific functions like human resource (HR), finance, market research will be provided by a set of predefined vendors identified by GHV.