Ambulance Tech Platform, Dial4242, Raises ₹9 Crore in Pre-Series A Round Led by IAN Group and Strategic Partners

Dial4242, India’s leading tech-enabled ambulance service platform, has raised ₹9 crore in a Pre-Series A funding round led by IAN Group, with additional participation from BioAngels, IIM Bangalore’s NSRCEL, and other prominent angel investors.

The funds will be used to strengthen Dial4242’s mission of ensuring ambulance availability across India by reducing its current turnaround time (TAT) from 12 minutes to under 8 minutes. The company will also invest in technology upgrades, marketing, expansion of medical centers in underserved areas, and key leadership hires.

Founded in 2016 by Jeetendra Lalwani, along with co-founders Nilesh Mahambre and Atin Verma, Dial4242 operates the country’s largest on-demand ambulance network, covering 850+ cities. The platform provides real-time ambulance tracking, automated dispatch, and a 24x7 call center—addressing India’s long-standing issues of emergency response time and accessibility.

With its asset-light and tech-first model, Dial4242 has built strategic partnerships with major players such as Amazon, Zomato, and Swiggy, offering medical support to gig workers nationwide. Its average turnaround time of under 12 minutes makes it the fastest in the country.

“The loss of my father, my greatest inspiration, was the most painful moment of my life—but it sparked a mission to turn grief into impact. This became a mission to ensure that no life is lost due to the unavailability of an ambulance,” said Jeetendra Lalwani, Co-founder of Dial4242.

Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder, IAN Group, said, “Dial4242 is truly solving a real problem and surely a need that can arise any time. This team led by Jeetendra has already established the operations on a strong footing with a robust business model with a direct focus on saving lives. Dial4242 brings excellent execution with empathy!”

Dial4242 will use the funds to strengthen its tech platform, boost trip volumes through marketing, launch free ambulance services through a low-cost membership, set up medical centers in key areas, and expand its product, business, and operations teams.

Over the next 12 months, the company aims to deepen hospital partnerships, grow its retail user base, and maintain the fastest emergency response standard in India. Dial4242 has been recognized for its innovation and impact in healthcare by ET Now and has received the prestigious Maharashtra Startup Innovation Award.

About Dial4242

Dial4242 is India’s fastest-growing platform for tech-enabled, on-demand ambulance services. Operating in over 850 cities, it provides swift, affordable, and reliable emergency medical transportation supported by robust technology, a dedicated call center, and India’s largest aggregated ambulance network.

About IAN Group

IAN Group is the country’s single largest platform for seed and early-stage investment, with IAN Angel Network, BioAngels, IAN Fund I, and IAN Alpha Fund enabling entrepreneurs to raise from ₹50 lakhs to ₹50 crores. The platform brings money, mentoring from successful entrepreneurs, and global market access. It is sector-agnostic and has funded innovative startups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries, thereby growing the global footprint of companies. IAN has been listed by Forbes as one of the iconic business and economic events of Independent India over the last 75 years, alongside LIC, NASSCOM, RBI, and Naukri.com.

IAN-Led Round Injects ₹6.5 Cr into Lamark Biotech to Tackle Cold-Chain Gaps in BioPharma

• Lamark Biotech Raises ₹6.5 Crore in Pre-Series A Round Led by IAN Group, Powered by BioAngels

Lamark Biotech, an innovation-led biopharma startup, raised ₹6.5 crore in a Pre-Series A round led by IAN Group, including IAN Alpha Fund, powered by BioAngels, Dr. Vinayender Tulla, Dr. Nita Roy, and Mr. Venkataraman KNK, domain experts of IAN’s angel investors led the round.

Founded in 2018 by Dr. Vaibhav Bhatia, a entrepreneur and Biochemist by training, Lamark Biotech is reimagining drug delivery for chronic and life-altering diseases. Its proprietary ProteoStrong™ platform enables the stabilization of fragile protein-based drugs, such as insulin, monoclonal antibodies, and enzymes, without altering their molecular structure. Lamark addresses a critical gap in the biologics ecosystem: reducing the cold-chain dependency.

Vaibhav Bhatia, Founder and CEO of Lamark Biotech, said, “This funding round with IAN marks a turning point for Lamark, but also for the patients across the planet. We’re accelerating our thermostable insulin program and expanding ProteoStrong™ to more critical therapeutics using this resource. Our priority is clear- make safe and high-efficacy biologics for all. We believe, ‘if it is not accessible, it not a medicine”

Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder, IAN Group, said, “Investment in Lamark represents IAN’s investment strategy to invest and grow innovations that solve real problems. The solution is critical in low-resource environments, with Lamark's thermostable biologics which can make critical treatments accessible at a low cost for millions of people, both in India and globally.”

The Ahmedabad-headquartered startup, leveraging R&D base of Venture Center, NCL-innovation park in Pune, is advancing a new class of temperature-resilient biologics that retain potency across extreme conditions, ideal for underserved regions where cold storage infrastructure is limited.

With its lead program, InsulinStrong, Lamark is targeting the ₹4,000 crore Indian insulin market and intends to expand across Southeast Asia and the UAE. expanding its platform into diabetic eye disease and cancer immunotherapy. In the next 24 months, it plans to file new international patents, begin early clinical trials, and build partnerships with pharma companies, CDMOs, and global health agencies.

Amid growing global efforts to enhance healthcare access and strengthen drug delivery infrastructure, Lamark Biotech is strategically positioned to lead the next generation of biopharmaceutical innovation through its robust, cold-chain-independent solutions.

About Lamark Biotech:

Lamark Biotech is an innovation-driven biopharmaceutical startup focused on developing proprietary formulations of biologics for chronic and life-altering diseases. The company’s core expertise lies in stabilizing complex therapeutic proteins and peptides to improve their shelf-life, efficacy, and patient convenience. With a strong emphasis on global healthcare, it addresses critical gaps in formulation technology, including ultra-stable, temperature-resilient drug delivery systems for indications such as diabetes, ophthalmic disorders, and cancer immunotherapy.

About IAN Group:

IAN Group is the country’s single largest platform for seed and early stage investment platform with IAN Angel Network, BioAngels and IAN Fund I and IAN Alpha Fund enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 50 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores. The platform brings money, mentoring from successful entrepreneurs and global market access. The platform is sector-agnostic and has funded innovative start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries, thereby growing the global footprint of companies. IAN has been listed by Forbes as one of iconic business and economic events of Independent India, over 75 years along with LIC, NASSCOM, RBI, Naukri.com amongst others.

IAN Leads $3 Mn Pre-Series A Fund Raise in Manastu Space

Manastu Space, a space tech company which is developing an environmentally friendly, first-in-world micro satellite thruster and fuel combination, has successfully secured $3 million Pre-Series A round, led by IAN. This fundraise marks a crucial milestone for Manastu Space, and will play a pivotal role in the company's developing cutting-edge space technology and scale its business, within the growing commercial space industry.

IAN investors such as KRS Jamwal, Executive Director of Tata Industries investing in his personal capacity, Jaideep Mehta, Sanjiv Bajaj, and Nitin Zamre, were active participants in this funding round. With this investment, Manastu Space is well poised to develop their green propulsion system for satellites, ranging from 100 to 500 kg.

The company is now poised to implement their eco-friendly propulsion system, autonomous collision avoidance system, and further its R&D program. Manastu is developing green propulsion systems for satellites and hopes to validate its technology during a test flight in the coming year. It is also designing a fuel station in space to provide in-orbit refueling service for satellites which otherwise have to be abandoned after the on-board fuel is exhausted

Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder at India Angel Network, said, "Manastu Space brings a complementary product to the commercial space ecosystem of the country. As they build and grow, I am sure Manastu will find its place in the global space tech industry. With this investment, IAN has taken another step to support an innovative product led by passionate founders, in the best of the next sectors, emerging out of India"

Tushar Jadhav, Co-Founder of Manastu Space, expressed deep gratitude for the trust their investors have placed in their mission of ensuring space sustainability and broad accessibility of its benefits. He emphasized the significance of India's Research and Development progress and cutting-edge technologies in achieving global prominence in the space sector, and Manastu Space is wholeheartedly committed to contributing to this vision.

He also highlighted the investors' recognition of the vital role that sustainable solutions play in space exploration. Their belief in Manastu Space's product reflects a shared aspiration for a future where advances in space technology align with environmental responsibility. Notably, the company has already secured key contracts, including one with the Indian Defense, established partnerships with entities such as Latitude, a French startup, and recently formalized an agreement with iDEX, the Defense Innovation Organization, underscoring the substantial potential of their product.

The company provides complete propulsion systems to satellite manufacturers including fuel, engine, tank and accessories to satellite manufacturers. With a 60% affordable propulsion system, customers can save as much as 30% cost per satellite or earn 30% more revenue due to increased payload while also saving their satellites from debris. They also plan on providing in-space services like In-Space Refueling, life-extension and De-orbiting at the end of life of the satellite to their customers as part of a product service ecosystem.

Ashtesh Kumar, Co-founder and CTO of Manastu Space, expressed, "We are actively developing a versatile Green Propulsion System designed for satellites, enhancing their manoeuvrability in space and safeguarding them from potential collisions with space debris. This solution is indispensable in meeting the current and escalating demands for space sustainability." We underscored the critical issue of space debris, which poses a significant threat to the future of space exploration. With over 160 million fragments of space debris hurtling through space at speeds of up to 8 km/s, the risk of collisions is substantial. Such collisions can generate even more debris, potentially triggering a chain reaction that could jeopardize the safe launch and operation of spacecraft in orbit. Manastu Space is also actively engaged in developing autonomous collision avoidance systems and satellite refueling capabilities in space. These advancements are designed to make satellites reusable, helping to ensure a sustainable and accessible space for future generations.

KRS Jamwal, Executive Director at Tata Industries, investing in his personal capacity, said, "The Manastu Founders are talented and focused scientists who have dedicated their career to space technology. Space represents a frontier of immense investment potential, and Manastu is solving a very real problem with an elegant and 1st in world solution in the field of propulsion systems. Overcrowding of orbits and environmental concerns can only be addressed by green propulsion systems usable by even micro-satellites."

Manastu Space will be filling the gap in the currently available propulsion systems that are either slow (electric propulsion), toxic and carcinogenic (hydrazine), or expensive (ADN and HAN propellants). This leaves a gap in the market for an agile, safe, efficient, and affordable propulsion system.

About IAN

IAN Group is the country’s single largest platform for seed and early stage investment platform with IAN Angel Group, BioAngels and IAN Fund I, the first in the series of VC Fund enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 50 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores from quality investors who provide funds, mentoring and global market access. The platform brings money, mentoring from successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. The platform is sector-agnostic and has funded innovative start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries, thereby growing the global footprint of companies. IAN has been listed by Forbes as one of iconic business and economic events of Independent India, over 75 years along with LIC, NASSCOM, RBI, Naukri.com amongst others.

IAN Group Appoints Sarika Saxena as Managing Partner at IAN Alpha Fund

IAN Group has appointed Sarika Saxena as Managing Partner, IAN Alpha Fund, a SEBI registered AIF Cat II, sector agnostic Venture Capital fund. Sarika brings extensive experience with a proven track record in startup and early stage investments.

Sarika brings over 25 years of diverse professional experience and having served in key & leadership positions across different organizations. Her investment portfolio has covered a range of sectors, including consumer, technology, fintech, edtech, etc both within the domestic and international markets. Her leadership has been instrumental in facilitating early-stage investments totaling ~USD 100 million and has overseen an AUM of around USD 300 million. Sarika brings critical value to the Fund with experience in scaling companies & M&A.

Raman Roy, Co-Founder IAN, said, "We are thrilled to welcome Sarika Saxena as the new Managing Partner of IAN Alpha Fund. Her exceptional insights, extensive industry expertise, and unwavering commitment to early stage investing makes her a perfect addition to the top class team of current Managing Partners. We are confident that Sarika will not only accelerate our diversified investment strategy but also drive growth for the portfolio companies, the Fund invests in"

Sarika Saxena, Managing Partner at IAN Alpha Fund, said, "I am truly honored to be a part of IAN, an esteemed organization that has consistently led the industry as a pioneer for an impressive 16 years. I am excited to join the prestigious IAN leadership team and I look forward to utilizing my domain expertise, extensive global network, and multifaceted experience to drive the IAN Alpha Fund's success, both in India and on the international stage."

IAN Alpha Fund

IAN Alpha Fund, a Rs. 1000 crores (US$125mn) SEBI registered AIF Category II VC Fund, is the second Fund in IAN’s series of Funds. It is being built to leverage the portfolios of both IAN Angel Platform and IAN Fund I apart from investing in innovative startups solving real problems for India and the world, with sustainable business models enabling scale by leveraging technology. With the IAN Alpha Fund, IAN continues its legacy of building a portfolio of high-quality companies by founders who not only understand the customer need but have leadership qualities to build a high quality management to build valuable businesses.

About IAN

IAN Group is the country’s single largest platform for seed and early stage investment platform with IAN Angel Group, BioAngels and IAN Fund I, the first in the series of VC Fund enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 50 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores from quality investors who provide funds, mentoring and global market access. The platform brings money, mentoring from successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. The platform is sector-agnostic and has funded innovative start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries, thereby growing the global footprint of companies. IAN has been listed by Forbes as one of iconic business and economic events of Independent India, over 75 years along with LIC, NASSCOM, RBI, Naukri.com amongst others.

IAN Group Welcomes Priyank Garg as Managing Partner of IAN Alpha Fund

IAN, the Indian seed and early-stage investment platform, welcomes Priyank Garg as Managing Partner of the IAN Alpha Fund, the second in the series of IAN Group’s funds. Priyank’s coming on board will strengthen the Fund’s top team and enable it to match and exceed its excellent track record of Fund 1 and the Angel Group.

An entrepreneur and active early stage investor, Priyank brings over 26 years of experience in the cleantech, manufacturing, healthtech, SaaS & technology sectors. A Stanford and IIT Delhi graduate, he brings cross border experience with Yahoo and has, over the last 15 years, invested in over 60 companies, across a variety of sectors, both in India and overseas.

Priyank co-founded IOTomation, a building IoT company in 2019. He is currently the President of the Delhi Chapter of ISHRAE (Indian Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers). As a TiE Charter Member, supports the Million Sparks Foundation and is deeply engaged with various startup / early stage platforms like NASSCOM Emerge, India Innovation Initiative, Samsung Innovation, Times of India Big Challenge jury, etc.

Embarking on this new journey, Priyank Garg, Managing Partner, IAN Alpha Fund, said, “I am delighted to join the IAN Group as part of the IAN Alpha Fund for the next stage of our journey. As an angel investor, I have been investing with IAN for 14 years across sectors and have really appreciated the depth of engagement, quality of portfolio founders, focus on governance and returns. Having tried many others, this is the only platform that puts health of the Indian startup eco-system at the heart of its work from the day of its founding to today. I look forward to progressing IAN’s focus on solving real problems of the world from India with tech, innovation and transformation, augmented with my passion and experience in Deeptech and Cleantech, and bring about India’s golden hour”

Speaking on the same, Saurabh Srivastava, Co-founder and Chairman, IAN, said, “We are delighted to welcome Priyank to the IAN Alpha Fund. He is well known in the seed / early stage investor ecosystem and we look forward to leveraging his business building experience for the Fund’s portfolio companies which, in turn, will enable high returns for our Investors.”

Ms. Padmaja Ruparel, Co-foounder IAN and Sr. Managing Partner IAN Alpha Fund, said, “We are truly excited to have Priyank join the IAN Alpha Fund. He brings decades of experience in building businesses in India and the US, in environment friendly spaces. With his deep engagement with the startup ecosystem, he will just add to the mentoring and market access that IAN brings to its portfolio companies, ensuring a far lower risk to investors."

IAN Alpha Fund

IAN Alpha Fund, a Rs. 1000 crores (US$125mn) SEBI registered, AIF Category II VC Fund, is the second Fund in IAN’s series of Funds. It is being built to leverage the portfolios of both IAN Angel Platform and IAN Fund I apart from investing in innovative startups solving real problems for India and the world, with sustainable business models enabling scale by leveraging technology . With the IAN Alpha Fund, IAN continues its legacy of building a portfolio of high quality companies by founders who not only understand the customer need but have leadership qualities to build complementary and high execution focused teams to build valuable businesses.

About IAN

Indian Angel Network is India’s first angel investor group, comprising renowned, successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs from across the world. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 global locations. The platform is sector-agnostic and has funded innovative start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries, thereby growing the global footprint of companies. IAN has been enabling excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investors for the last 14 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Spinny, Box8, Uniphore Software Systems, WOW Momos, Consure Medical, FarEye, Propelld, Dhruva Space, WebEngage, and FarMart, amongst others.

Apart from the IAN’s angel investor network, the platform comprises BioAngels, India’s first sector-focused angel investor group, in partnership with BIRAC, an enterprise of the Department of Biotechnology. The IAN Group also includes the IAN Fund I, an INR 375 crore VC fund, and a Rs. 1,000 crores IAN Alpha Fund, to build the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 50 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores from quality investors who provide funds, mentoring and global market access.

IAN announces the launch of INR 1000 Cr IAN Alpha Fund

This is the second fund launched by IAN, after the successful run of its maiden VC fund, IAN Fund 1.

Indian Angel Network (IAN), India’s first and largest platform for seed and early-age investing, has launched the IAN Alpha Fund, a SEBI Registered Cat II VC fund with a fund corpus of INR 1000 crores. This is the second in the series of IAN Funds.

This Fund is aligned with IAN’s vision of investing in 500 startups, with Rs. 5000 crores and creating 500,000 jobs. It will continue to ease fundraising for startups, bring guidance from mentors who have been there and done that as well as leverage the global network of the IAN ecosystem, enabling entrepreneurs to build high growth, valuable companies.

IAN has played an integral role in unlocking private wealth for seeding and growing startups in the country. It has seeded and bred companies which today, have a market valuation of $9 billion+ and includes 3 unicorns and 5 soonicorns in its portfolio of 200 + companies. With an investment of ~ INR 900 Cr, the IAN platform has catalysed investments of 18000 Cr and created over 80,000 jobs. It has also been recognised by Forbes as an “Iconic Business Event” of Independent India.

Mr. Saurabh Srivastava, Co-founder of IAN said, “IAN is recognized in the industry for pioneering angel investing in India and it has continued to innovate by launching a VC fund ( IAN Fund 1) along with the Angel Group to provide a seamless platform for seed and early stage investing. The launch of the IAN Alpha Fund is the logical evolution of our desire to provide quality entrepreneurs with money, mentoring and market access.”

IAN Alpha Fund’s investment thesis is to invest in startups with high quality founders who are solving real problems for a large customer base and are leveraging technology and innovative business models to scale quickly. The Fund looks to invest in companies with both top and bottom lines OR IP focused.

IAN Alpha Fund is a unique fund with several differentiators. It has access to high quality, well-mentored proprietary investment opportunities across sectors. Apart from Tier I, the Fund has access to Tier 2 & 3 entrepreneurs who are solving real problems faced by a large number of people. Their ability to be “innovative & disruptive” enables them to create new ways of solving existing problems and then tap growing markets to build valuable companies. The Fund is therefore looking to invest in Cleantech & environment, Healthtech, Agritech, Edutech, Fintech, and emerging sectors like Industry 4.0, Space tech, Web 3, Robotics, etc. with cheque sizes ranging from US$1 to 5mn, along with co-investors.

The IAN Alpha Fund is being led by Ms. Padmaja Ruparel, Senior Managing Partner of IAN Alpha Fund. She said, “After IAN Fund 1 which has been fully deployed and started to return capital, we wanted to continue building on IAN’s vision of being the single largest platform for early-stage funding. Hence, launching IAN Alpha Fund was the next logical step. This will, in fact, leverage and garner benefits from IAN’s global network, domain experts & high quality mentors to help the Partners build another high-return potential portfolio. We will be keen on investing in innovative ideas that have the capacity to generate profits and aim to solve real-world problems.”

Mr. Jaideep Mehta, Managing Partner, IAN Alpha Fund, said, “IAN has always been at the forefront of seed and early-stage funding. I have been involved with the IAN Platform for a decade and, after the success of IAN Fund 1, am delighted to join the IAN Alpha Fund team where we will seek to support Founders building future global giants leveraging future technologies”

Mr. Vinod Keni, Managing Partner, IAN Alpha Fund, said, “With IAN Alpha Fund, entrepreneurs can access larger Series A round cheques from IAN. For us the idea is to support the ventures not only from Tier I cities but even from Tier 2 & 3 areas that are solving real-world problems at large. We are eyeing startups that are scaling quickly with technology as their core foundation.”

Mr. Jaideep Mehta, an accomplished angel investor who has served as Business Head, Mint at HT Media, and previously held leadership roles at IDC and Gartner globally and Mr. Vinod Keni who has served as Partner & Advisor to various VC/Private Equity Funds in India and Overseas, have joined IAN Alpha Fund as Managing Partners.

IAN Alpha Fund’s Investment Committee includes industry stalwarts Mr. Saurabh Srivastava, Co-Founder of IAN and Co-Founder & Past Chairman, NASSCOM & IVCA, Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, Founder, HCL, Mr. Pravin Rao, who recently retired from Infosys as COO, Mr Raman Roy, father of the Indian BPO Industry and Mr. Atul Batra, Ex-CTO-Manthan Systems & Past Chair-NASSCOM Product Council. In a one-of-a-kind for VC Fund, the Alpha Fund’s IC engages deeply with the portfolio companies helping them build their businesses.

The Fund’s Advisory Board includes luminaries from the tech and manufacturing industries, Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder, Infosys Mr. Sunil Munjal, Chairman & MD, Hero Mindmine & Hero Corporate Services and Mr. CP Gurnani, MD & CEO of Tech Mahindra.

IAN Alpha Fund

IAN Alpha Fund is the second Fund in IAN’s series of Funds. It is being built to leverage the portfolios of both IAN Angel Platform and IAN Fund I apart from investing in new sustainable businesses solving real problems, leveraging technology. With the IAN Alpha Fund, IAN continues its legacy of building a portfolio of high quality companies by founders who not only understand the customer need but have leadership qualities to onboard high quality teams to build valuable businesses.

IAN Leads INR 4.11 Cr Seed Round in Cheelizza

The company will focus on rapidly expanding their presence in Mumbai by opening 20 new stores in the next 12 months.

Mumbai-based Cheelizza – India Ka Pizza, a pure vegetarian pizza chain from Mumbai, has raised INR 4.11 crore in a seed round led by the Indian Angel Network (IAN). The round was led by IAN Investors Hari Balasubramanian, Uday Chatterjee, Deval Tibrewal and Rajeev Sarda. Co-investors Sagar Daryani, Founder of Wow! Momo, Karan Tanna, Founder of Ghost Kitchens, and Rahul Surana Principal at an international fund also participated in the round.

A bootstrapped business until now, operating 10 stores across Mumbai & Gujarat, Cheelizza will focus on rapidly expanding their presence in Mumbai by opening 20 new stores in the next 12 months. The homegrown pizza chain is already hiring talent across senior leadership roles in Business, Operations, HR, Marketing, along with 100+ team members for their frontline store operations.

Incepted in 2013, Cheelizza is the brainchild of its founder & CEO, Animesh Lodha, who left his job at Edelweiss to start this entrepreneurial journey. A one-of-its-kind, ‘Cheelizza - India Ka Pizza’ is “India’s earliest and fastest growing Vegetarian Pizza Chain” focused on targeting vegetarians across the country.

Mr. Animesh Lodha, Founder, Cheelizza, said, “We have been operating in stealth mode over the last 10 years, focused on building the business on strong fundamentals. We have had a 10x revenue growth and have clocked 20%+ store level ebitda. We currently sell over 30k+ Pizzas per month with an over 50% repeat order rate. Cheelizza is the first step towards building a Portfolio of Pure Vegetarian Food brands offering an alternative choice to a large Vegetarian population. Over the next 10 years, we will be working on building an Indian Pure Veg Platform built on strong fundamentals of high value, higher quality & highest trust & take it global. We are very grateful to IAN for supporting us and helping us on our growth journey. We will use this capital to hyperscale our business & expand geographically.

Hari Balasubramanian, Lead Investor at IAN said, “Cheelizza is uniquely positioned as a pure vegetarian brand and has a vision to become a global pure vegetarian food platform to serve customers across the globe. Animesh and his team are go-getters and we are extremely confident that they would be able to build a portfolio of pure vegetarian food brands which will emerge as a category leader in the QSR space.”

Cheelizza currently has 10 stores, out of which 3 are operated via a franchising model. Furthermore, as a part of its expansion strategy, the company will soon enter the Bangalore and Pune markets and plans to open 20 stores next year.

About IAN

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor members, for the last 12 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Spinny, Box8, Uniphore, Wow! Momo, Consure, Fareye, NOCCARC, Propelld, Skit.ai amongst many others.

IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore VC fund is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund that aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.

About ‘Cheelizza - India Ka Pizza’

‘Cheelizza - India Ka Pizza’ is the first pure vegetarian Pizza chain which started its journey in 2013. It was the first pizza company sensitive to the pure vegetarian community against the popular belief of pizza being perceived as a non-vegetarian delight. The brand has grown from strength to strength from 30L MRR to 1.4Cr.+. They are currently operating 10 stores and have a target of 100 stores by end of 2025. They aim to become a Global Indian Vegetarian Food Service Platform and cater to the global need for vegetarian delights. In that direction, they have also taken exclusive distribution rights of Sweetish House Mafia, a gourmet cookie brand, and are also launching Country’s first Pure Veg Biryani Brand “Biryani Can” on World Veg Day - 1st October 2022.

IAN Invests INR 3 Cr in Seed Round of Hospitality Startup Brevistay

(Left to Right) Brevistay co-founders Shubham Agarwal, Avnish Kumar, Nikhil Pathak, Prateek Singh and Aditya Naithani.

Empowering the concept of micro-stay, Brevistay intends to use the freshly infused capital to strengthen its team and invest in its marketing strategies

Brevistay, a pay-for-hour room booking startup has raised INR 3 crore from Indian Angel Network in its seed round. The round is led by IAN Lead Investors Uday Chatterjee, Hari Balasubramanian, and Sri Prakash.

The announcement comes as the startup commemorates its sixth anniversary on August 3rd, 2022. Co-founded by Prateek Singh, Shubham Agarwal, Nikhil Kumar Pathak, Aditya Naithani and Avnish Kumar, Brevistay allows customers to book hotels in slots of three, six, and 12 hours with the flexibility to pick their own check-in time. Its platform also allows hotels to manage inventory with the flexibility of their rooms in real-time — users can book a room at 1 AM as the hotels registered on the platform can be booked 24X7.

Founded in 2016, Brevistay aims to solve customers' most common problem of overpaying for short stays at hotels. The check-in issue at odd times also gets resolved as the hotels registered on the platform can be booked for three hours and paid accordingly, making Brevistay an answer to a cost-effective way of adding comfort. The services offered are free of biases as everyone can book a room, including millennials, business travellers, unmarried couples, etc.

Prateek Singh, Co-founder & CEO, Brevistay, said, “We are changing the ‘unit’ of hotel bookings. It’s not all about room night; you also have hotel hours. We are breaking the pre-existing and centuries-old pattern of the noon check-in and 11 am check-out system and creating a new way of conducting the business. With this investment, we are looking at expanding so we can take this concept to larger audiences across more cities.”

Speaking on the investment Sri Prakash, lead investor from IAN said "We are backing a good team of founders who have built a business which has tremendous potential in India. We are expecting the company to become a category leader in hourly booking for hotel rooms and similar facilities. Our investor network in IAN will also help the company in all possible ways for helping them realise their full potential.”

Brevistay has been a bootstrapped company for six years without significant funding. The recently infused investment will enable the company to develop more creative ways to create a convenient and beneficial ecosystem for customers and the hotels.

The expansion of Brevistay took a toll when the pandemic struck the world. However, the company bounced back strongly with a 1.5X growth in the nine months after the first lockdown and recorded a 250% spike in the numbers in the next nine months after the second wave of COVID-19. Brevistay is commemorating its successful journey on August 3rd 2022, the day of its sixth anniversary.

About Brevistay:

Brevistay is a leading startup to book hotels in slot of 3, 6 and 12 hours with flexibility to decide your own check-in time. Thus, creating win-win scenario for customers as well as partner hotels.
They bring flexibility to a sector that until now has been very limited to its traditional rules and operations and they provide additional income to the hotel sector, “Frequent travellers, whether business or family, can stay for a few hours in hotels near airports, train stations, business areas or in the city centre. They also offer hotels near hospitals, railway stations, leisure areas.”With presence in more than 70 cities with 2800+ hotels and having 8L+ app downloads, Brevistay is one of the most promising start-ups in the tourism sector in India, leading an innovative concept of micro-stay hotel bookings.

About IAN:

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor members, for the last 12 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Spinny, Box8, Uniphore, WOW Momos, Consure, Fareye, NOCCARC, Propelld, Skit.ai amongst many others.

IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore VC fund is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund that aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.

L4o.in Raises Undisclosed Amount in Seed Round Led by IAN

The Jaipur-based edtech start-up will use the funds to further develop its cutting edge tech product, courses and expand into newer markets

New Delhi, July 28th, 2021: L4o.in, a high-quality Edtech platform in vernacular (regional languages) ensuring employability and enabling learners to become job-ready in the global world, has raised an undisclosed seed funding. The round was led by IAN, with participation from other angel investors including Pawan Kumar Garg, Umesh Prasad, Mrinal Didige, Mohiddin Shaik, Charan Babu, and Aman Manoj Tekriwal.

L4o.in, Jaipur-based, is raising funds for further development of its cutting-edge tech product, courses and expand into newer markets.

The journey of L4o.in began when a young graduate approached one of the founders, Kamal Kant Gupta, for a favour to get him placed through Kamal’s network. After a conversation for 45 minutes, the founder realized that there are existing problems in terms of employability in India.

When he dug further, Kamal found out that most people aspire to get a government job because it provides job security. However, the selection ratio is not more than 1.5% including all government and bank exams. So effectively, the other 98.5 % of candidates don’t succeed.

He further realized the unavailability of platforms that offer high-quality content in vernacular or regional languages to upskill graduates. This is when Kamal reached out to Rahil Sheikh who had been working in the education space with a mission to remove barriers to quality education. Together, they launched L4o.in in January 2021 to address these pain points. They believe education should be outcome-based, and as a result, students need continuous upskilling.

Currently, the Edtech platform is solving the problem of unemployment among young graduates, who despite having college degrees, need reskilling and upskilling to qualify for newer positions in the global job market. It is offering high-quality content and training in regional languages, thereby ensuring a 100% job guarantee.

The platform is already offering content and training in Hindi (Hinglish) specific regions of India. These include Rajasthan, UP, MP, Uttarakhand, NCR, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh.

Speaking on the development, Kamal Kant Gupta, Co-Founder of L4o.in said, “Young graduates, who are preparing for government exams and bank exams, are not skilled enough to get a job. There is another problem, almost all the Edtech platforms provide content in English language and no platform is focusing on vernacular space. So, our vision is to eradicate these gaps as a reason for large-scale unemployment. We believe that education should be outcome-based and that’s what we aim to build through our platform. We are offering high-quality courses in every Indian language possible and skilling graduates, with a 100% job guarantee. At L4o.in, we are creating an ecosystem which will ensure that everyone can earn their livelihood in this global economy.

We are thankful to have received the funding from IAN and other marquee investors and are looking forward to developing more cutting-edge products and courses soon.”

Further adding, Pradeep Jai Singh, Lead Investor at IAN said, “Employability is a very big challenge amongst tier-2/3 and rural youth in India. That, however, presents a major opportunity and Learn4o is aiming to position itself in this exciting space. We are delighted to support this venture with a great team of founders and strongly believe that they will create significant impact in creating millions of jobs in small town India.”

Going forward, the Edtech platform will expand to other regions of India and include more regional languages on its platform, thereby substantially improving graduate employability.

About Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members, for the last 11 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure, Fareye amongst many others.

IAN has also launched the IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore fund, is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund which aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.

Edtech Startup Braingroom Raises INR 1.5 Cr from IAN, Social Alpha and Startup Oasis

Braingroom will use the funding to add more components to the application-oriented learning approach and develop Micro-Entrepreneurship courses

New Delhi, July 19th, 2021: Braingroom, a multilingual online learning platform focused on students from lower and middle-income families, has raised INR 1.5 Crores from IAN. Social Alpha and Startup Oasis joined the round.

The Chennai-based startup will use the funding to develop new courses and content in different languages and new product features. The company is also eyeing market expansion with a vision to train one million rural students and make them job-ready in the coming 3 years.

Three engineering graduates, Madhula Sathyamoorthy, Naliene Ramasamy, and Kalaiarsi Periasamy identified the need to develop impactful EdTech solutions that can bridge the employability gap between urban and rural youth. This prompted them to launch Braingroom in 2017. Through this multilingual online learning platform, the co-founders aspire to create high-impact technical tools to facilitate quality learning outcomes for everyone.

 

Braingroom follows a hands-on learning approach with a focus on application-oriented learning. It is one of the very few multilingual online learning platforms in India to use AI Chatbots and Gamification to create a completely personalized learning experience.

The startup partners with various expert training providers across the globe and provides customized online learning solutions for both B2C and B2B markets with a multilingual flavour.

Speaking on the development, Madhula Satyamoorthy, Co-Founder of Braingroom said, “Through Braingroom, we are creating high-quality technical and skill training with the right combination of vernacular content, Bots and gamifications. These will help us make learning more hands-on, interactive, personalized, and engaging for millions of students from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, and most importantly for those from middle and lower-income families. In the next three years, we are aiming to train one million rural students and make them job-ready. We are grateful to have received the funding from IAN, Social Alpha, and Startup Oasis as we are also are looking to invest in expanding our brand to new markets.”

So far, Braingroom has trained around 35,000 students across India. It also works with various Corporate CSR Teams and NGO Foundations to train rural students across the nation.

Further adding, Pradeep K Jaisingh, Lead Investor at IAN said, “Around 100 million students from middle- and lower-income families, especially from tier-2 and tier-3 cities are seeking upskilling and cross-skilling opportunities. Braingroom is the new-age multilingual platform to make online learning more affordable and accessible for students from all backgrounds. All power to Braingroom founders to bring innovative technologies with their educational expertise to make learning personalized and engaging, and contributing to employability in small-town India.”

Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO of Social Alpha, said, “We invested in Braingroom seeing their commitment to democratize online learning and making it accessible to students in tier 2 and 3 cities. Braingroom’s model of integrating new-age technology into learning and skilling to uplift a student’s career trajectory and making them job-ready is the need of the hour as we see a huge number of youngsters entering the workforce in the coming years. We are proud of our association with Braingroom and support them in their journey to unleash the potential of millions of students.’’

Going forward, the company is planning to build end-to-end training solutions for its B2B partners. Braingroom will add more components to the application-oriented learning approach for students and develop women-focussed Micro-Entrepreneurship courses.

About Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members, for the last 11 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure, Fareye amongst many others.

IAN has also launched the IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore fund, is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund which aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.

Bengaluru-based Agri-Tech Startup Fyllo Bags Rs. 3 Crores in Seed Round from IAN

Fyllo Founders Sudhanshu & Sumit

Fyllo helps farmers grow export quality crops through its data-driven platform that is powered by IoT, AI, and Agronomy

The agri-tech startup has developed crop-specific models for irrigation, nutrients, diseases, pests, and weather management for each physiological stage

Startup’s corporate/contract farming models bring consistency in produced quantity and quality across farms and geography

New Delhi, June 7th, 2021: Fyllo, an agri-tech startup has raised INR 3 crores from Indian Angel Network. Titan Capital, Lead Angels and others joined the round. The company has been previously funded by 100X.VC.

The startup will use the capital raised for its expansion to new markets and towards research and development to support more crops.

Coming from farmers’ families, co-founders of Fyllo, Sudhanshu and Sumit have been involved in agriculture since their childhood. The duo recognized the practical challenges that farmers face.

After considerable research, the founders identified that a data-driven decision support system to farmers will be very crucial in eliminating crop loss as well as reduce cost of production. This prompted the Computer Science graduates to establish Fyllo in 2019.

Fyllo Final Product

Fyllo helps farmers grow export quality crops through its data-driven platform that is powered by IoT, AI, and Agronomy. The startup has developed crop-specific models for irrigation, nutrients, diseases, pests, and weather management for each physiological stage. Besides, it also provides the best cultural practices at each stage of the crop.

Speaking on the latest development, Sudhanshu and Sumit said, “Farmers need to make many decisions in real-time, but lack data and intelligence to infer from. They use trial and error techniques to make decisions to grow crops. In fact, they spend 25% more money but the produce is 30% less. We not only provide the data but also actionable insights. We believe Fyllo will help farmers to improve production by 25% and the total cost of production will also reduce by $700. Plus, there will also be an improvement in export quality by up to 81%, thereby fetching double the price on increased export produce. Having received the funding from IAN, we are looking to invest in expanding our brand to new markets.”

Further adding, Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder at IAN said, “The market size for Precision agriculture in India is around $7 billion and growing 18% YoY. And with Fyllo’s crop models, farmers can reduce input cost and wastage, and increase crop quality and quantity. We were very excited by Fyllo’s next-gen agriculture innovation providing farmers a solution on their mobiles. We do believe that Sudhanshu and Sumit can build an impactful business catering to Indian and global farmer community”

Backed by a strong team, the Bengaluru-based startup’s corporate/contract farming models bring consistency in produced quantity and quality across farms and geography. The 360-degree view dashboards backed with real-time farm data help the management team to provide better decision-making ability to farmer.

About Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members, for the last 11 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure, Fareye amongst many others.

IAN has also launched the IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore fund, is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund which aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.

Edtech Startup Ingenium Raises Seed Funding from Lead Angels, IAN & others

• Ingenium will use the fresh funds to scale up its operations, strengthen adaptive assessment technology, improve product and expand the team
• The startup provides a state-of-the-ART technology, a white-labeled platform for coaching institutes, schools, home tutors and parent.
• Some of the key offerings of Ingenium platform include adaptive assessment, in-depth academic analysis, and real-time teacher-student-parent interaction

New Delhi, May 19th, 2021: Ingenium, an EdTech startup offering white-labeled platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Lead Angels. IAN, an existing investor, has also invested in this round along with iAngels Network of India Accelerator, Faad Network, and Hem Angels.

The fresh funds raised will be utilized by the startup to further scale up its operations, strengthen adaptive assessment technology, improve product and expand the team.

The innovative startup is providing a SaaS platform to small and medium sized education institutes and helping them to grow and manage their business better.

Speaking on the development, Pramudit Somvanshi, CEO of Ingenium said,

We are thrilled to have Lead Angels Network lead the current round and grateful for the continued support by our investors. This investment round will help us to scale our engineering and sales team, make our product seamless for our customers, and introduce new features and revenue streams.

Founded by IIT Roorkee graduates Pramudit Somvanshi, Mohit Patel along with IHM Mumbai alumnus Aakash Gupta in May 2018, Ingenium provides a state-of-the-technology, a white-labeled platform for coaching institutes, schools, home tutors and parents. Besides, Ingenium app boasts a combination of administrative, academic and marketing features.

Expanding its reach, the Noida-based startup has connected over 150,000 students, 3,000 teachers in almost 100 cities all over India as of 30 April 2021. Furthermore, the startup’s monthly recurring revenue increased 5x in the last 2 months and it also witnessed the best ever sales during the month of April 2021.

There are around six million small and medium institutes in India. Current COVID situation and rise of competitive EdTech companies have compelled these institutes to adopt digitization. Ingenium is providing a full stack digitization platform to these institutes where they can take their institute completely online and scale themselves.

Some of the key offerings of Ingenium platform include adaptive assessment, in-depth academic analysis, and real-time teacher-student-parent interaction. This holistic offering has also increased the adoption rate of the platform.

“The pandemic has further accelerated the adoption of online education for all teachers and institutes. This is where Ingenium is helping the smaller players in technology adoption with cutting edge features. As investors, we see a lot of value creation through democratization of technology and providing a level playing field for smaller players in the education market. We are glad to back passionate Founders, who are bringing a change in the existing education system,” said Kushal Khandwala, avid investor & member of Lead Angel Network.

Ingenium will further work on strengthening partnerships with existing players in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Additionally, the startup will be aggressively working on adding new revenue streams based on B2B marketplace, content subscription and adaptive assessments.

“The in-depth knowledge of founders on the target customer segment and incorporating all the customer requirements in a single platform should help in hyper growth for the company. We see the company scaling rapidly as the platform becomes more robust,” said Kruti Raiyani, Regional Head – Lead Angels.

Further adding on the investment, Vikas Kuthiala, Lead Investor from IAN said, “Ingenium is empowering brick-and-mortar coaching centers across India with a digital platform that is helping continuity of education for K-12 cohort in multiple local languages and the full spectrum of socio-economic classes across the country. This is the best, easy-to-use tool in the hands of India's traditional shadow school system to help teachers and students alike. Ingeniun is targeting a billion-dollar business opportunity and aims to be among the leaders in this market in the coming years. We wish the founders good luck for their future endeavors”

About Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members, for the last 11 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure, Fareye amongst many others.

IAN has also launched the IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore fund, is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund which aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.

Insurtech startup Artivatic.ai raises bridge funding from Scale Ventures and IAN

• Artivatic.ai offers a gamut of solutions via its 200+ APIs and 6+ core products
• Using cutting-edge technology such as AI, ML & Data Analytics, the startup aims to provide end-to-end lifecycle focused products, solutions, and APIs 
• Empowers healthcare, insurance, broking, & re-insurance businesses as well as developers to re-imagine insurance and health products for the next billion users 

New Delhi, 03 December 2020: Artivatic.ai, an asset-light insurtech and healthtech startup, has raised bridge funding led by Scale Ventures and existing investor IAN. The funding proceeds will be utilized by the startup for research and development by investing in cutting-edge technology solutions, especially aimed at scaling sales and delivery.

Artivatic.ai was founded by Puneet Tandon and Layak Singh in 2017. The idea struck the founders during their stint at COGXIO, a startup that focused on developing an online networking platform based on health and finance. The duo visualized a significant need-gap that made one go through complicated processes when buying insurance products. This prompted them to use technology to build a smart asset-light insurance platform that transforms complex, manual, and legacy processes into simplified, personal, and need-based solutions.

The Bengaluru-based startup aims to provide end-to-end lifecycle-focused products, solutions, and APIs using cutting-edge technology such as AI, ML, and Data Analytics. It empowers healthcare, insurance, broking, and re-insurance businesses as well as developers to re-imagine insurance and health products for the next billion users.

Speaking on the announcement, Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder, IAN said, "Insuretech is just opening up in India. It's a space waiting to be disrupted. Artivatic.Ai does just that leveraging AI, to build a well differentiated play in the large fintech space. Layak's sharp focus on the solution catering to an unmet need makes Artivatic.Ai a category leader."

Nilesh Rathi, Partner, Scale Ventures, said, "We are very happy to lead the round for Artivatic and co-invest with IAN. We are very impressed by Layak and Puneet's achievements and their approach to the nascent insurtech industry in India."

From customer acquisition, lead management, training, agent management, sales and marketing, and distribution to risk assessment, fraud intelligence, smart underwriting, decision making, and claims & branch servicing, Artivatic.ai offers a comprehensive suite of solutions via its 200+ APIs and 6+ core products.

Commenting on the fund raise, Layak Singh, Co-Founder, Artivatic.ai said, "Through Artivatic.ai, our aim is to solve major challenges within the Indian fintech and insurance domain that most existing players were unable to. We have launched multiple business- and consumer-centric products over the years. Our prime focus is on building an end-to-end insurtech and healthcare system for patients, service providers, and insurance payers. We are continuously developing low-cost, modular API infrastructure so that they can reduce their go-to-market time to a few days rather than months. Our pilots have demonstrated more than 50% efficiency and helping enterprises conduct business more intelligently and seamlessly. We envision to provide personalized, risk-based underwriting, claims, and distribution. Artivatic.ai is posed to launch consumer-focused health and insurance products as well in the future." Over the years, Artivatic.ai has also started operations in the APAC region. In the coming years, the startup focuses to expand its global footprint across the US and European markets

Indian Angel Network is India's first and world's largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who's who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN's presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries, helping companies to build a global footprint. With an enviable track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investors. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Fareye, Webengage, amongst many others.

Under 'FICCI for Start-ups' Initiative, FICCI and IAN to Launch Social Venture Fund to Help Startups Financially

FICCI, on Thursday, launched India's first 'FICCI for Start-ups' initiative which will provide a wide range of services and benefits to the Indian start-ups. The prime aim of this initiative will be to provide a voice to start-ups in India.

Addressing the launch webinar of 'FICCI for Start-ups', Dr Sangita Reddy, President, FICCI said, "Start-ups are immensely essential to the growth of a nation's economy. FICCI Start-ups is envisioned to help young Indian entrepreneurs to create a vibrant economy. This is the time to say Silicon Valley here we come."

Dr Reddy further said that these benefits will be offered to the FICCI Start-up members and the start-up membership is being offered free of cost till December 31, 2020. "Any start-up taking membership over the next three months can avail the benefit package without any cost for the next one year," she added.

Dr Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman, FICCI Start-up Committee & Founder, HCL said that FICCI is the first global chamber to create a special program for Start-ups. The 'FICCI Start-up' ecosystem will provide complete solution that any Start-up will require. 

Dr. Chowdhry further said --

We are Looking at a range of services to provide to all start-ups. We are working on existing and new Mentorships and a lot of these programs will be opened up for members. Entrepreneurs will help them in building relationships with accelerators, incubators, and angel funding. We will soon be launching FICCI-IAN social venture fund to financially support the Indian Start-ups,

Ms Aastha Grover, Head Startup India Hub said, "Today, 45 percent of start-ups are coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities with at least one start-up from each state and union territory in India. With the support of the State governments, industry association and stakeholders, India is the 3rd largest ecosystem when it comes to Start-ups.

Mr Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI said that over the last decade, even before start-ups was a common word in the lexicon in India, FICCI had been playing an important role in fostering the Indian Innovation and entrepreneurship system in the country. "We are currently implementing 14+ national and global programs through PPP to encourage and enable start-ups to grow and creating joint ventures of start-ups between India and countries in Africa and Latin America and more recently in Russia.

A comprehensive benefit package has been developed by FICCI under the said initiative which includes connecting start-ups to FICCI corporate members, mentorship by industry experts, direct connect to the Indian Angel Network, access to soon to be set up FICCI-IAN social venture fund, access to FICCI innovation and start-up programs, exhibitions, delegations, conferences at special costs, connect to the global investor community, policy advocacy with the government on behalf of start-up members among others.

These benefits will be offered to the FICCI Start-up members, membership for which is being offered free of cost till December 31, 2020. Any start-up taking membership over the next three months can avail the benefit package without any cost for the next one year.

The official logo for 'FICCI for Start-ups' was also unveiled during the launch event.

FICCI's start-up committee is backed by stalwarts including Mr Saurabh Srivastava, Ms Padmaja Ruparel, Mr Naganand Doraswamy, Mr Ullas Kamath, Mr Yogesh Andlay among others.

Since 2007, FICCI has been providing funding, capacity building and market access under several public-private programmes to the Indian start-ups. Having supported 1000+ startups/innovators till date with over Rs 125 Crores, FICCI has been an active player in the start-up ecosystem. Start-up enterprises supported by FICCI have been able to generate 140,000+ jobs and leverage over five times from external market sources. Over 100 companies have been provided access to global markets across US, South Asia and Africa.

Source - Ficci.in

IAN backs Edtech Startup ConceptOwl with an Investment worth ₹ 3.5 Crore

IAN, the single largest horizontal seed stage platform in India, has invested ₹ 3.5 crore in edtech startup ConceptOwl. The Trivandrum-based start-up will utilize the capital infusion to enhance and diversify its offerings, as well as to bolster its sales and marketing operations. The round was led by Prominent investors; KRS Jamwal, Ankit Somani and Mitesh Shah with Ankit Somani joining the company board to further help the startup scale.

Founded in 2016 by Rajan Singh, an IITian turned Police Commissioner turned entrepreneur, ConceptOwl is dedicated to delivering teacher-less online-in-classroom Science and Mathematics coaching to school students in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities at affordable prices. Its innovative approach to pedagogy is aimed at benefitting the large population of students living in semi-urban and rural areas across India, who are currently unable to locally access quality coaching to prepare for entrance exams. Further, these students also find it difficult to bear the expense of living in cities like Kota, Delhi, and Hyderabad in search of credible coaching opportunities.

By addressing the aforementioned need-gap, ConceptOwl is targeting hyper-growth in a market that is estimated to be worth INR 20,000 crore. It is the recognition of this disruptive potential which led IAN to invest in the start-up.

Speaking on the investment, Ankit Somani, Lead Investor, IAN, said, “On one hand, there are multiple coaching centres in India that follow the traditional in-classroom style of teaching. On the other hand, there are edtech teaching platforms that impart self-paced learning entirely through the digital medium. ConceptOwl combines the best of both worlds. It is this innovative model which assures us of the merit of our investment. We eagerly look forward to helping this high-potential start-up to transform the Indian coaching landscape for the better.”

ConceptOwl combines the real-time interaction facilitated by in-classroom teaching and quality learning material curated by the start-up’s digital platform. The company leverages a two-teacher model to deliver the best quality coaching to students. This facility replaces teachers with trained local facilitators or instructors who use engaging video recordings of excellent, high-profile teachers to provide students with an exceptional learning experience. It also plans to build the largest doubt-solving repository of FAQ videos powered by AI and produce more engaging video-based content in Hindi and other vernacular languages.

Rajan Singh, Founder and CEO, ConceptOwl, said, “Although online courses do exist, students mostly find learning in a classroom setting more comfortable. It is understandable as it is difficult to not get distracted by other functions of a digital device at such a tender age. On the other hand, due to the absence of good quality tuitions and coaching services in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities in the country, most of the high-potential students end up falling short of receiving the kind of education they deserve. It is here that ConceptOwl steps into the picture. We deliver quality education to students through a team of trained instructors and a vault of engaging video content at extremely affordable prices.”

“We are thankful for the support we have received from IAN. We will utilize the investment to further bolster the quality of our current offerings while bringing more vernacular languages into the scope of our services, and to boost our marketing and sales,” he added.

In addition to building a digital repository of FAQs for students, ConceptOwl is also geared to launch a franchise program. As such, the company will consolidate small tuition centres onto its platform which will further strengthen its doubt-support program for both local students and those connected online.

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 11 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members. Some of its marquee investee companies include WebEngage, Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure amongst many others.

Indian Angel Network has been a pioneer in the seed and early-stage investing. It has now launched a ₹450 Crores VC fund making it now, the single largest platform for seed & early stage, where entrepreneurs can raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores (with co-investors), thus making IAN the platform of choice!

Blume Venture Is India's Most Active Tech VC Followed By IAN and Sequoia India

India is still a developing economy, and in order to bridge that gap between developing and developed, India still has a lot of sectors to work on like health, finance, defence etc. And, the one sector which can really help in making all these sectors progress is the tech sector.

The Indian startup industry has witnessed a lot of investment activity happening in the tech sector in the last couple of years. In fact, the year 2016 saw a record number of deals taking place in the tech space. While 2017 might not be going that well when it comes to the deal pace, but the funding is advancing in a celebratory trajectory and is currently witnessing more than triple the deals that took place last year.

According to a CB Insights report, early-stage investors are currently the most active in the tech space in India, with Mumbai-based Blume Ventures right at the top of the ladder.

The report, which took into account investments that took place in the Indian tech startups from 2012 to 2017, ranked the Mumbai VC firm as the leading tech investor on the basis of the investments it made in 76 companies. The VC, which is known for participating in seed or pre-Series A stages, typically invests a sum of anywhere between $100,000 to $500,000 in each of the startups that it adds to its portfolio. One of the most popular startup in its folio is TaxiForSure, which later got acquired by Ola in a deal worth a whopping $200 million.

According to the CB Insights report, the biggest round that the VC participated in was a $30-million Series B round two years ago in 2015. It was raised by warehouse automation systems provider Grey Orange Robotics.

The report further divulged that Angel groups were some of the most active investors in the Indian tech startup sector, with Indian Angel Network (IAN) coming in at the second place by making investments in 64 companies. Partners India and Sequoia Capital India took the third place together on the list by investing in 55 startups each.

A close look on the list reveals that off the ten most active investors, two of the firms were of foreign origin. They were: New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global Management and Hong Kong headquartered SAIF Partners. While Tiger invested in 36 companies, SAIF invested in 35.

MaxWholesale Raises Close to $1M in Pre-Series A Funding from IAN and Maple Capital Advisors

MaxWholesale, a mobile based B2B grocery supply chain platform owned and operated by 99 Algorithms Pvt Ltd on Monday raised close to $1 million (Rs 6 crore) in pre-Series A funding led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Maple Capital Advisors. Prominent IAN investors include Ambarish Raghuvanshi, Raman Roy, Sunil Munjal, and Bikky Khosla amongst many others. Pankaj Karna and Abhinav Grover of Maple Capital Advisors also participated in the round further endorsing MaxWholesale’s potential.

The company will use the fresh funding to fuel growth and tech innovation. MaxWholesale has developed a self-operated e-commerce platform to connect FMCG companies directly with small kirana stores disrupting the traditional supply chain. FMCG retail in India is highly fragmented with 92% of it being deemed as ‘unorganized sector’ being run by family owned mom and pop stores. There are more than 7 million neighbourhood convenience stores in India, also known as Kirana stores. These stores carry thousands of SKUs and have to deal with hundreds of suppliers on a weekly basis for replenishment. MaxWholesale’s eWholesaler model provides superior performance across all metrics that matter to these retailers like better assortment, convenience, pricing and fulfilment services.

Lead IAN investor, Ambarish Raghuvanshi, who joins the Board of Maxwholesale commented , "MaxWholesale has a perfect combination of a winning team with a balanced knowledge of domain, distribution and technology. At times, solving a  simple problem is the hardest. This is what I see in Max Wholesale. The platform is very beautifully designed to strengthen and entrench the existing retail network of retailers rather than disrupting it. It will offer the end consumer with wider selection of products at more competitive price points making it a win-win situation for brands as well as retailers. I am very excited to be part of this journey with the team"

Founded in May 2016 by Samarth Agrawal and Rohit Narang, the app is available on PlayStore for Android and the AppStore for iOS users. Samarth, an alumnus of IIT Delhi specializes in building mathematical algorithms and tech products, while Rohit comes from a traditional brick-and-mortar retailing background with 16 years of experience running his family owned retail stores in Delhi’s Hauz Khas area. An ideal complementary team of technology and domain expertise with a common objective to transform the distribution eco-system by providing a superior service to stores versus the old supply chain using the scale of Wholesale and the efficiencies of scalable digital platforms.

Samarth Agrawal said “Its just been a year and we have received a phenomenal response from our retailers as well as the FMCG companies, we are seeing an organic growth of 40% MoM. Our retailers love our product and we have a very high repeat order rate. The funding by IAN and Maple Capital will help us further strengthen our foothold amongst retailers. We have strong reasons to believe this conversion to eWholesaler model is inevitable.”

MaxWholesale is currently working with more than 1000 retailers in Delhi. With this round of fund infusion, the company plans to scale operations and cater to more than 10,000 retailers over the next few quarters.

“We backed the Max founders when it was an idea less than 12 months ago, they have done a commendable job of walking their talk, growing the business by 10x in a very short span of time along with positive unit economics. Investment by IAN, very pedigreed investors now is further testimony to this. The sector holds tremendous potential in India and Max is uniquely positioned to empower the Kirana Store & beyond in India” said Pankaj Karna, Managing Director of Maple Capital Advisors, who re-invested in this round as well.

Raman Roy, co-founder and board member of IAN and lead Investor in MaxWholesale said, “There is tremendous opportunity for the company like MaxWholesale, currently there are more than 7 million stores in India and Packaged consumer goods market of India is more than $40 Billion. MaxWholesale is leveraging the power of technology with state of the art logistics management to leverage this opportunity. They have shown phenomenal growth in a short span of one year, clearly bringing out what the possibilities are. I am excited about the company and its potential to become the market leader of FMCG wholesale. I strongly believe in the vision of the founders Samarth and Rohit.”

With the use of GPS based routing algorithms MaxWholesale is able to create dynamic replenishment routes every day. It helps dramatically reduce time to delivery from the current one to two weeks to less than 24 hours, enabling quick refill of SKUs for retailers and reduce inventory cost. It’s automation engine also captures and processes complete trade data at each level. This improves product availability and cost effectiveness of the supply chain. MaxWholesale is currently powering online wholesale for more than 90 FMCG Companies, like Cadbury, Dabur, Patanjali, Capital Foods, P&G, HUL to name a few.

Currently wholesale accounts for 50% of the packaged good supply to kirana stores as distributors struggle to service the fragmented market. With the changing dynamics in the post GST environment it organized players are set to reap advantage. With the government’s push for organizing the segment eWholesale is for sure the next big thing.

Kolkata Based Wow! Momo Raises Rs 44 Cr Funding from Lighthouse Funds and IAN

Kolkata based Wow! Momo, which is touted as India’s first and largest chain of branded Momos, raises Rs. 44 Crores as Series B funding from Lighthouse Funds and Indian Angel Network at a 230 Cr Valuation. The fund raised also provides a highly profitable exit to some IAN investors (whosoever elected to sell their earlier investment) with an IRR of nearly 50% in less than 18 months.

The deal has been led by Lighthouse Funds, which largely focuses on mid-market consumer driven businesses. IAN, the world’s largest angel network exercised their pre-emptive right in this round. Mr. Sanjeev Bhikchandani, founder of Naukri.com, has been the lead Investor in Wow! Momo on behalf of IAN since the earlier round in 2015.

Talking about the current investment, Lead Investor Sanjeev Bhikchandani commented, “The team at Wow! Momo has executed very well. They have sustained positive cash flows in geographies where they have achieved economies of scale. The breadth of innovations around momos is commendable. They have built a strong brand through word-of-mouth and without spending marketing/advertising dollars. This company is now going National and might possibly even go overseas.At IAN, we recognize the market potential, talent, and the urge to disrupt the ecosystem, which is evident in Sagar, Binod, Miftaur, and their venture.”

Lighthouse Funds has been empowering passionate entrepreneurs for a decade and provides long-term patient capital coupled with active, supportive guidance and mentoring. The fund has invested in brands like Fabindia, Cera Sanitaryware, Xseed Education, Bikaji Foods, Kama Ayurveda to name a few. Speaking on Wow! Momo, Sachin Bhartiya, Partner at Lighthouse Funds commented, "We believe Wow Momo presents a great opportunity to participate in the fast-growing Indian food services space which is witnessing strong demand-side tailwinds. We saw an amazing drive in the founding team, wanting to dream, dare and scale and above all, care for society, which matched the ethos of Lighthouse. Wow Momo has been successful in building an agile and profitable model, all while delivering consistency in quality, taste and service. This is the reason Wow Momo has demonstrated phenomenal growth and earned a fan following in such a short span. We are excited to back Sagar, Binod and Miftaur and help achieve our collective vision for Wow Momo.”

Wow! Momo was also successful in providing a highly profitable exit to some of the IAN Investors who decided to sell their shares partly/completely to Lighthouse at a return of 106 % on their Initial Investment in a period of less than 18 months as part of a secondary deal in the current transaction. KPMG was the Investment Banker advising the company in the above transaction. The financial vendor due diligence was undertaken by Delloite and Khaitan & Co was the legal advisor to the company.

Saurabh Srivastava, Co-Founder, IAN who participated in the earlier round commented, “At IAN, we have had a very fortunate 2017 so far. Year-on-year, we have had exits in our companies and our investors have been able to get cash exits over the last three years continuously. With Wow! Momo, our investors are getting an IRR of nearly 50%. We are really impressed by Wow! Momos fast growth and customer retention rates in such a short period of time. Their success is in line with our vision to identify, mentor and support the next big innovators of our country who have the potential to survive in the competitive startup ecosystem.”

Started with an Initial Investment of Rs.30,000 with just one Kiosk in Kolkata, Wow! Momo is a young & vibrant Startup, devised by two enthusiastic entrepreneurs at the age of 21. Two best friends, Sagar Daryani & Binod Homagai, conceived this idea of turning the regular “momo” into a diversified product category with versions appealing to every taste and had an operational start up even before their exam results were announced. The two young guns were joined by their college mate, Shah Miftaur Rahman, Ex PWC as a third co-founder in 2015 & are currently clocking a turnover of over 5.5 crores a month, recruiting over 1100 employees which proves the success of their creativity and business acumen.They have literally played with momos ploughing back its profits to grow into a restaurant chain of over 115 outlets spread across 8 cities.

An excited Sagar Daryani, Co-Founder & CEO at Wow! Momo commented,“Our mission is to make Wow! Momo the food of all times & creating a niche market for the Masses. We want to be India’s version of Mc Donalds& grow globally and become one of the World's fastest growing QSR Chains, thereby creating employment & adding value to the economy & society as a whole.Funds raised in the current round will be used for Expansion & building of back-end infrastructure for the brand. I am extremely thankful to my Investors for believing in us. They have & continue to be an integral part of our successful journey going forward. r. Our Wow! Story has just begun I believe.”

The brand has a long term goal of doing an IPO (initial Public Offering) by around six to seven years from now. The Team feels a 1000 Wow! Momo stores PAN India in the near future is a definite possibility.

Their Menu caters to 12 different flavours of momos available in Steamed, Fried & Pan Fried formats largely in white & brown flour variants. They have smartly Innovated & Invented to create Sizzler Momos, MoBurg (Momo Burgers), Tandoori Momos, & a Baked Momo Au'gratin to their credit. To top it all, even their dessert is a 'Chocolate momo & last week they launched the all new 'Mango Momo' as a seasonal special. The format operates out of Kiosks, Food Court Quick Service Outlets, Shop – in Shop Models, and High Street Quick Service Restaurants. The stores are largely Company owned & Company Operated.

IAN and Rajasthan Angels Invest Rs 3 Cr in TOKO Innovation Studios

Bengaluru-based TOKO Innovation Studios, who are creating a digital destination for children that can be viewed on mobile and web browsers, has raised Rs. 3 crore from Indian Angel Network (IAN). Roopak Saluja, Founder & CEO of The 120 Media Collective and new media company, Sooperfly, and Vishal Khare have led this round on behalf of IAN and Saluja will join the board of the company. This round has been co-led by Rajasthan Angel Investor Network, who will be represented on the board by Ajay Data.

Founded in February 2014 by Aditya Mukherjee (CEO), Arnav Mukherjee (Content Head) and Ajitsen Surendran (CTO) with an idea of making toys & games that are connected to stories, TOKO’s current vision is to become a leading player in the entertainment space focusing on children. TOKO is targeting the Indian market with the aim of expanding across emerging markets globally, including a strong focus on Asia.

The investment will be primarily used for the product development, user growth and content partnerships. Prior to founding TOKO, Aditya was working with Bain & Company as a Strategy Consultant. He is also the author of two novels, one of them with his co-founder Arnav. Arnav also brings extensive global experience and contacts, while Ajit, the third founder, is an experienced technologist who has 3 patents to his name and has worked in Yahoo for 9+ years.

The current transition from a text-based internet to an audio-visual internet is creating hundreds of millions of new and very active users and there is tremendous whitespace for children-focused companies to be formed based on this transition. India has more children than the next 3 countries (China, US, Indonesia) put together. Of these, 100M children are online already, and the number is expected to increase to ~135M next year giving India the largest population of children online in the world. This number is expected to rapidly rise to ~200M by 2020.

With close to 400 investors from 10 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and UK. Its portfolio, with over 100-odd companies, spans 17 sectors across 7 countries. Over 4,000 entrepreneurs pitch to IAN each year, and IAN has invested in over 55 ventures over the last two years. IAN portfolio companies have given 70x returns in 6 years, 21x in 30 months, 22x in 60 months, and 6x in 15 months; with ventures such as Druva, Stayzilla, and Webengage well on their way to become unicorns.