Augmented Reality Startup PlayShifu Raises $7 Mn from Chiratae, Inventus Capital and Bharat Innovation Fund

PlayShifu, the award-winning technology startup, announced today a $7 million Series A round of funding led by Chiratae (formerly IDG Ventures India), Inventus Capital and Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF). Existing investor, IDFC-Parampara Fund also participated. A pioneer in the field of creating highly engaging and immersive AR experiences for children that encourage early STEM skills, PlayShifu has an aggressive strategic plan in place to expand on its tech prowess with this round of funding.

With $8.5 million raised to date, the company’s primary focus will remain tech innovation, continued research on unique phygital interactions and new product developments. PlayShifu also plans to update current products significantly and expand the diverse retail presence from 15 countries to 30+ countries in 2020 and beyond.

"We are extremely excited to have investors who are highly focused on consumer tech, on board in our journey to make early learning fun and accessible to children around the world," said Vivek Goyal, CEO, and Co-Founder of Playshifu. "We have an exhaustive product pipeline, an incessantly creative and passionate team of innovators, and now, the right partners to make an extremely positive impact on the educational foundations of generations to come."

PlayShifu's first flagship product, Shifu Orboot (Top Image), is an AR-based globe that promises an adventure around the world. The user base has crossed 250,000 kids worldwide, but that’s not all. Orboot has seen unprecedented engagement among 4-8-year-olds. While the best of the children's apps/ toys retain approximately 8% of kids after the first month, Orboot boasts more than 40% of kids retained in the second month! In other words, the amount of time spent on the app, thanks in large part to the breadth and depth of learning, has resulted in an impressive frequency of play, and month-after-month retention equal to 4-5 times that of kids-app category benchmarks.

In less than a year, teachers and technology integrators from hundreds of schools in the US, Europe, India discovered PlayShifu and experimented with adopting the innovative products in their tech-friendly classrooms. Today, more than 65% of these schools use Orboot every week in their classes. With Orboot 2.0 launching soon (student profiles and progress tracking, teachers' portal, detailed lesson plans), this engagement will only increase from here, as PlayShifu prepares to expand its reach in schools by 10x this year.

The newest addition, Shifu Plugo, combines the charm of classic physical consoles with new-age digital interactions. Helping kids conquer STEM skills with super-fun characters, captivating storylines, and enriching tactile play, Plugo will soon replace tons of toys in your kid's toy box.

[caption id="attachment_132293" align="aligncenter" width="3741"] Shifu Plugo[/caption]

The physical consoles bring alive the alphabet, math, engineering, music, steering, and more. With two consoles available today, PlayShifu plans to introduce four more by the end of 2019. PlayShifu's global appeal is evident from the fact that they have managed a deep-rooted retail presence in key markets and countries around the world, including the US, Canada, UK, Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Hong Kong, South Africa, Middle East, and Japan.

"We are experiencing incredible demand from international markets across the world, purely due to the reason that our innovative products make early learning agnostic to markets and languages. Our products make an instant connection with kids and parents alike," added Dinesh Advani, Co-Founder, and COO. "We now have the tools at our disposal to execute against an even more impactful retail strategy and presence, while we continue to strengthen our position as the segment leader and disruptor in the early learning space."

Founded in 2016, PlayShifu has offices in Bay Area and Bangalore, India. The co-founders Vivek Goyal and Dinesh Advani, graduates of Stanford GSB and IIT Kharagpur, are two dads who juggle toddlers, tech, and toys in their daily lives. They are revolutionizing the toy industry by creating groundbreaking AR experiences with a passionate pack at PlayShifu. For more information, visit the website at www.PlayShifu.com.

[caption id="attachment_132292" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Vivek (L) & Dinesh (R) at Spielwarenmesse 2019[/caption]

"PlayShifu is targeting the multi-billion dollar augmented reality industry with its unique proposition of an enriching learning environment for kids coupled with fun. Vivek and Dinesh, along with their team, have built a solid product roadmap to capture a significant market share in this segment in the US and European regions. Having backed the team early on, this round of funding will boost the product line and offer more such engaging and immersive experiences for their audience," said Karthik Prabhakar, Executive Director at Chiratae (formerly IDG Ventures India).

“We were sold on the innovative concepts PlayShifu have developed in terms of physical interactions as well as digital gameplay, both for their existing products and what they have in store,” said Rutvik Doshi, Managing Director of Inventus Capital. “The user community they have built and the high engagement their products see, prove that they have cracked the code for a delightful user experience unseen in the space,” he added.

"We strongly believe in the capability of Indian entrepreneurs to develop highly innovative products and solutions for the global market, and PlayShifu fits squarely. With their expertise in computer vision, AR technology stack, game & toy design, and storytelling, the PlayShifu team has orchestrated a magical experience through phygital smart-toys for the vast 'early learning' market, quickly making inroads in US, Europe, India, and Japan,” said Som Pal Choudhury, Partner at Bharat Innovation Fund commenting on the investment.

AI-based Coach for Employees Worxogo Raises ₹16.5 Cr from Inventus, Ideaspring Capital

Bangalore-based Worxogo, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) led tech startup driving performance in enterprises, has raised ₹16.5 crore in Series A funding from Inventus India and Ideaspring Capital.

The startup will use the funds primarily to scale its AI engine, called Mia and enter the US market, where it has also applied for a patent for its Mia. The startup, which already has presence in Singapore, will also use funds to expand into global markets.

Launched in 2015, by a team of seasoned professionals with decades of experience with organisations such as PwC, IBM, KPMG and Ernst & Young - Ramesh Srinivas, Ravi Bhamidipati and Sudha Bhamidipati, Worxogo uses an AI engine to improve employee performance and claims to increase sales by 40% in 3 months of implementation.

The startup's flagship product 'Mia' is employees’ personal digital coach which is a self-learning AI engine, that uses proprietary deep-learning algorithms to assess employees’ individual performance, personality traits and uses predictive analytics to nudge, and improve their performance.

Mia gives actionable advice using principles of neuro-economics and behavioural science. It understands what makes employees tick by recognizing workplace behaviour preferences (intrinsic and extrinsic motivations) and their responses to nudges. Mia coaches over 1 lakh people every day across over 35 organisations and five countries.

“We believe that our first-of-its kind cognitive engine Mia will bring a radical shift in how performance is managed in the near future. We are focused in our approach to reach every employee in an organisation individually and allow Mia to coach them in a way that aligns personal growth with company objectives,” said Ramesh Srinivas, CEO and co-founder of Worxogo, which counts Axis Bank and Piramal group as its clients.

Built on proprietary machine-learning algorithms that assess each employee’s unique behaviour preference, along with performance data, Mia sends customised nudges to employees regularly to help drive business performance, said the firm. It added that Mia delivers significant business impact — including at least 25 per cent rise in sales, higher productive employees and reduced supply chain risk.

“Behavioural science is a relatively recent body of work which is at variance with classical economic thinking. That paradigm in combination with the ubiquitous mobile, always-on connectivity and machine learning enable productivity benefits in enterprises in real-time, in a personalised fashion and at considerable scale,” Parag Dhol of Inventus India said.

Source - Business Line

Fitness App HealthifyMe Bags $6M Funding from IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital and Blume Ventures

Health and fitness app HealthifyMe which is owned by Caeruz Ventures Pvt Ltd., has raised $6 million (Rs 40 crore) in its series A round of funding led by IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital and Blume Ventures. The raised funding will be used to further develop its digital coaching platform and to accelerate growth in India. With these funds the company plans to impact 5 million users and tie up with over 500 corporate and healthcabire partners.

The company had received a pre-series A funding in two rounds from mobile phone maker Micromax and a group of angel investors in 2015.

HealthifyMe was founded by Tushar Vashist and Sachin Shenoy, the app allows consumers to keep track of diet, plan workouts and ask health related questions to nutritionists and dieticians on the platform. The startup works in partnership with health institutes such as Medanta, Apollo and Manipal. Its app is available for Android and iOS users and enables users to keep a track of their calories, set personal fitness goals and measure progress.

The firm boasts of the world’s largest database of Indian foods and syncs with all leading wearables including Fitbit, YuFit, MiBand amongst others besides its own fitness band RIST™. As part of its subscription services, HealthifyMe connects users with elite nutritionists and trainers who review their progress, provide diet/fitness plans and work with the users to help them achieve their weight, fitness goals.

The startup also has a gamified, social platform that is being used by progressive Corporates to engage and reward employees for healthy behaviour. Unlike others in the space that are focused only on steps, HealthifyMe engages employees wholistically around healthy eating, running, weight, hydration etc as well. Given its mobile-first approach, the platform is cost efficient and massively scalable and has been used by PMC Sierra, Indegene, Unilever amongst others.

A couple of days back, Delhi-based fitness startup ClassVerse, a marketplace providing users access to fitness studios and classes, has shut down after operating for nearly 10 months of its operations & launch.

eCommerce Service Provider Unbxd Raises Series B Round of Funding

Unbxd Inc., which helps eCommerce companies by providing them with search, navigation, product recommendations, merchandizing and analytics solutions, has raised its Series B round of funding. The funding was led by entities advised and managed by Nirvana Venture Advisors, along with existing investors including IDG Ventures, Inventus Capital, and Indian Angel Network. The company had raised $2 million in a Series A funding in 2013.

Unbxd was founded in 2011 by Pavan Sondur and Prashant Kumar. The company aims to utilize the raised funding to improve its product, accelerate sales growth and expand its sales and marketing team. It plans to increase its employee count to more than 100 people over the three months from 55 now.

Unbxd provides eCommerce product discovery software services and helps companies solve search and other queries for almost 200 million eCommerce visitors in a day. 85% of the companies Unbxd services are outside India, primarily North America.

“Our relevancy engine and machine learning models have consistently delivered value to some of the biggest eCommerce sites in the world. Had Unbxd been a standalone eCommerce site, we would be the biggest eCommerce company in India in terms of volume of traffic and GMV served,” said Prashant Kumar.

Image Source: ShutterStock

KNOLSKAPE Raises Series A Funding from Inventus Capital & The HR Fund

[caption id="attachment_105286" align="alignnone" width="707"] Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder & CEO – KNOLSKAPE[/caption]

KNOLSKAPE,​ the Gamification and Simulation software company in talent transformation space, has raised series A funding from Inventus Capital Partners​; a US ­India venture firm managed by successful entrepreneurs & The HR Fund, India’s first human resources (HR) focused private investment company. The investment will be used for international expansion, product innovation and building out global partnerships.

With their extensive experience of scaling up businesses, Inventus Capital will help KNOLSKAPE scale–up their operations globally; The HR Fund at its end will bring in domain expertise and its reach into the global HR community.

Using experiential learning products, KNOLSKAPE helps organizations attract, grow and retain talent. Global Fortune 500 companies, Top­10 B-­schools and leading HR consulting / training companies use KNOLSKAPE’s Gamification and Simulation products and solutions for on­boarding, training, assessments and talent engagement.

According to Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder & CEO – KNOLSKAPE:​ “Both Inventus Capital & The HR FUND with their expertise will help KNOLSKAPE in shaping the future of learning in India. He further added, “Today with the increase in millennial population in corporates, there is huge challenge to engage the workforce. Moreover with the millennial generation set to occupy half of the global workforce (by 2020), HR has realized an immediate need for engaging youngsters. Thus, 'Microlearning' or bite sized lessons in the form of games are a new trend catching up in India.”

According to Vijay Kalangi, Co­founder & CTO – KNOLSKAPE: “Along with global expansion, we will focus on product innovation especially in the areas of HR analytics and mobile platforms. The end goal is to build a formidable team that will revolutionize the way current workforce learns. We want to unlock human potential to help drive organisational performance.”

According to Kulwant Bardh, CEO, APAC – KNOLSKAPE:​"We at KNOLSKAPE have always been passionate about creating cutting edge and futuristic products which will help organizations transform the way their people learn. With the kind of growth we are seeing in South East Asia and China, the funding will enable us to implement our mission at scale. Expanding our presence in new markets is the next big leap that's in store. Exciting times ahead for all us as we reshape the future of learning."

According to Utkarsh Joshi, Principal, The HR Fund, “According to Gartner, the global market for Gamification solutions will be roughly at $5.5 billion by end­2018. Already, global corporations have used it in areas such as customer engagement, loyalty programmes, sales, and are extending it to their internal operations and employees. In India, adoption is often hindered by conventionally ingrained attitudes towards use of such tools at the workplace. But of late, Gamification is being adopted by various corporates to engage the younger workforce.”

Samir Kumar, Managing Director – Inventus commented​, “ Talent plays a key role in the success of companies, and KNOLSKAPE, with its technology powered, gamified learning solutions, helps its clients upskill their talent pool. We're happy to be partnering with a passionate entrepreneur like Rajiv in his journey, and together, hope to build an organization that creates a global impact."

KNOLSKAPE Raises Series A Funding from Inventus Capital & The HR Fund

[caption id="attachment_105286" align="alignnone" width="707"] Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder & CEO – KNOLSKAPE[/caption]

KNOLSKAPE,​ the Gamification and Simulation software company in talent transformation space, has raised series A funding from Inventus Capital Partners​; a US ­India venture firm managed by successful entrepreneurs & The HR Fund, India’s first human resources (HR) focused private investment company. The investment will be used for international expansion, product innovation and building out global partnerships.

With their extensive experience of scaling up businesses, Inventus Capital will help KNOLSKAPE scale–up their operations globally; The HR Fund at its end will bring in domain expertise and its reach into the global HR community.

Using experiential learning products, KNOLSKAPE helps organizations attract, grow and retain talent. Global Fortune 500 companies, Top­10 B-­schools and leading HR consulting / training companies use KNOLSKAPE’s Gamification and Simulation products and solutions for on­boarding, training, assessments and talent engagement.

According to Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder & CEO – KNOLSKAPE:​ “Both Inventus Capital & The HR FUND with their expertise will help KNOLSKAPE in shaping the future of learning in India. He further added, “Today with the increase in millennial population in corporates, there is huge challenge to engage the workforce. Moreover with the millennial generation set to occupy half of the global workforce (by 2020), HR has realized an immediate need for engaging youngsters. Thus, 'Microlearning' or bite sized lessons in the form of games are a new trend catching up in India.”

According to Vijay Kalangi, Co­founder & CTO – KNOLSKAPE: “Along with global expansion, we will focus on product innovation especially in the areas of HR analytics and mobile platforms. The end goal is to build a formidable team that will revolutionize the way current workforce learns. We want to unlock human potential to help drive organisational performance.”

According to Kulwant Bardh, CEO, APAC – KNOLSKAPE:​"We at KNOLSKAPE have always been passionate about creating cutting edge and futuristic products which will help organizations transform the way their people learn. With the kind of growth we are seeing in South East Asia and China, the funding will enable us to implement our mission at scale. Expanding our presence in new markets is the next big leap that's in store. Exciting times ahead for all us as we reshape the future of learning."

According to Utkarsh Joshi, Principal, The HR Fund, “According to Gartner, the global market for Gamification solutions will be roughly at $5.5 billion by end­2018. Already, global corporations have used it in areas such as customer engagement, loyalty programmes, sales, and are extending it to their internal operations and employees. In India, adoption is often hindered by conventionally ingrained attitudes towards use of such tools at the workplace. But of late, Gamification is being adopted by various corporates to engage the younger workforce.”

Samir Kumar, Managing Director – Inventus commented​, “ Talent plays a key role in the success of companies, and KNOLSKAPE, with its technology powered, gamified learning solutions, helps its clients upskill their talent pool. We're happy to be partnering with a passionate entrepreneur like Rajiv in his journey, and together, hope to build an organization that creates a global impact."

Big-data analytics startup Peel-Works got $2mn funding from IDG Ventures India and Inventus Capital Partners

Mumbai-based SaaS and big data analytics startup Peel-Works have got $2 million (about Rs 12 crore) in series-A of funding from IDG Ventures India and Inventus Capital Partner. Earlier in 2011, Indian Angel Network (IAN) had also invested a $1 million in Peel-Works.

"The two new key markets are the United States and south-east Asia, and we expect to have a present in these geographies in the next six to 12 months," said Sachin Chhabra, founder & CEO, Peel-Works.

Founded in 2010 by Sachin Chhabra, Peel-Works enables companies to keep tabs on people who close the sales cycle to check whether they are performing optimally. The start-up's cloud-based solution, called - 9Yards, gives companies analytics data on nine parameters to measure the performance of sales staff.

Another Peel-works' product called - Genius, analyses sales data, salesforce data and other relevant internal & external data to provide actionable insight on the employee performance, enabling companies to make quicker decision making.

The company has built a SaaS based Salesforce transformation and analytics platform that provides presence and performance management capabilities for companies with large extended salesforce.

This is also the second time that IDG Ventures and Inventus have joined hands to invest in a company. In October last year, both firm co-invested $2 million in Bangalore-based product recommendation platform Unbxd.

IDG Ventures is a global family of venture funds with approximately $3.6 billion under management. IDG Venture India has also been an investor in online companies such as Myntra, FirstCry.com, Yatra and Zivame.com. Inventus Capital partner on other hand had invested in Indian online startups such as - Dhingana, RedBus.in, PolicyBazaar.com and Vizury.