Edtech Startup Dhurina Raises $1.2 Mn Led by RVCF, LetsVenture and Others

L To R - Mr Murari Singh (Chief Strategy Officer), Mr Sachin Sardana (Chief Operating Officer) & Mr Ajay Kumar (CEO), Dhurina

INSTARTO acted as an exclusive Financial Advisor to Dhurina in relation to the transaction.

The rapidly expanding E-learning platform, Dhurina, has recently concluded its second round of funding and has raised USD 1.2 million led by RVCF and other investors like LetsVenture, RBD Publication, India Accelerator, Precision Startup Advisory, and Pai Ventures. The company commits that the freshly infused funds will be deployed towards technological enhancements, aggressive business growth, expansion in the company size, and to improve the product’s functionality for students.

Within 2 years of the launch, the company has been able to reach the milestone of 2.5 million downloads and aiming to achieve 10 Mn USD revenue by FY-23 with a user base of 10 Mn+. With a team of 150+ experienced educators of the country, Dhurina offers 350+ courses for 100+ state level competitive exam categories (including some of the central-level exams) along with various skill-development courses. It provides Live Classes, recorded lectures, PDF notes, Test Series, Doubt sessions and short videos for instant revision.

It has previously raised $ 135000 funding from prominent investors like Chandigarh Angels Network and Modulor Capital, and with the current round, the total investment raised stands at $1.3 million.

Commenting on this fund raising, Sachin Sardana, Co-Founder and COO, Dhurina said, "The recently concluded round of funding will allow us to leverage the opportunity to expand to other big states of the country and deliver quality education to students at nominal prices. We intend to cater to the exponentially growing market of E-learners in India, who need a platform to prepare for their dream jobs. With these funds, we will now consolidate our position and spread to other big states of the country. Apart from expanding the company’s market at PAN-India level, we also plan to invest the funds in employee’s growth, scaling platform infrastructure and enhancing the product’s features."

Commenting on the same, Mr. Ravi Mathur, Vice President of RVCF said, "We are fortunate to be part in the journey of Dhurina to bring the changes in the education system for the unprivileged and Tier-III students, which is the need of the hour. Their motive serves out to be the standout operator in the Digital Bharat era. We have witnessed their explosive growth in their startup journey of two years and we are delighted to back Dhurina as they march towards success."

Ayush Dadhich, Co-Founder and CEO, and Shubham Sharma, from Instarto (Exclusive Financial Advisor to Dhurina) said, “Dhurina is changing the way how aspirants used to study for the state level government exams. It is a clear testament to the team and their strong value proposition that Dhurina has scaled to become a market leader in this niche category. Edtech space in the county right now is booming and due to all the valid reasons, given by its mass impact nature.”

LetsVenture Announces Partnership With 100X.VC; Shortlists 9 Out of 11 100X.VC Class 04 Startups on Their Platform For Investments

LetsVenture, India’s leading Early Stage Startup Investment platform, announced a partnership with 100X.VC today to enhance investor reach for 100X.VC portfolio companies.

100X.VC recently announced its latest cohort of investments of 11 startups through Class 04 VC Pitch Day, the funds latest investments. These startups will showcase their vision on the LV platform whereby investors onboarded with the LV platform shall get an opportunity to participate in these exciting fast-growing stories funded by 100X.VC.

Commenting on the partnership, Shanti Mohan, Founder, LetsVenture, said, “For 7,500+ investors, many of who regularly invest through the LetsVenture platform (angels, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and family offices), this partnership provides an early opportunity to participate in companies funded by 100X.VC and support the founders in their venture-building journey, with time and capital. LV will invest through its SEBI registered angel fund. We see this partnership growing as 100X.VC continues to build their cohorts.”

The partnership will support in creating a pipeline of investment opportunities for LetsVenture members, giving curated and credible deal portfolio companies from 100X.VC.

“We are excited to announce this partnership. Working with India’s leading angel platform like LetsVenture helps our founders enhance their reach to the investor community and get an opportunity to work with some of the greatest minds in the entrepreneurial and the startup ecosystem” said, NinadKarpe, Partner, 100X.VC.

About LetsVenture: LetsVenture is India’s leading and most trusted platform for Startups for Early Stage funding. We connect startups with Global angels, VCs, and Startup programs. Over the past 7years, LetsVenture has built a portfolio of over 300 with more than USD 150M fundraised for startups like Trell, Innov8, DailyNinja, YourDost, Bobble App, MyUpchar, TestBook, Ayurveda Experience, Ketto, Adpushup, Little Black Book, Drivezy, Porter, Wishberry, etc.

About 100X.VC: 100X.VC is India’s first Fund to invest in early-stage start-ups using iSAFE - India SAFE Notes. The fund is sponsored by Mehta Ventures, the Family Office Investment arm of Sanjay Mehta, to nurture innovative ideas that add value and bring solutions to a problem. 100X.VC completed 50 investments with its recent announcement of 11 companies in Class 04.

NCOME Secures Rs.3.6 Crore Funding led by Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns, PointOne Capital and LetsVenture

NCOME Team

Aiming to further disrupt the high-potential fintech landscape, the pre-seed investment round also saw participation from 9Unicorns, LetsVenture and PointOne Capital

Mumbai, December 29th, 2020: Venture Catalysts, India's 1st, largest, and pioneering integrated incubator and accelerator and PointOne Capital have led a pre-seed investment in NCOME, the country's first Escrow-as-a-Service platform. The idea-phase accelerator fund, 9Unicorns, also participated in the Rs.3.6 Crore funding round, along with angel investment firm LetsVenture and other investors.

Powered by one of India's largest private banks and a leading trusteeship company, NCOME provides enterprise and individual customers with fast, secure, and low-cost digital escrow service. It leverages cutting-edge technology to streamline conventional processes through online KYCs and digital escrow account openings. With an easy-to-use account management suite, it also enables its customers to manage their digital escrow accounts in a hassle-free manner.

Speaking on the investment, Vineet K. Singh, Co-Founder–NCOME, said, "We are over-whelmed by the response that we've got from Investors during these times. Escrow-as-a-Service is a huge, under-served opportunity and we feel privileged to be the amongst the First Movers in this space. Our initial traction is outstanding and more importantly industry-agnostic and it vindicates our belief that we are solving a large problem and a large, profitable business can be built in doing so."

Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & President – Venture Catalysts & 9Unicorns, said, "Fintech is one of the most promising and exciting sectors in India and played a major role in keeping the economy ticking during the COVID-19 outbreak. NCOME represents the next phase of the industry's exponential growth trajectory and is addressing a massive market white space with its unique service offering. We are confident that, with an experienced founding team at its helm, it will drive greater fintech disruption by democratising digital escrow transactions for all."

ArchanaPriyadarshini, General Partner-PointOne Capital said, "We believe NCOME will be democratizing the escrow service which is very much needed for gig economy and rise of marketplaces. It will usher in a new era of secure transactions for both buyers and sellers".

The founding team at NCOME comes with extensive industry experience and a proven track record of growing successful businesses. Over the last two decades, its Co-founder & CEO, Vineet Singh, has built several multi-crore businesses across domains as diverse as payments, real estate, e-commerce, jobs, matrimony, and travel. Some of these include MobiKwik, Buildzar, 99acres.com, Naukri.com, NaukriGulf, Naukri Fast Forward, and Jeevansathi.com.

On the other hand, Ritesh Tiwari (Co-founder & CPO – NCOME) has more than 10 years of experience in building innovative digital payments, prepaid card, neobanking, and investment banking products. Having worked with leading global organisations such as Omnio, Ensygnia, Barclays, and JP Morgan Chase, he was also selected by the UK government under the Exceptional Talent Visa scheme in the fintech vertical and was part of its fintech delegation to India in 2019.

Venture Catalysts is India's first integrated incubator. It invests $250K – $1.5 Million in early stage startups that have potential to create enduring value for over a long period of time. Venture Catalysts brings a lethal combination of Capital, Mentoring and Business Network to help investee companies to succeed. Their innovation provides value to startups through its extensive angel network, funding, community, services and co-working facility.

9Unicorns is India's First Accelerator VC providing acceleration support & seed funding to early-stage start-ups. The funding can be provided up to $100K per start-up in the first round, and may invest further $500K-$2Mn in successive rounds with its co-investors. From the idea stage to the angel stage, it supports start-ups across various themes & sectors.

9Unicorns' strength & focus is to provide a hands-on support ecosystem for start-ups, beyond capital. 9Unicorns, besides investment, opens doors to the startupsfor access to a wide network of successful founders, category-leadrs, CXOs of large corporations, seasoned angel investors & partners of global VC funds. Every portfolio company receives acceleration support for 3 months & post-investment support of 18 months.

Bangalore Based Nocode Platform, Codeninja.Ai Raises Seed Round From Angels Investors

CodeNinja.ai, a Bengaluru based startup has raised a seed round of investment through EaSyndicate, the Early Adapters Syndicate in Letsventure.com. The investment amount is undisclosed but lies between the range of $100K-$300K.

"No-code development platform (NCDPs) allows programmers and non-programmers to create application software through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional computer programming. Codeninja.ai is an Artificial Intelligence powered nocode platform which can generate application development code in Android, iOS and Web. CodeNinja.ai has already been adapted by a number of corporate and MSME companies to build and deploy their applications. Hari Balasubramanian , a seasoned Angel Investor led this round of investment and will also be joining the company's board.

The company plans to utilize the investment for product development and global expansion. They also want to build a DIY curriculum for users to develop applications without the help of developers.

CodeNinja.ai was founded in April 2017 by Prashanth Kuppur, Deepak Kalhan, Saurabh Kukreti and Richpal Gora. The team has combined 60 years of experience in building scalable applications with expertise in cloud solutions and software development.

Commenting on the announcement, Prashanth Kuppur, Founder & CEO, CodeNinja.ai said, "Technology is revolutionizing the way we do business with high-tech approaches like artificial engineering, and machine learning. However, application development is still untouched by these advancements and follows the same path for ages with the developer, tester, and DevOps at the core. This is what we are trying to re-engineer at CodeNinja.AI making technology accessible to everyone, anyone. Anyone can build an enterprise-grade application at the speed of light to gain a competitive advantage."

Talking about the covid-19 situation, CBO & Co-founder, CodeNinja.ai, added, “It did initially hit our growth. However, CodeNinja.ai is back on the momentum. At the time of lockdown, we have got multiple new clients and also exclusively working on the "Do-It-Yourself" platform ( CodeNinja.ai V2.0 ) and planning to open the platform to all small scale industries, Mid Size Software development companies, and Enterprises. We've seen 50%-60% increase in our revenue during this period."

The ever growing need of developers is a huge cost to the organizations. It's a challenge to hire developers on a short notice. CodeNinja.ai platform addresses this challenge by allowing business to define their business model and workflows which are then translated into machine codes and transformed into applications (android,iOS and web). The idea is to provide an AI powered Rapid application development platform at a better and convenient cost.

Commenting on the investment, lead investor Hari Subramanian said, ""NOCODE platforms are already a very important component in the innovation toolbox used by entrepreneurs , innovators and corporate software development teams. It allows building and deploying applications very rapidly in multiple platforms where the focus is more on solving the business problem rather than understanding how to write code using various software tools. The team at codeninja.ai has taken up a very bold and futuristic vision of building a global platform which can disrupt the way applications are developed and deployed in todays marketplace. EaSyndicate is an early adopters syndicate of investors in letsventure.com where the investors actively support founding teams by supporting market validation and providing early adopters for testing and using the innovative product of the startup. We are very happy to support such disruptive innovation, which has a global appeal."

As per the startup, Zero-code solutions remove a crucial bottleneck and reduce dependency on IT for essential apps. All one needs is an idea. With handy interfaces of the platform, one can add the models they need, and publish. There is no need for any debugging or testing later. CodeNinja.ai gives the freedom to create any app. There mantra goes - 'If you have the idea, you can make it'.

CodeNinja.ai aims to become the fastest growing coding platform in India. They provide thie solutions to IT application development, services organizations, startups which have IT products/Services as offerings, System Integrators, Cloud service providers and Security solution providers.

LetsVenture, Pioneer Fund launches 'Future of India' Fund to Invest in Y-Combinator backed Indian Startups

LetsVenture, a platform for startup investments, has tied up with Silicon Valley-based Pioneer Fund to invest in Indian enterprises nurtured by top startup accelerator Y Combinator.

LetsVenture will invest in 5-7 Indian startups from the summer batch of Y Combinator in the June-August period. For same, LetsVenture and Pioneer Fund is setting up a startup fund called 'Future of India' with a corpus of $1- $1.5 million.

LetsVenture’s investor base will get an opportunity to put money in Future of India fund.

The development comes at a time when Y Combinator has recently selected a record number of 15 India-based startups for its summer batch of 2019.

For California-based Pioneer Fund, this will be the first time it will invest in India, through the upcoming Fund.startup selected by YC.

Pioneer is itself created by Y Combinator alumni -- Jared Heyman and Jason Gray, along with support of 170 fellow Y Combinator alumni founders.

Pioneer Fund pools capital and expertise from 170+ Y Combinator alumni to invest in the top 10% of YC startups. The fund is building a diversified portfolio of top YC startups across several verticals, by leveraging the unique access, knowledge, and connections of its YC alumni investors and advisors. Pioneer Fund is backed by billion-dollar family offices, high net worth individuals, and small institutional investors.

In a statement to Economic Times, LetsVenture Founder & CEO, Shanti Mohan said, "They (Pioneer Fund) typically invest in five to seven companies globally. The new partnership will allow them to back a similar number of Indian firms. These investments would be of $1,50,000-$2,00,000 for each of the Indian firms."

Pioneer Fund’s managing partner, Jason Gray, said, "This (partnership) will allow LetsVenture and Pioneer Fund to provide local investors with access to top Indian startups and provide these firms with access to the support and mentorship of YC alumni."

Source - Economic Times

HR Tech Startup Skillenza Raises $1 Mn from CBA Capital, Blume Ventures and Tracxn

Bangalore-based VH Education Services Private Limited, which own and operates HR tech startup, Skillenza, has raised $ 1 million in a pre-Series A investment round, led by CBA Capital's Education Catalyst Fund (ECF) and contributions from existing investors Blume Ventures and Tracxn Labs Other new investors LetsVenture, CIO Angel Network, Keiretsu Forum, Hyderabad Angels also contributed to the round, reported Times of India.

The funds raised would be utilised to create new modules for assessment of software engineers and expand into tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India, a statement from the company said.

Subhendu Panigrahi, CEO, Skillenza, said in a media statement, "We are working on credentialing students coming out of engineering colleges and creating a global repository of final year undergraduates. These verified and ranked profiles will help companies to hire talent quickly."

Skillenza was founded in 2016 by Subhendu. Essentially, it is a an online platform for professionals that hosts challenges, coding assessments and hackathons to help companies hire engineers and for professionals, it allows to showcase their skills and build an experience graph. The data generated from each challenge is recorded on the platform and is used to create a very personalized experience graph for each user.

"With the infusion of new capital, we foresee that the team will execute ideas that will aid companies to hire the best talent at scale in India to start with and eventually at a global level," said Ashish Fafadia, partner, Blume Ventures.

Vishal Bharat, MD, CBA Capital, said, “What attracted us to Skillenza is its offering that combines the creative process with 21st century skills. It enables participants to explore their skills in the areas that are close to their heart.” The current round would be utilised to create new modules for assessment of software engineers and expand into tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India, a statement from the company said.

"We are working on credentialing students coming out of engineering colleges and creating a global repository of final year undergraduates. These verified and ranked profiles will help companies to hire talent quickly," said Subhendu Panigrahi, CEO, Skillenza.

"With the infusion of new capital, we foresee that the team will execute ideas that will aid companies to hire the best talent at scale in India to start with and eventually at a global level,” said Ashish Fafadia, partner, Blume Ventures.

Recommended By Colombia Vishal Bharat, MD, CBA Capital, said, “What attracted us to Skillenza is its offering that combines the creative process with 21st century skills. It enables participants to explore their skills in the areas that are close to their heart."

It may also be recalled that in March, Bengaluru-based ePoise Systems, a HR Tech startup that offers a cloud based SaaS solution, got acquired by global SaaS-based suites giant Zoho, for an undisclosed amount.

Prior to that, in last November, Bangalore-based Hush, an employee-focused HR tech firm founded by two former Yahoo employees, has raised ₹ 4.5 crores in funding.

In March 2018, Gurgaon based HR Technology startup Benepik had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from a group of investors.

Online Donation Platform Donatekart Raises ₹2.55 Crores from LetsVenture & Others

More than a million people were displaced and around 500 people lost their lives in the recent Kerala Floods. The biggest challenge after the floods was to send relief material to the affected people. Hyderabad based social enterprise Donatekart stepped in to play a crucial role. DonateKart connected volunteer donors with victims during this unfortunate event.

There were many ways to donate money but none to actually send supplies like food, blankets, and medicines. More than 200 tonnes of relief material worth Rs. 2 crores was raised through Donatekart in a week’s time thus helping 50,000 families.

Donatekart has today announced a fundraiser of $360,000 (Rs 2.55 crores) from a group of investors in the seed round led by LetsVenture. Shanti Mohan, Founder of LetsVenture has joined the board of Donatekart as part of the round. Investors in this round include M S Unnikrishnan ( MD & CEO of Thermax ), Pravin Gandhi (Founding Partner of Seedfund), Arun Diaz (Advisor of Avishkaar), Pradeep Nair (Regional Director of Ford Foundation) and a few others.

Incubated in T-Hub, Hyderabad & were previously a part of Zone Startups India Accelerator, Donatekart was founded in 2016 by NIT Nagpur Alumni Anil Kumar Reddy & Sandeep Sharma.  It is India's first social enterprise which is providing a unique platform for social organizations by redefining charitable donations via an online platform to easily procure products they require.

Donatekart founders - Anil Kumar Reddy & Sandeep Sharma

People in India are usually hesitant to donate money to charities because they’re worried if their hard-earned money will be put to good use. Donatekart eliminates this worry as the donors directly donate products, thus creating complete transparency. There is also 100% accountability as the donors are provided with timely updates of how their products are being used. Donatekart provides its services for free unlike other fundraising platforms thus making sure all the money donated go to the end beneficiary.

Shanti Mohan , CEO & Founder of Letsventure said “ Donatekart addresses the concern many donors have around % of donation which would actually go into a cause and transparency around this. With Donatekart, 100% of the donations goes to the beneficiaries and Donors are completely aware on how their donations are utilised. This puts Donatekart in an unique position to be the go to online donation marketplace. I am also excited about the team and their commitment to build a marketplace that can create larger impact for donors and for non profits"”

In the last 20 months since launch, Donatekart has assisted 450+ NGOs all over India to raise 5 Crore worth of products from 35,000+ Donors.

Anil Kumar Reddy, Co-Founder & CEO of Donatekart said, “ Indians traditionally prefer giving in kind than money to charities and we are making the whole giving experience seamless & efficient using a technology platform.With the vision to create a better tomorrow, Donatekart is making sure that Doing Good is easy and convenient for everyone “

The capital raised will enable Donatekart to strengthen its technology, scale the team and launch new products like Recurring giving, Employee giving & Corporate CSR giving etc. They also have plans to take this platform to other developed markets like US, UK and raise at least 100 Crores worth of donations in the next 3 years.

Pradeep Nair, Regional Director of Ford Foundation said “ Charitable giving in India is just 0.2% of GDP compared to 2% of GDP in US. I am really excited about Donatekart and it’s potential to change the giving landscape in India using their in-kind donation model “

Donatekart has worked with corporates like HDFC Bank, Yes Bank and enabled their employees & customers give using their platform. They have won many awards like Nasscom Social Innovation Award, The New Indian Express 40 Under 40 etc for their unique model which enables donors to directly donate products to NGOs/Charities online instead of money.

More about Donatekart-

Donatekart clams to be India's most reliable platform to donate to charities online. Founded by NIT Alumni, Donatekart has won many awards like 40 Under 40, Nasscom Social Innovation Award etc and is incubated in T Hub, Hyderabad & Zone Startups, Bombay Stock Exchange, Mumbai. We are first of a kind platform which enables donors to directly donate products to NGOs/Charities online instead of money.

In the last 20 months since launch, we could help 450+ NGOs all over India raise close to 5 Crore worth products.30,000+ unique donors used our platform to channelize donation to charities of their choice.

Cold Pressed Juice Company ‘MyGreens’ Raises Up to $1M on LetsVenture

MyGreens, a cold pressed juice company, has successfully raised up to $1 million in an angel round on LetsVenture. The round was led by Ajay Relan, a pioneer of equity investing in India. Ajay is the founder chairman of the private equity group CX Partners and was previously the chief executive at Citi Venture Capital International.

The round also saw participation from Sundeep Bhandari, ex- Chairman of the Corporate Advisory Board of Cairn India. A well-respected figure in the oil and gas industry, Sundeep is credited with establishing several successful oil and gas ventures over the last two decades. He is currently the director and CEO of Petrodil.

Several industry veterans with experience in scaling up consumer businesses, global CXOs, Senior Bankers and other experienced investors also participated in the round.

Founded in Sep 2015 by Anurag Mishra and Rohan Gupta, MyGreens has already established itself as the leading cold-pressed juice brand in the Delhi-NCR region, with retail distribution in over 200 stores and a healthy online customer base. The company recently acquired rival JusDivine and is rapidly expanding in Mumbai, the largest cold pressed juice market in India.

"MyGreens is a startup that lies in a very interesting intersection of two megatrends - F&B and Health/Fitness. We started MyGreens about a year and a half back with Cold Pressed Juices, with a vision to provide world class products for the modern Indian consumer. This funding will ignite our move into mass market products with strong links to healthy living as we believe that the real advantage India offers is its large and growing middle class that aspires for a better and healthier life. We want to pioneer the clean label movement in India." said Rohan, cofounder of MyGreens.

MyGreens aims to be the largest cold pressed juice company and lead the "clean label" F&B revolution in India, becoming India's first international FMCG brand focussed on F&B. Driven by innovation and a keen focus on profitability, MyGreens plans to launch complimentary products targeted at the Indian masses. The company will be looking to raise their next round in the next 6-12 months.

"The cold-pressed juice industry continues to see exponential growth and investment activity, thanks to increased consumer awareness around health and fitness. MyGreens leverages this trend and is well positioned to become a global clean label FMCG brand, "said Shanti Mohan, founder and CEO of LetsVenture.

Founded in 2013, LetsVenture enables startups and investors to discover and connect with each other. There are over 13500 startups and over 2300 investors on the platform. LetsVenture works with startups and investors on discovery, syndication and closure. This involves managing due diligence and paperwork closure. LetsVenture has enabled more than 105 startups to raise over $42 million.

Former Snapdeal Chief Product Officer Anand Chandrasekaran Invests in LetsVenture

Anand Chandrasekaran, who is currently driving Platform & Product Partnerships at Facebook, invests an undisclosed amount in LetsVenture, India's largest fundraising platform for startups. Anand, who has also been the CPO at Airtel & Snapdeal before this, brings in tremendous experience in understanding how to build platforms that become the backbone for creating large networks, with the ability to interconnect other industry players.

He has made over 35 investments in Consumer internet, B2c and p2p Marketplaces, Fintech and SaaS on LetsVenture. Anand's portfolio of startups too reflects this affinity to building platforms, be it Innov8, Aisle or Makkajai, he has invested in startups that have the potential to bring together disparate communities of people together towards a common vision. Snapdeal, Netmeds, Nobroker and Wooplr are in the top 100 startups in India as per Yourstory.

Anand is usually one of the earliest investors in in the company and has already made 5 investments in 2017. Needless to say, his investments also serve as a form of validation to the path that these startups have embarked on.

“LetsVenture is India’s largest marketplace for startup funding and our objective is to maintain this position. Anand brings extensive experience and expertise on online marketplaces. Anand's entrepreneurial journey helps him lend experience and share his own learnings with entrepreneurs. He is an active angel investor and works closely with his portfolio companies, opening up new opportunities and doors. Anand’s association with LetsVenture will help us increase our investor base in the US and build presence there,“ said Shanti Mohan, Founder & CEO, LetsVenture.

Anand will be part of LetsIgnite 2017, one of India's largest angel-investor focused conference, that is being held on 16-17 March 2017 at the Sheraton Grand in Bengaluru. The overarching theme for this year is ‘Building an ecosystem that is conducive for Exits’ which is a burning need as we mature as an ecosystem. Anand will be a panelist for the ‘Angel primer 2.0’ session along with Anupam Mittal of People Group. The session will focus on ‘how to select startups for exits’.

Chennai Based PipeCandy Raises $1.1M in Seed Round

PipeCandy, an intelligent sales prospecting platform launched by the end of 2016 by alumni of Google, Cisco, Johns Hopkins and IIT, has raised $1.1 million in seed round.

PipeCandy uses data science techniques to discover the right prospects for B2B sales representatives and helps them segment the prospects based on nuances that are very specific or their respective industries. For example, a 'Point of Sale' software company can discover retailers that have omni-channel presence and filter them based on the number of SKUs (stock keeping units) they sell.

The funding was led by some of the well-known institutional and angel investors, including IDG ventures, Axilor Ventures (promoted by the founders of Infosys), Emergent Ventures, Indian Angel Network and a few more illustrious startup founders.

PipeCandy is currently tracking over 100 million decision makers across 40 million companies globally. Specifically, for businesses targeting Retail, Ecommerce, Mobile and SaaS verticals, PipeCandy has built analytical models that help sales reps apply industry specific attributes to narrow down to 'exact fit' targets and run outreach campaigns.

So, unlike traditional sales intelligence companies, with PipeCandy Sales Reps are able to target companies based on contexts that are very unique to specific industries and thereby dramatically increase their response rates.

Top Indian SaaS companies like Freshdesk, Chargebee, Zarget and US based ecommerce tech companies like Shyp, Agiliron are some of the notable customers of PipeCandy. Some of PipeCandy's customers get close to a 20% response rate to outreach campaigns sent to prospects identified by PipeCandy's analytical models.

PipeCandy plans to use the funding to deeply verticalize its analytical models and to build tools that make sales reps follow best practices effortlessly.

“Artificial Intelligence and data science are rapidly maturing. The Pipecandy platform offers a great proposition for customers by applying these technologies to outbound prospecting. Globally this is a very under penetrated space with only about 3% of the companies adopting technology to reach out in a structured manner. This is the opportunity that IDG is very excited about.” - Ranjith Menon Executive Director , IDG Ventures India

“The Indian Angel Network is delighted to invest into PipeCandy. We like the clear & measurable ROI which PipeCandy adds to its customers – sharpening the Sales sword – with an intelligence driven model, clear vertical focus, which results in the exponential growth in the platform’s wisdom and value to its clients. We believe the diverse; international member base of the Indian Angel Network will add strength to PipeCandy in its pursuit of rapidly scaling its global business.” - Sanjay Jesrani, Indian Angel Network

Legal Tech Startup MyAdvo Raises Funding from LetsVenture

MyAdvo, a legal-tech concierge that helps its clients connect to the 'right' lawyer for their legal needs, has raised a successful Angel round led by Pradyumna Dalmia (Calcutta Angels Network), Mr S. Somasegar and other investors through LetsVenture.

“Technology is yet to enter the Legal Services in India and MyAdvo was founded with an aim to do just that. Their marketplace approach to provide efficient, reliable legal services at predetermined prices will be very helpful and shall definitely come as a huge relief to individuals, working professionals, NRIs, SMEs, startups. It will also act as a boon for independent lawyers across the country who have trouble getting a steady flow of clients. Above all, having met the Team led by Kushal and Rishabh, I can say they are fully committed and have the spark that is required to quickly scale-up this business and take it to the next level.” said Pradyumna Dalmia, Co-Founder at Calcutta Angels Network and lead investor in the round.

“Legal Services in India hasn't been organised yet and MyAdvo is leveraging technology to ensure that the Legal market is marshalled and the service levelled in a manner that an individual can pick from a choice of options, at a predetermined rate. The company is bringing more transparency, cost-efficiency and reliability by building a tech enabled marketplace for lawyers, individuals, corporates, startups and SMEs. Kushal and Rishabh, want to transform how legal services are consumed. I am glad that LetsVenture helped them in their fundraise.” said Shanti Mohan, founder of LetsVenture.

“The MyAdvo team is a team of extremely smart folks addressing a major pain point for businesses and individuals alike. We're confident of them building a valuable and profitable business and helping streamline and simplify legal action for consumers.” Said Abhishek Agarwal, Founding Partner, Operator VC, one of the investors in the round.

Kushal Bhagat, Founder and CEO, MyAdvo added that “We had our idea validated in the very first month of our launch, and then worked hard to make it operationally profitable before pitching to investors.
We will be using the funds to setup a stronger technology and operational backbone. We have been able to build an operationally profitable model in Delhi and will be soon expanding to 8 more cities.”

Within 9 months MyAdvo has received 22,500+ legal queries, expanded their 'lawyer network' to 2,500+ lawyers spread across 115 cities with lawyers in over 75 domain expertise. MyAdvo has also successfully tied up with corporates such as Karbonn, Panasonic, IFB, Hindware among others for handling their 1,000+ consumer litigation cases.

MyAdvo has tied up with various educational institutions including several IITs for their accelerations, incubation centres, IP facilitations, etc. They assist the start-ups incubating in these institutions with their legal structuring and ensure that all compliances and regulations are well-taken care of.

Exclusive Local Deals App BlueBook Raises $500K in Seed Round Syndicated by IAN and LetsVenture

Bangalore based, Online to Offline (O2O) marketing platform, The BlueBook has raised a $500,000 seed round lead by India’s first and World’s largest angel investor network; Indian Angel Network with investors from around the world. Other participants included Let’s Venture, a fund raising platform and angel investors from Singapore and United States. Srinubabu Gedela ( CEO, OMICS International), Avinash Vashistha (IAN member, Founder, Tholons Capital, Ex- ‎Chairman & Country Managing Director, Accenture), Rajiv Mehta (IAN member, CEO, Arvind Lifestyle) led the round for the angel investor group. Avinash Vashishta and Srinubabu Gedela will join the board of the company.

Total food services & wellness market in India today stands at $60B and has grown at 7.7 per cent since 2013. The share of organized market is currently 30% and is expected to grow to 35% by 2021. This translates to $18B as of 2016 and is estimated to reach $32B by 2021. Bluebook is addressing a serviceable obtainable market of $300 Million.

When you think of discounts and coupons, chances are few that you find a genuine discount with no terms and conditions at places you love. After all the research, the customers settle for a relatively lesser known outlet on a weekday which needs to be pre-booked or prepaid for without an assurance of a great experience. Founded in the year 2013, The Bluebook is solving the exact problem in the offline deals & discounts space. It provides discounts from city’s popular outlets with validity throughout the week and does not require a prior booking to avail the service at the selected outlet. Launched as a discount voucher book in 2013, The BlueBook transitioned into a mobile app in Nov, 2015 and is now growing about 40 percent month-over-month.

Speaking on the announcement, Varun Kumar Akula – Co-founder & CEO, The BlueBook said, “Our biggest achievement so far has been capturing market share with no marketing spend and on boarding the top merchants in cities we are present in. The capital raised will be deployed in consolidating the merchant and user base in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Gurgaon, apart from investing on the product & technology to offer deep customer analytics, loyalty solution for merchants and unique payment solution. We aim to be present in all major metros in the next few quarters with our full stack solution.”

“I have known Bluebook founders since their journey started with a physical coupon book. I have witnessed their transition into mobile application and have been really impressed with the traction and the product which was built by core team of 8 passionate individuals with meagre funding. With solid roadmap in place i see something truly amazing happening with BlueBook in this space,” said lead investor Srinubabu Gedela.

“We at IAN believe that BlueBook has global & compelling product with a potential to cater to a high growth market. We are confident that with the right mentorship and market access that IAN provides them, they will scale to become one of the largest brands in the O2O space,” said Padmaja Ruparel, President, Indian Angel Network.

Solutions in the market today require steep discounting or group booking to drive footfalls to the stores. Some websites and apps use table booking to incentivize customers, while others reward you with points which can only be redeemed at select stores, but the bottom line is, these solutions have failed to create a win-win for the merchants and consumers. Bluebook, has been successful in being an advocate to both the customer and the merchant. Bluebook enters into yearlong exclusive contracts with merchants and curates offers to drive new customers and incentivize them on multiple visits.

Bluebook works with the leading brands such as Biereclub, Brewsky, Naturals, Bodycraft, O2 Spa and with a foothold in Hyderabad, Bangalore & Gurgaon. For consumers, the BlueBook operates a subscription model where users can pay a monthly fee of Rs.99 to avail all the discounts at the city’s popular restaurants, bars, cafes, spa, wellness and entertainment outlets. The redemption at the outlet is hassle free and happens with a 4 digit pin authentication.

"BlueBook is a refreshingly smart venture in the O2O space - a space flooded by companies with high burn rates and questionable business models. BlueBook, in contrast, has been successful in creating both positive unit economics & scalability, making it a lucrative proposition for investors on the LetsVenture platform” said Shanti Mohan, Founder of LetsVenture.

Bluebook has seen that customers can recoup the subscription amount in as low as one redemption, letting them enjoy the discounts they wouldn't normally be able to receive owing to the popularity of the hang out. While the merchants witnessed a well-balanced foot fall garnering attention from new first time customers and the inbuilt visit based incentives have induced loyalty amongst the customers. The startup’s unique business model and lean approach has helped it keep the customer acquisition cost low, while maintaining the merchant retention rate at a high 95%. 100% of the user base has been acquired organically through word of mouth and referrals and has helped 1,00,000+ users save at their 1200+ merchants.

Rajiv Mehta - CEO, Arvind Fashion Brands Limited lead investor, said, “Biere Club, Puma Social, Smokehouse Deli, these are prestigious brands not known to offer deals & discounts. With my personal experience in retail & hospitality, I was intrigued when I got to know that consumers were benefiting from offers & upgrades to these outfits, but blown away when I was made aware that BlueBook had exclusivity for these deals. Business model is scalable across cities and their unique customer acquisition strategies are a huge differentiator.

“BlueBook's current business model, traction and non-linear scaling by itself is highly differentiated. Their focus on analytics and personalised offering of Deals makes it a win win for both the customer and the merchant. I look forward to working with this passionate team as they work towards transforming the way the Online to Offline (O2O) space works in our country.” Commented, Avinash Vashista lead investor.

eCommerce Startup JustLikeNew.in Raises $500K in Funding via LetsVenture

Marking another step in its growth journey, premier smartphone repair e-commerce platform JustLikeNew.in has recently raised funds worth $0.5 million ($500,000) through LetsVenture.com. The start-up, which is poised to transform the smartphone repair industry in India by productizing over 10,000 smartphone repair services on its platform, secured investments from leading angel investors including Mr. Krishnakumar Natarajan- Executive Chairman of Mindtree and Mr. Sandeep Mathur- Former Managing Director of Oracle India. Mr. Vikas Tandon- Former Managing Director of Indigo Consulting and Mr. Aneesh Reddy- CEO of Capillary Technologies who had earlier invested in the seed round of funding for JustLikeNew.in have also participated in this round, illustrating their sustained confidence in the robust business model of the start-up.

Incepted in mid-2014 and formally launched in 2015 in response to the highly unorganized state of Indian repair industry, JustLikeNew.in has successfully disrupted the smartphone repair segment through transparency, cost-effectiveness and convenience. The start-up currently provides free pickup and drop service for smartphones and tablets with a service turnaround time of 48 hours, bringing high-quality repair at customers’ doorstep. JustLikeNew.in has also established a dominant presence in the B2B segment through partnerships with Uber, Ola, Swiggy and Qualcomm for smartphone servicing, and offers pan-India services through its strategic partnership with 3PL. The platform is committed to constant innovation and the recent funds raised will primarily be utilised to penetrate deeper into JustLikeNew’s existing target cities and to make improvements in its IT infrastructure in order to provide its users with a seamless repair experience.

JustLikeNew.in has been co-founded by Ajit Panigrahi and Rahul Agarwal, ex-classmates at Xavier School of Management (XLRI) who spent most of their time discussing entrepreneurial ideas. The e-commerce platform was, in fact, inspired by Ajit’s own experience of accidentally causing damage to his phone and subsequently having great difficulties in getting it repaired. The duo have since been committed to ensuring that smartphone users do not have to run from pillar to post for services that are required so regularly.

Commenting on the funding, Ajit Panigrahi, Co-founder JustLikeNew.in, said, “We are extremely pleased by the phenomenal response received by JustLikeNew.in since its launch as can be seen by the fact that we were oversubscribed by 1.5 times on the platform. The investors at LetsVenture have also shown great faith in our model. Vikas Tandon and Aneesh Reddy have been associated with us since our seed round and this round too, is led by Vikas, demonstrating the fact that they see continued potential in our operations and business model. With the number of smartphone owners estimated to cross 702 million by 2020, there is an immense scope for our service network in the country’s after-sales repair space. We are confident that the adoption of online-based repair services will continue to grow at an accelerated pace in the future as well.”

Krishnakumar Natarajan, Executive Chairman of Mindtree, elaborated on the reasons for investing in the start-up, commenting, “JustLikeNew.in has tremendous potential due to its differentiated approach and customer-centric offerings. By bringing in service standardisation and enhancing transparency in pricing, the platform has transformed the smartphone repair experience for the Indian costumer. I am convinced that the model JustLikeNew.in has adopted has great promise and is absolutely suitable for the country’s market.”

Ram Kumar Kakani, Professor at XLRI and one of JustLikeNew.in’s significant investors, expressed his enthusiasm about the future of the start-up, commenting, “I have taught Ajit and Rahul during their MBA days, and they always endeavoured to find solutions to problems around them. With JustLikeNew.in’s innovative solutions, users are sure to experience unparalleled repair and maintenance services.”

By making cost-effective, value-driven and high-quality repair and maintenance services available to smartphone owners across the country, JustLikeNew.in has emerged as a dominant player in a mostly unorganised market. Its focus on quality of service as well as convenience serves to further differentiate it from its competitors. The platform offers a plethora of value-added services such as free home pickup and drop, a standby replacement phone, timely repair and after-service warranty, available at extremely cost-effective prices, and has truly emerged as a pioneer in the segment.

Mumbai houses the highest number of angel investors

While Bengaluru might be holding the crown of being India's startup capital for quite a long time now, but it has unfortunately lost out on being crowned as the number one destination for India's angel investors. According to data made available by a study done by LetsVenture, an angel investing platform, Mumbai, the financial capital of India, houses the maximum number of angel investors in the country.

The study reveals that out of the total 1,800 angels in the country, the Mumbai-Pune belt is home to about 332 angel investors. This is followed by Bengaluru with 298 for the second position and DelhiNCR is a close third with 285 angel investors.

In addition to the numbers, the study also revealed several other interesting facts about angel investors in India. According to it, when compared to their United States counterparts, Angels in India do lesser due diligence and have a pattern of being Sector-Agnostic.

The findings reveal that angel investors in India end up spending only 4 to 10 hours in doing a due diligence of the startup that they are planning to invest their money in, whereas US investors dedicate around 20 hours on an average for the same. The study also talks about how Indian angel investors often schedule their meetings with entrepreneurs without any prior intimation, while their US counterparts holds their meetings twice every month, and they're planned much in advance for everyone's convenience.

India with its 1,800 angels forms just a fraction of the US's tally of around 300,000 angel investors. These figures strongly indicate that India's angel investing ecosystem is still in its beginning stage and has a long way to go. Though the figures don't look so faltering right now, they do offer a promising future ahead. This becomes almost double sure as last year saw the number of angel deals almost doubling to 691 from just 370 deals in the year 2014.

The LetsVenture report also predicts that 2016 will witness a number of bridge rounds, which is a round of funding that takes places between between the seed round and a full-blown Series A round. According to the report, we will be able to see a number of angels enthusiastically participating in these bridge rounds.

The report also talks about the huge disparity between the US and Indian startup industry regarding the exit procedure. Unlike in the United States, Indian angel investors have to play a waiting game for M&A opportunities or follow-on investments instead of an IPO to get an exit from their startup investments. Majority of the US based angel investors are provided with an opportunity to exit the startups within 3.5 years of their investment. But, an exit in the Indian subcontinent is highly unlikely.

]Top Image Source: Shutterstock ]

Fitness Startup BYG Raises Funding Via LetsVenture and Yatra Acquires Bangalore Based MGaadi

Bangalore-based fitness startup BYG (BookYourGame) has raised funding while Gurgaon-based travel portal, Yatra.com, has acquired mGaadi, a Bangalore-based auto rickshaw aggregator.

Fitness Startup BYG Raises Funding Through LetsVenture For Marketing Expenses

Bangalore-based fitness startup BYG (BookYourGame) has raised funding led by Sanjay Verma (former CEO, Cushman & Wakefield, Asia Pacific) and Amit Khanna ( managing partner, Antuit-Europe) via LetsVenture.

Launched in February 2016 by former Goldman Sachs employees, Devi Prasad Biswal and Avijeet Alagathi, BYG allows its users to buy gym memberships or choose fitness sessions, and pay per session with the ‘Workout Now’ option, without a membership. It is currently operational in New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Bhubaneshwar.

Fitness startup BookYourGame, run by Bookyourgym Fitness Pvt. Ltd, plans to use the funds for marketing expenses. Using the app, available on Android platform, users can book classes and sessions at fitness centres near them, with the sessions being priced between Rs.50 and Rs.400. The company also sells a software-as-a-service solution for fitness providers that helps them engage with their members, and gives access to data and analytics.

Other startups operating in this space include Fitternity, which raised $1 million, and Gympik, which raised $135,000 in seed funding.

Yatra Acquires Bangalore Based Auto Rickshaw Aggregator MGaadi

Gurgaon-based travel portal, Yatra.com, has acquired mGaadi, a Bangalore-based auto rickshaw aggregator, for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2012 by Solomon JP and Vishy Kuruganti, mGaadi is a commuting service from India Drivers Network, a Bangalore-based social enterprise. mGaadi is building a location-based network of auto rickshaw drivers.

Vishy has announced the acquisition on mGaadi's Blog, "In mid-May, after a series of exciting conversations and meetings with Yatra CXOs, the terms of the acquisition were finalised. On Jun 10, we signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Yatra.

As part of the acquisition deal, its employee transportation platform – Cartr and related mGaadi technologies will be integrated into Yatra’s products.

In January 2016, Yatra acqui-hired Mumbai-based Travel-logs, which specialises in organising customised city walks and private tours.

Image Source: ShutterStock

Gurgaon's GHV Accelerator Ties-up With LetsVenture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let'sVenture Founder Manish Singhal Quits

Bangalore based angel deal making platform Let'sVenture seemed to have hit the founder trouble just one year into its launch. One of the three founders, Manish Singhal, has quit the organization citing personal reasons. Shanti Mohan and Sanjay Jha, the other two founders continue to be associated with the platform which is backed by Accel Partners and a number of other high-profile angels.

According to some sources, the split in the founder team is amicable. "Shanti and Manish figured out in the last few months that they had very different styles and personalities. Rather than have that become a problem, they parted ways gracefully" said Sharad Sharma to Economic Times. Sharma is an advisor to Let’sVenture and co-founder of iSpirit foundation.

Mohan will now manage business development and strategy, following Manish’s resignation, while Jha will continue to handle product development. “Manish decided to leave for personal reasons. The departure has not affected Let’sVenture, as we are three co-founders. We are also aggressively hiring and don’t see any impact on business” said Shanti Mohan in an email response to the Economic Times.

San Francisco based Let’sVenture helps startups in setting their feet in the market by connecting them to accredited investors and getting them seed capital. The platform which is often compared to AngelList received validation in May this year when it was successful in raising Rs. 4 Crore from a group of 21 investors. The investors list also included Bangalore based Accel Partners. Top run angels such as Indus Net Technologies founder Abhishek Rungta, InMobi founder Naveen Tewari, Google India head Rajan Anandan etc. were active participants in the round.

Let’sVenture went live in mid 2013 with an aim of making the process of fund raising easier for non-profit organisations. Mohan had earlier worked with non-profits for a while and realized that they had an equally tough time in raising angel capital. This realization of hers lead to the creation of Let’sVenture and Jha and Singhal joined her in the process. Singhal had a prior experience in working in the startup ecosystem after he sold his own startup, Sling Media, while Jha had earlier worked in the sphere of product development in companies like CDC Software and Aptean.

 

Let'sVenture Founder Manish Singhal Quits

Bangalore based angel deal making platform Let'sVenture seemed to have hit the founder trouble just one year into its launch. One of the three founders, Manish Singhal, has quit the organization citing personal reasons. Shanti Mohan and Sanjay Jha, the other two founders continue to be associated with the platform which is backed by Accel Partners and a number of other high-profile angels.

According to some sources, the split in the founder team is amicable. "Shanti and Manish figured out in the last few months that they had very different styles and personalities. Rather than have that become a problem, they parted ways gracefully" said Sharad Sharma to Economic Times. Sharma is an advisor to Let’sVenture and co-founder of iSpirit foundation.

Mohan will now manage business development and strategy, following Manish’s resignation, while Jha will continue to handle product development. “Manish decided to leave for personal reasons. The departure has not affected Let’sVenture, as we are three co-founders. We are also aggressively hiring and don’t see any impact on business” said Shanti Mohan in an email response to the Economic Times.

San Francisco based Let’sVenture helps startups in setting their feet in the market by connecting them to accredited investors and getting them seed capital. The platform which is often compared to AngelList received validation in May this year when it was successful in raising Rs. 4 Crore from a group of 21 investors. The investors list also included Bangalore based Accel Partners. Top run angels such as Indus Net Technologies founder Abhishek Rungta, InMobi founder Naveen Tewari, Google India head Rajan Anandan etc. were active participants in the round.

Let’sVenture went live in mid 2013 with an aim of making the process of fund raising easier for non-profit organisations. Mohan had earlier worked with non-profits for a while and realized that they had an equally tough time in raising angel capital. This realization of hers lead to the creation of Let’sVenture and Jha and Singhal joined her in the process. Singhal had a prior experience in working in the startup ecosystem after he sold his own startup, Sling Media, while Jha had earlier worked in the sphere of product development in companies like CDC Software and Aptean.

 

How AdPushup Closed $632K in Angel Investment

If you're a startup which often wonders about how companies are able to raise funds, then this article is for you. AdPushup, a startup, was recently successful in raising around $632,000 from 50 Angel investors in a single round of investment.

The company started the fundraising process by registering itself on an online platform for raising funds called LetsVenture. The company preferred LetsVenture over AngelList as a platform because with LetsVenture it is easier to gain visibility as every new startup gets placement on the main listing page of the platform. Within just two days of completing their profile on the platform, the company received a call from the platform’s founders to expand further on what the company was and what they basically did.

In the same week of registering at LetsVenture, the company was asked to pitch itself for the very first time in an offline event at Investopad, which is an amazing co-working space. At that event, the company representatives met Sunil Kalra who later went on to become the first angel to commit to the fund raising round and support the company.

The company further made use of some tools to make itself standout in the sea of other startups in the eyes of the investors. Some of them have been discussed below.

1)  Cold Email- the Company challenged the norm of investments happening through introductions and instead drafted a slightly unorthodox mail. This was a big risk on their part but they took it and in the end it paid off. In the mail they explained what their company basically was and what they were looking for from them. The company sent out a total of 55 mails and received 24% of funds from this round.

2) Exploring the Existing user base- the company was even able to raise funds from their existing user base which showed great user confidence in the company’s product.

3) Angellist- the “Find Investors” tab on Angellist can prove to be very beneficial for startups. AdPushup was able to get two investors using it.

4) Public Relations (PR)- Good PR can give you the speed that you were looking for. It can help you in getting new leads and closing your existing leads faster. It also improves the company’s odds and makes one look more credible.

5) Pitching events- Attending more and more pitching events increases ones chances. AdPushup pitched at events like Techcircle startup 2014 and StartupDash 2014.

Via - AdPushup Official Blog

How AdPushup Closed $632K in Angel Investment

If you're a startup which often wonders about how companies are able to raise funds, then this article is for you. AdPushup, a startup, was recently successful in raising around $632,000 from 50 Angel investors in a single round of investment.

The company started the fundraising process by registering itself on an online platform for raising funds called LetsVenture. The company preferred LetsVenture over AngelList as a platform because with LetsVenture it is easier to gain visibility as every new startup gets placement on the main listing page of the platform. Within just two days of completing their profile on the platform, the company received a call from the platform’s founders to expand further on what the company was and what they basically did.

In the same week of registering at LetsVenture, the company was asked to pitch itself for the very first time in an offline event at Investopad, which is an amazing co-working space. At that event, the company representatives met Sunil Kalra who later went on to become the first angel to commit to the fund raising round and support the company.

The company further made use of some tools to make itself standout in the sea of other startups in the eyes of the investors. Some of them have been discussed below.

1)  Cold Email- the Company challenged the norm of investments happening through introductions and instead drafted a slightly unorthodox mail. This was a big risk on their part but they took it and in the end it paid off. In the mail they explained what their company basically was and what they were looking for from them. The company sent out a total of 55 mails and received 24% of funds from this round.

2) Exploring the Existing user base- the company was even able to raise funds from their existing user base which showed great user confidence in the company’s product.

3) Angellist- the “Find Investors” tab on Angellist can prove to be very beneficial for startups. AdPushup was able to get two investors using it.

4) Public Relations (PR)- Good PR can give you the speed that you were looking for. It can help you in getting new leads and closing your existing leads faster. It also improves the company’s odds and makes one look more credible.

5) Pitching events- Attending more and more pitching events increases ones chances. AdPushup pitched at events like Techcircle startup 2014 and StartupDash 2014.

Via - AdPushup Official Blog