MedTech Startup Axio Biosolutions Raises Rs 36 Cr in Funding led by Omidyar Network India

Axio Biosolutions, that claims to be the first Indian company to get USFDA clearance for a wound care product, on Thursday said it has raised Rs 36 crore in Series B-1 round of funding led by Omidyar Network India, along with participation from existing investors.

The company's existing investors include Accel, University of California and Ratan Tatas UC-RNT Fund, Chiratae Ventures.

The city based company, with its manufacturing plant in Ahmedabad, plans to use the latest funding to expand its footprint, especially in USA and Western Europe, Axio Biosolutions said in a release.

It said the company will continue to develop novel surgical and wound care products for global wound-care market poised to touch USD 24.8 billion by 2024 from USD 19.8 billion in 2019.

"As the first global wound care brand from India, we have plans to explore new markets and introduce more products in the wound care and drug delivery space.

With Axiostat receiving USFDA clearance, we are all set to enter the US market this year.

Soon, we also will be launching our products direct to consumers for emergency trauma use," AxioBiosolutions Founder and CEO Leo Mavely said.

In the previous round,Axioraised Rs 47 crore from UC-RNT, Accel and Chiratae Ventures, the company said, adding that the current round (Series B1 round) is an extension of this.

The total funding Axio received so far,including Series A round of funding, is around Rs 105 crore.

Oikocredit leads INR 360 Mn Funding of Kaleidofin; Flourish and Omidyar Network India double down on previous investment

Kaleidofin Private Limited, India’s first neobank for the informal sector customer, today announced it closed an INR 360 million Series A round led by Oikocredit, an impact investor with four decades of experience in financial inclusion. Existing investors Flourish, a Silicon Valley-based venture firm backing financial health solutions globally, and Omidyar Network India, an investment firm focused on social impact doubled down on their investments in the previous round. Previous funders who participated in the round include Blume Ventures, angel investor Prof. Shlomo Ben-Haim, and Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund, which doubled its stake during this raise. Unitus Capital acted as an exclusive financial advisor to transaction.

“At Kaleidofin, we have reimagined the way financial services are designed and accessed by the lower income groups. Our solutions take into account the financial roadblocks and vulnerability that these segments, such as volatile income streams and limited understanding of the fine print in financial products, “ said Sucharita Mukherjee, Kaleidofin CEO and cofounder. “Our deep ‘tech with touch’ model ensures our financial services are accessible through a trusted channel at an extremely low-cost. We are encouraged by the early wins we have had thus far. Funds raised in this round will help us strengthen our technology backend and respond to growth opportunities.”

Founded in 2017 by Sucharita Mukherjee and Puneet Gupta, Kaleidofin provides curated, goal-based financial solutions to customers in the underbanked segments using proven financial planning and wealth management principles. For each customer, Kaleidofin begins with understanding the financial goals of the household, its main sources of financial vulnerability, preferences, and tolerance toward financial risk. It creates individual “personas” of households through multiple sources of information, such as the demographic profile, income sources, asset ownership, among others, to tailor specific financial solutions for its customers.

A typical solution offered by Kaleidofin for its customers comprises of a combination of savings, investment, credit, and insurance products—all items focused on creating financial resiliency and helping people to take the first step on a financial health journey. The goal-linked financial solution approach ensures no cognitive burden, otherwise required in financial planning.

Kaleidofin is Oikocredit’s first equity investment in the fintech sector in India.

“India is witnessing a transformational change in the way financial services are available and accessed, especially in the underbanked sector. With Kaleidofin as our first equity investment in the Indian fintech sector, we want to promote and be part of the responsible offering of savings and insurance products to the low-income segments of the population. We are confident of the social impact that technology can make in improving access to formal financial services and Kaleidofin team’s understanding of the customer’s requirements. We look forward to working with them,” said Anirudh Sarda, Equity Officer, Oikocredit.

Flourish, the global fund backing impact fintech, which spun out of Omidyar Network earlier this year, also renewed support to Kaleidofin in this round.

“Financial services are a mean to an end. They are supposed to act as tools helping people achieve their life goals and improve their lives, but that has not been the norm,” said Anuradha Ramachandran, director at Flourish, who leads the company’s investments in India. “Kaleidofin’s approach to understanding the consumer, matching their needs with affordable, best-in-class solutions, and guiding them through the decision-making process is a complete reset in this space—one that has been long needed in India. We are excited to continue to support Kaleidofin on their journey to helping Indians build economic resiliency and achieve financial health.“

Amol Warange, Director, Omidyar Network India said, “A vast majority of the Indian population, over 600 million, does not have reliable access to financial services. While there is progress in reaching this customer segment for services such as credit, the full suite of banking services is yet to reach this customer base. Kaleidofin’s unique goal-based solutions can have a positive and meaningful long-term impact on the lives of their customers, who are new to the formal financial sector. As the focus of financial service providers moves from financial access to consumer financial health, Kaleidofin is at the forefront of this revolution.”

In less than two years of operations, Kaleidofin has over 50,000 customers spread across 10 states in India. It has nearly 30 network partners which include MFIs, corporates, and NGOs. Kaleidofin was selected to showcase its innovation model that addresses SDGs through digital financing, at United Nations General Assembly, Special Task Force Event.

Awards - Young Global Leader 2019 (WEF); Women in Fintech Award- Fintegrate 2019; Women Entrepreneur Award 2019 - IFTA

Oikocredit is a social impact investor and worldwide cooperative. Oikocredit has over 40 years’ experience funding organisations active in financial inclusion, agriculture and renewable energy. Oikocredit’s loans, equity investments and capacity building aim to enable people on low incomes in Africa, Asia and Latin America to sustainably improve their living standards. Oikocredit finances over 670 partners, with total outstanding capital of over € 1 billion (at 30 September 2019).

Flourish is an evergreen, early-stage venture fund investing globally in entrepreneurs whose innovations help people achieve financial health and prosperity. Spun out of Omidyar Network in 2019 with an existing portfolio of $200 million, Flourish received a new commitment of $300 million from Pam and Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. Flourish invests in a number of themes in fintech, insurtech, regtech and other technologies, as well as supports nonprofit organizations, that empower people and help foster a fair, more inclusive economy. Flourish is managed by a global team with offices in Silicon Valley, Washington DC, London, and India. For more information visit www.flourishventures.com or join our community through Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, https://medium.com/@flourishventures.

Omidyar Network India invests in bold entrepreneurs who help create a meaningful life for every Indian, especially the hundreds of millions of Indians in low-income and lower-middle-income populations, ranging from the poorest among us to the existing middle class. To drive empowerment and social impact at scale, we work with entrepreneurs in the private, nonprofit and public sectors, who are tackling India’s hardest and most chronic problems. We make equity investments in early stage enterprises and provide grants to nonprofits in the areas of Digital Identity, Education, Emerging Tech, Financial Inclusion, Governance & Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights. Omidyar Network India is part of The Omidyar Group, a diverse collection of companies, organizations and initiatives, supported by philanthropists Pam and Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay.

CredR Raises $6 Mn in Latest Round Led by Omidyar Network India

Mumbai-based Incredible Technologies Private Limited (“CredR”), has raised INR 38 crores (US$ 6 Mn) from Omidyar Network India as well as existing investors. The company is India’s largest used motorcycles consumer brand that integrates online and offline user buying experience through a chain of 50+ CredR franchisee showrooms across Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Jaipur, Kota and Hyderabad. Prior to this round, CredR raised funds from Eight Roads Ventures, AngelList, GrowthStory, Angel investors and venture debt from Blacksoil capital.

Founded by Nikhil Jain, CredR has focused on creating a niche in the used motorcycles segment which is highly unorganised and very fragmented with over 1000 dealers, on average, in any major city. While, India is the world’s largest two wheeler market with over 20 million new units sold every year, the used motorcycles market is even bigger with over 30 million motorcycles sold every year. This massive and rapidly growing used motorcycles market is plagued by problems like poor customer experience, suspect motorcycles quality, lack of standard pricing and non-existent post sales services creating a massive trust deficit in the minds of the customers.

Using its proprietary technology and full stack vertically integrated business model, CredR is striving towards revolutionising the entire customer experience. Moreover, CredR is also providing a formalized platform for tens of thousands of auto original equipment manufacturer stores and used motorcycles dealers. Customers can either choose motorcycles on the website and then complete the transaction by buying them from the nearest CredR showroom or can directly walk into these showrooms and buy the vehicles. Over 130,000 customers have purchased the refurbished motorcycles at the best prices coupled with industry’s best and first in class post sales services.

Speaking about the company’s goal for the future, Nikhil Jain, Founder & CEO, CredR said, “Our partnership with Omidyar Network India validates our shared vision to provide customer the best option to buy / sell used motorcycles. The funds raised in this round would help us to go deeper in the existing markets and to provide world class customer experience using technology by expanding our tech and product teams.”

Speaking about CredR’s fundraise, Sasidhar Nandigam, CSO, CredR said, “We are excited to partner with Omidyar Network India in our journey to build India’s first used motorcycle consumer brand “CredR” that stands for trust in the highly unorganized, fragmented and massive market. Omidyar Network India’s deep understanding of the consumer brands and experience with mobility segment aligns with our first to market business model.”

Commenting on this investment, Siddharth Nautiyal, Investment Partner, Omidyar Network India said, “Two wheelers are the choice of transportation as much in the top 30 cities in India as the rest of the country. CredR is tapping into an exciting space that combines tech led solutions with real world platforms. We believe this convergence of online and offline is key to enhancing consumer trust in the next half billion.”
About Incredible Technologies Pvt Ltd. (CredR)

CredR aims to simplify the entire process of transacting in used motorcycles by offering industry’s first in class products / services for building the trust in a segment which is highly unorganized and fragmented. The company operates India’s first and largest chain of CredR branded retail showrooms across major cities in the country through the franchise model. These showrooms offer customers a wide range of used refurbished motorcycles at best prices.

Omidyar Network India invests in bold entrepreneurs who help create a meaningful life for every Indian, especially the hundreds of millions of Indians in low-income and lower-middle-income populations, ranging from the poorest among us to the existing middle class. To drive empowerment and social impact at scale, we work with entrepreneurs in the private, nonprofit and public sectors, who are tackling India’s hardest and most chronic problems.

The firm makes equity investments in early stage enterprises and provides grants to nonprofits in the areas of Digital Identity, Education, Emerging Tech, Financial Inclusion, Governance & Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights. Omidyar Network India is part of The Omidyar Group, a diverse collection of companies, organizations and initiatives, supported by philanthropists Pam and Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay.

Ex Discovery Networks CEO's Edtech Startup WhiteHat Jr gets $1.3 Mn Seed Funding from Nexus Venture, Omidyar Network India

Mumbai-based WhiteHat Education Technology Pvt Ltd, which runs early childhood coding education platform 'WhiteHat Jr', has raised US$1.3 million in seed funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India.

Founded six months ago by bestselling novelist and former Discovery Networks CEO, Karan Bajaj, WhiteHat Jr teaches kids the fundamentals of coding logic, structure and algorithmic thinking to help kids generate creative outcomes. The platform offers a Live online 1:1 sessions that connects kids age 5-12 to top early childhood coding teachers, all from the comfort of kids' home.

Things like -- Coding-sequence, structure, logic, commands and algorithmic thinkin, are currently taught in less than 1% of schools globally, resulting in the major gap in the requirements of the new world and children’s skills. With Whitehat Jr, Bajaj aims to fill this gap by introduceing kids to the basics of computational thinking.

Since its beta launch in January in India, the company has conducted more than 50,000 trials and currently conducts 500 online classes per day. WhiteHat Jr has over 100 teachers on their platform. The company has seen all the slots being 100% booked within 1 hour of release every day and is running a daily waitlist of 150 students. Early graduates of the course have created professional-ready apps downloadable on the App Store at ages as young as nine years old.Based onunprecedented demand, WhiteHat will be launching theProfessional Course for the kids in the age group 13-14 years.

WhiteHat Jr currently offers three level of courses - Beginner| Intermediate| Advanced. Kids use fundamentals of coding—logic, structure, sequence, commands and algorithmic thinking—to create complex games, animations and apps in a live 1:1 online classroom.

Karan Bajaj, Founder & CEO, WhiteHat Jr, said, "We are overwhelmed by the response shown by the parents to a sunrise subject like coding for kids. We are scaling up our operations and technology to cater to the massive influx and keep up with the consumer interest while also ensuring great teaching experience with our teachers, selected by a rigorous selection process. WhiteHat will be launching the 4th course in its curriculum which will be a professional level course for the kids in age group of 13-14 years."

Anup Gupta, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, said, “WhiteHat Jr is off to an impressive start and has demonstrated great skill in creating a robust tech and operations model to deliver an innovative, personalized educational experience to kids. We are excited to partner withKaran and his team in their journey.”

Namita Dalmia, Principal, Investments, Omidyar Network India, said, “At Omidyar Network India, we believe that computational thinking skills are vital to better equip individuals to navigate the complexities of the 21st century. WhiteHat Jr is building a highly scalable, online live teaching platform focused on building skills which are as foundational as literacy and numeracy from an early stage. By reimagining what is taught and how students learn in the 21st century, they have the potential to create meaningful outcomes for every student in India."

Founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Omidyar had announced that it plans to invest close to $250 million in Indian startup ventures and organizations over the next 4-5 years. In October last year, Roopa Kudva managing director of Omidyar India partner had told a business daily that the firm will look to enter new areas and sectors such as citizen-focused legal services, property rights and public platforms.

Source - Outlook, AdGully

Women-Centric Social Network Healofy Raises $8 Mn from China's BabyTree

Bangalore-based Healofy, a women-centric content social network, has raised $8 million (~ ₹ 55 crore) in Series A round of funding led by BabyTree Group, a China's largest and most active maternity and child-focused (M&C) community platform, said the company in a press release.

BAce Capital, a fund led by Alibaba's affiliate Ant Financial Services Group, and Omidyar Network also participated in the funding round.

The startup, exactly a year ago, had raised $1 million from Omidyar Network in seed funding round.

The startup plans to invest the funds to further strengthen the product, engineering and data science teams and scale its machine learning and personalisation engine. 

So far, Healofy has raised a total of $11.1M in funding over four rounds including the latest one.

Established in September 2016, Healofy is addressing the growing demand among mothers and women in India as a whole for relatable and credible content on topics ranging from pregnancy to parenting.

Healofy has grown to become the largest women-centric online community in India. Healofy plans to use the funds to further strengthen the product, engineering and data science teams and scale its machine learning & personalization engines. It also intends to expand into e-commerce and additional content categories, including fashion, food and lifestyle.

"Healofy has rapidly established an active online community for women in India, and we are delighted to partner with them through this investment," said Huainan Wang, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at BabyTree.

"There is huge potential in the she-economy and mobile social sector in India, and M&C social is where the two overlap. We have successfully leveraged engaging content, social features and online services to serve China's M&C community, and we are confident that Healofy can learn from our experience to drive ongoing growth of their platform," he said

Following the investment, BabyTree will share its experience in developing products, services and profitable business models to help Healofy increase share of the online M&C market in India.

"We are very excited to be partnering with our investors as we enter our next phase of growth," said Gaurav Aggarwal, Chief Executive Officer at Healofy. "Women
are the primary purchase decision makers in most Indian households. Our
data shows they are social and network-reliant in their decision
making, underlining the importance of building trust through a strong
network. To help them become comfortable with online transactions, it is
critical for the next set of e-commerce platforms to innovate and
provide an online shopping experience
similar to the offline world. BabyTree has demonstrated that highly
engaged networks can transition to highly profitable platforms, and we
look forward to diving deeper into their capabilities and knowhow."

BabyTree's investment in Healofy is its first investment in an online M&C platform outside of China, and an important part of its strategy to expand its presence in the global M&C family service industry.

Mr. Huainan Wang added, "This marks our first step outside of China, and we will continue to look for opportunities where we can leverage our expertise in fostering online M&C communities to support similar platforms in other high growth international markets."

About BAce Capital, it is a fund led by Ant Financial Services Group, formerly known as Alipay, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group. Ant Financial is the highest valued fintech company in the world, and the world's most valuable unicorn (start-up) company, with a valuation of US$150 billion .

LA-based Vyng Raises $4 Million in Series A Led by Omidyar Network India

Vyng, an LA-based company focused on transforming how conversations start on mobile, announced today it has raised $4 million in a Series A round, led by Omidyar Network India and returning investor March Capital Partners, with participation from Alpha Edison and the Entrepreneur Fund. Vyng’s lockscreen technology surfaces content trapped in a user’s smartphone “app.” The funding will further empower users to start better conversations globally, allowing the company to grow the global team, partner with companies that seek to be more than an app, and continue to develop patents that drive the video content experience on smartphones.

Vyng transforms a user’s caller ID into a video chosen by either the user or the incoming caller. Its technology allows users to create their own video ringtone or caller ID, or choose from a curated library of videos arranged by interest channels. Dedicated to providing an integrated video experience, the company has three current patents for its propriety technology delivering video through calls and contextual texting.

“Vyng brings a powerful video content experience to what was previously an audio-only caller ID, creating a new distribution channel for short-form content owners and a better experience for making and receiving phone calls,” said Paul Kats, CEO and Co-Founder, Vyng. “We’re constantly inundated with notifications and spam we don’t care about – by showing a personalized video on the lockscreen, Vyng is elevating the people and conversations that matter most.”

Mobile notifications, including incoming phone calls, have long been relegated to a generic, sterile design that lacks creativity. Believing in the untapped potential of lockscreens, Vyng facilitates the quickest, most impactful way to communicate through the delivery of a video to the lockscreen of a device. Since Vyng’s launch of Video Ringtones last year, it has served over two billion videos in 170 countries and is driving engagement in regions like South Asia and North Africa where smartphone adoption continues to grow rapidly.

“Vyng has delivered billions of user-friendly video notifications and ringtones across mobile devices and reinforced their leadership in the space with several patents,” said Jim Armstrong, Managing Director, March Capital Partners. “We’ve seen their ability to solve for Android’s fragmentation across the globe, building better notifications across 6,000 Android devices and bringing full-screen video pushed to its users without requiring consistent data.”

Omidyar Network India invests in iconic, innovative emerging technology companies in impactful areas with the potential to achieve massive impact at scale for the lower and lower middle income users in the country.

Siddharth Nautiyal, investment partner, Omidyar Network India added, "For the new wave of mobile internet users in India, whom we refer to as the Next Half Billion, there is an urgent need to reimagine the user journey. Vyng does that by integrating video and social expression to an existing behaviour, the phone call. Our research shows that building locally relevant experiences is key to creating online trust and usage. We believe with its largest customer base already in India, Vyng is redefining engagement on smartphones.”

Vyng’s Paul Kats recently appeared on Entrepreneur’s Elevator Pitch TV show, securing an additional $250K from value-add investors of the Entrepreneur Fund.

Vyng is an LA-based startup that transforms how conversations start on mobile by bringing emotion to the lockscreen. Vyng’s video ringtones app lets users set video channels as their ringtone, playing a fresh video on the lockscreen with every call. Vyng boasts 2 billion videos played across 170 countries since its launch in early 2017. The company is backed by March Capital Partners, Omidyar Network, Alpha Edison and angel investors.


March Capital Partners is a Santa Monica-based venture capital firm with one of the largest global funds in Southern California. Founded by industry veterans with over 50 years of investing experience, March Capital is unique in the Southern California market with its active investments in both early and late-stage companies in mobile, enterprise, infrastructure, gaming and other growth industries. The majority of March Capital’s investments are with Southern California companies, with targeted positions in innovative global organizations.

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization has committed more than $1 billion to innovative for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations to catalyze economic and social change. In India, Omidyar Network focuses on helping the hundreds of millions of Indians in low-income and lower-middle-income populations, which we define as ranging from the poorest among us to the existing middle class by working across multiple areas, including: Digital Identity, Education, Emerging Tech, Financial Inclusion, Governance & Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights.

E-Learning Startup Vedantu Raises $11 Mn from Omidyar Network and Accel

Bangalore-based e-learning Vedantu has raised $11 million in a Series B funding round led by Silicon Valley impact investment firm Omidyar Network and also contributed by its existing investor Accel Partners, announced Vamsi Krishna, CEO & co-founder of Vedantu, in an interview to LiveMint.

The freshly raised funds will be used the startup for technology expansion and deeper penetration in tier 2 and 3 cities.

Founded in 2011, by four friends from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) -- Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena and Anand Prakash, Vedantu is a live online tutoring platform that enables personalized learningby using technology to bring together teachers and students on a single platform to enable live learning between them.

The startup had raised its first round of funding after six months of current operational format. It then raised $5 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management in its Series A funding in May 2015.

TDerived from two Sanskrit words Veda (Knowledge) + Tantu (Network), Vedantu signifies a 'Knowledge Network'​ where any student can tap into a teacher of his choice directly and the learning can happen, anytime-anywhere. Vedantu has an online portal, where teachers tutor students in group and one-on-one sessions. An hour’s group session costs Rs 50-150 and a private session costs Rs300-600. “Our group sessions are doing very well in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. That is why a major amount of this funding will go into expanding in that market,” said Krishna.

The technological development will aim to make the sessions more personalized. The platform will track aspects like a student’s attention span and concept understanding using machine learning, facial recognition and others.

Prior to launching Vedantu, the co-founders previously co-founded Lakshya, a test preparation coaching company, in 2006 which later got acquired by MT Educare (Mahesh Tutorials) in 2012. As part of Lakshya the founders taught and mentored more than 10,000 students and trained more than 200 teachers between them.

Currently tutoring students from 6th to 12th grade, Vedantu plans to enter into exams categories like GMAT and GRE. The Vedantu app is operational in 80 cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi with students from 36 countries and 1,200 cities.

The online education sector in India is estimated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52% to $1.96 billion by 2021, according a joint study by Google and KPMG.

Vedantu competes with online education startups including Byjus, Unacademy , Meritnation, Cuemath and Toppr, among others.

In May this year, Omidyar Network had announced six new investments in the first four months of 2018 -- Doubtnut, Pratilipi, Healofy, Vedantu, Kaleidofin, and Affordplan–all of which align with the firm’s goal of supporting entrepreneurs that serve the Next Half Billion.

Founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Omidyar Network has recently announced about its plan to invest close to $250 million in Indian startup ventures and organizations over the next 4-5 years.

[Top Image - Vedantu co-founders | Credit - officechai.com]

Social Impact Investor Social Finance Launches Massive $2 Bn worth of India-Focused Funds

Soon within 48-hours after US government agency OPIC has announced that it is looking to back late-stage Indian startups, an another not-for-profit and impact financing platform, Social Finance, has announced today the launch of two funds of US$1 billion each for India (collective value of both funds US$2 billion).

Formed in 2007, Social Finance Ltd. is a not for profit organisation that partners with the government, the social sector and the financial community to find better ways of tackling social problems globally. It works with government, investors and delivery partners to develop new models of social change.

The purpose of the first India-focused fund, India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF) is to bring funds on scale to the best education service providers, with a sharp focus on improving learning and skilling outcomes. The second fund, the India Impact Fund will catalyse debt for impact in housing, health and education.

These funds were officially launched at the Annual summit of the Global Steering Group on Impact in New Delhi, by Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman, Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, in the presence of an array of luminaries including Former US Vice President Al Gore, Prince Maximillian of Lichtenstein and Former Tata Chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata.

This event also marked the official launch of Social Finance India, which, with these funds will be poised to become a major force in the impact finance space. Social Finance India, will be headed by Mr. Govind Sankaranarayanan, who held critical leadership positions at the Tata Group for over two decades, and until very recently was the COO of NBFC giant, Tata Capital.

The Board of Social Finance India includes several financial sector veterans, Dr. Rajiv Lall, Founder MD & CEO of IDFC Bank, Mr. Ashish Dhawan, Founder of PE firm Chrysalis Capital and Ashoka University and Mr. Vikram Gandhi, Former Vice Chairman, Credit Suisse and Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School. Mr. Yuri Afanasiev, Chief Representative of the United Nations in India has recently joined as a member of the Advisory Board.

The Tata Trusts and Omidyar Network, two of the leading names in the philanthropic world have backed Social Finance India. To recall, Omidyar India partner and managing director Roopa Kudva had recently announced to invest about US$ 250 million in Indian startup ventures and organizations over the next four-to-five years.

Details of the funds:

India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF):

The India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF) is a unique outcome fund structure where a corpus of US$1 billion will focus on improving the quality of education in India and set up 'pay-for success' contracts with pre-determined metrics.

Some of the key target outcomes for IEOF include:

• Improving learning outcomes and numeracy for children in grades 1-3, studying in Government and affordable private primary schools


• Technology aided interventions to improve learning outcomes in subjects such as mathematics for children in grades 6-10 (upper-primary and secondary sections),


• Improving completion rate of girls till class 10 in Government and affordable private school

India Impact Fund (IIF):

IIF is intended to be a USD 1 billion pool of funds which will catalyse debt to Impact Enterprises. It will help bridge the large funding gaps in meeting the UN Sustainable Development goals. The first Fund within the umbrella IIFF, will target equity funding for small lenders in the priority sectors as outlined in the PSL (Priority Sector Lending) - Agriculture, MSME, Education, Housing, Social Infrastructure, Renewable Energy. UN SDG Impact Finance group will partner with Social Finance for impact measurement. Subsequent funds under the IIFF umbrella will be designed to support the Indian Government's National priorities of 'Make in India', 'Skill India', 'Swachh Bharat', 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana' and 'Digital India'.

Notably, besides UK as its origin country, Social Finance already has sister organisations in the US, Israel, Netherlands, and now India will be fifth member country of its global network.

Dr. Rajiv Lall, Chairman Social Finance India said, "We are delighted to have Govind Sankaranarayanan, as the CEO of Social Finance India. Govind, who has led large complex organisations in the financial services space, is the perfect leader for being an institution that will use the power of finance to amplify social impact.

Speaking about the launch, Mr. Govind Sankaranarayanan, Managing Director of Social Finance India said, "It is a great privilege to be a part of this global organisation, and take forward Sir Ronald Cohen's vision of using finance as an agent for good. India is ground zero for meeting the challenges of the UN SDG goals and Social Finance India will catalyse different types of innovative financial instruments and financial intermediaries to help bridge funding gaps across a range of sectors. An important part of this effort will be the sharpening of our focus on outcomes and improving the sophistication of impact measurement."

[Top Image - Photo by Jonathan Brinkhorst on Unsplash]

Social Impact Investor Social Finance Launches Massive $2 Bn worth of India-Focused Funds

Soon within 48-hours after US government agency OPIC has announced that it is looking to back late-stage Indian startups, an another not-for-profit and impact financing platform, Social Finance, has announced today the launch of two funds of US$1 billion each for India (collective value of both funds US$2 billion).

Formed in 2007, Social Finance Ltd. is a not for profit organisation that partners with the government, the social sector and the financial community to find better ways of tackling social problems globally. It works with government, investors and delivery partners to develop new models of social change.

The purpose of the first India-focused fund, India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF) is to bring funds on scale to the best education service providers, with a sharp focus on improving learning and skilling outcomes. The second fund, the India Impact Fund will catalyse debt for impact in housing, health and education.

These funds were officially launched at the Annual summit of the Global Steering Group on Impact in New Delhi, by Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman, Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, in the presence of an array of luminaries including Former US Vice President Al Gore, Prince Maximillian of Lichtenstein and Former Tata Chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata.

This event also marked the official launch of Social Finance India, which, with these funds will be poised to become a major force in the impact finance space. Social Finance India, will be headed by Mr. Govind Sankaranarayanan, who held critical leadership positions at the Tata Group for over two decades, and until very recently was the COO of NBFC giant, Tata Capital.

The Board of Social Finance India includes several financial sector veterans, Dr. Rajiv Lall, Founder MD & CEO of IDFC Bank, Mr. Ashish Dhawan, Founder of PE firm Chrysalis Capital and Ashoka University and Mr. Vikram Gandhi, Former Vice Chairman, Credit Suisse and Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School. Mr. Yuri Afanasiev, Chief Representative of the United Nations in India has recently joined as a member of the Advisory Board.

The Tata Trusts and Omidyar Network, two of the leading names in the philanthropic world have backed Social Finance India. To recall, Omidyar India partner and managing director Roopa Kudva had recently announced to invest about US$ 250 million in Indian startup ventures and organizations over the next four-to-five years.

Details of the funds:

India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF):

The India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF) is a unique outcome fund structure where a corpus of US$1 billion will focus on improving the quality of education in India and set up 'pay-for success' contracts with pre-determined metrics.

Some of the key target outcomes for IEOF include:

• Improving learning outcomes and numeracy for children in grades 1-3, studying in Government and affordable private primary schools


• Technology aided interventions to improve learning outcomes in subjects such as mathematics for children in grades 6-10 (upper-primary and secondary sections),


• Improving completion rate of girls till class 10 in Government and affordable private school

India Impact Fund (IIF):

IIF is intended to be a USD 1 billion pool of funds which will catalyse debt to Impact Enterprises. It will help bridge the large funding gaps in meeting the UN Sustainable Development goals. The first Fund within the umbrella IIFF, will target equity funding for small lenders in the priority sectors as outlined in the PSL (Priority Sector Lending) - Agriculture, MSME, Education, Housing, Social Infrastructure, Renewable Energy. UN SDG Impact Finance group will partner with Social Finance for impact measurement. Subsequent funds under the IIFF umbrella will be designed to support the Indian Government's National priorities of 'Make in India', 'Skill India', 'Swachh Bharat', 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana' and 'Digital India'.

Notably, besides UK as its origin country, Social Finance already has sister organisations in the US, Israel, Netherlands, and now India will be fifth member country of its global network.

Dr. Rajiv Lall, Chairman Social Finance India said, "We are delighted to have Govind Sankaranarayanan, as the CEO of Social Finance India. Govind, who has led large complex organisations in the financial services space, is the perfect leader for being an institution that will use the power of finance to amplify social impact.

Speaking about the launch, Mr. Govind Sankaranarayanan, Managing Director of Social Finance India said, "It is a great privilege to be a part of this global organisation, and take forward Sir Ronald Cohen's vision of using finance as an agent for good. India is ground zero for meeting the challenges of the UN SDG goals and Social Finance India will catalyse different types of innovative financial instruments and financial intermediaries to help bridge funding gaps across a range of sectors. An important part of this effort will be the sharpening of our focus on outcomes and improving the sophistication of impact measurement."

[Top Image - Photo by Jonathan Brinkhorst on Unsplash]

Omidyar Network Mulls to Invest $250 Mn in Indian Startups and Organizations

Silicon Valley impact investment firm, Omidyar Network, which was founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, plans to invest close to $250 million in Indian startup ventures and organizations over the next four-to-five years, reported LiveMint today.

In an interview to LiveMint, Omidyar India partner and managing director Roopa Kudva said the firm will look to enter new areas and sectors such as citizen-focused legal services, property rights and public platforms.

In India, Omidyar has its existence for about 10 years, has invested roughly $250 million in about 90 startups in India including not-for-profit organisations. Startps it has invested in so far includes Quikr, 1MG and RailYatri.in among others. Notably, 70% of these investments are equity-based while the rest are grants.

Omidyar is also an investor in CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad advised Bharat Inclusive Technologies Seed Fund.

“We are not like a fund—we are not structured like a fund. We don’t operate like a typical VC (venture capital) fund, but if you think of us as a fund, we typically do $50-60 million (of investments) in India every year. It’s about a $200-250 million fund going forward,” said Kudva, who also serves as an independent director on the board of Infosys, among others.

[caption id="attachment_126555" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Roopa Kudva [Image - nextbillion.net][/caption]

Kudva further said "One way to look at us is like a $250-million fund which does about 30% in grants and the rest of it in equity investments. We expect to continue down that path with a fund of that size. The implications are continue with early stage, look for capital-light models and look for potential to scale."

With sectors such as content and education technology becoming increasingly mainstream, Omidyar plans to back promising companies in those businesses.

“If we look at ed-tech, we’ve identified a white space in ed-tech and that white space is Series A. It’s not Series B, not seed. We don’t want to be a seed investor because every year, some 600 ed-tech firms get funded... We think people are willing to come in once a company is ready for a Series B. That I think is our sweet spot,” said Kudva.

Established in 2004, Omidyar is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. It has committed more than US$1.3 billion to nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies across multiple investment areas, including Consumer Internet & Mobile, Education, Financial Inclusion, Governance & Citizen Engagement, and Property Rights, according to Omidyar website.

Late last month, on a panel at SOCAP on the impact investing landscape in India, Kudva said, "India’s time for impact investing has never been better than it is today. On the one hand, we’re seeing an ecosystem for entrepreneurs which has never been as conducive as it is today, whether it be in terms of the funding available, the quality of talent, or government support. And on the other hand, you have the drivers of social impact, which are gathering greater momentum. You have more people with access to a mobile phone, you have a rapidly increased number of bank accounts in the country, a new skilling policy. So the combination of the two … is creating a sweet spot for impact investing in India today."

To recall, in May this year Omidyar Network had supported 'Bharat Inclusion Initiative', which is a $25 million seed fund by CIIE of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) that aims to mentor and invest in early stage tech startups over the next three-four years.

In March, Omidyar invested $1 million in Healofy, a women-centric, multilingual parenting social network based out of Bangalore. This was followed by undisclosed amount of investment in a Series B round of funding in Noida-based RailYatri, a train-travel app startup backed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

[Top Featured Image - Roopa Kudva of Omidyar Network India in conversation with Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon about seeking new frontiers. | Via ~ Facebook.com/OmidyarNetwork]

Gurgaon-based InsurTech Startup Toffee Raises $1.5 Mn in Seed Funding Via Kalaari, Others

Gurgaon-based digital-only insurance (Insur-tech) platform Toffee Insurance has raised $1.5 million ( ~ Rs.10 crore approx.) in a round of seed funding led by Kalaari Capital, Omidyar Network and Accion Venture Lab.

The startup will use the freshly raised capital on product development and expanding its team.

Founded in 2017 by Nishant Jain and Rohan Kumar, Toffee is a technology platform aimed at providing contextual and relevant insurance offerings to a growing youth demographic. The startup claims that buying insurance on its platform takes less than 90 seconds and simple claims are processed in under two hours via a completely digital interface.

According to Crunchbase data, Toffee had earlier raised seed capital of $1,00,000 from Vivek Gujral, who is founder of SaaS-based Insurance firm OneShield, in July 2017.

Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, said the company is on to to create simple and small ticket size insurance products and distribute them in a very contextual way, which has huge potential to drive the mass adoption.

Toffee’s initial lineup of products spans across health, lifestyle and personal accidents with a core focus on simplicity and includes products such as StayFit Toffee, Anti-Dengue Toffee, Globetrotter Toffee, Renter Toffee, Commuter Toffee and Backpacker Toffee, among others.

Rohan Kumar, CEO & Co-Founder, Toffee Insurance, ​said: “Our goal is to unbundle products and repackage them in a youth-friendly way that focuses on the benefits of insurance to almost make it a commoditised way to sell insurance rather than as a financial product.”

The startup said in a statement to a business daily that it also intends to build a strong insur-tech team with capabilities across data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Notably, Toffee is one of the few Insur-tech startups in India. It may be recalled that, recently Acko Technologies, an another Insur-tech startup based out of Mumbai, has raised $12 million in a funding round led by Amazon Inc.

The above news was first reported in Moneycontrol.

[Top Image - EnterpriseInnovation.net]

Gurgaon-based InsurTech Startup Toffee Raises $1.5 Mn in Seed Funding Via Kalaari, Others

Gurgaon-based digital-only insurance (Insur-tech) platform Toffee Insurance has raised $1.5 million ( ~ Rs.10 crore approx.) in a round of seed funding led by Kalaari Capital, Omidyar Network and Accion Venture Lab.

The startup will use the freshly raised capital on product development and expanding its team.

Founded in 2017 by Nishant Jain and Rohan Kumar, Toffee is a technology platform aimed at providing contextual and relevant insurance offerings to a growing youth demographic. The startup claims that buying insurance on its platform takes less than 90 seconds and simple claims are processed in under two hours via a completely digital interface.

According to Crunchbase data, Toffee had earlier raised seed capital of $1,00,000 from Vivek Gujral, who is founder of SaaS-based Insurance firm OneShield, in July 2017.

Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, said the company is on to to create simple and small ticket size insurance products and distribute them in a very contextual way, which has huge potential to drive the mass adoption.

Toffee’s initial lineup of products spans across health, lifestyle and personal accidents with a core focus on simplicity and includes products such as StayFit Toffee, Anti-Dengue Toffee, Globetrotter Toffee, Renter Toffee, Commuter Toffee and Backpacker Toffee, among others.

Rohan Kumar, CEO & Co-Founder, Toffee Insurance, ​said: “Our goal is to unbundle products and repackage them in a youth-friendly way that focuses on the benefits of insurance to almost make it a commoditised way to sell insurance rather than as a financial product.”

The startup said in a statement to a business daily that it also intends to build a strong insur-tech team with capabilities across data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Notably, Toffee is one of the few Insur-tech startups in India. It may be recalled that, recently Acko Technologies, an another Insur-tech startup based out of Mumbai, has raised $12 million in a funding round led by Amazon Inc.

The above news was first reported in Moneycontrol.

[Top Image - EnterpriseInnovation.net]

IIM-Ahmedabad Centre Launches $25 Mn Seed Fund To Invest in Tech Startups

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s (IIMA’s) centre for innovation, incubation, and entrepreneurship (CIIE) has launched a US$25 million seed fund named 'Bharat Inclusion Initiative', which aims to mentor and invest in early stage tech startups over the next three-four years, reported Economic Times.

The initiative will focus on incubating and backing startups that work in areas such as financial inclusion, livelihood, education and health.

With seed support from Tata Trusts, the initiative has received an initial commitment of $12.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and Omidyar Network. This includes a $5 million commitment for providing catalytic support to start-ups through a series of acceleration programmes, focused research, training workshops and piloting partnerships. In addition, CIIE will also invest in seed and pre-Series-A start-ups through a dedicated Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund - which announced its initial closing at $7.5 million, and is expected to make a final close at $15 million by July, 2018.

“The Bharat Inclusion Initiative aims to provide a continuum of solutions to inclusion-focused tech entrepreneurs across the pre-incubation, seed and scale-up stage and help them jump to the next orbit. It is heartening to see the support for this initiative from all the partners,” said Neharika Vohra, chairperson, CIIE Initiatives.

Pawan Bakhshi, India Lead, Financial Services for the Poor, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said, "At Gates Foundation, we are committed to creating a disproportionate and sustained impact on some of the most critical challenges facing the nation today."

Through in-depth research to build knowledge about the under-served, incubating new start-ups in this space and providing access to soft and patient capital as these ventures take root, the Bharat Inclusion Initiative will seek to catalyse entrepreneurs who are building disruptive solutions for Bharat.

According to Santhosh Ramdoss, director, India programmes, at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, a large portion of urban poor families in India do not have any formal access to financial services. “We are presented with a landmark opportunity to take on this challenge, given India’s leadership in building a cutting-edge public technology infrastructure that can be used to seamlessly deliver a variety of critical digital services to low-income families."

Speaking about Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, in February, the foundation has led the $13.5 million (~ Rs 87 crore) funding of Bengaluru based edtech startup IMAX Program.

In August 2017, it was reported that the foundation is looking to launch incubator for startups in India. And for same, the foundation is reportedly in talks with IIM-Ahmedabad’s CIIE.

CIIE was founded to support entrepreneurs and turn business ideas into viable businesses models. It partners with industry experts, mentors, corporates, IIMA community and investors to help incubate early-stage start-ups.

In the past, CIIE incubated startups include Razorpay, Hashcube, Rolocule, and Thrillophilia, among others. In 2015, the centre had launched India’s first Food & Agri-Business accelerator for startups in food and agri-business sector.

IIM-Ahmedabad Centre Launches $25 Mn Seed Fund To Invest in Tech Startups

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s (IIMA’s) centre for innovation, incubation, and entrepreneurship (CIIE) has launched a US$25 million seed fund named 'Bharat Inclusion Initiative', which aims to mentor and invest in early stage tech startups over the next three-four years, reported Economic Times.

The initiative will focus on incubating and backing startups that work in areas such as financial inclusion, livelihood, education and health.

With seed support from Tata Trusts, the initiative has received an initial commitment of $12.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and Omidyar Network. This includes a $5 million commitment for providing catalytic support to start-ups through a series of acceleration programmes, focused research, training workshops and piloting partnerships. In addition, CIIE will also invest in seed and pre-Series-A start-ups through a dedicated Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund - which announced its initial closing at $7.5 million, and is expected to make a final close at $15 million by July, 2018.

“The Bharat Inclusion Initiative aims to provide a continuum of solutions to inclusion-focused tech entrepreneurs across the pre-incubation, seed and scale-up stage and help them jump to the next orbit. It is heartening to see the support for this initiative from all the partners,” said Neharika Vohra, chairperson, CIIE Initiatives.

Pawan Bakhshi, India Lead, Financial Services for the Poor, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said, "At Gates Foundation, we are committed to creating a disproportionate and sustained impact on some of the most critical challenges facing the nation today."

Through in-depth research to build knowledge about the under-served, incubating new start-ups in this space and providing access to soft and patient capital as these ventures take root, the Bharat Inclusion Initiative will seek to catalyse entrepreneurs who are building disruptive solutions for Bharat.

According to Santhosh Ramdoss, director, India programmes, at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, a large portion of urban poor families in India do not have any formal access to financial services. “We are presented with a landmark opportunity to take on this challenge, given India’s leadership in building a cutting-edge public technology infrastructure that can be used to seamlessly deliver a variety of critical digital services to low-income families."

Speaking about Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, in February, the foundation has led the $13.5 million (~ Rs 87 crore) funding of Bengaluru based edtech startup IMAX Program.

In August 2017, it was reported that the foundation is looking to launch incubator for startups in India. And for same, the foundation is reportedly in talks with IIM-Ahmedabad’s CIIE.

CIIE was founded to support entrepreneurs and turn business ideas into viable businesses models. It partners with industry experts, mentors, corporates, IIMA community and investors to help incubate early-stage start-ups.

In the past, CIIE incubated startups include Razorpay, Hashcube, Rolocule, and Thrillophilia, among others. In 2015, the centre had launched India’s first Food & Agri-Business accelerator for startups in food and agri-business sector.

Nandan Nilekani-backed RailYatri Raises Fresh Funding Via Omidyar Network, Others

Noida-based RailYatri, a train-travel app startup backed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series B round led by impact investor Omidyar Network.

Existing investors Nandan Nilekani along with early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures, and homegrown venture capital fund Helion Venture Partners also participated in the round.

The startup will utilize the freshly raised funds to fund its expansion into hotels and packages for which it is hiring across verticals, Manish Rathi, co-founder and chief executive of RailYatri, said to a business daily.

“We plan to reach 10 million annual transactions this year, and this round will help us in achieving our goal. Our low cost of acquisition allows growth with margins,” he added.

Founded in 2014 by Kapil Raizada, Manish Rathi and Sachin Saxena, RailYatri provides information on trains, passenger amenities at stations, platforms and trains’ speed as well as alerts via mobile app, web and SMS. In India, close to 25 million passengers board a train every day.

In the past, RailYatri.in is has worked with Indian Railways to power their National Train Enquiry System (NTES) and enable them to distribute train related running information through their portal at TrainEnquiry.com which provides train running information to the passengers.

The above development was first reported in VC Circle.

The startup first raised Rs.30 crore funding from a Blume Ventures and an unnamed US-based angel investor, in November 2014. This was followed by undisclosed amount of funding in pre-series A round led by Helion Venture Partners and Omidyar Network, in June 2015.

In April, the startup again raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A round of funding from billionaire Nandan Nilekani. In October 2016, Railyatri again raised undisclosed amount from same set of investors.

The startup, to date, has raised about $536,000 in total funding, according to data by Crunchbase.

Recently, RailYatri has acqui-hired Kochi-based food-delivery technology startup YatraChef to strengthen its supply-side commerce capabilities, as it continues to add new offerings to its travel marketplace.

Speaking about Omidyar Network, the self-styled "philanthropic investment firm" has recently invested $1 million in Healofy, a women-centric, multilingual parenting social network. Prior to which, it has participated in ₹3.5 crore funding of Doubtnut, a Gurugram-based edtech startup. Prior to that, it participated in $1.6 million funding of Transerve Technologies, a Goa-based civic tech company.

Nandan Nilekani-backed RailYatri Raises Fresh Funding Via Omidyar Network, Others

Noida-based RailYatri, a train-travel app startup backed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series B round led by impact investor Omidyar Network.

Existing investors Nandan Nilekani along with early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures, and homegrown venture capital fund Helion Venture Partners also participated in the round.

The startup will utilize the freshly raised funds to fund its expansion into hotels and packages for which it is hiring across verticals, Manish Rathi, co-founder and chief executive of RailYatri, said to a business daily.

“We plan to reach 10 million annual transactions this year, and this round will help us in achieving our goal. Our low cost of acquisition allows growth with margins,” he added.

Founded in 2014 by Kapil Raizada, Manish Rathi and Sachin Saxena, RailYatri provides information on trains, passenger amenities at stations, platforms and trains’ speed as well as alerts via mobile app, web and SMS. In India, close to 25 million passengers board a train every day.

In the past, RailYatri.in is has worked with Indian Railways to power their National Train Enquiry System (NTES) and enable them to distribute train related running information through their portal at TrainEnquiry.com which provides train running information to the passengers.

The above development was first reported in VC Circle.

The startup first raised Rs.30 crore funding from a Blume Ventures and an unnamed US-based angel investor, in November 2014. This was followed by undisclosed amount of funding in pre-series A round led by Helion Venture Partners and Omidyar Network, in June 2015.

In April, the startup again raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A round of funding from billionaire Nandan Nilekani. In October 2016, Railyatri again raised undisclosed amount from same set of investors.

The startup, to date, has raised about $536,000 in total funding, according to data by Crunchbase.

Recently, RailYatri has acqui-hired Kochi-based food-delivery technology startup YatraChef to strengthen its supply-side commerce capabilities, as it continues to add new offerings to its travel marketplace.

Speaking about Omidyar Network, the self-styled "philanthropic investment firm" has recently invested $1 million in Healofy, a women-centric, multilingual parenting social network. Prior to which, it has participated in ₹3.5 crore funding of Doubtnut, a Gurugram-based edtech startup. Prior to that, it participated in $1.6 million funding of Transerve Technologies, a Goa-based civic tech company.

Parenting Social Network Healofy Raises $1 Mn in Seed Round from Omidyar Network

Healofy, a women-centric, multilingual parenting social network today announced that it has raised USD 1 million from Omidyar Network as part of their seed round, announced the company in a press release.

The company had previously raised funds from Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com and Jitendra Gupta, founder of Citrus Pay and other Sillicon Valley based marquee investors in October last year. They were also selected in Y Combinator in 2017. The latest funding will help Healofy add key talent in leadership positions across product, technology and data science; to build onto the existing personalization engine and layer in multiple regional languages on their platform.

Selected by Facebook's FBStart in 2016 end, Healofy is a mobile focussed parenting app. Founded by Gaurav Aggarwal and Shubham Maheshwari, the app allows parents and expectant parents to discover, connect, ask and chat with other like-minded users in various regional languages.

“Owing to lack of credible and relatable information on pregnancy and baby care, every year India loses more than 50,000 pregnant women and 1.8 billion babies. My co-founder Shubham and I started solving this problem an year and a half back by building a Whatsapp bot - Swasth Bacha Abhiyaan, through which we sent personalised ‘daily tips’ on pregnancy and parenting to more than half a million Indian moms in their local language. Witnessing the demand first-hand, we evolved into Healofy, a platform that allows moms and moms-to-be to discover, connect, ask and chat with like-minded users to make an informed health and lifestyle decisions ,” - says Gaurav Aggarwal, CEO, Healofy.

Hailed as the ‘social network of choice’ for parents and parents-to-be, the app is available in Android Play Store and supports 8 local languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil. Currently, it has over 300,000 downloads on the Play Store with an average user rating of 4.8 . On an average, their active user base spends over 10 million minutes a month on the app.

Siddharth Nautiyal, Investment Partner, Omidyar Network said : "As the next half a billion users come online in India over the next 5 years, they will need local language and India-first content. In addition, women as a demographic are severely under-represented amongst Indian internet users. Healofy, with its tailored and habit-forming parenting social network, is tackling this problem head-on. Gaurav, Shubham, and the founding team have done great work in developing a platform that provides advice and support for pregnant women and parents. Healofy’s engagement numbers are a testament to the high value perceived by their target audience, and we are excited about this opportunity to help the company achieve its full potential.”

"Over the last 6 months, we have become the fastest growing and highest ranked parenting app in India. As a result, several VCs have shown interest but we were lucky to have Omidyar Network, a founder-friendly VC firm with deep focus and expertise in the vernacular space, on our board. And now, with Omidyar Network’s support, we plan to grow our active user base 10x in 2018,” added Gaurav.

Few days back, Omidyar has participated in ₹3.5 crore funding of Doubtnut, a Gurugram-based edtech startup. Prior to that, it participated in $1.6 million funding of Transerve Technologies, a Goa-based civic tech company.

Shubham Maheshwari, CTO, Healofy adds, “Healofy is performing at par with Facebook on key social networking metrics like DAU/MAU ratio and that makes us believe we are in for something crazy and big especially as the Network Effects kick in for us within the next few months.”

On why invest in parenting tech company, Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO, People Group stated, "In a market starved of original ideas the Healofy team has managed to build a super engaging platform for women and mothers. Their focus on their customers coupled with their next billion strategy should help them build a very valuable business. I am lucky to have led their angel round.” Another marquee investor Jitender Gupta, Founder, Citrus Pay commented, “Gaurav and his team have got the right mindset to understand the relevant target segment. With its truly differentiated content first parenting social network, Healofy will cater to the need of millions of vernacular Indian users."

The parenting market in India is pegged at $30-billion and several app based startups are coming up to provide a platform to new parents seeking guidance on pre and post pregnancy phases. Some of these are Tinystep, Parenttune, Parentlane, Babychakra, Zen Parent and Babygogo. Flipkart-backed Tinystep raised $2 million in funding last year.

Parenting Social Network Healofy Raises $1 Mn in Seed Round from Omidyar Network

Healofy, a women-centric, multilingual parenting social network today announced that it has raised USD 1 million from Omidyar Network as part of their seed round, announced the company in a press release.

The company had previously raised funds from Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com and Jitendra Gupta, founder of Citrus Pay and other Sillicon Valley based marquee investors in October last year. They were also selected in Y Combinator in 2017. The latest funding will help Healofy add key talent in leadership positions across product, technology and data science; to build onto the existing personalization engine and layer in multiple regional languages on their platform.

Selected by Facebook's FBStart in 2016 end, Healofy is a mobile focussed parenting app. Founded by Gaurav Aggarwal and Shubham Maheshwari, the app allows parents and expectant parents to discover, connect, ask and chat with other like-minded users in various regional languages.

“Owing to lack of credible and relatable information on pregnancy and baby care, every year India loses more than 50,000 pregnant women and 1.8 billion babies. My co-founder Shubham and I started solving this problem an year and a half back by building a Whatsapp bot - Swasth Bacha Abhiyaan, through which we sent personalised ‘daily tips’ on pregnancy and parenting to more than half a million Indian moms in their local language. Witnessing the demand first-hand, we evolved into Healofy, a platform that allows moms and moms-to-be to discover, connect, ask and chat with like-minded users to make an informed health and lifestyle decisions ,” - says Gaurav Aggarwal, CEO, Healofy.

Hailed as the ‘social network of choice’ for parents and parents-to-be, the app is available in Android Play Store and supports 8 local languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil. Currently, it has over 300,000 downloads on the Play Store with an average user rating of 4.8 . On an average, their active user base spends over 10 million minutes a month on the app.

Siddharth Nautiyal, Investment Partner, Omidyar Network said : "As the next half a billion users come online in India over the next 5 years, they will need local language and India-first content. In addition, women as a demographic are severely under-represented amongst Indian internet users. Healofy, with its tailored and habit-forming parenting social network, is tackling this problem head-on. Gaurav, Shubham, and the founding team have done great work in developing a platform that provides advice and support for pregnant women and parents. Healofy’s engagement numbers are a testament to the high value perceived by their target audience, and we are excited about this opportunity to help the company achieve its full potential.”

"Over the last 6 months, we have become the fastest growing and highest ranked parenting app in India. As a result, several VCs have shown interest but we were lucky to have Omidyar Network, a founder-friendly VC firm with deep focus and expertise in the vernacular space, on our board. And now, with Omidyar Network’s support, we plan to grow our active user base 10x in 2018,” added Gaurav.

Few days back, Omidyar has participated in ₹3.5 crore funding of Doubtnut, a Gurugram-based edtech startup. Prior to that, it participated in $1.6 million funding of Transerve Technologies, a Goa-based civic tech company.

Shubham Maheshwari, CTO, Healofy adds, “Healofy is performing at par with Facebook on key social networking metrics like DAU/MAU ratio and that makes us believe we are in for something crazy and big especially as the Network Effects kick in for us within the next few months.”

On why invest in parenting tech company, Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO, People Group stated, "In a market starved of original ideas the Healofy team has managed to build a super engaging platform for women and mothers. Their focus on their customers coupled with their next billion strategy should help them build a very valuable business. I am lucky to have led their angel round.” Another marquee investor Jitender Gupta, Founder, Citrus Pay commented, “Gaurav and his team have got the right mindset to understand the relevant target segment. With its truly differentiated content first parenting social network, Healofy will cater to the need of millions of vernacular Indian users."

The parenting market in India is pegged at $30-billion and several app based startups are coming up to provide a platform to new parents seeking guidance on pre and post pregnancy phases. Some of these are Tinystep, Parenttune, Parentlane, Babychakra, Zen Parent and Babygogo. Flipkart-backed Tinystep raised $2 million in funding last year.

Gurgaon-based Ed-Tech Startup Doubtnut Raises ₹3.5 Crore In Funding Led by WaterBridge Ventures

Gurgaon-based Doubtnut, a multi lingual online learning platform for students today announced that it has raised a pre-series A round amounting to ₹3.5 crore led by WaterBridge Ventures with participation from Omidyar Network. The startup plans to use the capital to expand its platform, add more subjects, support more Indian languages and accelerate the development of several exciting new product features.

With this funding, Sarbvir Singh, Partner at WaterBridge Ventures, will join Doubtnut's Board of Directors and Omidyar Network will also appoint a Director to the Board.

Founded in 2016 by IIT-Delhi alumni Tanushree Nagori and Aditya Shankar, Doubtnut is a multi-lingual online learning platform for students. With its Android app, students can find the answer to a question by simply clicking the image of the question on the app. The application uses advanced artificial intelligence technologies to decipher the question from the image and consequently serve the corresponding video solution from Doubtnut’s library. The company has created one of the world’s largest library of curriculum specific educational content videos.

Tanushree Nagori, cofounder of Doubtnut said, "Aditya and I are passionate about improving the level of education in India. We sincerely believe that good education is a fundamental right of every child and we, at Doubtnut, are committed to provide world-class education in the most economical way possible to every student in India."

“Doubtnut aims to impart world class learning to students by leveraging cutting edge technology, such as Machine Learning driven Math Image Recognition, and burgeoning information inclusivity in India," added Aditya Shankar, cofounder at Doubtnut.

Sarbvir Singh, partner at WaterBridge Ventures said, "We believe that a student first, multi lingual approach is needed if educational initiatives are to work at scale in the country. Students need on-demand solutions to problems in a language that they can understand. We look forward to working with Aditya and Tanushree to make their vision a reality".

"Doubtnut’s innovative solutions will meet the needs of millions of Indians students by providing real time answers to their questions,” said Namita Dalmia, principal at Omidyar Network. “We met Aditya and Tanushree through the accelerator program we supported with Village Capital in 2017. They are highly capable and passionate entrepreneurs who leveraged the program and substantially refined their product and business model. We are excited to be part of the next step of their journey.”

Speaking about WaterBridge Ventures, it is a venture capital firm investing in early stage ventures. With with offices in Delhi and Bengaluru, WaterBridge invests across seed to Series A stages with a first investment cheque size of up to $1 million and is generally the first institutional investor in promising startups. WaterBridge also has a Scout program where it engages with Founders at a very early stage of their ventures. In last May, it participated in $7 million funding of hyperlocal discovery startup MagicPin. Prior to that it also participated in $1 million funding of Unacademy,an Indian free online learning platform.

The Ed-Tech startup space is seeing a lot of activities of late. To recall, last month, an another edtech startup from Bengaluru IMAX Program has raised $13.5 million from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, LGT Impact Ventures and existing investor Aspada.

In the same month, former CEO and co-founder of Infosys Shibulal has launched EduMentum — an incubator for early-stage startups working in the space of offline education transformation.

In January, an another Ed-tech start up GreyAtom has raised a $1M funding round led by early-stage fund Pravega Ventures. In the same month, Bengaluru-based enterprise platform for educational institutions CollPoll has raised its pre-series A funding round led by Manipal Global Education Services (MaGE).

In November 2017, AEON Learning Private Limited, which is backed by Kris Gopalkrishnan, acquired Acadgild, an online edtech startup, for $10 million in an all stock deal.

In the same month, an another edtech startup Perspectico raised seed funding from Delhi University and Government of Delhi Incubator.

Additionally, AICTE tied-up with Fourth Ambit, a Kerala-based edtech startup, to connect over 10,000 tech insitutes across India through online portals.

Gurgaon-based Ed-Tech Startup Doubtnut Raises ₹3.5 Crore In Funding Led by WaterBridge Ventures

Gurgaon-based Doubtnut, a multi lingual online learning platform for students today announced that it has raised a pre-series A round amounting to ₹3.5 crore led by WaterBridge Ventures with participation from Omidyar Network. The startup plans to use the capital to expand its platform, add more subjects, support more Indian languages and accelerate the development of several exciting new product features.

With this funding, Sarbvir Singh, Partner at WaterBridge Ventures, will join Doubtnut's Board of Directors and Omidyar Network will also appoint a Director to the Board.

Founded in 2016 by IIT-Delhi alumni Tanushree Nagori and Aditya Shankar, Doubtnut is a multi-lingual online learning platform for students. With its Android app, students can find the answer to a question by simply clicking the image of the question on the app. The application uses advanced artificial intelligence technologies to decipher the question from the image and consequently serve the corresponding video solution from Doubtnut’s library. The company has created one of the world’s largest library of curriculum specific educational content videos.

Tanushree Nagori, cofounder of Doubtnut said, "Aditya and I are passionate about improving the level of education in India. We sincerely believe that good education is a fundamental right of every child and we, at Doubtnut, are committed to provide world-class education in the most economical way possible to every student in India."

“Doubtnut aims to impart world class learning to students by leveraging cutting edge technology, such as Machine Learning driven Math Image Recognition, and burgeoning information inclusivity in India," added Aditya Shankar, cofounder at Doubtnut.

Sarbvir Singh, partner at WaterBridge Ventures said, "We believe that a student first, multi lingual approach is needed if educational initiatives are to work at scale in the country. Students need on-demand solutions to problems in a language that they can understand. We look forward to working with Aditya and Tanushree to make their vision a reality".

"Doubtnut’s innovative solutions will meet the needs of millions of Indians students by providing real time answers to their questions,” said Namita Dalmia, principal at Omidyar Network. “We met Aditya and Tanushree through the accelerator program we supported with Village Capital in 2017. They are highly capable and passionate entrepreneurs who leveraged the program and substantially refined their product and business model. We are excited to be part of the next step of their journey.”

Speaking about WaterBridge Ventures, it is a venture capital firm investing in early stage ventures. With with offices in Delhi and Bengaluru, WaterBridge invests across seed to Series A stages with a first investment cheque size of up to $1 million and is generally the first institutional investor in promising startups. WaterBridge also has a Scout program where it engages with Founders at a very early stage of their ventures. In last May, it participated in $7 million funding of hyperlocal discovery startup MagicPin. Prior to that it also participated in $1 million funding of Unacademy,an Indian free online learning platform.

The Ed-Tech startup space is seeing a lot of activities of late. To recall, last month, an another edtech startup from Bengaluru IMAX Program has raised $13.5 million from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, LGT Impact Ventures and existing investor Aspada.

In the same month, former CEO and co-founder of Infosys Shibulal has launched EduMentum — an incubator for early-stage startups working in the space of offline education transformation.

In January, an another Ed-tech start up GreyAtom has raised a $1M funding round led by early-stage fund Pravega Ventures. In the same month, Bengaluru-based enterprise platform for educational institutions CollPoll has raised its pre-series A funding round led by Manipal Global Education Services (MaGE).

In November 2017, AEON Learning Private Limited, which is backed by Kris Gopalkrishnan, acquired Acadgild, an online edtech startup, for $10 million in an all stock deal.

In the same month, an another edtech startup Perspectico raised seed funding from Delhi University and Government of Delhi Incubator.

Additionally, AICTE tied-up with Fourth Ambit, a Kerala-based edtech startup, to connect over 10,000 tech insitutes across India through online portals.