Capillary Leads Pre-Series A Funding in Online-to-Offline Fashion Store Discovery & Loyalty App, Fashalot

Capillary Technologies, homegrown omni-channel and customer engagement platform, has led a pre-Series A funding round in online-to-offline fashion store discovery & loyalty app, Fashalot. Fashalot’s focus on driving footfalls at retail stores ties into Capillary’s push for creating solutions that improve retail store engagement with their customers. The investment was also driven by the fact that Fashalot is a pioneer in this high-potential industry, with a highly experienced team and deep expertise in advanced location-based technology and rich data that powers a new generation of consumer analytics highly contextual consumer marketing.

Fashalot is the leading online-to-offline mobile app platform enabling retailers with first ever features like Non-Shopper Feedback, Geo-fenced personalized communication to shoppers, cross brand loyalty, shoppers’ wardrobe mapping to name a few. It facilitate communication between retailers and shoppers to discover in-store sales, deals, offers, and discounts on the latest collections. Currently live in Delhi NCR & Bangalore, over 5,000 plus marquee fashion stores are using Fashalot to drive new and incremental footfalls, enhance discovery, customers’ shopping experience and high conversions. Fashalot has saved its customers over INR 5 crore till date and is generating 25 app sessions every month. It has been able to show such results by providing highly personalized exclusive communication to shoppers as per their preferences, shopping pattern, location, and much more. It also awards reward points called as F-Cash to shoppers for walk-ins, shopping, reviews etc. into nearby partner stores.

Speaking on their new investment, Aneesh Reddy, Co- Founder & CEO, Capillary Technologies, commented, “As a company dedicated to providing solutions for retail store marketing and branding, we are pleased to have invested into Fashalot. We believe in Fashalot’s future of replacing traditional modes of marketing such as print and media. The fashion retail industry in India is pegged at USD 100+ billion, in which 98% of sales happen offline. USD 3 billion a year is spent on various marketing channels and Fashalot’s use of rich data customer analytics by capturing shopper’s intent to shop could help capture a substantial part of this market.”

Speaking on the new funding, Amit Koshal, Co-Founder & CEO of Fashalot, commented, “We are excited to close on this latest round of funding led by Capillary Technologies with participation from Whiteboard Capital, a fund started by Sandeep Tandon – the Free charge Co-Founder – and appreciate the continued support from YourNest and Rajul Garg. We will mainly be using these funds to build even stronger technology, scale our user-base, and hire great new talent. Our focus will be on greater penetration in the Delhi-NCR and Bangalore markets by on-boarding more brands and new innovations in the app for a superior customer shopping experience. ”

Speaking on their participation, Girish Shivani, Executive Director and Fund Manager - YourNest, commented, “We have seen commendable execution by Fashalot’s team to not only commercially on-board large number of brands in no time but also their exceptional success in key business metrics. We see Fashalot’s users engage and stick to the offline brands at a very high frequency, making it part of their lives”.

Fashion is predominantly offline and Fashalot is the first platform that helps shoppers save at their favorite brands with its gamified cross loyalty rewards, explore in-store offers, and be made aware of new collections near them. This replaces traditional modes of marketing such as print and media for the consumption of this content.

Organized retail in India constitutes over USD 46 billion of the total market and does over 200 million transactions every month. Fashalot aims to move over 1 million transactions a month through its app using rich data to create a new generation of consumer analytics. Fashalot is currently live in 2 cities – Delhi NCR and Bangalore – and has already reached up to 5% of a store’s sales in some cases. It has started to move towards deep personalization for shoppers with content and preferences, which in turn influences their shopping choices and wardrobe.

Online Office Platform Aahaa Stores Raises $1M in the Second Round of Pre-Series A Funding

Aahaa Stores, one of the fastest growing online office supplies platform, today announced that it has raised the second round of pre-series A funding from investor group led by YourNest Angel Fund, an early stage investor in technology, ecommerce and consumer centric businesses. The company had raised first round funding of equal amount around eighteen months ago. The company had grown multifold since then in terms of Product portfolio, customer base, geographical presence and sales turnover. Two of the existing investors including YourNest have participated in this round as well at a substantially higher valuation as compared to their earlier investments. This reaffirms the investors’ faith in Aahaa Stores. In addition to them, a new investor with a strong equity financing background has picked up 50% equity of the fresh capital.

The company plans to utilize the funds for expanding the business across new verticals and geographies. Aahaa Stores also announced its intent to realize their long-term vision by strengthening its technology platform iPOS, mobilizing top talent and reaching out to new customers across verticals via the funds received.

Asokan Sattanathan, Founder and Chairman, Aahaa Stores, said “The second round of pre-series A funding from YourNest and other marquee investors is a strategic step towards building and enhancing further on technology, talent, infrastructure, brand and innovative customer-centric business models. With our unique solution providing capabilities in the indirect office supplies space, we are well-poised to reach INR 100 crores run rate and attain breakeven volumes by the end of this financial year. Within a short span of time, we have been able to create a niche platform for online office supplies segment which reiterates our confidence that we will soon emerge as a leader in the online office supplies space.”

Commenting on this development, Mr. Sunil K Goyal, Managing Director and Fund Manager, Yournest, said “Aahaa stores has won the trust of the finest enterprise customers in segments including BFSI, Manufacturing and IT, in a short period of time. Winning customer confidence in this competitive market opens further doors for immense growth in meeting the needs of intelligent procurement. aahaa team has the leadership depth and the domain knowledge to excel and grow as a B2B market place."

Launched in 2013, Aahaa has hugely benefitted the BFSI and IT sectors by managing their daily need of essential indirect supplies efficiently and effectively at 4000+ branches across the country. Aahaa has helped many corporates of repute rejig their brand through mobilizing rich and attractive merchandise in their Brand Stores and taking end to end responsibility from sourcing to last mile delivery. Aahaa is immensely popular for streamlining purchase to pay processes in the otherwise competitive manufacturing sector when it comes to tail spends.

Foreign Exchange Products and Services Provider Myforexeye Raises Rs 1.4 Cr in Pre-Series A Funding

Myforexeye, India’s first full service Forex Company has raised pre-Series A funding of Rs 1.4 crore from a clutch of individual investors. The investment has been made by HNI's and senior bankers from India and overseas.

The company has been working towards simplifying Forex and is aiming at disrupting Rs 60,000 crore windfalls made by intermediaries/banks on the name of information arbitrage. This pre-Series A round of funding saw participation from prominent investors like Rahul Dev Kumar, a senior banker from Singapore, Rajesh Mahajan, an eminent infrastructure expert with more than two decades of experience in power and energy trading, Ankit Sharma, Managing Director, KCS Group of Companies along with other renowned names from banking and international trade.

Myforexeye has aggressive growth plans and looking at expanding its operations across India and other countries in the next 5 years. These funds would be utilized for technology development and marketing so as to scale up the business in India and abroad. They are working on developing innovative technology solutions to bring in more transparency, enhance user experience and ensure seamless transactions for Indian exporters, importers, individuals (B2C) like NRI's, travelers etc.

Sharing his thought Mr. Anand Tandon, Founder, Myforexeye Fintech Pvt. Ltd. said, “We established Myforexeye with the prime mission of simplifying Forex for SMBs, MSMEs, B2B and B2C businesses. We have put our energy and experience in building this unique concept and have been getting exciting response from the industry. We see a lot of potential for growth in this sector and hence we decided to take on the investment to support our expansion plans.”

“We are confident that the investment from likeminded investors will support us in creating new technology avenues and marketing platforms to reach out to our clients in an efficient manner. Myforexeye aspires to be the leading one-stop shop foreign exchange solution provider across the globe. The company’s strength lies in its unconventional approach towards problem solving so as to offer unmatched efficiency and effectiveness”, he further added.

Speaking on the investment, Rahul Dev Kumar, Singapore based Senior Transaction Banking and Working Capital professional said, “ The industry potential for this unique concept is huge as a better profit margin of businesses dealing with international trade, SMEs, MSMEs and individuals is always at risk due to information arbitrage from intermediaries. As India’s first full service Forex Company, Myforexeye has addressed this major issue by curating services which have never been experienced or exercised in the Indian market. Having invested in this high-potential concept, we will now be supporting this innovative platform aimed completely at increasing profitability of a business in India and abroad.”

In the last 30 months, Myforexeye has serviced 1000+ clients, processing 50,000+ transactions worth $2.1 billion resulting in a saving of more than INR 75 crore to its B2B and HNI clients spreading over 53 banks. From the clientele base of 600 with 3 branches across the country, the company is aiming for more than 15,000 B2B & a 0.5 million B2C clientele base by opening 105 branches across 65 cities by 2021.

Myforexeye is the brainchild of a young team of bankers led by Anand Tandon - an ex-banker and an internet enthusiast. The team sees this as just the tip of the iceberg; the industry potential is huge with 1 million Small & Medium Enterprises and 20 million individual customers using banking services to transact in foreign exchange market.

Technology Platform Jhakaas Raises Pre-Series A Funding from a USA Based Investor

Jhakaas Technologies, a technology-driven platform that “Enables local businesses” to create a presence online, has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-series A funding from a USA based investor Mr Amen Dhyllon. The motive of the fund raise is for technological enhancement and up-gradation of the application and expansion of the network throughout India.

The next generation mobile app facilitates for the day-to-day needs of the consumer entailing services such as grocery shopping, restaurant hunting, on call cakes and sweet delivery, vegetable shopping, wine shops, ordering medicines and much more. The app includes more than 300 categories. Currently, the company has over 1,00,000 merchants, and the plan is to add 5,00,000 merchants by year end March 2018.Jhakaas is currently operating in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Indore, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad and Pune.

The platform is available on Android and IOS and web versions will be launching soon. Presently, the app is operational in two languages i.e English, Hindi and will integrate all regional languages.

Commenting on the occasion Bharat Mandot, Founder, Jhakaas Technologies states, “With a proper capital backing, Jhakaas can make a substantial impact on the entire retail ecosystem by adding more kirana shops and owners; we aim the unorganized market under one umbrella. As more and more merchants discover its utilities, Jhakaas is expected to grow exponentially in the near future adding a million customers in a very short span of time. The fund would also help us expand our presence in numerous states throughout India. Since Jhakaas has an innovative buisness model, by charging a fixed fee to merchants unlike other players in the market, we are sure to succeed with a strong technological back-up which would help us enhance our quality as well as level of service for the merchants.”

Earlier in the year, the company had raised Rs 1 crore (around $154,000) in seed funding from a clutch of investors including Mumbai-based management consultancy firm Stelcore Management Services Private Limited, Malini Patel, country manager, Bloomberg Data Services, CP Sanadhya, director at housing finance company India Shelter Finance, and Anjani Prasad, managing director at colour and specialty chemicals company Archroma India.

Jhakaas competes with the likes of Justdial, Goodbox, ShopX and NowFloats.

To help increase the merchant base and as a small CSR initiative on their part, Jhakaas has come up with a Digital awareness program providing technology updates to its merchants. The program aims to educate merchants on different technology enabled solutions, that merchants today have available in the market. It will help the merchants to understand the current business scenario, the role and importance of technology in today’s business environment and the various solutions available in the market. In the current competitive scenario, this program will help merchants get along the organised E-com segment.

Jhakaa is trying to link this initiative with Skill India since it is a category of training and awareness which is improving the standard of business.

Technology Platform Jhakaas Raises Pre-Series A Funding from a USA Based Investor

Jhakaas Technologies, a technology-driven platform that “Enables local businesses” to create a presence online, has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-series A funding from a USA based investor Mr Amen Dhyllon. The motive of the fund raise is for technological enhancement and up-gradation of the application and expansion of the network throughout India.

The next generation mobile app facilitates for the day-to-day needs of the consumer entailing services such as grocery shopping, restaurant hunting, on call cakes and sweet delivery, vegetable shopping, wine shops, ordering medicines and much more. The app includes more than 300 categories. Currently, the company has over 1,00,000 merchants, and the plan is to add 5,00,000 merchants by year end March 2018.Jhakaas is currently operating in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Indore, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad and Pune.

The platform is available on Android and IOS and web versions will be launching soon. Presently, the app is operational in two languages i.e English, Hindi and will integrate all regional languages.

Commenting on the occasion Bharat Mandot, Founder, Jhakaas Technologies states, “With a proper capital backing, Jhakaas can make a substantial impact on the entire retail ecosystem by adding more kirana shops and owners; we aim the unorganized market under one umbrella. As more and more merchants discover its utilities, Jhakaas is expected to grow exponentially in the near future adding a million customers in a very short span of time. The fund would also help us expand our presence in numerous states throughout India. Since Jhakaas has an innovative buisness model, by charging a fixed fee to merchants unlike other players in the market, we are sure to succeed with a strong technological back-up which would help us enhance our quality as well as level of service for the merchants.”

Earlier in the year, the company had raised Rs 1 crore (around $154,000) in seed funding from a clutch of investors including Mumbai-based management consultancy firm Stelcore Management Services Private Limited, Malini Patel, country manager, Bloomberg Data Services, CP Sanadhya, director at housing finance company India Shelter Finance, and Anjani Prasad, managing director at colour and specialty chemicals company Archroma India.

Jhakaas competes with the likes of Justdial, Goodbox, ShopX and NowFloats.

To help increase the merchant base and as a small CSR initiative on their part, Jhakaas has come up with a Digital awareness program providing technology updates to its merchants. The program aims to educate merchants on different technology enabled solutions, that merchants today have available in the market. It will help the merchants to understand the current business scenario, the role and importance of technology in today’s business environment and the various solutions available in the market. In the current competitive scenario, this program will help merchants get along the organised E-com segment.

Jhakaa is trying to link this initiative with Skill India since it is a category of training and awareness which is improving the standard of business.

Subscription Based Delivery Startup, RainCan Raises Rs 1.75 Cr in Pre-Series A Funding

Raincan, a Pune-based subscription startup for delivery of fresh and perishable items, has raised Rs 1.75 crore in pre-series A funding.

The company has raised funds from Prabodh Agarwal, Group CFO, IIFL Holdings Limited and existing investor Dr. Aniruddha Malpani. The company plans to use the funds to expand its delivery operation centers and set-up start of the art logistics platform to facilitate deliveries at the lowest possible cost.

Founded in June 2015 by IIT-Bombay graduates Munendra Singh and Abhijeet Kumar, RainCan is a subscription-based service provider dealing in dairy, meat, bakery, fruits, and vegetables largely. The company delivers around 6000 orders daily in Pune and has crossed Rs 10 crore in revenue and is currently witnessing a growth of 15% every month.

RainCan is inspired from existing milk subscription and delivery supply chain. They deliver ultra-fast moving products with low shelf life to the customer's doorstep with deliveries starting at 5 am through an in- house delivery team of 60.

"RainCan delights customers by helping them buy small and buy fresh, so that family members can start their day with a healthy breakfast first thing in the morning. We deliver convenience cost effectively. We help busy Women come out of the fear of missing an item for breakfast and lunch by delivering milk and other fresh produce early morning. They can buy a dozen eggs, a tender coconut or as little as a few lemons, " said Abhijeet Kumar, Co-Founder, RainCan.

The use of technology and optimized logistics team as deliveries are concentrated in nature help keep cost of delivery to under Rs 2. The company has been a capital efficient start-up turned with operational excellence using wide array of technology and analytics platforms. It has been operationally profitable since September 2016.

“We are one of the most capital efficient startup in India in likes of redbus and bookmyshow. Subscription customer base provides the stable revnenue and always upward trajectory. The growth of RainCan is propelled by opening new delivery centers in different locations within a city, each center delivering to specific population. We aim to take the current 4 centers to 20 in Pune and Mumbai with positive cash flow in next few quarters," said Munendra Singh, Co-Founder, Raincan.

RainCan is also in talks with VCs to raise 10 Crore to achieve 50,000 subscriber base and 100 crore annual revenue.

Current Investor Prabodh Agarwal said "Selling fresh produce online is still in its nascent stage, and the service is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, as more customers discover its convenience. RainCan has built a business model with good unit economics. With proper capital backing, it has the potential to satisfy many more customers."

In August 2015, Raincan raised $100K in seed round from angel investor Ajeet Khurana & others, and in April 2017, the startup had received an additional round of Rs. 1 crore from a primary investor, Dr. Aniruddha Malpani.

Subscription Based Delivery Startup, RainCan Raises Rs 1.75 Cr in Pre-Series A Funding

Raincan, a Pune-based subscription startup for delivery of fresh and perishable items, has raised Rs 1.75 crore in pre-series A funding.

The company has raised funds from Prabodh Agarwal, Group CFO, IIFL Holdings Limited and existing investor Dr. Aniruddha Malpani. The company plans to use the funds to expand its delivery operation centers and set-up start of the art logistics platform to facilitate deliveries at the lowest possible cost.

Founded in June 2015 by IIT-Bombay graduates Munendra Singh and Abhijeet Kumar, RainCan is a subscription-based service provider dealing in dairy, meat, bakery, fruits, and vegetables largely. The company delivers around 6000 orders daily in Pune and has crossed Rs 10 crore in revenue and is currently witnessing a growth of 15% every month.

RainCan is inspired from existing milk subscription and delivery supply chain. They deliver ultra-fast moving products with low shelf life to the customer's doorstep with deliveries starting at 5 am through an in- house delivery team of 60.

"RainCan delights customers by helping them buy small and buy fresh, so that family members can start their day with a healthy breakfast first thing in the morning. We deliver convenience cost effectively. We help busy Women come out of the fear of missing an item for breakfast and lunch by delivering milk and other fresh produce early morning. They can buy a dozen eggs, a tender coconut or as little as a few lemons, " said Abhijeet Kumar, Co-Founder, RainCan.

The use of technology and optimized logistics team as deliveries are concentrated in nature help keep cost of delivery to under Rs 2. The company has been a capital efficient start-up turned with operational excellence using wide array of technology and analytics platforms. It has been operationally profitable since September 2016.

“We are one of the most capital efficient startup in India in likes of redbus and bookmyshow. Subscription customer base provides the stable revnenue and always upward trajectory. The growth of RainCan is propelled by opening new delivery centers in different locations within a city, each center delivering to specific population. We aim to take the current 4 centers to 20 in Pune and Mumbai with positive cash flow in next few quarters," said Munendra Singh, Co-Founder, Raincan.

RainCan is also in talks with VCs to raise 10 Crore to achieve 50,000 subscriber base and 100 crore annual revenue.

Current Investor Prabodh Agarwal said "Selling fresh produce online is still in its nascent stage, and the service is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, as more customers discover its convenience. RainCan has built a business model with good unit economics. With proper capital backing, it has the potential to satisfy many more customers."

In August 2015, Raincan raised $100K in seed round from angel investor Ajeet Khurana & others, and in April 2017, the startup had received an additional round of Rs. 1 crore from a primary investor, Dr. Aniruddha Malpani.

Delivery Services Expert, VDeliver Raises Pre Series A Funding Led by Corvus Ventures

VDeliver, the fast-growing intra-city logistics company, has raised an undisclosed Pre Series A investment from Hyderabad-based Corvus Ventures led by Mr. Mahesh Reddy and joined by Mumbai-based MAPE Advisory Group, Mr. R Ramaraj, co-founder—Sify, and Mr. Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft

Among the country’s early startups in the technology-driven logistics space, VDeliver currently fulfilsintra-city deliveries across segmentsincluding medicines, surgical items, gifting, packaged foods, detox juices, gifts,business documents, and last-mile logistics with a focus on speed and efficiency.

Lead investor, Mahesh Reddy of Corvus Ventures said that “for several businesses, getting deliveriesright is essential.We believe the strong understanding of business operations and technology that VDeliver brings will help it become an indispensable partner to companies looking to optimise their delivery function”.

The company foresees huge potential in the healthcare industry and is already working with leading clients like 1mg, CallHealth and more. As a market leader in Hyderabad and with a strong presence in Chennai, VDeliver will soon be expanding its operations to other large cities.

Announcing the investment, Mr Srinivas Madhavam, Founder & CEO of VDeliver said that “we have emerged as the largestintra-city logistics provider in Hyderabad with an unflinching focus on technology and operational efficiency. This investment will help us further strengthen our portfolio of innovative offerings, without compromising on unit economics and efficiency”.

VDeliver has recently launched Staytions, aninnovative concept that aims to improve the convenienceof collecting parcels or placing delivery service requests across the city. By simply scanning the QR code available at Staytions, customerscan place a pick up or delivery request. The company believes that this will redefine the logistics experience for billions of customers.

Commenting on working with VDeliver, the South India Head of 1mg, Mr. Rohit Vasudeva said, “VDeliver is an excellent logistics company!In our current engagement since Jan'17, I found the team extremely professional and very easy to work with all the time. They deliver as per promise, on time and are reasonably priced. I would highly recommend their services as they go an extra mile even with the ongoing new requests.”

VDeliver is also an alumnus of Reliance’s GenNext Hub—India’s leading startup accelerator program that assists companies in scaling up. The GTM and technology workshops held at GenNext Hub has helped VDeliver in growing its operations.

Image : Srinivas Madhavam, Founder & CEO of VDeliver

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Online Micro-delivery Startup MrNeeds Raises Close to $500K in Pre-Series A Funding

Noida-based Online micro-delivery startup MrNeeds has raised close to $500K in pre-Series A funding from a consortium of investors, including Umesh Arora, an IT professional with interests in several ventures. The company intends to use this capital to expand its operations from select neighborhoods in Noida to other parts of Delhi-NCR region; including Dwarka, Indirapuram and Gurugram.

Founded in 2016 by Hitashi Garg, Ravi Verma, Ravi Wadhwa and Yogesh Garg, MrNeeds runs an app-based subscription service that delivers milk, bread, eggs and other groceries on a daily basis to its customers. The startup a micro-delivery model that focuses exclusively on optimizing the supply chain and reducing delivery costs. As a result, it has drastically cut down its per-delivery cost by restricting all deliveries to only customers living in high-rise complexes, and making all deliveries between 6am-9am. The startup started operations in October 2016 and today serves over 36,000 orders a month, with 9,000 families in Noida as its subscribers.

Ravi Wadhwa, Cofounder at MrNeeds said, “Our growth demonstrates how customers appreciate the value proposition of our differentiated business model. Further, we have finetuned our operations and our per delivery costs are 50 to 70% lower than the industry standard.”

MrNeeds levies no delivery charges and does not specify a minimum order value for its customers. Moreover, as the focus is on delivering high-perishable items like milk and bread that needs to be consumed daily or several times a week; MrNeeds has a very high share of daily active users.

“This investment will power our expansion as we move towards realizing our vision of serving millions of customers everyday and addressing all their daily needs via one platform,” Ravi added.

Hitashi Garg, Cofounder at MrNeeds said, “Our model is designed from the ground up for sustainable profitablity and have already achieved break-even in several pockets that we operate in.”

The serviceable market opportunity for daily essentials consumed by Indians living in high-rises across India is pegged at US$10 billion, according to estimates.

Mumbai Based Travel Tech Startup Guiddoo Raises $300K in Pre-Series A Funding

Guiddoo, India’s growing In-destination brand has raised funding of $300,000 in Pre-Series A funding by existing investors Pawan Borle & Nirmal Singh as well as new Investors including Manish Prasad, Vineet Varma, Nick Haulkoury, and Abhai S. Rao. Guiddoo will utilize the funds to support product and technology development through their newly opened Technology & Data Unit based in Pune as well as focus on building Pan-India Distribution for its Tours & Activities & Holidays products.

Guiddoo offers unique and targeted experiences with content across 15 destinations that is available to Indian International Travelers through institutional partners like Cleartrip and Yatra, 2000+ Travel Agent Partners as well as its Web and Mobile Products. The company has already handled over 10,000+ Customers with 40,000+ activities in the past year across its destinations. This has resulted in Guiddoo seeing a 12X growth in revenue in the last year and is forecasting another 10X in sales turnover in the next 12 months. Since it is a selective aggregator that has strong ground control leading to unique and consistent experiences bringing a high level of assurance to a traveler’s trip.

Mr. Vineet Budki, Co-Founder and CEO, Guiddoo, commented, “Guiddoo has seen a strong 12X growth in the past 1 year post its pivot into the In-Destination Experience Model which is an estimated market of $20Bn annually. With further strong growth projected, we believe the required funds will help us become a significant player in the Indian Outbound Traveler segment, where our focus is to provide great new experiences with an assurance of service quality to Indian Outbound Travelers through extensive use of technology and ground relationships. We are excited to welcome Manish, Nick, Vineet and Abhai as investors in Guiddoo and will surely build a valuable travel brand for Indian travelers”.

“I am delighted to be part of the new investors in Guiddoo and impressed by the exponential strides they have made in the holidays as well as tours and Activities space,” said Manish Prasad.  He further added, “I have been part of the Guiddoo journey from the start and I believe what is interesting is Guiddoo’s phenomenal growth in terms of revenue as well as loyalty it commands with its partners due to the uniqueness and consistency of experiences it provides. In my opinion the India Outbound Travel space holds tremendous promise and I am confident the Guiddoo Team has the required intent and expertise to be a leader in the same.”

Founded in 2014 by Nidhi Varma, Vineet Budki, Prashant Choudhary and Biswajeet Karmakar, Guiddoo started as a tour guiding app but pivoted last year into an In-Destination platform offering Tours & Activities, Dining, Shopping and Entertainment options for the Indian International Traveler.

Mumbai Based Travel Tech Startup Guiddoo Raises $300K in Pre-Series A Funding

Guiddoo, India’s growing In-destination brand has raised funding of $300,000 in Pre-Series A funding by existing investors Pawan Borle & Nirmal Singh as well as new Investors including Manish Prasad, Vineet Varma, Nick Haulkoury, and Abhai S. Rao. Guiddoo will utilize the funds to support product and technology development through their newly opened Technology & Data Unit based in Pune as well as focus on building Pan-India Distribution for its Tours & Activities & Holidays products.

Guiddoo offers unique and targeted experiences with content across 15 destinations that is available to Indian International Travelers through institutional partners like Cleartrip and Yatra, 2000+ Travel Agent Partners as well as its Web and Mobile Products. The company has already handled over 10,000+ Customers with 40,000+ activities in the past year across its destinations. This has resulted in Guiddoo seeing a 12X growth in revenue in the last year and is forecasting another 10X in sales turnover in the next 12 months. Since it is a selective aggregator that has strong ground control leading to unique and consistent experiences bringing a high level of assurance to a traveler’s trip.

Mr. Vineet Budki, Co-Founder and CEO, Guiddoo, commented, “Guiddoo has seen a strong 12X growth in the past 1 year post its pivot into the In-Destination Experience Model which is an estimated market of $20Bn annually. With further strong growth projected, we believe the required funds will help us become a significant player in the Indian Outbound Traveler segment, where our focus is to provide great new experiences with an assurance of service quality to Indian Outbound Travelers through extensive use of technology and ground relationships. We are excited to welcome Manish, Nick, Vineet and Abhai as investors in Guiddoo and will surely build a valuable travel brand for Indian travelers”.

“I am delighted to be part of the new investors in Guiddoo and impressed by the exponential strides they have made in the holidays as well as tours and Activities space,” said Manish Prasad.  He further added, “I have been part of the Guiddoo journey from the start and I believe what is interesting is Guiddoo’s phenomenal growth in terms of revenue as well as loyalty it commands with its partners due to the uniqueness and consistency of experiences it provides. In my opinion the India Outbound Travel space holds tremendous promise and I am confident the Guiddoo Team has the required intent and expertise to be a leader in the same.”

Founded in 2014 by Nidhi Varma, Vineet Budki, Prashant Choudhary and Biswajeet Karmakar, Guiddoo started as a tour guiding app but pivoted last year into an In-Destination platform offering Tours & Activities, Dining, Shopping and Entertainment options for the Indian International Traveler.

Nanotechnology Startup Log 9 Raises Pre Series A Funding from Delhi Based VC firm, GEMs

A unique idea in the Nanotechnology domain, Log 9 Materials has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-series-A funding from GEMs, a Delhi based Venture Capital firm. Incubated at the TIDES Incubation Centre of IIT Roorkee in November, 2015, Log 9 Materials develops scientifically proven technologies from the lab into commercially viable end products for industrial production. Their research team has a deep understanding of consumer needs and is continuously developing solutions in the form of life changing and eco-friendly products.

The industry is all set to witness the Fourth Industrial revolution and is expected to draw some or all of innovations like nanotechnology, wonder materials like Graphene along with 3D printing, robotics, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, IoT and advanced energy etc. Batting on the advantage of being one of the early innovators to develop Graphene nanotechnology products, the founder Akshay V. Singhal (Founder & CEO) along with his team Kartik Hajela(VP Business Development) and Vivek Kumar (VP Accounts & Legal) is bent upon creating commercial nanotech products/technologies which can either be launched as a B2C product or licensed out to corporates and generate revenue.

Akshay has always been driven by research which can be replicated in a product form and has immediate application for consumers. While at a research internship at University of Alberta, Canada he developed an understanding of how to execute and develop such solutions in the Indian market. Building on this, he created Log 9 Materials.

Today, the startup has a product PPuF, a graphene based filter attachable to all cigarettes reducing the toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke by 50% without affecting the user experience of a smoker. PPuF is available at cigarette vendors in Delhi-NCR and has witnessed monthly sales of over 10000 pcs via offline and online channels. Apart from filtration the team has also carried out preliminary work on various protective coatings and Graphene Quantum Dot based LED displays.

Commenting on the funding, Aditya Gupta, Managing Partner GEMs said, “Our focus has always been about encouraging technological innovations. We see great potential in Log 9 Materials and the way it is developing proven nano-technology into commercial products. The start-up has a smart business strategy of licensing IPR or manufacture and retail its products. It is certain to become a window to the future businesses and we are happy to be instrumental in their progressive journey.”

“We see a huge market for Graphene customer base, with product innovations like non-electric water purification systems, Industrial effluent treatment, Air filtration and purification products, energy efficient room heaters, and graphene for LED and bio-diagnostic applications. Log 9 currently holds 2 patents in graphene synthesis and graphene products. We estimate to license out 2 technologies within this year earning a total profit of more than $2 Million. We are extensively working in clean air and water, energy efficiency, and coatings domain with a plan to touch all domains within 5 years.” said, Akshay Singhal, Founder & CEO of Log 9 Materials.

With a team of over 10 individuals with expertise in Nanotechnology R&D, the start-up is functioning from the new HeadQuarters and R&D Centre in North Bangalore.

PPuF: Log 9’s first product is a graphene based filter attachable to all cigarettes reducing the toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke by 50% without affecting the user experience of a smoker. The patent pending product PPuF reduces the risk of smoking for over 1 billion smokers worldwide. PPuF reduces the tar content, heavy metal content as well as other carcinogenic constituents from tobacco smoke, thus reducing the risk of cancer and other pulmonary disorders arising due to smoking. PPuF is a highly cost-effective, efficient and flexible technology which can be used as a plug on filter to any cigarette or also as a replacement to the existing fiber filters conventionally used in cigarettes.

Adventure Travel Startup Deyor Camps Raises Pre-Series A Funding from Venture Catalysts & REAPRA Ventures

In a move that heralds an imminent disruption within the high-potential adventure travel industry, angel investors from Venture Catalysts, Indian seed investment and innovation platform, have led the pre-Series A funding of Deyor Camps, an adventure travel start-up. Existing investor Dheeraj Jain, who has been actively involved in the strategic growth of the company since it started its operations in January 2016, also participated in the round, which also saw participation from other prominent investors such as Dr. Ritesh Malik and Japanese VC firm REAPRA Ventures.

Founded by Chirag Gupta, Aakaar Gandhi, Himashu Aggarwal, and Gautam Yadav, Deyor Camps is India’s largest supplier for alternative accommodation and adventure activities. Deyor Camps will utilise the funds raised to strengthen its core marketing activity, team building, and technology integration. It will also be developing quality content, in addition to enhancing its core expertise of creating thrilling experiences for adventure travellers. Deyor Camps had earlier been chosen for strategic investment by Naspers-backed Travel Boutique Online (TBO), the largest B2B platform for travel agents, which allows it access to a network of more than 20,000 travel agents.

Ankush Nijhawan, Co-founder, TBO Group said, "We are glad to be part of the journey of Deyor Camps which we believe will complement TBO travel portfolio and distribute adventure travel to our large travel agent network."

Speaking on the investment, Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & President, Venture Catalysts, said, “As India’s first and only chain of branded adventure camps and accessories, Deyor Camps has addressed the most painful challenges on the supply side by creating a robust distribution channel as well as through strong OTA integrations and networking.It also has a very strong and focussed founding, and is well positioned to take advantage of the exponential growth in the demand for adventure travel as a category leader. Having invested in this high-potential venture, we will now be eagerly tracking its market growth and supporting its operations with our specialised start-up focussed services. We will also be looking to invest in more promising start-ups going forward, as we set about achieving our vision of establishing India as the start-up capital of the world.”

Chirag Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, Deyor Camps, commented, “The latest investment gives us the resources to expand quickly and strategically into new locations, innovate rapidly, and deliver on our vision to organize the fragmented adventure travel sector in India. With such illustrious investors on board, we are confident of achieving greater growth and scale in the days to come. We have diluted 5% of our equity to raise investment in this round.”

Vikram Bharati, Head of Investments at REAPRA Ventures, added, "The team at Deyor Camps is bold in its vision and passionate about what it does. It is creating and fostering a new industry. We believe that when you take a bunch of young and smart individuals who are passionate about a cause and who don't care about traditional norms, magic can be created. Deyor Camps envisions inspiring young people to travel and experience the depth and breadth of India through camping. We think this is an admirable vision and we see this being backed up with a solid business model. REAPRA is keen to support a team with a vision and plan like this."

The latest investment into Deyor Camps underlines VCats’ intention of tapping into and revitalising the burgeoning Indian adventure travel segment, which is currently estimated to be worth INR 3200 crore and is growing at a CAGR of 45%. Venture Catalysts has previously facilitated early-stage investments cumulatively worth $5 Million into promising ventures such as DSYH, Beardo, FYND and CoutLoot in order to boost the country’s start-up landscape and nurture promising Indian businesses for global success.

Hyperlocal Delivery Startup Scootsy Raises Pre-Series A Funding of $3.6M

After completing a year and a half of successful business operations in Mumbai, Scootsy has raised funding of $3.6 million in a pre-series A round led by Agnus Capital and Khattar Holdings. AntFarm, Scootsy's incubator, has also participated in this investment round.

Founded in July 2015 by Rishi Khiani and Sandeep Das, Scootsy delivers quality products to consumers quickly and efficiently. Scootsy works with a combination of leading and small-scale businesses across food, sweets and bakes, books, beauty products, fashion and gifts to offer consumers an unparalleled end-to-end experience that redefines the home delivery experience.

With a customer base of over 200,000 since its launch, Scootsy has quickly scaled to become the premium app of choice in the city with a base that comprises industrialists, celebrities and spans generations including millennials who appreciate the curation of products on offer.

One of Scootsy’s clear differentiators is their premium positioning which includes bringing on exclusive brands such as Hamleys, ROYCE’, The Bombay Canteen, The Table, Nicobar, Condé Nast magazines and Jean-Claude Biguine. This also comes through in an average order size of above Rs 900, an amount that is 2.5 times that of the competition.

With the new round of funding, Scootsy plans to improve customer experience by further strengthening its logistics, technologies and delivery platform. Scootsy will also add to its offerings with Scootsy Express, a service that will deliver food to corporate offices across the city within minutes. Additionally, Scootsy will launch Scootsy Pop-Up, a kitchen and distribution platform that will be available to iconic brands from across the country.

Furthermore, with its focus on curating and empowering quality small medium enterprise, Scootsy has given brands like Sugar Rush, MamaZ, Bono Ice Cream and Bawi Bride a platform to access a wider customer base and a highly monetisable sales and distribution channel. Funds will be also be utilised to bring more of these brands to life and continue its support in growing the local retail entrepreneurial ecosystem.

WIISE Launches a Global Learning Network Community Platform; Plans to Raise $15M in Series A

PositiveShift, a widely acknowledged skill development company in India announced today the launch of WIISE Learning Network. The learning network platform built with a seed investment of $750K, includes – WIISE Online, WIISE TV, WIISE Connect, WIISE Start and WIISE Junior.

Unveiling the platform Vijay Ketan Mitra, CEO, Founder and Executive Coach at PositiveShift said “Whilst our 4 year work as Skill development company, we discovered that - Affordable access to good quality learning is the biggest gap in an emerging country like India. WIISE Learning network is a global community that helps anyone to learn anything to achieve personal and professional goals. We are creating an ecosystem where learners can achieve their goals. Our uniqueness lies in offering live classes complementing with technology and applying blended learning”.

Every faculty and students at WIISE platform have access to course information anytime, anywhere. To begin with WIISE will offer 250+ courses on demand self paced study courses including 7 live virtual classes.

As the economy's demand for higher-skills rises it is imperative, that access to education becomes a technology driven phenomenon, “At the core of our business model, we have innate need of a learner, supported by technology, innovative pedagogy, academia and industry relevant systems”, Vijay, who leads a team of 7 highly rated professionals and academic experts from the learning and coaching sector adds.

Explaining how the learning network is designed to help learners around the world, Vivek Reddy, the Chief Business Officer said “WIISE’s objective is to bring top-rated interactive courses & certifications from across the world through respected Global Academic Institutes and Industry experts to learners of our country. Beyond conventional Online medium, we also plan to launch WIISE TV (Direct-to-home based classes) and WIISE Connect (local connect centres in Tier 2, 3 and 4 cities)”.

WIISE is already running an Entrepreneurship program for Trainers successfully, 19th batch is about to start in a week’s time. In addition, WIISE is launching 5 more Live Virtual courses from Premier Institutes this summer.

Talking about WIISE expansion plans Vijay said “We plan to launch about 5 more Live programs and 250+ Self paced programs from our current level of 100 Online. In WIISE TV - We plan to launch a Pilot of the WIISE TV by Sep2017 and then the full rollout.”

WIISE has set an online subscription target of 1million subscribers by 2020 and for WIISE TV a target of 30 lac subscribers by 2020.

Talking about the business model, Mr Chanchal Samadder, Investor in company said “Our business model is suited for India, Students will be able to sign up for a course through fee or subscription mode under 3 models. Model 1: Free and Freemium Self-paced courses; and Model 2: Pay per course (the course fee ranges from 5k to 1.5L, depending on the type of courses)”.

Highlighting one of its highly focused StartX program Vijay said StartX focuses on helping you kick start your Startup & Entrepreneurial journey. It will help you create a strong foundation by validating your idea and turning it into a business.

WIISE is brought by India’s most respectable Skill development company group - PositiveShift Group. The company has been awarded unique Innovation partnership with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Govt of India. WIISE is launched and managed by its subsidiary company PositiveShift Technologies Limited, which also has been setup in UK.

According to PositiveShift CEO, Vijay ketan “WIISE will continue to expand its number of partners both in the India and overseas, as well as develop its commercial model, which in the future could see students subscribe to take exams and pay for extra course material. Besides offering courses WIISE will also offer career assistance to its subscribers and users. We want tomorrows India to be learned and exceptionally skilled”.

Credihealth Raises $1.5M in Pre-Series A Funding from Tolaram Group and Mountain Pine Capital

Credihealth, India’s leading medical assistance company has successfully concluded its Pre-Series A funding round. The healthcare startup has secured an investment of USD 1.5 million from Tolaram Inc., family office investment arm of Tolaram Group and Mountain Pine Capital. Bala Swaminathan (Ex) KPMG partner, one of the earliest investors in the platform and has invested in this round as well. After growing exponentially within three years of inception, Credihealth has already achieved break even and has been maintaining a positive cash flow from an early stage. With this round of funding, Credihealth aims to expand its operations and fund the new services to address the non-clinical pain points of patients.

Commenting on the funding, Mr Ravi Virmani, Founder and Managing Director, Credihealth said, “More than money, it is innovation and steady growth that are needed to survive in the market today. We are already a company with a consistent and positive cash flow and have achieved substantial growth in the past few quarters. The funding will primarily be utilised to augment technology and infrastructure to expand services and introduce new products. Most importantly, the guidance and mentorship of our investors is what we are looking forward to, for sustained evolution of Credihealth.”

Manish Tibrewal, CEO of Tolaram Inc. said, "The Indian start-up landscape has exhibited exceptional growth across industries and we are glad to participate in such a vibrant market with a high-potential healthcare startup. There is an urgent need for drastic improvements in India’s healthcare delivery system and to bring transparency for the patients. Standing true to its name of providing credible healthcare assistance, Credihealth is currently one of the most disruptive healthcare startups in the Indian market, having achieved such phenomenal growth in a very short period of time. It is most certainly one of the few startups in India to watch out for.”

Spokesperson Sasha Breen, Mountain Pine Capital, said, “India currently has one of the most innovative start-up industries in the world. The health-tech sector particularly has been growing rapidly. Credihealth has a robust business model, a consumer-centric approach and is backed by a superior team and tech infrastructure. We are determined to help in developing India’s healthcare industry by helping the company build on its expertise and expand the consumer base with its dynamic offerings.”

Credihealth leverages technology to offer complete support for all medical needs of consumers. The company has already been hailed as ‘The Google of Healthcare’. It is the only Indian healthcare company to have tie-ups with over 630 hospitals in tier 1 as well as tier 2 geographies and has partnerships with leading names such as Fortis, Medanta, Columbia Asia, BLK, Paras, Artemis, etc. It provides extensive healthcare assistance to patients supporting them in managing all their hospital needs.

Delhi Based Simulanis Raises Pre-Series A Funding from Village Capital and Others

Village Capital and a group of angel investors, including Pawanjit Ahluwalia (Chairman, India Skills) Apurva Chamaria (VP and Head - Corporate Marketing, HCL Technologies) and Mridul Upreti (CEO, Segregated Funds Group – Jones Lang LaSalle) have made a Pre-Series A investment in Simulanis, a Delhi-based Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR-VR) technology development company that creates e-learning, skills development, and gamified content.

Simulanis has developed hardware agnostic, gamified, mobile and computer training applications for the education, skilling and industrial training sectors. The company is currently working with two of the biggest ten pharma companies to train their workforce in India using AR-VR technology. The company is training over one thousand workers across multiple sites at the moment and expects to be training five thousand workers in a year’s time. The company is also conducting pilots with some automotive giants in the country to train their floor staff.

With this round of funding, Simulanis will expand its sales team to dive deep into the pharma and automotive sector while exploring other domains for which they can develop gamified AR-VR content.

Simulanis participated in Village Capital’s Education India 2016 investment-readiness program, and was selected for investment by a group of their peers. Village Capital has made more than 75 early stage investments across the United States, South America, Europe, Africa and India including eight investments in India in companies: Simpa Networks, Parvata Foods, SevaMob, iKure, Bodhi Health Education, Skill Angels, Sudiksha and Experifun.

“India will require 119 million more skilled workers by 2022 across 24 sectors in the economy, according to the National Skills Development Corporation. We are very excited to welcome Simulanis into the Village Capital portfolio to address this pressing skill shortage through the application of AR-VR technology,” said Victoria Fram, Managing Director, VilCap Investments. “We believe the cost-efficiency and efficacy of their training solution, coupled with their focus on scale, will position them well in a sector that’s attracting more and more attention.”

“Simulanis’ technology offers corporations a clear path to reducing attrition and improving efficiency by better preparing workers in a much shorter span of time, and offers individuals an opportunity to continue building the skills to be competitive in a quickly-evolving workforce,” Fram continued.

“Village Capitals’ program gave us a lot of confidence and belief in our tech-capabilities,” said Raman Talwar, Founder/CEO of Simulanis. “From a pool of 200 companies, the program, backed by a unique peer-review ranking methodology, pitched us against 9 of India’s top education-focused tech companies. We were delighted to receive great mentorship and support during the program from Village Capital’s team and its network of advisors, mentors, and investors. Getting acknowledged by the peer group comprising of some of the best entrepreneurs of the country working in the education domain, delivered immense satisfaction to us and proved our readiness to raise Venture Capital. We are really excited to welcome on board a marquee group of investors who share the same vision with us and can add great value to our company.”

“The VR market globally is expected to touch USD 33.9 billion by 2022. While Simulanis is currently getting a lot of traction in VR with the lucrative pharma and automotive sectors, I see the VR implications in every industrial training use case,” adds investor Apurva Chamaria. “The company is receiving great feedback for its customers and this round of funding will set it on the path of exponential growth.”

Village Capital is an investment firm that finds, trains, and invests in early-stage entrepreneurs with business solutions to major global problems. We build communities around entrepreneurs that increase opportunities for growth and success. Village Capital’s unique model which aims to democratize Venture Capital, puts the fiduciary responsibility of the investment decision in the hands of the entrepreneurs through their peer-selection investment approach which has over time proven to deliver strong results for early-stage businesses and investors and has also won the Harvard Business Review/McKinsey M-Prize for innovation.

Online Event Booking Platform BookEventz.com Raises Pre-Series A Funding

BookEventZ, an online Event-Booking platform, raises an undisclosed amount in a successful Pre-Series A round from Lead Angels, Mumbai Angels and Letsventure. Existing investors also participated in this round.

Key investors of this round include Girish Mathrubootham (Co-Founder Freshdesk), Anbu Pandian (‎CEO PanZeea Solutions) and Ishan Singh (Director Recapital Ventures) who led previous angel round as well.

BookEventZ has served more than 73,000 event enquiries, booked over 5000 events with GMV crossing INR 50Cr. The website aims to make the booking process an easier, smarter and quicker experience for the people by showing them virtual tour of the venues, giving availability and getting them best rates.

Currently, booking over 250 events monthly, BookEventZ has good business from various types of events such as Weddings, Corporate Parties, Conferences, Social Get-togethers etc.

“With this round of funding we are looking to reach 1500 event bookings monthly giving business worth INR 15 Cr to our Vendors. We will soon have online event management tools for our users to design invites, get RSVP and manage vendors. Also users will soon be able to book all vendors (photographers, decorators & artists) at standard prices from website," said Shriti Chhajed, Founder BookEventZ.

“Co-founders Shriti and Harsh have shown that they can stay the course and have executed on the plan so far. They continue to leverage technology and innovative ways to strengthen their positioning as a technology partner for venues. I am happy to continue on their board and support their growth. This is a real business that solves a pain point and uses technology to automate processes,” said investor Ishan Singh, Director Recapital Ventures.

Lead Angels Network Leads Pre-Series A Investment in Indore-Based ShopKirana

Lead Angels Network bets on local Indian innovation to inject technology in the Kirana business. ShopKirana has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-series A from Lead Angels, Incubate fund Japan and senior executives from top FMCG Companies.

ShopKirana is a B2B technology and supply chain focused company that aims to empower retailers to be competitive by providing technology, operational expertise and scale advantage. Idea is to partner with thousands of retailers (by becoming part of their supply chain) and making it the biggest and quickest go-to-market channel for products and services.

$300Bn Indian retail market is still largely (~92%) unorganized. ~9M small and fragmented retailers lack technology and are plagued with supply chain inefficiencies. ShopKirana is using M-commerce by integrating the existing unorganised supply chain cobweb into systematic hub and spoke franchise system using technology. It plans to tap the Kirana retail segment, 92% of which is unorganised. They are helping the retailers in keeping up with the changing retail space by providing them a one-stop solution for sourcing. They are using a digital platform for 24/7 ordering, 24hrs delivery and consolidated payments, with the help of which, they are able to quickly fulfill orders. Leveraging on their strong relationships with the retailers, they are also launching brands on their platform, which need a digital platform to launch and need data analytics to catch up the trends in the market. Through integrating retailers and brands on a platform, ShopKirana hopes to create India’s largest go-to-market channel via retailers.

“ShopKirana is working on sustainable value creation by simultaneously increasing efficiency in the supply chain and aggregating purchasing power of small businesses. I believe that the team has collectively exhaustive skill sets with a very firm focus on areas where startups seem to fail: execution and consistency in service quality.” says Pragnesh Podar, lead investor from Lead Angels group.

This model is retailer centric and will remain that way. ShopKirana will connect with 1+ lakh retailers in next 1-2 year, helping them to improve on sourcing and inventory turn over. It will help regional/domestic brands to go national while helping international brands reach smaller markets. It will also help established FMCG companies to get quicker reach to retailer and visibility of accurate and competitive POS data.

“We have already tested services in 2 cities with 5000+ Kirana stores, delivered 200+ orders /day and achieved sales of over Rs. 10+ lakh / day. We will reach 10,000+ customers and will be delivering 1000+ orders/day soon,” said ShopKirana co-founder Deepak Dhanotiya.