Bombay Shaving Company Gets $2.3M in Pre-Series A Round Led by Fireside Venture Fund

Bombay Shaving Company, a brand known for its men's consumer care products, has announced that it has raised $2.3 million in a pre-series A round led by Fireside Venture Fund. The round has seen participation from 9 existing investors including S Ramadorai, former CEO at TCS, Pankaj Gupta, Supply Director at USL Diageo and some senior partners at McKinsey & Co who wished to not be named. The company plans to use the capital to fuel branding efforts, new product development and expansion into offline sales channels like salons and supermarket chains.

"Our vision at Bombay Shaving Company has always been to create beautiful, experiential products for men. This fund raise and the investors who have joined us will help us build a direct to consumer FMCG company for an audience that is fast becoming very sophisticated," says Shantanu Deshpande, CEO. Prior to founding Bombay Shaving Company, Deshpande was a consultant at McKinsey & Co where he spent significant time serving clients in the FMCG and retail space.

Launched in June 2016, Bombay Shaving Company introduced a shaving-only portfolio which included pre-and post shaving products as well as a double-edged razor with copyright design. In one year, the company has acquired 20000+ customers and is doubling every quarter. It recently forayed outside shaving with the launch of its exfoliating soap range for men. Reviews of the products reflect a loyal following, especially among younger people who are looking for differentiated offerings.

"Young men in India are demanding more thoughtfully designed products and a wider range of options. In one year, the Bombay Shaving Company team has been able to build out a brand with emotional appeal, an engaging story and early signs of loyalty. We believe the market opportunity is tremendous as men have begun investing in the products they use and the 'grab and go' mindset is on the decline. With expansion into more categories and an aggressive sales team, there is enormous potential to build a large, premium brand for men's products" says Kanwaljit Singh, founder of Fireside Ventures.

"They have displayed an appetite for expansion. The tie-up with Affinity Salons has allowed for effective trials with target customers while the launch in US has given them instant access to a large market. They are now eyeing offline shelves in India and there are some interesting tie-ups in the pipeline," said S Ramadorai, who has backed the company since day 1.

In August 2016, the company had raised $650K from a clutch of high profile angel investors.

The men’s grooming space has seen quite a bit of action in the past with Unilever's $1 bn acquisition of Dollar Shave Club in June 2016. Bombay Shaving Company has also seen early strategic interest from large FMCG companies who are looking to enhance their digital capabilities and get access via direct to consumer platforms, said Deshpande.

Bombay Shaving Company Gets $2.3M in Pre-Series A Round Led by Fireside Venture Fund

Bombay Shaving Company, a brand known for its men's consumer care products, has announced that it has raised $2.3 million in a pre-series A round led by Fireside Venture Fund. The round has seen participation from 9 existing investors including S Ramadorai, former CEO at TCS, Pankaj Gupta, Supply Director at USL Diageo and some senior partners at McKinsey & Co who wished to not be named. The company plans to use the capital to fuel branding efforts, new product development and expansion into offline sales channels like salons and supermarket chains.

"Our vision at Bombay Shaving Company has always been to create beautiful, experiential products for men. This fund raise and the investors who have joined us will help us build a direct to consumer FMCG company for an audience that is fast becoming very sophisticated," says Shantanu Deshpande, CEO. Prior to founding Bombay Shaving Company, Deshpande was a consultant at McKinsey & Co where he spent significant time serving clients in the FMCG and retail space.

Launched in June 2016, Bombay Shaving Company introduced a shaving-only portfolio which included pre-and post shaving products as well as a double-edged razor with copyright design. In one year, the company has acquired 20000+ customers and is doubling every quarter. It recently forayed outside shaving with the launch of its exfoliating soap range for men. Reviews of the products reflect a loyal following, especially among younger people who are looking for differentiated offerings.

"Young men in India are demanding more thoughtfully designed products and a wider range of options. In one year, the Bombay Shaving Company team has been able to build out a brand with emotional appeal, an engaging story and early signs of loyalty. We believe the market opportunity is tremendous as men have begun investing in the products they use and the 'grab and go' mindset is on the decline. With expansion into more categories and an aggressive sales team, there is enormous potential to build a large, premium brand for men's products" says Kanwaljit Singh, founder of Fireside Ventures.

"They have displayed an appetite for expansion. The tie-up with Affinity Salons has allowed for effective trials with target customers while the launch in US has given them instant access to a large market. They are now eyeing offline shelves in India and there are some interesting tie-ups in the pipeline," said S Ramadorai, who has backed the company since day 1.

In August 2016, the company had raised $650K from a clutch of high profile angel investors.

The men’s grooming space has seen quite a bit of action in the past with Unilever's $1 bn acquisition of Dollar Shave Club in June 2016. Bombay Shaving Company has also seen early strategic interest from large FMCG companies who are looking to enhance their digital capabilities and get access via direct to consumer platforms, said Deshpande.

Milkbasket Raises Pre-series A Round from Blume Ventures and Lenovo Capital

Milkbasket, India’s first daily micro-delivery grocery startup has secured an undisclosed amount from prominent investors Blume Ventures, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG). This is Milkbasket’s third round of funding. In December, a few Milkbasket customers together with Empower Investment, Hofan Capital and Draphant participated in their second round of funding. In April 2016, the company raised $500,000 in pre-Series A round led by EVC Ventures and Chinese Investors including Peter Zou, CEO of YeahMobi, and Li Jian, founder of Zhu Dao Investments. Snapdeal vice presidents Vikas Banga and Manav Kamboj also invested as well.

The funding will be utilized to expand operations in Gurgaon and hire critical manpower in technology, supply chain, and operations departments. EVC and certain angel investors, who initially invested in Milkbasket, are reported to have exited in this round.

“We have studied the inadequacies of the supply chain in groceries in depth and see a huge potential to add value at both supply and demand side”, said Anant Goel, Co-founder, and CEO of Milkbasket. “We hope this investment will help us fulfill our aim to simplify the currently fragmented supply chain and use technology to expand operations to cater to more societies in Gurgaon.”

Milkbasket, launched in early 2015, currently serves over 10,000 families across 115 societies in Gurgaon. Built on the unique Indian habit of getting fresh milk delivered at home every morning, Milkbasket is today fulfilling the entire grocery needs of a household before 7:00am every day. There is no minimum order and no delivery charges. An order can be placed by any member of the household till midnight and gets delivered to the doorstep early morning, every morning.

To enable frequent and frictionless buying, Milkbasket has introduced flexi-ordering and contactless delivery - both a first in the e-commerce industry - and favorites of Milkbasket customers.

"Anant and team at Milkbasket have understood the ingrained milkman habit in Indian homes, leveraged that simple habit, and taken the customer experience of getting any groceries home-delivered to an altogether new level. It's easy as getting morning papers! And in that simplicity lays the beauty of the model. We look forward to the partnership which will allow what's taken Gurgaon by storm to reach several other cities eventually." said Karthik Reddy, managing partner at Blume Ventures, a venture capital firm which has also invested in companies like OLA and GreyOrange.

Milkbasket has till date completed 1.5 million orders and controls the end to end user experience with a completely technology led in-house procurement and logistics model.

“The team at Milkbasket is doing a great job of eliminating the problems that exist in the on-demand grocery industry and we couldn’t be more excited about this collaboration”, said Jeffrey Wang, Managing Director of Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG).

“By reducing the last mile logistics cost to a fraction of the industry (1/20th) and removing a real pain area of customers, Milkbasket has cracked the online grocery delivery model for India. We aspire to be serving a million families, every day, in the next 5 years and our belief is further solidified with this round of funding by two internationally recognized players” added Anant.

By perfecting the supply chain management, Milkbasket envisions a day when a customer will be able to order absolutely anything before midnight and get the delivery before 7 AM the next day.

Milkbasket Raises Pre-series A Round from Blume Ventures and Lenovo Capital

Milkbasket, India’s first daily micro-delivery grocery startup has secured an undisclosed amount from prominent investors Blume Ventures, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG). This is Milkbasket’s third round of funding. In December, a few Milkbasket customers together with Empower Investment, Hofan Capital and Draphant participated in their second round of funding. In April 2016, the company raised $500,000 in pre-Series A round led by EVC Ventures and Chinese Investors including Peter Zou, CEO of YeahMobi, and Li Jian, founder of Zhu Dao Investments. Snapdeal vice presidents Vikas Banga and Manav Kamboj also invested as well.

The funding will be utilized to expand operations in Gurgaon and hire critical manpower in technology, supply chain, and operations departments. EVC and certain angel investors, who initially invested in Milkbasket, are reported to have exited in this round.

“We have studied the inadequacies of the supply chain in groceries in depth and see a huge potential to add value at both supply and demand side”, said Anant Goel, Co-founder, and CEO of Milkbasket. “We hope this investment will help us fulfill our aim to simplify the currently fragmented supply chain and use technology to expand operations to cater to more societies in Gurgaon.”

Milkbasket, launched in early 2015, currently serves over 10,000 families across 115 societies in Gurgaon. Built on the unique Indian habit of getting fresh milk delivered at home every morning, Milkbasket is today fulfilling the entire grocery needs of a household before 7:00am every day. There is no minimum order and no delivery charges. An order can be placed by any member of the household till midnight and gets delivered to the doorstep early morning, every morning.

To enable frequent and frictionless buying, Milkbasket has introduced flexi-ordering and contactless delivery - both a first in the e-commerce industry - and favorites of Milkbasket customers.

"Anant and team at Milkbasket have understood the ingrained milkman habit in Indian homes, leveraged that simple habit, and taken the customer experience of getting any groceries home-delivered to an altogether new level. It's easy as getting morning papers! And in that simplicity lays the beauty of the model. We look forward to the partnership which will allow what's taken Gurgaon by storm to reach several other cities eventually." said Karthik Reddy, managing partner at Blume Ventures, a venture capital firm which has also invested in companies like OLA and GreyOrange.

Milkbasket has till date completed 1.5 million orders and controls the end to end user experience with a completely technology led in-house procurement and logistics model.

“The team at Milkbasket is doing a great job of eliminating the problems that exist in the on-demand grocery industry and we couldn’t be more excited about this collaboration”, said Jeffrey Wang, Managing Director of Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG).

“By reducing the last mile logistics cost to a fraction of the industry (1/20th) and removing a real pain area of customers, Milkbasket has cracked the online grocery delivery model for India. We aspire to be serving a million families, every day, in the next 5 years and our belief is further solidified with this round of funding by two internationally recognized players” added Anant.

By perfecting the supply chain management, Milkbasket envisions a day when a customer will be able to order absolutely anything before midnight and get the delivery before 7 AM the next day.

Singapore's Shopmatic Secures $5.7 Mn From ACP Pte, Spring Seeds Capital

Singapore-based e-commerce firm, Shopmatic has raised $5.7 million in pre-series A round led by led by technology venture capital firm ACP Pte Ltd and Spring Seeds Capital. Spring Seeds Capital is an investment subsidiary of Spring Singapore, an agency under Singapore's trade and industry minister.

The company plans to utilize freshly infuse funds to aggressively expand to Indonesia, the Philippines and West Asia.Commenting on the development, Sameer Narula, Managing Partner, ACP said, “By using the deep data-sets generated on its platform, Shopmatic has the potential to enable SMEs and partners better target their services and products and to accelerate the adoption of e-commerce in these high-growth markets," Narula, as part of this round will be joining the board of Shopmatic.

Commenting on the development, Sameer Narula, Managing Partner, ACP said, “By using the deep data-sets generated on its platform, Shopmatic has the potential to enable SMEs and partners better target their services and products and to accelerate the adoption of e-commerce in these high-growth markets," Narula, as part of this round will be joining the board of Shopmatic.

Founded in 2014 by Anurag Avula, Yen Lim and Kris Chen, Shopmatic offers merchants and individual entrepreneurs a platform to sell online. It enables small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs to build online stores with integrated payment and shipping functions and sell their products or services through multiple channels.

“With this round of funds, we aim to expand our service to a wider seller base across more markets in Asia and other emerging markets," said Anurag Avula, CEO, Shopmatic.

With an angel investment of $1.5 million from undisclosed investors from India, the US and Singapore, founder launched the Shopmatic. Company has last year launched Shopmatic Go, a mobile-centric product with more than 1,30,000 downloads since November, and has acquired Taiwan-based 5xRuby, a technology development house.

Twenty Two Motors Raises $1.6M in Pre-Series A Round of Funding

Gurgaon-based Twenty Two Motors Pvt Ltd has raised $1.6 million in its pre-series A round funding led by Mr. Ishwar Singh, CEO, Haryana Industries. Mr. Farhaan Shabbir, former director of Harley-Davidson also joined the investment round to further strengthen his belief in the start-up company he joined as a founding member.

Twenty Two Motors was incorporated in August 2016 by Parveen Kharb & Vijay Chandrawat with the aim of making cutting edge EV technology affordable for the current generation. The Company promises to deliver India’s first truly smart scooter to the masses in Q1, 2018.

“Tremendous work has been done in the prototyping and developing of the highly effective EV since our launch. We have been able to attract the seasoned and quality talent from major Auto companies. Major hurdles of developing Lithium-ion battery, battery management system & smart electronics has also been resolved. This investment is an acknowledgment of our belief that we are working on the product for future generations,” said Parveen Kharb, Co-founder & CEO, Twenty Two Motors.

Lithium Ion battery pack and BMS has been developed taking into consideration Indian temperature profile and thus optimizes performance and battery life. Smart scooter will be fully IOT compliant having devices like GPS, GPRS, Gyroscope, accelerometer etc making it virtually theft proof. Data from these IOT devices is being decoded by servers by using Data mining and Artificial intelligence techniques to precisely determine to ride behavior of the user. A user is always connected to scooter via mobile application which can also be used to control scooter access remotely. Scooter information is available on the cloud and hence all the troubleshooting and other service can be managed automatically.

“Investment will be used meticulously to build and prove the product apart from strengthening startup’s human resource capabilities. Broadly, Investment will be channeled for Prototype vehicle development, Testing, Strengthening Team, Component Development and Factory Setup. Investment certifies our potential and is expected to provide exponential growth to the company,” comments Vijay Chandrawat, Co-founder & COO, Twenty Two Motors.

“We have strategically invested in TTMPL as we could find synergies between both the businesses. Industrial house will gain insights in EV domain while Twenty Two Motors will have increased capabilities to shorten their product development cycle, said Ishwar Singh, CEO, Haryana Group of Industries, a leading automobile component manufacturer across the globe.

Parveen is an automation engineer and automobile insider having 15 years of entrepreneur experience in Automobile domain. He started and is successfully running his two other ventures JMX works and QCD engineering. While Vijay, a computer science graduate from IIT Delhi, has around 14 years work experience in technology, strategy and operations domain. Both forged a real good partnership as one having automobile domain expertise while other having technology expertise. What binds them together is that they both are technology enthusiast and thus taking Electric Vehicles’ challenging road ahead motivated them.

Hyperlocal Sharing App Pulse Raises $500k in Pre-Series A Round from SAIF Partners

Pulse, a social networking app enabling users to stay connected with college/school communities around them in a fun, visual way has raised $500k in funding from SAIF Partners. Pulse provides users a full-screen visual experience of streams of colleges around them, with customized stickers to make the experience more fun and engaging! With the freshly raised funds, Pulse aims to expand its presence to other cities including Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Manipal, Chennai, Hyderabad, etc and to ramp up its technology team.

Pulse was co-founded by IIT Roorkee alumnus Karthik Vaidyanath, and Prakhar Khanduja, in late October 2016. The core idea behind the app was to create a platform for the millennials, where they would not only consume content that is locally relevant to them, but also create and share it with a very geo-specific community.

The main USP of Pulse is that it gives its users access to hyper-local content around them, and a platform to contribute to & share it with a wider group within college, and across college communities.

“Typical broadcasting social networks like Facebook & Twitter have limited users posting daily as it’s a public broadcast to the world with limited privacy. Contrary to broadcasting, through our elaborate on-ground market research we realized that by narrowcasting to the relevant audience within & across nearby colleges, and giving the content hyper-local relevance, it greatly boosted content interactions as well as significantly reduced the inhibition of users for content creation. Hyperlocal social networking & narrowcasting is the next wave of social networking.”, said Karthik. Pulse has almost 30% of its users posting daily, with a DAU/MAU ratio of ~25%.

The ability to add highly relatable locally-relevant stickers to the images has been received extremely well by the college communities. Moreover, the app has been designed to perfectly suit the Asian millenial target market - It utilizes minimal internet bandwidth and one can view content as well as post completely offline.

“The inception of Pulse happened when my nephew told me how he misses out on events in his college. Thats where we went on ground for 3 months and met over 5000 kids from various colleges and schools across India to understand how they think. Then we got a few of them to work with us for a few weeks and we collectively came out with all the features with them. This exercise also showed us how users today quickly prefer adding a sticker to their pictures to express their emotions over typing a caption, which itself is a huge market. And with the feedback we’ve got, Pulse has made content creation more intuitive for users. Pulse is the first consumer app in India which is made by the college kids and for the college kids,” said Prakhar Khanduja, Cofounder, Pulse.

“College & school students in India did not have yet have a platform that was built ground-up for them and this had created a white space for a product to emerge. We really like the way the team has gone about building a platform that provides young users relevant content in the form of full-screen multimedia rich stories, which is something they understand the best,” said Mayank Khanduja, SAIF Partners.

With an on-ground team of just two people, in a very short duration Pulse has managed to rope in most of the major colleges around the Delhi-NCR area through their unique community program. Pulse aims to be the de-facto app for millenials to know what’s happening in their college communities around them.

Pulse had raised $500K seed from SAIF Partners a few months back. With Pulse getting great reviews throughout colleges in Delhi, the next phase is to scale up across colleges outside Delhi/NCR including Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Manipal, etc.

Pulse, in the previous round of funding, had raised capital from eminent Angel Investors like Rajan Anandan, Rajesh Sawhney, Anupam Mittal, Uday Shankar (CEO, StarTV), Anand Chandrasekaran, Amit Ranjan, etc. They’re currently in talks with investors in India, China & the US for a larger round.

Image : Prakhar Khanduja, Cofounder, Pulse

Wearable Tech Fitness Startup Actofit Raises $750k

Wearable tech startup Actofit has raised INR 5 crore ($750k) in Pre-Series A round from Next Orbit Ventures Fund and serial entrepreneur & angel investor Nilesh Jain. The startup is also ready to commercially launch its much-awaited smart wrist-wear that tracks comprehensive indoor workouts and provides data driven actionable insight.

Actofit is an Indian wearable tech startup with a developed wearable wrist-wear and a complete software algorithm platform that tracks not only your steps & heart rate but goes deeper into advanced motion tracking to track comprehensive & granular workout statistics; creating seamless logs, allowing you to evaluate data to make informed decisions.

Through its versatility and innovation, Actofit is able to auto identify 75+ gym exercises, count sets & reps, measure continuous heart rate, estimate velocity, force and power for every exercise and can also be used for the rest of the day as a regular fitness tracker. It aims to help fitness enthusiasts track their complete workouts, evaluate forms and sessions, maintain optimum heart rate, and use the data to make informed decisions.

“The Wearable Tech Space is still a relatively young industry. With the adoption rate of Wearables already close to 50% in the United States, and the emerging markets catching up, we saw 78 million devices shipped last year. This industry is growing north of a 30% global CAGR and Actofit definitely is ahead of the curve. The potential it has in a global scenario is exciting, let alone the Indian markets” – Ajay Jalan, Managing Partner at Next Orbit Ventures is bullish on the scope and potential Actofit possesses. Next Orbit Ventures earlier funded Actofit in a Seed round in July 2015 of Rs. 1 Crore.

“The funds will be used for the commercial launch of its dynamic products in the markets as well as for marketing, inventory building, team expansions and new product developments & partnerships. To be available in stores by the end of 2016, Actofit is the first fitness tracker that is more versatile and unique than anything that is available in the markets today. It comes out of a direct user requirement and we have been working with fitness experts & professionals while building this product,” said Pratik Saraogi, Cofounder & CEO at Actofit.

Actofit uses 9 axis motion sensors to track movement in the 3D space. Using machine-learning algorithms, Actofit has built an activity identification platform and has multiple pending patents. Although the product is launched in the fitness space, the software platform is capable and allows users to add or customize any kind of motion & track it, which has applications across different sports, yoga, physiotherapy and more.

“Fitness needs to be perceived as fun and games, I have no doubts Actofit, in its own way can create gamification and cause a disruption in the fitness arena. I trust the team, technology and the product, Actofit is the seamless integration of cutting edge technologies that raises the bar of wearable tech” – says Nilesh Jain, who has been mentoring the team and is interested to see how this turns out in a phase “where a lot companies today are focused on creating marketplaces for you to feed in information, and get help from the other side, but very few actually have a sensor network to pull in that information automatically and seamlessly. This would result in an exponentially higher user experience and a better stickiness.”

The Company has partnered up with Indiegogo for the launch its PreOrders which is expected to kick off on 23rd October, 2016, and is expected to start shipping its first batch as early as Christmas 2016.

“The confidence shown by such successful and high quality investors is something that boosts our team’s morale and validates our product. We have been working on developing the core technologies and perfecting the product for more than 2 years and I am sure we will be able to scale up the momentum, not just with their money, but their expertise, guidance and networks,” added Pratik Saraogi.

Education eCommerce Startup Fastudent Raises Pre-Series A Funding

Fastudent, Indian B2B2C education e-commerce marketplace has announced a Pre-Series A fund raise from a group of investors including Kanwaljit Sing (Fireside Ventures), Ajay Lakhotia (former Vertex Venture Director) and Pavan Ongole (former SoftBank Director). Ashish Gupta, Trustee Ashoka University and former COO of eValueServe who invested in angel round also participated.

Founded by Gaurav Barman and Geetanjali Khanna, the e-commerce start up will utilize this round of funding to expand into Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune etc and strengthen their technology platform. Fastudent currently offers this service to schools in Delhi NCR only.

Commenting on the funding, Kanwaljit Singh, Founder Fireside Ventures , said: “Fastudent has tapped into a consumer need for School-endorsed education supplies - coupled with the convenience of e-commerce deliveries. The young & dynamic team intends to service the education fraternity like never before by creating a highly personalized brand experience for its audience."

Fastudent with its current capability to service the complete education bandwidth viz. from Playgroups to Post Graduation, has partnered with more than 200 education institutes. Using Fastudent’s exclusive technology platform, the institutes can now have their own customized white labeled e-Commerce stores .The Company runs end to end operations to support the transactions received on these stores from order receipt till the last mile delivery.

With a dedicated consumer base of 1.2 million students, Fastudent has serviced more than 90,000 orders till date.

Ajay Lakhotia, ex-Vertex Venture, added "Vertical E-Commerce has the capability to build specialized products and services around its target audience and develop deeper engagement with customers. Fastudent could eventually become the 8dol.com of India." (8Dol.com, a Chinese campus O2O services provider backed by several VC investors, and has raised an extended Series B round worth RMB200 million ($30 million).

Servicing an unprecedented range of academic supplies ranging across 32 categories including Books, Stationery, Digital Learning, Branded Merchandise, Augmented Reality, Sports, Uniforms, Shoes and more, the edTech startup boasts of a focused educational catalogue of 1,00,000 + products, spanning across 500 brands.

“...I believe Fastudent will be India's #1 student network aligned with parents and teachers. From a curated marketplace for every purchase in a school year, to a deeper understanding of their needs around learning…” added Softbank’s Pavan Ongole.

Speaking about the development, Geetanjali Khanna, Co-founder & COO, Fastudent added, “India’s education supplies market is highly fragmented and disorganized, we at Fastudent are relentlessly engaged to bind the Indian education sector. Our focus is to provide a blended module of consultative, customized and modularized digital learning to learners. We aim to make "Education a happy experience" for students, parents and institutions."

Ashish Gupta who invested in the previous round stated , " The model has blended into the existing education ecosystem faster than our expectations."The last few months have been phenomenal in terms of the numbers and the market validation has been extremely encouraging. In the coming months, the team is going to build a strong foothold in the education supplies market.”

In November 2015, the company had secured seed investment from a group of marquee angel investors led by Mr. Ashish Gupta, Founder and Trustee at Ashoka University.

Education eCommerce Startup Fastudent Raises Pre-Series A Funding

Fastudent, Indian B2B2C education e-commerce marketplace has announced a Pre-Series A fund raise from a group of investors including Kanwaljit Sing (Fireside Ventures), Ajay Lakhotia (former Vertex Venture Director) and Pavan Ongole (former SoftBank Director). Ashish Gupta, Trustee Ashoka University and former COO of eValueServe who invested in angel round also participated.

Founded by Gaurav Barman and Geetanjali Khanna, the e-commerce start up will utilize this round of funding to expand into Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune etc and strengthen their technology platform. Fastudent currently offers this service to schools in Delhi NCR only.

Commenting on the funding, Kanwaljit Singh, Founder Fireside Ventures , said: “Fastudent has tapped into a consumer need for School-endorsed education supplies - coupled with the convenience of e-commerce deliveries. The young & dynamic team intends to service the education fraternity like never before by creating a highly personalized brand experience for its audience."

Fastudent with its current capability to service the complete education bandwidth viz. from Playgroups to Post Graduation, has partnered with more than 200 education institutes. Using Fastudent’s exclusive technology platform, the institutes can now have their own customized white labeled e-Commerce stores .The Company runs end to end operations to support the transactions received on these stores from order receipt till the last mile delivery.

With a dedicated consumer base of 1.2 million students, Fastudent has serviced more than 90,000 orders till date.

Ajay Lakhotia, ex-Vertex Venture, added "Vertical E-Commerce has the capability to build specialized products and services around its target audience and develop deeper engagement with customers. Fastudent could eventually become the 8dol.com of India." (8Dol.com, a Chinese campus O2O services provider backed by several VC investors, and has raised an extended Series B round worth RMB200 million ($30 million).

Servicing an unprecedented range of academic supplies ranging across 32 categories including Books, Stationery, Digital Learning, Branded Merchandise, Augmented Reality, Sports, Uniforms, Shoes and more, the edTech startup boasts of a focused educational catalogue of 1,00,000 + products, spanning across 500 brands.

“...I believe Fastudent will be India's #1 student network aligned with parents and teachers. From a curated marketplace for every purchase in a school year, to a deeper understanding of their needs around learning…” added Softbank’s Pavan Ongole.

Speaking about the development, Geetanjali Khanna, Co-founder & COO, Fastudent added, “India’s education supplies market is highly fragmented and disorganized, we at Fastudent are relentlessly engaged to bind the Indian education sector. Our focus is to provide a blended module of consultative, customized and modularized digital learning to learners. We aim to make "Education a happy experience" for students, parents and institutions."

Ashish Gupta who invested in the previous round stated , " The model has blended into the existing education ecosystem faster than our expectations."The last few months have been phenomenal in terms of the numbers and the market validation has been extremely encouraging. In the coming months, the team is going to build a strong foothold in the education supplies market.”

In November 2015, the company had secured seed investment from a group of marquee angel investors led by Mr. Ashish Gupta, Founder and Trustee at Ashoka University.

Notion Press Raises $1M in Pre-Series A Funding from HNIs

Chennai-based self-publishing start-up, Notion Press, today announced that it has raised USD $1 million in pre-series A funding from High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNIs). The deal will help Notion Press consolidate its market leadership, strengthen its management team and expand its services in the market.

Notion Press is a self-publishing platform for Indian writers to publish and sell books around the world in both print and eBook form. It was founded in 2012 by two engineers, Naveen Valsakumar (30) and Bhargava Adepalley (29), and Jana Pillay (31), who has a background in publishing.  Since then it has published over 2000+ authors, sells books in over 100 countries and is today the fastest growing publishing group in India, well-known for its high-end professional publishing solutions to authors.

Today, Notion Press offers various publishing, book printing, distribution and marketing services to both authors and publishers from around the world. The technology start-up aims to solve the challenges associated with book publishing and distribution by creating highly scalable solutions that work across the globe.

Commenting on the funding, Naveen Valsakumar, Co-Founder and CEO, Notion Press Media Pvt. Ltd, said, “We are growing aggressively and looking to go International this year. We will be intensifying our coverage across India and fuel our operations internationally as well with these funds. We have always envisioned Notion Press as a global publishing brand and have built everything to scale for the global market. We are launching our US operations in the middle of September and would be launching in three other countries by end of this financialyear. With support from our investor group, we will be able to execute our vision more rapidly and broadly.”

A spokesperson from the Investor Group said, “We are very excited about this announcement. We commend the cutting-edge publishing solutions provided by Notion Press and the entrepreneurial spirits of the co-founders who put their heads down and built a sustainable and profitable business in just 4 years. Notion Press has shown tremendous potential in its growth, and is well-placed to be a part of the publishing revolution in India in the coming years.”

Notion Press was started as a platform for new writing talent from India to emerge. While self-publishing is not a new concept, the Chennai-based start-up stands out for its innovative methods. The company provides tools; data and expertise that enables authors take business decisions.  “We are changing the way publishing solutions are provided to authors in India and do not see self-publishing as a pure service-driven business, our home-grown proprietary technology allows us to automate most parts of the publishing, distribution and book marketing workflow. Our USP is that we treat every book as a start-up and the author as its CEO.” explains Valsakumar.

Notion Press is now working on a technology product that will help authors actively promote their work. Apart from its global expansion, it is also looking to offer its services to more Indian languages.

Mobile Security Startup Appknox Raises S$875,000 in Pre-Series A Round

Appknox, a mobile security company based in Singapore, has raised S$875,000 in a Pre-Series A round led by SeedPlus, a new seed stage VC firm backed by Jungle Ventures, Infocomm Investments, Accel Partners, and RNT Associates. With the newly infused capital, Appknox has launched its cloud-based mobile security solution for businesses in Southeast Asia. Appknox is also an alumni of JFDI Asia and Microsoft Accelerator in Bangalore, India.

Announcing the same, Harshit Agarwal, Co-Founder and CEO, Appknox said, “South East Asia is one of the fastest growing regions in the world in terms of internet economy. Research by Google and Temasek shows that the digital economy will grow to around $200 billion by 2025. With the growth of e-commerce and digital payments, security will be the most important pillar of support. With the Governments of Singapore and Malaysia announcing their Smart Nation objectives, now is the best time for businesses to start planning security on a regular basis. ”

The Singapore-based company launched their solution last year, starting with India, and is currently working with some of the top e-commerce and payments businesses like Paytm, Times Internet, BigBasket, CitrusPay, and more. “Appknox helped us find some really interesting security loopholes and also helped us to fix it immediately,” said Hari Palappetty of BigBasket.

Appknox is known for it’s cutting edge technology that enables businesses to run security analysis on cloud-based emulation engines without having to share any source code. Users can just go ahead and point to the URL of any app on the app store and Appknox will provide results within a few minutes. Appknox is also the first in the industry to launch an automated dynamic emulation engine for the iOS platform allowing businesses to tackle challenges faced with analyzing iOS applications.

Seeing the growth of startups and high technology companies, Appknox is looking towards building a safe and secure mobile ecosystem for businesses and consumers in Southeast Asia. Within two weeks of launch in Singapore, Appknox is already working with companies like Redmart and HOOQ. “The Appknox team has a deep understanding of security standards in mobile platforms. They are efficient and responsive in addressing any security problems we have,” says Viet Nguyen of Redmart.

Speaking about his experience with Appknox, Dwi Sasongko Supriyadi, Head of Engineering of HOOQ said, “I like the detailed analysis along with code snippet that potentially leads to a problem. The turnaround time from app submission to report generation is quick which helps us to identify problem in our product and enables us to address it quickly.”

“We are always on the lookout for start-ups with cutting edge technology, promising ideas and a great founding team. Given the explosive growth in mobile apps and smartphone users globally, security will only be more important as the next billion smartphone users get online. Appknox is well poised to tap on this huge opportunity”, said Tiang Lim Foo, Operating Partner at SeedPlus, who will also be joining the company as a Board Director.

“This expansion reflects the inflection point in Appknox’s growth trajectory. In a mobile-first world where apps are becoming everything, Appknox is well positioned to solve a major problem for every business with an app. It’s a big, global app ecosystem and Appknox can make them more secure and therefore be embraced by their users widely”, said Ravi Narayan, Global Director, Microsoft Startup Growth Partners.

The high growth in mobile internet usage in Singapore and Southeast Asia have given birth to Smart Nation projects in the region but have also opened doors to greater cyber security risks. “The more digital technologies become embedded into the fabric of real life, you’ve got to take the necessary precautions,” said Vivian Balakrishnan, minister-in-charge of Singapore’s Smart Nation program.

A report by Gartner suggest that by 2017, more than 75% of mobile apps will fail basic security checks. Appknox recently conducted a study of over 100,000 apps in Google Play Store and found more than 85% of them to be failing basic security checks.

Ninety per cent of mobile apps in Singapore do not adequately declare what consumer data is collected or how it is used, potentially falling foul of Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). Mr Ken Chia, principal at law firm Baker & Mckenzie. Wong & Leow, said that excessive data collection may land organisations in hot water. "They may not realise the privacy implications of their actions and that they may be contravening the Act," he said.

Using the expertise and learnings Appknox has achieved by being on the board of OWASP and other western influenced security groups, they plan on creating a common support system contributing to a safe and secure business operating environment, supporting both government entities and businesses of all sizes.

Jewellery Marketplace Joolz Raises Rs 3.3 Cr in Pre Series A Round

Mumbai-based jewellery-focused community marketplace Joolz that was founded in June last year by Belgian-born Israeli Lorie and Eli Atlas, has raised Rs 3.3 crore (about $500,000) in a pre-Series-A round led by two prominent early-stage venture capital firms, Silicon Valley-based Powerhouse Ventures and Japan's M&S Partners.

The one-year-old company plans to use the proceeds primarily to boost operations, products, marketing and further building up its team, founder Arnaud Lorie told ET. Other investors who participated in the round include Ah! Ventures; Deepak Kasthwal, the former finance head of ride-hailing app Ola; PKX Thomas, the former chief technology officer of online travel agency Cleartrip; and Mahesh Ahuja, director at Brittman.

The startup which has brought on board about 35 jewellers, a mix of online and offline retailers, has so far largely focused on small-ticket jewellery items ranging from Rs 10,000-25,000. It was also a part of the Rajesh Sawhney-led GSF Accelerator.

"The opportunities for growth are massive here. The offline or traditional Indian jewellery market has been estimated at $40 billion while the online jewellery market, which is still nascent, is currently valued at about $200 million by a number of industry reports," Lorie said.

According to an estimate by jewellery portal Jewelmart, the online jewellery market in India is expected to grow to $3.6 billion over the next three years.

The other players in this space who raised funding recently are Bluestone, raised a Rs 200 crore Series D round last month while Tata Group firm Titan picked up a 62% stake in Caratlane for Rs 357.24 crore.

In January, Bengaluru-based online jewellery designer and retailer Melorra closed its first round of funding at $5 million (about Rs 33.4 crore) from venture capital firm Lightbox, in one of the largest amounts raised by an Indian venture in seed funding at the time.

Jewellery Marketplace Joolz Raises Rs 3.3 Cr in Pre Series A Round

Mumbai-based jewellery-focused community marketplace Joolz that was founded in June last year by Belgian-born Israeli Lorie and Eli Atlas, has raised Rs 3.3 crore (about $500,000) in a pre-Series-A round led by two prominent early-stage venture capital firms, Silicon Valley-based Powerhouse Ventures and Japan's M&S Partners.

The one-year-old company plans to use the proceeds primarily to boost operations, products, marketing and further building up its team, founder Arnaud Lorie told ET. Other investors who participated in the round include Ah! Ventures; Deepak Kasthwal, the former finance head of ride-hailing app Ola; PKX Thomas, the former chief technology officer of online travel agency Cleartrip; and Mahesh Ahuja, director at Brittman.

The startup which has brought on board about 35 jewellers, a mix of online and offline retailers, has so far largely focused on small-ticket jewellery items ranging from Rs 10,000-25,000. It was also a part of the Rajesh Sawhney-led GSF Accelerator.

"The opportunities for growth are massive here. The offline or traditional Indian jewellery market has been estimated at $40 billion while the online jewellery market, which is still nascent, is currently valued at about $200 million by a number of industry reports," Lorie said.

According to an estimate by jewellery portal Jewelmart, the online jewellery market in India is expected to grow to $3.6 billion over the next three years.

The other players in this space who raised funding recently are Bluestone, raised a Rs 200 crore Series D round last month while Tata Group firm Titan picked up a 62% stake in Caratlane for Rs 357.24 crore.

In January, Bengaluru-based online jewellery designer and retailer Melorra closed its first round of funding at $5 million (about Rs 33.4 crore) from venture capital firm Lightbox, in one of the largest amounts raised by an Indian venture in seed funding at the time.

TripShelf Raises $250K in Pre Series A Round from Delhi Based GEMS Group

Booking a holiday package is a frustrating task for most travellers with no one point shop where options can be compared across multiple tour operators with an assurance on delivery. Travel websites, Tripadvisor, Just Dial, News Paper advertisements, friendly neighbourhood travel agent – it’s a bewildering maze.

The hundreds of Travel agents and destination management companies have similar problems of getting to the right customers with online travel agencies (OTAs) and the big tour operators ruling the roost. So while they may offer better products at better prices, they cannot reach customers given the cost and complexity of navigating the internet search world.

TripShelf is an online marketplace for leisure travellers to discover, compare & buy the best holiday packages from unlimited tour operators. It stands out for its simplicity of concept yet universal applicability for holiday travellers. TripShelf will have comprehensive listing from (unlimited)  tour operators for national and international destinations. Users can conveniently compare packages across relevant parameters – price, hotel category, inclusions etc. and book their perfect holiday!

The startup has raised pre-series A round of funding from Delhi based GEMS group. GEMs is an early stage, sector agnostic fund servicing companies that are Customer Centric and leverage technology as a scale multiplying factor for delivering high shareholder value. GEMs believes in mitigating risk factors, associated with its investment strategy, through involved investment of time and vertical expertise, with its portfolio companies.

Aditya Gupta, Managing Partner of GEMs said, “TripShelf provides access, ease and simplicity to today's leisure traveller. It offers a highly innovative and  scalable marketplace oriented business model fulfilling a major gap that exists in the market today. In today's complex world, ease coupled with choice for the consumer, is essential."

GEMS have invested $250,000 at an undisclosed valuation. This money will be used to establish traction with the customer and travel operator community.

Founded by Jai Raj Gupta, Dhruv Gupta and Sukhmani Singh in April 2016, TripShelf aims to be the first point of contact for anyone planning a holiday.

The addressable market for leisure travel packages in India is greater than $4 billion. TripShelf’s unique and scalable business model gives it an edge over its competitors in the booming holiday packages space in the Indian and international traveller markets.

Digital Marketing Startup MintM Raises Pre Series A Round from Mumbai Angels and Times Internet

In the era of digital innovations, a cutting-edge solution for advertising is bridging the huge gap in the brick and mortar world which was earlier possible only online. MintM, a startup which is a straight comparison to the Google ads has come up with a crowd pulling platform - Magnet, a cloud based, responsive, and analytical solution in the brick and mortar world. Given the disruption it has brought in the retail sector, it is no wonder that Magnet has been raising eyebrows and gaining well meaning interest.

Sachin Garg, CEO of MintM and the brain behind Magnet says "This platform has been described as a peep into the future by prominent people in the industry. It gives me great pleasure to provide a solution to advertising that is not just displaying relevant content but also responding to the people who are in front of it, tracking their response and ultimately generating valuable statistics for the advertiser to compare and compile."

MintM has recently raised its pre Series A funding to grow its smart signage platform Magnet across the world. This funding was co-led by Mumbai Angels and Times Internet following MintM's step out from TLabs, the leading startup accelerator. The funds will be used for making the product more intelligent and expanding its already fast-growing international markets where Magnet is witnessing significant traction.

MintM has come a long way and has bagged a lot of awards and recognitions through it’s journey. It was among the top 50 start-ups by TiE Silicon Valley and was also NASSCOM Emerge Top 50 most promising start-ups. The company has the world's first smart signage platform - Magnet which sees and responds to people. This cloud based platform is a simple app that brings the capabilities similar to online advertising to the physical world.  Much like a digital advertisement, Magnet's signage software brings context, tracking and analytics to any digital screens installed in spaces in the real and physical world. A lot of leading retailers, banks, brands, salons and spas are already using Magnet to increase the engagement with their audience, measure it along with the revenue generation possibilities.

Garg says "The fact that Magnet can analyse its audience, respond to them and allow the ability to be run remotely on a cloud has been greatly appreciated.  If I have to put it in simple words- Magnet is installed on a screen that is looking at you- real time, responding to you and gathering feedback, all at the same time, without intruding your privacy! This kind of contextual advertising was earlier only possible online. All this just using a friendly app that makes it look like a game, except it's as real as it gets."

Magnet provides an unparalleled level of engagement as compared to online channels with many of the customers getting around 20X engagement as compared to 1-2% by other platforms. The adoption of this technology can be seen in big branded outlets like Aviva Insurance, Star bazaar, Jawed Habib, Spar, HyperCITY, Printo and many overseas outlets including Target, the retailing giant. Several brands and advertisers like Harpic, lizol, L’Oreal, Tata tea, Himalaya use it to engage customers regularly.

Sundeep Holani, the founder & CEO of India’s leading shopper marketing company Channelplay is one of the investors in MintM. In the words of Sundeep – “Traditional advertising suffers from a few handicaps – it’s consumed far from the point of purchase, it’s impossible to do in a highly targeted way and it’s hard to measure impact. MintM beautifully addresses all these shortcomings… and ushers in the digital age’s analytics driven, pay per view model into the old-fashioned retail world. We’re very excited about the possibilities this creates!”

SAIF Partners Invests Rs 4.7 Cr in Mobile Crowdsourcing Platform Playment in Pre-series A Round

SAIF Partners, a leading venture capital firm with over $4B under management, has announced a pre-series A funding deal with Playment.  SAIF Partners has invested 4.7 Crores INR  into the Bangalore-based venture that enables large companies to crowdsource completion of process oriented tasks that are typically done by in-house or outsourced teams (BPOs).

Playment will use the funds raised to lay the foundation of a world class engineering and product team, along with scaling up deployments in all clients.

Playment is a two sided marketplace that helps large companies bring cost-effectiveness and speed to their operations, and on the other side helps smartphone users supplement their income on the go. To the company’s credit, it has already been able to supplement monthly income of several thousand people by over a third and that explains how the company has acquired tens of thousands of 100% organic downloads.

To start with, Playment is working with Indian e-commerce companies to enable completion of micro-tasks such as meta tagging of photos, product categorization, clean up of product profiles etc. For eg: Merchants bulk upload apparel catalogues, and then a person has to do up to 15 quality inspections on each and every SKU submitted before its gets published.

Siddharth Mall, CEO, Playment said, “We strongly believe in the power of the sharing economy. The world has seen how the likes of Airbnb & Uber have created a new source of income and we want to be right up there with them.”

“We’re building a platform where humans & machines can work together to solve problems which were previously unsolvable at scale. To enable this, we are using cutting edge technology, to build systems that can provide an awesome experience to thousands of our players who play on the app throughout the day. To be able to do that, we would be investing a lot in building a world class product and engineering team.”

Mayank Khanduja, Principal, SAIF Partners, said, “We’re very excited about team Playment’s discovery of what we believe to be a massive market opportunity . Moreover, we feel it’s the best team for the job as the co-founders have strong technical backgrounds and first hand knowledge of the space via their Flipkart experience. While the platform is still in early stages, it’s power lies in the ability to generate direct and recurring cash earnings for anyone with a smartphone within minutes of coming on the platform. India is a fast growing emerging market with lots of ambitious people and we believe the masses would get addicted to Playment. “

Incepted in August 2015, Playment was launched in November 2015 by IIT-Kharagpur alumni Siddharth Mall & Akshay Lal, along with IIT-Guwahati alumnus Ajinkya Malasane.

SAIF began partnering with entrepreneurs in India in 2002 and has backed over 40 companies since then including MakeMyTrip, JustDial, PayTM, BookMyShow, and Urban Ladder. SAIF’s financial services portfolio spans across established businesses such as NSE, Edelweiss and Karur Vysya Bank as well as emerging tech-enabled ventures such as Capital Float.

SAIF Partners Invests $1M in Online Emotional Wellness & Counselling Platform YourDOST in Pre-series A Round

SAIF Partners, a leading venture capital firm with over $4B under management, has announced a pre-series A funding deal with YourDOST.  SAIF Partners has invested $1 million into the Bangalore-based venture which offers online counselling and emotional wellness support to users to bolster their mental health. YourDOST has raised a total of $1.2 million in the round with the repeat participation of seven angel investors- Venk Krishnan (NuVentures), Subba rao Telidevara (NuVentures), Phanindra Sama (Redbus), Aprameya (Taxi4Sure), Paula Mariwala (Seedfund), Vibhu Garg (Unicommerce), Gaurav Bhalotia (Flipkart). YourDOST will strategically allocate the funds raised to rope in senior professionals from the industry in key leadership positions, to expand the scope of its operations and to reach out to more people.

Dealing with societal pressure, compulsion to perform and excel at work, family and marital issues, stress of studies, constant lifestyle comparison with the peer group due to over exposure to social media and several other factors have led to severe disturbances in our emotional stability. While the stress is on a constant rise, discussing it openly or dealing with it medically remains a taboo in our country.

This huge need gap and Richa Singh’s personal experience of a friend losing her life at IIT due to placement pressure led to birth of YourDOST to provide people with convenient yet anonymous access to experts consisting of life coaches, psychologists and other experienced individuals. Through this online platform which is available as a free service both through web portal and mobile app, users can choose to get into a live chat, find answers over email or book an appointment with the expert of their choice. It has over 300 experts on its platforms who conduct roughly 800 one-on-one sessions every day. Approximately 4,00,000 people pan-India have already sought guidance and emotional counselling on YourDOST since it went live in 2014.

Mridul Arora, Principal, SAIF Partners, said, “We are impressed by the refreshing approach YourDOST team has adopted to address an increasingly relevant issue of emotional & mental wellbeing. While still in early stages, we believe YourDOST is at the forefront of creating a new space in India which has extremely strong latent demand. With it’s strong focus on quality supply and maintaining user anonymity, YourDOST presents a unique proposition for consumers to overcome the prevailing hesitation associated with openly talking about mental issues. With this investment SAIF continues to identify and nurture businesses, right from seed stage/pre-Series A to beyond ."

Commenting on the partnership with SAIF Partners, Richa Singh, CEO, YourDOST said, “We have spent the last 1.5 years strengthening our product, creating awareness and understanding the needs of users. The entire team is now excited to enter into the next level of our evolution with support from a valuable partner like SAIF which has believed in our work and has invested in us. With the experience of SAIF Partners backing us and the funds we have raised, we are ready to accelerate our growth, expand the team and operations and reach out to more and more people with their emotional wellness coach - YourDOST.”

Incepted in December 2014, YourDOST raised close to $400,000 in seed funding round from a group of well known angel investors. YourDOST was founded in December 2014 by IIT-Guwahati alumnus Richa Singh, along with IIM-Bangalore’s Puneet Manuja, Northeastern University alumnus Satyajeet Nandekar and Prakhar Verma, a computer science graduate from BMSCE, Bengaluru.

YourDOST – addressing the need gap:

Access and awareness towards mental and emotional wellbeing is very restricted in India and comes with several taboos associated with it. Here are some facts highlighting this challenge:

• According to government estimates, 1 in 5 people in India need counselling, either psychological or psychiatric


• For an estimated 70 million+ people living with psychosocial problems and disabilities, there are less than 50 government mental health establishments.


• According to a report by WHO in 2011, 1 out of 7 people in India i.e. 15% of Indian population was suffering from depression in 2015, this has seen an alarming rise with 20% of Indian population being depressed today.


• 50% of corporate India is suffering from chronic stress. In fact as per a survey by ASSOCHAM earlier this year, highlights that the rate of emotional problems such as anxiety and depression has increased by 45-50% among corporate employees in the last eight years.


• According to medical experts, 4 in 5 people suffering from severe mental ailment in India choose not to treat it which causes early death by at least 15-20 years as compared to mentally healthy people

YourDOST is one of its kind online emotional wellness platform to get support from experts consisting of life coaches, psychologists and other experienced individuals. It is available to people via its web platform and also on mobile through its recently launched mobile app on android platform and IOS platform. The startup allows instant access to users to a team of 300+ experts and share their problems through an online interface, be it a live chat or email query or even book one on one interaction with the expert of their choice. The key aspect of this venture is that people are kept completely anonymous throughout the platform.

YourDOST aims to reduce the stigma attached to seeking help for mental wellness in our country and with the use of technology wants to make expert help widely and instantly available to people looking for emotional and mental wellbeing.

GrabOnRent Raises Pre-Series A Investment from IvyCap Ventures and Unicorn Ventures

GrabOnRent, the largest on-demand product rental marketplace in India, today announced that it has raised pre-series A funding from the IvyCamp platform. IvyCap Ventures is a lead investor in this round with Unicorn India Ventures participating as co-investors. Founded in September 2015, the company is an early mover in this space and focuses on connecting rental product suppliers with consumers facilitating product discovery, quality assurance, smooth payments and logistics support through the platform which otherwise is cumbersome in the offline rental industry.

GrabOnRent helps users rent products across categories like furniture, appliances, cameras, adventure gear and even helps event planners by providing event supplies on rent. The young company also enables renting of cool gadgets such as Pebble Smartwatch, Kindle e-book readers and Hoverboards. It believes that having access to products is more useful than ownership of the product. Renting as a solution helps customers who are looking to use products for a shorter or unsure duration. Also, it provides an end-user to try a product before buying at a fraction of the cost. With rising and unstable economy, renting forms an integral part of sharing economy and is set to shape the future economy.

The founding team comprises of three IIT Guwahati graduates who have worked across firms like Flipkart Logistics and Hewlett Packard. The core team has strong capabilities across product, technology and operations. The funding is primarily for aggressive customer and vendor acquisition along with further product development.

Speaking on the occasion, Shubham Jain, Co-founder and CEO of GrabOnRent said, “Consumer facing businesses are hard to build but with a huge influx of people in the urban areas, the target segment for GrabOnRent is strengthening ever since. Lending and sharing is natural, but it is limited to households. GrabOnRent envisions to extend alternate usage methods to its consumers who do not want to hold too many assets. Accessibility to products is the king."

In India, the product rental industry is extremely disorganized. There are offline players who rent used-goods but are yet to look at renting as a viable earning alternative to selling. The platform educates and empowers such vendors to make their products available to a much larger audience via the GrabOnRent platform. The GrabOnRent platform helps them in reducing logistical hassles and enables secure payments along with offering financing and insurance options.

Shubham highlighted the latent demand in the consumer market. He says, "The major focus of the company is to generate awareness towards viability of renting products. One doesn't need to scratch their head in deciding in favor of renting against buying if the duration of usage is limited. Our suppliers are quick to adapt to our technologies and we foresee more suppliers joining the platform in the coming months."

“We got connected with GrabOnRent through the IvyCamp platform, we know the rental market is a very large opportunity, and we believe GrabOnRent has created a differentiated business model to address this market segment. It helps that several macro factors that have converged today make this business attractive – be it a highly mobile urban demographic that is the initial target market or even the increasing comfort levels with online transactions in general. All this, coupled with GrabOnRent unique team strengths and capabilities, have been continuously reflected in the company’s growth since inception, and we are excited to partner with them in the next phase of this journey. This is amongst the first few investments of IvyCap Ventures Trust Fund II and forms part of our early stage strategy, through which we have allocated INR 60 Cr. for early stage investments via the IvyCamp platform.” said Vikram Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner of IvyCap Ventures. “In addition, we are also looking forward to adding significant value to GrabOnRent through our network of relationships.”

Bhaskar Majumdar Managing Partner at Unicorn India Ventures said “We have been observing and interacting with the GrabOnRent team and seen them develop their business proposition for over six months. As a thesis, Unicorn believes in the shared economy and we see this trend growing larger in India given the macro-environment and the demography.  As always, we shall be integrally involved in scaling up the business which we feel can take multiple dimensions”.

Logistics Startup GoBolt Bags Pre Series A Round and Bonhomia Gets $500K In Bridge Round Of Funding

B2B logistics startup, GoBolt has raised undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round while premium tea and coffee capsules brand Bonhomia has secured $500K in a bridge round of funding.

B2B Logistics Startup GoBolt Raises Pre Series A Funding Led by MCube8

New Delhi-based transportation solution provider in B2B segment, Gobolt has raised undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round led by startup incubator MCube8, a division of financial advisory firm MCube Capital.

The company will use the raised funds in ramping up operations and improving technology. Founded in October 2015 by three alumni of S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, viz. Parag Aggarwal, Sumit Sharma and Naitik Baghla, GoBolt provides solutions for on-demand movement of goods between two major cities or ports or from a transportation hub to a final destination in the area. It also provides data services such as Fleet Management System, Control Tower Services, GPS Tracking, and Data analytics.

The portal  serves categories such as automobile, ecommerce, food processing companies, etc. and its clients include PepsiCo and Tupperware, Philips, Cadbury, Panasonic, amongst others.

It has more than 600 trucks on its platform and provides its services across more than 35 cities.

Bonhomia Raises $500K In Bridge Round Of Funding from Valpro Capital, Others

The premium tea and coffee capsules brand Bonhomia has raised $500K in a Bridge round of funding from most of its existing shareholders as well as some new investors including Valpro Capital (the company behind the capital raising platform Enablers) and an entrepreneur running  one of India’s largest consumer electronics companies.

The company is currently in talks with potential strategic investors for investments. Owned and operated by Indulge Beverages, Bonhomia develops and markets a range of premium coffee, tea pods and capsules and coffee machines.

The four-yearold company caters to both retail and institutional segments, including Oberoi Group of hotels, Ritz Carlton and multiple Hyatt hotels. Bonhomia also retails through Amazon and Snapdeal as well as through retail chains Croma, Godrej Nature's Basket and Spencer's Retail, among others. In April 2015, it raised $2 million in two tranches from a group of super angels including Kanwaljit Singh, Shripad Nadkarni, Apurva Salarpuria, Ashok Dhingra, Nita Mirchandani, Sarvesh Sahara , Ramrod Advisors, Gidwani family, Tolmolbol, and Nitesh Kripalani.

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