Smartphone Refurbishing Startup Yaantra Raises $3.1 million From Carpediem And Duane Park

New Delhi-based smartphone refurbishing startup Yaantra has raised a whopping Rs. 20 crore ($3.1 million) in a bridge funding round from its existing investors Carpediem Capital Partners and Duane Park.

Launched in April 2013, Yaantra started as Gadgetwood with an idea of offering smartphone users in India a dependable technical support and quality repair services in consumer electronics. It is backed by a knowledgeable and certified team of resources who service customers both online and directly at their doorsteps.

Founded by Jayant Jha, Ankit Saraf and Anmol Gupta, Yaantra sells refurbished multi-brand smartphones with warranty. The startup provides on-demand multi-brand smartphone repair services across Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

According to Jayant Jha, CEO at Yaantra, the funding raised will be used for expanding the startup’s presence to 25 tier-II cities by next year. He is also hopeful that the fresh round will help boost the firm’s relationship with key partners and help maximise the impact of its offerings.

Anurag Bhargava, founder of Duane Park has similar point of view to offer and says, “Equity infusion at this juncture will help Yaantra explore other key financing and strategic relationships. “

In 2016, Yaantra had raised a whopping Rs. 39 crore ($6 million) from Carpediem Capital Partners and Duane Park in its Series A funding. Prior to this, it had raised an undisclosed amount from angel investors of Indian Angel Network including HCL’s Ajai Chowdhry, North India Sotheby’s International Realty’s Ashvin Chadha and ApnaCircle.com’s Yogesh Bansal, among others.

Carpediem, India's leading private equity fund manager is focused on the Indian consumption opportunity through investments in emerging SME leaders. Often the only or largest institutional investor, Carpediem Capital provides much needed growth capital, and actively drives forth the transformation agenda to co-build companies.

This development was first reported in VCCircle.

[Image: BW Disrupt]

What Makes iVOOMi Fit In Indian Smartphone Market

Looking at the Indian Smartphone market flooded with multiple national and international players, we may construe that the industry is self-sufficient and it lacks nowhere. Yet, ensuring that the right technology is equally distributed to all and the benefit reaches everyone in the bell curve from top to bottom, is the need of the hour. It seems that iVOOMi has taken up this task in the country.

With the aim to bring the best of technologies that are available in high-end Smartphones to the entry-level segment, iVOOMi wishes to ensure that its target customers get an apt doorway to begin their use of such devices.

Given the fact that we co-exist in a world where Smartphones are synonymous to necessity or essential/basic requirement, it is necessary that everyone possess this instrument. "Looking at the Indian Smartphone market bunged up with multiple players, iVOOMi as a brand was able to identify the gaps that could be filled in by an entry level Smartphone which is potent enough to pull off various aspects in a phone like its design and form factor, memory, battery and the screen. It goes without saying that iVOOMi has hit the right chord and its study is absolutely correct," says Ashwin Bhandari, CEO, iVOOMi India. 

iVOOMi has entered the Indian market with its Smartphone series called the ‘ME’ series. It typically looks like a unique value proposition within a range of 4G – VOLTE enabled phones providing long hours of usage and a richer user experience in that price range.As a human tendency, we generally budget our requirements to derive value out of all that we spend. These devices can directly cater to such requirements

"As a human tendency, we generally budget our requirements to derive value out of all that we spend. These devices can directly cater to such requirements were just at a price point of Rs 4999/, you can get all that you can expect out of a quality Smartphone," says Bhandari.

These Smartphones offer 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM with the battery as big as 3000mAh. Further, company also offer a fast charge that can help you charge the phone to 100% within two hours. This makes the phone unbeatable in this category and puts it far ahead of its competitors.

With its experience and legacy of 16 years and R & D centres in China and Hong Kong, iVOOMi has been able to develop an unparalleled proposition in the market and launch such an innovative product. "In future, with plans to bring in more SKUs and series lying between the range of Rs 4000 to Rs 10,000, the brand promises to come up with more such lucrative offers for the telecom fraternity and give a boost to the segment as a whole," concludes Bhandari.

US-Based Smartphone Startup Nextbit Coming To India This May

The buzzing Indian smartphone market is soon going to see a new entrant in Nextbit Robin phone. Nextbit is a San Francisco based smartphone startup which recently made an announcement about its plans of entering the Indian market in order to cash in on the huge potential that the Indian smartphone market currently holds and provide the Indian customers with smartphones that ooze quality, class and features.

Being hailed as the cloud first Android phone, Nextbit Robin phone will be launched in India in early May this year. The smartphone which has already won over customers heart in the US sports a 5.2-inch FullHD IPS LCD display with an impressive 1920x1080 pixels resolution. Packed with dualSIM capacity, the Robin runs on Nextbit OS, an Android 6.0 Marshmallow-based operating system which is the startup's custom skin on top of Android.

[caption id="attachment_105021" align="aligncenter" width="626"] Nextbit's Robin Smartphone[/caption]

The one thing that is surely going to impress the Indian Smartphone users is Robin's integrated cloud based solution that promises to make the limited storage problem a passé trend. Further, the phone also boosts of a 4G LTE connectivity option, a fingerprint scanner and a USB Type-C port.

Not only this, the Robin derives its power from a hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor and comes coupled with a spectacular 32GB of internal memory and a 3GB RAM. The phone further uses a 2,680mAh battery and is quick when it comes to charging.

For those who like to click and those who like to get clicked, Nextbit Robin phone doesn't disappoint. Its 13-megapixel rear camera comes with dual-tone flash and phase detection autofocus and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera is perfect for your daily selfie needs.

"Founded by CEO Tom Moss and CTO Mike Chan -  who worked at Google on the Android team, Nextbit Robin highlights their vision that smartphones should be simpler, leaner and smarter by harnessing the potential of cloud," read a statement released by the startup regarding the phone.

So, waiting for May already? May the luck be with you and you're able to get your hands on the magnificent device.

US-Based Smartphone Startup Nextbit Coming To India This May

The buzzing Indian smartphone market is soon going to see a new entrant in Nextbit Robin phone. Nextbit is a San Francisco based smartphone startup which recently made an announcement about its plans of entering the Indian market in order to cash in on the huge potential that the Indian smartphone market currently holds and provide the Indian customers with smartphones that ooze quality, class and features.

Being hailed as the cloud first Android phone, Nextbit Robin phone will be launched in India in early May this year. The smartphone which has already won over customers heart in the US sports a 5.2-inch FullHD IPS LCD display with an impressive 1920x1080 pixels resolution. Packed with dualSIM capacity, the Robin runs on Nextbit OS, an Android 6.0 Marshmallow-based operating system which is the startup's custom skin on top of Android.

[caption id="attachment_105021" align="aligncenter" width="626"] Nextbit's Robin Smartphone[/caption]

The one thing that is surely going to impress the Indian Smartphone users is Robin's integrated cloud based solution that promises to make the limited storage problem a passé trend. Further, the phone also boosts of a 4G LTE connectivity option, a fingerprint scanner and a USB Type-C port.

Not only this, the Robin derives its power from a hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor and comes coupled with a spectacular 32GB of internal memory and a 3GB RAM. The phone further uses a 2,680mAh battery and is quick when it comes to charging.

For those who like to click and those who like to get clicked, Nextbit Robin phone doesn't disappoint. Its 13-megapixel rear camera comes with dual-tone flash and phase detection autofocus and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera is perfect for your daily selfie needs.

"Founded by CEO Tom Moss and CTO Mike Chan -  who worked at Google on the Android team, Nextbit Robin highlights their vision that smartphones should be simpler, leaner and smarter by harnessing the potential of cloud," read a statement released by the startup regarding the phone.

So, waiting for May already? May the luck be with you and you're able to get your hands on the magnificent device.