Auto-Tech Firm Truebil Raises $1 Mn from Japan's Spiral Ventures

Truebil, India's leading auto-tech platform has raised $1 Million from Japanese venture capital firm Spiral Ventures.

India is witnessing a rapidly changing consumer preference and there has been a consequent increase in demand for used cars in recent years. Rapid technological adoption has been the backbone of Truebil's massive growth and these additional funds will be used to strengthen the technology stack.

Previously Truebil has raised $14M in series B round in January this year.

[caption id="attachment_134348" align="alignright" width="298"] Shubh Bansal, CoFounder, TrueBil[/caption]

Founded in 2015, Truebil has raised a total of about $28 million in funding so far. In November 2018, the startup had raised $1.4 million from a debt financing round led by Trifecta Capital. Prior to which Truebil had raised $2 million in Series A round led by Inventus Capital Partners. In February 2017, the auto-tech startup had got an investment of $3 million from China’s leading Venture Capital Fund Shunwei Capital.

Following a seamlessly integrated online and offline model, Truebil has developed proprietary tech-enabled evaluation mechanisms such as Recommendation System for personalized user experience, TruePrice to predict the accurate selling price, Procurement Score to determine the right procurement price, Dynamic Pricing to change the price based on a car's demand in the market and TrueScore, a super-efficient rating meter.

Truebil has successfully managed to achieve precious insights on rapidly changing consumer preferences and consequent increase in demand for used cars in recent years. The company is currently doing ₹350Cr of annual revenue run rate with an aim to grow 3x this fiscal.

Startup-focussed IT Firm Technology 9 Labs Raises Strategic Funding from Spiral Ventures and MyNavi Corporation

New Delhi-based Information Technology and Services company Technology 9 Labs (T9L), which touts itself as India's first startup studio, has received an undisclosed strategic investment from Japanese venture fund Spiral Ventures and MyNavi Corporation.

T9L was founded in 2005 by Fahad Moti Khan, a serial entrepreneur who has incubated, founded, funded, advised and validated new business ideas across finance, consumer internet, media, food, fashion, CRM and digital marketing - some of which have grown into established businesses - the rest were buried with learnings and fond memories. Nitin Awasthi joined T9L as a co-founder and COO in 2013 with the vision firmly on early stage companies.

Since it’s pivot to a Startup Studio in 2014, T9L has helped launch 16 companies generating a cumulative worth in the approximation of US$ 200 million. These startups include Pluss, a hyperlocal medicine delivery app acquired NetMeds, in 2017, Crownit, Docquity, crowdfunding platform BitGiving and Gigstart, a marketplace platform for artists eventually acquired by Kwan Entertainment.

Fahad Moti Khan, Founder, T9L said "Internationally start-up studios are fast emerging as an exciting and new way to build successful companies through a proven model. We at T9L partner with select founders and help them bring new ideas to life. We will deploy these funds to build a robust ecosystem to help grow businesses using our strengths and those of our partners".

Established in 2014, T9L has so far worked with 19 companies including NirogStreet, and Docquity, among others. “We are looking at working with 200 startups over the next five years, in India, as well as South East Asia, Latin America and Africa,” he said. While sector agnostic, the studio would try and work with startups that are either made for India and targeting Indian consumers or are made in India.

Yasuhiro Seo, General Partner, Spiral Ventures said, “Japanese investors’ especially corporate investors who aim strategic synergy with Indian local businesses have been extremely bullish nowadays. The challenge lies in the identification of the strong businesses and investing at the right time. T9L has a vast experience and passionate team to powerfully elevate potential companies to the growth stage, which the most early stage start-ups tend to struggle. It has been an amazing journey of over two years with T9L and 6 out of our 7 investments in India have been T9L's portfolio. Going forward we strongly believe that with T9L, we can build one of the strongest start-up ecosystem and tech community, together with technology building, fully connected with industry's stakeholders, and motivating the community".

Hidekazu Ito, Director, MyNavi Corporation said “We’re seeking to build a network of partners and invest in promising ideas at all stage of operation. We want to be actively involved in India's growth story through our collaboration with T9L in the long run and we needed a trusted partner who understands the local market and T9L was an ideal fit for us."

Source - Economic Times

Ayurveda Digital Platform NirogStreet Raises $300K from Japan's Spiral Ventures, Others

Gurgaon-based NirogStreet, a one of its kind technology-led Ayurveda platform, has raised $300,000 (~ Rs 2 Crore) in funding from Japanese venture fund Spiral Ventures.

Other investors who also participated in this round include Subho Ray, president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Samir Kumar, Director of Derivatives at Deutsche Bank (Singapore).

The startup plans to use the capital raised for technological advancement of their platform dedicated to make Ayurveda the first call of treatment globally. The funds would also be used in spreading awareness and visibility about Ayurveda. Besides, the startup is looking to raise pre-series A funding in October 2018

Founded in 2016 by Ram Kumar, NirogStreet is an Ayurvedic doctor discovery and appointment booking platform where patients can easily find doctors and fix consultation. The startup is working towards building back the trust and preference for Ayurveda treatment and practitioners across the world by encouraging evidence-based practices.

Moreover, the startup is also said to be working closely with Ayurveda institutions and researchers to advance Ayurvedic research and collaboration with modern medical technologies, to make this ancient medical science more result-oriented and trusted.

NirogStreet, which has over 15,000 doctors engaged on its platform so far, allows sharing of expertise and opinion on treatments in real-time through its mobile app.

NirogStreet founder and CEO Ram N Kumar said: "Today western medicine backed by a cohesive marketing push is the primary choice of healthcare.

"On the other hand, Ayurveda, which is a thousands of years old Indian medicine system offering the safest and most effective treatment, is still waiting to gain its place as the preferred system in modern healthcare."

Kumar added that there are over 5 lakh existing Ayurveda graduates and over 25,000 new graduates entering the field of Ayurveda every year.

"But quality care, updated knowledge, and access to medicine is a challenge. NirogStreet is a platform where doctors can interact with each other, share knowledge and buy high-quality medicines," he said.

Source: Times of India