B2B Analytics SaaS Startup Factors.ai raises $3.6 Mn in Funding Led By Stellaris Venture Partners

Bengaluru-based B2B Analytics Software Startup Factors.ai has raised $3.6 million in a pre-Series A funding round, led by Stellaris Venture Partners.

Other investors who also participated in the round include Elevation Capital and Emergent Ventures. Angel investors such as Kris Rudeegraap of Sendoso, Sreedhar Peddineni of GTM Buddy, and Khadim Batti of Whatfix.

The startup intends to use the freshly raised funds in expanding its Go-to-Market (GTM) teams and scaling up its offerings

The Analytics SaaS startup had earlier raised $2 Mn co-led by Elevation Capital and Emergent Ventures, in August 2021.

Founded in 2020, by Pravin Das, Aravind Murthy, and Srikrishna Swaminathan, Factors.ai was part of Google for Startups Accelerator programme in India-2020.

Factors.ai is a B2B visitor intelligence, account analytics, and revenue attribution platform. It help teams identify sales-ready accounts, decode customer journeys, and drive go-to-market performance, which teams can maximize pipeline, with minimum spends.

It offers software solutions that help B2B marketing teams of large enterprises, especially other SaaS firms to make sense of their diverse customer data and make better decisions and increase the ROI (Return on Investment) of each marketing events. It also offers account intelligence, analytics for individual accounts and the overall sales funnel, and revenue attribution.

Stellaris Venture Partners Raises $225 Million Second Fund

Will make 25-30 Seed and Series A investments from Fund 2

Bengaluru, August 11, 2021 - Stellaris Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm, has announced the closing of its second fund at $225 million. In addition to strong support from existing Limited Partners, the fund saw participation from several new global institutions. Global institutional capital forms more than 80% of the capital base of the second fund. The fund did a first close in April and was fully subscribed within 45 days. With this fund, Stellaris Venture Partners now has more than $300M in assets under management.

Stellaris invested in 19 startups after raising its maiden fund in 2017, of which several have emerged as market leaders in their categories. Mamaearth, an online consumer brand of personal care products, recently announced its Series C fundraise at more than $700 Million valuation. Whatfix, a global leader in the digital adoption SaaS, is valued at over $500 Million. Other notable companies in Stellaris’ portfolio include mFine, Slintel, Loadshare, Signzy and Propelld.

Rahul Chowdhri, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners said -

In the past four years, Stellaris has built a specialist, depth-oriented investment model that allows us to take early bets in new areas. Whether it is Healthcare AI with mFine or D2C brands with Mamaearth, we have developed conviction ahead of the curve and have been able to back market leaders in emerging categories.

From the new fund, Stellaris expects to make 25-30 new investments in Seed and Series A rounds of technology companies. Chowdhri added, "India’s venture ecosystem has come of age over the last few years with large exits and a massive increase in the volume and quality of new startups. The larger second fund gives us dry powder to tap into this growing opportunity with an ability to back entrepreneurs with more capital and support them for longer. We keep a large reserve for our best-performing portfolio companies and back them through 3-4 funding rounds."

In Fund 2, the firm has expanded the Stellaris Founder Network, the group of India’s top technology entrepreneurs that it leverages for deal sourcing, diligence and portfolio support. Roughly 20% of the capital of Fund 2 is contributed by members of this network. Chowdhri said, “Indian startups have a thriving “pay it forward” culture, with successful entrepreneurs helping new founders with their time, network, expertise and capital. We offer all this to our portfolio entrepreneurs in a structured form through the Stellaris Founder Network. Some of our most successful portfolio companies like Mamaearth, mFine and Slintel were introduced to us by members of this network, and we look forward to strengthening our engagement with this group in Fund 2."

Stellaris has started investing capital from the second fund with commitments to 4 startups so far. The firm most recently invested in D2C lifestyle brand Zouk.

Stellaris Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in tech and tech-enabled consumer and enterprise startups in India. Since its inception in 2017, Stellaris has backed many market leaders such as Mamaearth, Whatfix, mFine, Slintel and Propelld.

For more information on Stellaris Venture Partners, visit http://www.stellarisvp.com

D2C Lifestyle Brand Zouk Raises $1.5 Mn in Pre-Series A Round; Clocks 4X Growth in 2021

Zouk-Founders - Pradeep and Disha

Investors include Stellaris Venture Partners and Titan Capital

Aims to scale to INR 100 crore by FY23; to expand in India and launch overseas in the US, Canada, Europe and the Middle East

Mumbai/ Bengaluru, July 21, 2021 - Zouk, a homegrown 100% PeTA approved vegan lifestyle brand, today announced that it has raised INR 11.75 crore / USD 1.5 million in pre-series A led by Stellaris Venture Partners, along with participation by the founders of Wow Skin Science. Existing investors Titan Capital also participated in the round. The fund infusion will aid Zouk in expanding its presence in India and new global markets, strengthening its supply chain and distribution channels, and extending its product line. Zouk raised its seed capital earlier this year from Titan Capital, founders of Beardo and Mamaearth.

Zouk offers products that personify the essence of Indian design, while being extremely functional. Its portfolio includes laptop bags, tote handbags, slings and chain wallets to name a few, made from 100% vegan leather sourced and manufactured in India. Zouk’s mission is to build an iconic global consumer brand from India. Having gained over 50,000+ customers with a 4x growth in the last seven months, Zouk aims to double its consumer base every six months for the next 5 years. The pre-series A round will be utilized by the company to take the rich Indian heritage in a modern avatar to the US, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East in addition to expanding its team in India. Furthermore, Zouk is looking at extending the range to offer contemporary products, thereby building the category, and encouraging market acceptance of living a cruelty-free lifestyle.

Speaking about the investment, Disha Singh, Co-founder and CEO, Zouk said, “In Stellaris, we have found the right partner, who can guide us to become an iconic brand in the coming years. We are excited that Rahul Chowdhri, Partner at Stellaris, will join our board. His vast experience of guiding multiple companies from their early stages to massive size and lucrative exits will be a big plus for us. Our first milestone is to scale Zouk to a 100 cr brand in the next couple of years. We then want to chart the path to hitting 1000 crores in the next few years.”

Zouk Product

"The Indian D2C market is at its prime today; consumers have undergone a mindset shift in choosing to go online for their shopping needs and COVID-19 has further accelerated this behavior. There’s never been a better time to build new-age consumer brands in and from India. E-commerce marketplaces and social media platforms provide a level-playing field for challenger brands like Zouk to compete with incumbent brands, and carve their own niche”, Rahul Chowdhri, Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners said.

“We are excited to partner with Disha and Pradeep in their journey towards building Zouk as one of the leading D2C lifestyle brands from India. Zouk’s phenomenal growth has been fueled by the rise in conscious consumerism and moreover, purpose-led brand love has paved the way for building a special resonance with style enthusiasts, offering a unique business opportunity into a fairly niche segment such as vegan fashion”, he added.

Bipin Shah, Partner at Titan Capital said, "Zouk has received phenomenal customer love, which has fueled their consistent growth across online channels in the past few months. We are happy to double down on our investment in this round, as we truly believe that this is a rocketship that will massively scale up to hit 100s of crores of Net Annual revenues in this decade. Impossible to stop fantastic Disha and Pradeep."

This round also saw participation from the founders of Wow Skin Science, a hugely successful D2C international brand from India. Manish Chowdhary, Co-Founder of Wow Skin Science said, “Zouk’s 100% Vegan products, with a mix of style and function, have massive potential in global markets. The real kicker for me was that all their products have an essence of Indian handicraft and craftsmanship, which I believe will resonate well with consumers in the US, Canada and Europe."

About Stellaris Venture Partners

Stellaris Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in tech-enabled Consumer and Enterprise startups in India. Mamaearth, Whatfix, mFine, Vogo and Shop101 are a few notable investments of Stellaris. Stellaris also has a network of successful founders and business professionals to advise portfolio companies and selectively co-invest with the fund.

About Zouk

Zouk is a Proudly Indian and 100% Vegan Direct to Consumer (D2C) brand for Bags, Wallets and Accessories.

Zouk Indian Collection

 

The company was founded by Disha Singh and Pradeep Krishnakumar, both batchmates at IIM Ahmedabad. The idea of Zouk was born when Disha visited Kutch for an IIMA course. She saw that her friends loved the local handicraft items but did not buy any, given they were not functional. Thus, they set out on the mission of bringing to customers, stylish and functional products with an Essence of India.

Zouk's current set of products include Laptop Bags, Office Bags, Backpacks, Handbags, Sling Bags, Tote Bags, Women’s Wallets, Mini Wallets and Passport Holders.

All products are handmade by expert artisans in their in-house manufacturing facility in Mumbai. Customers love the fact that the products are Vegan, with Indian prints and modern functionalities. Zouk is in fact a PeTA approved Vegan brand.

Zouk is popular on social media, with over 100,000 followers across Instagram and Facebook.


Zouk website - https://zouk.co.in/

On-Demand Healthcare Startup mfine Raises $4.2 Mn from Prime Venture Partners, Others

Bangalore-based mfine, an app-based on-demand healthcare service provider, has raised $4.2 million in Series A funding led by Prime Venture Partners along with participation of existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners and Mayur Abhaya (CEO and MD of LifeCell).

The startup will use freshly raised funds to build larger hospital network, and further strengthen the technology team of the startup, which presently counts 50 employees in Bengaluru.

Founded in 2017 by Ashutosh Lawania and Prasad Kompalli, mfine brings in instant and continuous connectivity with top doctors of the best hospitals. The startup had earlier raised $1.5 million from Stellaris Venture Partners, in September 2017. The startup has raised over USD 6 million in total, to date.

"We see a huge opportunity to bring the much needed, tech-driven transformation in the USD 50 billion primary healthcare delivery. With our deeply tech driven approach and working with reputed providers, we are effectively creating a 'cloud clinic' where quality healthcare can be accessed on demand from anywhere. We believe we can scale this across the country and beyond and help people gain much more control over their health," said mfine co-founder and CEO, Prasad Kompalli.

The mfine platform ensures that patients can reach the doctors on the network within 60 seconds and start the consultation. Users get access to the same doctors and other integrated experiences as visiting a hospital, virtually and when they need. mfine is also planning to launch additional services such as monitoring of vitals, collection of sample for lab tests and medicine delivery at home.

Additionally, the startup has built an AI-powered technology system that improves doctors' efficiency and effectiveness dramatically. The system is built on the foundation of standard medical ontologies and protocols and is able to learn and replicate high quality diagnosis and treatment methods. The system takes care of structured data collection, reminders for follow up based on signs/symptoms and execution of care protocols for chronic conditions, thereby building a platform that's unique and globally competitive.

Recent Health Tech Startups' Fundings

Last month, Mumbai-based Doxper, a health tech startup which has created a digital pen and coded paper system for doctors to record patient information, has raised $1.1 million in a pre-series A round led by Vidal Healthcare, a health insurance company.

In the same month, Bangaluru-based startup PregBuddy, a health-tech startup for women pregnancy, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN).

Last month Karma Healthcare, an Udaipur, Rajasthan-based startup in the technology-led healthcare space, has raised INR 3 crore in equity funding from early stage investment firm 1Crowd.

In January, Sridhar Vembu, founder of Zoho, has announced that he has invested about $10 million in vTitan, a medical device startup based out of Chennai.

Via - Business Standard

On-Demand Healthcare Startup mfine Raises $4.2 Mn from Prime Venture Partners, Others

Bangalore-based mfine, an app-based on-demand healthcare service provider, has raised $4.2 million in Series A funding led by Prime Venture Partners along with participation of existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners and Mayur Abhaya (CEO and MD of LifeCell).

The startup will use freshly raised funds to build larger hospital network, and further strengthen the technology team of the startup, which presently counts 50 employees in Bengaluru.

Founded in 2017 by Ashutosh Lawania and Prasad Kompalli, mfine brings in instant and continuous connectivity with top doctors of the best hospitals. The startup had earlier raised $1.5 million from Stellaris Venture Partners, in September 2017. The startup has raised over USD 6 million in total, to date.

"We see a huge opportunity to bring the much needed, tech-driven transformation in the USD 50 billion primary healthcare delivery. With our deeply tech driven approach and working with reputed providers, we are effectively creating a 'cloud clinic' where quality healthcare can be accessed on demand from anywhere. We believe we can scale this across the country and beyond and help people gain much more control over their health," said mfine co-founder and CEO, Prasad Kompalli.

The mfine platform ensures that patients can reach the doctors on the network within 60 seconds and start the consultation. Users get access to the same doctors and other integrated experiences as visiting a hospital, virtually and when they need. mfine is also planning to launch additional services such as monitoring of vitals, collection of sample for lab tests and medicine delivery at home.

Additionally, the startup has built an AI-powered technology system that improves doctors' efficiency and effectiveness dramatically. The system is built on the foundation of standard medical ontologies and protocols and is able to learn and replicate high quality diagnosis and treatment methods. The system takes care of structured data collection, reminders for follow up based on signs/symptoms and execution of care protocols for chronic conditions, thereby building a platform that's unique and globally competitive.

Recent Health Tech Startups' Fundings

Last month, Mumbai-based Doxper, a health tech startup which has created a digital pen and coded paper system for doctors to record patient information, has raised $1.1 million in a pre-series A round led by Vidal Healthcare, a health insurance company.

In the same month, Bangaluru-based startup PregBuddy, a health-tech startup for women pregnancy, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN).

Last month Karma Healthcare, an Udaipur, Rajasthan-based startup in the technology-led healthcare space, has raised INR 3 crore in equity funding from early stage investment firm 1Crowd.

In January, Sridhar Vembu, founder of Zoho, has announced that he has invested about $10 million in vTitan, a medical device startup based out of Chennai.

Via - Business Standard

Health Tech Startup mfine Raises $1.5M from Stellaris Venture Partners and Prominent Angels

mfine, India’s first AI-driven healthcare network, founded by former Myntra executives Prasad Kompalli and Ashutosh Lawania, has raised $1.5 Million in a funding round led by Stellaris Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from Mayur Abhaya and and Rohit MA, top healthcare entrepreneurs from Stellaris’ Founder Network.

Following the investment, Stellaris partner Ritesh Banglani has joined the company’s board.

mfine offers patients access to online consultations and care programs from the country’s top hospitals. Its AI platform helps improve doctor productivity and quality of diagnosis. The company is collaborating with top hospitals like Cloudnine Group, Ovum Hospitals and Femiint health to help increase their reach and provide a high standard of care for patients.

Commenting on the opportunity, mfine CEO Prasad Kompalli said, “We see a huge opportunity to build a consumer focussed digital health platform in India. At mfine, we use technology to make a high quality hospital network accessible on-demand to consumers ”

“mfine’s AI engine will help provide a proactive care experience for patients and enable healthcare providers to engage patients into long-term care programs,” Ashutosh Lawania added.

Kompalli and Lawania started mfine after helping build Myntra as the dominant fashion retailer in the country. At Myntra, Lawania was a cofounder and Kompalli the Chief Business Officer. They are joined at mfine by former Myntra CTO Ajit Narayanan, and Arjun Choudhary, previously the head of Digital Marketing at Myntra. Dr. Jagadish Prasad, interventional neuroradiologist and founder of Femiint Health, brings strong clinical expertise to the team.
Commenting on the investment in mFine, Ritesh Banglani, Partner at Stellaris said, “We’re delighted to partner with Prasad and Ashutosh on their mission to take quality healthcare beyond the hospital’s walls. The seasoned founding team brings together scale execution experience and deep technology expertise to create a unique AI application in healthcare”.

mfine’s consumer app is expected to be launched in Bangalore in September 2017.

Image Source: ShutterStock

Communication Platform Noticeboard Raises $1.2M Led by Stellaris Venture Partners

Noticeboard, Bengaluru-based communication platform for frontline staff, has raised its first round of $1.2 million led by Stellaris Venture Partners.

The funds will be used to strengthen the technology, product and design teams. Noticeboard is focused on leveraging the power of the mobile phone to make information more accessible, and will be looking for top talent that understands the nuances of the small screen deeply.

“At Noticeboard, we believe organizational communication has to be more inclusive. Noticeboard aims to empower frontline staff with real time communication and make them participants of the knowledge economy, much like email did for the desk workers.” says Vishal Gahlaut, CEO, Noticeboard.

“The falling costs of smartphones and data, makes it possible today to reach out to the last person in the organization. For teams to deliver superior customer experience, real time reliable information sharing is a must. ”, adds Vishesh Dahinwal, Co-founder, Noticeboard.

There are over 2 billion workers in the organized sector in the world who don’t have an email address. As a result, updates, feedback and other items of notice take time to trickle down to the frontline staff leading to information gaps, poor training and a feeling of disengagement for the employee. At the same time, insights from the ground do not flow back from the staff to line managers and beyond.

“Despite nearly three decades of email and thereafter a variety of communication tools for the desk workers, enterprise communication eludes the frontline staff. With over 300M such workers in India and 2B+ globally, we believe that this is a massive opportunity, and one that should naturally come from India. We are very excited to partner with Vishal, Vishesh and Sarath on their journey to build a world class SaaS company from India.” says Alok Goyal, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners.

As part of the transaction, Alok joins the Company’s board. A handful of angels, including Blackbuck founder Rajesh Yabaji and YuMe cofounder Jayant Kadambi, from Stellaris’ founder network have also participated in the deal.

Noticeboard is founded by former top executives from Myntra, Vishal Gahlaut, Vishesh Dahinwal and Sarath Chandran, who had together built and scaled Myntra’s marketplace. Vishal was a Vice President at Myntra, heading the women’s and kids wear business. Vishesh was heading Myntra’s in-house logistics function and had previously set up Jabong’s marketplace operations. Sarath was most recently doing product management at Walmart Labs and was earlier leading back end product at Myntra.