GVFL Leads ₹13.3 Crore Funding in Surat’s Canvaloop, Turning Farm Waste into Textiles

GVFL, Gujarat’s pioneer venture capital firm, has announced a lead investment of ₹10 crore in the Rs 13.3 crore fund flow into Canvaloop, the Surat-based innovating textile startup that converts agricultural waste into high-performance textile material. The remaining Rs 3.3 crore has been pumped in by Mumbai-based Rockstud Capital.

Canvaloop, founded in 2020 by Shreyans Kokra, addresses textile pollution by transforming crop residues into spinnable material, including HempLoop, FlaxLoop, BanLoop, NettleLoop, and PineLoop. Engineered for ‘adoption-first’ compatibility with existing mills, these materials ensure seamless sustainability.

The fresh capital of Rs 13.3 crore will drive growth by boosting production from 30 tonnes to 300 tonnes per month, assembling an elite team, and pioneering regenerative cellulose R&D. It will accelerate Canvaloop’s mission to transform the textile industry’s sustainability landscape, making eco-friendly materials mainstream and commercially viable.

GVFL Managing Director Mihir Joshi emphasized the strategic fit: "Canvaloop exemplifies the scalable innovation Gujarat startups are delivering in deep-tech sustainability. With its founder, Shreyans Kokra’s vision, we are excited to fuel their journey from a local waste-to-fiber pioneer to a global supply chain backbone. This investment aligns with GVFL’s commitment to high-impact ventures driving environmental and economic value.”

On the investment of Rs 3.3 crore, Abhishek Agarwal, Managing Partner at Rockstud Capital, said: “India’s manufacturing future will be shaped by founders rethinking materials and supply chains. Canvaloop’s ability to convert agricultural waste into textile-grade materials shows how sustainability and industrial innovation can go hand in hand. We think such solutions are vital for the shift to circular manufacturing in global supply chains.”

Canvaloop founder Shreyans Kokra said,

GVFL’s lead investment, along with the money from Rockstud Capital, supercharges our vision. It proves sustainable textile material can be practical and profitable.

According to Kokra, the textile and fashion industry’s path to net zero is increasingly being shaped by raw material choices, and there is a focus on cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from fiber and raw material production by 45% by 2030. “This is exactly where Canvaloop aligns with the focus. He stated, "We transform agricultural waste into textile-grade materials and yarns using proprietary low-impact technology. Our climate-friendly, closed-loop process eliminates the use of solvents, recycles water, and utilises bio-waste as a heat source."

Canvaloop has served 200+ clients, generated revenue, and validated commercial viability. It targets mass-premium/luxury segments with proprietary processing for consistent, cost-effective quality. Over the next 6-12 months, the startup aims for 10x production, new launches, and a path to global wardrobe presence in seven years.

Surat-based Vijya Fintech Raises $1 Mn in its Angel Round Led By Multiple Large Strategic Investors

The investment will help the company to build technology and operations for its multi-asset wealth management platform Mercury

Surat-based Vijya Fintech Pvt Ltd, which owns Mercury (one of India’s finest cloud-based full-stack fully integrated multi-asset execution and reporting wealth management platforms), announced today that it has raised USD 1 million in its Angel Round. This round of investment, led by multiple large strategic investors, saw participation from BP Wealth, Narola Infotech Solutions LLP, Sagar Investments, GK Globas and other large strategic investors, making it amongst one of the largest fundraises in recent times in B2B Wealth Management for providing software and platform business.

Mercury was conceived with a broad vision of transforming the current framework of disconnected systems and software in the financial industry used by stock brokers, portfolio managers, distributors and advisors into a connected system. This was visualized to be done via a super platform that can, in turn, give a holistic view of one’s investments and portfolios. It is India’s 1st Wealth Management Platform with a fully-integrated Mutual Funds and broking ecosystem, online fixed income execution, PMS/AIF digital onboarding as well as India’s 1st B2B2C marketplace, integration with Insurance POS and a game changing Account Aggregator.

Mercury will use this new influx of capital towards its mission to make state-of-art "open architecture based technology driving the multi asset wealth management platform" affordable for all financial intermediaries.

While talking about the success of this investment round, Aakash Bansal - Co-founder & CEO -of Vijya Fintech Pvt Ltd, said, “In these extraordinary times, we are confident of the growth ahead of the entire financial ecosystem and all financial intermediaries led by technology. The Angel Round was well-timed with our beta launch of Mercury, and it strengthens our efforts in technology and operations in our endeavour to connect the disconnected financial ecosystem. And we are deeply grateful to all our strategic investors who have shown tremendous confidence, faith and trust in our vision and mission for building Mercury.”

Hardik Doshi - New Board Member - of Vijya Fintech Pvt Ltd, further added, “We are firm believers and investors in the Indian growth story. With rapid economic growth and increasing financial literacy among the masses, we foresee a large increase in the number of active investors in India across asset classes. The Mercury - Distribution Operating System is perfectly placed to harness this trend while simplifying operations for investors and financial advisors through their B2B2C SaaS model. Its growth potential is limitless since it is powered by a highly experienced and efficient management team. I will closely monitor and aid the rise of Mercury with a seat on the board of directors.”

Yuvraj A. Thakker - Managing Director - BP Wealth, said, “Mercury is an answer to a real problem of the industry. There is no unified platform for multi-asset class distribution. And there are even fewer platforms with this kind of sophistication and client-first approach that Mercury brings to the table. The management team understands that they are a multi-sided platform offering a B2B2C SaaS. It is this level of insight, understanding and unwavering commitment to quality that convinced us to participate in this round.”

Ashish Narola - Chief Executive Officer - Narola Infotech Solutions LLP, mentioned, “We are glad to be a part of Mercury - Wealth Management SaaS Platform for Financial Intermediaries. The vision of the founders, as well as their strong background in the domain, convinced us to be strategic partners for this great product. Mercury will surely help Financial Intermediaries to exponentially grow wealth for their investors with plenty of insights, visibility and transparency of multi-asset investment for financial intermediaries as well as their clients.”

Pihas Parikh - Founder - Sagar Investments, added, “Mercury is a need of the hour. The multi-asset platform with all regulatory frameworks and advanced CRM is what today’s financial products distributors, insurance consultants, brokers, and advisors require the most. Logging all transaction trails on the cloud forever is amazing, though. With more than 20 years of domain expertise, I believe they can materialize things very fast. The whole team is ready. It’s my pleasure to be part of their journey."

Furthermore, there are approximately 94.8 million Demat accounts and around 34.9 million mutual fund investors currently in India. This growth story has definitely unlocked great potential for Mercury, which is constantly bridging the gaps in the disconnected financial ecosystem.

About Vijya Fintech

Vijya Fintech is India’s first and largest financial intermediary multiverse providing State of Art panoramic wealth management software solutions with Multi-Asset execution and reporting. It was started with a vision to build the country’s finest cloud-based full-stack fully integrated multi-asset execution and reporting wealth management platform. The company owned brand - Mercury is run by young enthusiasts with more than two decades of strong pedigree in building and successfully servicing thousands of financial intermediaries like MFDs, RIAs, Stock Brokers, PMS & Banks across the country. To date, Vijaya Fintech has created access to 2000+ Financial Intermediaries managing portfolios for 30L + Investors and AUM of more than INR 1L+ Cr.

EV Tech Logistics Platforms EVIFY Raises $100K in Angel Round

[L-R] Pragya and Dev

EVIFY, a Surat based tech-enabled EV logistics startup, has raised INR 8MN in seed round from angel investors like We Founder Circle. The capital raised through this funding round is going to be utilised majorly for technology development, team building and scaling up the company’s operations.

EVIFY aims to provide green logistics-based end-to-end services to all the e-commerce giants of the country. Eveeto is the logistics solutions wing of Evify which operates only Electric Vehicles (EVs) for deliveries. Evify is looking ahead to develop its platform more extensively by adding Geofencing, customised BMS, telematics, client insights and driver & fleet management. The platform counts around 3,00,000+ green kms and 50,000+ green deliveries till April, 2022.

This year EVIFY has embarked on several huge partnerships with various leading industry giants. It includes the company’ s partnership with Swiggy, BigBasket, and Hero Electric. EVIFY has partnered with Swiggy to deliver their food orders through EVs in Surat, Gujarat. As per its partnership with Hero Electric, the company has signed a MOU to purchase 1000 electric scooters in the coming two years. These EVs will be deployed by EVIFY in various Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. The company has also planned to develop the charging infrastructure in the prime locations of the city for better performance of its fleet.

Commenting on the same, Devrishi Arora, Founder and CEO of EVIFY said, “This is a great start to the fiscal year for the company. Through this funding capital, we plan to upgrade and integrate technological advancements into our delivery operations such as geofencing, BMS, and fleet management.”

Talking about the same, the Co-Founder and CMO of EVIFY, Pragya Mittal stated, “We are focused on setting our strong foot in Surat in the coming months through this funding round and develop our SOPs for expansion in multiple cities which includes Vadodara, Ahmedabad, and Rajkot. ”

EVIFY Logitech Pvt. Ltd. aims to transform the country’s last-mile deliveries to be electric and environment-friendly. The platform is working towards improving the EV value chain with emphasis on sustainability. The company is targeting to reconstruct the EV logistics domain with a special focus on driver safety and security, constant effort to go carbon negative, and accelerate technology support for client partners as well as its employees.

Meet Biomatiques - One of The First-3 Startups To Receive Govt.'s Startup Fund of Funds

The Surat based Iris recognition technology startup Biomatiques has been pushing the usage of its scanner technology in different industries and has tied up with different government and non- government organizations to become a global leader in the next couple of years. Recently, it has joined National Insurance Company for helping in identification of cattle by retina recognition to prevent fraud and provide insurance to genuine farmers. It has also been listed among the ‘Top 3′ of the 88 start-ups selected for receiving benefits of ‘Fund of Funds’, an INR 10,000-crore startup fund by the government of India. Tamaal Roy, CEO and Co-Founder, Biomatiques Identifications Solutions said, “We are happy to be amongst the top 88 start-ups to be benefited from the Fund of funds. It has been our major achievement after getting Standardization, Testing & Quality Certification (STQC) from the Department of Electronics & Technology (DeitY).

Believes in ‘Eyes Never Lie’ and Ready to Replace Fingerprints to Iris Scans

Biomatiques is known as a pioneer leader who has taken the ‘Iris Recognition Technology’ first in India. Tamaal feeling encouraged and hopes that his company will definitely change the identification and security infrastructure of India. He then added explaining more about the 'iris scanner' and shared, "The iris scanner is the simplest form of Iris capturing device which is hygienic to use, as it captures iris images from distance of 2 inches to 2-3 metres.” He adds, “The increasing significance of digital identity has taken the process of authentication to a level where the concerns for strong identification can best be addressed only through the use of biometrics. The factors which are catapulting this technology to the forefront of biometrics applications are its ease of use and being independent of environmental conditions. Iris recognition, a biometric, provides one of the most secure methods of authentication and identification."

Technology That is Identifying Safely and Securely

This technology is contact less, easy to operate and use by end users using an optional capturing aid which provides iris images of exceptional quality compliant to ISO/IEC 19794-6 standards for both enrolment and verification. It also has a patented hardware with proprietary and trademarked eParakh® Iris feature extraction algorithm for Kind 7 Iris image support. When asking about end-users, Tamaal replied, “Our end users are System Integrators, Private Companies and Government Agencies."

Making Iris technology Accessible to Everyone Everywhere

What is interesting is the fact that other companies are not ready to lower the price as they are also into other forms of biometrics like fingerprint technology. If they lower the price for iris technology, it will render their finger print scanners useless. And that is where the problem lies. Iris technology in India has not been so popular because of the price factor. No doubt this technology is far superior compared to other forms of biometrics, but price has always been a constraint. Security solutions of the highest standards should not be a matter of luxury. Instead it should be treated as a necessity and should be made available for everyone at an economical price. Tamaal added, “We have an edge over other players as our technology is at par with the international quality and standards but in terms of price, Biomatiques offers the iris technology at a cost effective rate compared to other companies who have placed their products at a higher price.”

When AADHAAR was introduced in India, it required two forms of biometrics, one was fingerprints and the other was iris. That’s where Tamaal saw a big opportunity. He said, "We chose iris technology because at that time there were only 12 companies in the international market. And there was no Indian name amongst these. We became the first Indian company to enter this field when we got the STQC certificate from DeitY, New Delhi."

Supporting “Made in India”

Tamaal added, "Our products are completely made in India while manufacturers from overseas only have their vendors in India who lack knowledge about the product in terms of integration or providing technical support for that matter. That’s where we are different from the rest. We have our own R&D and support team, hence reaching out for integration or technical support is much easier."

Biomatiques was founded by Tamaal Roy back in 1985 with an aim to provide cutting edge identification solutions through” Iris Recognition Technology” for humans. Iris recognition uses random textures that are visible in the eye, using the eye to confirm someone’s identity. Unlike voice, fingerprints & facial structure, iris patterns are far more random and unique. An algorithm is created to map the random pattern and then generate unique biometric template for human identification which is unique for every individual. Speaking in terms of the software and its accuracy, false rejection rate (FRR) of the iris recognition technology is 1: 15, 00,000, finger print – 1: 10,000, Apple touch pad – 1: 50000, which means the chances of error are 1 in 1.5 million. We also specialize in cattle identification through “Retina” and “Muzzle.” Tamaal said, “When we started it was a self funded effort but in 2012 INR 5.86 Cr funds came from Navin Patel (an hotelier from Surat) and Jayesh Umrigar (an agriculturist) for business expansion.

Plans to Ensure Growth

Tamaal provided details, “IOT, automobiles, health care, government, NGOs access control, social sector, global workforce management are some of the areas where we definitely have a humungous scope. In fact anywhere in the world where iris biometrics is a requirement, we as an Indian company should be the first to provide identification solutions.” The company is now looking out for new market opportunities even in the conventional sectors like agriculture and cattle. Very soon, identifying cattle through retina and muzzle will become reality, thus bringing a revolution and relief for farmers, insurance companies and the government alike.

Meet the Founders of Biomatiques

Tamaal Roy (51) and Mayur Patel (57) are founders of Biomatiques with a wide experience of working in technology industry. They both have endeavoured Biomatiques to create the iris the most desirable technology and aims to become global leader by ensuring presence in every sector. Tamaal Roy is a self-learned computer professional and entrepreneur from the days when professional courses in computer science were not available. He has more than 27 years of experience in the IT domain, his major contributions include innovative software’s like ‘Master Drape’, ‘Master Weave’, ‘Jacquard Pro’ and ‘Tex Cad’ for the textile industries and ‘Jewel Pro’ for the jewelry and diamond industries. Also an embedded device called ‘Looms Computer’ was part of his significant offerings to the local Textile Industry.