For Real Raises ₹3.2 Crore Pre-Seed from Titan Capital to Redefine Value Shopping in India

• INR 3.2 Crores of funding raised in the pre-seed funding round
• Titan Capital invested in For Real, backing its approach to branded value shopping in India.
• Funding to scale technology, expand brand collections, and drive early user adoption

For Real, an online factory outlet marketplace redefining branded value shopping in India, has raised INR 3.2 crore in a Pre-Seed funding round from Titan Capital. The fresh capital will be utilised to build and scale the company’s technology platform and drive early user adoption.

As India’s fashion and D2C ecosystem moves at fast-fashion speed, with more frequent collections and greater experimentation, inventory creation has evolved far faster than inventory clearance. While merchandising has modernised, liquidation in many cases remains anchored in legacy practices reminiscent of the early 2000s, opaque, fragmented, and often reliant on unorganised channels, highlighting the need for more structured approaches to managing unsold inventory.

Founded by Anurag Sheth and Mohit Sheth, For Real is building a dedicated online factory outlet marketplace that separates liquidation from primary commerce. The platform enables brands to liquidate excess inventory in a predictable and transparent manner, without impacting their core sales channels. For consumers, it offers a discovery-led value shopping experience focused on branded products rather than random discount-led browsing.

“We have backed Anurag and Mohit because they have a clear understanding of a real and persistent problem brands face with excess inventory. They are building a structured, tech-led off-price marketplace with a strong focus on brand integrity, rather than short-term liquidation. As the industry evolves, their clarity of thinking and disciplined approach to solving this problem gives us confidence in For Real’s long-term potential.” - Titan Capital Spokesperson.

Anurag Sheth, CEO and Co-Founder, For Real, said, For Real is India’s first online factory outlet marketplace, built to fundamentally change how brands liquidate inventory and how consumers discover value. We’re building a paradigm shift; a brand-safe channel that separates liquidation from fresh merchandise and cuts the need for brands to hoard unsold inventory for months or dilute their primary channels

While most e-commerce marketplaces in India are optimised for fresh inventory with predictable replenishment cycles, liquidation inventory behaves very differently. Forcing both inventory types into the same browsing and discovery flows has resulted in cluttered feeds, poor discovery, and friction-heavy experiences for value-first shoppers, given the long-tail nature of off-price inventory with a high number of styles and limited stock per style. For Real is designing its platform with this context in mind, building a purpose-led discovery experience tailored specifically to off-price inventory.

Mohit Sheth, CTO and Co-Founder, For Real, said, Value shopping in India has been broken for years; cluttered feeds, poor discovery, and experiences that make finding the right product at the right price harder than it should be. At For Real, we’re building a purpose-designed discovery engine that simplifies choice, surfaces the right products faster, and removes friction for value-first shoppers. The result is a significantly faster shopping journey that translates into a superior customer experience

About For Real:

For Real is an organised off-price marketplace built to help brands liquidate excess inventory efficiently while protecting long-term brand equity. Designed as a dedicated channel separate from primary commerce, the platform enables legacy and D2C brands to clear unsold inventory in a structured and predictable manner. For consumers, For Real offers access to premium brands at compelling prices through a discovery-led value shopping experience. By bringing transparency, reliability, and scale to off-price retail, For Real aims to reshape how branded excess inventory is managed in India.

Anurag Sheth’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anurag-sheth/

Mohit Sheth’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohitshethh/


About Titan Capital:

Titan Capital is a venture capital firm which invests behind world-class entrepreneurs aiming to create a wide-scale positive impact on India and the world. Titan Capital typically partners with founders at the pre-seed and seed stages and supports them through the entire company-building journey. Titan Club’s portfolio spans over 250+ companies across India and the US covering sectors such as consumer internet, AI, SaaS, brands, fintech and logistics. Titan Capital’s notable investments include Mamaearth, Ola, Razorpay, Urban Company, Shadowfax, OfBusiness, Credgenics, Giva, Invideo and many others.

Instant Loan Against Mutual Funds Platform Volt Money Raises $1.5 Mn in Pre-Seed Led by Titan Capital and All In Capital

Volt Money, a leading platform for instant secured loans against mutual funds, has announced a pre-seed fundraising round of $1.5 million today. Using Volt Money, mutual fund investors can unlock cash in 10 minutes at favorable terms such as low interest rates, interest-only EMIs & no pre-payment charges. Volt Money is disrupting instant secured loans for 10 crore investors with 40 lakh crore investment to easily meet short-term cash requirements without compromising long-term financial goals.

The fundraising featured participation from numerous renowned investors including Titan Capital, All In Capital, Praveen Jadhav of Raise Ventures, Aditi Kothari of DSP Adiko Holdings, Gemba Capital, Kunal Shah of Cred, & Ashish Kehair & Rahul Jain from Nuvama Wealth. The funding will be strategically used to recruit key personnel for product development and to establish beneficial partnerships.

Lalit Bihani, Co-Founder & CEO of Volt Money, said, "We're at the cusp of disruption of instant secured loans in India. With the advanced digital infrastructures for KYC, account aggregator, and pledging capabilities, we're ideally positioned to seize a unique & very large opportunity. We're grateful for the trust our investors have placed in us."

Highlighting Volt Money's value proposition, Bipin Shah of Titan Capital noted, "Volt Money's innovative approach to offer seamless liquidity against financial savings is an essential service for today's investors. The early traction from customers and partners demonstrates a strong market fit for Volt Money's platform."

The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) indicates that 55% of mutual fund investments are liquidated within the first two years, robbing investors of the opportunity for compounding returns over time. Volt Money seeks to rectify this by offering attractive loan terms such as low interest rates, interest-only EMIs, and zero prepayment charges.

Volt Money is demonstrating industry leadership with its frictionless digital approach to securing loans against mutual funds. As Praveen Jadhav of Raise Ventures observes, "We recognize the immense potential of Volt Money's mission to empower 10 crore investors to obtain instant secured loans, setting the stage for long-term wealth creation. The experienced founding team at Volt Money brings a strong combination of skills and expertise to spearhead this innovation."

Volt Money's journey began in April 2022, led by Lalit Bihani, Ankit Agarwal and Bharat Lamba, three IIT Delhi graduates who have shared a friendship since 2008. In January 2023, they onboarded Bajaj Finserv Limited, India’s leading NBFC to launch a seamless digital journey for end-end process. Today, the company has successfully served customers across more than 80 cities with loans ranging from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 2 Crores..

About Volt Money:

Volt Money is a visionary platform transforming the way instant and secured loans are provided against mutual funds and shares. The company collaborates with top-rated lenders and distribution partners to offer customers hassle-free, instant secured loans with favorable terms. Their mission is to empower 10 crore savvy investors to meet short-term cash needs without compromising on long-term goals.

For more information, please visit www.voltmoney.in

SayF Raises $240k Pre-Seed Round Funding from Titan Capital and Other Prominent Angel Investors

SayF, India's first rewards based savings app, has raised $240k for its pre-seed round. The current round is led by Titan Capital, Sunn91 Ventures, and other prominent angel investors. The platform will utilize the funding for its initial team building, product refinement, and early product experimentation.

SayF was founded in 2021 by Aman Singh (IIT Delhi, 2022 batch) & Priyesh Gandhi (NIT Karnataka, 2021 batch), aims to help its users in saving, investing, and optimizing the spending of money for a better future. Saving money is one of the significant aspects of building wealth and securing a financial future and freedom. In this era, with apps like google pay and phonepe where making a transaction hardly takes 3 seconds, savings has become a nightmare, especially for the upcoming GenZ generations moving towards a spending economy. Also, the retirement savings gap is increasing at 10% CAGR each year, thus pushing individuals to increase their personal savings to survive in the future. To withstand similar situations, SayF can be best utilized to safeguard the finances.

When asked why SayF, Priyesh V Gandhi, Co-Founder at SayF, said, "Indians' love for gold, cashback and savings, has been just growing, and we at SayF club have put all this into a single product, where you spend, earn and invest all in a single transaction at our 300+ brands stores ranging from Swiggy, Uber to Reliance smart. We are very excited to get support from such marquee investors in our journey."

Aman Singh, Co-Founder at SayF, said, "It is fascinating to see how users are adapting to the new way of investing. At SayF, we are building a product made for India from the ground up & fits exactly to India's ethos of saving & investing. We promise that there has never been an easier way to start investing while making simple daily transactions. Go & give it a try now & we are sure you will be amazed."

Bipin Shah, Partner at Titan Capital, said, "Future is uncertain, and it has become imperative to build up the finance to survive in the unprecedented time and to meet various other objectives of day-to-day life. SayF is one platform that is paving the way for Indians to make smart decisions when it comes to saving money. We are happy to be associated with SayF and its talented team. We see a huge potential in their venture. With SayF, users can manage their personal finances, save money, and invest".

Savings with SayF are 7x higher in comparison to other existing savings apps. More than 50K SayF users, and 76% came via referrals. Over the last four months, the platform has processed more than Rs 7,50,00,000+ transactions and helped users invest about Rs 40,00,000+. Going forward, SayF will help to track, spend, save, earn and invest money all in one place.

About SayF

SayF is a savings & investing app that helps you save, invest & optimize your spending for a better future. It helps Indians earn and invest money on everyday expenses. Instead of directly paying through a UPI app, users spend through the SayF app to earn up to 25% cashback in the form of investment in digital gold.

Website: https://sayf.in/

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wealides.sayf&hl=en&gl=US
Appstore: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/sayf-easy-saving-investing/id1627009084

InPrime FinServ Raises $1.45 Mn in Seed Round from InfoEdge Ventures, Titan Capital, Kettleborough VC and Others

InPrime FinServ raises $1.45 million in seed round from InfoEdge Ventures, Titan Capital, Kettleborough VC and other marquee investors

Bangalore based tech enabled financial services start-up InPrime has raised $1.45 Mn in seed money from InfoEdge Ventures, Titan Capital, Kettleborough VC and other marquee investors. As a new entrant into the financial sector, InPrime will strategically focus on the emerging financial needs of the prime layer of customers within informal segment. The firm plans to channelize this fundraise to ramp up hiring, conclude product development and initiate the process to apply for an NBFC license from the Reserve Bank of India.

 

InPrime is co-founded by Rajat Singh, Manish Raj and Sneh Thakur. They were part of the leadership team of Ujjivan SFB, one of the leading Small Finance Banks in India and come with a rich banking experience of over a decade each and have worked across various leadership roles in microfinance, rural banking, branch banking, strategy, credit underwriting, credit risk and collections in the bank.

The round was led by Info Edge Ventures and also saw participation from Titan Capital, Kettleborough VC and other angels . Some of the notable angel investors are senior industry leaders like Samit Ghosh (Founder and former MD, Ujjivan SFB), Pritesh Gupta (Managing partner, MyAsiaVC), Shashank Kumar (Co-founder, DeHaat), Satish Perala (Co-founder, Cybrilla), Amit Mantri & Savi Jain (Co-founders, 2point2 capital).

Chinmaya Sharma, Partner, InfoEdge Ventures said, “It is our strong conviction that lending is an execution play. There have been few changes to this business in the 3000-odd years it has existed for. Winners still tend to ‘differentiate’ themselves largely on their execution. Rajat, Sneh and Manish were leading collections, credit and a substantial proportion of the entire book at one of the most successful small finance banks in the country. When a founding team like this comes together, you have to back their ability to execute.”

The financial inclusion ecosystem comprises of a prime segment of customers with evolved economic mindset. This segment is digitally active, holds substantial credit track record and yet has limited access to superior financial services & products. InPrime Finserv aims to bridge this gap and enable customers to avail relevant products with convenience through an advanced technology infrastructure. It intends to bring in differentiation through its Phygital model - digital led financial services assisted by adequate physical presence to support the less-cash economy customers.


Bipin Shah, Partner, Titan Capital said,“ Massive credit gap across semi-urban & rural areas is a known story. InPrime’s focus on this market using phygital model and Rajat, Manish & Sneh’s deep conviction for the segment and their extensive experience of lending business made us jump to be part of their journey.”

Rajat Singh, Co-founder & CEO, InPrime Finserv said, ”InPrime’s mission is to recognize the evolving financial needs of the informal prime customers and build suitable products and services to fulfil these needs. Robust Technology & analytics coupled with essential physical distribution will be core to our strategy which will transcend these customers towards digital financial products. We are thankful to InfoEdge Ventures, Titan Capital, Kettleborough VC and all our angel investors for supporting us in this journey of taking forward the baton of financial inclusion in India.”

InPrime's strong position to achieve the mission of financial inclusion is backed by some critical factors such as over three decades of combined banking experience with its founders, the uniquely designed & easy-to-use products for the target segment, the use of alternate sources of data, and a proprietary credit underwriting algorithm.

About InPrime Finserv: InPrime FinServ is a Bengaluru based new-age financial services start-up focused on serving the evolving needs of the informal economy customers in India. It aims to provide adequate and affordable credit to the prime layer of informal economy customers by leveraging technology combined with alternate data & analytics.

Digital Manufacturing Platform Mekr Raises INR 5.8 Cr from Better Capital and Titan Capital

Mekr raises funding from Better Capital & Titan Capital to simplify mass manufacturing of electronics products.

Funds raised will be utilized to strengthen sales, supply chain, tech and project management team among others

Mekr, one stop source for complete electronics product manufacturing, has raised INR 5.8 Cr from Titan Capital and Better Capital. The seed funding round also witnessed participation from 2AM VC.

The funds raised will be utilised in strengthening sales, supply chain, tech and project management team and working capital requirements. The company is currently working for many leading organisations across industries ranging from EV, Fintech, Telecom, IOT, agri-tech and home appliance industries to fulfil their hardware product manufacturing requirements.

Gaurang Kuchhal, Co- founder & CEO and Anand Yadav, Co-founder & COO Mekr (From L-R).

The journey of Mekr is encouraging as both the founders Anand Yadav & Gaurang Kuchhal are second-time founders and have themselves gone through the journey from prototype to mass production of hardware products. Having experienced manufacturing challenges first hand, they realized the difficulties in taking proof of concept projects to mass manufacture real products which are used by consumers. Even simple products require integration of manufacturing processes from multiple industries like plastics, PCBs, Metal, import etc.

Commenting on the funds raised, Gaurang Kuchhal, C0-founder & CEO, Mekr, “People often have a pre-conceived notion that it is not possible to beat China product costings. However, this is not true in reality. At Mekr, for all our projects, we have been able to match China pricing while delivering great product quality and a seamless manufacturing experience.”

Speaking on investing the funds in Mekr, Bipin Shah, Partner – Titan Capital, “Today electronics import comes second only after oil in India. It is very surprising that we have so much dependence on imports for electronics. Now, globally there is a shift of supply chains due to Covid and global geopolitical situations.

Further adding to it he said, “India can make most of it due to its favourable conditions like - Manpower-talent, electricity rate, land availability (SEZ), domestic market size and government policies and support. Companies like Mekr will be pivotal in strengthening the Indian manufacturing ecosystem and making most of the manufacturing wave.”

"Mekr is building the Aatmanirbhar Manufacturing Platform of India to empower domestic product companies of all sizes with quality, scaling and price economics to compete with global competitors for the domestic as well as global markets. We are fortunate to be the founding stage partner to Anand and Gaurang as they build an important piece of the puzzle for leapfrogging Indian companies towards manufacturing leadership", said Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital, an early backer of breakout innovators like Teachmint, Wint, Open, Slice and many others across categories.

Mekr has a complete ecosystem for electronic product manufacturing like facilities for manufacturing of Plastics, PCBA’s, Metal, China sourcing and strong R&D team.

People looking to make electronics products can reach out to Mekr with their product specifications, samples or manufacturing files. Mekr works with its network of manufacturing partners, works on integration of different parts like software, plastics, electronics and seamlessly delivers complete product to the customer.

Metamap (formerly Mati) Raises INR 530 Cr in Funding Led by Tribe Capital With Participation from Titan Capital

MetaMap Empowers Entrepreneurs to Enter New Markets and Serve Billions of New Internet Users

MetaMap (formerly Mati), startup that builds a merit-based trust and reputation infrastructure layer to help companies transition to a borderless economy, today announced that it has raised 530 crores in Series B funding led by Tribe Capital, with participation from Craft Ventures, Alameda Research (FTX), Titan Capital, and prominent angel investors including Jerry Murdock, founder of Insight Partners. 

The new capital brings the company’s total funding to date to 630 crores, and will be used to invest in product development and furthering its international expansion as it furthers its mission to help billions of people unlock online services and experience upward mobility. MetaMap is building their flagship tech hub in India, with over 30 employees already across offices in Bangalore and Gurgaon, and a plan to 5x headcount in India this year. The company is also announcing a number of partnerships with leading Indian fintechs, marketplaces and crypto exchanges in 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of global business, moving the world closer towards a borderless economy. In emerging markets, as many essential services were brought online, nearly a billion new internet users followed in search of access to goods and services in just 18 months. The increased demand for digital has created a prime opportunity for entrepreneurs building apps and services in emerging economies to serve billions of new internet users. However, many people are still “digitally invisible” and as a result, remain locked out of the digital economy, further exacerbating the digital divide.

“The world continues to gravitate towards a more fluid, borderless economy that fosters greater participation from individuals who have typically been excluded from global commerce. However, the tools needed to make this vision a reality are still missing,” said Filip Victor, founder and CEO of MetaMap. “For entrepreneurs building apps and regulated services, this presents a substantial challenge: how do you qualify billions of potential customers who can’t evidence their own qualifications?”

MetaMap shines a light on the digitally invisible and connects entrepreneurs and service providers to billions of potential new customers by removing traditional barriers to trust: identity and financial risk. MetaMap allows entrepreneurs to vet individuals and assess their risk profile based on a variety of personal merits, validated by hundreds of data points that MetaMap surfaces. With these merits, entrepreneurs can recognize the whole spectrum of an individual’s profile, from basics like legal identity to more sophisticated qualifications such as biometrics and psychometrics. In turn, users are able to access digital services, often for the first time. Developers using MetaMap can put together custom automated workflows that qualify users on any number of different merits at any stage of their customer journey.

MetaMap offers solutions for a wide range of use cases, including fraud prevention, identity and financial qualification, and credential sourcing. These capabilities are crucial for almost every industry in the global digital economy, ranging from ecommerce and cryptocurrency to gig work. By providing companies with the means to effectively qualify individuals that were previously invisible in the internet age, MetaMap is taking the first step to realizing its larger vision of unlocking borderless growth through merit.

Bipin Shah, Partner, Titan Capital, commented, "We are excited to invest and support MetaMap’s mission of creating a borderless economy by bringing users together on the digital map. The team’s differentiated approach of orchestrating disparate and hard-to-access databases to enable risk assessment of all types will alter the way businesses operate globally and ultimately, unlock human potential."

"Digital invisibility is a widespread problem for much of the world’s populations, particularly in emerging economies, where many regions do not have credit bureaus or digital proofs of address or income,” said Victor. “That puts these populations at a disadvantage in an increasingly digital world. COVID accelerated the borderless economy faster than anyone previously imagined, but its true potential remains stalled because of severe fragmentation. By connecting fragmented databases that contain dozens of trust and reputation footprints and building easy-to-use API integrations that service providers businesses and, soon, consumers can tap into, we hope to shine a digital light on the areas of the human map that were previously inaccessible.”

"Solving the problem of digital invisibility unlocks massive capital and human potential worldwide,” said Jeff Fluhr, General Partner at Craft Ventures. “MetaMap has a nuanced and innovative approach for establishing trustworthiness online that scales beautifully. We are delighted to have the opportunity to invest and support MetaMap as it accelerates business growth for entrepreneurs across the globe."

For more information visit - www.metamap.com.

About MetaMap:

MetaMap is the merit-based digital trust and reputation layer that powers borderless commerce. The company’s tools and APIs provide the infrastructure to transform anonymous strangers into trustworthy individuals in the digital economy. MetaMap offers solutions to builders across the spectrum, from developers tackling high-trust online services to enterprises bolstering their user verification and reputation processes. Founded in San Francisco in 2017, MetaMap operates globally and is trusted by 370+ customers including Binance, Mercado Bitcoin, and Allianz.

To learn more, visit metamap.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/

Full-Stack Cross Border Commerce Platform Nexprt Raises $200K in Funding by Titan Capital, Others

Nexprt, a platform that aims to build a seamless cross border commerce experience for Indian MSMEs and global importers, has raised $200k in angel funding from Titan Capital and other angel investors. The startupwill utilize these funds to build the core team and strengthen its product-market fit.

Nexprt simplifies global trade by providing a ‘Reliable, High Quality, and One Stop Solution’ for all trade needs. With a heavy focus on the end consumer, Nexprtis leveraging technology to offer industry redefining quality metrics, improved user experience and quick product development – to build a global brand that resonates with the requirements of modern B2B commerce.

On receiving the funding, Harsha Vardhan K, Co-Founder, Nexprt, said, "We are glad to haveinvestors who have great trust in Nexprt, and the problem weare trying to solve. We aimto democratize manufacturing and build supply chain predictability for small businesses across the globe, allowing them to compete with large corporations in terms of their product sourcing and manufacturing needs."

Bipin Shah, Partner at Titan Capital, said, "We see great potential in Nexprt’samazing team. With itsfull-stack approach and focus on institutionalizing Indian MSME manufacturing, Nexprt is building a strong playbook to scale Indian exports and competein the global markets. We are looking forward to our associationwith Nexprt."

Nexprt currently deals in Home décor and Hospitality segments across kitchenware, carpets and handicrafts.

Titan Capital and Other Industry Leaders Back Seed funding for Zouk, 100% Vegan Lifestyle Brand

Funds will be used to expand the business and optimize supply chain

The startup aims to create a wide range of stylish & functional products for its customers with a vision to build an iconic global consumer brand from India.

Zouk Founders - Disha & Pradeep

27th January 2021, New Delhi: Zouk, India's 100% Vegan Lifestyle Brand has raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding. The funding round is led by investors, including Titan Capital and founders of Beardo and Mamaearth. With this fresh round of investment, the company plans to expand its operations across India and abroad. 

The startup was born with a mission to bring stylish and functional products with the essence of India to new-age customers. Besides the product range expansion, significant investments will also be made to expand the team and streamline supply chain. Zouk aims to scale up to hit Rs. 100 crores in revenue from the India business, at the same time taking its Indian products to various parts of the world. The startup currently receives regular enquiries from customers living in Canada, the US and Sri Lanka.

Talking about the funding received, Disha Singh, Co-founder and CEO, Zouk said, "We are thrilled to have such an amazing set of investors for Zouk. Each investor has achieved so much in the e-Commerce and D2C space. For us, this was a match made in heaven, and we look forward to their advice and support, as we scale up."

"We are excited to partner with the experienced duo of Disha and Pradeep. They have built a solid set of innovative products in the massive Bags category, which we believe can be taken from India to the world" said, Bipin Shah, partner at Titan Capital.

"Zouk's proudly Indian products resonate well with the Indian online consumers, who today want to support homegrown brands. This will be a powerful base to grow the brand in the coming years." said, Ashutosh Valani, Co-founder of Beardo.

Varun Alagh, Co-founder of Mamaearth, said, "I am glad to be an early backer for Zouk. Having taken their Vegan bags to over 30,000 customers, they have reached early product-market fit. As Indian consumers become more conscious of their brand choices, Zouk with its Vegan and socially conscious offerings has a bright future in building a purposeful brand." 

The startup brings high-quality vegan Bags, Wallets and Accessories to its consumers. The unique selling point of the range of products is that 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 a PETA approved Vegan brand with a varied set of products including Laptop Bags, Office Bags, Backpacks, Handbags, Sling Bags, Tote Bags, Chain Wallets, Mini Wallets, Eyewear Cases, Travel Pouches and Scarves.

Website Link: https://zouk.co.in/

Mailmodo Raises $270K in A Pre-Seed Round by Titan Capital and Other Marquee Investors

Interactive Email Marketing Software, Mailmodo, raises $270K in a pre-seed round by Titan Capital & other marquee investors

22nd January 2021, New Delhi: Mailmodo, an interactive email marketing software for businesses has raised $270K in the pre-seed round funding by Titan Capital, Firstcheque, Gameskraft, Angellist and other marquee groups of investors including Archit Gupta, Deepak Diwakar, Harsh Shah and others. Mailmodo helps businesses create interactive app-like emails to get a better return on investment from email marketing.

The co-founders Aquibur Rahman, Apurv Gupta and Devyesh Tandon came up with the idea of Mailmodo when Google released Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) emails publicly. AMP emails allow any business to add dynamic components to an email and show real-time data using APIs. This was previously not possible, and it sure is the future of email marketing. Building Mailmodo was to bring this technology to marketers to create and send interactive emails without any coding skills and get better ROI from their email marketing. It is currently used by clients who hail from diverse industry verticals. Mailmodo's clients claim to receive more than 3x higher conversions from the interactive email campaigns than what they were getting from their older templates. Mailmodo's mission is to simplify email marketing and maximize conversions for businesses with a seamless and easy email reader experience.

Talking about the funding received, Aquibur, Co-founder & CEO, Mailmodo said, "AMP emails allow marketers to create app-like experiences inside the emails and it makes seamless for the users to take the desired actions. People check their emails when travelling, watching tv, or in an elevator in a busy daily life. They don't have time or attention span to open an email, click on the link, go to the website, and take several other steps in between to complete the desired action. Thus interactive app-like emails help marketers to get better conversion rates.We are elated to have gotten the support from the investors who not only provided us with their financial support but also are mentoring us in our journey."

Bipin Shah, partner at Titan Capital, "Despite the radical change in web technologies over the past two decades, emails have been the same more or less. I believe Mailmodo’s no-code platform for creating AMP email has the power to revolutionize email marketing and customer interactions."

Kushal Bhagia, CEO - Firstcheque.vc, "Email as a marketing and communication channel is still one of the most important touchpoints marketers have with customers. We are very excited by MailModo's AMP-based product that allows marketers to go a step further now and build interactive experiences for users within Email, leading to far superior conversions!"

Archit Gupta, CEO, Cleartax, said "Mailmodo is building a product we could have used in ClearTax. I'm investing in Aquib and team to build the future of email marketing."

Over the last nine months, Mailmodo has developed beyond just an email creator to a full-fledged email marketing platform providing email creation, campaign management, automation, journey builder, API triggers and integrations with several marketing tools. Mailmodo will be using the investments to build the founding team, product development and make the product available to the global market.

Influencer-led Live Real Money Gaming Platform Tamasha Raises Funding from 9Unicorns, Titan Capital and First Cheque

The seed-stage funding will support the disruption of real money gaming by bringing together the experience of both reality TV and live video gaming on a single platform

Underscoring its commitment to supporting entrepreneurial innovation, 9Unicorns - India's first accelerator VC, has recently made a seed investment in Tamasha.live, an influencer-led, live social gaming platform. 9Unicorns took an early bet in the company alongside Kunal Bahl (Co-founder and CEO - Snapdeal) & Rohit Bansal of Titan Capital and First Cheque. The INR 2.5 Crores funding round also saw participation from several other eminent investors such as PointOne Capital, Maninder Gulati (Global Chief Strategy Officer - OYO Rooms), Ramakant Sharma (Co-Founder - LivSpace), Ankit Khandelwal (Co-Founder - Gromo), and Abhishek Hota (VP - OYO). Other investors who participated in the funding round include Rishabh Kumar (Head UK & Europe - OYO), and Aakash Kumar (AVP - Hotstar).

Founded in 2020 by Saurabh Gupta and Siddharth Swarnkar, Tamasha aims to create an engaging and fun-filled platform where the experience of reality TV and online gaming is fused to give the participants the best of both worlds. New-age influencers and content creators will host the games that will have real cash prizes for winners at the cost of a small entry fee. The availability of their favourite stars and multiple gaming contests ensure that there is no scope of boredom or lack of choices for the players. At the same time, creators get the opportunity to engage with their audience in a unique manner while monetizing their content instantly.

Speaking on the investment, Saurabh, Co-founder and CEO – Tamasha, said, "As India's first influencer-led live real money gaming platform, Tamasha aims to disrupt the booming social gaming industry. We aim to give, the new generation of content creators, the power to entertain their fans through live games and also monetize it effectively in new and unique ways; and the backing of leading investors such as 9Unicorns will help us realise that vision."

Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & Managing Director – 9Unicorns, commented on the investment, "Besides its solid offering, the vision and dedication of Tamasha's founding team clinched the deal for us. Their strategies are aligned with the needs and requirements of this emerging market and the space that they are addressing is ripe for disruption. We are pleased to support a dynamic startup such as theirs and will offer support to their continued growth and success."

"We at Titan quite liked the approach of the Tamasha team to leverage creators' showmanship to help them monetize through Real Money Gaming. This is really more engaging form of gaming and entertainment" said Mr. Bipin Shah, Partner - Titan Capital

Siddharth, Co-founder and CPO – Tamasha, added, "With the latest funding round, we plan to build a rockstar team with cross-functional expertise. We will invest in building a strong product and grow our initial user base."

Kushal Bhagia, CEO – FirstCheque.vc quoted, "Tamasha is playing on two booming trends on the Indian internet - Real Money gaming and Influencers! Saurabh and Siddharth's unique insight on designing engaging gaming and entertaining experiences for the Indian user make Tamasha a very exciting company to back!"Tamasha envisions revolutionizing the online gaming industry by leveraging its one-of-a-kind platform focused wholly on enhancing the live user experience and engagement. Addressing a Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) of $5.6 Billion in 2021 in India, the brand's innovative offering is well-equipped to disrupt this high-value space.

About 9Unicorns

9Unicorns is India's First Accelerator VC. It provides acceleration support & seed funding to early-stage startups. 9Unicorns provides funding upto $100K per startup in the first round, and may invest further $500K-$2Mn in successive rounds with its co-investors. From idea stage to angel stage, it supports startups across various themes & sectors.

9Unicorns' strength & focus is on a hands-on support ecosystem for startups, beyond capital. 9Unicorns, besides investment, opens doors to the startups for access to a wide network of successful founders, category-leaders, CXOs of large corporations, seasoned angel investors & partners of global VC funds. Every portfolio company receives an acceleration support for 3 months & post-investment support of 18 months.

Food-Tech Startup and D2C Brand, Anveshan, Raises 1.12 Crore Pre-Seed Funding from Titan Capital

• Aims to provide high-quality, natural and traditionally processed food products manufactured at source (rural areas)
• Focusing on source identification and traceability solution
• Funds will be used to expand business and create tech-enabled supply chain 

Foodtech start-up, Anveshan has raised Rs. 1.12 crore in the pre-seed funding round led by Titan Capital. With a fresh influx of capital, the company will focus on expanding its supply chain and operations across India. The start-up creates food micro-Entrepreneurs in villages across India that make these food products using traditional practices while ensuring quality control through traceability. This model ensures the best quality food product for the customers along with social and economic upliftment of the Indian farmers. 

With the vision to provide best quality and healthy food products, a significant pie of the investment will also be used for food research and the development of technical solutions and devices that can track the food quality.

Co-founded in late 2019, by three young and energetic IIT Guwahati graduates, Aayushi Khandelwal, Akhil Kansal and Kuldeep Parewa, Anveshan plans to tap the growing market for local and Indian origin foods by providing high-quality natural and eco-friendly products. Anveshan is an attempt to solve the problem of lack of transparency and quality control in food products to ensure best products for the consumers. The foodtech company also wants to change how food is perceived today by making people aware of the manufacturing process and providing them super nutritious and tasty food products.

Talking about the investment and the support from the Titan Capital, Aayushi Khandelwal, Co-founder, Anveshan said, “We are elated to receive this initial support and investors’ belief in our vision to replace all the unhealthy ingredients in the kitchen that have long-term health ailments with natural and quality food products. We want our customers to take pride while buying Anveshan food products as not only are they contributing to their own health but also impacting the lives of Indian farmers.”

“Also, with a trend towards healthier lifestyle, the market’s potential in India itself is huge and we envision expanding globally over time.” she further added.

Pleased to share, Akhil Kansal, Co-founder, Anveshan, said, “Due to misleading advertisements and false marketing of food products, consumers have lost the feeling of trust in food brands. Customers are being deceived by such campaigns and they blindly trust what is written on the label. We want to be that brand that provides purest and most natural kind of food with a proof of quality through our traceability solution."

Kuldeep Parewa, Co-founder, Anveshan, stated, "Inspite of putting in the greatest effort in the food-supply chain, our farmers gets the least monetary gains out of it. Our unique model of creating decentralised food-processing units, enables us to empower Indian farmers and the village youth. We aim to create thousands of jobs in villages through Anveshan".

Bipin Shah, partner at Titan Capital said, "We are able to see Anveshan solving quality and trust issue in food products. Even customers can trace the origin of products like A2 ghee, Spices, Edible oil. Especially a big need in urban busy population who want to be relaxed about quality of raw material being used in kitchen to remain super healthy and immune in this new world"

Able Jobs, Hiring Platform for Entry-Level Talents, Raises $1.8 Mn in Funding from SAIF Partners, Y Combinator, Others

Neeraj Arora, Titan Capital and Firstcheque participated in the seed round

Able Jobs, a hiring platform for entry-level talent based out of Bangalore has raised a seed amount of $ 1.8 Mn from Saif Partners, Y Combinator, Neeraj Arora, Titan Capital and Firstcheque. Helping companies like WhiteHatJr, Bigbasket, Sharechat, hire entry level talent in the fields of sales, support and marketing, Able Jobs also offers skill development and online training courses for these young candidates.

The fresh raise will be used by the brand for acceleration of its product growth and expansion of its team. The company also plans to build state-of-the-art training products for companies to hire talent reliably and expand into adjacent sectors like FMCG, BFSI, etc.

Launched in May 2019, Able Jobs provides end to end hiring support to companies from finding the right candidate to getting talent deployed. Their app has rigorous online training programs where they pre-train candidates for job roles specific to companies. Post-training, companies interview candidates and then roll out offers as they deem fit. Able Jobs also helps companies acquire talent through social channels and gives them access to people beyond job portals.

Commenting on the fund raise, Able Jobs CEO Ravish Agrawal , said ,” Over the past decades companies have invested a lot of capital in hiring and training of entry level talent. We, at Able jobs, are focused on solving this by  partnering with companies and helping them hire trained professionals with a single click and no upfront  investment.”

“We are glad to have the SAIF team on our side,their deep networks in the ecosystem and years of expertise with startups will help us massively scale up our business.”

Announcing the investment, Deepak Gaur, MD, SAIF Partners India said, " We are extremely thrilled to partner with Ravish and his team who are catering to the flourishing bracket of job-seekers in the country. With the rising needs of such platforms in a post-Covid job market, we are confident that Ablejobs can catalyze the growth and development of the entry-level hiring ecosystem in our country while scaling up efficiently at the same time. Looking forward to partner with them in their next phase of growth."

With organisations prioritising skills more than college degrees, their talent requirements have become very dynamic. Using the Able Jobs platform, companies have seen 11X faster hiring and 4X deployable talent over the past few months.

About Able jobs

Started in May 2019, Able jobs has been started by Ravish Agrawal , Svatantra Kumar, Siddharth Srivastav, all of them having experience in the edtech space. Ravish is a graduate of IIT Kanpur and all the founders have done an edtech startup before starting Able Jobs. With an office in Bangalore and a team size of 10+ employees, their business objective is to help companies hire trained entry level talent.

Inspection AI Startup Inspektlabs Raises $600K in Funding from Better Capital & Titan Capital

Inspection AI technology startup - Inspektlabs has raised $600k in a pre-series-A round led by Better Capital, Titan Capital: investment office of Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, and a cluster of angel investors. Inspektlabs is also a part of 2020 London Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars. The company focuses on building computer vision products for physical asset inspections using photos and videos. Its current focus is on automating car inspections for global motor insurance and automotive players.

The US and New Delhi- based startup will utilize this funding for product development and to increase its breadth of offerings for insurance and automotive players across the globe.

Founded by former McKinsey and Zomato employees, Devesh Trivedi (CEO) and Sanchit (CPO) in 2019, Inspektlabs’ solution is based on an Inspection AI technology allowing firms to perform damage assessment, claim estimation, asset valuation, and fraud detection of physical assets using photos or videos. Customers can capture a 360° video of any asset (such as a car) using a smartphone, and within seconds, Inspektlabs’ API reverts with an inspection report.

The current process of inspection is manual - which is costly, slow, and ripe with fraud. In addition to this, manual inspections are now more difficult than ever due to COVID related lockdowns. Inspektlabs technology enables self-inspection by automating the entire inspection process using photos or videos. The company has so far inspected 100K cars in Japan, UK and India. As a response to COVID, Inspektlabs has also recently launched a new inspection product to ensure hygiene within cars as well.

While the company is focusing on car inspections as of now, its technology is also applicable in cellphone, hotel, property, bike, truck and ship inspections.

Speaking on the investment, Devesh Trivedi, Co-Founder at Inspektlabs commented, "Inspektlabs products have been designed and built from the ground-up to plug into this evolving paradigm of enterprise solutions. Our products currently reduce the cost of inspection by 98% and reduce the time required for inspections by 95%. We are constantly innovating to deliver new value propositions by improving deliverability, and assuring reliability in our product. We will soon diversify to other assets such as cellphones, bikes." 

Devesh Trivedi, Co-Founder, InspektLabs

Speaking on the investment, Vaibhav Domkundwar, Lead Investor said, “At a time where the world is prodding for a contactless environment, there is an increased demand and market for automation technologies. Almost every industry today is looking to ensure safety, adeptness and productivity. We can, therefore, expect to see greater use of computer vision technologies across an even wider selection of industries in the very near future. Inspektlabs technology not only increases efficiency, but is quite easy to deploy as well. This particular technology trend I believe will transform our society.”

Inspektlabs has built a growing library of 5 million damaged asset photos and videos that has universal applicability. The company has filed international patents for select damage categories, and has already signed contracts with 2 major players, and has 4 other pilots running with large automotive and insurance companies globally.

Inspektlabs falls into the “Inspection AI” bucket, essentially a startup space that automates the traditional inspection processes using machine learning. Of late, this space has seen conviction from many financial and strategic corporate investors. Some noteworthy global deals include, UK headquartered Tractable.ai which has raised $ 60MN so far, Israel based Ravin.ai which raised $4 MN in 2019 and France based Monk.ai which raised $2.4 MN in June 2020.

Snapdeal Founders' Titan Capital Leads $300K Investment Round in Credgenics

Titan Capital, a fund backed by e-commerce firm Snapdeal's co-founders, has led a USD 300,000 investment round in the start-up Credgenics.

Headquartered in Delhi, Credgenics is essentially a debt resolution platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and data science, and helps emerging fintech lending startups, NBFCs, Banks & SFBs in their critical NPA reduction using ingenious tools

The company will utilise the funds for scaling operations to cover all the metro cities in India, an official statement said.

Credgenics was founded in 2018, by Anand Agrawal, Mayank Khera and Rishabh Goel. Its SaaS based collection platform is integrated with legal workflow and delivers customised strategies which helps creditors efficiently improve their NPA, geographic reach and customer experience.

Launched in 2016, Titan Capital has raised over US$ 4 billion in funds from 100+ institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds and family offices. Its portfolio startups includes over 70 companies in India and the US across consumer internet, direct to consumer brands, SaaS, AI and Computer Vision.

Titan Capital last invested when it led ₹2.2 crore funding round of online content-managing platform - Pepper Content, in February this year.