Funding Rundown: Disprz raises $13 mn in Series B round, Foodlink secures $8 mn

According to reports, Disprz will use this capital, further to scale up product and engineering teams, establish a sales and marketing division in the US, expand its existing presence in South East Asia and Middle East markets, and invest in building industry-specific product solutions.

Foodlink, a luxury catering company, has raised $8 million (Rs 59.34 crore) in funding led by Plutus Wealth Management.

The Series-B funding round also witnessed the participation of Arpit Khandelwal, Managing Partner, Plutus Wealth Management LLP.

The company will use these funds to expand its flagship business of luxury catering across newer geographies in India and overseas to take its luxury banquet brand called JADE Luxury Banquets to more cities, it said in a statement.

The funding will be used to scale their casual dining restaurant business through its brands, India Bistro, China Bistro & Art of Dum.

The company has so far raised $23 million, including the current round. It received $15 million as part of its Series-A round from OAKS Asset Management in 2017.

Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs’ co-founder Lokvir Kapoor has offloaded shares worth nearly $4.5 million to 12 new investors of the company, Entrackr reported.

Kapoor has sold shares worth nearly $4.5 million to 12 investors which include Dream11 founder Harsh Jain and Family, Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham, Indifi founder Alok Mittal, Swiggy founder Sriharsha Majety and Relation Capital, the report added.

Following the secondary transaction, Jain & Family have acquired shares worth $950,000 in Pine Labs from Kapoor, followed by Mathrubootham and Relation Capital who bought shares worth $615,000 each. Mittal, Majety and seven other investors have bought the remaining shares.

“We wanted to get our friends and founders to share our journey. The opportunity shouldn’t be restricted to just large investors and bankers as more entrepreneurs create cross holding in other peer startups, we will truly build a close community,” CEO of Pine Labs Amrish Rau said on Twitter.

The startup is gearing up for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US at a $6 billion valuation.

Fintech startup Defy has raised $5.5 million (around Rs 40.79 crore) in a seed funding round to build India's first social crypto exchange.

The fundraise was backed by Y Combinator, Goat VC, JAM Fund and Goodwater Capital. Others participating in this round include Gemba, Night Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, Olive Tree Capital in addition to an existing investor, Better Capital.

Defy aims to disrupt the cryptocurrency space with a social and community-based approach. The platform, available for Android users on Google Playstore, aims to build a social platform around crypto to make the subject considerably less intimidating, the company said in a statement. It allows users to create their profiles and share their portfolios with friends and followers.

Users can use this social channel to interact and follow experts for investment strategies while also keeping track of their friends' portfolios. Additionally, Defy aims to educate users with gamified content and social conversations around Crypto.

Edtech startup Inzpira has raised Rs 2.3 crore as part of its seed funding. The round was led by angel investors Raj Nair, Chairman, Avalon Consulting, and Gopinath Latpate, Executive Director, JLL.

Other investors who joined the round include Arvind Kapil (Country Head – Retail Lending, HDFC Bank), Yash Chamria (Joint VP, Piramal Capital), Naveen Raju (Executive Director, TIE Mumbai), Ajay Nayar (Associate Partner, IBM), P Sreekumar, Vedika Thorat, Abdul Gafoor, Jyoti Rahul Devjani, Akshar Panchmia, Dipen Shah, Vikas Sisodiya, Manish Manoj, Mannan Manoj, Michael Samuel, Pankaj Ramachandran, and Roshan Ajitkumar.

The startup said it will use the fresh capital to improve its tech platform, enhance brand presence and expand its customer base.

Inzpira had earlier raised Rs 25 lakh as part of its pre-seed round from 100X.VC in March 2021 and was part of their class 04 cohort. The startup has raised Rs 2.55 crore to date.