LEAD School receives Rs 160 Cr investment from Alteria, Stride & others
School edtech unicorn LEAD has received an investment of approximately Rs 160 Cr in a mix of long term capital from Alteria Capital and Stride Ventures. The working capital financing came from Standard Chartered Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.
With the path to profitability, the new round of fundraising will help finance the company’s organic and inorganic growth ambitions, a statement said.
“Traditionally, start-ups have had limited avenues for raising capital beyond equity. However, with our strong unit economics and clear path to profitability, we have been able to attract non-dilutive, traditional capital from India’s biggest banks and largest venture debt funds, which is value accretive to our shareholders. LEAD is poised for 2X growth and this latest round of funding will help us fast-track our mission of providing high quality, integrated School Edtech solutions to over 60,000 schools across India by 2026,” said Sumeet Mehta, CEO and Co-Founder, LEAD.
In January 2022, LEAD entered into the unicorn club after raising $100 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion. The current fundraise comes after the company has sacked nearly 60 employees in its second round of layoffs.
WorkIndia raises $12M from Nintendo founding family and others
Blue and grey collar job portal WorkIndia has raised $12 million in a Pre-Series B funding round led by the founding family of Nintendo, Yamauchi No.10 Family Office, and investment firm Insitor. Tokyo stock exchange-listed SBI Investment and eye-wear firm Persol also participated in the funding round.
WorkIndia plans to utilise the fund in strengthening its product and data science capabilities including entry into the Southeast Asian blue-collar market.
"With the new round of funding, WorkIndia will further strengthen its product and data science capabilities including entry into the yet untapped Southeast Asian blue-collar market," WorkIndia Co-founder and CEO Kunal Patil said.
WorkIndia covers deep geography with 772 cities across 28 states and 8 Union Territories in India. The platform claims to cater to the hiring needs of over 1.5 million small and medium businesses and multiple large corporations.
Faarms bags $10M in a funding round, gets investment from Auxano capital
Agri procurement marketplace Faarms has bagged $10 million in a funding round which saw participation from early-stage venture capital firm Auxano Capital.
The company plans to utilize the funds to expand its geographic penetration and build a robust technology stack, it said in a statement.
The Bangalore-based startup conducts door-step delivery of seeds, fertilizers, cattle feed, chemicals and Agri products to the farm gate. The platform has a tech-enabled value chain on the in-built application that features everything from ordering and logistic tracking to easy payments.
The firm claims to have clocked 13X growth YoY, and delivered 462,000 goods to 86% of its repeat customers.
Trezi gets over $2M in funding from World V, YourNest and others
Metaverse-based startup Trezi has raised over $2 million in a funding round led by World V and YourNest Venture Capital. The round also saw participation from Auxano Capital and She Capital.
The company will use the funds to ramp up its platform development in the metaverse and accelerate its entry into high-potential new geographies, it said in a statement. Including the current fundraising, the startup has raised more than $3 million funding to date.
Trezi operates on a SaaS model and allows its clients to upload architectural models for viewing, editing, and remote collaboration in real time. Its clients include Schneider Electric, GMR, NCRTC, St Gobain, Orient Bell, The White Teak Company and Blue Star, among others.
Showroom B2B gets $1.35M in seed round led by Strive VC, Gemba Capital and others
Showroom B2B, an end-to-end supply chain platform in the Fashion & Apparel category has raised $ 1.35 million in the seed funding round led by Strive VC and Gemba Capital. The round also saw participation from Titan Capital, Panthera Peak Capital, PointOne Capital, Bharat Founders Fund, Relentless VC and other marquee investors.
The startup intends to use the fresh capital for opening new experience stores, strengthening the technology infrastructure, building a seamless customer experience, expanding the network of retailers and manufacturers, and new innovations for Bharat and export markets.
“Showroom B2B is organizing the massively long-tailed apparel supply chain in India with a simple promise - to provide a broad selection of apparel to retailers at competitive prices compared to unorganized channels. As a result of their demand-first product-led approach, they have seen rapid adoption across Tier 2+ cities in India,” said Siddharth Verma, Principal, Strive VC.
Omnivore leads seed round in animal nutrition firm EFeed
Animal nutrition and healthcare firm eFeed has raised $1 million in its seed funding round from Omnivore. The investment by the VC firm was made through its OmniX Bio, an initiative launched to back early-stage startups across agrifood life sciences.
With the fresh capital, eFeed said it will strengthen its R&D operations, expand its farmer network, and focus on talent acquisition. The company has developed nutritional supplements for livestock which can improve overall cattle health while also increasing milk yield.
Currently, the company claims to have a network of three lakh farmers and has launched multiple products to improve lactation, solve infertility, and enhance the general health/immunity of cattle.
Vivriti Capital, Sai Silks (Kalamandir) sign a Rs 40 Cr vendor financing deal
Vivriti Capital, a B2B fintech non-banking financial company, and Hyderabad-based apparel retailer Sai Silks (Kalamandir) have announced a Rs 40-crore vendor financing partnership.
Sai Silk will utilise the funds towards procurement of raw materials, in order to meet increased demand during the ongoing wedding season marked by high-value consumption expenditure, a statement said.
Sai Silks (Kalamandir) is likely to launch its IPO bound in January 2023. In November 2022, the company declared that it has SEBI’s approval to go for public listing. SSKL had filed the DRHP in mid July 2022 to raise Rs 1,200 crore from the market.
Turns raises $500K in pre-seed round led by Better Capital
Turns, a vertical SaaS startup for the laundry industry, has raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding round led by Better Capital, along with participation from PointOne Capital and several angels.
Turns helps laundromats deliver a modern experience to their users with a full stack software & hardware integrated solution that includes a modern POS, customer management, hassle-free payments, accounting, employee management, logistics optimisation as well as compliance making it an all-in-one control center for laundromat owners.
The company has launched their beta and has already signed up 50+ laundromats and dry cleaners across eight countries including US, India, UAE & others. Turns will primarily focus on the United States market and is targeting 1000 customers in the next 12-18 months, it said in a statement.
Femtech startup Salad bags $270,000 from Antler India
Femtech startup, Salad has raised $270,000 in its pre-seed funding round led by Antler India.
The app acts as a lifestyle planner helps women understand their hormonal health through different phases of their menstrual cycle with bioindividual inputs on nutrition, fitness and lifestyle.
“We are currently at the cusp of a revolutionary shake-up of the healthcare industry, wherein women are finally taking charge of the different factors contributing to their overall health and wellness. At Salad, we want to leverage technology to empower women to plug the information gap about their hormones and take the necessary steps to proactively manage their own health and lifestyle,” said Aruna Chawla, CEO, Salad.
D2C furniture brand Boingg secures Rs 2 Cr from IPV
D2C kids focused furniture brand Boingg has raised Rs 2 crore in a Pre Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures.
The funds raised will be utilized to expand machinery, licensing, and the branding of the company. The company claims to have increased its footprint with the launch of a physical store in Gurgaon since the last fundraise.
Furniture is at the core of what we do, but, for us, the whole room is a white canvas, and we want to keep adding to our already exhaustive portfolio of 2500+SKUs (95 percent of which is manufactured in-house) across categories like decor, bedlinen, bathroom accessories, bags and so much more. In 2023, we aim to triple our month-on-month revenue and open more offline locations to serve our customers better,” said Neha Indoria, CEO and Co-Founder, Boingg.
