Funding Rundown: Lentra raises $60M in Series B round, Chargeup raises $7M & Eruditus CEO backs KheloMore

Cloud lending platform Lentra on Monday raised $60 million in its Series B round led by existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and SIG Venture Capital, with participation from Citi Ventures.

The company said it will use the funds for products and platform strengthening and also for global expansion, including the US.

"We see a massive opportunity for ourselves in the retail assets and business banking areas worldwide. Ten-fold revenue growth and some of the biggest retail banks as our clients now, act as markers of our solution architecture," said D. Venkatesh, Founder and CEO, Lentra.

Blackstone-backed upskilling platform Simplilearn has raised $45 million in a funding round led by GSV Ventures, Clal Insurance, and ADQ. In a statement, Simplilearn said the fresh round of fundraising will further boost its growth prospects across the world.

The company has seen significant growth in the past year and has added more than 1,20,000 paid business-to-consumer (B2C) learners, and 1,00,000 enterprise learners on its platform. This is in addition to the 2 million free learners that it has, it claimed.

The founder and chief executive Krishna Kumar said this funding comes at a time when the industry is going through turmoil and stands as a testimony to the company's steady, profitable growth.

Digital diabetes care platform BeatO has raised $33 million in Series B funding led by Lightrock India with participation from HealthQuad, Flipkart and existing investors.

The fresh funding will be used to scale BeatO's platform, continue to invest in its product and technology, and to strengthen the reach of its evidence-based care programmes, it said in a statement.

"With our digital-first solution, BeatO is well positioned to lay the new standards of how care will be delivered in the future to millions of Indians," said Gautam Chopra, Co-Founder and CEO, BeatO.

BharatX, a joint venture between India Accelerator and think-tank Council for International Economic Understanding (CIEU) has announced that it will invest $15 million over the next 18 months in the Indian startup ecosystem.

BharatX will invest Rs 1-5 crore in each startup during the first edition of the accelerator programme. BharatX, under this initiative will also facilitate access to leading corporations along with a dialogue with policymakers.

"With India becoming the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, Bharat-specific startups from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities require different interventions and ecosystems to help build solutions for the next 800Mn+ people. BharatX will bridge that gap and enable the next stage of expansion of the startup ecosystem through specialized programs," said, Munish Bhatia, CEO, BharatX.

Corporate volunteering platform Goodera has bagged $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Elevation Capital, with participation from Zoom Ventures, Xto10X, Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network.

Former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns and Flipkart founder Binny Bansal also participated in the funding round.

The company intends to use the fresh funds to scale its team, and technology, and enrich the catalogue of experiences it can provide to employees.

Electric mobility platform Corrit Electric has secured $9 million in Series A funding round led by early-stage venture capital fund SphitiCap. This marks the third bet from the VC firm’s maiden fund.

SphitiCap launched its maiden venture fund last month, with an aim to raise a corpus of around $500 million, targeting enterprises focused on sustainability, growth and impact.

The startup will use the capital to further its vision of onboarding 1.50 lakh e-bikes over the next three years and to scale up production unit, a statement said.

Yulu, shared electric Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) player, has raised $9 million in debt financing led by the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the United States government’s Development Financial Institution (DFI).

DFC proposed the investment in Yulu through its new e-mobility financing team, as a part of the institution's focus on financing clean and zero-emission transportation solutions in India, the firm said in a statement.

The startup will use the fresh capital to strengthen momentum towards enabling green last-mile mobility for people movement and goods deliveries.

Dubai-based proptech startup Silkhaus has raised $7.75 million in a seed funding round led by Nuwa Capital, Global Founders Capital, Nordstar, Yuj Ventures, Whiteboard Capital, and VentureSouq.

The firm which came out of stealth mode will use the capital to accelerate its expansion across MENA, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The company said it is building out its technology stack, led by Ashmin Varma who previously developed cutting-edge technologies for global proptechs.

Silkhaus will grow the supply of properties on its platform, with a focus on hiring extensively for technology and strategic roles, it added.

Chargeup, a battery swapping network for electric two- and three-wheelers, has bagged $7 million in funding in a pre-series A1 financing round, led by Capital-A and Anicut Capital along with other investors.

Angel investors like Ekta Kapoor, Sunil Kalra, and Sachin Mehra, also pitched in the round. Jiraaf, a platform for high-yield alternative investment opportunities, also participated by extending debt to Chargeup.

As per the company, the fresh capital will be used for expanding the services to 20 new cities and power 50,000+ drivers. The company will also strengthen its FineTech (Finance-Network-Technology) Platform, and tech stack. This will also enable the drivers to own an EV by spending 40 percent less and earning 80 percent more, added the firm.

Roadside assistance startup ReadyAssist has raised $5 million as part of their ongoing Pre-Series A round led by Howen International Fund, SPC.

According to the company, the funds will be deployed to enhance the service network further to bring in speed and availability through technology across India.

The top 50 cities in India have been selected by ReadyAssist for building and nurturing the EV skill sets in mechanics, during the first phase, the statement added.

Analytics and full-stack AI firm VuNet Systems has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Mela Ventures and Athera Venture Partners, with participation from Dallas Venture Capital and TVS Capital Funds.

The funding will be used to accelerate the research and development of new AI/ML led product offerings and the expansion of global operations across India, Asia and the US, the company said in a statement.

“We will continue to focus on expanding our customer growth and our product base to create more intelligent, actionable insights for operations, business and CXOs to accelerate their digital transformation,” said Ashwin Ramachandran, Co-founder and CEO, VuNet Systems.

Fintech lender Aye Finance has raised Rs 87 crore in debt funding from Swiss impact investor BlueOrchard and it will use the proceeds to expand finance to micro-enterprises in the country.

The company has targeted to raise Rs 1,500 crore via debt this year, of which Rs 700 crore has been raised so far.

Aye said it will use the fresh capital to extend affordable and customised credit solutions to the base of business pyramid of India and power its growth into new-age India.

Instant meal bowl company Yu has bagged Rs 20 crore in its Series A funding round led by independent investor Ashish Kacholia, in a mix of equity and venture debt. The round also saw participation from existing investors, Asian Paints’ promoter group Manish Choksi and Varun Vakil.

The funding round also saw participation from DPIITs Start Up India Seed Fund scheme which approved Yu under its Rs 945 crores program that funds tech-enabled startups.

The startup will use the fresh capital to double its capacity and ramp up its existing offline-online distribution in India. The firm will also continue to expand its global footprint across markets like Africa, Middle East and the US.

Red Fort Capital Finance, which focusses on logistics, industrial parks, and the manufacturing sector, has provided Rs 10 crore finance to Evocus, a black alkaline water manufacturer.

The company said it will use the capital to fuel its global expansion plans. The startup is currently present in over 50 cities and is available across offline and online channels. Evocus is to now aiming to expand globally into 10 countries.

“The company has some aggressive expansion plans to go global and we at Red Fort Capital Finance are always looking forward to backing such high-growth companies," said Parry Singh, CEO, Red Fort Capital Finance.

Goodfellows, a homegrown senior companionship startup, founded by Shantanu Naidu announced that it raised a fresh round of seed capital from high-profile investors like Niranjan Hiranandani and others.

According to the startup, the investment will be channelised to strengthen Mumbai operations, which has seen rapid growth as well as fulfil the strong influx of enquiries for senior companionship from all parts of the country and expand services to new cities like Pune, Kolkata and Bangalore.

Goodfellows will also test its corporate offerings with its first corporate contract. Goodfellows was launched in September 2022, with a token investment from Ratan Tata.

Edtech unicorn Eruditus’s CEO Ashwin Damera has invested an undisclosed amount in digital sports platform, KheloMore, through his family office, Damera Ventures.

Founded by former international cricketer and CEO Jatin Paranjape, KheloMore works as an aggregator of coaches and academies across Indian cities for sports such as cricket, football, badminton, and basketball, among others.

Auto-tech startup Fixigo has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Agility Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from industry veteran and director of iGlobe Telecom, Tarun Kalra and Alienics, a Canadian investment firm.

According to the firm, it will use the fresh capital to expand its services in newer markets like Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai.

“Funds raised in the seed round had been deployed to create awareness on the brand FixiGo, spreading the operational reach of the brand and investing in technology to enable our workshops to achieve efficiency in business processes,” said Sami Shaik, Cofounder, Fixigo.

Agritech player WayCool Foods has invested an undisclosed capital in supply management player AllFresh to create a Keiretsu in the global food supply chain.

Delhi-based AllFresh supplies apples and citrus-based food, with technology in place to keep the perishables' shelf-life intact.

WayCool aims to leverage Allfresh’s capabilities, as well as its network of apple and citrus growers, and farmers in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, among other locations, connecting their output to WayCool’s extensive network of over 1,25,000 retail clients.

Job-Tech platform FastJobs.io has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed round from a clutch of super angel investors including Ashish Hemrajani, Founder & CEO, BookMyShow, Parikshit Dar, Co-founder & Director, BookMyShow, Haresh Chawla Founding CEO, Network18 and Partner, TrueNorth, among others.

The round saw participation from over 30 marquee angel investors and startup executives. The firm will use the funds to expand internationally across USA and SEA regions as also build new SaaS products for Intelligent Recruiting.

In less than 8 months since its inception, Fastjobs.io claims to have placed over 500 job-seekers with over 100 companies. Having delivered jobs worth over Rs 30 crore in this short span, Fastjobs.io said it has turned EBITDA positive successfully already.