Start up Digest: Udaan secures fresh debt from EvolutionX, Binny Bansal invests in HireQuotient

Growth-stage debt financing platform EvolutionX Debt Capital has committed investment into B2B e-commerce platform udaan. While both companies did not disclose the corpus, sources told PTI that the commitment is in the range of $35-40 million. The fresh commitment follows a $120 million fund raised by udaan a fortnight back from existing shareholders and bondholders.

With this, banking firm DBS and Singapore government-run investment firm Temasek backed EvolutionX had made a total commitment of $85 million in two tech unicorns in India so far in 2022.

"We believe that udaan's business model holds immense growth potential while keeping technological innovation at its forefront. We look forward to supporting the company's journey of transforming and improving India's huge ecosystem of retailers, traders, and wholesalers through innovative digitalised solutions," said EvolutionX, partner and co-head of leading investments across India and Southeast Asia, Rahul Shah.

Singapore-based HireQuotient, which automates HR interviews for companies, has received additional capital from Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal. However, the details of the investment remain undisclosed.

This investment follows the pre-seed round in December 2021 in which the company raised $1.8 million from several angel investors. HireQuotient claims to be on track to double its revenues within the next two quarters.

"The opportunity is massive and we are ramping up to create more impact. SalesTech and MarketingTech have seen massive disruption in the past 2 decades - Hiring Tech will experience this in the coming decade. I’m confident that my team will deliver exceptional results," said Smarthveer Sidana, co-founder and CEO, HireQuotient.

E-mobility startup Motovolt Mobility has raised Rs 16 crore in its pre-series A funding round led by investors such as PPAP Automotive, Vikrampati Singhania of JK Family, Ankur Agarwal of Crystal Crop, Wami Capital, a Dubai-based single-family office and others.

According to the firm, the funds raised will primarily be used for new product introduction, marketing initiatives, and growing Motovolt’s presence through more retail points pan India.

"The pre-series A funding will enable us to move to the next stage in terms of expanding not just the product portfolio but also our presence across India. In line with the targets set by the government, Motovolt aims to become the go-to choice for affordable EV commute going forward," said, Tushar Choudhary, founder and CEO of Motovolt.

Fintech startup, Galgal Money has raised $1 million in a seed funding round led by angel investors whose names remain undisclosed. The funds have enabled the startup to launch the app at a rapid time-to-market pace and accelerate customer acquisition, it said in a statement.

The firm now intends to invest in product development to rapidly enhance customer experience and focus on offering features that can enhance the neo-banking experience for the youth in India. Just at the beta stage of the product, the company claims to have generated a waitlist of more than 5,000 people through its website.

Food-agri startup Fresh From Farm has raised over Rs 3.2 crore in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds raised will assist the company in team building, inventory management, capital expenditure, Research & Development and branding, the firm said in a statement.

"Our AI-based system currently has a confidence rate of 89 percent allowing us to predict the exact quantities and qualities of fruits that can be sold at particular touchpoints. This has enabled us to reduce the wastage to 2-3 percent while the industry standard is 20-22 percent. We aim to achieve a 95 percent accuracy rate over the next 18 months," said Rohit Nagdewani, founder and CEO of Fresh From Farm.

Amazon will shut down its online learning platform for high-school students in India less than two years of its launch, Reuters reported. The Amazon Academy platform, launched early last year amid a boom in virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, offered coaching for competitive exams including Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), which allows entry into top engineering colleges across India.

Based on an assessment, the e-commerce giant said in a statement that it had made the decision to discontinue Amazon Academy "in a phased manner to take care of current customers".

The winding down comes at a time when multiple edtech firms are reeling under the pressure of schools and coaching centres reopening across India after COVID-19-induced lockdowns. Last month, industry leader Byju's had said it would lay off 2,500 employees as it pushes to turn profitable.

Aiming to strengthen the startup ecosystem in the country, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has launched a call for startup applications for registration on the MAARG portal, the National Mentorship Platform by Startup India.

Officials said that to further boost the Indian startup ecosystem, currently ranked third largest globally, Startup India is focused on catalysing the startup culture and building a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

In this context, MAARG portal - Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience and Growth, is a one-stop platform to facilitate mentorship for startups across diverse sectors, functions, stages, geographies, and backgrounds.

Biz2X, a digital lending SaaS platform, has announced its plans to hire 250 people by 2023. The platform recruited 220 people in 2022, across its India office in addition to 30 contractual staff members.

Biz2X will hire personnel in middle management roles with experience and expertise in domains such as data science, product development and management, front end and back-end operations among others, it said in a statement.

"We are looking at hiring bright and talented freshers from Campuses across the country, as well as people from coveted organisations. Our predominant focus is to attract and retain the right talent keeping in perspective the massive layoffs that are currently happening in the start-up ecosystem. As a responsible corporate citizen, employee centricity is one of our key focus areas," said Anupama Garg, CHRO and senior vice president of Biz2credit.

Facility management firm, Unify, has announced that it will be recruiting about 10,000 people in India over the next 12 months, adding to its existing workforce of 8,000+ in the country. The move comes after Unify grew by more than 60 % Y-o-Y and increased its service presence throughout the country to 145 cities, a statement said.

"The Indian organized facility management services market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 20 percent over the next 5 years. This growth is driven by the growth in the Real estate, manufacturing, and logistics sectors.

Through this expansion, we hope to positively impact our clients’ businesses across industry verticals with more customized solutions and technology-driven services," said Saurabh Agarwal, Managing Director, Unify.

TVS Motor-backed Ultraviolette Automotive has commercially rolled out the F77 hyperbike in Bangalore at a starting price of Rs 3.8 lakh (base version) going all the way up to Rs 5.5 Lakh (limited edition version. (all ex-showroom).

The F77 will be offered in two variants – Original and Recon – and both would differ in terms of peak output figures as well as battery capacity, and consequently, range.

Ultraviolette aims to establish itself as an international electric mobility brand from India and has an active roadmap to launch the F77 in selected markets in the next couple of years. As many as 70,000 pre-registration interests have already been received from over 190 countries for the F77, the firm said in a statement.

SaaS platform MoveInSync said it is all set to close the year in March 2023 with a revenue of Rs 350 crore with a vision to double its revenue to 700 crores in the next 12 months.

The company added that entry to newer markets of Philippines and Ghana in addition to their existing operations in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Jamaica, South Africa and more, will fuel this growth.

"Over the last 6 months, we have grown more than 100% with enterprises rapidly bringing back employees to work. We have seen this trend globally. Our growth is driven by the need for enterprises to optimise employee productivity at various levels-be it in commute or at work itself,” said Deepesh Agarwal, co-founder, and CEO of MoveInSync.

GoKwik, an e-commerce enabler is looking to onboard over 10,000 digital-first brands and e-commerce players on its platform in 2023 on the back of several innovative solutions implemented by the company.

At present, GoKwik said that it helps over 500 brands to attain 10x growth through its innovative solutions. With its robust solutions backed by deep tech and data science models, the startup has so far helped brands reduce RTO by 30 percent and improve conversion rates by over 35 percent, it added.

"We want to create products for e-commerce businesses of all sizes and provide solutions across the shopping funnel which can further their growth. From Whatsapp commerce, personalized payments stack, conversion optimization solutions to evolved RTO protection models, we want to continue building products that solve e-commerce problem statements end to end,” said Chirag Taneja, co-founder and CEO of GoKwik.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is aiming for a roughly $1 billion fund for the potential purchase of distressed assets in the digital sector, Bloomberg News reported, citing an interview with chief executive officer Changpeng Zhao. Zhao hinted at the possibility of allocating more funds in the interview. "If that's not enough we can allocate more", he said.

Zhao said while speaking at a conference in Abu Dhabi last week that there was significant interest from industry players in a recovery fund his company plans to launch to help cryptocurrency projects facing a liquidity squeeze, following the collapse of rival FTX.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is likely to file an antitrust lawsuit to block Microsoft’s $69 billion takeover bid for video game publisher Activision Blizzard, Politico reported.

A lawsuit challenging the deal is not guaranteed, and the FTC's four commissioners have yet to vote out a complaint or meet with lawyers for the companies, the report said, adding that the FTC staff reviewing the deal are skeptical of the companies' arguments.

"We are committed to continuing to work cooperatively with regulators around the globe to allow the transaction to proceed, but won't hesitate to fight to defend the transaction if required," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said. Any suggestion that the transaction could lead to anticompetitive effects is "completely absurd," the spokesperson added.