Startup Digest: Flipkart & PhonePe could be $100Bn biz in India, ChrysCapital invests in Lenskart, BASIC Home Loan raises $4.7M

Private equity firm ChrysCapital has invested $100 million in eyewear brand Lenskart via primary and secondary share purchases, bring the company’s total capital infusion to $850 million in the past year.

The fresh investment comes nearly 3 months after the ecommerce portal for eyewear in India raised $500 million from a wholly-owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), for a 10 percent stake. This marked one of the largest funding rounds in the recent past, at its existing valuation of $4.5 billion. This also resulted in ADIA becoming one of the largest shareholders in Lenskart.

ChrysCapital said that the investment will support Lenskart's growth plans and strengthen its position as a global eyewear leader.

Fintech startup, BASIC Home Loan has bagged $4.7 million of equity investment in Pre-Series B round funding led by stock market investor Ashish Kacholia. Existing investors Gruhas & Venture Catalysts have also doubled down their investment in the company, increasing their stake.

New investors who joined the round include Dexter Angels, IIM Indore Alumni Angel Fund, and CommsCredible Venture Fund.

The company will use the funds for expanding its distribution network to new geographies, and for building a proof of concept to start its own lending arm.

Mykare Health, a digital health startup, has raised $2.01 million in a seed funding round led by OnDeck ODX - US, Avaana Seed, Huddle, Endurance Capital, F Health, VeritasX, Stanford Angels and Phoenix Angels.

The round also saw participation from angels like Ajit Mohan (Founding CEO, Hotstar & Former MD, Meta India), Nitish Mittersain (Joint Managing Director, Nazara Technologies), Hari TN (Ex-BigBasket), among others.

The startup will use fresh capital towards elevating the overall patient experience and bolstering talent acquisition efforts, a statement said.

TaxNodes, a crypto tax computation and expert-assisted ITR filing platform, has bagged $1.6 million in its seed funding round. The round saw participation from investors in web3 and wealth tech space, including Rahul Pagidipati (ZebPay) and an Nischal Shetty (Shardeum & WazirX), Ashish Singhal (CoinSwitch), among others.

The company intends to utilize these funds to bolster its mission of simplifying tax computation, and providing end-to-end solutions for individuals navigating the complexities of crypto taxation. It is developing an AI-assisted tax advisory model for individuals and corporates to provide control and compliance using GPT-like Large Language Model.

Since its inception, TaxNodes claims to have witnessed a 5X month-on-month spike in its customer base.

Actor Anushka Sharma has made an undisclosed investment in millet-based health food brand Millé, which has been launched by Wholsum Foods. The brand offers a range of high plant protein and fibre-rich, millet-based products.

Its range of daily foods and snacks currently includes breakfast cereals, pancakes, cake mixes, and gluten-free grain alternatives to rice and wheat.

“Millé offers the perfect combination of high plant protein and fibre that helps you eat right and live an active, healthy, fulfilled life at any age. We’re are happy to be a part of the millet movement which is bringing this ancient climate-friendly supergrain back to the mainstream”, Anushka Sharma, Wholsum Foods Investor, and Actor.

Evolved Foods, a plant-based protein company, has raised Rs 7.3 crore in a seed funding round led by Zerodha backed Rainmatter Health and Kamala Capital.

The round also saw participation from Anvitha Prashanth (Anyaa Ventures), and Aprameya Radhakrishna (Founder of KOO App); and a group of angel investors - such as Rachel Goenka & Karan Khetarpal (Goenka Ventures Family Office), B G Mahesh (Founder/ex-MD of OneIndia.com), Sushant Arora (Cofounder of CleanMax Solar), Swapnil Shah (ex-Brand head, Proctor & Gamble), and Vananam Ventures Trust.

“Our flagship product is the result of three years of R&D and countless consumer trials. With the infusion of funds, we will be able to build efficiencies across production and supply chain operations and accelerate towards our next milestones,” said Roma Roy Choudhury, Founder and COO, Evolved.

Urvann, a gardening-focused hyperlocal marketplace, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds will be utilized to enhance the technology and facilitate expansion into different regions across the country, a statement said.

Urvann claims to have fulfilled over 75,000 orders and is clocking daily delivery volume of over 500 orders. It also has distributed 500,000 plants, specifically air purifiers, throughout Delhi NCR and Bangalore.

“With the help of IPV, we scaled Urvann from X to 10X and now with this round, we are looking to scale further from 10X to 100X across the country,” said Sambhav Jain, Co-Founder, Urvann.

Solarad.ai, an energy forecasting company, has raised an undisclosed capital in a seed funding round led by India Quotient. The investment will be used for expansion, enhance technology infrastructure, and accelerate product development, the firm said in a statement.

The capital will also be allocated towards strengthening the deep-tech models and algorithms used for energy generation forecasting, expanding the cloud infrastructure for increased scalability, and conducting research and development to improve forecast accuracy.

Solarad.ai also plans to expand its solution offerings in Europe and the US, attract top talent across various domains, and automate energy scheduling and trading processes to provide enhanced value to customers.

Climate-tech startup Myplan8 has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding round from a group of prominent HNI investors.

The funding will empower Myplan8 to accelerate the development of sustainable solutions and expand its reach in the market, a statement said.

The company aims to further strengthen its product and development efforts, attract top-tier talent, and scale its operations.

Tech giant Google has collaborated with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to drive cyber safety awareness on on online cyber safety in the country.

The tech giant will work with MeitY to amplify its ‘Stay Safe Online’ campaign through several initiatives, including literacy programmes, multilingual digital content and educational content on how to navigate information online.

“With over 700 million Indians using the internet, and the country driving transformative innovations with the power of digital technologies, it is important to ensure that the internet is inclusive and safe for all Indians,” said Sanjay Gupta, Country Head and Vice President, Google India.

boAt, an audio and wearables brand claims to have clocked $500 million in net sales. on the back of software play through its recently acquired KaHa platform and creating a health and wellness wearables ecosystem within its product portfolio.

The brand said, over the past few years, it has made significant investments in the local Indian manufacturing ecosystem, with today most of its audio and wearables products being manufactured in India via several EMS players, including Dixon, with whom boAt has also created a manufacturing JV. In FY23, around 15 million products were made in India by boAt, a statement said,

“Having raised private equity capital over multiple rounds including from Warburg Pincus, we believe boAt is well positioned and capitalized to continue to make aggressive investments in establishing ourselves as a leading wearables brand in the country, similar to our achievements in the audio category,” Sameer Mehta, Co-founder and CEO, boat.

Unicommerce, an ecommerce enablement SaaS platform claims to have clocked 200 percent Year-on-Year increase in revenue in its international business during FY23. As per the company, the growth was driven by its operations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The platform added that it has achieved an annual run rate of 5 million transactions annually with 35+ clients spread over 6 countries in Southeast Asia and Middle East.

Unicommerce has powered 20000+ businesses and worked with brands across 45+ industry segments. It has recorded an annual run rate of processing over 600 million transactions amounting to 47 billion+ annual GMV.

MSME exports are playing a role in powering 40 percent of India’s overall exports, contributing to approximately 6.22% of the country’s GDP, according to a recent survey by Shiprocket X titled ‘The State of Cross-Border Trade’.

The survey highlighted that India’s total merchandise exports continue to cross the $100 billion mark, for the second consecutive quarter in a row, amounting to $105.8 billion, during Q3 of 2021-22.

As per the report, simplified cross-border trade has been a priority for the Indian government as it represents 20% of global e-commerce and is a key determinant of the level of ease of doing business in the country.

Amid the current macro-economic condition, 82 percent of Indians have shown interest in pursuing further online education, according to Emeritus Global Workplace Skills Study 2023. The report further highlighted that 73 percent Indians survey said that interest in further education has increased due to global developments.

84 percent of Indians agreed that pursuing further education will give them an edge to compete better against their peers. The report also showed that 9 in 10 Indians believe that online learning adoption is set to increase in the near future.

94 percent of Indians consider a paid online programme format for continued learning and upskilling, it added. Furthermore, 86 percent of Indian professionals also said that a high-quality upskilling programme would allow them to achieve their career-related goals. Data analysed by the study showcased a stronger interest in upskilling among Indians in the current climate, compared to the global average of 55%.

Apple is investing an additional $25 million to three funds working with minority-owned businesses, bolstering its backing for communities that continue to be underrepresented in the technology space.

The funds would go to Collab Capital, Harlem Capital and VamosVentures and boost the tech giant's venture capital support for diverse businesses, to $50 million.

The statement comes more than two years after the Cupertino, California-based company's foray into VC funding to back entrepreneurs of color.

Alphabet is cautioning employees about how they use chatbots, including its own Bard, at the same time as it markets the program around the world, Reuters reported.

The Google parent has advised employees not to enter its confidential materials into AI chatbots, citing long-standing policy on safeguarding information.

Alphabet also alerted its engineers to avoid direct use of computer code that chatbots can generate.

Short video app TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, said it would invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia over the next few years, as it doubles down on the region amid intensifying global scrutiny over its data security.

Southeast Asia, a region with a collective population of 630 million - half of them under 30 - is one of TikTok's biggest markets in terms of user numbers, generating more than 325 million visitors to the app every month.

"We're going to invest billions of dollars in Indonesia and Southeast Asia over the next few years," TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said at a forum it organised in Jakarta to highlight the social and economic impact of the app in the region.

A group of 17 music publishers sued Twitter in Nashville, Tennessee, federal court, accusing the company of enabling thousands of copyright violations by allowing users to post music without a license.

Twitter drives user engagement with "countless infringing copies of musical compositions," the lawsuit said.

Members of the National Music Publishers' Association, including Sony Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management and Universal Music Publishing Group, are seeking more than $250 million in damages for alleged infringement of nearly 1,700 copyrights.

Time is running out on a deadline for Microsoft to complete its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, compelling the companies to ask a U.S. judge to quickly get the ball rolling on the Federal Trade Commission's legal bid to block the deal.

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila on Tuesday had set a June 22-23 evidentiary hearing in San Francisco and temporarily blocked the companies from completing the deal pending a decision by another judge on the same court on whether to grant a preliminary injunction.

"Time is of the essence," the companies wrote in a court filing, noting that the agreement has a termination date of July 18 and contains a $3 billion termination fee that Microsoft would have to pay. "Let there be no doubt, a preliminary injunction ruling is the only decision that matters under these challenging deadlines."

TrueCar is laying off 24% of its workforce as part of restructuring that would result in $20 million of annualized expense reduction for the automotive digital marketplace.

The cuts, which impact 102 positions, come alongside the elevation of Chief Operating Officer Jantoon Reigersman to the role of chief executive officer.

As of May 31, the company had nearly $146.5 million of cash and cash equivalents, but its management was expecting aggregate cash balance to drop below $125 million in the near term.