The Tech Panda takes a look at recent funding events in the tech ecosystem, seeking to know where the cash is flowing.
Startup: Answer Genomics
Sector: Wellness
Amount: US$500,000
Led by: Inflection Point Ventures
Hyper-personalized & data driven wellness platform, Answer Genomics has raised $500K in a pre-series A Round from Inflection Point Ventures. The funds will be utilized for supporting Sales & Marketing efforts and expanding the talent pool through strategic hiring initiatives. Additionally, these investments will enable Answer Genomics to continue pioneering advances in genomics and ultimately enhance the well-being of individuals through personalized health insights by sequencing 10K genomes in the next 12 months.
Vikram Ramasubramanian, Partner, Inflection Point Ventures, says, “Research and development in healthcare has always been of critical importance, with Genomics being at the cutting edge. Data science lends itself very well to Genomics, allowing healthcare companies to provide deep insights, and bio hacks to improve one’s lifestyle quality. As an early mover, Answer Genomics not only addresses an individual’s need for better health, but also provides data for large organizations to create better products.”
Rahul Ranganathan, CEO, Answer Genomics, says, “The advent of AI is changing the landscape of healthcare. We now possess the technology capable of understanding the human body for the masterpiece that it is. Multi-omnic data collected over a course of time forms a picture of current and future health allowing accurate prognosis, early diagnosis, and precision treatment. We believe precision health would reduce the burden on our healthcare infrastructure by allowing for accurate predictions, remote interventions, and faster recoveries.”
Startup: Alwrite
Sector: Insurtech
Amount: INR10 crore
Led by: Group of VCs & angel investors
Alwrite, a next-generation tech platform empowering insurance titans and intermediaries has raised Rs 10 crore in its seed funding round from a group of venture capitalist and angel investors. Alwrite is a B2B tech platform that enables insurance companies, brokers, agents, corporate agents and banks to accelerate the quote placement process to provide seamless insuring services and to offer the best insurance options to their corporate clients.
Aditya Dadia, Founder, Alwrite said, “Our objective was to improve the time consuming and manual backend quote procurement process for commercial insurance line with an innovative, quick tech based solution. The commercial insurance sector is the last sector to be revolutionised by fin-tech innovations that have taken the BFSI space by storm. Such a revolution has already been noticed in the retail insurance segment and has been long overdue in the commercial space. We came up with the Alwrite solution which helps in reducing the costs, turn-around times and the PI risk by digitising the entire quote procurement and placement procedure. We have plans to use the funds to further develop the product and expand the service across the country.”
The innovative concept of Alwrite and growth of the commercial insurance sector encouraged the group of angel investors to invest in the promising startup. The investors are Apurva Parekh, Executive Vice Chairman, Pidilite Group, Viral Thakker, Partner and Lead: Strategy, AI and Analytics, and M&A. World Climate lead at Deloitte India, Amit Sheth, Sanjay Bhagat, Shrenik Shah and Sumit Bohra.
Startup: HiWi
Sector: FinTech
Amount: INR 7.25 crore
Led by: Unicorn India Ventures & Unmaj Group Family Office
HiWi, a global cross-border remittance fintech, has successfully secured INR 7.25 crore in a pre-seed funding round, with Unicorn India Ventures and the Unmaj Group Family Office leading the investment. The capital injection is earmarked for advancing product development and executing a strategic go-to-market rollout.
Dewang Neralla, Founder of HiWi, expressed his gratitude, stating, “I would like to thank Unicorn India Ventures and Unmaj Group for having confidence in HiWi’s vision to make cross-border remittances accessible and convenient for all stakeholders. Although our initial focus is on education, we plan to expand our services to cater to SMEs, further streamlining and enhancing the remittance process.”
Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, says, “Foreign education is an ever growing market. At Unicorn, we have studied this segment and made investments both in study abroad and fintech companies. HiWi is combining the power of tech and addressing a much needed gap of facilitating cross border payments that are easier and convenient for both the parents and students. The company is starting with foreign admission but the product stack will be leveraged for other use cases post foreign admission, The future offerings canvas in this segment will give immense growth opportunities to HiWi.”
Startup: Omnivio
Sector: Ecommerce SaaS
Amount: US$1.02 million
Led by: Caret Capital
Omnivio, an omnichannel enablement company, has successfully raised USD 1.02 million (INR 8.4 crores) in its latest Seed Round of funding. The investment was led by Caret Capital, formerly known as Supply Chain Labs, with participation from prominent investors including Blume Ventures, Eximius VC, SuniconVenture Fund, Misfits, and several angel syndicates and individual investors from India, Middle East, and South East Asia. The platform had raised its angel round in August 2022. This latest round also saw participation from existing investors, 91 Ventures, Dexter Angels, and Supermorpehus, bringing the total funds raised by Omnivio to approximately INR 12 crores (USD 1.5 million).
Omnivio is on a mission to redefine the Omnichannel experience for retailers and omni-brands by addressing one of the most significant challenges in the industry—ensuring seamless customer experiences across multiple channels.
Prajakt Raut, Managing Partner from Caret Capital affirmed “While omni-channel is rapidly becoming mainstream, companies find it challenging to transition from a pure offline player to an omni-channel player, or vice-versa, as their existing supply chains and distribution networks are not designed for the omni-channel world. Startups can play an enabling role and Omnivio has been able to distinguish its strategy and business model. Omnivio Saas platform provides brands a control tower for managing synchronisation between different stakeholders and delivers gold-standard consumer experiences. We are excited to partner with Sidhartha, Anuj and the team at Omnivio as they march towards transforming India’s value chain.”
Omnivio intends to allocate the newly raised funds towards the development of its Omni-channel visibility and orchestration product suite. Additionally, the company plans to expand its enterprise Go-To-Market (GTM) teams in India and the Middle East. With this infusion of capital, Omnivio is well-positioned to continue its journey to become a category-defining Omnichannel enablement company.
Startup: BIVA Analytics
Sector: eCommerce SaaS
Amount: US$500k
Led by: Equanimity Ventures
BIVA Analytics, a plug and play analytics platform, offering E-commerce businesses a unified analytics perspective across multiple platforms has raised $500k in its Seed Round. The investment was led by Equanimity Ventures and saw participation from SucSeed Ventures, WarmUp Ventures, T-Hub and value-additive angels. This successful fundraising round marks a significant step forward in the company’s journey to redefine the E-Commerce Analytics landscape.
Rajesh Sehgal, Managing Partner, Equanimity Ventures, said, “BIVA’s platform empowers e-commerce businesses with unified analytics, automation, and growth potential. Abhiram and Akhila have a deep understanding of user problems, which is reflected in the robust SaaS platform that they have built. Until now, they have been under the radar fine tuning the product. The current funding round will help them get discovered. We believe that BIVA is poised to revolutionize e-commerce analytics and are excited to partner with them as an early backer.”
Vikrant Varshney Co-Founder & Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said “BIVA Analytics, a fully automated BI & Analytics platform, helps D2C Brands scale up their businesses. It stands out with a novel GTM strategy, capitalizing on agency partnerships for broader sales outreach and outsourcing flexibility. According to Fortune Business Insights, global big data analytics market size was valued at $ 271.83 Bn in 2022 and is projected to grow to $745.15 Bn by 2030, exhibiting a CAGR of 13.5% during the forecast period. Market Response from large Enterprise in last one year to BIVA has been quite encouraging and we are keen to help them on their growth path”.
Startup: KiVi
Sector: Agri-fintech
Amount: INR15 crore
Led by: Caspian Leap
Agri-fintech startup KiVi, operated by Agrosperity Tech Solutions Private Limited, announced the conclusion of its seed round of Rs 15 crore led by Caspian Leap for Agriculture Fund, Piper Serica Angel Fund, YAN Angel Fund, Impact Innovators and Entrepreneurs Foundation, among others. KiVi is incubated at IIT Madras Research Park and stands for kisan vikas – farmer development.
Joby C O, Founder & CEO said, “We are excited to welcome our first institutional investors who share KiVi’s vision to make agriculture a livelihood of choice by enabling credit, commerce and distribution to the farmgate ecosystem.”
Joby further added, “KiVi enables timely, affordable and scale-based credit as well as commerce from the farmgate to the processor. We accomplish this by leveraging our technology and last mile transaction capability. Our technology platform assembles and integrates the latest technologies in identification, validation, consent, evaluation and monitoring to provide a seamless experience to all stakeholders. Our last mile capability provides the customer relationship interface that is critical to serve the agri and rural customer base.”
“We are excited about our investment in KiVi. The agri fintech space is ripe for innovation and disruption, though having many challenges, including the perceived risk with agri credit. We believe that KiVi, led by Joby, has the right blend of people with rich experience of rural financial services and agriculture to make this happen,” said Emmanuel Murray, Investment Director at Caspian Leap for Agriculture Fund.
“KiVi is cultivating a vital solution for the farmgate ecosystem bridging the gap between borrowers and lenders. We are excited to support a company with a visionary management team and their commitment to addressing one of the most critical challenges for the future of agriculture and rural economies,” said Abhay Agarwal, Principal at Piper Serica Angel Fund.
“The investment will help KiVi to build a robust technology platform for scale-up, increase the last-mile presence across many districts, strengthen the product and risk capabilities and obtain an NBFC license.” Joby concluded.
Startup: OORJAA
Sector: Logistics
Amount: INR 5.35 crore
Led by: Inflection Point Ventures
OORJAA, a logistics solutions company, has successfully raised INR 5.35 Crore in its Pre-Series A Round 2 from Inflection Point Ventures (IPV), Vinners Platform, Soonicorn Ventures and HEM Angels. The funds will be dedicated to scaling the PiE KART platform, advancing technology, and expanding the team.
OORJAA focuses on utilizing cutting-edge technology to drive efficiency, visibility, and sustainability in last-mile and mid-mile deliveries.
Mitesh Shah, Co-Founder of Inflection Point Ventures, emphasized the significance of reshaping the logistics landscape. He stated, “The logistics industry plays a pivotal role in virtually every business. However, it remains largely unorganized due to its multifaceted and uncontrolled factors. OORJAA has embarked on a transformative journey to address these challenges, providing end-to-end automation solutions for diverse delivery requirements.”
Sandeep Patil, CEO & Co-founder of OORJAA, highlighted the company’s impressive 5.0x growth since Round 1, led by IPV. “With this Round 2 funding and the recent launch of PiE KART, we are entering the next phase of our expansion. Our commitment is to revolutionize last-mile and mid-mile logistics through advanced technology. Our investors, led by IPV, have been instrumental in our journey towards greater heights,” he said.
Startup: AuditCue
Sector: SaaS
Amount: US$1.5 million
Led by: Kalaari Capital
Chennai-based AuditCue, an audit & risk SaaS startup, has raised $1.5 Mn in a seed funding round led by Kalaari Capital. Other investors who participated include Java Capital and angel investors from San Francisco. The capital infusion will be allocated towards product development, accelerating the go-to-market strategy, and growing the engineering team.
AuditCue calibrates, guides and streamlines all actions that are a part of an audit lifecycle.
Gaurav Kulkarni, Co-founder & CEO, Auditcue says, “AuditCue is built for CISOs in regulated markets who keep pace with multiple compliance regimes. Unlike legacy solutions or automation products, AuditCue removes friction from audits and empowers auditors & auditees through the entire lifecycle of risk & audit programs. We are transforming the risk & audit experience for our customers to make audits seamless. With this funding round, we aim to expand further into our primary geographic markets of North America, India & EU.”
Vani Kola, Founder & Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, says “The $120B global audit and GRC market is ripe for disruption with new-age tools. The founding team brings complementary skills and we are excited to back their vision.”
Startup: UrbanMatrix Technologies
Sector: Drone tech
Amount: INR6 crore
Led by: Inflection Point Ventures
Drone tech startup UrbanMatrix Technologies has raised Rs. 6 Crores in a Pre-series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds will be allocated towards product development, team expansion and expanding into new markets.
The company offers cutting-edge quantum encryption technology along with cloud integration for data safety, guaranteeing top-notch reliability and ease of use for clients across different industries, making drone operations safer and more efficient.
Vikram Ramasubramanian, Partner, Inflection Point Ventures, says, “Drone industry has been growing extensively especially with the government vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat which aims to shape India as a global drone hub by 2030. The drone industry is a sunrise sector with phenomenal market opportunities, IPV looks forward to extending their strategic support and helping UrbanMatrix scale their business. The company has successfully developed end to end drone solution products which aim to capture a wide range of use cases and expand geographically”.
Rishabh Verma, CEO & Co-founder, Urban Matrix, says, “Drones are unlocking the true potential of our skies. With increasing acceptance of drone technology by multiple industries, the challenge of scaling drone operations becomes a bottleneck. At UrbanMatrix, we are leveraging cutting-edge cloud technology to solve this challenge.”
