NowPurchase, a procurement technology company for the metal manufacturing industry, recently raised $2.4 million in a seed funding round led by Orios and InfoEdge Ventures. Angel investor Neeraj Arora, former WhatsApp global business head and Co-founder HalloApp, also participated in the round.
For founder Naman Shah, the fundraise is a validation of the business from investors. “It is a validation that large businesses could be built in a vertical domain-specific approach in the business-to-business (B2B) segment,” he told YourStory.
Naman, along with his cousin Aakash Shah, launched the startup in 2017 with an initial capital of $300,000 from family business Nipha Group.
With the latest round of funding, the Kolkata-based company plans to expand its geographical presence in the country including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi NCR and also increase its supplier base, adding global suppliers in its portfolio, to provide more efficient materials, Naman said. It has already added a supplier in Turkey.
“We've been at it for around four years. But in the last two years, since a pivot, things have been going really well. We are very excited to bring on board a set of investors who are specific to the seed stage, but also think long term,” said Naman.
NowPurchase started as a B2B horizontal ecommerce platform that helped companies across various industries but pivoted to the metal manufacturing market starting December 2019.
“We realised that we are not being able to differentiate enough or become a real procurement partner for our customers, where they value us beyond just the price and delivery. We wanted to become a critical piece of their supply chain,” Naman added.
The startup decided to work with foundries (factories for casting metal) in West Bengal, where the company already had a presence.
Over time, during the pandemic, it saw another opportunity in helping manufacturers improve their efficiency and productivity. This led NowPurchase to build manufacturing intelligence software to help small and medium businesses decide how to use their raw materials efficiently to make their end product.
Ankan Adhikari, who had previously founded Pyoopil Education and later sold it to upGrad in 2016, helped to build the startup's tech offering as its Chief Technology Officer since January 2021.
“Digitising procurement is a critical milestone and one of the most important gaps that remain to be filled in India's manufacturing sector,” Vinit Bhansali, Senior Vice President at Orios Venture Partners, said in a statement at the time of the funding, “NowPurchase's tech-first platform will be a game-changer in this space.”
The startup claims to have 100 customers at the moment including Kejriwal Castings, TATA Metaliks, MBK Castings, Crescent Foundry, AMIK Metals. About 65-70 of them place orders every month, the company said.
Going forward, it plans to add more functionalities to the product, build its technology team, and work on its adoption and scale, and grow its business three times by volume by December 2022.
In addition, NowPurchase expects to grow to a 100-member team by the end of 2022 from about 35 at the moment.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta
Author :- Malvika Maloo ( )
Source :- https://yourstory.com/2022/01/nowpurchase-seed-funding-global-suppliers-expansion-technology-team
Date :-January 24, 2022 at 08:02PM
Cross-border healthcare startup Hospals raises $3.5M in Pre-Series A round
Hospals, a cross-border health benefits and travel platform, has raised $3.5 million from Inflection Point Ventures, 9Unicorns, Singapore-based Wavemaker, and prominent angels like Kunal Shah, Sanjeev Mishra, and Razorpay founders.
Hopals, founded by Danish Ahmed and Suneel Kapur, enables international patients to access healthcare across India, UAE, Turkey, and Thailand. It has served 22,000 patients across 38 countries to get medical advice, teleconsults, and surgical treatments across its network of 100 hospitals.
The startup plans to use the funds to expand its operations geographically to reach $900 million in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), serving 1.5 million subscribers and patients to get quality medical and cosmetic treatments across the world.
"We’re rapidly expanding our network of hospitals and collecting data points across the spectrum to help patients find the best surgeons and clinics across Asia. We’re solving problems in accommodation, remittances and medicine delivery across the border," said Danish. "We’ll soon launch fintech services like medical loans and crowdfunding to help patients finance their treatments beyond insurance coverage, so that each human has access to the best healthcare globally.”
HYPD, enabler of Asia’s first creator-owned marketplace, secures $1.5M in seed round
HYPD, an enabler of a creator-owned marketplace, closed its seed funding round, raising $1.5 million from investors. The seed funding round was led by three different cohorts, that is, VCs such as Better Capital, Sauce VC and others; creators/influencer networks such as Bhuvan Bam, Tanmay Bhatt, and more; and sector experts such as CXOs of unicorn companies.
HYPD Stores was founded in 2021 by Ashwarya Garg and Akshay Bhatnagar. The creator-tech platform allows content creators to launch their own multi-brand stores/businesses.
The company plans to use the funds to tap into one million content creators, as well as for the marketing and development of startups.
"HYPD is a product at the intersection of a booming consumer D2C business and swelling influencer marketing economy. The creators are often treated as virtual billboards, but with the commoditization of business infrastructure, any creator can transform their audience into a scalable empire," said Ashwarya.
Two-wheeler EV maker OBEN EV raised an additional $1 million in seed funding from Krishna Bhupal of GVK Power and Infra, and Shajikumar Devakar of IIFL Wealth and other investors. The company had previously raised $1.5 million in December 2021 led by We Founders Circle (WFC).
Bengaluru-headquartered Oben Electric was founded in 2020 by Madhumita Agarwal and Dinkar Agarwal, and plans to launch its first indigenously developed performance electric bike in 2022.
The startup will use the funds to expand their business capacity, set up a bigger manufacturing infrastructure, accelerate new product development, expand experience centres, and strengthen their distribution plans, as the foundation to create the platform for the coming period to create value for the business in the ecosystem, the company said.
"The electric two-wheeler growth in India is at a very early stage and ripe for disruption, with the GOI playing the role of a catalyst with tax breaks and other incentives," said Krishna Bhupal. "We believe the Oben Electric team has that edge in the business due to their deep IP and patent portfolio of 16 patents with a product that represents what the consumer needs in a two-wheeler country like the rest of Asia.”
SustainKart, a sustainable products marketplace, has raised $500,000 in its pre-seed round led by India Accelerator.
The Hyderabad-based ecommerce marketplace was launched in January 2021 by Shilpa Reddy and Kanthi Dutt. It offers a range of eco-friendly, green and clean products across all lifestyle categories — from fashion to decor, food and nutrition, kids care, pet care, furniture and furnishings to home care — all under one roof, and already has 950 brands and 68,000 stock keeping units on its platform.
The round saw the participation of several HNIs and industry experts as part of India Accelerator's network.
“We plan to launch a series of private labels with A-lister celebrity co-founders to have a stronger foothold in the sustainable D2C space. Multiple strategic seed-stage D2C brand acquisitions are planned for this year”, says founder Kanthi Dutt.
Super Scholar raises $400,000 from Magic Fund, 2am VC, others
Super Scholar, an edtech platform, has raised $400,000 in a recent funding round from investors such as MAGIC Fund, 2am VC, Astir VC, JITO Angel Network, and others.
The startup was founded in 2019 by Rohan Lodha and Priyes Bamne to make online courses affordable to every student with scholarships and grants.
It has more than 16,000 users presently and aims to reach one million users by the end of 2022.
“Super scholar is aiming to solve a real pain point for Indian Gen Z learners. What got us excited was Super Scholar’s aim to help learners with their own self-learning discovery. We felt their mission aligns well with India’s Gen Z desire to shift away from a forced reactive type of learning to a personal and desired based proactive type of learning.”, said Hershel Mehta, Co-founder and Partner, 2am VC.
Edtech firm Klassroom raises additional $175,000 in Pre-Series A2 Round
Klassroom Edutech, an edtech startup, has raised an additional $175,000 in Pre-Series A2 round from investors led by ah! Ventures, taking its total fundraise to $600,000 in the last six months.
Founded in 2016, Mumbai-based Klassroom Edutech solves problems such as affordability, accessibility, accountability, and flexibility in the education ecosystem through live lectures on its website and application. The startup works on a hybrid model, and on-the-ground partner network of over 160 local coaching centres.
This round saw the participation of several angel networks like StartupLanes, Startup Angels Network, Meteor Ventures, and Hem Angels along with marquee angel investors.
“Klassroom’s growth last year underlines its students-first approach and deep focus on learning outcomes. We are excited to make a follow-on investment in Klassroom, to support its mission of transforming the education sector in India,” said Abhijeet Kumar, Co-founding Partner, ah! Ventures. The startup has grown six times in revenue and doubled its valuation in under six months.
Edited by Kanishk Singh
Author :- Malvika Maloo ( )
Source :- https://yourstory.com/2022/01/funding-roundup-jan-24-2022-hospals-hypd-oben-ev-sustainkart
Date :-January 24, 2022 at 05:47PM
