Photo credit: Pixabay.
Today’s list is peppered with seven interesting startups that have found grounding with investors. Food, fashion, health, finance – the list is diverse.
Revv
This Delhi-based car rental startup has raised series A funding of US$9 million in equity and debt.
Revv is quite different from Uber or its chief Indian rival, Ola. Revv offers cars to rent. You can choose a car from Revv’s website or app, which is available on iOS and Android, get it delivered at your doorstep, use it, and have it picked up when you’re done. They’re available on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
With the fresh capital infusion, Revv will broaden its product catalog to include other travel options. It will also enter new cities, besides the four it currently runs in: Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chandigarh.
Founded in July 2015 by ex-McKinsey executives Anupam Agarwal and Karan Jain, Revv counts other McKinsey veterans as its investors, such as its India MD Gautam Kumra. Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan has also invested in the startup. Revv’s series A equity funding round was led by Edelweiss Private Equity, and debt funding from Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and LeasePlan India.
See: $9 million for this startup means more choices for harried commuters like me
urDoorstep Eretail
Raising its second bridge round in six months, Bangalore-based online hypermarket operator urDoorstep Eretail has secured US$1.4 million in funding. About 50 percent of the amount was raised from India’s first bank for women, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, the rest by an unnamed, high net-worth individual.
The startup was founded in April 2015 by Dinesh Malpani, who comes with 25 years of experience in the retail sector, including stints at Mahindra Retail and Total Mall. Malpani is an alumnus of the Indian School of Business.
urDoorstep offers services under three large business divisions – eSuperMarket, eHome and eLifestyle – and is operational only in Bangalore. With the fresh round of funding the startup plans to expand to other cities. The team claims it sees 1,000 orders a day with margins of about 16 percent.
The startup is trying to create a niche in a market where several players such as MovinCar, Snapdeal-backed PepperTap, and Mumbai-based LocalBanya were forced to shut shop due to high burn rate. It also faces competition from BigBasket and Amazon.
See: Why food tech in India is more than just a bubble
Photo credit: Pixabay.
WealthApp
Bangalore-based WealthApp Financial Advisors has raised US$440,000 in angel funding from several investors including NuVentures managing partner Venk Krishnan and Daksh eServices co-founder MJ Aravind.
The startup plans to use the cash to develop its technology platform, hire talent, and to expand to smaller cities and towns. WealthApp, launched in January this year, offers online financial and investment advice to individuals.
Founded by former Citibank executives Gaurav Dhawan, Sanjay Gowda, and Mitesh Shah, and former Actis founding partner Subba Rao Telidevara, the startup has 20 employees. It competes with other fintech startups such as Scripbox, Tauro Investment Advisors, Goalwise and WealthTrust.
See: This rockstar banker from Japan built a startup that fuses media and fintech
Photo credit: Miss India.
Mr. Hot Foods
This one-in-many food startup has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from the alumni of Ivy League institutions.
Founded in 2014 by IIT Kharagpur alumni, Pankaj Sharma and Achal Bansal, Mr. Hot Foods empowers your favourite local bhojanalayas, small eateries that serve homely food, thalis, and tiffin.
The startup taps professional chefs to train the vendors, who also get access to analytics and technology to handle online delivery and daily operations. The startup operates in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and Kota in Rajasthan. It claims to deliver nearly 1,300 meals a day. The company either charges 4 percent of the total order cost or a fixed monthly fee from vendors.
The market for online food ordering in India is huge, but it is also marred by high cash burn and wafer-thin margins. However, the food tech segment has seen strong interest from investors in the past few months.
See: Zomato CEO on layoffs, retreats, and the suicidal acts of foodtech startups
Photo credit: gloffs / 123RF.
LookAtMe
This fashion startup, founded by ex-Paytm exec Nakul Kapur, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Eros Labs. LookAtMe is not a typical app for buying clothes, but a virtual stylist that helps users decide on trendy combinations and color palettes.
Users can get professional stylists and community members to rate their looks, get advice on what to wear, and even shop for looks directly from the app. It started in June this year.
The startup intends to invest the raised funds in expanding the team and improving the technology behind the app.
See: Fashion tech gets skinnier in India with ecommerce site’s fifth acquisition of the year
NeuroEquilibrium
India’s first super-speciality healthcare chain, NeuroEquilibrium Diagnostics Systems, has raised US$250,000 in seed funding from Unicorn India Ventures.
NeuroEquilibrium caters to the gap that exists between the huge number of vertigo, dizziness, and balance disorder patients and the lack of targeted treatment in India.
The service makes use of cognitive computing, machine learning, and imaging tech. The startup has raised pre-series A round; and plans to raise an additional US$2 million in series A funding soon.
Founder Rajneesh Bhandari says his aim is to treat 1 million patients by 2021 and 5 million in the next 10 years. Started in April this year, NeuroEquilibrium has managed to place its technology in 10 hospitals, including one in Cyprus. The startup has applied for three patents for the equipment it designs and manufacturs.
See: 4 healthtech startups that could soon be unicorns in India
Photo credit: Pixabay.
Pinwi
This data-driven, smart parenting app has given investors a miss and has gone straight to mothers who have been users of the app during its research and beta phase to raise seed funding.
Pinwi stands for Play-Interest-Wise and is an interactive, daily-use mobile app for parents to both map and manage their children’s ever evolving interests.
It is built on acknowledged theories and principles of child development and learning and backed by months of research on what really frames our interests. The app offers personalized insights into what drives a child’s interest and recommends activities based on these insights to parents with children aged 6 to 13.
The funds raised will be used to scale up operations and to acquire more users. Pinwi is available on both Android and iOS. It has a separate user interface for parents and children.
Founded by Rachna Khanna and Ankit Kesarwani in early 2015, it is backed by a team of like-minded professionals, mothers, teachers, educators, and a developmental psychologist.
See: This Fulbright scholar from Harvard built an app so new mothers could keep their sanity
This post https://www.techinasia.com/7-rising-startups-india-dec-8-2016 appeared first on Tech in Asia.
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