Start-Ups

Volopay, a Singapore-based fintech platform, announced on Tuesday that it had raised $29 million from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, as well as a global decacorn and others, to enter the Indian market. In Series A, the Y Combinator-backed corporate cards and payment management startup raised funding in a mix of equity and debt. “With India churning out several unicorn-level enterprises every year, it is indeed making a big wave on the global frontier. And this is only the beginning,” said Rajith Shaji and Rajesh Raikwar, Co-founders, Volopay. “Accelerating their growth…

Clear (previously ClearTax), an online taxation and fintech software provider, has entered the lending market with the launch of its invoice-discounting product for small and medium businesses (SMEs). This comes at a time when the company is focusing heavily on foreign expansion, having raised $75 million from Stripe, a US-based payments powerhouse, and others in October of last year. According to a release, the company now plans to process $3 billion in merchant loans by FY’24. As part of its effort to provide working capital solutions to suppliers and SMEs,…

Mobile Premier League (MPL), an Indian mobile eSports and skill gaming platform, has acquired GameDuell, a Berlin-based games studio, in order to expand its European operations. The move fits in with MPL’s overall strategy of expanding its footprint in key global markets. It already has operations in Indonesia and the United States, and with this acquisition, it will have operations on three continents. Employees from GameDuell will join the MPL team, though financial details were not disclosed. “We are excited to expand our operations to Europe after having successfully ventured…

AgNext Technologies, an agritech startup, plans to launch operations in the Middle East and Vietnam in the coming months, according to Subrat Panda, AgNext’s Chief Technology Officer. According to the company, the lack of quality assessment solutions causes approximately $90 billion in losses in global agricultural trade. Agnext solves this problem with a mix of AI, machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced data analysis in its technology products. It claims to deliver real-time accuracy of up to 99 percent through its full-stack ‘Qualix’ platform, which provides rapid…

Niyo, a consumer neo-banking platform, has raised $100 million in a Series C round led by Accel and Lightrock India, with Beams Fintech Fund participating. This round also included existing investors Prime Venture Partners and JS Capital. The new funds come after a more than 30-month wait for the Bengaluru-based company, which raised $35 million in a Series B round in July 2019 from Horizons Ventures, Tencent, and others. According to a press release from Niyo, the funds will be used for product innovation, marketing and branding, expanding its distribution…

Rezolve.ai, a service desk and workplace automation company, said it expects to reach $50 million in revenue in the next three years, thanks to the planned acquisition of nearly 1,500 clients around the world. In comparison to the entire year of 2020, the company’s revenues trebled in 2021, and it signed many new clients in December 2021. Despite sporadic office re-openings during two pandemic waves last year, it kept all of its clients. “We are seeing an accelerating shift in the customer’s preferences from a legacy agent focused ticketing system…

Quadria Capital and Lightrock India joined existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, India Life Sciences Fund III, Rebright Partners, JAFCO Asia, TEAMFund LP, FinSight Ventures, InnoVen Capital, Stride Ventures, and Alteria Capital in a $125 million Series C funding round. The Bengaluru-based firm previously raised $40 million in its Series B round in February of last year, eight months after its merger with online doctor consultation platform DocsApp. MediBuddy and DocsApp share the same brand name: MediBuddy. According to a press release from Medibuddy, the new round of funding will be…

Bounce, which pivoted to become an electric scooter manufacturer at the start of the ongoing fiscal (FY22) with the acquisition of 22Motors was a scooter rental platform in FY21. The pivot and the pandemic on fiscal year (FY21) has wiped out its scale. Bounce’s operating revenue fell by 83 percent during the year, to around Rs 15 crore in FY21 from Rs 87.5 crore in FY20. Approximately 96 percent of the company’s operating revenue came from motorcycle and bicycle rentals in the six cities where it currently operates. This revenue…