Start-Ups

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and innovation ecosystem T-Hub announced that 13 Indian startups in the hardware and internet of things (IoT) sectors will each receive a grant of Rs 7.5 lakh from MeitY as part of Digital India’s Scale Up programme on Thursday. According to T-Hub, this is a partial grant that has been distributed to startups that have demonstrated proof of concept, built a customer base, and shown the ability to scale across the country. The remaining funds will be distributed once they have completed…

iMocha, a digital skills assessment platform based in Pune, has raised $14 million in a new funding round to expand its skill library, reach more global enterprises, and expand its HR-tech ecosystem partnerships. The new Series A round was led by Bermuda-based Eight Roads Ventures and existing investors Upekkha and Better Capital. Aditya Systla (Eight Roads Ventures) and Prasanna Krishnamoorthy (Upekkha) will join iMocha’s board of directors as a result of this, according to the statement. The startup had previously raised $600,000 in a seed round led by Anand Chandrasekaran…

Google Maps now has a feature that allows users to access their addresses using Plus Codes, which is a first for India. Plus Codes, for the uninitiated, are open-source digital addresses that provide simple and accurate addresses for any location on the planet. Places with no formal addresses are also included in the Plus Codes. Surprisingly, the Plus Codes are based on latitude and longitude rather than street and locality names. Talking about the new feature for Google Maps, Amanda Bishop, Product Manager, Google Maps said, “In addition to community-led…

Curefoods Pvt Ltd, a cloud kitchen startup founded by Cure.fit co-founder Ankit Nagori and home to brands such as EatFit, CakeZone, and Aligarh House, has acquired Maverix Platforms Pvt Ltd, which operates the ready-to-cook food brand Fingerlix, for an undisclosed sum. Curefoods said in a statement on Thursday that the acquisition of Maverix makes it the largest fresh food kitchen operator in India, with the largest manufacturing capability in the fresh food space. With Maverix’s 50 locations across Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, Curefoods becomes India’s second-largest cloud kitchen player in…

Kumar Ranjan, the CEO of the agritech startup E-Feed, included ludo and other casual games in his app, which he distributed to farmers. But selling advisory services to dairy, poultry, and aqua farmers across the country is his main business. In India, the advisory model is becoming increasingly popular among agritech startups. This is reflected in Nasscom’s Indian Tech Startups Report, 2021. According to the report, “farm advisory” was the top solution-driven startup category in agritech over the previous year. “We’re trying to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning…

GrowthSchool, a community-led live learning platform based in Bengaluru, announced today that it has raised $5 million (Rs 37.5 crore) in a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital India and Owl Ventures. Over 80 angel investors participated in the round, including Kunal Shah (CRED), Nikhil Kamath (Zerodha), Ritesh Agarwal (OYO), Tanmay Bhat (YouTuber), and some international angels such as Austen Allred (founder Lamda school), Shaan Puri, and Eric Siu (Singlegrain). GrowthSchool’s community-led cohort programs bridge the gap between industry requirements and existing academic curricula. According to the statement, the…

ShopKirana, a B2B e-commerce platform, has raised $38 million in its Series C round from new and existing investors. Major investors in this round include Oman India, Info Edge, and Sixth Sense Ventures, as well as Trifecta, Incubate Fund, Akatsuki, Ajanta LLP, Gunosy Capital, and others. The new funds come nearly 30 months after the Indore-based company raised its last round of $10 million in August 2019. According to regulatory filings, the company has approved the allotment of 44 equity shares and 42,404 Series C preference shares at an issue…

Bengaluru-based Vyapar, an online business accounting platform, has raised $30 million (roughly Rs 224 crore) in a Series B funding round led by WestBridge Capital and existing investors IndiaMart and India Quotient. Fortytwo.vc also participated in the round. Previously, the startup raised $5 million in a Series A round led by India Quotient and IndiaMart in September 2019. Vyapar has raised more than $35 million in funding to date, after completing the current round. Vyapar assists small businesses in generating bills and GST invoices, managing transactions, making informed inventory purchases,…

Cred, founded by Kunal Shah, is expanding into video commerce and group buying as part of its ecommerce offering under Cred Store, according to people familiar with the development. The Bengaluru-based unicorn, which is currently valued at $4.01 billion, has begun product work on these new offerings and is expected to launch the features later this year, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity. According to an internal seller communication sent by Cred earlier this week, its team is “working on building…