The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview ( 2nd Jan - 6th Jan )


The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview ( 2nd Jan - 6th Jan )

The rise of the start-up ecosystem will be supported by the increase of proactive initiatives, such as improving the physical infrastructure, promoting technology adoption for blended skilling, expediting policy implementation, and ecosystem. As Large Tier 1 cities and states with robust economies have seen the fastest expansion of the startup ecosystem, especially in IT-enabled sectors like e-commerce, transportation, and economics. Early-stage businesses seeking capital to build the credibility necessary to transition from ideation to commercialization. Everyone would look back on the Union Budget 2022–23 as a historic "digital budget" because of the ground-breaking steps taken to start India's digital revolution.

Again a fantastic and the very first  weekend of 2023, for India's startup ecosystem wowed us, with some launching new products, others raising millions of dollars while also acquiring other companies, with some startups focusing on expanding their presence in several other cities. This week, A digital-first omnichannel two-wheeler financing platform in making, has raised USD 1 million in its seed funding round from Karini Ventures and Vansun Capital and EV charging aggregation platform, ElectricPe, has closed a Pre-Series A round of $5 million just 12 months after the seed funding round. Here are the compilations of startups which made notable progress this week.

Drivio

A digital-first omnichannel two-wheeler financing platform in making, has raised USD 1 million in its seed funding round from Karini Ventures and Vansun Capital. Drivio is co-founded by Saurabh Tripathi and Ankur Bhardwaj who have notable credentials for disrupting Used Car Finance at CarDekho. Headquartered in Gurugram and incorporated in April 2022, Drivio is resolved to disrupt the existing two-wheeler finance market by offering an innovative tech-based financing service to avail quick and hassle-free loans within a few clicks.

Elaborating about investing in Drivio, Karini Ventures' spokesperson said, "Seeing the increasing use of technology in every field it is evident that fintech is the present and future of the banking and financing sector. Fintech start-ups like Drivio are evolving and set to play a larger role in the sector with the innovation they have to offer. We liked the concept of supporting two-wheeler buyers with an easy and quick financing solution by Drivio. We look forward to working closely with Drivio to challenge the existing norms of the two wheeler finance market in India."

STAGE

Dialect-based over-the-top (OTT) platform STAGE has announced raising Rs 40 crore in funding, led by Blume Ventures. The funding round saw participation from NB Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, TSM Ventures, WeFounderCircle, Mumbai Angels, Tarmac Ventures, Tailwind Ventures, Longtail Ventures, Lets Ventures and AngelList, the company claimed.

The company previously raised Rs 31 crore bringing the total capital raised to Rs 71 crore. The funding also saw existing investors who participated, namely, Better Capital, IPV, TCA, Venture Catalysts along with some angels. The capital raised will be used to go deeper into Haryana and Rajasthan, create more original content and grow the product, Vinay Singhal, co-founder, STAGE, said. “We plan to capture 10% of the over 25 million households watching video content in Haryana and Rajasthan by mid-2024.

Ola

Ola Electrics is set to acquire around 1500 acres land in Tamil Nadu to set up a electric vehicle factory.  The report claimed that the state govt has approved Ola's plan to acquire the land and it might become one of the biggest deals for a factory in the Indian automobile industry.

Citing sources, the report said that an announcement in this regard might be made by Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal in the next few days. "It will house the company’s electric vehicles manufacturing facility, a component supplier ecosystem, and a battery cell manufacturing plant," the report added. Ola is expected to invest around Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of the decade in the ‘electric vehicles’ park that it is setting up at the Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu, said.

Motion G

Motion G, Inc. has recently raised over US$15 Million in Pre-A round, led by New Wheel Capital. The startup plans to accelerate the developments of data-centric foundation models, digital twin and automation software to significantly speed up the industrial engineering processes.

AI and smart software will fundamentally change the engineering processes of product design, verification, testing, manufacturing and services, and this paradigm shift is a great opportunity to improve the industry energy efficiency in the short term as well. Singapore based Motion G is developing the intelligent engineering platform to capitalise on the above trends and opportunities. The platform can significantly reduce the R&D cost and time to market, enable features on demand for low-cost delivery, verify designs in real time, and make the industrial products smarter and more efficient to operate.

ElectricPe

EV charging aggregation platform, ElectricPe, has closed a Pre-Series A round of $5 million just 12 months after the seed funding round. The fund raising has been led by Green Frontier Capital, Blume Ventures and Micelio Fund and also saw participation from Dubai-based NB Ventures, Anchorage Capital Partners, Supermorpheus, and Climate Angels.

ElectricPe will use the combined capital of $8 million to deepen technology investments and scale operations. The company has built the most dense charging network in Bengaluru, with 10,000 live charging points. In a span of 7.5 months, the ElectricPe app usage has increased by 30 percent month-on-month, with customers on the network completing 4 million green kilometres. Avinash Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO, ElectricPe outlined that “We’ve received positive consumer response to our offering of a single app to find, use and pay across any charging or swapping station.”