India is home to the third-largest base of technology startups in the world after the US and China. With a growing entrepreneurship culture, a supportive ecosystem, India’s startups and small businesses are not only expected to further drive economic and business transformation but also cement its position as a key growth driver to India’s dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy. Some big tech companies are supporting the pace and depth of innovation in the current Indian startup ecosystem with their tech and business partnerships, and to help startups gain a better understanding of latest technologies like  Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning etc.

Another fantastic week for startups...!Some companies launched amazing products this week, and others raised funds to improve their business processes. LetsVenture, a startup company, launched two new products to address operational inefficiencies faced by founders, while Prolance, a design-to-manufacturing SaaS startup, raised $2 million in funding led by Foundamental and Axilor.

Top 5 Startups  that excelled this week are-:

LetsVenture

Early-stage investment platform LetsVenture has launched two new products to remove operational inefficiencies faced by founders and help the startup industry make better sense of private investment trends. Software platform Scalix is a go-to platform for early-stage founders to assist them in hiring, legal, banking, and technology matters during their starting up journey.

Scalix, through a conversational experience, will allow access to a wide-community of founders and provide concierge services like office management and banking kits to help founders in their early days. Weekly subscription product Compass, launched in association with HSBC, will document trends and provide analysis of private market investing with in-depth, data-led stories and analysis. According to the investment platform, early signals captured by Compass will help startup founders, investors, and all stakeholders in their decision-making process.

Jodo

Jodo, a fintech startup focused on education payments, has raised $15 million in a fresh funding round led by New York-based investment firm Tiger Global. Existing investors Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners India, from whom Jodo raised $4 million in 2020, also participated in the round.

The firm said it will use the funds to accelerate its product innovation and sales, as well as to grow its headcount. Founded in 2020 by Atulya Bhat, Raghav Nagarajan and Koustav Dey, Jodo provides a suite of specialised payment and lending products to make fee payments convenient and affordable for parents of students. It also makes fee collection hassle-free for educational institutes.

Jodo provides lending products through non-banking financial company (NBFC) partners to help students and their parents finance education.“There has been a resurgence of offline education and we are growing along with that. The last two years (post-Covid-19) have helped in digitising payments offline, and we have noticed that several education institutes are offering flexible payment options to parents.

Eupheus

With an aim to enable schools to implement digital solutions seamlessly, Eupheus Learning, India's largest school-focussed distribution platform with a reach of over 20,000 schools, has announced a new initiative 'NEP STAR School' along with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Under the initiative, the company is eyeing to establish a 21st-century learning environment for 400 schools across more than 110 cities in the pilot stage of the 'NEP STAR School' initiative.

The announcement comes weeks after the country marked two years of the National Education Policy, which introduced a slew of visionary changes in the education sector. One of the major highlights of the policy is integrating technology into education.

Sunstone

Edtech startup Sunstone offering higher education programmes has raised $35 million in funding led by WestBridge Capital, and participation from Alteria Capital.

The funding round comes less than a year after the startup raised $28 million in funding also led by WestBridge Capital. The capital will be used to expand into new programmes with a key focus on undergraduate tech programmes. It takes the total capital raised by the startup to almost $69 million.

Founded by Ashish Munjal and Piyush Nangru, Sunstone has tie-ups with colleges and private universities through higher education programmes. It works with corporates to develop industry-ready programmes for both postgraduate and undergraduate students.

Prolance

Design-to-manufacturing SaaS startup Prolance has raised $2 million in funding led by Foundamental and Axilor. Arali Ventures and Force Ventures also participated in the funding round.Started in 2020 by Rama Harinath K, Vivek Parasuram, Raghunathan Gururajan, Jaisimha Sathyanarayana, and Manoj K, Prolance helps interior design companies automate manufacturing operations ranging from quote to computer numerical control (CNC) file generation.

It also serves as a platform for procuring interior design manufacturing materials and cloud manufacturing of the projects. Since its inception, the company has partnered with hundreds of players in the residential interior ecosystem such as Square Yards, Pepperfry, Nobroker, and Landmark. Over 1,000 smaller interior firms also use its platform.

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