The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (13th May - 17th May)
The Indian startup ecosystem has set a new record by bagging another round of funding in a few sectors like Astro-tech, Software development, Food-tech, Agri-tech, & Health care marking another win for the startupreneurs by raising funds and updating the growth probability and standardizing the products and services. The week went by successfully witnessing funds in every stage of funding from Pre-Series A to Pre-Series A2 to Series B.
Sector: Astro-tech
Funding Round: Pre-series A
Startup: InstaAstro
Established Year: 2021
Funding News: Digital Astrology Startup InstaAstro generates 
18.50 crore in Pre-series A
18.50 crore in Pre-series A
Accurate astrological consultation start-up InstaAstro has secured 18.50 crore in its pre-Series A funding round directed by Artha Venture Fund.
18.50 crore in its pre-Series A funding round directed by Artha Venture Fund.
Investors: Artha Venture Fund, LogX Ventures, Singularity Ventures, IR Capital Partners, Blume Founders Fund and Aloke Bajpai, MD and Chief of Ixigo
Established by Nitin Verma, InstaAstro professes to have more than 200,000 app installs per month, 50,000 minutes out of each day in counsels, and an ARR of $5 million.
It offers horoscopes, tarot readings, and numerology in English, Hindi, and different local languages. The startup has a complete client base of nearly 5 million clients and gave a combined discussion of around 20 million minutes to its users in FY24.
There is total 1,500 astrologers on its platform. AstroTalk, GaneshaSpeaks, Bodhi & Click Astro are the competitors for the start-up in a market.
Sector: Software development
Funding Round: Pre-Series A
Startup: Atlan
Established Year: 2021
Funding News: BharatPe Group's new Venture OTPless scoops up $3.5 million in pre-Series A Funding
Authentication and access management platform OTPless has attracted $3.5 million in its pre-Series A funding round led by SIDBI.
Investors: SIDBI, Venture Highway, FJ Labs, and Piper Serica
The co-founder of the firm Bhavik Koladiya informed that, OTPless works with 50 members and they are planning to expand its global presence and service beyond authentication and into authorization. Their global peers include Auth0, Clerk, Stytch, Descope and Transmit Security and a few others.
The startup firm was founded by Koladiya, Satyam Nathani and Tanmay Sagar, former executives of fintech unicorn BharatPe. Through OTPless, users can sign up and sign in on websites and apps via WhatsApp and other methods. This method can simplify the process for users and weeds out the need for OTPs.
It uses different social sign-in methods, including Google, iMessage, Microsoft, Github, Slack, UPI and modern protocols like Passkeys, Network Auth, Protected SMS and Device fingerprinting. The company declared that, the developers can easily integrate OTPless’s SDKs and APIs, going live within minutes using pre-built UIs. They also declared that, more than, 5,000 companies and 20,000 developers worldwide use the platform to authenticate over 30 million users.
Sector: Food-tech
Funding Round: Pre-Series A2
Startup: BEYOBO
Established Year: 2019
Funding News: Cross border E-commerce platform BEYOBO lifts up 6.7 crore in pre-Series A2 round
6.7 crore in pre-Series A2 round
The startup which acts as the cross border e-commerce platform for consumer goods called BEYOBO has secured a funding of 6.7 crore in pre-Series A2 round.
6.7 crore in pre-Series A2 round.
Investors: Indian Angel Network, International Startup Foundation, SAN Angels
The startup said that, it will use up the capital to invite more foreign brands into Indian market and they also want to upgrade its technology platform. BEYOBO works as the gateway of foreign brands and sellers to expand their reach in the market.
About the process of fundraising, Anil Agrawal, CEO and Co-Founder, BEYOBO said, “We are not just creating a platform; we are building a category that will redefine how cross-border transactions are perceived and executed globally, backed by our own 20-year experience in the domain. Our sights are firmly set on achieving profitability as we gear up for a Series A round, and the future looks incredibly bright.”
Sector: Agri-tech
Funding Round: Series B
Startup: Niqo Robotics
Established Year: 2015
Funding News: Agri-based Niqo Robotics Collects $13 million in series B Funding round
Niqo Robotics which was formerly known as TartanSense, an agritech robotics company, revealed on Tuesday that it has secured $13 million in funding through a Series B round.
Investors: Brida Innovation Ventures, Fulcrum Global Capital, Omnivore
Niqo has raised a total of $21 million in funding, which includes a $5 million investment in the Series A round from FMC, Omnivore, and Blume Ventures in August 2021, as well as a $2 million Seed round in 2019.
Niqo Robotics, under the leadership of Jaisimha Rao, is poised to enter new markets and drive the widespread adoption of spot spray technology on a global scale. The company's innovative agricultural robots, equipped with AI-powered computer vision technology, are designed to lower expenses and enhance revenue streams. By utilizing a unique AI camera and advanced deep learning algorithms, Niqo Robotics aims to accurately identify and precisely target plants for spraying, resulting in a significant reduction in chemical usage of up to 90%.
Niqo aims to commercialize more than 90,000 acres of land and provide benefits to over 1,800 farmers in the year 2023-24. However, the audited financial numbers for FY24 have not been disclosed yet. The Indian entity of this nine-year-old company has primarily operated in the pre-revenue stage, generating revenue of only 1.3 crore during FY23. On the other hand, its losses have increased by 2X, reaching 9.8 crore.
1.3 crore during FY23. On the other hand, its losses have increased by 2X, reaching 9.8 crore.
Sector: Health care
Funded Round: Series B
Startup: Red.Health
Established Year: 2016
Funding News: Ambulence Service Startup Red.Health scoops up $20 million in Series B round
Emergency ambulance service providing platform Red.Health which was previously known as StanPlus has collected $20 million in a mix of equity and debt round led by Jungle Ventures.
Investors: Jungle Ventures, Alteria Capital, and existing backers HealthQuad and HealthX
Previously, the startup which is primarily based in Hyderabad has lifted up $20 million in its Series A round. The round which was held at January 2022 was led by Healthquad, Kalaari Capital, and HealthX. Though the participation of Kalaari capital in series A round was not clearly visible.
After this new funding round, Red.Health has accumulated a bulk amount which stood at $43 million aggregating its Seed to Series B round since its inception in 2016. In a media release the company explained, that they are willing to incorporate this newly secured fund to further modernize and upgrade its product, advance its technology, and improve its dispatch system.
The company is led by Prabhdeep Singh, who allows large hospitals, health apps, as well as wearable operators to enable plug-and-play medical response in case of an emergency.
