The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (1st April - 5th April)

By Team Startupcity  |  Friday, 05 April 2024, 18:29 IST

The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (1st April - 5th April)
The Indian startup ecosystem has set a new record by bagging another round of funding in a few sectors like Digital Marketing, Personal Care, Hair Care, Cloud Security, & Deep-Tech 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 Debt round to Equity to Pre-Seed to Series A.
Sector: Digital marketing
Funding Round: Debt round
Startup: M2P Fintech
Established Year: 2022
Funding News: Anicut Capital instills 35crore Debt Fund in Chennai-based M2P Fintech 
M2P Fintech, a Digital marketing infrastructure company has elevated 35 crore debt from Anicut Capital. This acquisition seems to be the very first debt round for the Chennai-headquartered company. 
Investor: Anicut Capital
According to the company’s regulatory filing sourced from RoC shows, the official panel of the M2P Fintech has reported a resolution to issue 350 NCD – Non convertible debentures at an issue cost of 10,00,000 each to raise 35 crore.
In the month of January 2022, the firm has lifted $56 million in a equity round directed by Insight Partners at a total valuation of $600 million.
As well, in June 2022, M2P presented a partial exit to its initial investor early backer 8i Ventures. The early-stage backer ensured to have gained 36X multiple on its initial investment with IRR of 415 percent in two years.
Sector: Personal Care
Funding Round: Debt round
Startup: Bombay Shaving Company 
Established Year: 2016
Funding News: Bombay Shaving Company Signs a funding deal of 24 crore with Alteria Capital 
Men’s self-grooming and personal care brand Bombay Shaving Company which was founded by Shantanu Deshpande, has recently experienced an influx of 24 crore or approx $3 million as debt-financing from Mumbai-based Alteria Capital. The funding will surely help the company to expand the new phase of its growth journey.
Investor: Mumbai-based Alteria Capital
Previously, it raised 50 crore from Gulf Islamic InvestmentsLLC (GII) in their series C round of funding. The round was also saw participation of investment firms like Malabar Investment Advisors, Sixth Sense Ventures, Patni Wealth Advisors, Access VC, and Reckitt, among others.
Sahntanu Deshpande expressed with delight, "We anticipate approximately 35% growth in FY25. It is crucial at this point to enhance the brand’s visibility through investments in brand campaigns, particularly for our core power products."
Sector: Hair Care
Funding Round: Equity Funding
Startup: Traya 
Established Year: 2019
Funding News: Hair care Startup Traya Bags a fund of 75 crore from Xponentia Capital
Mumbai based Mid-market private equity firm Xponentia Capital has recently invested 75 crore in direct-to-consumer wellness brand and manufacturer of hair care products Traya. The wellness brand is spearheading in the sector of hair care products by offering holistic hair-loss solutions to the mass market. 
Investor: Mumbai based Xponentia Capital 
Currently, the startup brand is offering customized plans with reliable components that are recommended by medical professionals. Over 200,000 clients have been using the Traya regimen and have experienced the expected outcomes. 
The Co-founder of Traya, Saloni Anand, said, “This funding enables us to further our mission of providing personalized, effective solutions to address the unique hair related needs of each individual. We are dedicated to helping people take control of hair loss and helping them feel confident again.”
Prior to this funding, the company has raised a fund of nearly $3 million from Fireside Ventures, Kae Capital and Whiteboard.
Sector: Cloud Security
Funded Round: Pre-Seed Funding
Startup: Arch0 
Established Year: 2022
Funding News: Arch0 nets $1.25 million from Leo Capital for Global Ramp-up 
Arch0 – Cloud security startup has secured $1.25 million in a pre-seeding funding round directed by a prominent venture capital firm known for its specialized focus on early-stage, tech-based startups - Leo Capital. 
Investors: Leo Capital, Appreciate Capital, Indian Silicon Valley Capital, Village Global, Supermorpheus & others
The raised funds are expected that the company will utilize the capital to expand its core team & augment its capabilities in the area of integrating Artificial intelligence in cloud security operations. 
Emphasizing on the company’s objective, the Co-Founder of Arch0, Nithin Jois says, "While building cloud security solutions and helping clients in our previous company with implementing cloud security, we encountered multiple problems and complexities involved in it. Later, we decided that there needed to be an easier way to go and solve this, and that's when we decided to start building Arch0.
Sector: Deep-Tech
Funding Round: Series A
Startup: Plany's Technologies
Established Year: 2015
Funding News: Chennai-based Plany's Technologies witnesses influx of $4 million in Series A funding round
Chennai based Deeptech startup Plany’s Technologies has recently raised $4 million in its ongoing pre-Series A round. The fresh pool of fund has come to this company in small tranches after a period of two years.
According to the company regulatory filling in registrar of the company, the board at Planys Technologies has passed a board resolution to issue 8,471 CCPS at an issue price of 41,600 each to raise 35.23 crore. 
Investors: Himalaya Finance, Golden Birch Investments, Krishna Defence, Impact India Investments, SiriusOne Capital, and several individuals including Ashish Ramesh Kacholia, Shalini Chhabra, and Puneet Gupta
The company was founded by Tanuj Jhunjhunwala and Rakesh Sirikonda. The company was started with underwater inspection and now it is offering secure and adaptable solutions through marine robotics and analytics systems. The company has been working on over 350 projects with its 10 products across 5 countries. It also has more than 30 patents under its belt.
According to the report of The Kredible, Plany’s technologies has already raised around $8 million to date including a $1.6 million round led by Keiretsu Forum, LetsVenture in November 2021. After this freshly raised fund, the company the company has been valued at around 135 crore.
 

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