The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (29th Jan -3rd Feb)


The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (29th Jan -3rd Feb)

India has appeared as a leader in innovation and entrepreneurship with the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. The significant role played by startups in the development of the Indian economy, now the fifth strongest in the globe, has been acknowledged by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget 2023-2024.

While the budget announcements has presented the government's vision announcement on ‘Make AI in India and make AI work for India’ also gave a boost to the AI startup ecosystem. The proposed National Data Governance Policy which provides access to anonymized data, will also go a long way in supporting the vision. The startup ecosystem in India has a lot of potential, and people are eager to see what the future holds. The technological innovation that startups offer to the nation is one of their most important advantages. Modern technology is frequently used by startups, which has a big economic impact.

Another week of the month witnessed several new businesses receive funding for their innovative startups. Here is a list of a handful of these startups that received investments. However we saw Solinas secured 90 lakh in Shark Tan Fund, EV Startup Swytchd raises $553,000 In Seed Funding.

Solinas

Sharks Anupam Mittal and Peyush Bansal have agreed to invest 90 lakh rupees for a 3% equity share in IIT-Madras firm Solinas, which just appeared on Shark Tank India Season 2. In addition to Bhavesh Narayani, Moinak Banerjee, Linda Jasline, and IIT-M professors Krishnan Balasubramanian and Prabhu Rajagopal, Solinas was founded as Divanshu Kumar's senior-year project. Endobot, a product from the firm, is a pipeline crawler robot that tracks pipeline conditions and spots flaws in real time. Endobot is connected with Swasth AI, a cloud-based dashboard that aids in internal condition evaluation and use artificial intelligence to find pipeline problems.

The Esports Club

An esports event organiser based in Bengaluru named The Esports Club (TEC) has raised $3 million in Pre-Series A funding to develop its business in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The business was established in 2019 and is one of the biggest national esports tournament organisers. Numerous esports competitions for well-known titles, including Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, Battlegrounds Mobile India, Apex Legends, Free Fire, CS:GO, PUBG: New State, and others, have been held at TEC. Vamsi Krishna, the founder of TEC, stated in a press statement that the company was "thrilled to have obtained this finance and to be expanding our activities to new locations."

Freightify

Freightify, a SaaS platform for freight rate management, has raised $12 million in Series A fundraising from investors including Nordic Eye Venture Capital, Motion Ventures, TMV, and Alteria Capital. Sequoia Capital India served as the funding round's lead investor. A combination of equity and debt are used in the round.

It plans to use the investment to improve its product offerings, add new features, raise brand recognition globally as it enters new markets, create channel alliances, and expand its sales presence internationally. Additionally, the company will actively recruit throughout all regions, particularly in Chennai.

Swytchd

Keiretsu Forum, a network of angel investors, led a $553,000 seed investment round for Swytchd, a Bengaluru-based electric vehicle services subscription platform. Along with other investors, Let's Venture, Venture Catalyst, and Beej Network took part in the investment round.

Swytchd is an electric car subscription service founded in 2021 by Sameer Arif. It provides its users with free public charging at all locations, repair and maintenance, breakdown coverage, fully comprehensive insurance, and more. The funding announcement coincides with VCs' rising interest in and investment in the electric transportation market.

Profit.co

Profit.co, which develops software that enables clients to define, track, and assess objectives and key results (OKR) for their staff, announced that it raised $11 million in its first external round of funding for four years of bootstrapping, Elevation Capital took the lead in the investment round, which was completed in August 2022, according to founder and CEO Bastin Gerald. Elevation Capital contributed $9 million in equity. The balance was debt owed to numerous US-based banks.

The new funds will be used to expand the company's sales and customer success teams. The platform of Profit.co, which Gerald founded in 2018, enables OKR planning, review, and implementation in the enterprises of its clients. Gerald, a Wharton School alumnus, developed Apptivo, a maker of business software, and has held numerous executive positions at IT firms like CashEdge (now bought by Fiserv) and Oracle.