Gong Labs Pvt. Ltd, which operates tech recruitment platform Coffeee.io, on Thursday said it has secured pre-seed funding of Rs 4.7 crore (around $590,000) from a clutch of angel investors and networks.
The round saw participation from Supermorpheus, Lets Venture, Kunal Shah (founder at Cred), Prabhu R (founder at M2P), Amit Lakhotia (founder at Park+), Vikas Garg (CFO at Paytm), Pratekk Agarwal (ex-Bharatpe, serial entrepreneur), Chinmaya Sharma (partner at Info Edge) and Rameez Menon (MD at Oxbridge Capital), among others.
The Gurugram-based startup plans to use the fresh funds to scale its operations.
Founded by Amit Veer and Neha Sharma in 2021, Coffeee.io is an AI-backed pre-assessment and recruitment platform which offers a level playing field where all candidates have equal opportunities to get hired by leading companies by eliminating all biases around college ranks and geography, among others, the company said in a statement.
“Developer hiring is the biggest challenge facing all tech companies and the only solution is to boost the supply of quality talent from the grassroots. At Coffeee, we enhance the preparedness of candidates with industry-focused training and enable companies to hire them without incurring costs," said Amit Veer, chief executive officer and co-founder of Coffeee.
"Despite recent technological advancements, the Indian search and recruitment market has largely remained unchanged since the late 90s, which saw the entry of internet job portals, many of which still dominate the sector to this day. We believe the sector requires urgent disruption, and Coffeee, with its differentiated offerings, has the right making to be a transformative leader in the sector," said Amit Lakhotia, angel investor.
Lending infrastructure startup Finverv has raised $600,000 as a part of its pre-seed funding round led by Antler India.
The round also saw participation from Force Ventures, Asan Ventures, Luckbox Ventures and angels including Ashish Taneja (GrowX Ventures), Anuj Khosla (CEO, Hitachi Payments), Nitin Gupta (CEO, Uni Cards), Pravan Malhotra (Malacca Ventures), Vibhor Sahare (CEO, ANS Commerce) and Avinash Kumar (founder, Credence), among others.
Founded by entrepreneurs Sangeet Verma and Siddharth Bhardwaj in 2021, Gurugram-based Finverv helps organizations integrate with multiple lenders and provides a suite of lending tools like KYC, onboarding, risk management, LMS (loan management system), LOS (loan origination system) and white labeled customer journeys via simple plug-and-play integrations.
“Built for large, medium, and small enterprises, Finverv aims to bring all stakeholders on a single platform and give them total control of their account with real-time dashboards and analytics. We are focused on simplifying financial lending in the country and serving the larger cause of financial inclusion,” said Siddharth Bhardwaj, CEO and co-founder at Finverv.
“With Finverv, companies can integrate multiple lenders at the same time, avoiding concentration risk while making it easier for lenders to manage their partnerships. By building a supply of credit, they are building a much-needed solution for addressing low penetration of financing in the country,” said Nitin Sharma, partner at Antler India.
Mumbai-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand The Health Factory on Thursday said it has secured seed capital of Rs 2 crore (around $251,000) from Venture Garage, Happilo founder Vikas Nahar and other marquee angels.
Founded by Vinay Maheshwari, The Health Factory produces a range of protein bread available in whole wheat, multi-protein and multi-protein lite variants as well as zero maida bread, it said in a statement.
“We will use the funds raised to scale operations and manufacturing processes and improve our IT infrastructure,” said Maheshwari.
“The company has demonstrated excellent market fit and aligns perfectly with my vision and mission. What distinguishes them from other manufacturers is their focus on producing a high-quality, daily product giving them great opportunities to become a mass brand,” said Vikas Nahar, founder at Happilo.
