Software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Dice, toy brand EleFant and consumer wellness brand Hoop raised early-stage funding, the companies said on Wednesday.
Dice has raised $5 million (Rs 42 crore) in a Series A funding round led by cross-border venture capital firm Dallas Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from GVFL (formerly Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd).
The funds will be used to increase market penetration, customer outreach, optimise sales and marketing strategies and improve artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to improve user experience.
Founded by Prashant Singh Kushwah and Sonam Khubchandani, Dice provides a spend management solution that uses AI to streamline and improve how enterprises consume business-to-business (B2B) goods and services and manage enterprise spending.
It offers a connected ecosystem to manage the spending incurred across different stakeholders and channels ranging from travel, reimbursements, and imprest, to procurement, accounts payable, and utility payments.
EleFant has raised $750,000 (Rs 6 crore) in a seed funding round co-led by early-stage investor Venture Catalysts and Aniruddha Malpani’s Malpani Ventures. The round also saw participation from Sudhakar Pai, (Kurlon Industries), Agre Global FZE, Growth 91/Growth Sense, IVY Growth, SiriusOne Capital Fund and Jignesh Mehta (Mondelez International), among others.
The funds will allow the startup to improve its supply chain, reducing delivery times and costs and developing its data analytics stack.
Founded by Sourabh Jain, EleFant offers an extensive selection of toys and books for children aged 0-12 years, sourced from around 70 top brands with over 600 options. The startup, which is operational in 16 cities across India, operates a discover-play-return model, instead of the conventional buy-play-clutter approach.
The platform claims to have around 13,000 registered users and 1,000 fully paid subscribers in less than 10 months since its launch.
Hoop has raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round from Olympic medalist PV Sindhu. Sindhu, would also be joining the company as their brand ambassador.
Founded by former McKinsey consultants, Twinkle Uppal and Saharsh Agarwal in 2023, Hoop is a Gurugram-based consumer wellness brand that provides effective pain, sleep, stress, and workout products.
Notably, the startup is part of Peak XV Partners’ early-stage accelerator programme Spark.
It has also secured investments from angel investors like Rohit Kapoor (Swiggy), Abhinav Sinha (OYO), Naiyya Saggi (Good Glamm Group), Suhail Sameer (ex-BharatPe), Shantanu Deshpande (Bombay Shaving Company), Kunal Suri (ex-Food Panda), Saurabh Vashishtha (SimSim) and Arjun Vaidya (Dr Vaidya’s).
