Sustainable packaging solutions provider Fibmold, financial services firm Aham Housing Finance, agritech startup Growcoms, marketing tech platform MyEra and frozen food supplier FroGo have raised early-stage funding, the companies said on Thursday.
Founded in 2022 by Param Gandhi and Vaibhav Garg, Fibmold is a startup focused on sustainable packaging. It develops eco-friendly, molded fiber packaging products that mimic the functionality of rigid plastics. These products are manufactured from natural fibers, including bamboo, bagasse, husk, wheat straw or even waste paper depending on the end-use and they are 100% recyclable and naturally compostable.
“At Fibmold, we aim to assist brands globally in transitioning to eco-friendly packaging alternatives and ultimately eliminate their reliance on single-use plastics,” said Gandhi.
Meanwhile, this is Omnivore’s second investment from its third fund. In June, the firm had marked the first close of its third fund at $150 million (about Rs 1,230 crore) and aims to close the fund 3 at $175-180 million next year.
Chennai-based Aham Housing Finance has secured $3.6 million (Rs 30 crore) in funding from Negen Capital and other investors.
The company will use the capital to strengthen its field network and automate its operations.
Founded by Venkatesh Kannappan, Aham Capital operates in the informal market segment and typically provides loans ranging from Rs 10 to 15 lakh for self-constructed homes, serving families with 3 to 4 members in metro city outskirts and tier II and III cities.
Growcoms has raised $3.5 million in a funding round from new investors JSW Ventures and Arali Ventures, along with existing investor InfoEdge Ventures.
The funds raised by the Company will be primarily used to develop its product portfolio and to improve its technology stack.
Notably, this is the first agritech investment made by JSW Ventures and Arali Ventures, the firm said in a statement.
The Kochi-based startup had previously raised $1 million in a pre-Series A funding round from InfoEdge.
Founded in 2021 by George Kurian, Bibin Mathews and Narendranath P Growcoms is a full stack managed B2B commerce model for spices and it deals in sourcing and trading whole spices, along with other segments like powders, oils and oleoresins as well as seasonings.
“The investment will help Growcoms strengthen its global presence and improve efficiencies throughout the value chain,” said George Kurian, co-founder and chief executive officer, Growcoms.
MyEra has secured an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed funding round led by EvolveX, with participation from We Founder Circle and Vikas Aggarwal.
The startup will use the funding to expand its technical team, develop its technology stack and expand its market presence.
Founded by Anirudh Sharma, Shantanu Sriraj, Yug Dave and Abhinandan Agrawal this year, MyEra offers a suite of applications and solutions to simplify marketing and sales processes, and its MyEra application programming interface (API) allows online shoppers to personalize products and virtually try them before making a purchase. This improves the shopping experience, leading to improved customer satisfaction and reduced returns for online retailers.
Prior to this funding round, MyEra had secured funds from Atal Incubation Centre-BIMTECH (AIC-BIMTECH) – Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) and iStart of the Department of Information Technology and Communication (DoIT&C).
FroGo has raised $1.15 million (Rs 9.6 crore) in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures.
The round also saw participation from Ritesh Agarwal (Oyo), Ankit Nagori (Curefoods), Desai ventures and Faad Network amongst others.
The New Delhi-based startup will use the funds to expand its operations (warehouses, dark stores and distribution network) across 4 cities and to develop technology with integrated temperature monitoring.
Founded by Mira Jhala in 2022, FroGo is an end-to-end zero-temperature loss frozen foods platform, which helps in the distribution and retail of frozen foods. FroGo started from Delhi-NCR with around 15 dark stores. It plans to expand to 50 dark stores across 4 cities in India.
“Several frozen foods are becoming staples in Indian households. Consumers are moving online, and manufacturers have a bouquet of frozen food products that they want to deliver to the end consumer. But the supply chain is broken. I see both stress and an opportunity for the frozen foods category. We offer consumers a variety of choices and a wider distribution to manufacturers, hence creating a win-win,” added Jhala, founder, FroGo.