Kalam Labs, a livestreaming platform for educational games, has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed financing round from Lightspeed and Y Combinator.
The fresh capital will be used to accelerate product development and gamifying STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) topics for 6-14-year olds.
The startup said it is growing its user base 50% week-over-week, via referrals within the student community.
“The 2020s kids have been born directly in the age of iPhones, Netflix, and Google. It is impractical to make them sit in front of a blackboard or a Zoom class expecting them to remember irrelevant information. Kids today want creative learning experiences and they want it fast. Kalam Labs provides exactly that,” said Ahmad Faraaz, co-founder.
YPay, a fintech startup, has raised $400,000 from early-stage investment platform We Founder Circle.
The bridge round also saw Amit Tyagi, Gaurav Juneja, Safexpay founder Ravi Gupta, and Pragatii Bhargava.
The fresh funds will be used to hire staff to scale and to develop technology.
The startup targets youth and corporates to make online and offline payments with its prepaid cards. YPay also aims to help kids to learn money management.
The fintech industry in India that is growing at a compound annual rate of 20 per cent is already valued at more than $31 billion. YPay founder and CEO Navneet Gupta said, “YPay card has already facilitated over 35,000 transactions in a short time. We are overwhelmed with the response received so far and aim to serve a larger customer base of 100,000 individuals by the end of this fiscal year.”
SleepyCat, a direct-to-consumer sleep solution brand, has raised $3.8 million in a new financing round led by Saama Capital, with participation from existing investors DSG Consumer Partners and Sharrp Ventures (Mariwala family office).
The fresh round of funds will be used for the expansion of product portfolio of mattresses and other sleep wellness accessories. The company also plans to improve its research and development efforts.
“With this fundraise, we will focus on design innovation and build world-class sleep solution products while expanding our manufacturing and distribution capabilities," said Kabir Siddiq, founder and CEO of SleepyCat.
SleepyCat previously raised a $1.6 million financing round led by DSG Consumer Partners & Sharrp Ventures in September 2019.
