Mumbai-based micro-investment platform Spare8 on Friday said it has secured pre-seed funding of $770,000 (around Rs 6 crore) led by 2am VC.
The round also saw participation from Broom Ventures, Incisive Ventures, Varanium Capital and Magic Fund, with marquee angel investors including Ajay Adiseshan (Paymate founder), Anoop Mathur (Core Media founder), Jaydeep Deshpande (head of marketing at Google Cloud, India), Yagnesh Sanghrajka (founder and chief financial officer at 100xVC) and Sachin Seth (CEO at BSE EBIX Insurance)
Founded in 2021 by Ronit Harisingani and Shardul Saiya, Spare8 claims to simplify the way consumers invest, spend, see and save money. It’s largest customer base comes from tier-II cities such as Jaipur, Indore, Patna and Lucknow.
The startup plans to use the fresh funds to strengthen its growth and marketing initiatives along with building a quality team to scale up.
“Since Spare8’s inception, we have aimed at creating a platform for users to micro-invest and save their wealth in a rewarding manner. Through our app you can invest your spare change with each online transaction and auto-invest a fixed amount every day. Within the first four weeks of launch, our daily active user base had spread across 26 states. Currently, our app has recorded more than 30,000 downloads,” said Harisingani.
2 am VC, founded by US-based venture capitalists Mehta and Brendan Rogers, is based in California, but the fund, which is sponsored by Mehta Ventures, the family office investment arm of 100X.VC’s Founder Sanjay Mehta, invests exclusively in Indian companies. Besides capital infusion, 2am VC also provides mentorship to early-stage founders.
“We have often led funding rounds for startups with massive potential. Spare8 is one such startup. We believe Spare8’s growth has been purely organic. We see a possibility for this company as it helps users create an effortless investing habit,” said Hershel Mehta, Co-founder, 2 am VC.
Knya Med
Online medical apparel firm Knya Med on Friday said it has raised an undisclosed capital in a seed round led by DSG Consumer Partners, with participation from the promoter families of Narayana Health and Cipla Health.
The Mumbai-based startup will deploy the fresh proceeds for product R&D, hiring and branding and marketing.
Knya Med, founded last year by Abhijeet Kaji and Vanshika Kaji, claims to have catered to over 200 medical institutions including Reliance HN Hospital, Narayana Health, Jupiter Hospital and Jaslok Hospital.
“Since starting Knya in 2021, the Kajis have been working closely with the medical fraternity through the pandemic. They share our ethos on building businesses sustainably” said Hariharan Premkumar, head of india, DSG Consumer Partners.
Singapore-based DSG Consumer Partners is planning to raise its fourth consumer-focused fund, targeting nearly double of the quantum it raised for its last fund over two years ago, VCCircle had reported in January.
