Nexstem, India IVF & Pulse get early-stage cheques; Wealthzi gets snapped

By Roshan Abraham

  • 07 Nov 2024
Siddhant Dangi and Deepansh Goyal, co-founders, Nexstem

Startups Nexstem, India IVF and Pulse have raised early-stage funding, the companies said on Thursday.

Deeptech startup Nexstem has raised $3.5 million in its latest funding round, led by InfoEdge, Gruhas, Zupee and Smile Group.

The Bengaluru-based startup is developing non-invasive brain computer interface (BCI) solutions and has also attracted investments from investors Nikhil Kamath and Abhijeet Pai’s Gruhas in the round.

The capital will be used in the deployment of Nexstem’s biosignal infrastructure with an advanced Brain Computer Interface (BCI) suite and to make non-invasive neurotech products accessible across sectors apart from healthcare, the company said.

Pulse, an AI-driven platform for SaaS companies, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding round, led by Endiya Partners.

The startup also received angel investments from the founders of Zluri and Yellow.ai among other entrepreneurs.

This funding will primarily be directed towards building a core team, with a particular emphasis on the platform’s development and enhancing purpose-built LLMs (large language models) & agentic AI capabilities, the Hyderabad-headquartered company said.

Pulse was founded this year by alumni from IIT Patna and IIIT Hyderabad, namely CEO Haren Chelle, CPO Vatsal Singhal, and CTO Alok Thatikunta. The firm runs a platform for SaaS companies to capture and analyse customer feedback, automating feature extraction and prioritisation.

Fertility platform India IVF has secured $1.25 million in pre-Series A funding from early-stage investor Tomorrow Capital.

The company said the latest infusion represents its first external funding since its founding in 2014 in Gurugram by doctors Richika Sahay and Somendra Shukla. It has operations across its five North Indian centers, which include clinics in Delhi NCR and Srinagar.

The funding will drive India IVF’s expansion across North India, enabling the company to bridge critical gaps in fertility care access, the company said.

Wealthtech platform Nivesh has announced the acquisition of Wealthzi for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2020 by VCCircle founder PV Sahad and wealth management professional Pradeep Pillai, Wealthzi currently manages assets worth Rs 500 crore across mutual funds, PMS, alternative investment funds, bonds and other assets.

"Nivesh is a pioneer in B2B2C wealth offering. Combining Wealthzi’s direct-to-consumer wealth service with Nivesh’s distribution platform will help create a formidable wealth alliance to cater to India’s fast growing investor base," Sahad said in a statement.

The acquisition will enable the two firms to benefit from synergy in products, research and operations. The combined entity will have AUM of Rs 2,500 crore with a goal of reaching Rs 10,000 crore in assets in the next three years.

"We expect to scale rapidly and emerge as one of the leading players in the industry. The operating team of Wealthzi brings with them huge experience, having previously worked with many well-established organizations.  Such multi-functional skills are expected to be of huge value at our current stage of evolution," said Anurag Garg, founder and CEO of Nivesh.