Upskilling platform Interview Kickstart, content production platform Knocksense, spacetech startup SpaceFields, and beauty and personal care brand Beautywise raised early-stage funding, the companies said on Monday.
Interview Kickstart
Interview Kickstart has raised $10 million (Rs 83 crore) in a funding round from early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures.
Founded by Soham Mehta and Ryan Valles, Interview Kickstart is a tech and artificial intelligence (AI) workforce skilling platform. It caters to tech professionals who want to prepare to switch to other tech companies. Its programmes include AI, machine learning, data science, and other advanced engineering and product areas.
Interview Kickstart’s pool of over 500 instructors includes engineers and recruiters at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and other tech companies.
“Top tech companies pay 2-3 times as much as others and offer wealth-creating opportunities via ESOPs. Interview Kickstart with our instructors and partners aims to help working tech professionals prepare for these opportunities,” said Valles. “Our focus on profitability and unit economics, along with this growth investment from Blume, will help us expand this mission.”
Knocksense
Hyperlocal content production platform Knocksense has raised an undisclosed amount in its ongoing pre-Series A funding round from early-stage investment firm Venture Catalysts.
The startup has raised $1 million (Rs 8.3 crore) in the funding round.
It had previously raised investments from Mohit Satyanand (Teamwork Arts), Nitish Mittersain (Nazara Technologies Ltd) and Venus Dhuria, (Appyhigh) along with Mumbai Angels Network, Lets Venture, We Founder Circle, and singer Lucky Ali.
Founded by Vibhore Mayank and Varul Mayank, Knocksense is a Lucknow-based content production platform that creates local digital and live entertainment content targeted around Tier II/Tier III cities in India.
The platform has established its presence in cities like Lucknow, Indore, Kanpur, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, with plans to expand its geographic footprint as well.
SpaceFields
Spacetech startup SpaceFields has raised has raised $800,000 (Rs 6.5 crore) in a seed funding round, co-led by US-based HVB 88 Angels and O2 Angels Network.
The round also saw participation from Vinners, Burla Angels and angel investors including Keshab Panda (L&TTS), Raghu Das (E2MC), Guru Biswal (Bharat Forge), Rajesh Ranjan (O2 VC Fund), Sweta Sureka (Angel Scions), Athar Shahab (Zuari Industries), Kalyan Chakrabarti (Emaar India), Ashesh Padhy (JSW Steel), Surojit Bose (Climate9ers), Vinay Solanki (NASH Tech labs) amongst others.
Founded in 2021 by Apurwa Masook, Sudarshan Samal and Rounak Agrawal, SpaceFields custom-designs and manufactures turnkey solid rocket propulsion systems for aerospace, defence and space applications.
It has also received funding from the Startup India Seed Fund and additional grant support from Boeing India, the government of Karnataka and Odisha.
The fresh capital will be used for the development and testing of critical hardware and various subsystems, research and development (in energetic materials and to expand the company’s team.
Beautywise
Beautywise has secured $800,000 (Rs 6.5 crore) in a seed funding round from a host of investors including AC Ventures, Fluid Ventures, Real Time Angel Fund and GSF.
The round also saw participation from angel investors like Dinesh Agarwal (Indiamart), Murugavel Janakiraman, (Bharat Matrimony), Akshay Ghulati (Shiprocket), Chakradhar Gade (Country Delight) and Agam Khare (Absolute).
The funds will be used to expand its product suite, expand its presence across geographies and expand its team as well.
Beautywise was established in 2021 by Anousha Chauhan and Shreyansh Chauhan and offers skincare products like collagen, glutathione, keratin, and ceramides.
Its products are available across clinics as well as retail outlets along with being present on platforms such as Nykaa and Amazon.
