Neo San, two others raise equity funding, Celebal secures debt investment

By K Amoghavarsha

  • 27 Jun 2024
Laxman Vallakati (left) and Santhoshi Buddhiraju, co-founders, Autocracy Machinery

Climatetech startup Neo San, precision machinery manufacturer Autocracy Machinery and sportstech startup Machaxi secured early-stage funding, while software consulting firm Celebal Technologies raised debt funding, the companies said on Thursday.  

Neo San  

Neo San has raised $1.5 million (Rs 12.5 crore) in a seed funding round from a host of angel investors, including Ashish Kacholia, Anirban Lahiri (India pro-golfer), Aaradhana Jhunjhunwala, Aman Poddar, Adithya Mathews, S. Chikkarangappa (India pro-golfer), Apurva Damani, Mammen Kurien, Sandeep Telang, and Vanshay Goenka.  

The startup has raised the funding at a post-money valuation of $7.2 million.  

Founded in 2022, Neo San works in the hazardous waste management disposal space through its proprietary technology. Their flagship product, Neo-X, is a decentralised waste incinerator that uses clean energy to treat waste output at the source.  

“We will use this round of funding to scale our technologies across India,” said Dhwaj Bagrecha, co-founder, Neo San.  

Autocracy Machinery has raised $598,833 (Rs 5 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by existing investor Venture Catalysts. The round also saw participation from family offices and investors from India and Africa such as existing investors Nikhil and Bharat Jaisinghani (Polycab India Limited) and SFour Capital.  

Founded in 2020 by Santhoshi Buddhiraju and Laxman Vallakati, Autocracy’s machinery solutions cater to sectors such as agriculture, telecommunications, landscaping, irrigation, civil engineering and infrastructural development.        

The company offers a range of products, including trenchers, landscaping machinery, agricultural attachments, and water body conservation machines like lake cleaners.  

In 2023, the startup secured $1.2 million in a seed funding round led by Venture Catalysts.   

Angel investors like Nikhil and Bharat Jaisinghani (Polycab India Limited), Meghna Agarwal (IndiQube), Abhishek Rungta (Seeders), Srikanth Iyengar (upGrad) and Abhishek Modi (Stanford Seed Network) along with HEM Angels, VC Grid and S Four capital participated in this round.  

Machaxi  

Machaxi has raised $574,843 (Rs 4.8 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round from early-stage investor Inflection Point Ventures.  

The funds will be used to develop technology for user analytics and sports shopping, expand the sports shop vertical, and build the Machaxi brand.  

Founded by Pratish Raj, Tushar Raj and Ashish Anand, Machaxi offers technology-enabled sports coaching for kids, provides state-of-the-art facilities for adults to play at Machaxi sports centres and enables sports equipment shopping through its application.  

In terms of the sports that are available in Machaxi’s sports centres, the centres cover badminton, swimming, table tennis, football, and cricket, among other sports.  

The startup in its statement said that it has achieved a gross revenue run rate of Rs 18 crore, as of May 2024, while being EBITDA-positive from the start.  

Celebal Technologies 

Celebal Technologies has raised an undisclosed amount in a debt funding round from alternative credit platform BlackSoil.   

The capital infusion will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes along with deepening its market penetration across geographies.   

Founded in 2016 by Anirudh Kala and Anupam Gupta, the company operates in the big data, data science and enterprise cloud space.  

It has partnered with Microsoft and Databricks and offers differentiated services and accelerators on the Microsoft Azure and Databricks platforms offering services across various industries such as manufacturing, financial services, energy, CPG, retail and healthcare.   

In 2022, the Jaipur-based company raised $32 million in its first institutional fundraising from global private equity firm Norwest Venture Partners.