Business-to-business platform Showroom B2B, agritech startup BharatAgri, fintech platform HiWi, biotechnology startup Mestastop, software-as-a-service startup Smarter Dharma and healthcare firm Welcome Cure have secured early-stage funding, the companies said on Thursday.
Showroom B2B
Showroom B2B has raised $6.5 million (Rs 54.12 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Jungle Ventures.
The round also saw participation from new investors Accion Venture Lab, Saison Capital, and ICMG Partners, as well as existing backers like Strive, Gemba Capital and Titan Capital, along with debt partners Alteria Capital and Stride Ventures.
The fresh capital will be used to scale the company’s phygital distribution model and open additional experience stores across tier II and III cities in India.
Founded by Abhishek Dua and Shubham Gupta in 2020, Showroom B2B caters to small retailers and wholesalers in tier II cities in India. Its distribution model combines digital and physical stores, offering an efficient solution for sourcing, procurement, and distribution.
“Our order sizes are consistently 5-10 times larger than competitors, and our return rate is in single digits, a stark contrast to the industry norm of 25-30%. This infusion of capital will give us a boost in scaling our operations,” said Dua, co-founder and chief executive officer, Showroom B2B.
LeanCrop Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd, which runs BharatAgri, has closed its Series A funding round at $4.3 million (Rs 35 crore).
The funding round was led by Arkam Ventures, while early-stage operators like Capria Ventures and existing investors, India Quotient, 021 Capital, and Omnivore participated in the fundraise.
The funding will be used to expand into newer geographies as well as improve its last-mile delivery capabilities.
Additionally, Rahul Chandra, the managing director of Arkam Ventures will join the board of BharatAgri.
Founded by Siddharth Dialani and Sai Gole in 2017, BharatAgri offers paid subscriptions to its scientific agriculture advisory product to farmers. Its e-commerce platform offers around 10000 agricultural products such as fertilisers, seeds, pesticides, insecticides, farming equipment, among others and is delivered pan-India across 20,000 pin codes.
HiWi
HiWi has secured $870, 722 (Rs 7.25 crore) in a pre-seed funding round from Unicorn India Ventures and Unmaj Group Family Office.
The Mumbai-based startup will use the funding for product development and executing a strategic go-to-market rollout.
Founded by Dewang Neralla, Geeta Chauhan and Ujwal Tamminedi, HiWi is a platform that serves as a centralized and integrated solution for students studying abroad, offering a suite of financial services. This includes a mobile application for students to transfer funds, open foreign bank accounts, access financing options, manage card expenditures and accrue loyalty points, while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
It aims to assist around 25,000 students in remitting $100 million by March 2025 and aims to onboard 5,000 educational consultants onto its platform.
“Although our initial focus is on education, we plan to expand our services to cater to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), streamlining and enhancing the remittance process,” said Neralla, co-founder, HiWi.
Welcome Cure has raised $500,000 (Rs 4.16 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round from Inflection Point Ventures.
The funds will be used for growth, including talent acquisition, technology enhancement, and marketing initiatives.
The funding is part of its ongoing pre-Series A round, wherein the startup aims to raise around Rs 16 crore.
Founded by Jawahar Shah, Punit Desai and Nidhi Desai, Welcome Cure is a fully integrated homeopathy technology company that offers assisted intelligence (AI)-based solutions for doctors. The firm also serves patients across the globe with holistic care solutions via its telemedicine platform.
The startup claims to have served 2.5 million patients in 36 countries via its proprietary platform. Additionally, it claims that the software business division has catered to over 100,000 doctors in 140 countries with its mobile applications and decision support system software.
Smarter Dharma has raised $500,000 (Rs 4.16 crore) in a seed round of funding from Zerodha’s Rainmatter Capital, Gruhas Proptech and Anthill Ventures, among others.
Founded by Sriram Kuchimanchi, Smarter Dharma is a sustainability resource planning platform for real estate. It generates business intelligence by combining data analytics and machine learning algorithms which take into consideration - resource availability challenges, consumption predictors and local solutions.
The startup also plans to launch a sustainable materials and solutions marketplace for the real estate sector.
Bengaluru-based startup Mestastop has raised $500,000 (Rs 4.16 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by early-stage investor 92 angels and Malpani Ventures.
The funds will be used to generate proof of concept data with small molecules around the identified first-in-class targets and help progress drug repurposing efforts to delay metastasis by identifying probable clinical candidates. New animal models and clinical studies will also be supported, along with strategic business development activities.
The startup had previously raised Rs 2 crore in a seed funding round which was led by IIM Ahmedabad’s startup incubator CIIE.CO and saw participation from IKP Knowledge Park and angel investors.
Founded by Arnab Roy Chowdhury and Debabani Roy Chowdhury, Mestastop is creating a cancer metastasis platform, that uses wet lab biology and predictive analytics to identify and distinguish unique properties of metastasis and use them for drug discovery and patient treatment.
