Contract lifecycle management marketplace SimpliContract, fruits and vegetable exporter INI Farms and performance wear brand Armour Heavy have raised early-stage funding, the companies said on Wednesday.
SimpliContract, an artificial intelligence and software-as-as-service-based contract lifecycle management platform, has secured pre-Series A funding of $3.5 million (around Rs 28 crore), led by early-stage VC, Emergent Ventures.
The round also saw participation from Kalaari Capital, Picus Capital, Foster Ventures, Leslie Ventures and Sentinel Ventures.
The fresh funds will be used to fuel SimpliContract's growth and expansion in the US and European markets.
Founded in 2020, SimpliContract help in-house legal, sales, finance and procurement teams simplify the process across the contract lifecycle and enable real-time collaboration for internal and external stakeholders.
“We've seen an uptake for our CLM platform basis its maturity, versatility, and unique features compared to contemporaries in the market," said Guru Venkatesan, co-founder and chief executive at SimpliContract.
Fruits and vegetable exporter INI Farms has raised Rs 16 crore (around $2 million) in a fresh funding from ESG First Fund, managed by impact investor Aavishkaar Capital in partnership with German state-owned investment and development bank KfW.
Founded in 2009 by Purnima Khandelwal and Pankaj Khandelwal, INI Farms is an exporter of fruit and vegetable crops with large-scale pan-India operations spanning contract farming, aggregation, supply chain management and are serving food retailers globally.
Purnima Khandelwal, co-founder and chief executive at INI Farms said, “This investment will provide us with an opportunity to grow multi-fold with expansion into the entire agriculture output business and leveraging our strong supply chain capabilities.”
Abhishek Mittal, partner-credit, Aavishkaar Capital said, “INI Farms' commitment to deliver export-quality fruits and vegetables produced in an environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive manner and to exacting global standards, sets it apart to meet the growing demands of today's conscientious consumer."
Yu
Instant food brand Yu has onboarded Hardik Pandya to promote the brand in India as well as overseas.
Founded by Bharat Bhalla and Varun Kapur, Yu is a packaged food brand currently offering 14 stock keeping unit (SKUs) across pasta, cup and hakka noodles. Apart from being present in over 4,000 offline stores and 100 institutional campuses, the brand is one of those to be used in SpiceJet and Akasa Air.
The startup counts investors like investor Ashish Kacholia, Asian Paints promoter Manish Choksi, Capitar and DPIIT’s Startup India Seed Fund, on its cap-table. It has recently doubled its production capacity and aims to sell 2 million units in Q1FY24.
“Hardik (Pandya) is a youth icon and will help drive awareness among consumers enabling a switch in consumption patterns from currently available products that contain chemicals and preservatives. His association will allow Yu to scale business across all channels and target groups,” said founders Bhalla and Kapur in a joint statement.
Delhi-NCR based performance wear brand Armour Heavy has raised Rs 1.6 crore (around $195,000) as a part of its pre-seed round, led by India Accelerator.
Started in 2021 by Rahul Rai, Armour Heavy aims to offer high fashion clothing augmented with high-performance material offering unparalleled comfort, excellent dimensional stability and unique attributes to amplify wearer performance.
Abhay Chawla, founding partner and chief operating officer, India Accelerator said, “The performance wear market is highly dominated by western culture or international brands. We are confident about Armour Heavy’s business plans and look forward to the brand making strides in the Indian market.”
Oneistox
Edtech startup Oneistox has raised $1.2 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Powerhouse Ventures and Soma Capital.
Angel investors who joined the round included Amit Ranjan, co-founder of Slideshare; and Deepak Menon, VP-Microsoft.
The startup was set up by Harkunwar Singh along with Vipanchi Handa, Mehul Kumar, and Chaithanya Murali in 2021.
The platform offers courses and upskilling programs tailor-made for architecture, engineering, and construction industry professionals.
