Punch, Burma Burma, EtherealX & others get VC money; Nazara arm buys DeltiasGaming

By Nitesh Kumar

  • 06 Aug 2024
Credit: VCCircle

Startups Punch, EtherealX, Hyperbots, Neuron Energy; matchmaking platform Juleo and restaurant brand Burma Burma have raised funding, while Absolute Sports will acquire assets of DeltiasGaming.com, the companies announced today.  

Absolute Sports, a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies, today signed an agreement to acquire all the assets of DeltiasGaming.com, a gaming and esports content platform in the US, for an all-cash consideration of $900,000 (about Rs 7.5 crore). 

The purchase price is a revenue multiple of just over 0.6. DeltiasGaming had revenue of $575,000 (Rs 4.8 crore) for the twelve-month period ending June 2024. Absolute Sports will use its cash reserves to fund the transaction. 

With this acquisition, Absolute Sports aims to deepen its presence in the gaming and esports media publishing sector in the US region. It intends to leverage DeltiasGaming.com user base.  

DeltiasGaming, founded by Jacob A. Hausman, is one of the gaming and esports media outlets in the US and claims to have over 1.5 million monthly unique users on the platform.   

Punch, a platform by stock broker Market Pulse Securities, has raised $7 million from Stellaris Venture Partners, Susquehanna Asia VC, Prime Venture Partners, Innoven Capital, and angel investors like Kunal Shah (Cred), Vatsal Singhal (Ultrahuman), and Nitish Mittersain (Nazara).    

The platform aims to facilitate responsible trading behaviors through product innovations such as intuitive safety tools and an easy-to-use single-screen user experience.  

It is led by founders Amit Dhakad, Hiral Jain, Arshad Fahoum, and Ajit Dandekar. Originally, they formed the founding team of Market Pulse, a charting app. Since 2022, the team has been building and testing Punch. 

EtherealX, a startup that designs, develops, and builds next generation launch vehicles and spacecraft, raised $5 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by YourNest and saw participation from BIG Global Investments JSC, BlueHill Capital, Campus Fund, and Golden Sparrow Ventures, Karan Bhagat & Yatin Shah from IIFL Wealth, Kiran Shetty, and Akhilesh Agarwal. Lead investor YourNest Venture invested $1.5 million.  
  
Through this seed fund, EtherealX plans to develop the engines for their fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle. The startup aims to solve this problem with a new fully reusable medium-lift vehicle, offering absolute reusability to help reduce transportation costs and cut launch timeframes.  

Manu J. Nair (CEO), Shubhayu Sardar (COO), and Prashant Sharma (CTO) founded EtherealX in 2022. The start-up is based out of Bengaluru. 

Hyperbots 

Hyperbots, an AI start-up for finance and accounting secured $2 million in a seed funding round led by Kalaari Capital and participation from Sunicon Ventures, and Athera Venture Partners.   

This funding will drive the expansion of Hyperbots’ go-to-market strategy and product development including the development of proprietary generative AI models for finance and accounting.    

Founded in 2023 by Rajeev Pathak, Niyati Chhaya, and Ram Jayaraman, the company aims to simplify and automate complex financial tasks. Hyperbots offers end-to-end AI-powered tools for various functions, including Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), and Expense Processing.  

Neuron Energy, an electric vehicle battery manufacturing start-up, closed its series A funding round. It raised Rs 20 crore from investors, including Chona Family and Capri Global Family Office.  

The company said that the fresh funds will enhance Neuron Energy’s research and development capabilities, including the establishment of an R&D laboratory in Pune. This facility will focus on enhancing battery life, reducing charging duration, and developing efficient cooling packs. Additionally, the investment will accelerate the company’s manufacturing capacity by setting up a new 40,000 sq. ft. production facility in Delhi, which is expected to produce 100 MWh of batteries annually, specifically for two-wheelers.     

Founded in 2017, Neuron Energy aims to clock Rs 150-200 crore in revenue in the FY25. It claims to be the first to develop and utilize smart battery management systems.  

Juleo, a dating and matchmaking platform, raised $2.5 million in an angel funding round from over 180 investors. The list of angels includes Ramakant Sharma, Founder of Livspace; Kunal Shah, founder of CRED; Ruchi Deepak, co-founder of Acko; Leo Puri, ex-chairman of JP Morgan India; and Harsh Jain & Lalit Keshre, founders of Groww.   

Founded in 2023 by Chiranjeev Ghai and Varun Sud, Juleo is an exclusive club for singles and offers a different approach to modern dating and matrimony by fostering real-life meetings.    

The app uses India Stack to ensure every member is Govt ID + video verified. Every member gets a Personal (AI) Matchmaking Genie that shares curated profiles and takes over the responsibility of setting up first meetings with other club members. 

Burma Burma, the Burmese restaurant brand (Hunger Pangs Pvt Ltd), has raised another round of $2 million in equity investment. The funding round saw participation from several family offices. Earlier in November 2022, the had bagged $2 million in its seed round led by Negen Capital and others.  

Burma Burma operates 13 restaurants and delivery kitchens across India, including Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.