Small deals: edustoke, CarzSo, Aerostrovilos Energy raise capital

By Kaushiki Chatterjee

  • 18 Jan 2022
Credit: Thinkstock

edustoke, an online platform in preschool to K 12 that has been the first in the organised hunt for schools, has raised Rs 3 crore in seed funding from Indus Initiatives, the company said in a statement. 

The brand will deploy the fresh capital to scale to new cities across the country. It will also invest in technology to bolster its platform, strengthen its team, and build the brand. 

"We are aiming at expanding to 45 new cities within the country and internationally, and anticipate a 3X growth this year," said Pawas Tyagi, Co-founder, edustoke. 

Founded in 2017 by Tyagi and Rohit Malik, edustoke offers end-to-end information about schooling options to parents. It also enables financing options for the parents if required. 

According to the statement, the company is planning to increase its services that are being used by a host of education service providers and edtech companies. 

The platform is currently servicing 15 cities in the country, and is intending to expand to 45 new cities this year. 

Indus Information Initiatives Pvt Ltd is a New Delhi-based social research organisation, partnering with well-known academic institutions of India and the world. 

Virtual pre-owned cars showroom CarzSo has raised Rs 5 crore (around $700,000) from a group of investors led by Mytash, an Indian investment arm of the US early-stage investment fund, the company said in a statement. 

The company will utilise the capital to launch multiple virtual reality-based stores, to enhance its technology and showrooms in metaverse space. It will also be filing for multiple patents for the use of virtual reality (VR) technology in the auto space. 

CarzSo offers the convenience of a virtual reality experience through its showroom in the metaverse space. 

“CarzSo.com as a concept emerged in 2019, when we started brainstorming on the challenges in the auto industry, we realized that the digital auto industry is emerging as a game-changer, especially with the Indian car industry set to become third-largest," said Vaibhav Sharma, founder and CEO, CarzSo. 

"This quarter we plan on filing multiple patents for the use of virtual reality technology in the auto space, and with growing inventory/revenue we plan on launching three to five virtual stores to improve our presence in the rural, tier 2 and tier 3 market,” he added. 

Mumbai Angels’ portfolio company, Aerostrovilos Energy has secured Rs 3.5 crore from Tube Investment of India- a Murugappa group company, in its seed round of funding. 

The company said that it will be utilising the fresh capital for the completion of its solution, prototype manufacturing, and a trial run of MGT-based heavy vehicles. 

Aerostrovilos Energy is an IIT Madras-incubated organisation that is working on developing micro gas turbines (MGT) with the National Centre for Combustion Research (NCCR) at IIT Madras. It is building an MGT-based powertrain solution for heavy-duty trucks and power generation at reduced costs. 

“Aerostrovilos Energy is creating a clean technology solution with lower levels of emissions which has large scale application," said Nandini Mansinghka, Co-founder and CEO, Mumbai Angels.

Launched in 2006, Mumbai Angels invests in new ventures. It has over 190 strong portfolios across sectors and cities in India. According to the statement, the platform has more than 650 investors, and is spread across over 60 global cities.