Real estate marketplace platform Clicbrics, online peer-to-peer lending platform Faircent and artificial intelligence-powered startup Parentof have raised funding while laundry chain UClean has acquired peer White Tiger.
Delhi-based Clicbrics, operated by Redbrics ITES India Pvt. Ltd, said in a statement on Wednesday it has raised $3 million (Rs 21.40 crore at current exchange rates) in its pre-Series A funding round from a clutch of investors.
Investors who participated in the round include Manny Singh, founder of Kavi Asset Management, and Peter Mann, fund manager at Canadian wealth management firm Gluskin Sheff.
A senior managing director at a Canadian pension fund and other investors from the US and Canada also put in money, the startup said, without disclosing their names.
The company, led by founder and CEO Rohit Malik, will use the funds for expansion in India, with a focus on Tier-I and Tier-II cities.
Separately, Singh said Clicbrics was the only company in India which was attempting to convert the real estate segment in the country to software-as-a-service model.
Clicbrics says it uses artificial intelligence-based platform to target home buyers based on their search parameters, including the size of a project, location, and the budget.
The P2P lending platform raised funding from Singapore-based Das Capital and Gunosy Capital. Existing investors Starharbor Asia and M&S Partners also invested, Faircent said in a statement. It didn’t disclose the amount.
The company will use the funds to strengthen its technology platform, expand distribution and add loan offerings.
Faircent, which is operated by Gurugram-based Fairassets Technologies India, was founded by Rajat Gandhi and Vinay Mathews in 2013.
The company received the Reserve Bank of India’s approval to operate as a non-banking finance company offering P2P lending services in May 2018. The startup claims to have more than 900,000 registered borrowers, 120,000 registered lenders and loan originations at an annualised run rate of Rs 600 crore.
Bengaluru-based Parentof has raised $1 million (about Rs 7 crore) in a seed funding round from existing angel investor V Srinivas.
Parentof runs artificial intelligence-based parenting tool MAI and an education sector-focused enterprise resource planning tool called Pupilpod.
Parentof CEO Swaroop Madhavan said the startup will use the fresh capital to develop its parenting tool.
Previously, the startup had raised a total of $1 million from a group of angel investors including Srinivas.
Faridabad-based tech-enabled laundry chain UClean, operated by UConcepts Solutions, has acquired Delhi NCR-based peer White Tiger.
The acquisition involved the purchase of White Tiger’s 20 outlets in the national capital region, UClean said in a statement. The terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed.
As part of the transaction, the entire staff, franchisee partners and existing infrastructure of White Tiger will become part of UClean.
UClean was founded in 2017 by IIT Bombay alumnus Arunabh Sinha. It claims to operate 130 stores across 35 cities in India. In April last year, UClean had raised $615,600 from US-based existing investor Anubhav Chopra. In February 2018, it had raised $1 million from franchise and retail services provider Franchise India Holdings.
