Spacetech startup Digantara, consumer brand TWF Flours, and climatetech startup StepChange raised early-stage funding, the companies said on Wednesday.
Digantara
Spacetech startup Digantara has raised $12 million (Rs 100 crore) in an extended Series A funding round from Aditya Birla Ventures, the venture capital arm of Aditya Birla Group, and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
The investment marks Aditya Birla Ventures and SIDBI’s first foray into the spacetech domain.
Additionally, this is the second infusion of funds for the Bengaluru-based startup in less than a year.
In June 2023, the startup secured $10 million (Rs 82.3 crore) in a Series A funding round from Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India).
Founded in 2018, Digantara specialises in space weather and debris-tracking.
The startup plans to expand its global footprint and expand its offerings to the US, UK, and EU. The upcoming year will also see the launch of two space-based SSA sensors and the operationalization of two observatories in India.
Homegrown flour brand TWF Flour has raised $1.4 million (Rs 12 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round from online broking unicorn Zerodha’s startup fund Rainmatter.
Founded by Pranjal Kumar and Arjun Rungta, TWF Flours is a health-focused flour brand that uses data and algorithmic milling to craft flours that are programmable, both in terms of function and nutrition.
The startup counts hotels, restaurants and catering outlets such as Social, Imperfecto, Blue Tokai, Araku, SAZ American, Hundo, Shangri La, Oberoi, etc. across India as its clients.
The startup had raised seed funding from a host of angel investors including Rajaraman Santhanam (Chargebee), Shan Krishnasamy (Freshworks), Shobhit Shukla and Rahul Agrawal (Near.Co), Sharath Longanathan (Ninjacart), Dhruv Gupta (Orange Health) and Vishesh Rajaram (Speciale Invest), amongst others.
Climate-focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup StepChange has raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round from venture capital firm Flourish Ventures.
The infusion comes nearly a year after the Bengaluru-based startup raised $4 million (Rs 32.92 crore) in a seed funding round co-led by Beenext and Global Founders Capital. The round also saw participation from other venture capital firms like Genesia Ventures, Whiteboard Capital, Saison Capital, Seedstars, Antler, and Speciale Invest.
Founded in 2022 by Ankit Jain and Sidhant Pai, StepChange is a SaaS startup that offers solutions to large corporate enterprises and financial institutions to improve their environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics, manage climate risk, and reduce emissions across their supply chains, in-house operations, and financial portfolios.
“We will utilize this funding to improve our capabilities around using existing data streams, unlocking the potential for immediate action in data-poor conditions,” said Sidhant Pai, co-founder and chief science officer, StepChange.