Fintech platform Upswing, web3 startup Fetcch and social media application Medial have secured early-stage funding, the companies said on Wednesday.
Upswing
Upswing Financial Technologies, which runs an eponymous open finance platform, has snagged $4.2 million (Rs 35 crore) in a pre-Series A round, led by fintech-focussed venture capital firm Quona Capital. The round also saw participation from QED Investors.
The startup will use the funding to expand its offerings as well as for product development.
Founded in 2021 by ex-bankers Anupam Bagchi and Nihar Gupta, Upswing allows consumer companies to offer digital financial services to end customers.
“The funding will be used to expand the reach of our multi-bank deposit product and also aid in the launch of new products around deposits and lending,” said Bagchi, co-founder, Upswing.
In 2021, Upswing had raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by QED Investors.
The round also saw participation from Kunal Shah (Cred), Jiten Gupta (Jupiter), Rajan Bajaj (Slice) and Lalit Keshre (Groww), among others.
Fetcch has raised $1.5 million (Rs 12.5 crore) in a pre-seed funding round co-led by AppWorks Venture and Hashkey Capital. The round also saw participation from LD Capital, Compute Ventures, M6, GravityX Capital and NGC.
According to a statement, the startup will use the capital for product development and expansion in the Web3 sector while simultaneously building for Web2.5 use cases.
Founded in May 2023 by Mandar Dange and Satyam Kulkarni, Fetcch is a Web3 payments infrastructure platform. It provides infrastructure for digital payments and rewards platforms especially for the Web3 payments ecosystem with a particular focus on cross-chain payments.
Fetcch’s product for enterprises, deposit guardrails, is an application programming interface (API) that provides secure deposit functions to institutional platforms like over-the-counter markets (OTCs), market makers, and exchanges.
The startup has integrated with 23 wallets, clocking daily transaction volumes reaching $35,000 through the Fetcch platform.
Medial has raised around $120,000 (Rs 1 crore) in a pre-seed funding round led by FirstCheque VC. Angel investors Nayan Jadeja, Rohitashwa Choudhary, Ankit Aggarwal and Radhakrishnan Ramachandran also invested.
In a conversation with VCCircle, the founder Niket Raj Dwivedi said that FirstCheque invested Rs 75 lakh, while the angels contributed the remaining amount.
The startup will use the funding for product development, user acquisition, and testing of core application features.
The application, which is at a beta stage, claims to have a user base of over 5,000 users and is set for an official launch by the end of January.
Founded by Dwivedi, Aishwarya Raj Pandey, Prateek Kaien, and Harsh Dwivedi, Medial is a social media application, that targets to serve as a platform for professionals in domains such as tech, product, and design.
It also aims to become a company profile and job board platform with the launch of an integrated platform for professionals in startups.
RenalProject
RenalProject has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed funding round led by JITO Angel Network (JAN), promoted by JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation (JIIF). The round also saw participation from a host of investors including 100X.VC, Gopi Latpate, Thapar Vision, amongst others.
The infusion of funds will be utilized to expand its technological stack and implement pipeline projects.
Founded by Shashank Moddhia, RenalProject is a Mumbai-based healthcare startup. The company targets to improve the availability and delivery of dialysis therapy, particularly in tier-II and III cities in India.
The company’s approach involves setting up micro centers with scalable capacities starting from two beds and upwards, collaborating with existing medical facilities to ensure dialysis services are accessible.