D2C wellness startup Wellversed, which offers nutrition guidance to consumers, has raised Rs 11 crore (about $1.5 million) from Jubilant FoodWorks which runs the Indian unit of Domino's Pizza.
Founded by Aanan Khurma, Aditya Seth, and Ripunjay Chachan in 2018, Wellversed offers diet planning and nutrition guidance through experts as well as sells products for intermittent fasting, diabetes, gluten-free high-protein immunity regimes, and others.
The company onboarded Aaris Kalra as a founding team member via acquisition of wellness counselling company Sport Fit in 2020.
“The strategic alliance with one of India’s commercial giants gives Wellversed a disproportionate advantage to serve millions of people through our wellness brands. This partnership will augment our digital expertise with massive offline distribution capabilities,” Annan Khurma, CEO of Wellversed, said.
PumPumPum, a used-car leasing platform, said it has secured an undisclosed amount in a bridge funding round from LC Nueva AIF.
The platform plans to use the capital for consumer awareness, technology development, and expansion in over 15 cities across the country.
PumPumPum is operated by Gurugram-based Dream Road Technologies Pvt Ltd.
The startup’s services are currently available in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. PumPumPum, founded in 2018, says it provides Internet of Things-enabled pre-owned cars to both retail and corporate clients.
It also handles repair, maintenance, resale, and insurance for its customers. The startup’s supply-side partners include venture capital-backed companies including OLX and Cars24.
The broader pre-owned car and mobility segment has attracted significant investor interest.
This week, BLU Smart Mobility Pvt Ltd, an electric taxi-hailing and riding platform, raised $25 million (Rs 185 crore) in a round led by BP Ventures.
Gurugram-based Fantasy Akhada, a fantasy sports platform, has secured about $2 million in a pre-Series A round.
The round saw Prime Securities and Team India Managers. Existing investors in the round included Jyotivardhan Jaipuria, ex-Bank of America Merrill Lynch; the family of cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle; Sunil Sood, ex-MD & CEO of Vodafone; photographer/producer Atul Kasbekar; and Nikunj Doshi, managing partner of Bay Capital.
Fantasy Akhada said it will use the funds to focus on in-house tech capability, user acquisition and retention strategies, and for scaling up the organisation.
Prime Securities was an exclusive investment bank for this transaction.
Rupifi, which operates a buy-now-pay-flexibly platform for micro, small and medium enterprises, said it has raised $1 million (Rs 7.4 crore) in a mix of venture debt round from Alteria Capital and Gokul Rajaram, board member of Coinbase and Pinterest.
The company said it will use these funds to scale its existing Buy Now Pay Flexible product offered to small businesses transacting on B2B marketplaces.
“We plan to use the debt towards creating stronger partnerships with financial institutions and secure significant limits from banks/NBFCs for our expansion. We believe in a balanced mix of both equity and debt to manage our growth, product development, and expansion plans in the embedded finance domain,” said Anubhav Jain, co-founder and CEO of Rupifi, said.
Rupifi was set up earlier in 2020 by Jain, Ankit Singh and Jawaid Iqbal. Jain had previously co-founded financial technology startup Qbera, while Singh had co-founded Truckmandi. Iqbal, meanwhile, has worked with companies such as Google.
Rupifi said it is working towards enabling digital B2B transactions for SMEs and the Buy Now Pay Flexible product achieves that by providing a completely digital, instant credit line to SMEs without any financial documentation.
RENEE Cosmetics, a beauty brand, announced $1.5 million (around Rs 11 crore) in pre-Series A funding from Rajesh Sehgal from Equanimity Ventures and Apoorv Ranjan Sharma from 9Unicorns, with co-investors Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal from Titan Capital.
The Ahmedabad-based startup said it will further look to strengthen and expand its presence in the offline space and aims to have a presence in over 1,000 beauty outlets over the upcoming few quarters.
Founded by Ashutosh Valani, Priyank Shah, and Aashka Goradia, the cosmetic startup claims to create a range of cruelty-free and vegan products in the beauty and cosmetics segment.
RENEE Cosmetics said it is currently clocking around Rs 40 crore annual recurring revenue and aims to reach Rs 100 crore ARR by the end of this fiscal year.
“We aim to be present in over 1,000 beauty outlets over the next few quarters and want to reach our consumers through multiple touchpoints like airports, modern trades and more,” Priyank Shah, co-founder and director of RENEE Cosmetics, said.
MEDdelivery
MEDdelivery, a Jaipur-based B2B pharma-tech startup, has raised $1 million (Rs 7.4 crore) in a new financing round from investors like Auxano Entrepreneur Trust, LetsVenture, Kisho Capital, Venture Garage, Faad Network, and marquee angels.
MEDdelivery said it has annualised gross merchandise volume of over Rs 48 crore by catering to small retail pharmacies in Jaipur, with a daily average order size of Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000.
The startup plans to expand its reach in 100 plus non-metro cities in the next 18-24 months.
The company said it has enabled pharmacies to overcome unorganised supply chains, making them capital-efficient with just-in-time stock replenishment and data-driven reorder triggers. It claims to have resulted in achieving a nearly 100 per cent fulfilment rate for their partner.
It is currently operating in eight cities with over 3,000 retail pharmacies using their platform to procure supplies.
“Our uniquely designed, community-driven data support enables us to provide 100% fulfilment of all products to all our customers. We strive to achieve efficiency for all stakeholders in the pharma supply chain by increasing accessibility, availability, and affordability of medicines,” Rahul Gautam, co-founder of MEDdelivery, said.
MyOperator acquires Ziffy
Cloud-based business telephone system startup MyOperator said it has acquired cloud communications firm Ziffy to serve small and medium businesses (SMBs) in Tier-II and Tier-III cities in India.
Through this acquisition, the cloud telephony company is aiming to enter Indian markets with access to more than 3,500 clients in Tier-II and Tier-III cities. This will further reinforce MyOperator’s presence in the Indian SMB market.
The transaction details of the deal were not disclosed.
“Since its inception, MyOperator has been empowering small and medium businesses in India. The pandemic has accelerated the need for SMBs to adopt digital and cloud telephony and other communication tools to scale up their businesses,” Ankit Jain, CEO and co-founder of MyOperator, said.
“This acquisition is a well-evaluated move that will lend us a competitive advantage in our target regions, where Ziffy has an extensive market presence and customer base. The status quo of inefficient business communication system allows us an expansive landscape to test and implement our pioneering sales and support solutions, especially in Tier-II and Tier-III cities that house more than 60% of the SMBs,” he added.
