In a landmark move for the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector, Muthoot Fincorp recently acquired a 54% stake in Paymatrix, a Hyderabad-based rental collection startup. This acquisition is a prime example of corporate venture capital (CVC) in action. 

By strategically investing in Paymatrix, Muthoot Fincorp not only expanded its product offerings but also ventured into new markets and customer segments, leveraging Paymatrix’s advanced digital payment solutions.

For Muthoot Fincorp, this investment is a significant step in extending its existing lending business. It provides a competitive edge in the burgeoning digital payments space and aligns seamlessly with the company’s commitment to fintech innovation.

Paymatrix’s journey began at Ecosystem Enablers, where the startup had the opportunity to experiment, iterate, and refine its business model. This foundational support enabled Paymatrix to grow into one of the largest property rent payment and collection platforms in the country.

Successful CVC partnerships create a win-win scenario for both parties. Large corporations adapt to market disruptions while startups gain access to the resources they need to accelerate their research and development efforts.

Why Big Companies Need Startups to Stay Innovative

The rapid advancement of disruptive technologies such as generative AI, Web 3.0, Industry 4.0, and quantum computing will further necessitate corporates to shift towards embracing a startup mindset within their traditional corporate structures. 

These cutting-edge innovations are revolutionising customer service engagements by enabling more personalised and efficient interactions, enhancing data analytics for better decision-making, and fostering a culture of rapid innovation and adaptability. 

Corporations that leverage these technologies can create more agile and responsive business models, allowing them to stay ahead of competitors and meet the evolving needs of their customers. 

For example, generative AI can revolutionise customer service by providing swift, personalised support through smart chatbots and virtual assistants while Web 3.0 offers decentralised solutions that increase transparency and security in transactions. Industry 4.0 integrates smart manufacturing processes, boosting productivity and reducing costs, and quantum computing provides unprecedented computational power to solve complex problems more efficiently. 

Beyond these transformative technologies, corporates are drawn to partnerships through their CVC outreach primarily for the potential long-term strategic benefits. A survey by McKinsey found that 75% of corporate respondents were motivated by the desire to gain market insights and cutting-edge ideas, 55% by access to new products, 45% by the opportunity to build important capabilities and participate in a broader ecosystem, and 25% by the chance to secure strategic options. 

Only 15% cited the opportunity to make money through their CVC efforts; the primary aim is value creation and identifying new markets. Companies that take an enterprise-wide innovative approach are far more likely to successfully implement new ideas. Innovation can’t just be an experiment; it must be culturally embraced from the C-suite down.

By adopting a startup mindset, large corporations can foster a culture of continuous learning and experimentation, breaking down silos and encouraging cross-functional collaboration. 

This approach not only accelerates the development and deployment of innovative solutions but also enhances the ability to pivot quickly in response to market changes. Ultimately, the integration of these disruptive technologies, coupled with a startup mindset, positions corporations to thrive in an increasingly dynamic and competitive landscape.

Corporate Venturing Is A Disruption Insurance Policy

To stay ahead of the disruption curve, big companies must aggressively engage with startups through partnerships, investments, and acquisitions. This proactive approach is driving a corporate venturing boom, as industry giants tap into innovation ecosystems beyond their own walls. 

Over half of big company CEOs now rank ‘new business building’ and managing disruption among their top three priorities, making corporate venturing their disruption insurance policy.

Consider Coca-Cola’s Founders platform, which mentors and funds startups aligned with the beverage giant’s strategies around sustainability, innovation, and consumer engagement. Similarly, Google’s venture arm, GV, has backed game-changers like Uber, Slack, and Nest. These strategic startup investments provide legacy players with a front-row seat to breakthrough technologies and business models.

For tech titans, corporate venturing is not just a hedge against disruption—it’s rocket fuel that propels them into new markets and verticals at a pace that startups can only dream of. Engaging with startups allows these corporations to innovate rapidly, stay competitive, and adapt to an ever-changing market landscape.

Overcoming The Corporate-Startup Divide

When corporations venture into the startup world, they often encounter a culture clash. Rigid corporate structures and risk-averse mindsets can stifle the agility and innovation inherent in startup life. However, many corporates are successfully bridging this divide by embedding a ‘startup mindset’ within their organisations and making necessary changes to their organisational behaviour.

Traditional giants have recognised that partnering with startups requires them to be more agile and responsive to market trends. This shift has led these companies to undertake extensive training programs for their employees, focusing on developing an entrepreneurial mindset and enhancing their well-being. 

By fostering a symbiotic relationship with startups and adapting their organisational behaviour, these corporates are not only overcoming cultural divides but also leverage the strengths of both worlds to drive innovation and maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market.

Getting Radically Collaborative

Going forward, corporates won’t just write checks – they will pursue radically collaborative partnerships with startups. In fact, big companies will get their hands in the cookie jar through co-development projects, commercial pilots and knowledge sharing. 

Corporates may also start playing a more active role as anchor tenants of broader innovation ecosystems by partnering with universities and incubators to cross-pollinate ideas and commercialise breakthroughs.

Of course, aligning the interests of a hungry startup and a corporate behemoth is inherently challenging. While the big companies must immerse themselves in entrepreneurial hustle to stay innovative; startups need to cosy up to corporates for funding, scaling, and distribution. 

The future demands disruptive collaboration between corporates and startup disruptors. Maintaining too many degrees of separation is a dead end for both.

The post Corporate Venturing: How Big Companies Are Shaping Startup Innovation appeared first on Inc42 Media.

India has made significant progress in adopting electric vehicles (EVs) over the past few years, but charging infrastructure remains a major challenge. 

Notably, this issue is not unique to India. Globally, too, the lack of robust EV charging infrastructure and the significant time required for charging are preventing consumers from switching from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to EVs.

Even Deloitte acknowledges this concern in its recent global survey, which recognises charging time, range anxiety, cost, and battery safety as consumers’ primary concerns with battery electric vehicles.

In India, 43% of the 864 people surveyed expressed concerns about the time required to charge EVs, while 42% were worried about the lack of public EV charging infrastructure.

Now, much is being done by Indians in this area, which has largely proven to be the Achilles heel of this ever-evolving sector. A case in point is Exponent Energy, which has already made headway into the fast-charging domain. With its 15-minute fast charging technology, the company caters to commercial EVs at its dedicated charging stations. 

Similarly, Bengaluru-based EMO Energy has also developed EV battery packs that can be charged in under 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, Pune-based Clean Electric has gone further. Using nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, the startup is developing 12-minute charging technology for two- and three-wheeler EVs. As per the startup, the icing on the cake is that its batteries are designed to deliver consistent performance across all public charging stations.

Clean Electric: The Inception Saga

Clean Electric was founded in 2020 by former IITBHU students Akash Gupta, Abhinav Roy and Ankit Joshi to address the safety, cost, and convenience issues associated with EV batteries.

“We believe that for EVs to become mainstream and for us to succeed in this space, we need to address cost and convenience. Currently, it takes five minutes to refuel a combustion engine vehicle, while EVs take 60-100 minutes to charge. Our goal was to find a way to charge these batteries in under 10-15 minutes. That’s how it all started in 2020,” cofounder and CEO Gupta said.

The cofounders then started developing a new architecture called direct contact liquid cooling, which is a type of immersion liquid cooling technology. As per Gupta, no one has been able to scale this technology globally so far.

Notably, one of the biggest challenges in EV development pertains to battery management. 

Keeping batteries cool enough to maintain peak performance throughout the lifespan of vehicles is crucial, as overheating could lead to quick degradation of batteries. Besides, fire-related incidents in EVs are common due to poor cell quality or faulty battery management systems (BMS) due to the innately sensitive nature of lithium-ion batteries.

Globally, various cooling systems such as liquid cooling, air cooling, and phase change material cooling are used to keep EV batteries at their optimal temperature. Immersion cooling is a system where the battery cells are directly immersed in a dielectric fluid. However, this has several drawbacks, making this technology difficult to scale.

Despite this Clean Electric claims that its proprietary technology provides high cycle life and performance. Its batteries come with around 3,000 cycle life. The startup claims to have achieved this level of efficiency through intense R&D processes over the last four years. 

For batteries to charge rapidly (say 10 to 15 minutes), a superior cooling architecture is required, which Clean Electric has been able to achieve in sync with its proprietary intelligent battery management system. Gupta said that the startup has been granted four patents in India and the US.

In 2022, Clean Electric raised around $2.2 Mn in a seed funding round led by Kalaari Capital. Its cap table includes institutional investors such as IIM Ahmedabad, Climate Angels, and LetsVenture.

Clean Electric’s Value Proposition

Currently, the startup closely rivals Exponent Energy, but unlike Exponent, whose entire tech stack is around 15-minute chargeable batteries, Clean Electric’s batteries are designed to be compatible with universal charging points.

“You can use any charging station set up by ChargeZone, Tata Power, Shell, HPCL, or IOCL and still charge our EV batteries in 12 minutes. We utilise the vehicle’s own cooling system for charging. Therefore, our batteries can be adopted globally and are not restricted by proprietary charging stations,” Gupta said.

The cofounder added that the startup aims to create a global solution, similar to how smartphones have standardised chargers. 

The EV startup has already built batteries for two, three and four-wheelers. Also, given the cooling system of electric two-wheelers and electric rickshaws are different from the refrigerated cooling system in electric cars and L5 vehicles, the battery warranty for the former ranges between 1,000 to 2,000 cycles.

Clean Electric batteries are already powering EVs manufactured by Bounce Infinity in almost 38 cities. Apart from this, the company is in discussions with multiple other EV OEMs and conducting pilots with international carmakers.

Clean Electric’s Road Ahead

Having started selling its batteries last year, Clean Electric is still operating on a smaller scale. Currently, its batteries are slightly more expensive than others in the market, but the cofounder believes that it could be resolved with scale.

Currently, the startup reports monthly revenue of around INR 1 Cr. It aims to increase this to INR 10 Cr per month by the middle of next year.

The startup is also planning to scale its existing technology to provide battery solutions to electric bus operators. Gupta highlighted that their batteries are undergoing extensive R&D to cater to buses and trucks.

The startup is in advanced discussions with existing and new investors to raise funds in a fresh round soon, though the amount has not yet been disclosed.

In a market that is projected to reach about $114 Bn in size by 2029, Clean Electric, with its current value proposition, is looking at a significant market opportunity if it can scale its tech. With the backing of some marquee investors and an aim to provide fast-charging solutions to every vehicle category, it would be interesting to map the startup’s growth trajectory from this point.

The post How Clean Electric Wants Dominate The Indian EV Paradigm With Its 12-Minute Battery Charging Tech appeared first on Inc42 Media.

At a time when India is witnessing a rapid artificial intelligence adoption among masses and enterprises, Kerala has unveiled a slew of policy initiatives to promote the state as a global hub of GenAI by creating an ecosystem reinforced by incentives and partnerships.

As per PTI’s report, Industries Minister P. Rajeeve made the state’s AI declaration at the valedictory of the two-day International Generative Artificial Intelligence Conclave organised jointly by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) and IBM.

The government will come out with a dedicated AI policy, complying with the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) goals during this fiscal year itself, Rajeeve was quoted as saying in the report.

Based on the policy, support and incentives will be provided to enhance the existing infrastructure and create a more futuristic AI ecosystem.

Preferential share capital investment of up to INR 5 Cr would be provided by the KSIDC to AI entities with a minimum investment of INR 10 Cr. Scale-up support of INR 1 Cr would be provided along with other incentives notified in the industrial policy. 

The state hogged the limelight over concern to its technological upgrade when a school in Kerala took a step towards a seamless AI-powered classroom with a robot teacher, in March.

Thiruvananthapuram-based KTCT Higher Secondary School is now home to a GenAI-powered saree-clad robot teacher, called Iris. The brainchild behind this robot is Kochi-based edtech startup, Makerlabs. 

The Kerala government, in February, announced a number of measures and sops in the state’s Budget for 2024-25 to promote the local startup ecosystem. The Budget has earmarked INR 90.52 Cr towards the ‘Kerala Startup Mission’ to fuel startups in the state. Of this, INR 20 Cr has been set aside for the establishment of a ‘Technology Innovation Zone’ in Kochi.

The post Kerala Brings In Policy Initiatives To Promote Itself As Global GenAI Hub appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Amazon-owned Project Kuiper may soon join Bharti-backed Eutelsat OneWeb and Reliance Jio’s satellite arm in obtaining a satcom licence in India as the Jeff Bezos-led firm has submitted the documents to the government.

ET reported, citing officials close to the matter, Amazon has submitted all the necessary details, including its network diagram, to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and these documents are currently under evaluation.

“If all goes well and no more documents are required, the Amazon proposal will be taken up by an inter-ministerial committee in the next meeting,” a source was quoted as saying in the report. 

Project Kuiper aims to launch its initial satellite constellation with 3,232 low earth orbit (LEO) satellites and intends to commence service rollout by the end of 2024.

India’s satcom industry is still in its early stages, but major global players in the space sector see it as a significant opportunity.

The DoT has yet to grant the global mobile personal communication by satellite services (GMPCS) licence to SpaceX and Amazon, which is the first step towards launching satcom services in India.

Amazon might secure a global mobile personal communication by satellite services (GMPCS) permit before Starlink, a source told ET.

The Indian Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) is currently reviewing the applications for landing rights authorisation from Elon Musk-led Starlink and Amazon-owned Project Kuiper.

Besides, Eutelsat OneWeb backed by Bharti Enterprises and Reliance Jio’s satcom venture Orbit Connect India have already obtained GMPCS permits from the government. 

Amazon is the fourth company in India to apply for a licence to provide space communication services, following Eutelsat OneWeb, Jio’s satcom unit, and Starlink.

The post Amazon’s Project Kuiper May Soon Join Eutelsat OneWeb, Others To Secure Satcom Licence In India appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In light of World Environment Day, it is worth noting the increasing number of cleantech startups in India working to address the country and the world’s environmental challenges. These startups are developing innovative solutions that aim to balance the need for economic growth and development with sustainability.

Inc42 has identified 59 such startups making strides in the cleantech sector. Their approaches vary widely, from harnessing solar energy on rooftops to implementing biomethanation technology for organic waste management, and even purifying air and water. These cleantech startups represent a growing trend in India towards embracing clean technology to mitigate the environmental impact of industrialisation and urbanisation.

While the long-term impact of these startups remains to be seen, their emergence signifies a promising shift in the Indian business landscape towards greater environmental consciousness. It also highlights the potential for technological innovation to play a significant role in achieving India’s clean energy goals and contributing to a more sustainable future. As we celebrate World Environment Day, these startups are a reminder that the transition to a greener economy is necessary and increasingly feasible.

The list below is not meant to be a ranking of any kind. The startups have been listed in alphabetical order.

List Of Cleantech Startups In India

75F

• Founded In: 2012
• Founders: Deepinder Singh, Pankaj Chawla
• Funding Raised To Date: $25 Mn
• Investors: Siemens AG, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Climate Initiative, Building Ventures, Revolution, Clean Energy Trust, WIND Ventures
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

75F offers smart building solutions such as wireless sensors, equipment controllers and cloud-based software, delivering predictive, and proactive building automation to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

75F’s products mainly predict, monitor and control hot and cold spots of a building and thus, avert damages to the edifice. In the beginning, the startup focused on the commercial real estate market but in 2015, it also started providing HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) solutions. 

It works along with facility management companies, systems integrators and energy service companies to add more properties within its umbrella. Besides, it also outsources manufacturing units in the US, India and China. 

In July 2021, it reportedly secured $5 Mn in a Series A funding round from Siemens AG. With this, the startup raised a total of $28 Mn in the Series A financing round.

Its cap table includes Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Climate Initiative, Clean Energy Trust and WIND Ventures, among others. 

Ace Green Recycling

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Nishchay Chadha, Vipin Tyagi
• Funding Raised To Date: $10 Mn
• Investors: Circulate Capital, Climate Angels, Newchip 
• Headquarters: Singapore

Ace Green Recycling is a battery recycling startup, which claims to have developed clean and efficient lead-acid battery recycling technology.

Its battery operates at room temperature, contains zero air emissions, and wastes and reduces heavy metal emissions, resulting in significantly lower environmental damage, the startup said. 

Further, the cleantech startup has said it is working on the commercialisation of lithium-ion battery recycling in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Battery recycling technology startup secured more than $7 Mn in a funding round led by Circulate Capital and Climate Angels in February 2022. 

Adding this round, the startup’s total fund raised stands at $10 Mn so far, according to the startup.

The startup is planning to develop its lithium reusable technology and expand the 30-member team to 50 in the coming months. The startup is also focusing on developing fossil fuel-free lithium battery recycling technology.

AirOk

• Founded In: 2015 
• Founders: Deekshith Vara Prasad, Pavan Reddy Yasa, Vanam Sravan Krishna
• Funding Raised To Date: Undisclosed
• Investors: Ncubate Capital Partners
• Headquarters: New Delhi

AirOk has developed a patented air filter called EGAPA that is capable of removing 99.7% of air pollutants from the environment. The filter is designed to target cancer cells and break down air pollutants such as viruses, VOCs, bacteria, and mould, as claimed by the company.

In addition to air filters, AirOk offers a range of products, including air purifiers, air purifier filters, face masks, purifying bags, data centre solutions, and pollution seizure solutions.

According to its financial report for FY21, the company generated operating revenue of INR 1.94 Lakh but also reported a loss of INR 2.25 Lakh.

AirOk has secured investment from Ncubate Capital Partners, a VC fund based in Gurugram.

altM

• Founded In: 2022
• Founders: Apoorv Garg, Yugal Raj Jain
• Funding Raised Till Date: $3.5 Mn
• Investors: Omnivore, Theia Ventures, Thai Wah Ventures, Sanjiv Rangrass, Neha Mudaliar, Maninder Gulati (OYO), Mirik Gogri (Spectrum Impact), Paula Mariwala (Aureolis Ventures)
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Founded in 2022 by ex-Tesla employees Apoorv Garg and Yugal Raj Jain, altM is on a mission to develop sustainable materials from agricultural residue and help companies reduce their carbon footprints and increase circularity in their supply chains.

altM uses lignocellulosic agricultural residues to produce advanced materials that offer sustainable alternatives to conventional products. Lignocellulosic residue refers to dry plant waste that is left during or after the processing of crops. It includes items such as barley straw, corn stover, sorghum stalks, coconut husks, sugarcane bagasse and banana leaves.

Last month, altM secured $3.5 Mn in a seed funding round led by Omnivore. It was also featured in the 40th edition of Inc42’s ‘30 Startups To Watch’ list.

Bambrew

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Vaibhav Anant
• Funding Raised To Date: $2.67 Mn
• Investors: Blue Ashva Capital, Supack Industries, Mumbai Angels
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Founded in 2018 by Vaibhav Anant, Bambrew offers sustainable alternatives for food packaging, pouches and foldable cartons, ecommerce mailer bags, and PVC. The startup uses bamboo to make its products and claims that all its products are plastic-free and made in-house.

The Bengaluru-based green packaging startup picked up $2.35 Mn in a Pre-Series A round in January 2022, which was led by Blue Ashva Capital and Supack Industries. The funding round also attracted investments from Mumbai Angels and other angel investors.

Since its funding round, Bambrew has expanded its product range to include offerings such as paper straws, cups and glasses, and wooden spoons and forks.

Bariflo Labs

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Mrityunjay Sahu, Anudhyan Mishra
• Funding Raised To Date: +$10.00K
• Investors: CSIR, Startup Odisha, JSW, the Telangana AI Mission (T-AIM), and VIT Technology Business Incubator
• Headquarters: Bhubaneswar

Founded in 2018 by Mrityunjay Sahu and Anudhyan Mishra, and headquartered in Bhubaneswar, Bariflo Labs is a water body management and aquafarming startup. The startup has developed an Intelligent Aqua Bodies Management system using principles of fluid dynamics and deploying technologies like industrial internet of things (IIoT), AI and robotics.

The Aqua Bodies Management system works using Bariflo Labs’ India-patented sediment aeration device. This device diffuses air at the sediment level in a water body, maintaining dissolved oxygen at the sediment oxygen boundary layer. It reduces energy consumption by up to 75% and capital cost by 20%. 

The startup’s AI-based monitoring device can predict water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen, un-ionised ammonia, phosphate, nitrite, nitrate, sulphide, pH and ORP. 

Bariflo Labs’ is backed by CSIR, Startup Odisha, JSW, the Telangana AI Mission (T-AIM), and VIT Technology Business Incubator, among others.

BatX Energies

• Founded In: 2020
• Founders: Utkarsh Singh, Vikrant Singh
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.96 Mn
• Investors: LetsVenture, JITO Angel Network, family offices of Mankind Pharma, Excel Industries and BluSmart
• Headquarters: Gurugram

Founded in 2020 by Utkarsh Singh and Vikrant Singh, Gurugram-headquartered BatX Energies is a Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery recycling startup. The startup works to provide battery-grade materials by recycling end-of-life batteries.

Using its proprietary process, BatX Energies extracts black mass of less than 1% impurities from used Li-ion cells. This process allows the startup to extract high-quality lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese from black mass. The startup also produces plastics, aluminium, copper and stainless steel from recycled batteries, which it sells to recyclers.

In December 2023, BatX Energies secured $5 Mn in its Pre-Series A funding round from Zephyr Peacock, with participation from LetsVenture and existing investors, including JITO Angel Network, family offices of Mankind Pharma, Excel Industries and BluSmart. The startup plans to deploy the fresh capital to scale up production of its recycled battery-grade lithium, nickel, and cobalt and establish a nationwide reverse logistics network for sourcing.

Buyofuel

• Founded In: 2020
• Founders: Kishan Karunakaran, Venkateswaran Selvan, Sumnath Kumar, Prasad Nair
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.6 Mn
• Investors: IPV, VCATS, Gruhas Proptech, LV, Lead Angels Fund
• Headquarters: Coimbatore

Coimbatore-based BuyOFuel aggregates, biofuel suppliers, consumers and waste generators (waste biomass is converted to biofuels).

It claims that 90% of its users are active and repeat customers, and the business has clocked a 2x increase in monthly revenue since May 2022. The cleantech platform saw transactions involving 30K million tonnes (MT) of waste and biofuels since May, substituting 10K MT of fossil fuels.

It has raised $1.6 Mn (INR 13.22 Cr) to date, from investors including IPV, VCATS, Gruhas Proptech, LV and Lead Angels Fund.

Chakr Innovation

• Founded In: 2016 
• Founders: Kushagra Srivastava, Arpit Dhupar, Bharti Singhla
• Funding Raised To Date: $3.6 Mn
• Investors: Neev Fund II, Indian Angel Network, ONGC, Parampara Capital, Globevestor
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR

Chakr Innovation offers an emission control device that checks pollution at the source and captures harmful particulate matter emissions. 

The cleantech startup claims its products are coupled with exhaust and absorb over 80% of the particulate matter emitted by diesel engines. 

Chakr Innovation’s device Chakr Shield claims to collect 90% of particulate matter emissions from the exhaust of diesel generators without causing any adverse impact on the diesel engine. The collected emissions are used to create the ink. 

According to the startup, the Chakr Shield can significantly reduce particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions after retrofitting the tailpipe of the DG set.

Last year, Delhi’s upscale mall Select CityWalk installed Chakr Shield to reduce pollution from the DG sets by up to 80%. The shield would help reduce annually an estimated 378 kg of PM or black soot emissions which is equivalent to more than 174 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions or the carbon sequestered by 228 acres of forest in one year alone, said Chakr’s cofounder Bharti Singhla. 

Chakr Innovation raised an undisclosed amount in the Series B round from Neev Fund II in November 2021. 

The startup has raised multiple rounds of funding, including a Series A round of INR 19 Cr led by IAN Fund and ONGC. It had also raised seed capital from Parampara Capital and Globevestor. 

Chakr Innovation will be working on other technology solutions including Metal-Air battery technology. The startup plans to scale its production and expand its operations across more than 12 cities in future.

Clairco

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Aayush Jha
• Funding Raised To Date: $572.6K
• Investors: AngelList, Max Group, Sanjiv Bajaj, Anicut Angel Fund
• Headquarters: Bengaluru 

Clairco is an Internet of Things (IoT) startup which enables air quality monitoring and purification. It uses low-drag air filters which can be retrofitted to any type of air conditioning and turn them into air purifiers. 

According to Clairco, it has developed this patent-pending air purification system in-house. It analyses air quality data of a particular premise on a real-time basis and installs ultra-low resistance air filters in existing air conditioning units. This is then converted into a smart air purification system. 

It helps businesses ensure clean air affordably and measurably by adding air purification to existing AC systems. It offers filter technology for up to MERV-13 filtration with a low-pressure drop, monitors PM2.5, PM10, CO2, VOC, and other air quality parameters, and maintains optimal health of air filters and purifiers in any season.

For its monetisation plan, Clairco charges its customers a monthly subscription fee for businesses of all sizes and scales. 

Clairco raised INR 4.2 Cr in angel funding in March last year. The round was led by Sanjiv Bajaj (Bajaj Capital) at Anicut Angel Fund. Investors including Max Group and Angel List also participated in the round. 

The cleantech startup is looking to expand its footprint to key cities across the country. It is also looking for product development and growth.

CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions

• Founded In: 2011
• Founders: Kuldeep Jain, Sushant Arora
• Funding Raised To Date: $188.2 Mn
• Investors:  IFU, Warburg Pincus, UKCI, International Finance Corporation 
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Rooftop solar startup CleanMax is a sustainability partner to corporations and develops solar and wind projects under the Build Own Operate model by providing renewable electricity under long-term agreements, creating significant savings for end-users.

The startup currently serves more than 150 customers, including Facebook, Adobe, Cargill Foods, Volvo, Tata Group, Mahindra Group, Grasim, MG Motors and others.

The Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) invested $34 Mn in the renewable energy startup in December 2021. 

The investment in CleanMax is IFU’s second within renewables in India, following the signing of the India-Danish Green Strategic Partnership in 2020 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

CleanMax signed a deal with social media giant Facebook last year to co-run a portfolio of wind and solar projects across India that will supply clean energy to the electrical grid. 

In India, the startup has new investments lined up in solar, wind and wind-solar hybrid projects in states, including Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, to serve the needs of corporate customers.

CleanMax is planning to accelerate its growth in the commercial and industrial renewable energy space in India, as well as in the Middle East and South East Asia. 

Devic Earth

• Founded In: 2018 
• Founders: Shaguna Sinha, Srikanth Sola, Shivani Sinha Sola
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.36 Mn
• Investors: Blue Ashva Sampada Fund
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Cleantech startup Devic Earth creates scalable solutions with ‘Pure Skies’, its air pollution control equipment for industries and large areas. Pure Skies improves air quality. 

The Pure Skies tech system reduces specific pollutants like particulate matter to less than 10 microns (both PM10 and PM2.5). The air quality index typically improves in heavily polluted areas in less than three months.

Pure Skies comes with an intelligent wifi-based technology to handle airborne gaseous and particle pollutants across industries, homes, and cities. A single push of a button can help remove 40-50% of nano-sized particles at <20µm.

Pure Skies has been installed with companies operating in sectors including steel, cement, hotels, mining, and manufacturing. It claims the product also addresses challenges arising out of polluting events such as crop burning, forest fires, and construction.

The green technology startup raised its first institutional funding of INR 10 Cr last year from the Blue Ashva Sampada Fund.

Devic Earth is planning to expedite more growth and product roadmaps and expand its operational presence in the country and global markets.

DigitalPaani

• Founded In: 2020
• Founders: Mansi Jain and Rajesh Jain
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.2 Mn
• Investors: Enzia Ventures, Elemental Excelerator, Bharat Founders Fund, peercheque, Ashish Goel
• Headquarters: Gurugram

Founded in 2020 by the father-daughter duo of Rajesh and Mansi Jain, DigitalPaani helps resolve water asset management issues with its IoT-enabled integrated operations platform, driving operational excellence while significantly reducing costs.

Its solution operates in three key steps, beginning with a comprehensive assessment of each water asset’s needs based on its design and current operational status. The platform acts as a manager, automating processes, providing precise dosing recommendations for chemicals, guiding maintenance tasks, and facilitating troubleshooting when issues arise. DigitalPaani also recommends operational and physical improvements to enhance overall performance.

The startup raised $1.2 Mn in December 2023 in a seed round led by Enzia Ventures, and was featured in the 43rd edition of Inc42’s ‘30 Startups To Watch’.

Ecozen

• Founded In: 2010
• Founders: Devendra Gupta, Vivek Pandey, Prateek Singhal
• Funding Raised To Date: $83.5 Mn
• Investors: Omnivore, Caspian Impact Investments, Nuveen, Triodos Investment Management, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Maanaveeya
• Headquarters: Pune

Ecozen offers solar-powered irrigation through Ecotron and cold chain storage systems through Ecofrost. The startup claims that these offerings have impacted over 1.8 Lakh farmers across India. It claims to leverage AI and IoT to improve agriculture income while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and food losses.

The startup claims that two of its products – Ecotron and Ecofrost – have transformed the agricultural irrigation and cold chain industries, respectively, and aided in improving the income of over 1 Lakh farmers. Ecozen also claims to have cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2 Mn tonnes and prevented more than 50,000 metric tonnes of food loss.

The startup has raised around $83.5 Mn in funding so far. Ecozen indirectly competes against the likes of Pune-based Khethworks, Inficold, and Stellapps, among others. Ecozen’s latest funding round came in May 2024 with an INR 24 Cr infusion from existing investor Coromandel International. The startup completed a $30 Mn funding round a month before that.

EdgeGrid

• Founded In: 2020
• Founders: Sunil Talla, Prasad Yerneni, Mushtaq Ahmed, Neeraj Sansanwal, Vamsi TP
• Funding Raised To Date: $6 Mn  
• Investors: Lightrock India, Theia Ventures
• Headquarters: Hyderabad

EdgeGrid is a B2B cleantech platform that transits energy to last-mile customers such as households, small businesses, commercial building owners and EV charging stations.

The startup mainly uses the Internet of Things (IoT), AI and industry innovation to resolve energy-related problems in various industries. It claims that it enables customers to consume energy efficiently and also works with energy distribution companies to save costs and expand renewable energy in the ecosystem.

In March 2023, it secured $6 Mn in a fundraising round led by Lightrock India. Theia Ventures and some angel investors also participated in the round. In July last year, it reportedly partnered with Andhra Pradesh Central Power Distribution Co Ltd to help transmission and distribution companies in the state save power purchasing costs.

Electriq

• Founded In: 2021
• Founder: Anand Thakur
• Funding Raised To Date: Undisclosed  
• Investors: Moto Business Service India
• Headquarters: Hyderabad

Founded in 2021 by Anand Thakur, Electriq is an IT, web and app-based platform that tracks electric vehicles and their drivers. Under its B2B vertical, it sells EVs to aggregators such as Zepto and Swiggy and individual customers. 

The startup’s vehicles are installed with IoT devices that share the real-time location of vehicles and vehicle drivers. Electriq’s partnership with Vodafone Idea (VI) allows it to offer connectivity electric scooters.

The startup last raised funding in October 2022 when Yamaha Motors’ subsidiary Moto Business Service India (MBSI) infused an undisclosed amount in a corporate round. That was also the first funding round the startup had raised.

Freyr Energy

• Founded In: 2014
• Founders: Saurabh Marda, Radhika Choudary
• Funding Raised To Date: $4.6 Mn 
• Investors: Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures, Schneider Electric Energy Access Asia, and C4D Partners
• Headquarters: Hyderabad 

Freyr Energy is a rooftop solar expert for residential and commercial solar solutions. It also caters to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sectors, catering to customers across 22 states in India.

Freyr Energy is working to bring much-needed consolidation in the green energy sector. The cleantech startup has come with its app, SunPro+, through which it has made the process of owning a solar system simple and seamless. The entire process of owning the system including financing, execution, and after-sales service, has become easier with the app.

Freyr Energy raised INR 18 Cr as an equity investment in April 2021 from Total Carbon Neutrality Ventures, Schneider Electric Energy Access Asia, and C4D Partners. The cleantech startup is working towards mass-market adoption of solar energy, and looking to accelerate growth and enhance its customer experience.

Gegadyne Energy 

• Founded In: 2015 
• Founders: Jubin Varghese, Ameya Gadiwan
• Funding Raised To Date: $5 Mn
• Investors: V-Guard, Mumbai Angels 
• Headquarters: Mumbai 

Gegadyne Energy develops eco-friendly alternatives to conventional lithium-ion batteries. Its battery consists of nano-material composites and advanced battery architectures to enable quick charging with high energy density similar to lithium-ion batteries.

Gegadyne’s batteries charge from 0 to 100% in around 15 minutes; unlike lithium-ion batteries that take hours to recharge. The price range of the battery pack will be at par with lithium-ion batteries and will drop further as the economy of scale kicks in, as per the startup.

The batteries are aimed to be a direct replacement for existing use cases and will be available in cylindrical, pouch and prismatic forms, according to the startup.

Electric vehicles are the main focus of the startup. However, these batteries can be used in any other consumer devices, telecom towers, and stationary energy storage systems.

Gegadyne Energy raised $4.5 Mn from V-Guard Industries in a Series A round of investment in January 2021.  It plans to build a pilot plant to service its contract with selected OEMs.

GPS Renewables

• Founded In: 2012 
• Founders: Mainak Chakraborty, Sreekrishna Sankar
• Funding Raised To Date: $73 Mn 
• Investors: Neev Fund II, Hivos-Triodos Fund, Caspian
• Headquarters: Bengaluru 

GPS Renewables focuses on biomethanation technology to solve the organic waste management challenge, accelerate the substitution of fossil fuel with bioenergy and mitigate climate change.

The startup has a captive biogas product called the ‘BioUrja’, and GPS renewables claim to have more than 100 BioUrja installations across South Asia. GPS Renewables commissioned a BioCNG plant based on Source Separated Organics (SSO) in Indore. The plant, which is Asia’s largest in its class, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2022 and is set up over 15 acres of land.

The biogas plant is expected to produce 17 tonnes of bio-CNG every day from 550 tonnes of organic household waste. GPS Renewables aims to power 400 city buses in Indore with the BioCNG generated from the plant. The cleantech startup closed undisclosed funding in a Series B round in March 2022 from Neev Fund II, managed by SBICap Ventures. The startup also recently bagged a debt of $50 Mn  from a clutch of banks and NBFCs to expand its footprint, fuel expansion, and build compressed biogas plants across India.

The cleantech startup is working to complete the world’s largest BioCNG plant in Hyderabad, in partnership with development partners from Japan. It aims to accelerate the substitution of fossil fuels with bio-energy. The startup aims to expand its research and development centres and support its next phase of growth and expansion.

Greenjoules 

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: V Radhika, VS Shridhar, S Viraraghavan, R Sethunath
• Funding Raised To Date: $4.5 Mn
• Investors:  Blue Ashva Capital 
• Headquarters: Pune

Greenjoules specialises in making renewable biofuels, which are curated entirely from agri-residue and renewable waste from agro-processing industries. 

The biofuel can be used for industrial applications (to power boilers, and gensets) and commercial applications (diesel vehicles). Greenjoules claims to utilise non-food and non-feed wastes to manufacture biofuels. The manufactured biofuel meets the same IS1460 standards that petroleum and diesel also follow.

According to Greenjoules, its biofuel can be used without any modification with the current diesel engines, gensets or boilers in use. This makes its product a direct replacement for petroleum or diesel.

The cleantech startup is serving various large enterprise customers from its biorefinery in Chakan, Pune. It now plans to significantly scale up production by setting up a large facility near Pune to cater to the increasing demand for green diesel. Greenjoules raised $4.5 Mn in its Series A funding round last year in June from Blue Ashva Capital. The funds raised are a combination of equity and debt.

Greenjoules will focus on growing its current product range but also on developing a portfolio of high-energy density liquid and gaseous biofuels. It will also focus on new research and development initiatives in future. 

Greenko Group

• Founded In: 2004
• Founders: Anil Chalamalasetty, Mahesh Kolli
• Funding Raised To Date: $6.7 Bn
• Investors: GIC, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, DBS Bank, Barclays  
• Headquarters: Hyderabad

Greenko is a cleantech startup, that enables sustainable and affordable energy, with a net installed capacity of 7.5 GW across 15 states in India. It provides utility-scale, clean and affordable energy to customers. 

Greenko has been opting for the green bond route in the past to raise funds for developing sustainable energy projects. It is developing state-of-the-art three multi-gigawatts scale integrated renewable energy storage projects with national grid connectivity in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. 

Greenko has raised funding from GIC, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, DBS Bank, and Barclays. These projects will harness the power of solar, and wind resources with digitally connected storage infrastructure to provide round-the-clock power to the grid.

Last month, global steel and mining firm ArcelorMittal partnered with Greenko to develop a round-the-clock renewable energy project with 975 MW of nominal capacity. The project will be owned and funded by ArcelorMittal. Greenko will design, construct and operate the renewable energy facilities in Andhra Pradesh. The project commissioning is expected by mid-2024.

h2e Power Systems

• Founded In: 2011
• Founders: Siddharth R Mayur, Amar Chakradeo, Bhavana S Mayur
• Investors: Poonawalla Group
• Headquarters: Pune

h2e is an end-to-end fuel cell and electrolyser company that offers clean energy solutions, including green hydrogen and alternate e-fuels. It also offers power solutions such as energy modules and power boxes. The startup claims to have built the country’s first green hydrogen production plant.

The startup follows the CRS (conserve, replace, sustainable and scalable) programme, which is central to the system. In 2020, it acquired Swiss company Hexis AG for an undisclosed amount.

With presence in four countries, the startup claims to cater to 182 clients and has more than 25 business partners. It competes with the likes of homegrown startups such as NewTrace, Ossus Biorenewables, Hydrogen Gentech, among others.

Hygenco

• Founded In: 2020
• Founders: Amit Bansal, Anshul Gupta, Aashish Gupta
• Funding Raised To Date: $25.4 Mn
• Investors: Neev II fund
• Headquarters: Gurugram

Hygenco develops green hydrogen and green ammonia production assets for commercial purposes. 

The startup’s LinkedIn profile says Hygenco’s team holds a combined experience of more than 30 years in construction, renewables, operations & maintenance, investment banking and private equity.

In October, the startup received $25.4 Mn in funding from the private equity fund Neev II fund. During that time, it said that it plans to invest more than $300 Mn in developing green hydrogen projects across the country in the coming three years.

Before that, it inked an offtake agreement with Indian steel company Jindal Stainless to build a multi-megawatt green hydrogen facility. With this plant, the startup would help Jindal reduce carbon emissions by nearly 2,700 metric tonnes annually.

Illumine-I

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Nithish Sairam, Sudarsan Krishnan
• Funding Raised To Date: ~$2.05 Mn (INR 17 Cr)
• Investors: Anicut Capital
• Headquarters: Austin, Texas, US

Illumine-I offers structural and electrical engineering expertise for power plants, energy storage systems and distribution components. It focuses on residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar PV (photovoltaics) and energy storage systems. 

Initially, the startup solely focused on residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar PV and energy storage systems. Within four year of inception, it entered into construction engineering, offering AS MEPF Modeling, Scan to BIM, City Modeling, VR-AR-MR, and Walkthrough animation support.

It claims to be the design partner to more than 300 solar installers, developers and EPCs across 46 states in the US.

Illumine-I secured an INR 17 Cr Series A round led by Anicut Capital earlier this year and plans to use the funding to scale up operations and expand into new markets.

Inficold

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Himanshu Pokharna, Nitin Goel
• Funding Raised To Date: $9 Mn
• Investors: RVCF, Shell Foundation 
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR 

Cleantech startup Inficold provides cold storage solutions to its customers. The current product portfolio consists of modular cold storage and instant and bulk milk coolers. It provides round-the-clock cooling with just seven hours of grid/solar power. 

Inficold claims to have developed a retrofittable thermal energy storage technology for storing cooling in a low-cost medium such as water to ice.

The technology is designed to use solar electric energy to make ice, and later use it for cooling purposes. Inficold’s products enable the application of thermal storage for virtually any cooling needs — be it milk, cold storage, air conditioning, or vaccine refrigeration — without making any major modifications to existing cooling hardware. 

The startup raised INR 6.5 Cr in a funding round last year from RVCF and other undisclosed HNIs as a part of its Pre-Series A funding round. 

The startup has installations in more than 17 states of India with a strong presence in northeastern states, including Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura. Inficold claims that it is aggressively ramping up its production capacity by more than 10 times.

The increased capacity will allow it to cater to the demand with a minimised lead time for the customer, it said. 

The startup is planning to expand its overall manufacturing, sales, and servicing capabilities. It plans to penetrate dairy, horticulture, poultry, meat, cold logistics and air conditioning segments across India. 

ION Energy

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Akhil Aryan, Alexandre Collet
• Funding Raised To Date: $4.6 Mn
• Investors: YourNest Venture Capital, Riso Capital, Venture Catalysts, Climate Pledge Fund, Climate Capital
• Headquarters: Mumbai 

ION Energy builds advanced electronics and software platforms for new energy companies. The company’s flagship product so far has been its Battery Management System (BMS), which enables OEMs/Battery Pack Makers to deploy smart battery systems.

In 2019, the cleantech startup launched Altergo (previously called Edison Analytics), a digital twin platform for battery intelligence. Altergo now manages 700+ MWh of battery storage in the cloud.

ION currently supplies to 75+ OEMs across 15 countries including India, France, Spain and the US. Since its inception, ION Energy claims to have deployed more than 60,000 smart BMS in electric vehicles and stationary storage systems. 

The startup raised $3.6 Mn in Pre-Series A funding in July 2021 from the Climate Pledge Fund, joined by Silicon Valley-based Climate Capital, early-stage investor YourNest Venture Capital, Riso Capital, Venture Catalysts, and other angel investors. 

This startup is looking to expand its product development and software business in other countries. 

Log9 Materials 

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Akshay Singhal, Kartik Hajela, Pankaj Sharma
• Funding Raised To Date: $65 Mn
• Investors: Metaform Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners, Surge Ahead, Petronas Ventures, Incred Financial, Unity Small Finance Bank, Oxyzo Financial Services, Western Capital Advisors, Amara Raja Batteries
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Battery technology startup Log9 Materials is a graphene research and development startup that accelerates the commercialization of graphene nanotechnology. Their first developed product of this technology is ‘smoke-safe’ which is a cigarette that reduces the risk of getting cancer by 90%.

Log9 Materials has developed technology for both stationary and automotive applications such as electric vehicles (EVs). Aluminium fuel cells are aluminium-air batteries (AI-air batteries) that produce electricity from oxygen and aluminium reactions. The technology used in the battery is similar to the hydrogen fuel cell but more economical, safer and scalable.

In January, it secured $40 Mn funding in its Series B round led by Amara Raja Batteries Ltd. Before this, it raised $3.5 Mn funding in a Series A round led by Exfinity Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator programme Surge.

In April last year, it inaugurated its indigenously developed cell manufacturing facility at Jakkuru in Bengaluru. 

It has been working on unique cell chemistry for its RapidX battery packs powered by InstaCharge technology, which offers nine times faster charging, better performance, and battery life as compared to conventional lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries.

It aims to achieve at least 50MWh of peak cell production capacity in the next year, and scale it to over 5GWh in the next three to five years, Log9 Materials said in a statement.

Lohum 

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Rajat Verma, Justin Lemmon and Gazanfar Safvi 
• Funding Raised To Date: $7 Mn
• Investors: Baring Private Equity Partners, Talbros 
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR

Lohum is a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery pack manufacturer and battery materials (cobalt, lithium, nickel, etc) recycler. 

The cleantech startup addresses battery business across three cycles, first life with new batteries for two and three-wheeler original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and stationary applications including for UPS and telecom, second life, which enhances the life of existing batteries, and lastly, end-of-life management offering recycling solutions. 

Given the government’s focus on setting up giga factories in India, the startup sees a huge unfolding opportunity to provide the entire lifecycle management solutions.

The startup claims to generate 80% of its revenue from sales of EV batteries to solar plants, and electric two and three-wheeler companies, while 10% comes from the energy storage system (ESS) and 10% from its recycling business.   

The recycling startup Lohum raised $7 Mn in a fresh round of funding from institutional investors led by Baring Private Equity Partners in January 2021.

Lohum has plans to expand its manufacturing capacity of lithium-ion batteries from 300 MWh to 1000 MWh (1 GWh) and its recycling capacity 10 times, from 1,000 tonnes per annum to 10,000 tonnes per annum.

Loom Solar

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Amod Anand, Amol Anand 
• Funding Raised To Date: $2 Mn
• Investors: Social Investment Managers and Advisors
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR 

Loom is a B2C solar startup that offers solar panels, lithium batteries, solar inverters, solar wires, panel stands and charge controllers. It operates in both online and offline channels. 

Apart from offering solar solutions, the startup also provides a credit facility to consumers to procure products at a 0% interest rate. In January this year, it secured $2 Mn in funding from Social Investment Managers and Advisors (SIMA) under the Energy Access Relief fund.

It operates one manufacturing unit and has a presence in 500 Indian districts. As per its website, the startup manages 100 employees. 

In FY2021, its revenue stood at INR 35 Cr and of this, 60% was accounted for solar panels. It aims to expand its energy storage solutions and grow its market share from 1% to 5% by 2025. 

It also claimed to have connected with 10,000 resellers and looks to partner with strategic investors in the future.

Metastable Materials

• Founded In: 2021
• Founders: Shubham Vishvakarma, Saurav Goyal Manikumar Uppala
• Funding Raised To Date: Undisclosed
• Investors: Sequoia Surge, Speciale Invest, Theia Ventures, Akshay Singhal, Archana Priyadershini
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Founded in October 2021, Metastable Materials claims to have developed the world’s first, chemical-free integrated carbothermal reduction process for recycling and extracting valuable materials, such as copper, aluminium, cobalt, nickel and lithium from Li-ion batteries.

The startup opened a 21,000 sq ft urban mining facility located on the outskirts of Bengaluru in October 2022. The facility can process 1,500 tonnes of material annually, which accounts for up to 6% of India’s recycling demand for Li-ion batteries.

It has raised an undisclosed amount of funding recently from Sequoia’s Surge, as part of its Surge 08 cohort. 

MYSUN

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Gagan Vermani, Gyan Prakash Tiwari, Ashit Maru
• Funding Raised To Date: $9 Mn
• Investors: Tata Cleantech Capital, General Catalyst 
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR

MYSUN is a technology-backed B2B2C rooftop solar platform providing hyperlocal end-to-end solar solutions and long-term maintenance services. It provides solar energy to industries, small and medium enterprises/medium small and micro enterprises, and homes.

The cleantech startup is creating a network of clients/buildings (residential, industrial and commercial customers) across 100 cities (Tier 1/2/3). Last year, MYSUN bagged 140-megawatt  open-access solar power projects from Uttar Pradesh Power Transmission Corp Ltd. 

Under its new asset vehicle MYSUN+, it is expanding its presence across states such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi NCR. The cleantech startup is already in early-stage development of more than 220 MW of projects under the captive/ open access mechanisms.

In July 2021, the firm raised INR 15 Cr from Tata Cleantech in debt funding to expand its pipeline of projects.

MYSUN is looking to improve its technology infrastructure, scale up its service offerings, and expand to newer geographies, both in India and globally, including parts of the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Africa.

Nepra

• Founded In: 2011
• Founders: Sandeep Patel, Dhrumin Patel, Ravi Patel
• Funding Raised To Date: $24.5 Mn 
• Investors: Aavishkaar Capital, Circulate Capital, Asha Impact 
• Headquarters: Ahmedabad 

Nepra offers an integrated, efficient and scalable waste management solution that connects all stakeholders along the value chain, from municipalities to informal waste pickers, as well as recyclers and brand owners.

The startup processes over 500 tonnes of dry waste every day across Ahmedabad, Indore and Pune with the help of 1,700 collectors. The cleantech startup claims to have positively impacted the lives of 5K people at the very bottom of the waste management industry over the last eight years.

The dry waste management startup raised $18 Mn in Series C funding from Aavishkaar Capital and Circulate Capital in 2020. The cleantech startup claims to bring transparency and scalability to the highly unorganised waste management sector in the country. 

Nepra plans to expand its capacity generation and manage dry waste across more cities in India. It plans to expand to 25 cities in India by 2025. 

NewTrace

• Founded In: 2021
• Founders: Prasanta Sarkar, Rochan Sinha
• Funding Raised To Date: $6.6 Mn
• Investors: Speciale Invest, Micelio Fund
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Newtrace develops batteries and electrolysers for producing green hydrogen for industries. Before founding the startup, both founders had completed PhD degrees in engineering disciplines. 

In July, the startup secured $1 Mn in a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest and Micelio Fund. Angel investors also have participated in the funding round. In May, the startup picked up another $5.6 Mn in seed funding. 

During that time, it wanted to build electrolyzers offering 1 megawatt (MW) by 2025 and further increase the capacity of electrolyzers to 10MW by 2027. It further looks to help varied industries such as petrochemical, ammonia, mobility, energy and steel, among others reduce their carbon footprint. 

As per the startup’s website, it is currently pilot-testing its products. Back in 2021, it tested its prototype at IIT Madras and before that, it got shortlisted for a pre-incubation programme led by NSRCEL and Maruti Suzuki. 

Offgrid Energy

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Rishi Srivastava, Tejas Kusurkar, Brindan Tulachan, Ankur Agarwal
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.3 Mn
• Investors: Shell Ventures, Ankur Capital, APVC 
• Headquarters: Kanpur 

Energy tech startup Offgrid has developed a rechargeable zinc-carbon battery that outperforms available battery technologies in terms of power density, life and cost. 

Offgrid has more than 15 patents, designs and trademarks to its name, with a primary focus on renewable energy storage, microgrids, electric vehicle charging and grid applications in utilities.

The startup’s flagship product, ZincGel Battery technology has energy efficiency at par with a lithium-ion battery. It has twice the life cycle and negligible operational cost — thereby saving up to 30% cost for energy storage projects. Alternatively, existing lead-acid manufacturers can make ZincGel batteries easily with available equipment.

In February 2022, Offgrid raised undisclosed funds from energy solutions giant Shell, venture capitalists Ankur Capital and APVC to take its flagship product rechargeable zinc-based battery ZincGel to the market.

The startup has previously raised a small angel round from overseas investors and was seed-funded by Shell India.

The cleantech startup plans to cater to multiple industries such as renewables, microgrids, electric vehicles and utilities through its different variants of zinc-carbon batteries.

Oorjan Cleantech

• Founded In: 2014
• Founders: Roli Gupta, Das Gautam 
• Funding Raised To Date: $450K
• Investors: Aditya Sharma, Globevestor, Nisha Pillai, Mayur Bhat, Sayandev Chakravartti
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Solar energy startup Oorjan offers solar on-grid systems, ranging from 1kWp to 10kWp, to residential, commercial and industrial use cases. Besides this, it also operates three verticals–SolarSME, Greenstitute and Greenjobs. 

Under its SolarSME, the startup helps small and medium-sized enterprises to kick start as well as promote their solar businesses. It additionally provides credit facilities to individual consumers and PPA financing to commercial customers.

Under Greenstitute, it offers certified courses on solar energy and systems to students in association with academic institutions. On the other hand, Greenjobs acts as an online job portal connecting job seekers with companies. 

In 2017, it raised $450K in seed funding led by venture capital firm Globevestor. Chakravartti, Aditya Sharma, Nisha Pillai and Mayur Bhat also participated in the funding round.

The startup claims to have served more than 1,500 customers across 15+ states of India. 

Ossus Biorenewables

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Suruchi Rao, Shanta Rao and Kamar Suhail Basha
• Funding Raised To Date: $2.4 Mn
• Investors: Gruhas, Rainmatter Climate
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

Founded in 2017 by Suruchi Rao, Shanta Rao and Kamar Suhail Basha, Ossus’ AI-powered bioreactors absorb carbon from wastewater produced by industries and supply them with green hydrogen gas. 

The bioreactors mainly use microorganisms sourced directly from wastewater as catalysts for green hydrogen production. The startup currently works with steel, starch and energy companies and helps them produce hydrogen gas at a cost of less than $1 per kg. 

In May 2023, Ossus secured $2.4 Mn in funding in its pre-Series A round from Gruhas, cofounded by Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath with Puzzolana’s Abhijeet Pai, and Rainmatter Climate. The startup invested the fresh funds to accelerate the deployment of its bioreactor, OB HydraCel, across sectors like refining, foods, brewing, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Orb Energy 

• Founded In: 2006
• Founders: Damian Miller, NP Ramesh  
• Funding Raised To Date: $13.6 Mn   
• Investors: FMO, Bamboo Capital Partners, Rianta Capital, Acumen Capital Market Funds I, Pamiga SA
• Headquarters: Bengaluru 

Orb Energy offers solar energy solutions (solar electricity and solar water heating) to residential, commercial and industrial customers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

To enable SMEs to afford solar energy, the cleantech startup has set up an in-house finance facility to provide extended payment terms to customers. Orb also provides credit to SMEs to invest in solar panel systems.

Since its inception in 2006, Orb has sold more than 160,000 solar systems, with cumulative installations of more than 110MW of rooftop solar systems.

Further, Orb Energy manufactures its solar panels and solar water heating systems in-house to control quality and cost. 

Orb Energy raised a $15 Mn debt fund in 2019 to augment its capital base. It raised an undisclosed amount from Shell’s New Energies business by divesting an almost 20% stake in the firm in a Series C round of funding in 2019. 

Shell’s New Energies business has acquired a 20% stake in solar firm Orb Energy in a funding round in 2019. It has so far received more than $13 Mn in equity and around $10 Mn debt in Series A and Series B rounds. 

Orb is based in Bengaluru, where it runs two factories, one producing solar photovoltaic panels and the other producing solar water heating systems. Orb is looking to help more Indian SMEs to benefit from lower-cost solar power in future.

OxyGarden

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Anshu Gupta, Abhishek Gupta
• Funding Raised To Date: $70K 
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Gurugram

OxyGarden has developed Forest, an automated vertical green wall designed to purify the air in homes and commercial spaces. The green wall uses a soil and root-based filtration system to naturally purify the air, creating a forest-like environment within living spaces.

In addition to air purification, Forest helps to regulate relative humidity levels with the help of controlled transpiration in plants. The product is designed to require minimal maintenance and does not require any human intervention once installed, according to the company.

To date, OxyGarden has raised $1.7 Mn in funding from investors to support the development and growth of its product line.

Pi Green Innovations

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Irfan Pathan and Rizwan Shaikh
• Funding Raised To Date: $4.8 Mn
• Investors: Opus Consulting Solutions, Harshal Morde (Morde Foods) 
• Headquarters: Pune 

Pi Green Innovations creates technology-driven solutions for the reduction of particulate matter emissions at source. The startup has a patented filterless technology that converts smoke to its powder form, soot.

Some of the startup’s solutions include carbon cutter machines, filterless retrofits for diesel generators and heavy vehicles; and RepAi, a filterless ambient air-purification tower that can be installed in public spaces. 

As per the founders, the cleantech startup has developed a retrofit solution for existing conventionally-fuelled heavy vehicles, diesel-fuelled generator sets and industrial boilers to reduce and capture hazardous particulate matter (PM) emissions and pollution caused every day. 

Pi Green’s retrofit device can capture 90% of the particulate matter emitted from the genset in real-time ranging from PM2.5 to PM10. The device works on the principle of electrostatic precipitator. 

The cleantech startup secured over $4.5 Mn in Series A funding in December 2021. The round was led by the Investment Fund of Opus Consulting with a total of $4.3 Mn. 

Its plans include working on after-treatment solutions for crematoriums. A pilot run is already underway at a crematorium in Bengaluru and a heavy vehicles retrofit pilot with the Bengaluru Municipal Corporation for two buses. 

Prescinto

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Puneet Jaggi, Ram Menon, Sanjay Bhasin
• Funding Raised To Date: $5.3 Mn
• Investors: Mumbai Angels Network, Inflection Point Ventures, 9Unicorns Accelerator Fund, Lets Venture
• Headquarters: Bengaluru 

SaaS solar energy startup Prescinto uses Artificial Intelligence to identify the root causes of plants’ underperformance in real-time and suggest actions to improve generation in clean energy plants by 5 to 7%. It helps in reducing costs of operation and maintenance.

Prescinto has been deployed across 10,000+ MWs of solar and wind projects across 14 countries with marquee clients like SoftBank Energy, Macquarie and Radiance Renewables managing their solar and wind assets on Prescinto.

Prescinto IOT platform is designed for vendor-independent connectivity and provides insights for solar PV plants. Prescinto’s patent-pending technology buckets losses into downtime, soiling, and systemic loss and immediately converts each loss into actionable job tickets along with projected gains. 

It has customers such as Stride Climate Investments, Essel Infrastructure, and GMR, among others to achieve traction of 3X annual growth reaching over 9 Giga Watts of solar plants across more than 10 countries.

Prescinto raised $3.5 Mn in a Seed funding round in March 2021 led by Venture Catalysts. Inflexion Point Ventures, Mumbai Angels and LetsVenture also participated as part of this round.

The Bengaluru-based cleantech startup is looking to expand in international markets, primarily in the US market, and for Intellectual Property development. Prescinto aims to expand into wind and energy storage as well.

Proklean

• Founded In: 2012
• Founders: Sivaram Pillai, Bala Chandrashekar, Vishwadeep Kuila
• Funding Raised To Date: $5.36 Mn
• Investors: Raintree Family Office
• Headquarters: Chennai

Founded in 2012 by Sivaram Pillai and Bala Chandrashekar, and later joined by Vishwadeep Kuila, Proklean offers non-toxic and biodegradable green chemistry solutions to clients across industries such as textiles, pulp and paper, water management and biosurfactants. 

Proklean also sells household cleaning products across online marketplaces and offline stores in Chennai. 

Proklean last raised $4 Mn as part of its strategic funding round from the Raintree Family Office in June this year. The startup claims to have turned EBITDA profitable in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) with a revenue of INR 40 Cr.

Recykal

• Founded In: 2016
• Founder: Abhishek Deshpande
• Funding Raised To Date: $44.5 Mn
• Investors: 360 ONE Asset Management, Morgan Stanley, Circulate Capital, Bank of Singapore, Triton Investment Advisors, Pidilite Industries, Vellayan Subbiah, Arun Venkatachalam
• Headquarters: Hyderabad

Founded in 2016 by Abhishek Deshpande, Hyderabad-based Recykal offers cloud-based solutions that enable transparent and traceable material flows in waste. 

The startup works with businesses to track and meet their EPR (extended producer responsibility) targets, dispose of e-waste responsibly, track their plastic footprint and offers a SaaS-based track and trace platform to monitor industrial waste and help report accurate ESG (Environment, Social and Governance)  and SDG (the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) metrics.

In April 2024, Recykal raised INR 110 Cr (around $13.5 Mn) in funding in its Series B round led by 360 ONE Asset Management. The startup reported a net loss of INR 25.7 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) as against a net profit of INR 1.2 Cr in FY22.

ReNew Power

• Founded In: 2011
• Founders: Sumant Sinha
• Funding Raised To Date: $3.2 Bn
• Investors: Goldman Sachs, Franklin Templeton India, JP Morgan, L&T, Sylebra Capital, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board 
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR

ReNew Power is an independent power producer (IPP) of renewable energy using clean sources such as wind, hydro and solar power. The startup can generate more than 8 gigawatts of power assets across 16 states in India, including commissioned as well as under-development projects. 

Renew Power joined the startup unicorn club in 2017 after raising $300 Mn through a rights issue. Goldman Sachs, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have subscribed to the issue, with each shareholder infusing $100 Mn, it said. According to its website, ReNew’s total capacity was 10.2 GW and its commissioned capacity was 7.3 GW, as of February 2022.

ReNew Energy raised $400 Mn in January 2022 at 4.5% by issuing green bonds. ReNew is setting up a joint venture (JV) with Fluence to boost the energy storage sector and meet the local needs of Indian customers. The startup has entered into a partnership agreement with Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to develop, own, execute and operate green hydrogen projects in India. 

To enable India’s decarbonisation push, Indian Oil Corporation, L&T, and ReNew Power signed a JV company on April 3, 2022. It is working to develop the green hydrogen sector in India. The cleantech startup intends to own 18 GW of renewable energy assets by FY25.

rePurpose

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Svanika Balasubramanian, Peter Wang Hjemdahl, Aditya Siroya
• Funding Raised To Date: Undisclosed
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Bengaluru/New York City

Founded in 2019 by Svanika Balasubramanian, Peter Wang Hjemdahl and Aditya Siroya, rePurpose is a social enterprise, which also acts as a plastic credit platform. rePurpose enables individuals and businesses to become plastic-neutral and take responsibility for their plastic footprint by funding recycling the same amount of plastic waste they produce.

The startup allows companies to track their plastic footprint, offers advice on reducing their plastic footprint and works on projects related to recovering plastic waste. rePurpose claims to have recovered 22,369 tonnes of nature-bound plastic waste so far.

In its endeavour, the startup has received several accolades and has been recognised by the United Nations Environment Programme as one of the top 12 innovators in plastic recycling in the world.

Sea6 Energy 

• Founded In: 2010
• Founders: Nelson Vadassery, Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Sowmya Balendiran, Sri Sailaja Nori 
• Funding Raised To Date: $17.9 Mn
• Investors: Aqua-Spark, Silverstrand Capital, Tata Capital Innovation Fund
• Headquarters: Bengaluru 

Sea6 Energy develops technologies to convert biomass into biofuel, plant growth stimulants, plant defence products, animal feed ingredients, and other bio-renewable products to replace chemicals and plastics. 

The cleantech startup has also developed proprietary technologies to convert fresh seaweed into environmentally friendly products for a range of industries including agriculture, animal health, food ingredients, bioplastics and renewable chemicals.

Sea6 Energy exports its patented agriculture biostimulant product to countries including the USA, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

The seaweed farming and processing startup raised $9 Mn in Series B funding in July 2021 led by Aqua-Spark, the Netherlands-based investment fund. Singapore-based Silverstrand Capital is the co-investor in the round.

The startup will work on additional SeaCombine systems to increase the supply of seaweed raw material and expand its processing capacity with additional facilities to produce Sea6’s agricultural biostimulant and animal health products. 

SenseHawk

• Founded In: 2018 
• Founders: Rahul Sankhe and Swarup Mavanoorl
• Funding Raised To Date: $7.1 Mn
• Investors: Alpha Wave Global, SAIF Partners, Elevation Capital
• Headquarters: Bengaluru  

Cloud-based cleantech startup SenseHawk enables owners, managers and developers of solar assets to gain new insights about their plants that enable maximisation of returns. 

The initial focus of the startup is on the rapidly growing solar industry with future expansion to other similar sectors.

Its solutions combine different kinds of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), sensors, data processing and planning chains to create decision-making tools that drive productivity in the energy and infrastructure industries. 

The startup claims that it has delivered data analytics for more than 28 GWs of solar assets across 15 countries worldwide, and has nearly 80 clients.

SenseHawk raised $5.1 Mn in a Series A funding round in 2020 led by Alpha Wave Incubation, backed by Abu Dhabi-based ADQ. Existing investor SAIF Partners also participated in the round.

The startup is looking to expand its presence in Abu Dhabi, and also build a team of data scientists, product managers and engineers in the region. 

It is planning to use Abu Dhabi as the global base for international expansion while targeting the Gulf Cooperation Council countries — the Middle East North Africa and other global markets.

Skilancer Solar

• Founded In: 2017
• Founders: Manish Kumar Das, Neeraj Kumar
• Funding Raised To Date: $652K
• Investors: Boundary Holding, Venture Catalysts, IIML-Incubator, Neeraj Kumar, Dhianu Das, Alfa Ventures
• Headquarters: Noida

Skilancer Solar offers cleaning services for solar panels installed in commercial parks and other establishments. 

The startup was founded by Neeraj Kumar, who has three years of experience in the solar industry, and Manish Kumar Das, who brings ten years of experience in instrumentation engineering to the team.

Skilancer Solar’s client portfolio includes several prominent organisations such as Hindustan Petroleum, Adani, Ambit Energy, and Unilink Group. 

The startup has received over $652K in funding from a range of investors, including Boundary Holding, Venture Catalysts, IIML-Incubator, Neeraj Kumar, Dhianu Das, and Alfa Ventures.

Solar Ladder

• Founded In: 2021
• Founders: Manan Mehta, Abhishek Pillai, Farhan Ahmed
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.34 Mn
• Investors: Axilor Ventures, Titan Capital, DeVC, Stride Ventures, Varun Alagh
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Founded in 2021 by Manan Mehta, Abhishek Pillai and Farhan Ahmed, Solar Ladder is an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) service provider in the rooftop solar energy space.

Having partnered with five NBFCs, the Mumbai-based startup offers collateral-free financing to both EPC installers and end users. 

Solar Ladder also offers a free SaaS tool, which integrates modules encompassing sales, marketing, installation, accounts and project management. It gives EPC installers more visibility into a business’s various functions such as ongoing projects, inventory and payments.

The cleantech startup last secured INR 11 Cr ($1.34 Mn) in funding in May 2023 to fuel its expansion plans.

SmartJoules

• Founded In: 2014
• Founders: Arjun P Gupta, Ujjal Majumdar, Sidhartha Gupta
• Funding Raised To Date: $4.35 Mn
• Investors: ADB Ventures, Sangam Ventures, Max Limited, cKinetics Accelerator, Dabur family’s Saket Burman 
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR

Energy-efficiency-as-a-service startup Smart Joules offers capital expenditure-free retrofits for commercial and industrial facilities by improving the overall design of energy-intensive systems like cooling, heating, compressed air and steam. 

The cleantech startup claims its DeJoule technology platform utilises various sensors and IoT controllers to track and control equipment and optimise overall facility performance in real-time using data. This tech platform allows SmartJoules to guarantee its clients 15% energy savings.

Its JoulePAYS service makes energy savings easy and profitable from day one with zero investment and zero risk for hospital/hotel owners under a single pay-as-you-save agreement.

Smart Joules has provided its full-stack solution for leading Indian hospital chains, including Apollo, Fortis, KIMS, Aster, and CARE, among others. 

In March 2021, Smart Joules raised $4.1 Mn in its Series A funding round from various investors, namely ADB Ventures, Sangam Ventures, and Max Limited, among others. It raised $4.9 Mn in a Series A funding round from various investors in April 2021.

SmartJoules’ plans include strengthening its energy management team, enhancing its digital technology platform, expanding its presence across hospitals and scaling its cooling-as-a-service offering for commercial buildings and industries with heavy air conditioning loads such as pharmaceuticals and data centres.

SolarSquare

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders:  Neeraj Subhash Jain, Nikhil Satejlal Nahar
• Funding Raised To Date: $16.08 Mn  
• Investors: Elevation Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Good Capital, Rainmatter, Vidit Atrey, Sanjeev Barnwal, Maninder Gulati, Ashish Goel, Amit Kumar Agarwal, Akhil Gupta, Saurabh Garg 
• Headquarters: Mumbai

Cleantech startup SolarSquare offers rooftop solar panels for residential and commercial purposes. It also provides financing facilities to customers at a 0% interest rate. It currently has a presence in Bengaluru, Delhi, and Hyderabad as well as states including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra

Initially, the startup only provided commercial rooftop solar solutions but in 2020, it started catering to the needs of residential consumers too. During the same year, it elevated Shreya Mishra, its CEO to the position of cofounder. 

In November last year, it raised $12.08 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Elevation Capital and Lowercarbon Capital. Good Capital, Rainmatter, Meesho’s Vidit Atrey and Sanjeev Barnwal also participated in the round. 

Its cap table includes Lowercarbon Capital, Symphony Asia, OYO’s Maninder Gulati, Urban Ladder’s Ashish Goel and Nobroker founders Amit Kumar Agarwal, Akhil Gupta & Saurabh Garg, among others.

Earlier, it claimed to have served nearly 5,000 residential customers and also aimed to standardise its installation quality. 

SolarTown Energy  

• Founded In: 2012
• Founders: Vikram Dileepan, Dhanush Kuttuva 
• Funding Raised To Date: $200K
• Investors: GREX
• Headquarters: Chennai 

SolarTown Energy makes clean energy for homeowners, businesses, schools, non-profit and government organisations at low cost. 

The cleantech startup provides solutions and products for home-based systems, small and mid-size businesses, and buildings. 

SolarTown provides for the sale, lease and installation of solar rooftop systems from 1 kW to 300 kW for residential, commercial and industrial customers. SolarTown Energy claims to have installed more than 100 solar systems and counts Infosys and Renault-Nissan among its customers. 

The startup is looking for market expansion, investment in technology, international business development and working capital requirements.

Swajal 

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Advait Kumar, Vibha Tripathi
• Funding Raised To Date: $2.8 Mn
• Investors:  Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund, Pramod Agarwal (former CFO at Procter & Gamble), ACPL 
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR

Swajal is an artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled water purification solution that looks to enable access to clean drinking water across the socio-economic spectrum. 

The cleantech startup claims to have developed solar-energy-powered remote sensing water purification systems (also known as water ATMs) with user interfaces and payment mechanisms for airports, hotels, offices, schools and railway stations among others, where it essentially replaces the plastic, encouraging people to bring their utensils/bottles to fill water. 

Swajal also helps corporate customers move away from plastic bottles to glass bottles using its in-house water bottle washing, filling and monitoring plant (WaterCube). The startup earns revenue from consumers buying its systems or a per-litre price for the as-per-usage model.

Last year, Swajal raised $1.6 Mn in funding from the social impact fund Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund, alongside Pramod Agarwal (former CFO at Procter & Gamble), ACPL and other angel investors.

The startup is planning to further enhance its research and development capabilities, thereby making drinking water more accessible, sustainable and plastic-free in the country.

The Energy Company

• Founded In: 2021
• Founders: Prashant Rathee, Rahul Lamba, Pratik Somani
• Funding Raised To Date: Undisclosed
• Investors: LetsVenture, WeFounderCircle, SIA Angel Network, Monokeros Ventures
• Headquarters: Bengaluru

The Energy Company has developed a full-stack battery solution for EVs in India that helps B2B vehicle aggregators manage vehicle life cycles by giving them a longer-lasting battery pack via FlexiPack and better visibility on the battery life via its SaaS tool FlexiTwin.

The startup claims that its battery pack is scalable across electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers and buses and helps vehicles run for 50 km on just a 15-minute fast charge and 100 km after a 40-minute charge.

Meanwhile, The Energy company’s SaaS tool, FlexiTwin, takes inputs from the sensors installed on a battery to digitally record the battery performance, degradation and service history, with insights on battery health and ageing.

For now, the cleantech startup is in talks with five B2B clients, which have around 25,000 two-wheeler EVs. The startup also has letters of intent (LOIs) for around 2,000 electric two-wheelers.

Uravu Labs

• Founded In: 2019
• Founders: Pardeep Garg, Swapnil Shrivastav, Venkatesh R, Govinda Balaji
• Funding Raised To Date: $274K
• Investors: Speciale Invest, Peter Yolles (EchoRiver Capital), Soren Schroder, Shigeru Sumimoto (Conselux Corporation), Tomoki Kaneko (Kaneko Cord)
• Headquarters: Bengaluru 

Watertech startup Uravu Labs builds atmospheric water generators that run on 100% renewable energy. It creates water from the air using only renewable energy sources like solar, waste heat, or biomass to produce renewable water.

Uravu’s working prototype can channel air into a chamber containing desiccants like Silica which absorb the water content in the air. Once the desiccant is fully saturated, heat is applied to it using solar energy to extract the water in liquid form, as claimed by the startup.  

The water-from-air concept is not new, as many startups already operate in the space. But unlike Uravu, most of them use refrigeration as a method to condense air in the atmosphere, which is an expensive process with high energy requirements. 

Uravu’s method uses a desiccant that is relatively less capital-intensive and energy-intensive and also requires much less maintenance. The desiccant used in the machine has a shelf life of around ten years, and the rest of the components are mostly conventional electronic components like fans and pipes, according to the startup. 

The water tech startup raised an undisclosed amount during a pre-seed funding round in December 2021 led by Speciale Invest. The startup plans to work with corporations on CSR efforts, and with government agencies like Jal Shakti, and MNRE, among others, to deliver clean drinking water to remote and rural areas in the country. 

Varaha

• Founded In: 2022
• Founders: Madhur Jain, Ankita Garg, Vishal Kuchanur
• Funding Raised To Date: $4 Mn
• Investors: Orios Venture Partners, Omnivore, RTP Global, Better Capital, Kunal Shah 
• Headquarters: Gurugram

Climatetech startup Varaha helps agricultural farmers adopt regenerative agricultural practices by producing carbon credits, which help grow revenue and decrease operating expenses. It has a presence in six Indian states. 

Explaining the modus operandi, the startup said it enrols agricultural farmers, quantifies greenhouse gases, verifies carbon credits, and then sells those credits to buyers. 

In December 2022, it secured $4 Mn in a seed funding round for expanding business in South Asia. The round was led by Orios Venture Partners along with participation from Omnivore, RTP Global, Better Capital and CRED founder Kunal Shah.

Earlier, it claimed to have covered an expanse of more than 1.32 Lakh acres under its agroforestry, forest conservation and reforestation activities, among others. As per its website, the cleantech startup cloistered over 3.5 Lakh tonnes of carbon emissions and saved 1.55 Lakh Mn litres of water so far.

WEGoT

• Founded In: 2015
• Founders: Abilash Haridass, Vijay Krishna, Mohideen Haja, Sundeep Donthamshetty
• Funding Raised To Date: $3.5 Mn
• Investors: GRUHAS Proptech, Rahul Talwar (DLF Family Office) Harshad Reddy (Apollo Hospitals Family), HDFC Capital Advisory Ltd, Prestige Group
• Headquarters: Chennai 

Internet of Things-based cleantech startup WEGoT Utility Solutions delivers water management solutions to clients from single houses to multi-unit apartments and commercial complexes.

The cleantech clients include Prestige Group, Godrej Properties, Brigade Group, Mahindra World City, and Brookfield among others. WEGoT’s Smart Water Meters manage water consumption and quality in real-time. Its app enables effective monitoring, control and modification of water consumption based on user insights. 

Since its inception, WEGoT has successfully implemented over 100,000 smart devices in over 30,000 homes and on over 40 Mn sq feet of commercial real estate. It has plans to scale up to one million devices in the coming months. The cleantech startup has effectively conserved over 3 Bn litres of water to date and pledges to further save 10 Bn litres in 2022, as claimed by the startup.

The startup that makes smart water meters, raised $1.5 Mn in a funding round in December 2021 led by Gruhas Proptech, a company backed by Abhijeet Pai of Puzzolana Group and Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha.

The startup plans to deploy more water management devices to houses and offices in 2022. WEGoT plans to deploy 10 lakh water management devices by the end of 2022.

WeVOIS

• Founded In: 2018
• Founders: Abhinav Shekhar Vashistha, Abhishek Gupta
• Funding Raised To Date: NA
• Investors: NA
• Headquarters: Jaipur

WeVOIS is a Jaipur-based solid waste management startup offering end-to-end solutions to municipalities across the country for a circular economy and help them meet environmental development goals.

The startup offers IoT-based door-to-door waste collection, fleet management and user charge collection services. WeVOIS also piloted a materials recovery facility in Sikar, Rajasthan, in partnership with the town’s municipal council to enable efficient segregation.

It has also designed a route manager software that decides the optimum route for its helpers to reach customers’ doorstep and provide on time service. The route manager can be accessed by consumers via a mobile app with a well-defined alert management system that enables users to get notified every time before the scheduled pickup.

Zenatix 

• Founded In: 2013
• Founders: Amarjeet Singh, Vishal Bansal, Rahul Bhalla
• Funding Raised To Date: $1.4 Mn
• Investors: Blume Ventures, Microsoft Accelerator Bangalore, Pi Ventures,   
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR 

Energy-data startup Zenatix is a data-driven energy efficiency platform that works with banks and large retail chains. 

The cleantech startup helps organisations to save up to 10-30% on their electricity spend. The startup has deployed WattMan in over 500 retail outlets including bank branches and ATMs, across its clientele of 20 companies.

The energy-data startup raised INR 8 Cr in a Pre-Series A round of funding in 2017 led by pi Ventures. 

Zenatix (part of the $11 Bn Hero Group) expanded its operations to the UAE and the Middle East in the April 2022 region to offer organisations a robust cloud-based energy and asset management solution. 

The cleantech startup plans to deploy 2,500 WattMan in the coming months, increasing its clientele to over 50-60 companies across India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Based on a subscription-based model of revenues, Zenatix aims to expand more in the international markets in future. 

ZunRoof 

• Founded In: 2016
• Founders: Pranesh Chaudhary, Sushant Sachan
• Funding Raised To Date: $4.7 Mn 
• Investors: Godrej Investment Office, Intellecap Impact Investment Network, Ramakant Sharma, (Livspace); Gaurav Gupta (Dalberg Advisors); Pradeep Tharakan (Asian Development Bank); Vismay Sharma (L’Oréal); Ajith Pai (Paipal Ventures); Arun Diaz (IntelleGrow)
• Headquarters: Delhi NCR

ZunRoof specialises in solar rooftop design, installation, and management using technologies such as computer vision, AI and VR. 

The cleantech startup helps reduce its electricity bills by using unutilised rooftops for solar power generation. It also offers IoT devices for power usage monitoring through a companion app.

ZunRoof offers projects with capacity in a range between 1 kilowatt (kW) and 70 kW for residential clients, small factories, schools, hospitals and hotels. Its total installed capacity has crossed 10 Megawatt since its inception in 2016. 

The cleantech startup assessed more than 250,000 homes, designed over 30,000 rooftop solar systems in 75+ cities in India, and installed 15 MW+ of rooftop solar and 50,000+ IoT devices, as of last year.

ZunRoof Tech raised $3 Mn in a Series A round of funding from Godrej Investment Office in 2020. Godrej had invested $1.2 Mn in the startup in a Pre-Series A round in 2019. The cleantech startup entered the solar rooftop market in Bengaluru a few years ago and is planning to enter cities like Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi in future. 

ZunRoof aims to resolve the affordability issue of solar rooftops in Indian homes. It will soon launch its service to improve the affordability of solar rooftops.

Last updated on July 13, 2024

The listicle has been updated to include three new startups – Ecozen, Illumine-I, and WeVOIS.

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Early-stage venture capital firm Orios Venture Partners, which counts Battery Smart, Karbon, ixigo, MobiKwik, CarDekho and Vedantu among its portfolio companies, has reportedly postponed the closure of its third fund for the second time. 

The investor originally targetted to close its fund at $150 Mn in December last year, before extending the deadline to June 2024. Now, the firm is expected to mark its final close in December, Orios partner Sukhmani Bedi told DealStreetAsia.

Inc42 has reached out to the company for comments on the development. The story will be updated based on the response.

The delay in fund closure can be attributed to the departure of managing partners Anup Jain and Rajeev Suri last year, who left to pursue other opportunities, the report added.

Bedi added that last year, partner exits caused the fund closure delay, whereas this time, logistical challenges in onboarding LPs with scheduling constraints led to finalising the closure in December.

Orios had closed two early-stage funds-Orios Fund I and II in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

Launched in 2014, the VC firm’s Fund I was concluded with a final close at INR 300 Cr in 2015. In January this year, the VC firm said it had returned the aforementioned amount to its investors. 

Besides Fund I, it also closed a $30 Mn “Select Fund I” to make follow-up investments in its portfolio startups. Orios backed PharmEasy, GoMechanic, Country Delight, MobiKwik, and Nazara Technologies through this fund. 

The report added that from its third fund, Orios plans to make 12-16 additional investments and intends to start fundraising for its fourth fund next year. The firm is currently in discussions to invest in a climate tech startup and a fintech startup.

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Investment activity across the Indian startup ecosystem continued to remain subdued in the second week of the ongoing month. Between July 7 and 13, startups raised $138.04 Mn across 15 deals, a nearly 22% drop from the $176 Mn raised via 16 deals in the preceding week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [July 7- July 13]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Fintech startup Dezerv scored the biggest cheque this week, bagging $32 Mn in its Series B funding round from investors Premji Invest, Elevation Capital, Matrix Partners, and Accel Partners.
• Propelled by hefty funds secured by Infra.Market and GOAT Brand Labs, ecommerce emerged as the investor favourite sector this week. Startups in the space cumulatively raised $49.3 Mn via five deals.
• From a sectoral funding lens, fintech trailed ecommerce this week. Fintech startups managed to pocket $34.6 Mn via two deals this week.
• Seed funding jumped 173% this week to $8.33 Mn from last week’s $3.05 Mn this week.

Mergers and Acquisitions This Week

• Listed dronetech startup ideaForge bought an undisclosed stake in spacetech startup GalaxEye Space for INR 8.28 Cr. The acquisition will help it develop drone-based sensors for fog and foliage penetrations.
• AI-led fintech startup CASHe bought Centcart Insurance Broking Services to foray into the insurance broking vertical. This acquisition enables CASHe to offer a wider range of products from multiple insurance partners.
• Construction giant L&T will be acquiring semiconductor design startup SiliConch Systems for INR 183 Cr by September 15. The deal will comprise an upfront amount of INR 133 Cr payable at the time of closing the transaction.
• Astrology SaaS platform Melooha bought language translation and astrological guidance startup Munitalks in a cash and stock deal pegged at INR 70 Lakh. Melooha seeks to leverage Munitalks’ multilingual support and astrology consultation services to boost its astrological offerings. 
• Edtech startup Schoolnet acquired quiz-based learning app Genius Teacher in an all-stock deal. With this, Genius Teachers’ cofounder and chief executive Advitiya Sharma will join Schoolnet as chief growth officer.
• Edtech major Adda247 acquired Ekagrata Eduserv for an undisclosed amount to foray into the CA test preparation segment. Ekagrata’ founder Anshul Agrawal will now lead Adda24’s CA category as director.
• Continuing its acquisition spree, Nazara Technologies-backed NODWIN Gaming has now picked up an additional 43.49% stake in Freaks 4U Gaming GmbH for INR 212.9 Cr. This extends its shareholding in the gaming marketing services company to 57%. 

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Logistics unicorn BlackBuck submitted its IPO papers to the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). As per its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), the startup’s public issue will comprise a fresh issuance of shares worth INR 550 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) component of up to 2.16 Cr shares.
• Jaipur-based D2C men’s grooming brand Menhood will list on the NSE Emerge on July 16 and plans to raise INR 19.5 Cr via its IPO. It has set its price brand in the range of INR 71-75.
• As per reports, D2C furniture brand Pepperfry has deferred its IPO plans after engaging with bankers over the past year to enter the public market. The company will increase its focus on growth and profitability in the current financial year.

Other Major Developments Of The Week

• Goldman Sachs is looking to invest $30-50 Mn in software as a service (SaaS) provider MoEngage. As per reports, it has decided to buy shares of MoEngage from some of its early investors.
• Former Premji Invest partner Atul Gupta has launched a venture capital firm Trident Growth Partners (India). The VC will make growth-stage equity investments in startups operating across consumer, financial services, enterprise software and technology, industrial and manufacturing and healthcare sectors.
• Debt financing platform Anicut Capital marked the final close of its maiden pre-IPO equity fund, named as Equity Continuum fund, at INR 300 Cr. It will write cheques in the range of INR 50 Cr to INR 60 Cr and will back 5-6 late stage companies.
• Early-stage VC firm Orios Venture Partners has postponed the closure of its third fund for the second time. As per reports, the firm is expected to now mark the fund’s final close in December. Earlier, the close was pegged at $150 Mn. 

The post From Dezerv To Infra.Market – Indian Startups Raised $138 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) increased their shareholding in D2C beauty brand Mamaearth to 13.95% in the June quarter of FY25, despite widespread selling by these investors in the Indian equity market during this period. 

FIIs held a 12.22% stake in Mamaearth parent Honasa at the end of the March quarter of 2024. The total number of FIIs/FPIs (foreign portfolio investors) invested in Honasa also increased to 128 in the June quarter from 107 in the March quarter.

Meanwhile, the stake held by the mutual funds in Mamaearth increased to 3.56% in Q1 FY25 from 3.13% in Q4 FY24, with the total number of mutual fund schemes invested in the company increasing to 16 from 14 in Q4.

However, Invesco India ELSS Tax Saver Fund, the only mutual fund holding more than 1% stake in the company, sold some shares during the June quarter, bringing down its shareholding to 1.41% from 1.56% at the end of Q4 FY24.

On the other hand, alternate investment funds (AIFs) continued to dump their stakeholding in Mamaearth. At the end of the June quarter of FY25, AIFs held a 9.28% stake in the startup as against 10.17% a quarter ago. 

It is pertinent to note that Fireside Ventures sold 32.4 Lakh shares of the company, or a 1% stake, in an INR 141.2 Cr bulk deal last month. At the end of the June quarter, Fireside held a 4.28% stake in Mamaearth.

Meanwhile, the holding of foreign VC funds in the company also declined due to Sofina Ventures selling a 1% stake in the company worth INR 141 Cr in June. With Sofina’s stake falling to 5.16% in the June quarter, the total stakeholding of foreign VC funds declined to 29.53% from 30.53% in the March quarter of FY24.

Mamaearth’s promoters hold a stake of over 35% in the startup, which remained unchanged sequentially in the June quarter.

Shares of Mamaearth made their debut on the Indian stock exchanges in November last year and have gained almost 47% since then. 

In FY24, the startup posted a full-year profit of INR 110.52 Cr as against a loss of INR 150.96 Cr in the previous fiscal. In Q4, its net profit stood at INR 30.47 Cr on an operating revenue of INR 471.09 Cr.

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B2B light electric vehicle (LEV) manufacturer Zen Mobility is piloting delivery of grocery and dairy products for startups like BigBasket and Country Delight via its recently launched mobile refrigeration unit, Micro Pod ThermoFlex. 

Zen Mobility founder Namit Jain told Inc42 that the startup began the pilot in April in Gurugram region in partnership with startups such as BigBasket, Country Delight, VegEase, and MilkyMist. 

Micro Pod ThermoFlex can store products in a range of 15 to -15 degree Celsius, depending on the needs. 

“During summers, grocery and dairy products which are supposed to be stored cool are being delivered in normal bags. We are trying to address this issue in this pilot,” Jain said while explaining the need for Micro Pod ThermoFlex. 

While the grocery and dairy delivery pilot is in early stages, Zen Mobility is also eyeing partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to deliver vaccines which require cold storage. 

Founded in 2018 by Jain, Zen Mobility manufactures cargo EVs for enterprises. Its flagship vehicle Micro Pod is utilised by Zomato for its large-fleet delivery. While the startup was incorporated six years ago, it launched all its products only last year after years of research and development and testing, the CEO said.

Last month, the startup launched two new variants of its Zen Micro Pod – Micro Pod ThermoFlex and Micro Pod LoadMax. Micro Pod LoadMax has a container with a capacity of approximately 50 cubic feet to handle large ecommerce shipments. 

Zen Mobility inaugurated its manufacturing plant in Manesar in Delhi NCR earlier this year. It has a capacity to manufacture and assemble 50,000 units of Zen Micro Pod per year. The startup is also working on developing a multi-purpose four-wheeler LEV.

Jain told Inc42 that Zen Mobility is looking to raise $10 Mn in its maiden funding round from a strategic partner, who can help the startup scale further. 

The startup competes against the likes of Euler Motors, Etergo, and Zypp Electric. 

The post Exclusive: Zen Mobility Pilots On-Wheels Cold Storage Grocery Delivery With BigBasket, Country Delight appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Japanese tech investor SoftBank reportedly exited troubled fintech major Paytm in the June quarter (Q1) of the ongoing fiscal year at a loss of $150 Mn. 

Citing sources, news agency PTI reported that the investment firm incurred a loss of 10-12% on its investment in the fintech major. SoftBank reportedly invested nearly $1.5 Bn in Paytm’s parent, One97 Communications, in 2017 across multiple tranches. 

“Softbank has exited Paytm at a loss of 10-12%. The total loss is around $150 Mn,” the report quoted a source as saying. 

Meanwhile, another source reportedly said that the development was in line with SoftBank’s plan to exit Paytm within 24 months of the fintech’s initial public offering (IPO). 

For the uninitiated, Softbank held around 18.5% stake in Paytm via two entities before the fintech major’s IPO in 2022. While SVF India Holdings (Cayman) Ltd held 17.3% shares, SVF Panther (Cayman) Ltd owned 1.2% in the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company. 

At the time of the public listing, SVF Panther reportedly sold its entire stake for INR 1,689 Cr ($225 Mn).

Since then, the investment major has steadily brought down its shareholding in Paytm. While it owned a 12.88% stake in Paytm at the end of March 2023, the number further went down to 1.4% in March 2024.

The development comes a day after Inc42 reported that the total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the company declined by 200 basis points during the June quarter of fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25). Meanwhile, shareholding of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in the fintech major also came down to 20.48% in Q1 FY25 from 20.64% in the preceding quarter. 

Shares of Paytm have been under pressure since February after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced curbs on Paytm Payments Bank.

Following this, Paytm’s net loss widened more than 3X to INR 550.5 Cr in Q4 FY24 from INR 167.5 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Its top line also decreased 2.9% year-on-year to INR 2,267.10 Cr during the quarter. 

Amid all these, shares of Paytm have declined over 25% year to date. The stock ended Friday’s trading session 2.47% lower at INR 467.25 on the BSE.

The post SoftBank Exits Paytm At A Loss Of $150 Mn appeared first on Inc42 Media.

It’s hard to miss the Ambani family and Reliance this week. The unabashed opulence and the sheer scale of the Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant wedding ceremony has become the talk of all the world.

But there’s another Reliance-related development that has managed to grab more than its fair share of attention in the last month or so. We can’t imagine many out of the 470 Mn-plus Jio 4G subscribers were happy about the tariff hike announced by Reliance Jio and then by other telcos earlier this month.

And the news was soon followed by a report from brokerage Jefferies about a Reliance Jio IPO by 2025, thanks to the growing focus on monetisation amid market share gains. In other words, consumers can forget about free internet with Jio or indeed for most other Jio internet services as we have seen already with JioCinema in the past year.

How will this change the India internet story? For so long, Reliance Jio’s volume-driven low-pricing strategy has been credited with driving the Indian internet ecosystem as well as digital consumption. Will the price bump cut this narrative short or is India ready to pay a lot more for 4G and 5G services?

That’s after these top stories from our newsroom:

• Prosus’ New Strokes: The investment giant is testing waters with early stage bets in India after its late stage portfolio — comprising unicorns such as BYJU’S, PharmEasy, Meesho and others — is caught on the slow road to profitability
• Caught In Growpital’s Net: More than 5,000 Indians put in their hard earned money into agri investment platform Growpital, and now are unlikely to see a dime back as the company faces allegations of running a fraudulent platform from SEBI and others. Here’s our investigation
• InDrive’s India Push: With over 240 Mn users worldwide, US-based InDrive is making a serious bid for market share in India with a driver-centric fare negotiation and low-commission model. Can it catch up to Ola and Uber even as it competes with other platforms looking to do the same?

Reliance Jio Drives The Market

It’s important to understand that Jio’s dominance has created a situation where the company is India’s telecom market to some extent.

It’s not just Reliance Jio, even Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) raised tariffs with industry wide hikes ranging between 10% and 27% depending on the plan.

While Airtel and Vi increased the tariff for monthly prepaid recharges from INR 179 to INR 199, Jio raised it from INR 155 to INR 189. Airtel and Vi increased prices for annual plans from INR 1,799 to INR 1,999, while Jio surged it from INR 1,559 to INR 1,899.

Even though Jio still has the cheapest plans in the market, it has a sizable majority in terms of market share.

India’s telecom subscriber base crossed the 1.2 Bn users in April 2024, with Reliance Jio commanding 472.4 Mn of this or nearly 40% of the market. Airtel is the next largest with 267.5 Mn subscribers in April 2024, while Vi has 233 Mn and BSNL has 93 Mn subscribers. The lopsided nature of the market is clear from the fact that Jio is just shy of having more users than both Airtel and Vi.

However, the rivalry between Airtel and Jio is considered to be most relevant for the Indian market.

Jio’s lower pricing means that it has the lower average revenue per user or ARPU compared to Airtel despite its high market share. Reliance Jio’s ARPU grew to INR 181.7 in Q4 FY24 from INR 178.8 in the previous quarter. Airtel boasts of ARPU of INR 209 in Q4, compared to INR 193 in Q3.

The direct impact of the tariff hike will be seen in the ARPU for Q2 FY25, results for which are expected around October or November this year. But we expect a major bump for both telcos because the fact that the hikes are industry wide will limit attrition rates to a large extent.

Jio’s Revenue Push

While in isolation the price hikes might be seen as a market-dictated development and a run-of-the-mill action, the other penny drops when you read it along with the Jefferies report on the IPO. Jefferies specifically cited Jio’s focus on monetisation as a shift in business strategy.

According to the brokerage’s report, Jio could list at a $112 Bn valuation which would certainly make it one of the largest companies even within the Reliance empire.

Jio posted a 12% YoY increase in its consolidated net profit to INR 5,583 Cr in the March quarter of FY24. Its operating revenue increased 13.4% YoY to INR 28,871 Cr in the quarter.

The higher revenue inflow from the price hikes are also likely to help the company compensate for the expensive pan-India 5G rollout and deployment of new technologies such as AI.

In June, the company also launched two new apps – JioSafe for communications and file sharing as well as AI-powered translation app JioTranslate. Both have been launched as paid products, clearly underlining the fact that Jio is no longer interested in free products.

In an age when most startups are looking to maximise their revenue efficiency, Jio has no option but to do the same, but its impact is deeper than other examples on this front, such as the platform fees seen on delivery platforms.

Where Is the Regulator?

On reflection, this was long on the cards. For years, many have spoken about how Jio needs to turn on the monetisation engines for its telecom services. But since launch in 2015, Jio has largely focussed on building a captive user base that would ensure that any monetisation-driven attrition will not impact profitability in the long term.

Consumers have been up in arms about the price hikes, as it does impact their livelihoods and disrupts lifestyle aspects such as entertainment, education and more. It cannot be denied that lakhs of Indians depend on mobile internet to earn a living.

Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Zepto, Blinkit, Uber, Rapido, as well as hundreds of thousands of gig workers on the road for other companies all rely on mobile internet for daily wages. Indeed, plenty of JioMart gig workers would also be impacted by these changes.

While most Jio employees get free data plans, this is not the case for gig workers associated with Reliance or Reliance-backed companies. While gig worker wages have not increased in the past year or have been reduced, as seen in the case of Blinkit last year, they now have to fork up more money just to get out there and be able to work.

One trade union tried to get the Prime Minister to enable BSNL to launch 4G and 5G services with more affordable tariffs, and there was a social media call for BSNL to play the role of market vanguard as a state-run company, but it’s unlikely that the government will intervene in this matter.

“There is enough competition in the telecom sector, and the situation is not critical…. Consumers may feel some pinch of the price rise, but the hike has happened after three years,” a government official was quoted by ET.

But in the past, we have seen telecom regulator TRAI step in to investigate price fixing and cartelisation in the telecom sector, even when the battle was about SMS pricing. In May 2023, TRAI said it would be looking at predatory pricing by Airtel and Jio after a complaint by Vi, but there has been no word on this probe since then.

Incidentally, TRAI said its investigation will go back to telecom pricing in the 2G era since it needs to investigate the origin of predatory pricing. By all indications, this is not going to be a quick exercise. So for now, consumers and those using 4G internet to earn a living have to foot the higher bill.

What Happens To The Indian Internet Ecosystem?

There could be ramifications from this on the business side as well as for growth of tech products and services. The risk of a digital divide based on propensity to spend is real.

And it is also becoming increasingly clear that Reliance’s companies such as Reliance Retail and Jio Financial Services have become key competitors to the major startups and tech companies in the country.

Jio has turned into a competitor from an enabler of startups in the early days when it gave Indians almost free internet connectivity to use startup services and products

One investor told Inc42 last year that Jio gave Reliance the pipeline through which it can feed all these services in the future.

A lot of the investment thesis driving capital inflow to India is built on the idea that internet usage and consumption in India has unstoppable momentum. Will this thesis change?

With AI services growing and their use directly linked to lower personal income, limited access to the internet will only increase the economic divide rather than closing it. These are of course questions that cannot be answered in isolation or without the right data.

Will India’s consumption pattern for video streaming and gaming change with more expensive plans? And will that consequently make India a less attractive investment destination?

Sunday Roundup: Startup Funding, Tech Stocks & More

• Indian startups raised just over $138 Mn across 15 deals this week, which is roughly around the weekly average for the year, but surprisingly, there were five separate M&As announced. How many of these will actually go through?
• In a major blow for big tech giant Apple, competition watchdog Competition Commission of India has found the iPhone maker guilty of abusing its dominant position in the app store market, as per reports

• Shares of Zomato touched a new all-time high of INR 223.40 this week, before settling down at INR 222.45 at close on Friday, with the stock showing a marked improvement in the last month
• Ecommerce major Flipkart has added mobile recharge and bill payment options to its fintech super app, which was launched with UPI payments and personal loans through Super.Money
• Yet another tech startup is going for an IPO — Jaipur-based D2C men’s grooming brand Menhood is all set to go public with an NSE Emerge listing and bidding will open on July 16
• Flipkart-backed logistics unicorn BlackBuck has filed its DRHP with markets regulator SEBI for its INR 550 Cr-plus IPO with the three founders and most investors offloading shares

The post Reliance Jio Turns Its Revenue Machine On appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Indian new-age tech stocks experienced a mixed week as investors await the upcoming Union Budget and earnings for the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year 2024-25 (Q1 FY25). 

Analysts expect stock-specific actions in the coming week amid the ongoing earnings season. 

Ten out of the 24 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage gained this week in a range of 1% to a little over 12%. Recently-listed coworking startup Awfis emerged as the biggest gainer, with its shares zooming over 12%. 

Earlier in the week, shares of Awfis touched a record high of INR 635 during intraday trading on July 11. TAC Infosec trailed Awfis, with its shares rising 8.78% this week.  

Paytm and Zomato also saw a healthy uptrend this week, with shares of both the companies gaining over 7% each. Paytm is scheduled to declare its financial results for Q1 FY25 on July 19. Nykaa, PB Fintech, and ixigo were among the other gainers this week.

On the other hand, 14 startups, including last week’s top gainer Honasa, MapmyIndia, Go Digit, and TBO Tek, were among the losers this week. Their shares fell in the range of 0.02% to over 8%. Blockchain and IT development startup Yudiz emerged as the biggest loser this week. 

Amid all these, the ongoing IPO boom continued. On July 7, logistics unicorn BlackBuck filed its IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The startup is looking to raise INR 550 Cr via fresh issue of shares. Besides, the IPO of D2C men’s grooming brand Menhood is scheduled to open on July 16. The startup’s IPO will comprise a fresh issue of 25,95,200 equity shares of face value of INR 10 each. It is expected to raise INR 19.5 Cr via its IPO.

Meanwhile, the broader market maintained its bullish momentum this week. Sensex gained 0.6% to end the week at 80,519.34, while Nifty50 rose 0.7% this week to end Friday’s session at 24,502.15.

Commenting on the market’s performance this week, Geojit Financial Services’ head of research Vinod Nair said that while investors are cautious about the earnings session, there are also expectations of the government presenting a growth-oriented Budget.

Meanwhile, Emkay Wealth Management’s head of research Dr Joseph Thomas said, “Markets trended higher towards the close of the week as the earnings season kicked off on a positive note and inflation numbers in the US were better than expected. The current phase of volatility cannot be ruled out as profit booking may continue ahead of the Budget, which will provide more clarity on policy continuity.” 

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to present the Union Budget 2024-25 on July 23. 

Now, let’s take a deeper look at the performance of some of the new-age tech stocks this week. 

Overall, the total market capitalisation of the 24 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage stood at $63.02 Bn at the end of this week. 

Paytm Shows Signs Of Recovery 

Shares of Paytm ended the week, which was filled with multiple developments for the company, 7.2% higher at INR 467.25. 

While shares of Paytm have been under pressure since February this year, following the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) curbs on Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL), the stock has been seeing an uptrend since last month.

The company was also in the news for multiple reasons this week. Let’s take a look:

• On July 8, the fintech major expanded its employee stock option plan (ESOP) pool by allocating 2,81,394 shares to its employees. 
• A government panel which approves investment from neighbouring countries has reportedly cleared Paytm’s proposed investment in Paytm Payment Services. Final clearance on this issue will pave the way for the Paytm subsidiary to apply for an online payment aggregator (PA) licence to the RBI.
• The drama between Paytm and its recently fired employees escalated, with the labour ministry summoning the fintech major earlier this week. Post this, the startup agreed to not recover the joining bonus from an aggrieved employee.
• Paytm saw a marginal increase in the shareholding of domestic mutual funds and Indian retail investors in Q1 FY25. Meanwhile, ownership of FIIs and foreign portfolio investors in the company went down.

All eyes will now be on Paytm’s Q1 numbers, scheduled to be declared on Friday (July 19).  In its last disclosed financial results for Q4 FY24, Paytm’s loss more than tripled to INR 550.5 Cr from INR 167.5 Cr in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations also declined 2.9% to INR 2,267.10 Cr during the quarter from INR 2,334 Cr in Q4 FY23. 

However, CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma recently reiterated his optimism about the company’s future and said his vision is to turn Paytm into a $100 Bn company. 

Zomato Extends Its Bull Run

Continuing its bull run, the foodtech major’s shares touched a fresh all-time high of INR 223.40 during the intraday trading on July 12. The stock has jumped nearly 170% in the last one year.

Recently, Zomato received its shareholders’ approval to create a new employee stock option pool of 18.26 Cr shares.

However, earlier this week, JM Financial cut Zomato’s price target to INR 230 from INR 250 previously. Giving its reasoning, the brokerage said that ESOP grants should be linked to measurable performance-based outcomes, which is not the case with Zomato’s newly laid-out policy.

“There is a risk of the new ESOP policy being considered unfair by some shareholders as they would be the ones taking a meaningful hit on their earnings in the medium term”, said JM Financial analysts.

Awfis Soars To An All-Time High

While investor interest has been bullish on the coworking space provider startup since its listing on the bourses in May, the company’s shares touched an all-time high of INR 635 during the intraday trading on July 11.

The stock has gained 43% on the BSE since its listing on May 30. 

Recently, Awfis managing director and chairman Amit Ramani told Inc42 that the startup’s top line is expected to breach the INR 1,100 Cr mark in FY25. The company is also looking to expand its portfolio by about 50%, reaching a total of 1,35,000 operational seats by the end of the year. 

Awfis turned profitable in Q4 FY24, posting a profit after tax (PAT) of INR 1.4 Cr on an operating revenue of INR 232.3 Cr.

The post Awfis, Zomato Touch All-Time High Mark Amid A Mixed Week For New-Age Tech Stocks appeared first on Inc42 Media.

It’s the season of spring for startup IPOs. After a lull in IPOs in 2022 and 2023 due to geopolitical tensions, a raging funding winter, and macroeconomic pressures, startups are lining up in droves to list on the bourses in 2024. 

Just six months into the year, five new-age tech companies have already listed on the exchanges – Go Digit General Insurance, TBO Tek, Awfis, ixigo and TAC Security. In contrast, five startups had listed in the entirety of 2023 and just three new-age tech companies made their way to the bourses in 2022. 

The first half of 2024 was just the precursor for the things to come. In the second half, segment giants such as foodtech major Swiggy, EV juggernaut Ola Electric, and omnichannel marketplace FirstCry are also eyeing a market debut. 

But, what is emboldening the startups to revisit their IPO plans, a year after many of them shelved or postponed their plans? The answer is the thawing funding winter, a renewed push for profitability and a growing investor appetite for startup IPOs. 

Speaking with Inc42, angel investor Nikhil Parmar said, “Firstly, many startups have matured to a point where they are ready for public markets, driven by strong growth, robust business models, and proven revenue streams. Additionally, favourable market sentiment and ample liquidity have made the stock market an attractive option for raising capital. Investor confidence is also a significant driver”.

Concurring with this, angel investing platform BizDateUp Technologies cofounder Meet Chandan said that the IPO spring has also been fuelled by investors looking to diversify their portfolio and the promise of substantial returns from tech-driven companies.

What has also helped the ecosystem is the bumper listing of all the new-age companies in 2024 so far. From TBO Tek and Awfis to GoDigit Insurance and ixigo, all have listed at a premium and many have even seen healthy rallies post their listing. 

Non-institutional investors (NIIs) and qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) are seeing merit in backing the growing number of Indian startups making a beeline for the bourses. However, challenges remain. 

Investors are primarily focussed on profitable and sustainable ventures and are steering clear of loss-making entities. Awfis, which reported a profitable quarter after its listing, was an outlier in this regard. Additionally, strong corporate governance guardrails and compliance with existing regulations also seem to be on the top of investors’ agenda. 

“Markets currently are receptive to IPO-bound companies with a good brand, decent unit economics and a clear path to profitability. Public markets are hungry for tech stocks and are welcoming good companies with open arms. So, it’s only natural that more founders would want to take their companies public. This is a great sign for the ecosystem,” said VC firm All In Capital’s cofounder Kushal Bhagia.

Parmar believes that the surge in IPOs amid the funding winter showcases the startup ecosystem’s resilience and adaptability. It also reflects the growing maturity of the ecosystem. 

With this in mind, Inc42 has collated a list of all top Indian startups that have listed on the bourses in 2024 so far as well as those who plan to go for IPO in the near term. Before we dive into the list, here are the latest developments from the Indian IPO landscape: 

Latest Updates:

• Jaipur-based D2C men’s grooming brand Menhood will list on NSE Emerge on July 16 and will look to raise INR 19 Cr from the IPO
• Flipkart-backed logistics unicorn BlackBuck has filed its DRHP with markets regulator SEBI for an INR 550 Cr IPO
• Omnichannel marketplace FirstCry and Snapdeal-backed SaaS platform Unicommerce received SEBI approval for IPO in July

Now, let’s take a detailed look at the list: 

Startups That Have Listed In 2024

This is not a listing of any kind. The startups have been listed in an alphabetical order | Data has been sourced from Inc42, respective DRHPs, MCA filings and other media reports | Asterisk (*) specifies reported numbers:

Awfis

Founded in 2015 by Amit Ramani, Awfis has evolved from just being a coworking network to a tech-enabled workspace solutions platform, catering to freelancers, startups, SMEs, large corporates, and MNCs.

The coworking space provider filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in December last year. The market regulator greenlit the company’s public issue in April 2024 

The startup made its debut on the bourses in May this year. It listed on the BSE at INR 432.25 per share, a premium of 12.8% to its issue price. Similarly, it opened on the NSE at INR 435 apiece – 13.5 % higher than the issue price.

Awfis reported a profit of INR 1.4 Cr in Q4 FY24 against a net loss of INR 13.8 Cr in the year-ago period. Operating revenue also jumped over 45% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 232.3 Cr in the quarter ended March 2024.

Go Digit General Insurance

Founded in 2016, Go Digit offers insurance policies across verticals like health, motor vehicle, travel, property, and more.

The insurtech unicorn refiled its DRHP with SEBI in March after the capital markets regulator flagged concerns over its employee stock appreciation rights scheme. 

The Bengaluru-based startup’s IPO comprised a fresh issue of shares worth INR 1,125 Cr and an OFS component of 5.47 Cr equity shares.

The Virat Kohli-backed startup made a lukewarm debut on Dalal Street in May, listing at a 5.15% to its issue price. The stock listed at INR 286 apiece on the NSE and INR 272 on the BSE. 

Go Digit’s profit after tax (PAT) surged over 400% to INR 182 Cr in FY24 from INR 36 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Gross written premium rose 24.5% to INR 9,016 Cr from INR 7,243 Cr in FY23.

ixigo

Founded in 2006, ixigo started as a travel search website to help users compare flight deals. In FY20, it rebranded as an online travel aggregator to offer services such as flights, trains, bus tickets, hotel bookings and holiday packages.

Le Travenues Technology Ltd, the parent company of ixigo, refiled its DRHP with SEBI in February. The travel tech startup got the market regulator’s nod to launch the public issue in May.

Its IPO comprised a fresh issue of shares worth INR 120 Cr and an OFS component of 6.67 Cr shares worth up to INR 620 Cr.

The startup made a stellar debut on the bourses in June this year. While the stock opened at INR 138.10 per share on the NSE, a premium of 48.5% from the issue price of INR 93, it made its debut at a premium of 45.16% on the BSE. 

Prior to that, the OTA’s public issue also saw high demand and was oversubscribed 98X. 

In Q4 FY24, ixigo posted a PAT of INR 7.4 Cr, up 55.2% from INR 4.7 Cr in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, revenue from operations jumped 20.4% YoY to INR 164.8 Cr Cr during the quarter compared to INR 136.9 Cr in Q4 FY23.

TAC Infosec

Founded in 2016, TAC Infosec (also known as TAC Security) is a SaaS-based cybersecurity startup. It offers risk-based vulnerability management and assessment solutions, cybersecurity quantification, and penetration testing to enterprises.

The Vijay Kedia-backed startup filed its DRHP in January to list on the NSE’s small and medium enterprise (SME) platform NSE Emerge. 

TAC Infosec’s IPO only consisted of a fresh issue of 28.29 Lakh equity shares. The shares listed on NSE Emerge in April at INR 290, a whopping 173.6% premium over the issue price of INR 106.

The startup posted a net profit of INR 6.33 Cr in FY24, a 23% jump from INR 5.12 Cr in FY23. Operating revenue zoomed 17% to INR 11.84 Cr in FY24 from INR 10.09 Cr in FY23.

TBO Tek

Founded in 2006, Travel Boutique Online (TBO) is a B2B travel portal that provides solutions to travel agents and tour operators. It offers white-label solutions, hotel and flight booking APIs and dynamic packages, among others.

The Delhi NCR-based company filed its DRHP with SEBI in November last year. The market regulator granted approval for its public listing in April.

Shares of TBO Tek listed on the NSE in May at a premium of 55% to the issue price. The stock made its debut at INR 1,426 against the issue price of INR 920. On the BSE, the stock listed at INR 1,380, a 50% premium to the issue price.

TBO Tek logged a 64% jump in PAT to INR 46.4 Cr in Q4 FY24 from INR 28.2 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Revenue from operations stood at INR 369 Cr during the period under review, a 31% increase from INR 281.4 Cr in Q4 FY23.

Trust Fintech

Founded in 1998 by Hemant Chafale, Heramb Ramkrishna, and Mandar Kishor Deo, Trust Fintech is an enterprisetech company that offers SaaS products and fintech solutions for ERP implementation, and offshore IT services for the BFSI sector. 

The fintech SaaS company filed its DRHP with NSE Emerge to raise funds via an IPO in February this year and listed on the SME platform just two months later in April. 

It witnessed an oversubscription of 101X for its public issue on the back of huge demand from retail investors and non-institutional investors. Eventually, it listed at a premium of 42% at INR 143.25 apiece as against its issue price of INR 101 per share.

Trust Fintech saw its net profit jump 210% to INR 12.5 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 4 Cr in FY23. Meanwhile, operating revenue jumped 55.4% to INR 35 Cr in the period under review as against INR 22.5 Cr in FY23.

Indian Startup IPOs In Pipeline

*As per reports

AITMC Ventures

Founded in 2016, AITMC Ventures offers drone training and other skill development programmes in the agriculture sector. So far, it has set up 46 centres across India for research, development, training, and testing of drone technology in agriculture.

The integrated agri-drone company filed its DRHP in October last year to list on NSE Emerge. 

The Gurugram-based startup IPO will comprise a fresh equity offering of up to 2.07 Cr shares. It won’t have an OFS component.

The startup reported revenue of INR 21.44 Cr and profit of INR 4.81 Cr in FY23.

Ather Energy

Founded in 2013 by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, Ather Energy is one of the major players in the Indian electric two-wheeler market. It manufactures and services electric two-wheelers and operates its own charging infrastructure.

The EV major has raised more than $431 Mn from Hero MotoCorp, GIC, Tiger Global, among others, across multiple rounds since its inception. 

In June 2024, Ather Enegery’s board passed a resolution to convert the startup into a public company from a private entity previously. Previously, reports surfaced that the company had roped in HSBC Holdings Plc, Nomura Holdings Inc, and JP Morgan Chase & Co to helm its IPO. 

The company was said to be eyeing a listing in the second half of 2024 at a valuation of around $2 Bn.

Ather Energy clocked a net loss of INR 864 Cr in FY23, up 150% from INR 344.1 Cr in the previous year. Operating revenue jumped 4.3X YoY to INR 1,783.6 Cr during the year under review.

Avanse Financial Services

Incorporated in 2013, Avanse is an NBFC focussed on education financing for students and educational institutions in India. Its products cater to students looking to study higher education abroad and in India. 

The non-bank lender filed its DRHP in June 2024 for an INR 3,500 Cr IPO. The IPO will comprise a fresh issue of INR 1,000 Cr and an OFS component of shares worth up to INR 2,500 Cr.

Backed by the likes of Warburg Pincus, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Kedaara Capital, the startup last raised INR 1,000 Cr in a funding round led by Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Mubadala Investment Company in March this year.

As per the DRHP, Avanse’s net profit rose to INR 342.4 Cr in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) from INR 157.71 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue grew to INR 1,726.9 Cr from INR 989.5 Cr in FY23.

Bira 91

Founded in 2015 by Ankur Jain, Bira 91 sells craft, lager and strong beers. It also sells non-alcoholic beverages.

Backed by Peak XV Partners, Sofina and DS Group, Bira 91 has raised $449 Mn in funding across multiple rounds. 

In December 2022, the startup converted into a public company and renamed itself as B9 Beverages Limited. However, the beverage startup is yet to file its DRHP with the SEBI.

The Delhi NCR-based beer brand reported an operating revenue of INR 824.3 Cr in the year ended March 2023, up 15% from INR 718.8 Cr in FY22. Meanwhile, net loss jumped 12% YoY to INR 445.4 Cr in FY23.

BlackBuck

Founded in 2015 by Rajesh Yabaji, Chanakya Hridaya and Rama Subramaniam, BlackBuck operates an online marketplace for inter-city full truck load (FTL) transportation. It claims to be the largest online trucking platform in India, and connects with suppliers with truckers.

The Flipkart-backed logistics unicorn filed its IPO papers with SEBI in July 2024. Its public issue will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth INR 550 Cr and an OFS component of up to 2.16 Cr shares.

Backed by the likes of Tiger Global, Accel, Peak XV Partners and Goldman Sachs, BlackBuck has raised more than $360 Mn in funding to date. 

As per its DRHP, the logistics unicorn reported a net loss of INR 193.9 Cr in FY24, down 33% from INR 290 Cr in the previous year. Operating revenues jumped 69% YoY to INR 296.9 Cr in the fiscal ended March 2024. 

FirstCry

Founded in 2010, FirstCry is an omnichannel mother and kids-focused marketplace. It sells diapers, toys, apparel and cribs, as well as provides daycare facilities and runs a chain of play schools and preschools in India.

The Pune-based startup refiled its draft IPO prospectus in April following a directive from SEBI to include key metrics in its DRHP, first filed in December 2023. The company received the market watchdog’s approval for a public listing in July.

As per the DRHP, FirstCry’s IPO will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth INR 1,816 Cr and an OFS component of 5.4 Cr equity shares.

FirstCry clocked sales of INR 4,814 Cr and reported a loss of INR 278.2 Cr in the first nine months of the fiscal year ended March 2024 (FY24).

Flipkart

Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal founded Flipkart in 2007 and later sold a majority of the company to Walmart in 2018 for $16 Bn. Since then, the ecommerce major has become India’s biggest ecommerce marketplace and has diversified into a host of new areas, including fintech, and travel aggregation. 

The ecommerce major, which is also backed by Google, was last valued at $35 Bn during a $1 Bn fundraise that saw participation from the two investors. 

Just like its sister arm PhonePe, the company is vying for a 2026 IPO. Its B2C arm, Flipkart Internet Private Limited, reported an operating revenue of nearly INR 15,000 Cr mark in the financial year ended March 31, 2023. The marketplace arm’s operating revenue zoomed 42% to INR 14,845.8 Cr in FY23 from INR 10,477.4 Cr in FY22.

Flipkart Internet primarily earns revenue through commission charges and other services it offers to merchants, including advertising of products. Including other income, the B2C arm’s total revenue rose 41% to INR 15,044 Cr during the year under review from INR 10,640.5 Cr in FY22.

Garuda Aerospace

Founded in 2015 by Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Garuda Aerospace designs, manufactures and sells drones. Its offerings also include drone-as-a-service (DaaS) for use cases such as agriculture, defence, and mining. 

Backed by Venture Catalysts, Silver Swan Capital and Claris Capital, the startup has raised $28.2 Mn in funding till date. 

In a chat with Inc42 last year, Jayaprakash said that the company would commence its IPO proceedings post March 2024 and would list by October-November 2024.

Menhood

Founded in 2019 by Dushyant Gandotra, Divya Gandotra and Shivam Bhateja, Menhood is a D2C men’s grooming brand that sells products such as trimmers, intimate perfumes, intimate wash and moisturiser, among others.

The Jaipur-based startup plans to list on NSE Emerge. Its public issue will open on July 16, 2024, six months after it filed its DRHP in January 2024. The D2C brand’s IPO will comprise a fresh issue of 25.95 Lakh equity shares.

MobiKwik

Founded in 2009, MobiKwik started operations as a digital wallet. Since then, it has diversified its business to offer consumer payments, buy now pay later (BNPL), and payment gateway services.

The Delhi NCR-based startup has also introduced a Soundbox-like device, called Vibe, to take on Paytm and PhonePe.

The fintech unicorn refiled its DRHP with SEBI in January to raise INR 700 Cr through a fresh issue of equity shares, down from its earlier attempt to go public in 2021 when it tried to raise INR 1,900 Cr.

Besides, the startup managed to turn profitable in the first six months of FY24. In the first two quarters of FY24, it clocked a net profit of INR 9.5 Cr against a loss of INR 83.8 Cr in the entire of FY23. Meanwhile, revenue from operations stood at INR 381 Cr in H1 FY24, nearly 70% of the startup’s INR 539 Cr top line in the entire FY23.

Ola Cabs

A brainchild of Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola Cabs operates a mobility platform that offers ride-hailing and food delivery services. 

Backed by SoftBank, Ola Cabs has raised more than $3.84 Bn in funding till date and is one of the biggest players in the country in the ride-hailing space. 

Last reported, Ola Cabs was holding talks with investment banks like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi, Kotak, and Axis to helm its IPO. As per the reports, the company was looking to raise $500 Mn via its public listing at a nearly $5 Bn valuation. 

Ola parent ANI Technologies trimmed its loss by nearly half to INR 772.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,522.3 Cr in the previous year. Operating revenue rose 42% YoY to INR 2,799.3 Cr .

Ola Electric

Founded in 2017, Ola Electric is an electric two-wheeler maker that currently retails a portfolio of five scooter models. The Bhavish Aggarwal-led startup is also planning to launch an electric autorickshaw in the coming days.

The Bengaluru-based startup filed its DRHP with SEBI in December last year for an INR 5,500+ Cr IPO. As per the DRHP, the IPO will comprise a fresh issue of INR 5,500 Cr and an OFS component of 9.51 Cr equity shares.

Ola Electric secured approval from the markets regulator for its much-awaited IPO in late June. 

In FY23, Ola Electric’s net loss widened 88% to INR 1,471.6 Cr from INR 783.4 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Sales surged 605% to INR 2,630.9 Cr from INR 373 Cr in FY22. 

Meanwhile, the startup reported sales of INR 1,242.7 Cr in the first three months of FY24. 

OYO

Founded in 2012, OYO is a travel tech startup that offers vacation homes, casino hotels, coworking spaces, budget hotels, corporate stays and more. The hospitality major is also planning to launch 13 self-operated hotels under its premium brand ‘Palette’ by 2024-end.

In May 2024, the Delhi NCR-based hospitality major officially withdrew its IPO documents from the market regulator SEBI. Interestingly, this was OYO’s second attempt at a public listing. 

In early-2024, OYO was said to be looking to raise $400 Bn to $600 Bn, nearly half of its earlier attempt in 2021 when it was looking to raise INR 8,430 Cr ($1.2 Bn).

OYO narrowed its net loss by 34% to INR 1,286.5 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,941.5 Cr in FY22. Operating revenue grew 14% to INR 5,463.9 Cr in FY23 from INR 4,781.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year.  Its cofounder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal claimed that the startup reported a net profit of INR 100 Cr in FY24.

PayMate

Founded in 2006 by Ajay Adiseshann, PayMate is a full-stack supply chain payments automation platform that offers B2B payments solutions for SMEs and enterprises. 

The Mumbai-based fintech startup filed its DRHP in 2022 for an INR 1,500 Cr IPO. At the time, PayMate said that its public issue would comprise a fresh issue of INR 1,125 Cr and an OFS of INR 375 Cr. 

Eventually, the market regulator returned the company’s DRHP and asked PayMate India to refile the IPO papers with certain updates. In early 2023, the company reportedly said that it was planning to refile its DRHP but there has been no clarity on its IPO plans since then. 

In FY23, the startup trimmed its net loss by 3.5% YoY to INR 55.7 Cr in FY23. Operating revenue jumped 11.7% YoY to INR 1,350.1 Cr in FY23.

PayU

The Prosus-backed fintech major is also gearing up for a public listing in India. In October last year, the company was reportedly mulling seeking regulatory approval for a $500 Mn IPO. 

At the time, it was said that PayU had appointed Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America as advisors for the IPO, reportedly slated to happen by 2024-end. 

In  November, the then interim Prosus CEO Ervin Tu said that PayU could be ready for a public listing in India by the second half of calendar year 2024. 

As per the Dutch investor’s annual report, PayU India clocked a revenue growth of 11% year-on-year (YoY) to $444 Mn in FY24. However, this was lower than the 31% revenue growth reported in FY23 and over 40% jump it clocked in FY22.

PhonePe

Founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer, PhonePe is India’s biggest digital payments platform and accounts for nearly half of all Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments processed in the country. 

Since its inception, it has morphed into a full-fledged financial services platform offering a host of digital payment services, mutual funds and insurance products to customers. The fintech major was acquired by ecommerce juggernaut Flipkart in 2016. 

Six years later, Flipkart parent Walmart set into motion its plans to hive off PhonePe as a separate entity and redomicile the fintech company back to India. In late-2022, PhonePe flipped back to its home turf, with an eye on listing on Indian bourses. 

However, in June 2024, a senior Walmart executive said that PhonePe’s IPO could take a couple of years, setting the stage for a 2026 IPO. 

The fintech major saw its consolidated net loss widen 39% YoY to INR 2,795.3 Cr FY23. Revenue soared 77% YoY to INR 2,913.7 Cr during the year under review. 

Portea Medical 

A brainchild of Krishnan Ganesh and Meena Ganesh, Portea Medical is a healthtech startup that offers services such as maternal care, physiotherapy, nursing, lab tests, counselling and critical care. 

Backed by Accel, InnoVen Capital, Alteria Capital and British International Investment, Portea Medical has raised more than $92.3 Mn across multiple rounds till date.

The healthtech startup filed its IPO papers in July 2022 for an INR 800 Cr IPO. As per its DRHP, the IPO then comprised a fresh issue of equity shares worth INR 200 Cr and an OFS component of up to 56.25 Mn shares.

In April 2023, it received approval from the market regulator to go ahead with the public listing on the BSE and NSE. However, there have been no further updates on its IPO plans.

Portea Medical posted a net loss of INR 53 Cr in FY23, up from INR 40 Cr in the previous year. Revenue from operations declined 3.3% YoY to INR 145 Cr during the year under review. 

Smartworks

Founded in 2016 by Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani, Smartworks is a shared workspace provider that offers customisable coworking solutions for enterprises. 

The startup has raised $41 Mn in funding till date and is backed by the likes of Ananta Capital, Keppel Land and Plutus Capital. 

Taking the first step towards its IPO, the startup turned into a public company in July 2024 and changed its name to Smartworks Coworking Spaces Ltd from Smartworks Coworking Spaces Private Ltd previously.

It reported a net loss of INR 101 Cr in FY23, up 44% YoY. Meanwhile, operating revenue nearly doubled to INR 711 Cr during the year under review from INR 360 Cr in FY22. 

Swiggy

Swiggy commenced operations as an online food delivery platform in 2014. In 2020, it also entered the grocery delivery business with Swiggy Instamart. 

Now, the Bengaluru-based startup has begun diversifying beyond the quick commerce grocery business. Swiggy Instamart now also offers high-value products, allowing shoppers to order fitness and electronics devices. 

Swiggy filed its DRHP with markets regulator SEBI via the confidential pre-filing route for an IPO worth INR 10,414.1 Cr ($1.2 Bn) in April. The IPO will include a fresh issuance of shares worth INR 3,750.1 Cr (about $449 Mn), and an OFS of INR 6,664 Cr (about $799 Mn), as per regulatory filings. 

On top of that, Swiggy is also looking for a INR 750 Cr pre-IPO funding round. 

Swiggy reportedly posted a net loss of $207 Mn (INR 1,730 Cr) during the first nine months of FY24 as against a net loss of INR 4,179.3 Cr in FY23. Revenue from operations stood at $1.02 Bn (around INR 8,505 Cr as per current exchange rates) during April-December 2023, as compared to INR 8,264.4 Cr in the entirety of FY23.

Ullu

Founded by the husband-wife duo of Vibhu Agarwal and Megha Agarwal, Ullu Digital is a Mumbai-based OTT platform that deals with the distribution, promotion, exhibition, marketing and delivery of video content on its streaming platform Ullu. 

It filed its DRHP with the BSE SME for an IPO in February this year. As per the draft papers, the company’s IPO would comprise a fresh issue of 62.63 Lakh shares and would not have OFS component.

Ullu Digital plans to raise INR 135-INR 150 Cr via the IPO, which, if approved, would become the biggest SME IPO till date. 

The platform plans to use the net proceeds raised via the IPO to meet its expenses for production of new content, purchase of international shows, tech investment, and to meet the working capital requirements.

While Vibhu Agarwal holds a 61.75% stake in Ullu Digital, Megha Aggarwal owns 33.25% of the company. 

In March 2024, the OTT streaming platform came under the scanner of multiple government authorities including SEBI, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for allegedly selling “pornographic” content using school children.

Unicommerce

Founded in 2012 and acquired by Snapdeal in 2015, Unicommerce is an ecommerce SaaS startup that enables sellers to manage their inventory across all online marketplaces. It offers integrations with all major ecommerce platforms active in India.

Unicommerce filed its DRHP in January and received regulatory approval on July 1. The startup plans to sell up to 2.98 Cr shares through the IPO route.

The SoftBank-backed startup’s IPO will only have an OFS component, with no fresh issuance of shares. 

Unicommerce’s net profit stood at INR 6.3 Cr in H1 FY24. In FY23, the startup clocked a 8% jump in its net profit to INR 6.4 Cr as against INR 6 Cr in the previous fiscal year. 

Meanwhile, the ecommerce SaaS startup reported an operating revenue of INR 51 Cr in H1 FY24. In FY23, the startup’s operating revenue shot up 52% to INR 90 Cr from INR 59 Cr in FY22.

Zappfresh

Founded by Deepanshu Manchanda and Shruti Gochhwal in 2015, Zappfresh is a D2C meat startup that supplies meat from farms to customers within 90 minutes. 

Taking its first step towards IPO,the startup converted into a public entity in April 2024 after dropping “private” from its name. As per its RoC filings, the company changed its name to DSM Fresh Foods Limited from DSM Fresh Foods Private Limited previously. 

Last Updated: July 14, 10:00 AM IST

The post Indian Startup IPO Tracker 2024 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Earlier this year, we reported how the Indian healthcare sector was poised for a complete makeover with the advent of GenAI. From lab assistance and clinical diagnosis to health monitoring and drug discovery, hardly anything falls outside the ambit of this emerging technology today.

In fact, the technology has now seamlessly seeped into the realm of medicine and antibody discovery to combat some of the most gruesome diseases known to mankind. 

However, given that the tech is in its nascent stages, we have yet to make major headways towards making the use of this tech cost-effective and more agile. Any move in this direction will prove to be pivotal, as it typically takes more than a decade and billions of dollars in investments to discover a new drug and then bring it to market.   

It is this paradigm that Bengaluru-based startup immunitoAI aspires to disrupt. Founded by Aridni Shah and Trisha Chatterjee in 2020, the biotech startup is using artificial intelligence (AI) to expedite antibody discovery and reduce its cost.

Operating in a market expected to reach $13.21 Bn by 2028 on the back of increased investment in drug discovery and demand for precision therapeutics, the startup uses AI to design novel antibodies from scratch. In the process, the founders remain laser-focused on reducing drug discovery time from years to months. In September 2020, immunitoAI secured $1 Mn in seed funding led by pi Ventures.

immunito’s Inception Saga

The startup’s story began in 2020 with Entrepreneur First’s (EF) talent program, which brought Shah and Chatterjee together, as they shared a common goal of changing how drugs are discovered. This eventually paved the way for the incorporation of immunitoAI.

“EF’s program provided the platform for us to meet and combine our expertise,” Chatterjee said.

However, the path ahead presents significant challenges, and the biggest one amongst the spectrum was scepticism of the industry and investors towards AI applications in the field of biology. 

The biotech industry’s history of unfulfilled promises, and there are several of them, has bred scepticism towards AI in healthcare. “In biology, AI has unfortunately been misused. Many have made humongous claims and have not delivered. Hence, people are sceptical to accept AI-based solutions in biology,” she said.

immunitoAI faces the challenge of proving its AI-driven approach can truly accelerate antibody discovery while maintaining scientific rigour. The founders’ combined expertise in biology and computer science has been crucial in addressing these concerns. 

Nevertheless, as per Chatterjee, immunitoAI treads differently as compared to traditional antibody discovery companies that follow the standard operating procedures of injecting target proteins into animals to produce antibodies. Chatterjee added that this popular practice can take years and doesn’t guarantee effective drug candidates.

Speaking about the startup’s AI tech stack, the cofounder said that the immunitoAI platform comprises two main arms: imDESIGN and imRANK. 

She elaborated that while imDESIGN utilises generative AI models to create new antibody designs from scratch, imRANK then evaluates these designs, predicting how well they might bind to their targets and ranking them based on various parameters.

The platform employs deep learning algorithms trained on experimental data from protein databases. In addition, it uses graph neural networks to represent the 3D structure of proteins and transformer models to generate antibody sequences.

“Our AI models work at the atomic level, analysing the interactions between individual atoms in the antibody and target protein. This allows for a more precise prediction of binding affinity and potential drug properties,” Chatterjee further explained. 

Although in the testing phase, immunitoAI has achieved 90-95% accuracy in generating biologically viable antibody sequences. 

“Currently, we’re focused on improving the binding affinity of antibodies to their targets. Our next step is to benchmark our antibody designs against existing ones. We’ll select a target with a known antibody in the market and generate our own version. This will allow us to compare the development timelines and efficacy,” the cofounder said.

Apart from this, the startup plans to conduct laboratory experiments to validate its AI-generated antibodies. This includes synthesising the antibodies and testing their binding properties and stability in real-world conditions.

What’s Ahead For immunitoAI

Currently, immunitoAI has plans to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to design antibodies aimed at specific diseases. Once the startup develops promising antibody candidates, it plans to licence them to pharmaceutical companies for further development and clinical trials.

“We’re in discussions with several top pharmaceutical companies. They’re interested in our ability to potentially reduce the time and cost of the initial drug discovery phase,” Chatterjee said.

The startup is also in the process of protecting its intellectual property. Looking ahead, immunitoAI is preparing for future funding rounds. 

Meanwhile, companies like immunitoAI seem to be growing in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. In March this year, we extensively talked about a similar startup, Boltzmann, which, too, harnesses GenAI to facilitate drug discovery and enhance the success rates of clinical trials.

Boltzmann uses both open-source and proprietary models to design novel drugs and optimise R&D processes for Indian drug manufacturers. Alongside this, Boltzmann’s technology stack includes four platforms that aid in clinical trials, disease diagnosis, and the design and discovery of vaccines and antibodies.

As per a report, the Indian market for AI in drug discovery is projected to surpass INR 2.57 Lakh Cr by 2028. For now, it will be interesting to see how immunitoAI changes the drug discovery game in the country going ahead.

The post How immunitoAI Is Changing The Rule Of Antibody Discovery With Its AI Stack appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Hospitality giant OYO has come to the IPO table twice and left without a bite. While the company will refile the draft prospectus for its much-anticipated initial public offering soon, the focus has turned to OYO’s efforts to refinance debt ahead of the public listing. 

According to sources, the OYO IPO is likely to be pushed back by six months to a year, especially as the company awaits the terms of the refinancing deal for the $660 Mn Term Loan B availed by founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal to buy back shares from investors in 2019. 

The IPO postponement is largely because of the material implications on OYO’s financials from this refinancing of this loan, which was already restructured in 2022. 

OYO is said to be actively looking for a pre-IPO placement round cumulatively raising $100 Mn – $150 Mn from various fund offices, HNIs  albeit at a much lower valuation than its last fundraise, when it commanded a valuation of close to $10 Bn. Top sources privy to the ongoing funding developments within the company said that the company has raked in $100 Mn from a clutch of investors and the announcement is likely to happen next week.

While Inc42 could not verify the deal structure, it is said to involve a secondary share sale as the company’s largest investor SoftBank looks to divest its stake as valuation drops.

OYO’s Turnaround Towards Profits

The refinancing of around $660 Mn (approx INR 5,300 Cr) of the pending Term Loan B amount will help the company save INR 124 Cr – INR 141 Cr  per annum and will have material implications on the FY25 financial performance. 

“The refinancing will reduce interest rate from 14% to 10%, lead to considerable annual savings and extend the repayment date to 2029. OYO’s operating costs improved to 14% of top line revenue in FY24, from 19% in FY23. Costs were cut across the board, which also led to layoffs,” as per our sources close to the company management.

This is in line with company’s claims of turning around the INR 1,000 Cr net loss in FY23 to INR 100 Cr net profit in FY24. OYO is said to have significantly cut down its employee costs by laying off nearly 600 employees even as lease related costs shot up. 

CEO Agarwal further said that the company had logged eight consecutive quarters of profitability in FY23 and FY24, and had cash reserves of INR 1,000 Cr. While OYO is yet to file its audited financial statements for FY24, the company seems to have turned things around in a major way. 

Yes, the debt restructuring is a challenge that is yet to be overcome, but from a business model and revenue perspective, the turnaround is evident and nothing short of a remarkable feat for OYO, where there have been questions for years about profitability. 

So what really worked out for OYO in FY24?

Sharp Focus On Spiritual Tourism

In January 2024, Ritesh Agarwal was one of the few startup founders, officially invited for the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony in Ayodhya. The invitation came after OYO signed up more than 60 new properties and homestays in the temple town to cater to the influx of tourists. 

This is not an isolated incident but a concerted push by OYO to cater to the millions of travellers who visit places of spiritual or religious importance. 

Besides Ayodhya, OYO has targetted Katra (in Jammu & Kashmir) as well as holy sites in Uttarakhand and other spiritual hotspots in the past year. In January this year, OYO announced that it will add 400 properties in popular destinations for spiritual travel including locations such as Puri, Shirdi, Varanasi, Amritsar, Tirupati, Haridwar, and the Char Dham route by the end of this year.

The sharp focus on spiritual travel has shown big returns. “The pilgrim stays don’t need much of a facelift since pilgrims require basic facilities to stay for 3-5 days when they are on the move. Religious tourism has been a key driver of growth for OYO especially this year,” a hospitality sector analyst told us.

As further proof, the company claimed a staggering 350% increase in searches for Ayodhya on OYO over the past year. 

Sports Tourism & Corporate Bookings Grow

Cricket is often called a religion in India and OYO seems to have cashed in on the holy sites for cricket fans around the country. 

India hosted the ICC World Cup in 2023 and OYO increased its presence in the host cities with the addition of 400 hotels across the country strategically situated near the host stadia. 

“In 2022, OYO did delist many hotels from the platform due to tiffs with hotel partners and since there was revision of contracts. However more hotels were onboarded in 2023 and 2024,” a source, who is privy to the company’s strategy, told Inc42.

Besides sports travel, corporate travel bookings have also shot up last year and this year leading to expansion in medium budget hotels. The company said earlier that it saw a 20% growth in the revenues in H1 2023 on the back of adding nearly 2,800 corporate clients in the same period. 

Sources within the company stated that OYO has onboarded 15,000 corporate accounts and more than 10,000 travel agents, which has significantly improved the revenue mix for OYO, and allowed the company to rely on two separate growth engines. 

Tapping First-Generation Hoteliers 

In 2023, OYO launched the inaugural cohort of its accelerator programme under which the company partnered with the first-generation hoteliers. The company is today running 1,000 hotels under the project. In March, 2024 OYO tied up with JP Morgan to offer a credit facility for these entrepreneurs.

Besides helping these hotels scale up and grow, OYO earns extra commissions from these hotel partners and it also helps them avail credit facilities which also comes with a revenue component. 

“One of the reasons why OYO has been successful in tying up with first generation hotel owners is that the operations are running far more smoothly than the legacy hotels. There are less conflicts of interests and better revenue sharing percentages in this tie-up and each entrepreneur is running 2-3 hotels under the programme,” a source added. 

Restructured Inventory, Focus On Branded Hotels

OYO’s brand is built around its proposition for the budget traveller. But in FY23, the company shed a lot of its inventory of rooms to focus on profitability. As per our sources who are privy to the internal business and revenue strategy of OYO, the company delisted thousands of hotels in FY23 following conflicts of interest and tussles with hotel partners. 

“The first shift was to restructure its hotel inventory in India. It stopped chasing growth in terms of the number of hotels. The culled its low-performing and low-customer experience hotels. A large part of this clean-up played out in FY23 where its hotel count decreased from 12,000 to 8,000,” the source mentioned above added.

Despite a massive drop in the number of hotels, OYO’s gross booking value or top line revenue increased substantially to INR 3.9 Lakh per hotel in FY23 from INR 2.19 Lakh per hotel in FY22.

“There was increased focus on customer reviews and hotels were accorded Super OYO tag based on customer ratings. This also led to an increase in the footfalls for Super OYO hotels. This is akin to the Superhost tag on Airbnb,” the source added. 

Following this, the company increased the number of hotel partners in FY24, but the updated GBV numbers for FY24 are not available yet. Those in the know told us that the premium category drives revenue growth, but this space was largely captured by legacy hotels. OYO zeroed in on some properties to onboard them and improve visibility and also launched new brands. 

According to a Hotelivate report, the branded and organised hotel sector in India closed 2023 with decade-high numbers for occupancy of 66.1%, average daily rate of INR 6,869 and revenue per available room (or RevPAR) of INR 4,537, which is nearly double of FY23. 

For instance, in April 2024, OYO launched a joint venture with lead investor SoftBank under the luxury hotel chain brand ‘Sunday’. These properties have been launched in Jaipur, Vadodara and Chandigarh, with more cities lined up. 

Improving Take Rates With Revenue Sharing Strategy

Several years ago, OYO onboarded thousands of hotels with a minimum guarantee for revenue, but at the time its focus was on expansion. 

Now, the focus is on revenue, which means the company has turned to a revenue-sharing strategy with the onus now on hotels to improve the infrastructure, even as OYO will give them a broader access to the consumer base, marketing tools and technology. 

It charges partner hotels 30% on average in commission these days, with the revenue sharing varying according to hotel’s frequency of bookings and how much value it is offering the platform. 

While the earlier minimum guarantees posed challenges such as cash burn and reckless spending on low quality hotels, the new revenue sharing model allows the company to target more premium hotel chains for partnerships. 

Sharpening Focus On Overseas Markets

The final piece of the puzzle seems to be OYO’s focus outside India. 

Sources close to OYO claim the company has scaled down overseas from 80 geographies to 35 today. This also means a bigger focus on the markets that are bringing in revenue and where the company does not have to go up against big competition. “OYO set up nearly 400 rooms in major Chinese cities. However it has driven its focus away from China to the UK and few cities in the US now,” sources further added. 

OYO faces stiff competition in Europe and many large cities in the US in the vacation homes segment from the likes of Booking.com and Airbnb, but this is less of a problem in Nordic countries, Southeast Asia as well as parts of the UK and US which regulate platforms like Airbnb. These markets have come to the fore for OYO in the past two years.

Further, there has been a 21% increase in the overseas travel from India compared to 2019 with a greater uptick in the first quarter of 2024, according to the MasterCard Economics Institute’s latest report on the back of larger demand from middle class families. 

“Surprisingly, markets such as the US and UK also grew, perhaps due to the strong South Asian and Indian diaspora in the hotelier business in these countries and the value hunting by customers due to the tepid economy,” sources privy to OYO’s business growth told us. 

Can OYO Refinance In Time?

While the sharper focus on the unit economics, business model and strategy have seemingly delivered the results from a financials perspective, the next big challenge for OYO will be to show that its past indebtedness will not be a major long-term problem. 

Profitability is the biggest demand by public markets investors, and many new-age tech companies such as OYO which wanted to list in 2021 spent the last two years figuring out the answer. It seems OYO is ready now, but the final hurdle will be the terms of the refinancing. 

The timing cannot be better for OYO with the IPOs of TBO Tek and ixigo this year showing that investors have a lot of appetite for new-age stocks, but almost all of these companies came to the IPO table with a consistent record of profitability. 

Now, OYO has to prove that its turnaround in the past year was not a flash in the pan and that profitability can be sustained for the foreseeable future.  

[Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam]

The post Booking Profits: How IPO-Bound OYO Turned Things Around In FY24 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup UptimeAI has raised $14 Mn (about INR 116 Cr) in its Series A funding round led by WestBridge Capital.

The funding round also saw participation from existing investor Emergent Ventures and new backer Aditya Birla Ventures, the venture capital (VC) arm of Aditya Birla Group.

The startup will use the capital to scale its AI tech stack and expand product portfolio. A part of the funds will also be utilised to bolster UptimeAI’s footprint in geographies across North America, Middle East and Asia.

Founded in 2019 by Jagadish Gattu and Vamsi Yalamachili, UptimeAI enables its clients in the heavy manufacturing industry to minimise efficiency losses, reduce maintenance costs and increase workforce productivity via its AI-driven digital solutions. 

“With 90% of our revenues from the US and Middle East markets, this funding validates our go-to-market and product strategy and enhances our offering significantly,” said UptimeAI CEO Gattu. 

As per Gattu, the startup’s AI platform predicts equipment failures before they occur, identifies inefficiencies and suggests optimisations to improve performance. It has clients spanning sectors such as power generation, oil and gas, chemicals, metals, automotive, food and beverages and aerospace. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), OCI Global and UltraTech Cement are among the clients of the startup.

 Commenting on the fundraise, Aditya Birla Ventures founder Aryaman Vikram Birla said, “UptimeAI demonstrates strong RoI (return on investment) impact across large enterprise clients in the US and India. Our investment aligns with our vision to support outstanding founding teams building businesses of tomorrow”.

The startup previously raised $3.5 Mn in a seed funding round led by Emergent Ventures in 2022. UptimeAI gets 90% of its revenue from the US and the Middle Eastern markets.

While it competes with global players like Augury and SparkCognition in the US, it locks horns with homegrown startup Infinite Uptime in the Indian market. Uptime AI operates in the larger global AI market for heavy industries, which is projected to be a $47.8 Bn opportunity by 2029.

UptimeAI also featured in the February 2021 edition of Inc42’s “30 Startups To Watch”. 

The fundraise comes at a time when the AI boom has gripped the world and has spawned the rise of new startups out of India. These homegrown new-age tech companies cater to clients in a wide variety of segments, including consumer support, manufacturing, and fintech. 

The post UptimeAI Bags $14 Mn To Offer AI Solutions To Monitor Manufacturing Plants appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Hospitality major OYO’s parent Oravel Stays Ltd is reportedly planning to rope in Sumer Juneja, managing partner and head of EMEA & India Investing at SoftBank Vision Fund, as a non-executive director on its board.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Juneja has been with SoftBank for nearly six years. Prior to that, he served as a board member of the foodtech company Swiggy for about four years. Juneja has also worked with Norwest Venture Partners and Goldman Sachs.

As per PTI’s report, the appointment is subject to shareholders’ approval to be sought at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).

Inc42 has reached out to OYO on the development. The story will be updated based on the response.

Sumer will join Oravel Stays’ Board as a nominee director of Softbank, the report said. Also, the move signals SoftBank’s bullish stance on OYO, in light of the company turning profitable, sources were quoted as saying in the report.

OYO reported its first full year of profitability with a net profit of about INR 100 Cr in FY24, founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal claimed. Taking to social media platform X, he said OYO logged its eighth straight quarter of positive EBITDA in Q4 FY24.

Agarwal added that the SoftBank-backed startup’s cash reserves stood at around INR 1,000 Cr at the end of the year.

Earlier this year, OYO launched a joint venture with lead investor SoftBank under the luxury hotel chain brand ‘Sunday’. These properties have been launched in Jaipur, Vadodara and Chandigarh, with more cities lined up.

“SoftBank is actively supporting OYO and showing renewed interest in its prospects. They want to provide impetus to the company’s growth in international markets,” the report quoted a person familiar with the development.

Meanwhile, the hospitality unicorn is raising $50 Mn (about INR 415 Cr) from financial services provider InCred, to utilise the capital for global expansion, which could also include the acquisition of smaller business in the same sector.

Post the allotment, InCred would own around 2.11% stake in the Ritesh Agarwal-led startup.

The post OYO Likely To Rope In SoftBank’s Sumer Juneja To Its Board appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Ahead of its Big Billion Days sale, ecommerce major Flipkart is now planning to open nearly 100 dark stores across top cities, intensifying its battle in the quick commerce space.

According to an ET report, the move is a part of Flipkart’s strategy to take on quick commerce players like Zepto, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart this festive season, as fast delivery is expected to capture significant sales due to non-grocery segment expansion and early preparations.

Flipkart Minutes is currently accessible to select users in certain pincodes. The service is expected to launch in a couple of weeks, a source told ET. Initially, it will be stabilised in specific areas before being scaled up. Flipkart Minutes will start with vegetables, fruits, groceries, electronics, and other products.

Flipkart would go “all out” during the festive season, he added.

The report added that Flipkart aims to have around 100 dark stores ready and tested for various demand scenarios by the launch. Dark stores, which are mini warehouses for deliveries, are being tested with employees at Flipkart’s Bengaluru headquarters, using a nearby dark store.

This comes days after ecommerce major Flipkart said it is expanding its digital payment offerings with new recharge and bill payment options. 

Recently, the ecommerce giant has made significant strides in the digital payment space. It launched its digital payment platform, super.money, in beta mode to offer UPI services, coupled with cashbacks and rewards on Flipkart, Myntra, and Shopsy. 

It is noteworthy that all these efforts are occurring as Flipkart considers relocating its parent entity from Singapore to India, ahead of its IPO.

(The story will be updated soon.)

The post Flipkart Mulls 100 Dark Stores Ahead Of Big Billion Days Sale appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Foodtech companies Swiggy and Zomato have reportedly hiked the platform fee to INR 6 per order in its key markets, including Delhi and Bengaluru.

ET reported the development first.

The move could be seen as an essential to these foodtech players as they look to improve their take rates. Both Swiggy and Zomato have been experimenting with platform fees to boost their overall revenues and profits.

The platform fee was first introduced by Zomato in its portal with INR 2 per order initially. This was followed by Swiggy, called ‘collection fee’.

Shares of Zomato Ltd are up over 2% at INR 226.97 in the early hours of trading on Monday (July 15).

Zomato has hiked its platform fee twice this year. It first increased the charges to INR 4 per order across key markets on New Year. Then, it hiked the same by 25% to INR 5 per order across its key markets in April.

Meanwhile, Swiggy was caught under speculation that it could possibly double its platform fee on food orders from INR 5 to INR 10 in the coming months to offset losses ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO), which was denied by the company.

The latest price hike was flagged by a user on reddit, two days ago.

Swiggy has now introduced the new hike to appear as a discount from INR 7 to INR 6 in the checkout page.

Platform fee is a compulsory charge a customer has to pay apart from the GST and restaurant fee, even if the user subscribes to Zomato Gold or Swiggy One. The subscription provides the advantage of eliminating delivery charges imposed on the bill.

This hike comes after Zomato introduced a feature update on its platform tol now allow customers to remove their past orders from the app’s history, which was informed through a tweet by CEO Deepinder Goyal last week.

The post Swiggy, Zomato Raise Platform Fees By 20% In Key Markets appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Before November 2022, OpenAI was a little-known startup in the US. However, that very month, the company unveiled a chatbot, ChatGPT, which in just two months crossed 100 Mn monthly active users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. 

OpenAI’s GPT-3, a large language model (LLM), has since paved the way for GPT-4 and $11 Bn+ in funding for OpenAI, mostly from Microsoft.

At the time when OpenAI was making waves across the globe, India’s GenAI ecosystem was still very much in its infancy.

However, the country’s GenAI space seems to have made massive strides since then. Not only have we been able to mint India’s first AI unicorn, Krutrim, but also attracted major interest from investors and entrepreneurs to cause a stir in this space.   

Consequently, India is home to more than 100 GenAI startups and these startups have raised more than $600 Mn since 2019.

Spearheading this transition are names like SarvamAI and Krutrim, which are focussed on building Indic LLMs, while others like ObserveAI, having secured $214 Mn, are leveraging AI to offer customised customer and operational support to businesses. 

Today, a large number of startups across sectors and industries, from OYO to Unacademy, are seen using this emerging technology to streamline user experience and operations.

According to Inc42, India’s GenAI market is expected to see a major boom in the coming years and is projected to cross the $17 Bn mark by 2030. 

In line with the growing market opportunity in this space, we have endeavoured to collate a list of Indian startups that are causing a stir in the rapidly evolving Indian GenAI space.

(Note: The startups below have been listed in the order of the amount of funding raised since their incorporation. This is not an exhaustive list, we will be updating it periodically. If you would like to refer a GenAI startup to be featured in this list, write to us @ editor@inc42.com)

Meet The GenAI Startups Putting India On The Global AI Map

1. Observe AI

Founded in 2017 by Sharath Keshava Narayana and Swapnil Jain, Observe AI is a conversational intelligence platform for contact centres. 

Observe.AI has raised a total of $214 Mn in funding over 6 rounds. It bagged 125 Mn in its last funding round in 2022. 

The platform is supported by marquee investors such as Zoom, Bossanova Investimentos, Y Combinator, Menlo Ventures, and Nexus Venture Partners. It competes with the likes of companies like Noogata, TUNGEE, Osense Technology, Slang Labs, etc.

2. Pixis

Founded in 2020 by Harikrishna Valiyath, Shubham A Mishra, Vrushali Prasade, Pixis provides a codeless AI infrastructure platform for brands to monitor and orchestrate their marketing campaigns.

Since its inception, the startup has raised $209 Mn in capital. It raised $85 Mn in its last funding round in 2023. 

Pixis is backed by startups like Grupo Carso, General Atlantic, Celesta Capital and Chiratae Ventures. It competes with the likes of Utilidata, HeadSpin, and Navikenz in the larger AI-powered technology space.

3. Ola Krutrim 

Founded in 2022 by Ola and Ola Electric founder Bhavish Aggarwal, Krutrim is experimenting with GenAI to develop an India-specific LLM. The startup’s family of LLMs is said to be capable of working with 10 Indian languages. However, Krutrim has yet to release any publicly-available products.

The startup made headlines in January 2024 when it became the first pure-play AI startup in India to hit a unicorn valuation over its recent $50 Mn funding round. So far, it has secured $74 Mn in funding, becoming one of the most well-funded AI startups in the country, from backers such as Matrix Partners India.

The startup competes with the likes of Sarvam AI, Mistral AI, and DeepMind.

4. SarvamAI

Founded in 2023 by AI4Bharat creators Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, SarvamAI aims to develop custom-made LLMs, specifically designed for India-centric use cases.

Backed by names such as Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures, the Bengaluru-based GenAI startup raised a Series A funding of $41 Mn (around INR 342 Cr) led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in December 2023.

5. Avaamo

Founded in 2014 by Ram Menon and Sriram Chakravarthy, Avaamo is a deep-learning software company that specialises in conversational interfaces to solve specific, high-impact problems in the enterprise tech realm. 

Avaamo is building fundamental AI technology across a broad area of neural networks, speech synthesis and deep learning to make conversational computing for businesses a reality.

Over the years, Avaamo has raised more than $30 Mn from the likes of Intel Capital, Ericsson Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, WI Harper Group and Mahindra Partners. It raised 7 Mn in its last funding round in 2021. 

Avaamo counts PolyAI, Zira, Odeza, and wrnchAI as its competitors.

6. InVideo

Founded in 2019 by Sanket Shah, and later joined by Anshul Khandelwal, InVideo initially operated a web-based video editing platform that allowed users to convert existing pieces of static content into videos.

However, it has come a long way since then. Currently, the startup operates a full-fledged AI-powered video editing platform that leverages GenAI to create videos with just text prompts. Users just have to input the topic and the platform generates a script, adds scenes and voiceovers, among other things. 

The startup has raised capital to the tune of $52.5 Mn to date and is backed by marquee names such as Peak XV Partners, Tiger Global, Hummingbird, RTP Global and Base. It competes with the likes of Kapwing, Synthesia, Veed, and Rephrase.ai, among others.

7. Senseforth

Founded in 2017 by Krishna Kadiri, Ritesh Radhakrishnan, and Shridhar Marri, Senseforth is a leading Conversational AI solutions company that enables automated human-like conversations between organisations and people.

Since its inception, Avaamo has raised more than $16 Mn from the likes of Tenity and Fractal Analytics. It secured its last funding round of $14 Mn in 2021.

It competes with the likes of MoonShot AI, Locofy, and Suki.

8. Rephrase AI

Founded in 2019 by Ashray Malhotra, Nisheeth Lahoti and Shivam Mangla, Rephrase AI leverages GenAI to create professional videos with the ease of writing text within minutes. 

The growth-stage startup has raised a total funding of $12 Mn. In its last funding round, it raised $10.6 Mn in 2023.

The company counts Techstars, Silver Lake, 8VC, Red Ventures and AV8 Ventures among its investors. It competes with the likes of Imaginario AI, VideoDubber, MURFAI, etc. The Bengaluru-based AI video creator was acquired by Adobe in 2023.

9. Murf AI

Founded in 2020 by IIT-Kharagpur graduates Sneha Roy, Ankur Edkie, and Divyanshu Pandey, Murf AI uses AI to create high-quality voiceovers without recording equipment for its users in minutes. 

The growth-stage startup has raised a total funding of $11.5 Mn. In its last funding round, it raised $10 Mn in 2022. 

It is backed by investors like Matrix Partners, and Elevation Capital. It counts Imaginario AI, VideoDubber, and Rephrase AI as its competitors.

10. DhiWise

Founded in 2021 by Vishal Virani, DhiWise is an AI-enabled programming platform where developers can convert their designs into developer-friendly code for mobile and web apps. 

It automates and fastens the application development lifecycle and instantly generates readable, modular, and reusable code.

The growth-stage startup has raised a total of 9 Mn since its inception. It raised 7 Mn in 2022. DhiWise is supported by marquee investors like Accel, AngelList India, Storm Ventures, Abhishek Deo, and Pentathlon Ventures. It competes with the likes of Observe AI, Pixis, QpiAI, and Kombai.

11. Spyne

Founded in 2018 by Deepti Prasad and Sanjay Kumar, Spyne is helping businesses and marketplaces create and upgrade high-quality product images and videos at scale with AI. 

The growth stage company has so far raised $7.6 Mn from Accel Partners, Storm Ventures, and other investors. It raised $7 Mn in its last funding round in 2022. 

The Gurugram-based startup competes with companies like zapero.ai, Dresma, Ayna, Blend, and Orbo AI.

12. LimeChat

Founded in 2020 by Aniket Bajpai and Nikhil Gupta, LimeChat leverages AI to enable a brand to instantly respond to its customer queries throughout the buying journey across mediums such as WhatsApp, Meta Messenger and Instagram.

When it comes to WhatsApp commerce, it is working with 300+ brands like HUL, ITC, Mamaearth, Wow Skin Science, Neemans Shoes, and Snitch.

Backed by investors like Stellaris Venture Partners, Google, IFC, and Pi Ventures, the Faridabad-based company has raised a total funding of $5 Mn to date.

The seed-stage company competes with Noogata, TUNGEE, Osense Technology, Slang Labs,  etc.

13. QpiAI

Founded in 2019 by Dr Nagendra Nagaraja, QpiAI is a Bengaluru-based AI startup working in the areas of both AI and quantum computing. The startup’s key product, QpiAI Pro, helps deploy AI solutions at the production stage.

The startup also manufactures hardware solutions for quantum computers, including compute architecture, quantum processors and cryogenic controllers, and also offers quantum computing as a service (QCaaS) software. In 2021, it tied up with IISc Bengaluru to offer certification courses in AI and quantum computing.

QpiAI has yet to raise any funding.

14. Kombai

Founded in 2022 by Dipanjan Dey and Abhijit Bhole, Kombai is an AI model trained to understand and code UI designs like humans. It offers developer tools for web app developers, which helps them do away with mundane automatable tasks like writing and maintaining CSS and other boilerplate JS code. 

It has so far raised a total of $4.5 Mn from Foundation Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners.

Kombai competes with Locofy.ai, Adobe XD, Figma and Relume, which have a similar approach towards web design.

15. Contlo 

Founded in 2021 by Ishaan Bhola and Mukunda NS, Contlo is a GenAI-powered martech platform that helps businesses run and optimise end-to-end marketing campaigns. 

The seed-stage SaaS platform claims to help brands build personalised campaigns and automate customer journeys across all major channels including email, SMS, as well as social media platforms. 

The US-headquartered startup has raised $4.3 Mn in funding to date. It is backed by the likes of names such as Kae Capital, Better Capital and Titan Capital as well as angel investors such as Mamaearth’s Varun Alagh as well as Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar of Razorpay, among others.

16. Scalenut 

A brainchild of Mayank Jain, Gaurav Goyal, and Saurabh Wadhawan, Scalenut was founded in 2020. The startup is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered SEO and content marketing platform.

Its AI co-pilot handhelds businesses through the entire content lifecycle, from keyword planning and content creation to SEO optimisation and competitive analysis.

The California-based startup has raised $3.5 Mn in funding till date and is backed by the likes of names such as Titan Capital, First Principles VC, AngelList, among others.

It claims to have so far catered to more than 200 businesses including homegrown startups such as PharmEasy and LeapScholar. 

17. Blend 

Founded in 2021 by Vaibhav Prakash, Vishwanath Kollapudi and Jamsheed Kamardeen, Blend is a GenAI-powered design tool that helps ecommerce sellers create social media graphics, product photos and SEO-optimised content. 

Incubated by Peak XV Surge and Google For Startups, the Bengaluru-based SaaS platform has raised $3.14 Mn in funding till date. Catering largely to ecommerce sellers, Blend is backed by names such as 3one4 Capital, Blume Ventures, PointOne Capital, among others.

The startup boasts of 15 proprietary AI models that have been trained on more than 80 Mn visuals and keywords.

18. Zocket

Founded in 2021 by second-time entrepreneurs – Karthik Venkateswaran, Nandha Kumar Ravi, Sundar Natesan, and Mukund Srivathsan — Zocket, with Gen AI, helps businesses launch their digital ads in less than 30 seconds. 

It has secured 3.1 Mn in its overall funding with support from investors like Surge Ventures, Surge, and PointOne Capital. 

It competes with the likes of Hexo, Metabrix, Predis.ai, and PostifyAI in the digital ads space.

19. Alltius 

Founded in 2022 by Vibhanshu Abhishek and Siddhant Mishra, Alltius’ no-code platform enables businesses to seamlessly create, train and deploy AI assistants within a day. These AI assistants can then be leveraged by enterprises to transform sales and support journeys.

The company claims that these AI assistants can be trained on a slew of company resources, including documents, images, PDFs, among others. Subsequently, these assistants can be deployed to answer queries, create pitches, compare insurance plans, create tickets, draft emails, among other things. 

The Bengaluru-based horizontal AI startup has raised $2.4 Mn till date and is backed by the likes of names such as Stellaris Venture Partner, Blume Ventures, Gemba Capital, peercheque, among others.

20. vPhrase

vPhrase offers a SaaS tool that leverages AI, machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to help businesses derive insights from huge swathes of complex datasets. 

It has two products – Phrazor and Explorazor. While Phrazor is a report automation tool that converts complex graphs into actionable taking points, Explorazor helps users perform root cause analysis across multiple datasets via a No-SQL interface. It claims to have three granted patents under its kitty. 

The New York-headquartered startup was founded back in 2015 by Neerav Parekh and Naimisha Neerav Parekh. vPhrase has raised $2 Mn in funding till date and counts Falcon Edge Capital, Bharat Innovation Fund, Alpha Wave Global, among others as its backers. 

Its clientele includes giants such as Danone, GSK, Sanofi, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Fidelity, Abbott, Motilal Oswal, among others

21. Dubdub AI

Founded in 2021 by Anubhav Singh, Rahul Sankhwar, Rahul Garg and Anchal Jaiswal, Dubdub.ai is an online tool which leverages AI for making multilingual video content. It supports audio and video dubbing.

The growth stage startup has raised a total funding of $1.8 Mn since its inception. In its last funding round, it raised $1 Mn in 2022. 

Waveform Ventures, Accel Atoms, Forward Capital Fund, and Force Ventures are among the investors backing the company.

Dubdub.ai competes with the likes of names such as Pieces, Noogata, and ClearCOGS.

22. Gnani AI

Founded in 2017 by Ganesh Gopalan and Ananth Nagaraj, Gnani.ai offers a full-stack conversational AI product suite to help businesses automate and enhance customer support across all digital and conventional communication channels.

It also caters to the fraud detection market with its voice biometrics product, which is largely centred on its clients in the BFSI sector. 

The B2B platform claims to have a customer base of over 100 companies including multiple Indian lending companies such as TVS Credit, Muthoot Finance, and Fibe (formerly Early Salary). It also boasts more than 12 patents in its kitty.

The Bengaluru-based startup has raised $4 Mn in funding till date and counts the likes of names such as Samsung Ventures and angels such as Lakshmi Narayan, and BVR Mohan Reddy as its investors. 

It competes with the likes of names such as Rezo.ai, Haptik and Verloop.io. 

23. Floworks

Founded in 2022 by Sudipta Biswas and Sarthak Shrivastava, Floworks offers an AI assistant that helps sales personnel effectively utilise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software from the confines of their Slack accounts.

Sales teams can just instruct the AI assistant in plain natural language to send CRM updates, send emails, raise escalations and get reports, without having to go through multiple applications.

Incubated by Y Combinator, the startup raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding in August last year. The US-based GenAI startup also counts names such as Sense AI, Gaingels, Entrepreneur First and ThinKuvate as investors. 

24. GoodMeetings

A brainchild of Srinivasan Narayan and Abhijeet Sahoo, GoodMeetings is a remote sales platform that leverages video, AI and analytics to help teams sell effectively. 

The startup’s proprietary platform helps users automate processes, generate human-level summaries and derive insights and actionable pointers from a real-time video. It also nudges the sales person about what to say and when during the video call itself.

Founded in 2020, GoodMeetings has raised $1.7 Mn in funding till date. It is backed by marquee names such as Chiratae Ventures, FortyTwo.VC, First Check, Adept Ventures, 100X Entrepreneurs, among others.

25. VisualDub

Founded in 2021 as NeuralGarage, VisualDub.ai is the brainchild of IIT Kanpur alumni Mandar Natekar, Subhabrata Debnath, Anjan Banerjee and Subhashish Saha. The GenAI startup is developing a proprietary tool, VisualDub, which syncs recorded voice overs with lip movement and visual cues. 

It claims to provide visual lip-sync delivered at 2K to 4K resolution with zero artefacts. VisualDub claims to transform the face under the eyes, including jaws, mouth, chin, smile lines and micro muscles in the cheeks and upper neck to offer a glitch-free video.

VisualDub claims to cater big-ticket clients such as Amazon, Coca-Cola, Britannia, Microsoft, GSK, and Ultratech Cement. Backed by Exfinity Venture Partners and AWS, it has raised $1.5 Mn in funding till date.

26. Orbo AI

Orbo leverages AI and augmented reality (AR) to help consumers virtually try-on products in real-time without stepping foot outside their homes. 

Catering to the ecommerce and retail sectors, the startup’s flagship product, Beauty GPT, offers immersive solutions such as makeup try-ons, deep skin analysis, embedded hairstyle, hair colour augmentation, among others. 

Founded by Manoj Shinde, Abhit Sinha and Danish Jamil, Orbo AI also featured on the third season of the popular TV show Shark Tank India and went home with an INR 1 Cr deal from SUGAR Cosmetics cofounder Vineeta Singh.

The startup has raised $1.5 Mn since its inception and counts names such as Venture Catalysts, YourNest Venture as investors.

27. Phot.AI

Founded in 2022 by Venus Dhuria and Aneesh Rayancha, Phot.AI is a full-visual design platform that leverages GenAI to enable users and brands to generate images from just text.

Catering to both B2B and B2C users, Phot.AI allows customers to generate photos, create design concepts and visualise them with GenAI. It also leverages this emerging technology to help users enhance their images and turn their “PDF” documents into any format.

Another key product of the startup is its AI training module, which allows end-users to train their AI models. It caters to businesses operating in areas such as ecommerce, packaging and branding, advertising and marketing, media, and BFSI, among others. 

Its clients include names such as Shiprocket, Fashinza, and Dukaan, among others. The two-year-old startup is bootstrapped and is yet to raise capital from external investors.

28. Wokelo

Founded in 2022 by Siddhant Masson and Saswat Nanda, Wokelo leverages OpenAI’s GPT and open source models such as LLaMA to produce detailed due-diligence reports for enterprises in a matter of minutes from publicly available data. 

Its proprietary “cognitive engine” sifts through the tonnes of data to build concise and customised reports and presentations without hallucinations. 

Backed by investors such as Untapped Capital, SeaChange Fund, Pack Ventures, Array Ventures, and Upsparks Capital, the Seattle-based startup has raised $1.5 Mn in funding since inception. 

Its solutions cater to clients in private equity, venture capital, investment banking, and management consulting. It counts names such as Tata Group, Deloitte, Seven Seven Six, among others as its customers. 

29. NeuroPixel.AI

Founded in 2020 by Arvind Nair and Amritendu Mukherjee, NeuroPixel.AI is a GenAI platform that allows online marketplaces to offer AI-enabled fashion cataloguing, synthetic model generation, and virtual try-ons. 

Leveraging advanced AI and ML as well as computer vision and image processing, the startup helps small online retailers with offerings such as automated cataloguing, improving customer experience, and reducing the time spent on clicking photos manually and editing images.

The Bengaluru-based startup has raised $1.2 Mn in funding till date and is backed by the likes of ecommerce major Flipkart, Inflection Point Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Huddle, DLabs, Dexter Angels, among others. 

NeuroPixel competes with the likes of OSlash, Vue.ai, Chargebee, and SaaS Labs in the broader Indian deeptech SaaS space.

30. Beatoven.AI 

Founded In 2021 by Mansoor Rahimat Khan and Siddharth Bhardwaj, Beatoven.ai’s genesis lay in the vast demand for original, royalty-free music suitable for commercial use. 

Beatoven.AI addressed this issue by simply leveraging GenAI to create background music for video, podcast, and game creators. Riding on the AI wave, the startup now boasts close to 1 Mn registered users worldwide, majority of them outside India.

Backed by the likes of Capital2B (Info Edge), IvyCap ventures, Upsparks Capital, the Bengaluru-based startup has raised more than $2.4 Mn in funding till date. 

31. Expertia AI

Founded in 2020 by Akshay Gugnani and Kanishk Shukla, Expertia AI is an AI-powered HR Tech platform that offers end-to-end hiring solutions from talent discovery to decision.

The B2B platform’s AI tool goes beyond the resume and understands the skills, personality and background of the candidate to offer a certain Expertia score. Not just this, it also identifies skill gaps in an applicant and actively engages with candidates on various fronts and makes them offer-ready. 

It caters to names such as Cognizant, Decathlon, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Jio, Justdial, among others. 

Incubated by Google For Startups, Expertia AI is backed by Chiratae Ventures and Endiya Partners. It has raised more than $1.2 Mn in funding till date.

32. Hypergro.ai 

Founded in 2022 by Rituraj Biswas, Neha Soman, Abhijeet Kumar and Arijit Mukhopadhyay, Hypergro.ai leverages AI to help brands conceptualise and create compelling video ads using user-generated content (UGC).

The startup’s proprietary AI platform helps its clients in understanding market trends and behaviour of their target customers, thereby optimising campaign performance. The platform then connects brands with creators who can craft videos that resonate with their target audience. 

The SaaS startup’s platform also offers its clients visibility into the entire video creation process and to monitor campaign results. 

Backed by the likes of Silverneedle Ventures, Huddle, TDV Partners, HME Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, among others, the martech startup last raised $1 Mn in funding in 2023. 

33. Dubverse.ai

Founded in 2021 by Varshul Gupta and Anuja Dhawan, Dubverse.ai harnesses the power of GenAI to help brands and video producers dub their video content. The platform helps its clients convert text into “natural-sounding” voice overs in multiple languages and generate subtitles. 

It currently claims to offer the functionality in 60 Indian and other global languages. Dubverse.ai’s text-to-speech engine also offers a broad range of AI voices as per the tone and style needs of its customers.

The SaaS platform claims to have so far worked with 5 Lakh brands including the likes of Mahindra FInance, Zupee, BluSmart, Ullu, among others. 

The startup last raised $800K in seed funding from Kalaari Capital in June 2022. 

34. SilcoFix

Founded in 2023 by Rajesh Jajodia, SilcoFix is a GenAI startup that helps brands generate images based on a text input. SilcoFix’s proprietary technology offers its clients the option to access multiple AI models including Stable Diffusion as well as other custom models. 

The startup has raised $770K in funding from the likes of IvyCap Ventures and 8i Ventures since its inception.

It competes with the likes of names such as Unstudio, Rephrase.ai, DhiWise, among others.

35. Vitra.ai

A brainchild of Satvik Jagannath and Akash Nidhi PS, Vitra is an AI-powered startup that helps creators and businesses leverage the emerging technology to translate videos, images, podcasts and text to 75+ languages in just one click.

Founded in 2020, Vitra.ai was incubated by Google India and was part of the tech major’s seventh cohort of Google for Startups Accelerator. The startup can be integrated with 250+ apps and services including Adobe Photoshop, Figma, Shopify, HubSpot, Google Drive, among others to offer a seamless experience to the end users. 

The startup has raised $571K in funding till date and is backed by the likes of 100X.VC and Inflexor Ventures. 

36. Slang Labs

Founded in 2017 by Satish Chandra Gupta, Giridhar Murthy, and Kumar Rangarajan, Slang Labs allows brands to deploy voice assistants within their apps. 

Its flagship in-app voice assistant platform (CONVA.ai) allows businesses to enable multilingual, voice-based interactions on their respective platforms. It can understand user queries in a number of languages, including Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

Backed by the likes of Google, Endiya Partner, 100X Entrepreneur, the startup has raised $2.39 Mn in funding till date. It competes with the likes of major players such as Observe.AI, Senseforth.ai, Yellow.ai, and ConveGenius.

37. Boltzmann

Founded in 2019 by Sarath Kolli, Boltzmann harnesses the power of GenAI for drug discovery and enhances the success rates of clinical trials.

The Bengaluru-based startup uses both open-source and proprietary models to design novel drugs and optimise R&D processes for Indian drug manufacturers. Alongside this, Boltzmann’s technology stack includes four platforms that aid in clinical trials, disease diagnosis, and the design and discovery of vaccines and antibodies.

Backed by AngeLlist India, the startup has raised $200K in funding since inception. Boltzmann currently competes with global companies such as Insilico Medicine, Recursion AI, and Exscientia.

[This is not an exhaustive list, we will be updating it periodically. If you would like to refer a GenAI startup to be featured in this list, write to us @ editor@inc42.com]

[Edited by Shishir Parasher]

The post Indian GenAI Startup Tracker: 60+ Startups Putting India On The Global AI Map appeared first on Inc42 Media.