Every Monday, I sit with my team to review the funding activity of the previous week. From that list, I pick out three companies that I would have loved to invest in or find founders that are doing similar things. Click here to know about my rationale behind this weekly exercise.
Last week, the ecosystem breached the 2 deals/day average yet again with 15 startups raising $168 million. The recent weeks have seen a surge in FDI due to increasing global interest in Indian founders.https://twitter.com/EconomicTimes/status/1284510741127520256The surge of foreign investments seems to have increased local confidence and barring another wave of lockdowns; the trend should continue to stay positive.
Out of the 15 deals, 13 were in the early-stage rounds (compared to 16 last week), which made the cut for my weekly analysis. After sifting through the news (aggregated from Tracxn, Inc42, and YourStory), I pick these three as my favorite funding news from last week!
Name: Plum
Amount Raised: $933k from Incubate Fund, Gemba Capital and Tracxn Labs; and angel investors
What does Plum do? Edited from Tracxn: Plum provides health insurance and health benefits for employers. It features policies for OPD, accident, and term life insurance. It offers coverage for employees, spouse, children, parents, and siblings, and enables employees to customize insurance with multiple health benefits.
Why do I like Plum? If there is a silver lining to the disruption caused by the pandemic, then it is bringing the concept of healthy living from a fringe benefit to a mainstream requirement for organizations. Your organization's health is only as good as the person with the weakest immune system, and many leaders want to get ahead of this problem. Platforms like Plum, which would be considered a luxury pre-COVID, will be a necessity in the new business order.
Name: School Diary
Amount Raised: Undisclosed from The Chennai Angels
What does School Diary do? Edited from Tracxn: School Diary is a closed-loop platform that schools use to engage & communicate with parents. Schools can send push notifications instantly, share class activities, and capture and share children's attendance information. Parents can view the daily activity of children in daycare, track buses, get updates on upcoming meetings, etc.
Why do I like School Diary? I invested in an edtech platform that was ahead of its time but provided a single platform for open communication between parents and teachers in 2012. The founder had to pivot because the idea was way before its time. Well, how the world has changed now!
Name: Crio
Amount Raised: $1m from 021 Capital
What does Crio do? Edited from Tracxn: Crio offers a learning platform for teams and individuals. They provide personalized and adaptive learning opportunities for developers and enable tech companies to nurture talent.
Why do I like Crio? I have liked on-the-job training platforms for a very long time, and Crio just joined my list with GreyAtom. However, I continue to scour and look for someone to do this in the finance space, which teaches techniques like financial modeling and valuation on the job using real-world examples. So if you know anyone who is working on this, reach out to as soon as possible.
