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 doing similar things. Click here to know about my rationale behind this weekly exercise.
13 early-stage startups raised $20 million last week. Although the numbers are a little lower, the recent surge in IPOs is a bellwether for us. I say that because a surge in the listed space precedes a surge in the startup space. Exciting times ahead; keep your seatbelts on!
This week, 10 deals were in the early-stage rounds (compared to 13 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: Fashinza
Amount Raised: $2.72 million from Accel, Elevation Capital, and angels Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal as well as Alok Mittal
What does Fashinza do?
Edited from Tracxn: Fashinza provides supply chain visibility solutions for the apparel industry. They are a B2B company based in Gurgaon, Delhi.
Why do I like Fashinza?
Fashinza is simplifying a very complicated process in this redone world order. Now that D2C, retail, and consumer spending is increasingly moving online, a service that simplifies it makes a lot of sense. They’re making it easier for challenged D2C brands to come up at a fraction of the cost it would have taken in the past. Can they recreate the magic that Bijnis (previously known as Shoeconnect) made in the footwear industry?
Name: Signzy
Amount Raised: $5.4 million from Arkam Ventures and Mastercard, and existing investors Kalaari Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners
What does Signzy do?
Edited from Tracxn: Signzy provides AI-based customer on-boarding & KYC solutions for NBFCs. Their solutions include identity checks, facial recognition, fraud detection, risk intelligence, and more.
Why do I like Signzy?
As an early investor in Karza, I understand the value of services like Signzy. These systems are not only going to make it easy to provide banking for all, but they’re also going to reduce the errors in systems and democratize the banking sector.
One downside to the success of Signzy-like services could replace hoards of manual labor doing these processes today.
Name: Tring
Amount Raised: Undisclosed amount from ALTBalaji
What does Tring do?
Edited from Tracxn: Tring is an online platform that allows users to book personalized video messages from their favorite celebrities, athletes, influencers, etc.
Why do I like Tring?
While there are several such platforms today, I find this investment interesting because of the investor rather than the company itself. ALTBalaji is an OTT, and part of a TV and movie production house company, approximately 25% owned by Reliance Jio. This combination, along with Jio’s involvement, is sure to attract many more eyes.
Special Mention: Hobspace
I have purposefully excluded Hobspace’s investment round led by Artha Venture Fund, with other co-investors like AngelList India, Upsparks, Icebreaker Tech, and angels Abhinav Daga, Siddharth Shah, and Ronak Morbia.
