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.
Last week, 18 startups raised $225 million. Although we’re bouncing above and below the $100 million mark every alternate week, it’s refreshing to see the ceiling get higher each time. With the recent surge in the digital economy and the government’s push to churn the economy – there will be higher peaks ahead.
This week, 12 deals were in the early-stage rounds (compared to 10 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: WareIQ
Amount Raised: $1.65 million from Y Combinator, FundersClub, Pioneer Fund, Soma Capital, Emles Venture Advisors and angels.
What does WareIQ do?
Edited from Tracxn: WareIQ is a provider of shipping solutions for online businesses. Its solution offerings include first-mile & inwards operations, storage & order fulfillment, last-mile delivery, return management, COD, and more. The service integrates onto marketplace places like Amazon, Shopify, eBay, and more.
Why do I like WareIQ?
In a world that is going digital and consumers want everything as fast as possible, a service like WareIQ’s makes a lot of sense for D2C brands. The only downside I see to this business model is that it requires a lot of working capital, and it will be interesting to see how the WareIQ founders solve that problem.
Name: Credgenics
What does Credgenics do?
Edited from Tracxn: Credgenics offers cloud-based debt recovery solutions to banks and lenders. Its features include collection strategy, analytics for profiling & collection, automated communication for customer engagement, and more. It provides solutions for alternative dispute resolution, insolvency & bankruptcy, fintech laws, and more.
Why do I like Credgenics?
Credgenics makes a repeat appearance in my funding picks (from Week 24), and it is an important business. Many fintech companies will require collections platforms, and the volume of lending needed for the Indian consumer is immense.
Name: Pyxis
Amount Raised: $7 million from Chiratae Ventures, Pi Ventures and existing investor Exfinity Venture Partners
What does Pyxis do?
Edited from TheWeek: Pyxis is a unique AI-led marketing cloud startup headquartered in the US with an office in Bengaluru, India. The startup has several innovative tools that provide a robust platform for creative automation and actionable marketing research analytics.
Why do I like Pyxis?
Companies need to track their customers and users on multiple platforms to provide them with personalized offerings based on the tracked data. Therefore for enterprises dealing with millions of customers spread across the world - Pyxis provides a need-to-have service.