August has been an eventful month as LetsVenture put together our flagship annual conferences FoundersFirst and LetsIgnite, in association with IDFC FIRST Bank, and state partner Government of Karnataka.We also hosted another exclusive event, Unplugged with Anupam Mittal, in association with DBS.
LetsVenture launched several products and partnerships, including our founder-focussed platform Scalix, our partnerships with IDFC FIRST Bank to explore synergies and support for the startup ecosystem by offering curated products and solutions, as well as the partnership with MeitY Startup Hub to make a joint investment of up to $100K.
For keen readers of the startup ecosystem out there, we are happy to introduce you to Compass, our private market intelligence product that will bring data-led insights to guide you through the private market spaces. (Read the latest stories here)
The LetsVenture team had a great time meeting many of you at our flagship annual conference FoundersFirst and LetsIgnite 2022. We believe it has been a great event to connect with fellow founders and investors in person but if you missed the gathering, catch up on all the highlights here.
Meanwhile, LetsVenture portfolio startups across sectors continue to tick the short and long-term goals to reach their north star. From pioneering education on Web 3 ecosystem to startups like SaaS platform Fieldproxy and at-home cooking services platform Chefkart sealing funding deals, let’s catch up with our portfolio companies.
Coffeee.Io: Simplifying tech hiring
Snapshot
Startup Name: Coffeee.io
Sector: HR tech
Founders: Poojan Thakkar and Kapil Mathrani
Journey so far: Tech recruitment startup Coffeee.io raised Rs 4.7 crore in a pre-Seed funding round from a clutch of investors, including LetsVenture. Based in Gurugram, Coffeee aims to be the marketplace with the largest pool of pre-screened developers in India aspiring to get entry-level jobs with focus on merit and talent.
Jar: Starting investments small
Snapshot
Startup Name: Jar
Sector: Fintech
Founders: Nishchay AG and Misbah Ashraf
Journey so far: Bengaluru-based fintech startup Jar raised $22.6 million as part of its Series B round led by existing investor Tiger Global. Founded in 2021, the fintech app for savings allows users to invest in gold and offer securities such as exchange traded funds (ETFs) and sovereign gold bonds (SGBs).
The app nudges users to make daily savings by investing spare change from their online transactions and automatically investing it in digital gold. With over 4.7 million users on the app, Jar has processed over 100 transactions per minute so far.
Bigspoon: Sustaining the foodtech momentum
Snapshot
Startup Name: Bigspoon
Sector: Foodtech
Founder: Poojan Thakkar and Kapil Mathrani
Journey so far: Ahmedabad-based cloud kitchen Bigspoon raised Rs 100 crore in a Series A funding round from celebrity investor Mouni Roy and others, including LetsVenture. The foodtech startup has big plans to scale up and aims to use the fund to expand to more than 250 kitchens in 75 cities, invest in technology, and hire for significant leadership positions. Founded in 2019 by Rohan Bhatt, Poojan Thakkar, and Kapil Mathrani, Bigspoon has served more than three million customers so far.
Bebe Burp: Organic food for the little ones
Snapshot
Startup Name: Bebe Burp
Sector: Consumer Brand
Founders: Chirag Gupta, Bharat Tibrewal, Shruti Tibrewal
Journey so far: Organic baby food brand Bebe Burp has raised an undisclosed amount in its second round of seed funding. Founded in 2017, the Surat-based brand offers a wide range of organic and ready-to-eat baby food within the price range of Rs 109 to Rs 239.
Motherhood and the quest to find healthy, easy to cook baby food led Shruti Tibrewal towards entrepreneurship. Their products are available on ecommerce platforms like Flipkart, FirstCry, Mybabycart, and Eazelly, among others.
Chefkart: A taste of tech in home food
Snapshot
Startup Name: Chefkart
Sector: Foodtech
Founder: Vaibhav Gupta, Arpit Gupta, and Aman Gupta
Journey so far: Gurugram-based at-home cooking services platform Chefkart raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Pravega Ventures and Blume Ventures. Founded in 2020, the platform also upskills local cooks into trained and professional home chefs in addition to providing subscription-based, at-home cooking services.
With Indian consumers increasingly acquiring a taste of home-cooked food, the startup has already served over 3,200 families and is managing more than 2,300 cooking sessions daily with 15 percent month-on-month growth.
O’ Be Cocktails: Keeping your drinks natural
Snapshot
Startup Name: O’ Be Cocktails
Sector: Food and beverage
Founder: Nitesh Prakash
Journey so far: Bengaluru-based ready-to-drink cocktail brand O’ Be Cocktails raised Rs 3.5 crore in a Bridge round. The round was led by LetsVenture, Sattva Family Office, Mckinsey partner Gaurang Jhunjuhwala, Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal, former Ola Co-founders Ankit Bhati, Tracxn Founder Abhishek Goyal, and Sprout Investments.
Founded by IIT-Bombay alumna Nitesh Prakash in 2019, the product is available across 600 stores in Karnataka, Goa, and Telangana. The startup’s total addressable market (TAM) is promising as the global ready-to-drink cocktails market is expected to reach $1775 million by 2028, with a 12 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to Research and Market.
Feildproxy: A pioneer in building no-code app
Snapshot
Startup Name: Feildproxy
Sector: SaaS
Founder: Swaroop Vijayakumar and Balakrishna Balasubramanian
Journey so far: Chennai-based no-code SaaS platform Feildproxy raised Rs 6 crore as part of the pre-Series A round led by Y-Combinator. As an existing investor, LetsVenture also participated in the round.
Founded in 2020 by Swaroop Vijayakumar and Balakrishna Balasubramanian, Feildproxy provides a web-based no-code builder that allows businesses to streamline and simplify their internal interactions with the field teams in industries such as field servicing, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, energy, and telecom, among others.
AjnaLens: Virtual reality for real world problems
Snapshot
Startup Name: AjnaLens
Sector: AR/VR
Founders: Abhijit Patil, Abhishek Tomar, Pankaj Raut
Journey so far: Extended Reality (XR) hardware and software company AjnaLens launched Ajna Creators to pioneer the metaverse education and employment space in the country. The Mumbai-based startup provides hands-on learning on metaverse components like Extended Reality Non-Fungible Token (XR-NFT), Digital Twin, and Blockchain, among others.
Founded in 2014, the company designs and builds augmented reality glasses for defence, enterprise, and training sectors. Further, it also provides end-to-end virtual reality solutions tailored to their business needs.
Magenta Mobility: Empowering clean mobility
Snapshot
Startup Name: Magenta Mobility
Sector: Electric Vehicle
Founder: Maxson Lewis and Darryl Dias
Journey so far: Bengaluru-based clean mobility startup Magenta Mobility grew its operational revenue by 12X month-on-month in FY22, doubled the number of electric vehicles deployed every quarter, and increased customers base by five times.
Catering to clients like Amazon, Flipkart, Jumbotail, BigBasket, and Udaan, the startup plans to scale up and launch in Pune, Chennai, and Delhi-NCR regions in FY23.
Lal10: Taking Indian artisans global
Snapshot
Startup Name: Lal10
Sector: Ecommerce
Founders: Maneet Gohil, Albin Jose, Sanchit Govil
Journey so far: MSME-focussed cross-border wholesale platform Lal10 raised $5.5 million in a pre-Series A round led by Yuj Ventures and Beyond Capital Ventures. The fund will be used to expand to markets like the US, Japan, and the Middle East.
Based in Noida, Lal10 is an online wholesale marketplace for rural and grassroots small and medium enterprises to take their sustainable products global. It further hopes to reach a $100 million run rate within a year by focusing on the home textile category.
DrinkPrime: Ensuring access to clean drinking water
Snapshot
Startup Name: DrinkPrime
Sector: Consumer electronics
Founders: M Vijender Reddy, Manas Ranjan Hota
Journey so far: Watertech startup DrinkPrime raised Rs 60 crore in a mix of debt and equity as part of its Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network India and Sequoia Surge. Based in Bengaluru, DrinkPrime operates on a subscription model at an affordable price to sell Internet of Things (IoT)-powered water purifiers. As the company looks to scale up operations, Sanjay Sunku, Chief of Strategy at DrinkPrime, said that innovation, efficiency, and scalability is at the core of DrinkPrime’s operations.
Strive: Widening the web 3 market and literacy
Snapshot
Startup Name: Strive
Sector: Blockchain
Founder: Kartik Mehrotra, Swathi Perumala
Journey so far: Millennials and Gen Z are the biggest users of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) but do not have the same level of disposable income and lack the capital to invest in blue chip NFTs. Strive is addressing the problem by making them available to retail investors enabling investments as little as Rs 1,000.
Based in Gurugram, Strive runs live courses on Web3 to build literacy which is attended by more than 75,000 with and over 100,000 Web3 enthusiasts globally on the waitlist to join its NFT marketplace.
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