?? 6 Last Night Funding ?? Paisa Hi Paisa Hoga ??

1. ???? Robotics startup DiFACTO raises $4.8 Mn

Robot automation solutions provider DiFACTO Robotics and Automation has raised Rs 40 crore (about $4.8 million) from private equity firm Stakeboat Capital in its first? funding round.

The proceeds will be used to expand across sectors such as cars, home appliances and electronics, the company said in a release.

Founded in 2007 by Ajay Gopalswamy , Difacto operates across four key segments–welding systems, material handling systems, foundry and machine tending systems, and fluid dispensing systems.?

The company claims to have delivered more than 1,000 projects to 300 customers across 15 countries. It has three factories in Bengaluru and branches in Pune and Gurugram while it also operates globally with a wholly-owned subsidiary in Troy, Michigan, USA.?

Its client base includes the likes of Mahindra Group , Tata Group , Maruti Suzuki India Limited and @Toyota India .

In FY24, the company’s revenue touched Rs 175 crore and it is expected to grow to Rs 225 crore in FY25. India’s automotive industry is expected to experience a CAGR of 12.7%, reaching $512 billion by 2026.

2. ???? FarMart raises funds from Swiss-based responsibility Investments

SaaS-based food supply platform FarMart has raised Rs 24 crore ($2.8) million as part of a new round from Swiss asset manager responsAbility Investments AG . The fresh investment has come after a gap of more than two years for the Gurugram-based company.

FarMart will use the fresh proceeds towards building a carbon-efficient food supply chain, the company said in a press release. The startup will also leverage responsAbility’s expertise to optimise its solutions.

With this, FarMart has scooped up nearly $50 million to date including a $32 million Series B round in March 2022 from General Catalyst, Matrix Partners India and Omidyar Network India. As per startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, the company was valued at around $128 million during the last equity round.

Interestingly, FarMart chief claimed that the firm holds $37 million in the bank as of August last year. It’s not clear why FarMart raised a modest amount despite the above claim.

FarMart’s B2B product is essentially a digitization of agricultural supplies and produce, putting buyers and sellers located near each other in touch, which it says eliminates several costs involved in transporting goods across the country. The company’s retailer footprint is currently heavy in central and northern Indian states, with relatively sparser presence in the south and Jammu & Kashmir.

The company claims to work with over 2,000 food manufacturers and brands, 3 million farmers, and 400 factories in 6 countries.

In March 2022, it acqui-hired fruits and vegetables logistics platform Subjimandi.app to optimize its logistics and expand its product portfolio.

FarMart registered an almost five-fold jump in its operating revenue to Rs 1,033 crore in FY23 from Rs 208 crore in FY22. As per TheKredible, the company’s losses surged nearly three-fold to Rs 49 crore in FY23. The firm is yet to file its annual report for FY24.

As of Series B round, General Catalyst had 17.86% stake in the company followed by Omidya and Matrix which hold 13.48% and 12.7% stake respectively. Founder Alekh Sanghera owned less than 10% holding in the company. Check TheKredible for more details.

3. ???? Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu backs Yali Aerospace

Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and CEO of SaaS firm Zoho , has invested in? drone startup Yali Aerospace .

Founded in 2022 by Dinesh, Anugraha and Mathuravani, Yali’s drones offer easy-to-use technology for civil and military purposes. The Thanjavur-based firm specialises in providing drone solutions for medical, surveillance, and logistics globally.?

Some of its applications include solutions for precision agriculture, infrastructure inspection, and disaster response. Its range includes 100 kilometer with a payload of 9 kilogram and 50 kilometer with 10.5 kilogram.

According to the company’s website, Yali can deliver medical commodities to any destination in India in less than 20 minutes through the Yali Network Bridge.

Earlier this month, media reported that Vembu is all set to enter the chip making business, with an investment plan of around $700 million.

4. ???? AI Dev platform Inspeq AI raises $1.1 Mn

Responsible AI development platform provider inspeq ai has raised $1.1 million (about Rs 9.13 crore) in its pre-Series-A round led by Sure Valley Ventures with participation from Delta Partners Ltd. .?

Other investors in the round include Plug and Play, and several marquee angel investors, including Gaurav Singh Kushwaha (founder and CEO of BlueStone ), Prateek Dixit (founder of pocket FM ), Rick Kelly (former MD of Meta Ireland), Cyril Treacy (former VP of Salesforce), and other tech executives.

The proceeds will be used to expand its product development team and extend its marketing and sales operations in India, Ireland, and the UK.

Founded in 2023 in Dublin by Apoorva Kumar and Ramanujam Macharla Vijayakumar, Inspeq AI? has built an enterprise-ready LLM Ops platform to help developers evaluate and improve their enterprise AI applications.?

The firm’s platform promises to make Gen AI app development up to 4X faster. It also promises to cut down development costs by up to 70%. Its comprehensive AI Ops platform addresses the entire spectrum of AI development and production phases.?

The platform optimizes Gen AI deployment throughout all phases, from testing and evaluation to monitoring and performance enhancement.

5. ???? Decoding Ultrahuman’s Series B: Deepinder Goyal pumped in $10 Mn

Wearable tech startup Ultrahuman had raised $35 million in a mix of debt and equity in its Series B round led by Deepinder Goyal and existing investors Blume Ventures , Steadview Capital, Nexus VP, and Alpha Wave.

While the company didn’t disclose about Goyal leading the round, Entrackr has decoded his investment along with others including Ultrahuman’s cap table and valuation through its regulatory filings.

The board at Ultrahuman passed a special resolution to allot 6,979 Series B CCPS at an issue price of Rs 3,00,170 each to raise Rs 209.4 crore or $25 million, its regulatory filing accessed from the Registrar of Companies shows.

Zomato’s co-founder Goyal led the round with Rs 83 crore while Alpha Wave and Blume Ventures infused Rs 66.34 crore and 29.86 crore, respectively. Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, and Panthera Capital participated with Rs 12.42 crore, Rs 13.77 crore, and Rs 4.14 crore.

At the time of announcement, Ultrahuman said that the Series B round consisted of $25 million equity and $10 million debt.?

It’s worth noting that Ultrahuman’s co-founders Mohit Kumar and Vatsal Singhal sold their first startup Runnr to Zomato in September 2017. Zomato leveraged Runnr which merged with Mumbai-based TinyOwl to raise its own delivery fleet.

Ultrahuman has raised over $60 million, including $35 million in Series B and $17.5 million in Series A in October 2022. As per TheKredible estimates, the company has been valued at around Rs 1,039 crore or $125 million (post-allotment of Series B round).

Following the fresh proceeds, Nexus emerged as the largest external stakeholder with 17.26% followed by Alpha Wave’s 14.8% stake. Goyal holds 8.58% of the company. The company also has an ESOP pool of around 10.84%

Head to TheKredible for the complete shareholding pattern.

Ultrahuman is a self-quantification platform that provides a smart ring called Ring Air, a glucose monitoring wearable M1 Live, and a blood testing product called Blood Vision, among others.

Ultrahuman demonstrated impressive financial performance in FY23 and its operating revenue flew 4X to Rs 30 crore. At the same time, the company’s losses grew only 21.4% to Rs 71 crore during the same period.

Levels Health, Super Sapiens and Oura are the global peers of Ultrahuman.

6. ???? Infra.Market raises $50 Mn from Mars Unicorn Fund

Infra.Market has raised $50 million from MARS Unicorn Fund which is a joint venture of Liquidity Group and MUFG. With this, MARS and Liquidity investment in the company touched $100 million.

The two funds previously invested $50 million in Infra.Market in 2022. While the company didn’t disclose its valuation in fresh funding, Infra.Market was reportedly valued at $2.5 billion in an equity round in August 2021.

Founded by Souvik Sengupta and Aaditya Sharda in 2016, Infra.Market sells construction materials, infrastructure goods, and technical equipment. It is targeting the $140 construction materials market, with a strong focus on the infrastructure sector.

The company caters to both institutional customers (B2B) and retail outlets (D2R) in the construction materials sector. As per the company, it supplies across 16 states in India and exports to markets such as Dubai, Singapore, Jordan, and Italy, among others.

Last year, Infra.Market had divested 10% of its stake worth $20 million in RDC Concrete to investors led by Ashish Kacholia. The former had acquired RDC Concrete for $90 million in September 2021. It also has a majority stake in Strata Geosystems, Equiphunt and Halonix.

As of now, Infra.Market has raised around $500 million across equity and debt. According to the startup intelligence data platform TheKredible, Tiger Global was the largest external stakeholder with 21.33% followed by Accel and Nexus Ventures which commanded 16.87% and 8.46%, respectively, before this round.

Infra.Market is one of the handful of unicorns in the country which managed over nine-fold growth in gross scale between FY21 and FY23 and remained profitable. As per TheKredible, its gross revenue rose to Rs 11,846 crore in FY23 from Rs 1,240 crore in FY21. During the fiscal year ending March 2023, the firm’s profit slipped 17% to Rs 155 crore from Rs 187 crore in FY22.

It competes with ZETWERK , OfBuisness and Moglix Business .

#innovation #management #humanresources #digitalmarketing #technology #creativity #future #futurism #entrepreneurship #careers #markets #startups #marketing #socialmedia #venturecapital #socialnetworking #leanstartups #branding #advertisingandmarketing #motivation #personaldevelopment #investing #jobinterviews #sustainability #personalbranding #education #customerrelations #productivity #sales #socialentrepreneurship