Lendingkart raises ₹200-Cr from EvolutionX Debt Capital

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June 27, 2023

Fintech startup Lendingkart has raised Rs 200 crore in long-term debt funding from the financing platform EvolutionX Debt Capital.

Lendingkart, which is backed by Bertelsmann, Mayfield India, Saama Capital, Sistema Asia, and India Quotient, along with other investors, plans to use the funds to expand its core business while also bringing on more MSME (micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises) borrowers.

The company will also use a part of the capital to make investment technologies to support its lending platform. Additionally, it plans to introduce new financial products, including credit cards for MSMEs, personal loans for self-employed individuals, gold loans, etc., in collaboration with banks and NBFCs (non-banking financial companies).

“Over the years, we have built efficient and robust technology to support the underserved MSME sector. FY24 is going to be an exciting year for Lendingkart as we look to solve newer challenges by creating industry-first products and evolving our tech stack,” said Harshvardhan Lunia, founder and chief executive officer of Lendingkart Group.

In 2014, Lunia founded Lendingkart. It operates fintech platforms like 2gthr, Cred8, Xlr8, and Collec10, providing capital access to MSMEs. The platforms are designed to minimize lending risks while improving the lending capabilities of banks and other lenders. It has competition from other players operating in the same industry, including Aye Finance, Clix Capital, NeoGrowth, and FlexiLoans.

Lendingkart reported a profit of Rs 120 crore for the financial year that ended in March 2023, significant progress over the net loss of over Rs 203 crore in the previous financial year.

Furthermore, the company’s loan disbursals increased by 44% in FY23 to reach close to Rs 4,000 crore, additionally, from Rs 616 crore the previous fiscal year to Rs 828 crore in FY23, its revenue scaled by 34%.

Lendingkart is EvolutionX’s first fintech venture. EvolutionX offers debt financing to technology-enabled companies across Asia, focusing on India, China, and Southeast Asia.

“We see tremendous opportunities for fintech players in India’s large but underserved MSME credit space. We believe Lendingkart will continue to lead the market and fill the funding gap for the MSMEs,” said Rahul Shah, partner of EvolutionX Debt Capital.

EvolutionX has already backed a few Indian unicorns, including the business-to-business marketplace Udaan and API Holdings Ltd, the parent firm of the online pharmacy platform PharmEasy.

Oben Electric secures INR 40-Cr in extended pre-series A round

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June 27, 2023

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Oben Electric, a Bengaluru-based EV startup, has raised INR 40 crore in an extended pre-series A round, bringing its total pre-series A fundraise to INR 72 crore (equity & debt). The brand has raised INR 88 crore since its inception, enabling it to expand its distribution network and strengthen its production capacity at its 3.5-acre manufacturing facility in Bengaluru to 100,000 units annually.

Institutional investors, including Stride Ventures and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and new investors like Mumbai Angels and other high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), participated in the funding round. In each funding round, the company’s existing investors, including Kalvani Family Office, US India EV Angels, and We Founder Circle, also participated, and demonstrating their continued support for Oben Electric.

The performance electric motorcycle “Oben Rorr” will start to be delivered in the first week of July 2023, according to Oben Electric, which recently opened its first experience centre in HSR Layout, Bangalore. The EV startup has a distribution network in major Indian cities and aims to increase manufacturing capacity to handle the demand of 21,000 pre-orders.

The Rorr electric motorcycle from Oben Electric stands out for its in-house design, development, and localization efforts, backed by 21 patents and 95% component-level localization. It also sets a benchmark with the highest certified range of 187 km (IDC) among electric two-wheelers in India. In-house-built and developed LFP (Lithium Ferrous Phosphorous) cell technology battery pack, which offers two times (2x) longer battery life and 50% higher heat resistance, makes it the safest electric two-wheeler in India, according to the company.

Madhumita Agrawal, Founder and CEO, Oben Electric, expressed her excitement about the latest funding round, stating, “The additional infusion of funds was raised after meticulously planning the delivery dates and to meet the existing and future customer demand of our product Oben Rorr. We are delighted that the latest infusion of funds will be used to meet our committed delivery timeline for the 1st Week of July.”

On investment in Oben EV, Nandini Mansinghka, CEO, Mumbai Angels, affirmed, “EV has emerged as one of the hottest sectors in the startup ecosystem. With this funding round, Oben moves one step further into becoming one of the brightest trailblazers in the space in India. We congratulate the dynamic team at Oben and hope they continue setting new benchmarks while helping the world ride towards a greener tomorrow.”

Arkam Ventures launches $180 million second fund

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June 27, 2023

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ETech-focused Arkam Ventures has launched its second venture capital fund of $180 million.

According to a senior fund official, the firm, which made investments in companies including Jar, Kreditbee, Jai-Kisan, Jumbotail, and Signzy from its first fund, will plan to make early-stage bets in around 20 companies from the second fund that it expects to raise by the end of the year.

Arkam Ventures will look at Series A to Series B stage investments in various industries, including SaaS, mobility, financial services, skilling, food, agriculture, and healthcare.

“We will additionally focus on manufacturing tech and EVs as we believe that the growth in these sectors in recent years has thrown open a lot of investment opportunities,” said Bala Srinivasa, co-founder of Arkam Ventures.

The company will probably use its existing limited partners, including family offices and global institutional investors, for the second fund. According to Srinivasa, some investors include British International Investment (BII), SIDBI, Evolvence, Quilvest, US Institutional Investors, and large family offices. According to Srinivasa, 60% of the capital is expected from global investors, with the remaining 40% coming from DIIs.

Arkam, founded in 2020 by venture capitalists Rahul Chandra and Bala Srinivasa, focuses on middle-India opportunities by backing businesses that develop tech-driven solutions for the country’s 400 million Indians.

“As a team with 20 years of venture investing experience in India, we believe that the defining themes for the next decade will be the untapped Middle India market, rapid scale, and capital efficiency,” said Rahul Chandra, Managing Director at Arkam, in a statement.

He added, “Arkam’s “foundation-first” approach helps portfolio companies create sustainable businesses with the right governance, organizational design, and go-to-market strategies.”

These Middle India start-ups are driven by India’s digital rails (UPI, eKYC, Aadhar) and the massive adoption of digital technology during the COVID-19 pandemic to see a generational opportunity to rethink how essential products and services are delivered more effectively, more comprehensively, and cheaper using digital platforms. It had raised $110 million in its first fund.

Amazon plans to invest $15B more in India, says CEO Andy Jassy

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June 24, 2023

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Ecommerce giant Amazon plans to invest $15 billion more in India, bringing its total investment to $26 billion, a company’s top official has said.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated that the company has already invested $11 billion in India after meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US.

“I had a very good and productive conversation with Prime Minister Modi. I think we share a number of goals. Amazon is one of the biggest investors in India. We have invested $11 billion till date and intend to invest another $15 billion, which will bring the total to $26 billion. So we are very much looking forward to future of partnering,” Jassy said on Friday.

According to a tweet from India’s External Affairs Ministry, the prime minister had a productive meeting with the Amazon CEO.

“Discussions focused on the area of ecommerce and the potential of further collaboration with @amazon in the logistics sector in India,” it said.

Modi welcomed Amazon for its initiative to promote the digitalization of MSMEs in India.

CRED acquires savings and investment platform Spenny

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June 23, 2023

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Fintech unicorn CRED has announced the acquisition of Y-Combinator backed savings and investment platform Spenny for an undisclosed amount.

“The work of CRED and with Kunal (Shah) have done to inculcate positive financial behavior has been an inspiration,” Spenny’s cofounder Rathin Shah tweeted. “We’re excited to start a new journey working with the CRED team to take this mission forward. Onwards & upwards.”

According to media reports, Rathin Shah will also join the product team at CRED, while Spenny will continue to function independently. According to CRED, taking over a company for its employees’ skills rather than its products or services is known as “acquihiring,” according to CRED.

The Bengaluru-based investment app Spenny was founded in 2019 by Rathin Shah and Gaurav Arora to increase India’s investing population from 3% to 15% over the next five years by creating accessible, fast, automatic, and fun investment products. Lendbox, a P2P NBFC, and the platform also collaborated to facilitate investment and fund transfers.

With an increase in revenue of approximately 340% to INR 422 crore from the previous year, CRED reportedly had a net loss of INR 1,279 crore in the financial year 2022.

Clarks launches the Cube-Clarks Collection in Ahmedabad

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June 23, 2023

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Clarks Collection enters Ahmedabad by signing a 100-room property named The Cube. The newly signed property is centrally located and has outstanding connectivity. It spans 350 acres and has a man-made lake inside the property.

The property features a theatre with 50 seats. It is ideal for individuals who want to spend the entire day at the resort participating in various activities in a luxurious environment. Along with the restaurant, the location will also have a variety of activities, such as a drum circle, pool party, Zorba ball, snooker parlor, and live music.

There will be 100 rooms spread across several categories, and each one will be equipped with all the comforts of home, including a safe, indoor games, seating area, deck area, pantry, open sky shower area, etc. With a focus on privacy, each room will feature a private garden and an outdoor shower. In addition to solo travelers and families, the brand focuses primarily on MICE, corporate, and the wedding segment. The in-house restaurant will provide a variety of dishes, with a focus on North Indian, continental, and Gujarati food.

Prakash Bedi, Vice President, Clarks Collection, shares, “We are planning to expand pan India and targeting 65% occupancy in the coming financial year. We believe experience plays an important role in the hospitality industry, and we are designing personalized itineraries for our guests. We plan to showcase our newly signed property as a major hub for MICE and weddings. But all this luxury will not come at the cost of the environment. As a national hospitality player, we have policies in place for responsible tourism. We are going to invest in technology infrastructure and will use AI and deep tech for reaching out to the right audience. We want to play a significant role in spreading awareness around India’s diverse wildlife to the world.”

ChatGPT accounts hacked, data of over 1 lakh compromised; India tops list: Report

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June 22, 2023

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A revolutionary artificial intelligence tool, ChatGPT has raised concerns about the future of technology. But international political and technology leaders have repeatedly warned against the potential misuse of generative AI technologies. According to a report by Group-IB, the fears were confirmed, which stated that 1,00,000 individuals had their ChatGPT accounts hacked, revealing their personal information. The research highlighted that India had the highest number of compromises.

A Singapore-based cyber technology company, Group-IB, claimed that it had identified over 100,000 devices with stolen ChatGPT passwords. India (12,632), Pakistan (9,217), and Brazil (6,531) were the top three countries where users were impacted by the cyberattack, according to the Threat Intelligence Unit of the Group-IB.

These stolen credentials were also traded on dark web markets, with the Asia-Pacific area accounting for most of the accounts traded.

Many technology experts, including Elon Musk, who called for regulating ChatGPT-like AI technology platforms, have expressed worries, and the revelations have confirmed their concerns. The AI Act, which asks for the regulation of AI platforms, was also recently introduced by the European Union.

Time Magazine made a revelation on the AI Act and reported that companies like ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google “lobbied” with the officials of the EU for a less stringent AI regulatory regime in the AI Act.

Globally, companies and individuals use platforms with generative AI resembling ChatGPT to increase their productivity. People might share sensitive data using ChatGPT while providing instructions to the AI platform, which adds to its value. Several companies have prohibited their staff from using ChatGPT, claiming similar reasons.

French Crown bags Rs 8.6-Cr from Velocity

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June 22, 2023

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French Crown, a premium fast-fashion brand, raised Rs 8.6 crores through the revenue-based financing platform Velocity.in over multiple tranches.

Ilesh and Bhavdip Ghevariya founded the fashion brand French Crown, which is well-known for its trendy and premium apparel. French Crown says it will launch more than 200 designs each week, focusing on innovation and customer satisfaction.

“With Velocity’s strategic partnership, we have achieved a significant milestone by becoming an Rs. 100 crore bootstrapped brand, demonstrating our ability to grow in a highly competitive market,” said Ilesh Ghevariya, chief executive officer of French Crown.

“This partnership has enabled us to invest in strategic marketing initiatives, resulting in increased brand visibility across the globe,” Ghevariya added.

The firm, which has a presence in over 90 countries, claims that it has a 50% customer retention rate, which is higher than the 28.2% industry standard.

Bengaluru-based Velocity offers revenue-based financing at an interest rate of 4-8% as an alternative to conventional VC funds and traditional bank debt for Indian e-commerce businesses. Velocity has collaborated with more than 2,500 e-commerce businesses since it began operations in early 2020. It was founded in early 2020 by IIT Bombay graduates Abhiroop Medhekar, Atul Khichariya, and Saurav Swaroop. Its portfolio companies include Power Gummies, SUMOOR, Crossbeats, Green Soul, WallMantra, BellaVita, WaterScience, and Setu.

“I am thrilled that Velocity, as a growth partner, has been instrumental in fueling the remarkable success of French Crown. By incorporating eco-friendly materials, adopting ethical manufacturing practices, and prioritizing transparency in the supply chain, French Crown has emerged as an influential force in conscious fashion,” said Atul Khichariya, co-founder of Velocity.

Blume Ventures announces first close of $25 million for new opportunity fund

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June 22, 2023

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The venture capital (VC) firm Blume Ventures has announced the first close of its new opportunity-cum-continuity fund, Fund 1Y. This is the VC firm’s third growth fund.

In a statement, Blume claimed it has already raised INR 200 Cr of the round’s target corpus of 400 Cr.

Furthermore, the VC firm closed its Fund IV at $290 Mn last year. Blume Ventures did not indicate the number of startups it would invest in or the average ticket size of the investments made through Fund 1Y.

The VC firm will utilize part of the funds raised to acquire strong startups from its Fund 1, such as IntrCity, Cashify, Carbon Clean, and Zopper. The remaining funds will be used to invest in new startups.

Commenting on the development, Vikram Gawande, VP of growth investments at Blume Ventures, stated, “We have a fabulous set of winners in our portfolio, and I am glad that we have been able to raise additional capital to stay invested longer and go deeper in our winners. We believe in the power of public markets and are confident that businesses such as Purplle, Zopper, Cashify and others in this portfolio are well entrenched on the path.”

In 2018, 2021, and 2022, Blume raised similar Opportunity Funds for investments in startups like Exotel, Grey Orange Robotics, Smallcase, Slice, Unacademy, and WebEngage.

Karthik Reddy, co-founder and partner at Blume Ventures, added, “Blume is one of the first VCs in India to have executed this structure with the new investors also being onshore. The current environment and our unique strategy allow us to balance the interests of our current and incoming investors and hold the best of our companies for another 3-4 years before eventual public listing and creating wealth for the local ecosystem. It’s a win-win solution for all involved.”

These funds either help Blume acquire the winning company stakes from its legacy funds to maintain these positions or invest additional capital into break-out businesses on the back of follow-on investors to create effective ways for its LP (limited partner) base to continue generating returns from high-quality companies.

Aside from its main funds, Blume also manages the Blume Founders Fund, which makes small investments in startups. Depending on the size of the round, it typically invests between $25,000 – $100,000 and does not invest beyond the first cheque.

EcoSoul Home embraces yoga to promote employee well-being on International Yoga Day

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June 21, 2023

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New Delhi, 21st June, 2023 – EcoSoul Home, a leading D2C e-commerce marketplace, is delighted to announce its celebration of International Yoga Day with a wonderful initiative to foster its employees’ physical and mental well-being. Recognizing the importance of a balanced lifestyle, EcoSoul has introduced 30 minutes of daily yoga exercises to promote overall fitness and harmony.

Yoga has long been acknowledged for its transformative impact on individuals, encompassing physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. By incorporating daily yoga sessions, EcoSoul inspires its employees to prioritize their health and embrace a holistic approach to well-being. This initiative reflects the organization’s commitment to creating a supportive and balanced work environment that nurtures the mind and body together.

Introducing daily yoga exercises will provide employees with dedicated time to unwind, rejuvenate, and enhance their physical fitness. EcoSoul recognizes that a healthy workforce is a cornerstone of productivity and success. Yoga has proven benefits, including stress reduction, improved focus, increased creativity, and enhanced overall wellness. By encouraging its employees to embrace yoga, EcoSoul aims to empower them to thrive personally and professionally.

“We are thrilled to launch this initiative as part of our commitment to the well-being of our employees,” said Rahul Singh, Co-founder at EcoSoul. “At EcoSoul, we believe that a healthy mind and body are essential for individual growth and organizational success. By integrating yoga into our work routine, we aim to create a positive and balanced environment where our employees can flourish.”

EcoSoul invites its employees to embrace this initiative and experience the numerous benefits of yoga. The company is dedicated to providing the necessary resources and support to ensure the successful implementation of this program. Qualified yoga instructors will lead the sessions, guiding participants through various postures, breathing exercises, and meditation techniques.

This International Yoga Day, EcoSoul reiterates its commitment to its employees’ physical and mental well-being. By embracing yoga to promote holistic health, EcoSoul continues to foster a culture of wellness, balance, and harmony within the organization.

About EcoSoul Home Inc.

EcoSoul Home is a USA-based corporation instituted by Co-founders Rahul Singh and Arvind Ganesan in Aug 2020 to accelerate the world’s transition to a sustainable lifestyle by creating eco-friendly goods from renewable resources. EcoSoul, the D2C marketplace, sells bio-based and eco-friendly products to give every home a greener soul. They have a wide range of products across kitchenware, dinnerware and home essentials. EcoSoul Home significantly contributes to the local economy by encouraging SME sectors and women empowerment and exporting EcoSoul products from India, thus contributing to the thriving Indian exports sector. EcoSoul Home Inc. is one of the largest eco-friendly products companies with an active presence in countries like the USA, Canada, India, China, and Vietnam, offering more than 70+ products in the market. The brand has multiple sales channels, including D2C, Amazon, and Walmart.com, a Retail presence in ~2,000 stores, and a significant B2B presence.

For more information about EcoSoul’s products, visit their website: https://ecosoulhome.in/

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