The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (17th June - 21st June)

By Team Startupcity  |  Friday, 21 June 2024, 14:47 IST

The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (17th June - 21st June)
The Indian startup ecosystem has set a new record by bagging another round of funding in a few sectors like Fintech, Guilt-free Ice cream, Health-Plan-Tech, Digital Lending & Crafted Beer marking another win for the startupreneurs by raising funds and updating the growth probability and standardizing the products and services. The week went by successfully witnessing funds in every stage of funding from Pre - Seed Funding to Pre -Series A to Series A to Series D.
Sector: Fintech
Funding Round: Pre-Seed Round
Startup: Prosperr.io 
Established Year: 2022
Funding News: Prosperr.io lifts $1.55 million to develop its first AI-first Tax Advisor
A new-age fintech SaaS platform for automated income tax, Prosperr.io has lifted $1.55 million in its pre-seed round. The fresh funds raised in a round will be used mainly to augment the AI-first tax advisor of the company.
Investors: Key board member in Pinterest and Coinbase, Gokul Rajaram, Vinodh Bhat - President & Co-Founder, JioSaavn, Ramakant Sharma, Founder, Livspace, Kunal Shah, QED Ventures, Saurabh Jain, CEO, Livspace.
Established in the March 2022 by Manas Gond, the fintech platform Prosperr.io provides a subscription-based service designed to achieve income taxes expansively for compensated individuals to ensure extreme eligible tax savings & compliances.
Prosperr.io presents two main products: Super Saver Product – B2C product that helps the individual's chart and reduce their taxes proficiently and the Prosperr-FBP – Flexi Benefits Plans that pemits the employers to deliver non-taxable payments.
Expressing to this fundraise, the CPTO and Co-Founder of Prosperr.io, Dev Kumar says, "The growing complexity of income tax regulations and the increasing number of individuals filing income tax returns (ITR) highlight the need for user-friendly, technology-driven solutions. Our mission is to address this challenge by developing AI-powered solutions that redefine income tax management and help our customers save money while achieving their financial goals”.
Sector: Guilt-free Ice cream
Funded Round: Pre-Series - A
Startup: Go Zero
Established Year: 2020
Funding News: Guilt-free Ice cream brand 'Go Zero' scoops $1.5 million in Pre-series A
Guilt-free Ice cream brand Go Zero that offers vegan joys to the people has lifted $1.5 million in its Pre – Series A funding round, the brand stated in a press release.
Investors: Sandeep Aggarwal - DSG Consumer Partners, V3 Ventures and Saama Capital amid others, Arjun Purkayastha.
Responding to this fund acquirement, Kiran Shah, Founder, Go Zero states, "With this round of funding, we will look to continue our exponential growth on quick and e-commerce along with expanding to Tier 1 cities such as Jaipur, Chandigarh, and Ahmedabad. We will also continue to launch exciting flavors and formats for our consumers throughout the year”.
Established by Kiran Shah, the pioneering ice-cream brand Go Zero has an expanded product portfolio including reduced calories, increased protein content and delicious vegan ice-creams. The ice cream brand has robustly caught the immense response from the health-focused users looking healthy alternatives for conventional high fat or high sugar ice creams. Currently the chain of Go Zero is spanning across 16 cities and more than 125 dark stores.
Expressing to this, Ash Lilani, Founder & Managing partner at Saama Capital says, "The Company’s immense revenue growth and profitability since our pre-seed investment last year is proof of Kiran’s product experience and the potential of India’s desserts market”.
Sector: Health-Plan-Tech 
Funding Round: Series A
Startup: Alyve Health
Established Year: 2020
Funding News: Health-Plan-Tech Startup Alyve Health nets $5.5 million in Series A
Alyve Health, the fastest growing health-plan-tech start-up has secured $5.5 million in Series A 
Investors: Axilor Ventures, 1Crowd Fund, Inhealth Ventures.
In addition to this, the startup has bagged venture debt fund from Trifecta Capital. The company stated that it will utilize the raised capital to enhance the platform, hiring, operational expansion, services amplification and rise the engagement among members.
Shashank Avadhani, Co-Founder and CEO highlighted the significance of investing in workforce especially engineers, deep technology and engineers to streamline the platform that aligns with their ambitions and aspirations.
Established in May 2020 by Shashank Avadhani, Sushant Roy & Vineet Mehta, Alyve Health provides all-inclusive health plans that cover diverse healthcare happenings including diagnostics, medicine purchases, and consultations, memberships in gyms, dental checkups and hands-on wellbeing.
Anil Gudibande, Co-Founder, 1Crowd Fund states, “Alyve Health is a unique technology venture in the insurance industry weaving an ecosystem of service providers and providing an assured experience to all stakeholders. With growing coverage, we believe that Alyve Health can help redefine health plans”.
The healthcare industry of India which was estimated at $370 billion in the year 2020 is projected to achieve more than $610 billion by 2026, offering a vital opportunity for Alyve Health to develop & revolutionize the health plans in the market.
Sector: Digital Lending
Funding Round: Series A
Startup: Supermoney 
Established Year: 2020
Funding News: Startup-focused Lending Platform Supermoney purses $3.4 million in Series A 
A  digital lending platform focused on startups, Supermoney has elevated $3.4 million (approximately 28.6 crore) in Series A funding round.
Investors: Capria Ventures and Capital 2B.
During the month of February 2020, the digital lender has pocketed $1 million (approximately 7 crore) from the prominent early-stage financial backer Unitus Ventures.
According to the press release disclosed by the startup, the fresh funds raised in the funding round will be utilized to spur up the growth and development of payments into the platform.
Established in the year 2020 by Nikhil Banerjee, Supermoney is an ingenious and inventive digital lending platform offers accessible financial solutions for diverse businesses by providing them with a personalized payment and capital solutions which are particularly developed for their supply chain and objectives.
As per the official statement from the startup based in Mumbai, it has fostered distinctive collaborations and partnerships with key brands across various sectors such as steel, auto parts, automotive, electronics and pharmaceuticals.
Functioning in more than 40 locations, Supermoney has nearly 30, 0000 retailers and dealers, 50+ anchors and more than 500 distributers across India on its platform.
Sector: Flavored Beer
Funding Round: Series D
Startup: Bira 91
Established Year: 2015
Funding News: Flavored Beer manufacturer Bira 91 earns $25 million in Series D
The craft beer maker Bira 91 secured $25 million in Series D funding round. According to the regulatory filing, the company has agreed to use the external commercial borrowing (ECB) in two $12.5 million installments. 
Investor: Kirin Holdings Singapore
The financing round comes a couple of months after Bira 91 raised $25 million from Tiger Pacific Capital in March 2024. This brings the all-out cash the New Delhi-based organization brought to $50 million up in the past 90 days.
Bira 91, founded in 2015 by Founder and CEO Ankur Jain, serves customers in 24 countries and is supported by Sequoia Capital India, Sofina in Belgium, and Kirin Holding in Japan.
In addition, the business owns 39 pubs that it operates under the name “The Beer Café,” which it purchased in 2022 in order to expand its retail presence.
As indicated by market information site Tracxn, the enhanced beer producer has raised a sum of $453 million across 17 rounds of value financing.
The Indian beer market is supposed to reach about $10 billion out of 2032, displaying a development rate (CAGR) of 7.1% during 2024-2032, as per a report by the IMARC Group. The report featured a rising inclination for cocktails among millennial customers, alongside accessibility to the items, to be among the key variables driving this development.
 

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