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 that are doing similar things. Click here to know about my rationale behind this weekly exercise.
It has been several weeks since our ecosystem breached the 2 deals/day average with 17 startups raising $106 million last week. The bear market rally in the global stock markets has increased investor’s liquidity positions, and many are looking for options outside of the listed spaces. Founders must start thinking about how to make deals while the running is hot!Out of the 17 deals, 16 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: GigIndia
Amount Raised: $975k from Incubate Fund India, Beyond Next Ventures, S. Ramadorai, Ravi Nigam, Sakshi Gudwani, Shantanu, Kiran, & Shashank Deshpande, and Dr. Pratap
What does GigIndia do?
Edited from Tracxn: GigIndia is an online student network and micro-jobs platform. Users can get paid by completing micro-jobs called gigs for companies like writing a blog, designing a logo, or completing a survey. Students can also search for internships, perform tasks, and get hired after evaluation. GigIndia also offers a platform for students to connect with mentors and learn about various career opportunities.
Why do I like GigIndia?
With several parts of our country going through fresh lockdowns, the days of WFO (Working From Office) are a dream that is far from materialization. Companies, big or small (Indian or global), are looking for ways to cut fixed costs and rationalize spending through a project or task-specific costs. This new paradigm is where a GigIndia type platform comes in. In contrast, one could argue that there are several competitors like Fiverr, TaskRabbit, etc. I like GigIndia’s problem-specific solutions for businesses, like marketing, operations, sales, recruiting, and others. They aid businesses in breaking down a complex task into smaller gigs and then help owners manage them.An interesting approach that we might try out for ourselves and our startups!
Name: Decentro
Amount Raised: Undisclosed from Y Combinator, Plug and Play, Upsparks, and other notable angel investors from the Indian and APAC community.
What does Decentro do?
Edited from Tracxn: Decentro provides open banking API solutions to banks and financial institutions. It offers APIs for KYC & onboarding, AML & compliance, digital lending, online payments, and more. It enables banks to build products such as neo banks, lending platforms, finance management, and more.
Why do I like Decentro?
I am a fan of open banking APIs as I have previously liked YAP and an early investor in Karza. Therefore, Decentro is on this list as I believe that Indian banking is not only broken; it is holding Indian businesses back. Must I explain more why I am interested in platforms that solve this broken experience?
Name: Zomentum
Amount Raised: $4.1m from Accel and SAIF Partners
What does Zomentum do?
Edited from Tracxn: Zomentum provides client relationship and sales process management software. It allows users to design and process sales process, retain them, and improve client relationships. It enables users to manage personalized reminders, set metrics and track performance of the teams, and share leads with other teams. Other features include sales funnel management, catalog management, branding, and identity management.
Why do I like Zomentum?
At Artha, we use Pipedrive and Salesforce to manage our sales processes. It does an excellent job for us, except that we must pay a lot of third parties to automate our sales processes. These addons significantly increase our monthly bills, and we must monitor the addons for errors, especially if the APIs are updated. While I haven’t had a chance to test drive Zomentum (yet), I like their fully integrated approach. If it reduces my monthly costs and my operational overhead – I’ll switch!
