Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (June 26, 2024)
YourStory presents the daily news roundup from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Funding
Novavente bags $3M investment from Highbrow Securities
Novavente Private Limited, a technology sales company, has bagged a $3 million investment from Highbrow Securities, a firm with expertise in late-stage investments in SMEs.
The investment will fuel Novavente’s expansion plans, enhancing offerings and services while boosting the workforce.
“Investing in Novavente underscores our deep confidence in their innovative sales acceleration and AI-driven solutions...Generative AI will be transformative, becoming the new industry standard. Novavente is at the forefront of this shift, poised for exceptional growth,” said Tarun Singh, Managing Director of Highbrow Securities.
Founded in 2016, Novavente specialises in global sales enablement and demand generation. It employs AI, machine learning, sales automation, and research-driven strategies to help clients expand in current markets and explore new geographies.
Novavente claims to serve Fortune 500 companies, large enterprises, and startups across the US, Europe, the UK, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
Morphing Machines raises $2.76M seed funding led by Speciale Invest
, a fabless semiconductor startup, has raised $2.76 million in a seed funding round led by Speciale Invest, a seed-stage VC investing in deep technologies.
The round also saw participation from IvyCap Ventures, Golden Sparrow, Navam Capital, CIIE Initiatives, and DeVC.
The funding will accelerate product development and prototyping, expand the engineering team, and support go-to-market initiatives, allowing the startup to advance its innovative technology.
“With robust government support and initiatives like the Design Linked Incentive and Chips2Startup schemes, the focus on developing indigenous technologies is stronger than ever. The industry is poised for significant growth, and Morphing Machines’ pioneering technology and exceptional team are at the forefront of this transformation,” Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest, said.
Morphing Machines was founded in 2006 by Prof SK Nandy, Dr Ranjani Narayan, and Deepak Shapeti. The company, incubated at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, is pioneering runtime reconfigurable dataflow processors that deliver high performance and power efficiency at a low cost.
Morphing Machines co-founders.
O hi secures $1M pre-Series A funding
O hi, a social networking app, has secured $1 million (Rs 8 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by existing investors JIIF, with participation from several marquee angel investors.
With this fund, the company said it will strengthen its product and integrate an AI-based profiling system.
“We are confident that the new real-world ecosystem we are building with AI will revolutionise content games on all platforms such as Instagram and YouTube viral, providing a significant return on investment for businesses, and brands worldwide,” Adeeti and Rupal, Founders of O hi, said.
Launched in 2021, O hi uses the power of real-life human interaction in the same physical environment by creating digital rooms in café, airports, and hotels.
Other news
Gupshup launches conversational buyer app for ONDC
Gupshup, a conversational messaging platform, has launched a conversational buyer app on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) network.
The app enables buyers to use a WhatsApp-based conversational UI to discover, browse, and buy products from sellers across the ONDC network, without needing to download any other mobile app.
Soon, will also offer this product capability to its enterprise customers who want to integrate conversational commerce into their chatbots.
The buyer app is in beta and will initially have limited availability, allowing users to order food and beverages like biryani on WhatsApp. Customers will be able to share their location over chat, browse sellers close to them, order food, and make payments right from WhatsApp.
Support for additional conversational channels such as Google RCS and voice is also expected soon.
Unicommerce, Fabindia partner for ecommerce operations
Premier consumer lifestyle platform has partnered with ecommerce enablement SaaS platform Unicommerce to manage its business operations across online and offline channels and streamline its ecommerce supply chain.
Fabindia has deployed Unicommerce’s end-to-end technology stack to streamline its order processing for its wide array of products listed on its website, multiple marketplaces as well as across its physical stores located in the country.
Fabindia will use Unicommerce’s technology to process orders across online channels and physical stores. By enabling ship-from-store for orders placed on online platforms, Fabindia will be able to allocate the order to the store location nearest to the customer’s delivery address leading to faster deliveries to the end customers.
Currently, the brand manages a catalogue of 175,000 items across channels, processing orders from over 100 stores and four warehouses using Unicommerce’s platform.
Global Private Capital Association appoints five new Board directors
The Global Private Capital Association (GPCA), a non-profit, independent membership organisation representing private capital investors, has appointed five new Board directors.
Andrea Auerbach, Head of Global Private Investments and Partner at Cambridge Associates; Gaurav Trehan, Partner, Co-Head of KKR Asia Pacific, Head of Asia Pacific Private Equity, and CEO for KKR India; Alexandre Saigh, CEO and Board Member at Patria Investments; Tope Lawani, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Helios Investment Partners; and Juan Pablo Zucchini Managing Partner at Advent International, have been appointed as the five new Board directors at and by the GPCA.
The GPCA Board also appointed Runa Alam—Chief Executive Officer and Partner of Development Partners International—as Board Member Emeritus.
GPCA members are leading investors across Asia, Latin America, Africa, CEE and the Middle East, who collectively manage over $2 trillion in assets. The organisation’s proprietary data and market intelligence highlights forward-looking trends in global investments such as digitalisation and energy transition, as well as the societal impact of those investments.
NPST secures orders from Kerala Gramin Bank, Karnataka Gramin Bank
NPST, a listed fintech providing banking and payment technology and solutions, has secured orders from Kerala Gramin Bank and Karnataka Gramin Bank for its banking Superapp.
NPST Superapp will enable banks to accelerate digital transformation by enabling the delivery of engaging, new-age banking and transactional experiences, tailored to the demands of customers in rural and semi-urban areas.
It integrates a wide array of services, including onboarding, everyday banking and payment transactions, credit products, as well as backend consumer servicing and engagement. Customers can access these services in their regional language.
Honda selects BuyCo, FourKites to streamline container shipping operations
Honda’s divisions of Motorcycle and Power Products Operations have selected BuyCo and real-time supply chain visibility provider FourKites to streamline their container shipping operations.
With a focus on boosting efficiency and enhancing visibility, Honda’s collaboration with these technology providers marks a significant step toward advancing its supply chain.
Leveraging BuyCo’s ocean carrier network, Honda can now access shipping schedules from its carriers and select the optimal option based on criteria, such as CO2 emissions, cost, ETA and allocations. Booking is then sent directly from the platform, enabling Honda to save working time for bookings.
FourKites plays an instrumental role in providing Honda with visibility and container tracking solutions. With direct access to major ocean carriers, real-time AIS data, terminal insights and dry carriers’ integration, Honda gains reliable visibility over both land and ocean transportation.
Ather Energy to set up third manufacturing plant in Maharashtra
Electric two-wheeler manufacturer Ather Energy announced plans to set up its third manufacturing facility in Bidkin, AURIC, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Maharashtra.
This new facility will manufacture both electric two-wheelers and battery packs. It will allow to get closer to more markets in the country by reducing its logistics costs and hastening the delivery of its finished products to its customers.
Ather currently has two manufacturing facilities in Hosur, Tamil Nadu—one dedicated to battery production and the other for vehicle assembly. The current facilities will continue to produce battery packs and vehicles.
The startup has been focusing on increasing its production capacity, expanding its product portfolio, retail outlets, and charging infrastructure across the country. It claims to have over 200 experience centres and over 1,900 fast chargers in Ather Grids across India.
PayU’s LazyPay partners with Blinkit
Digital financial services provider PayU announced the partnership of its credit service, , with the quick-commerce app Blinkit to provide a quick checkout experience to customers.
With this new partnership, Blinkit’s extensive customer base will now enjoy the convenience of one-tap payments through LazyPay.
LazyPay is now available across all major quick-commerce platforms, including , Instamart, and .
(This copy will be updated with the latest news throughout the day)
Edited by Megha Reddy
