The Tech Panda takes a look at recent funding events in the tech ecosystem, seeking to know where the cash is flowing.
Startup: Cloudworx Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Sector: Digital twin
Amount: US$600k
Led by: Venture Catalysts
Venture Catalysts, an Indian early stage investment firm, led the Seed round of funding, joined by other investors in raising $600k for Cloudworx Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a company in the field of digital twins in the emerging enterprise metaverse market.
Cloudworx Studio is a revolutionary no-code, web-based IDE that enables users to create, manage, and maintain digital twins and other 3D enterprise applications directly from their web browsers. The startup focuses on creating comprehensive digital replicas of ports, terminals, smart cities, R&D labs, industrial IoT, facility management, and more.
“We identified an unparalleled value proposition within Cloudworx’s innovative technology, which was an opportunity hard to forego,” said Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Director & MD of Venture Catalysts. “The integration of digital technologies has accelerated, and the advent of the metaverse presents new avenues for businesses to develop advanced products, upgrade to finer solutions, and achieve unmatched results with an insight-driven approach. An appealing aspect of Cloudworx was their unique business model, which is bound to set the benchmark for future startups in the emerging digital twins industry. We are excited to partner with Cloudworx on their journey to revolutionise processes across the value chain, across industries, and look forward to working with them together in building Industry 4.0.”
“We’re exhilarated by the growth and adoption of digital twins. As AI and digital twins become pivotal in creating meaningful business solutions across various domains, this funding marks a significant milestone. We’re committed to leading this transformative wave, ensuring that by 2030, any work that can be digitised into 3D, will be,” stated Yuvraj.
The Seed round was led by Venture Catalysts and 1Crowd, with participation from existing investors SucSEED and LetsVenture, alongside new investors Provista and Agility Ventures. The company also stated that the successful round of funding worth $600k will be leveraged by Cloudworx to accelerate growth and expand international reach in the global digital twins market.
Startup: Hudle
Sector: Sports Tech
Amount: INR7 Crore
Led by: Inflection Point Ventures & Sky Impact Capital
Hudle has raised INR7 Crore as a part of their Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures & Sky Impact Capital. The round also saw participation from Survam Partners and Anay Ventures. The funds will be utilized for footprint expansion, product enhancements and marketing efforts towards it’s rapidly growing sports community.
Hudle is a leading sports tech platform catering to the fast-growing preventive healthcare market.
Suhail Narain – Founder & CEO, Hudle says, “Our business has grown more than 6x over the last 2 years. With time, the confidence in our mission to enable Indians of all ages to play is only growing stronger. It is heartening to be supported by partners like IPV & Sky Impact Capital in this journey.”
Vinay Bansal, Founder & CEO, Inflection Point Ventures says, “Hudle distinguishes itself through a deeply integrated omnichannel model, addressing challenges in both B2B and B2C markets. Their constant innovation through unique offerings like the SAAS solution for sports clubs and the Hudle All Access Pass for players is what stands out for us to continue supporting the Hudle team.”
Aakash Sachdev, Founder & Managing Partner, Sky Impact Capital says “We are excited to partner with Hudle and help them transform into the premiere destination for sports enthusiasts. We are impressed with Hudle’s ability to forge strategic alliances with marquee brands & well situated venues early in its life cycle. With over $98 Billion per annum expected to be spent on fitness & wellness by Indians, there is a huge opportunity for Hudle to build tailored sports tech products & services that solve pain points and provide a seamless offering to players and sports venues.
“This partnership signifies our commitment to fostering innovation, active lifestyle and accessibility within sports, empowering enthusiasts at every level to unleash their full potential. Together, we aim to harness cutting-edge technology to democratize access to sport and inspire a new generation of active & healthy individuals across India.”
Startup: Vodex
Sector: GenAI
Amount: US$2 million
Led by: Unicorn India Ventures
Vodex, a GenAI company, raised $2 million in a seed round from Unicorn India Ventures, and Pentathlon Ventures. Vodex has already achieved a remarkable $1 million ARR in less than a year.
Since 2022, Vodex has empowered businesses worldwide, with calling needs in the USA and Canada regions, with their proprietary Gen AI-powered outbound voice calling solution.
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, says, “GenAI has multiple use cases and more importantly to transform the landscape of tech businesses worldwide. We see disruptive capabilities in Vodex to emerge as a formidable player by applying the power of GenAI and SaaS to help enterprises manage their CRM engagements more efficiently.”
The funds raised will be used for global expansion. The company plans to scale their business to at least 4x in the next one year.
Anshul Shrivastava, CEO, Vodex, says, “This investment is a testament to the immense potential of Generative AI in revolutionizing sales. Vodex will invest in building a dedicated and highly trained support team to ensure exceptional customer service. We are confident that by quadrupling our revenue in the near future, Vodex will become the go-to solution for businesses seeking to unlock the power of Gen AI-driven sales.”
Kumar Saurav, CTO, adds, “Vodex offers businesses a powerful tool to expand their reach, qualify leads, and close deals with unprecedented speed and scale, all while delivering a natural and engaging customer experience. We are incredibly excited for this next chapter and the positive impact Vodex will have on the business landscape worldwide.”
Startup: SydeLabs
Sector: AI Security & Risk Management
Amount: US$2.5 million
Led by: RTP Global
AI Security & Risk Management startup SydeLabs announced their seed funding round of $2.5m to build solutions aimed at securing GenAI systems for enterprises. The funding round was led by RTP Global and also saw participation from Picus Capital and marquee angel investors.
The company offers solutions to identify security and safety vulnerabilities in enterprise AI systems and prevent them in real time, helping mitigate cybersecurity attacks and abuse.
Ankita Kumari, co-founder at SydeLabs commented: “While we were working on solving security and fraud-led business problems, we saw how business growth and profitability was fuelled by the adoption of risk mitigation measures, despite these measures usually being seen as cost sinks. Since then we knew we wanted to build solutions in the vulnerability and risk management space to address these growing concerns.”
“The adoption of Generative AI in enterprise organisations has seen the cybersecurity attack surface increase substantially. From a security point of view, companies are now bringing a human-like element into systems that were previously not susceptible to social engineering and manipulation. From a compliance perspective, we see systems having access to internal and user data with the ability to take action on that data. We also see the reputational risk emerging with adoption of GenAI systems that can generate undesirable content which can cause harm to a brand, loss of goodwill and further legal risk.”
Startup: Daakia Private Limited
Sector: Language platform
Amount: Undisclosed
Led by: Green Apple Enterprises
Daakia Private Limited, an AI-powered technology startup, announced the completion of its seed funding round, raising an undisclosed amount from a group of strategic investors.
The funding round was led by MD of Green Apple Enterprises Sasi Kumar Marasu, with participation from a few other angel investors. This significant investment will fuel Daakia’s mission to provide citizen-centric services to make collaborations easier, effective and thus, achieve digital sovereignty.
Daakia Private Limited was founded on the belief that having a trusted communication platform is an essential aspect of our daily life and should not be complex. With this latest round of funding, the company is poised to scale its platform to serve businesses and individuals globally, and provide a cost-effective Indian made solution alternative to WhatsApp and Zoom.
“We are incredibly excited to have the support of our investors as we embark on the next phase of our journey,” said Animesh Kumar, Founder & CEO (ex-EY & IIFT alum) of Daakia Private Limited. “This funding will enable us to expand our team, enhance our technology, and reach more customers. While internet has brought people together, the world still struggles with linguistic boundaries. Through Daakia, one can have a meaningful conversation with anybody in the world in about 109 languages. We are committed to the exhortation of the honourable Prime Minister to “Code for Atmanirbhar Bharat”, and truly believe in Vocal for Local and Go Global,” Kumar added.
Startup: GPS Renewables
Sector: Cleantech
Amount: US$ 50 Million
Led by: Private, public sector banks & NBFCs
GPS Renewables, an Indian Full Stack Technology & Engineering company dedicated to clean fuels, raised USD 50 Million (Rs 411.50 Crores) in debt financing from leading private, public sector banks, and prominent NBFCs. Participating institutions in the current financing round include Punjab National Bank, HDFC, Yes Bank, HSBC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank, Vivriti Capital, Northern Arc, Spark Capital, Tata Capital and SIDBI.
The company currently has an order book of USD 240 Million (Rs 2,000 Cr) and MoUs worth USD 540 Million (Rs 4,500 Cr) for the execution of multiple CBG plants across the country. With the current order book, GPS Renewables has crossed a turnover of USD 60 Million (Rs 500 Cr) in FY 2023-24, whilst registering a 225% growth over FY 2022-23. With the current round of financing, the company enters FY25 on a positive note with sufficient headroom for further expansion.
Tilak Minocha, Chief Finance Controller, GPS Renewables, said, “At GPS, our aim is to lead the way in India’s clean energy shift. To achieve this goal, we must enhance biofuel production capacity and streamline adoption processes. Through our extensive projects nationwide, GPS Renewables has effectively addressed these challenges. To further accelerate our efforts, we not only need financial backing but also strategic industry collaborations. The current round of funding will allow us to accelerate our expansion efforts and promote India’s transition to sustainable green energy”.
Startup: Circle of Games
Sector: Gaming
Amount: US$1 million
Led by: Nazara Technologies & The Hashgraph Association
Web3 multi-gaming platform, Circle of Games (COG), has raised $1 million in equity funding from strategic investors Nazara Technologies FZ LLC, (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Nazara Technologies Limited) and The Hashgraph Association, a Swiss organization focused on digital enablement for Hedera, a distributed ledger technology.
COG intends to use this funding to fast-track its go-to-market strategy, improve platform capabilities, and widen its international presence in the US, EU, Middle East & Africa, and Asia in 2024. With over 250,000 registered users, COG plans to expand its gaming portfolio from the current six games to over ten games by Q4 2024. Through this expansion, COG aims to target millions of gamers in the global casual and hyper-casual gaming community.
Alongside the investment, COG remains committed to leveraging its existing strategic partnerships and collaborations with prominent Web3 projects and ecosystems worldwide, namely Chingari, Solana, Foundership, KGeN/IndiGGMetarun, TheFishVerse, NinjaGames and various Gaming Guilds/DAOs, among others. These partnerships provide COG unique and immediate access to a 500+Mn gaming community in 50+ countries.
Rabilal Thapa, CEO and Co-Founder of Circle of Games, said, “This strategic partnership not only represents a significant endorsement of COG’s mission and potential but also places the company in a prime position to exploit the expansive capabilities of Web3 gaming innovations, globally. This collaboration goes beyond mere capital investment; Nazara will offer strategic guidance, support and access to its extensive network to help the company grow and Hedera will provide COG access to their vast collections of games, ecosystems, and substantial users and their cutting-edge technology. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Nazara, Kamal Youssefi, President of The Hashgraph Association, Stefan Deiss, Co-Founder & CEO of The Hashgraph Group – the service delivery and venture building arm of THA and Anindya Roychowdhury, Head of Ventures of THG (whose relationship with Nazara goes back 25 years), for their invaluable and comprehensive support in the development of this strategic partnership”
Kamal Youssefi, President of The Hashgraph Association said: “We are pleased to further empower the global Web3 gaming industry through our co-investment with Nazara Technologies in Circle of Games – the leading Web3 multi-gaming app aiming to onboard the next billion users onto the Hedera network.”
Startup: Uniqus Consultech
Sector: ESG tech-enabled Consulting
Amount: US$10 million
Led by: Nexus Ventures
Uniqus Consultech, a tech-enabled global platform that offers ESG and Accounting & Reporting Consulting, raised $10 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Nexus Ventures with participation from Sorin Investments. Uniqus has also launched an AI Assistant for financial reporting and ESG, and a tech platform for ESG data management and reporting.
This latest infusion of capital will be used for the next phase of Uniqus’ growth, which will be fuelled by scaling-up of existing solutions, launch of adjacent service offerings and geographical markets, and continued investments in technology.
Jamil Khatri, Co-Founder & CEO of Uniqus, said, “We are heartened to see a very positive response to the Uniqus value proposition from clients, talent and the wider ecosystem, which has enabled us to scale up in a short period of time. Our clients have been encouraging us to explore adjacent solutions and high-quality talent has been approaching us with new capabilities. The current round of funding will enable us to expand our solutions portfolio, explore new markets, and further accelerate our growth plans.”
Anup Gupta from Nexus Ventures said, “The company’s unique cloud delivery model coupled with proprietary technology is a game-changer for clients. Uniqus leverages both technology and people to deliver a holistic and compelling value proposition for clients. We are delighted to see a new global tech-enabled consulting company take shape.”
Sorin Investments’ Sanjay Nayar said, “We are excited to partner with Uniqus in their journey to redefine the consulting landscape. The company’s chosen markets of India, US and the Middle East all offer significant opportunities either due to their growth potential or their absolute size. The Uniqus team has continued to demonstrate their ability to execute to seize the significant opportunities before them.”
Startup: Sapience Automata
Sector: AI powered driver assistance tech
Amount: INR 1.75 crore
Led by: Inflection Point Ventures
AI powered driver assistance technology startup Sapience Automata has raised INR 1.75 CR in a Seed Round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds will be utilized for growing sales for Driver camera, building key partnerships in the automotive domain, continuing to develop Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) technology, and filing international patents.
The startup is focused on road safety in India through plug-and-play driver assistance technology. Their goal is to eliminate accidents by leveraging advanced AI and autonomous driving tech.
Vikram Ramasubramanian, Partner, Inflection Point Ventures says, “Most of us know someone whose family member or close one has experienced a major road accident. It is an unfortunate reality that can’t be helped, given our dependence on different modes of transportation and driver’s circumstance. Sapience, with their AI powered tech, reduces such unavoidable reality. IPV will always focus on supporting startups that offer innovative solutions to significant problems, and Sapience’s approach is one we’ll continue to endorse.”
Satyajit Neogi, CEO & CTO, Sapience Automata, says, “India reports 1.5 lakh deaths and 5 lakh critical injuries every year from road accidents and its growing. We are committed to reduce road accidents in India by 90% by 2030. We started by building plug n play cutting-edge ADAS technology custom made for Indian conditions, to prevent road accidents due to human errors such as distraction and drowsiness.”
Startup: PlanckDOT
Sector: Edge Data Centers
Amount: US$30 million
Led by: Undisclosed
PlanckDOT, a technology startup specializing in Edge Data Centers, had a successful Bridge round, initiation totaling $350,000, and has already attracted substantial interest, with $100,000 secured from a prominent analytics firm based in the USA. The round, valuated at an impressive $30 million.
This injection of funds will be strategically allocated to bolstering the ongoing development of PlanckDOT’s groundbreaking Quanta AI that caters to the raising demand of data Centre for generative AI applications.
Shishir Miglani , Co-Founder of PlanckDOT, said, “Securing this initial investment in our bridge round is a testament to the confidence investors have in the potential of our technology. We are incredibly grateful for their support as we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of Quanta AI.”
Ali Ahmed Saleem, Co-Founder & CFO of PlanckDOT Technologies, emphasized the importance of this funding in advancing the company’s objectives. “This influx of capital will enable us to accelerate the development of our Quanta AI platform, bringing us one step closer to realizing our vision of harnessing the power of sustainable edge data centers,” Ali remarked.
