Venture Catalysts | Pixr8 News

11Jan By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Co-living Startup Grexter secured $1.5 million Pre-Series A Funding

Bengaluru, January 11, 2019: Venture Catalysts has invested $1.5 million in India based startup Grexter, one of the leading tech-based, hassle-free rental accommodation providing platforms for students and young professionals in the country. Grexter has raised the capital as part of its Pre-Series A funding round and it aims to leverage the funds for enhancing the inventory it offers as well as to ramp up its technology architecture. Grexter provides state of the art co-living spaces to those looking for hassle-free and cost-effective community living options. Problems such as hefty brokerage fees, low-quality homes, sky-high rents and deposits, and picky homeowners are all eliminated when one moves into a Grexter property. Its USP is that it offers fully-furnished state...

Venture Catalysts Closes 57 deals in 2018

24Dec By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Venture Catalysts Closes 57 deals in 2018

Venture Catalysts, a startup incubator, closed 57 deals in 2018, helping raise Rs 125 crore for startups in its portfolio, as per data from startup-tracking firm Tracxn. The deals ranged from Rs 3 crore to Rs 13 crore. During the year, its portfolio firms raised Rs 380 crore in total. Founder and president Apoorv Ranjan Sharma stated that the investors were primarily frontier-II towns, which is what Venture Catalysts focuses on. The number of deals it closed in 2018 was more that of its peers like Blume Ventures (30), Lets Venture (12), Orios Venture Partners (11), and Kae Capital and Indian Angel Network (10 each). Venture Catalysts had closed the highest number of investments in 2017 as well. “We are focusing on sectors like FMCG, he...

1Sep By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Playtoome Raises $281000 Funding From Venture Catalysts

Venture Catalysts, India's integrated incubator has announced investment worth Rs. 2 crores into Playtoome, a live entertainment destination, via Pre-Series A investment. Led by VCats angels, the funding round saw participation by Arihant Patni, serial entrepreneur Bhaskar Raju Konduru, Founding member of Red Bus & current CTO at Housejoy, Goverdhan Singh Jamwal, Chairman Kunwar Viyogi Memorial Trust, philanthropist and art and culture activist, Akhileshwaran Krishnan-Group CFO at Apollo Hospitals. The platform had earlier raised a seed round of funding of Rs. 1.5 crores from an Angel Investment firm Newport Holdings LLP, founded by Rangarajan Narayanan (Co-Founder EXILANT Technologies) and from HNIs including Ex Global commodity financial services leader Ramesh Sundaresan at OLA...

27Aug By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Rooter Raises Rs 4.5 Crore in Series A Funding

Sports social gaming platform Rooter has raised funds amounting to Rs 4.5 crore in Series A funding round from a group of investors of integrated incubator platform Venture Catalysts. The company is planning to use these funds in the expansion of its reach and appeal and establish itself on an international stage. The company is basically aiming at global expansion. “This is a precursor to a big Series A round, which we are going to raise on November 12 when we will pitch in front of over 50 investors at the Adidas family-backed 2018 leAD Sports Accelerator Program,” said Piyush, CEO and co-founder at Rooter. The investors that participated in the particular funding round included Khalid Al Tawil, Anjali Malhotra from Aviva, Pranay Nigotiya, Vishal Agarwal, Nishil Agarwal, Tharun ...

Try & Buy Fashions Raises $1 Mn From Venture Catalysts

10Aug By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Try & Buy Fashions Raises $1 Mn From Venture Catalysts

World's first real-life virtual trial room Try & Buy Fashions raises $1 million funding. The company is planning to bring online shopping as close to the offline experience as possible by allowing trying and buying of apparel through virtual stylists and virtual trial rooms. "VCats is a great platform that endeavours to back early- stage companies such as ours with the right mentorship and financial support. While we have already made our game strong in the industry through our tech, products and patent ring fencing along with 5 years of deep research in solving the problem of understanding the body shape of men and women, this Pre-Series A funding will further propel our growth," said Nikki, Innovation Head, Try & Buy. Try & Buy creates lifelike animated 3D models of user...

4Jun By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

FUNDING

Eyewear Brand ClearDekho Raises Rs. 2 Cr pre-Series-A Funding

Uttar Pradesh based Online Optical Marketplace and eyewear brand ClearDekho has raised Rs. 2 Crore (Nearly $300,000) in a pre-Series-A investment round from incubation and funding platform Venture Catalysts. The startup will utilise the funding amount to boost marketing initiatives, strengthen back-end operations and recruit fresh talent, as informed by Shivi Singh, co-founder at ClearDekho. The funding round led through Vcat platform witnessed participation from several institutional investors such as Pune based Windrose Capital and Samyakuth Capital, a hybrid growth fund based in Mumbai. In addition, there were angel investors too who put their money including Anand Naidu, Dhianu Das, Gagan Gupta. Founded by Saurabh Dayal and Shivi Singh in 2016, ClearDekho is a prominent Budget...

21May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Non-profit, Crowdfunding Heathcare Platform Raises $2 Mn Funding

ImpactGuru, India’s most prominent healthcare, nonprofit and crowdfunding platform, recently raised a $2 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Apollo Hospitals Group and Venture Catalysts. Existing investor, RB investments, a VC fund based in Singapore, also participated in the funding round along with India’s largest health-tech fund, Currae Healthtech Fund. The investment round also saw the participation of several family offices from US, Southeast Asia and Middle East. "Donation crowdfunding is a proven business model in US, UK, and China with platforms seeing exponential growth year on year. With this round of funding, ImpactGuru.com is well positioned to become the market leader in India," said investor, Harsh Bothra from RB Investments. The funds raised will serve to sc...

Kolkata Based Insurance Firm Raises $1 Million From Venture Catalysts

12Apr By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Kolkata Based Insurance Firm Raises $1 Million From Venture Catalysts

Kolkata based insurance management company Ideal insurance raises $1 million seed round of funding from Venture Catalysts. Venture Catalysts is India's leading incubator and the investors from Vcats include Nitesh Prakash of Ola, Atul Jain of Samyakth Finserv and promoters of Nandan Steel, Maithan group, Primarc, Atha group etc. The funding will be used primarily for building a strong infrastructural support for our operations and backend team as well as for marketing purposes. "With the development of our dedicated health insurance portal www.121policy.com, the investment has come at a much needed stage and will definitely bolster our growth and diversification plans," said Rahul Agarwal, founder and CEO, Ideal Insurance. Ideal Insurance is a pioneer in delivering niche and custom...

2Jul By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Venture Catalysts Raises $500k Funding From Zaffiro Ventures

Valued in a groundbreaking development for the Indian entrepreneurial landscape, Venture Catalysts has secured $500000 amount from Zaffiro Ventures. VCats was valued at Rs. 40 crore during the investment process, marking a major landmark in the six months of its operations and underlining its position as the fastest growing seed investment platform in the country. "Our aim, ever since our launch, has been to support and augment the growth of promising start-ups across the country. The investment from Zaffiro will not only help us in expanding to multiple cities across India and promote entrepreneurship beyond the metropolitan and tier-I geographies, but will also allow us to access industry insights and business acumen gained by individuals such as Revathi Roy and Jagdish Gothi. ...

Venture Catalysts Seed Investment in Fashion Startup CoutLoot

2Jun By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Venture Catalysts Seed Investment in Fashion Startup CoutLoot

Venture Catalysts, India's first seed investment and innovation platform, has facilitated a seed investment into CoutLoot, an end-to-end fashion reselling service. CoutLoot will be utilizing the funds secured through VCats for geographical expansion and launch of new product categories, and will be additionally strengthening its technological framework. Founded by Mahima Kaul, Sahil Khimavat, Vinit Jain and Jasmeet Thind, CoutLoot is a one-stop solution to de-clutter one's closet for cash. While sellers get paid for selling off unused branded and boutique fashion items from their closet, buyers get to avail products from the best brands in a nearly-mint condition at up to 80 percent off. CoutLoot has seen sales of 2,000 items since inception, has an inventory of 6,000 clothes, and see...

31May By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Vahanalytics Raises $200000 Seed Funding From Venture Catalysts

Vahanalytics, a tech-driven startup aimed at making Indian roads safer and better has raised USD 200, 000 through Venture Catalysts, India's first Seed Investment and Innovation Platform. The investment was led by prominent VCats angels Vikram Lakhotia and Anirudh Damani. With driverless smart cars increasingly being explored as a viable medium to improve the on-road transportation efficiency by tech giants around the world, the investment into Vahanalytics is aimed at addressing a global problem on a local scale. Speaking on the investment, Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder, Venture Catalysts, said, "Data analytics in transportation using telematics is the need of the hour. The space is extremely exciting and opens the door for almost limitless possibilities for implementation. The...