Daily Indian Startup News and Funding Alert – 26 June 2024
Novavente Bags $3M Investment from Highbrow Securities
Novavente Private Limited, a technology sales company, has secured a $3 million investment from Highbrow Securities. This significant funding will support Novavente’s expansion plans, enabling the company to enhance its offerings and services while boosting its 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 specializes in global sales enablement and demand generation. Utilizing AI, machine learning, sales automation, and research-driven strategies, the company aids clients in expanding their reach in existing markets and exploring new geographies. Novavente’s client base includes 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
Morphing Machines, a fabless semiconductor startup, has raised $2.76 million in a seed funding round led by Speciale Invest, a seed-stage VC firm specializing in deep technologies. Additional participants in the round included IvyCap Ventures, Golden Sparrow, Navam Capital, CIIE Initiatives, and DeVC.
The newly acquired funds will accelerate product development and prototyping, expand the engineering team, and support go-to-market initiatives, propelling the startup’s innovative technology forward.
“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,” said Vishesh Rajaram, Managing Partner at Speciale Invest.
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 in Bengaluru, is pioneering runtime reconfigurable dataflow processors that deliver high performance and power efficiency at a low cost.
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. The funding will be used to strengthen O hi’s product and integrate an AI-based profiling system.
“We are confident that the new real-world ecosystem we are building with AI will revolutionize content games on all platforms such as Instagram and YouTube viral, providing a significant return on investment for businesses, and brands worldwide,” said Adeeti and Rupal, Founders of O hi.
Launched in 2021, O hi leverages the power of real-life human interaction by creating digital rooms in cafes, airports, and hotels, allowing users to connect in the same physical environment.
Gupshup Launches Conversational Buyer App for ONDC
Gupshup, a conversational messaging platform, has launched a new conversational buyer app on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) network. The app allows buyers to use a WhatsApp-based conversational UI to discover, browse, and purchase products from sellers across the ONDC network without needing to download any additional mobile apps.
The app, currently in beta, initially allows users to order food and beverages like biryani via WhatsApp. Customers can share their location, browse nearby sellers, place orders, and make payments directly through WhatsApp. Gupshup plans to expand the app’s capabilities to additional conversational channels such as Google RCS and voice in the near future.
Unicommerce and Fabindia Partner for Ecommerce Operations
Fabindia, a premier consumer lifestyle platform, has partnered with Unicommerce, an ecommerce enablement SaaS platform, to manage its business operations across both online and offline channels. This collaboration aims to streamline Fabindia’s ecommerce supply chain.
Fabindia has implemented Unicommerce’s end-to-end technology stack to enhance order processing for its extensive product range listed on its website, multiple marketplaces, and physical stores. By enabling ship-from-store for online orders, Fabindia can allocate orders to the store location closest to the customer’s delivery address, ensuring faster deliveries.
Currently, Fabindia manages a catalogue of 175,000 items across channels, processing orders from over 100 stores and four warehouses using Unicommerce’s platform.
