Startup news and updates: daily roundup (June 15, 2023)
Summary
Urvann, a gardening-focused hyperlocal marketplace, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures.The company plans to use the funds to enhance the technology and facilitate expansion into different regions across the country.Founded in 2021 by IIM-Ahmedabad and ISB alums, a husband-wife duo who quit their consulting careers to pursue their passion for plants. Moreover, it has distributed around 500,000 plants, specifically air purifiers, throughout Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.Evolved Foods, a plant-based protein company, raised Rs 7.3 crore in a seed round led by marquee investors like Zerodha-backed Rainmatter Health and Kamala Capital.The round also saw participation from Anvitha Prashanth (Anyaa Ventures), Aprameya Radhakrishna (Founder of Koo App), and a group of angel investorsincluding Rachel Goenka and Karan Khetarpal (Goenka Ventures Family Office), B G Mahesh (Founder/ex-MD of OneIndia.com), Sushant Arora (Co-founder of CleanMax Solar), Swapnil Shah (ex-brand head, Proctor and Gamble), and Vananam Ventures Trust.The investment will be used to accelerate growth plans and capitalise on the strong order pipeline from the domestic and export markets. The company is also in the process of launching its products in the Middle East and Europe.D2C kids subscription platform GroClub has secured funding of Rs 4.3 crore, at a valuation of Rs 25 crore, led by Ramaiah Evolute, a startup wing of MS Ramaiah Group.An angel consortium consisting of Deepak Gowda of Ascent Capital and Purushotham R, Chirag Shah of Velvet (Los Angeles), Isaac Reyes of Ravis (Panama), Amit Nanavati of Juicy Chemistry, Sanjay Munirathna of Keerthi Group, Dinesh Talera, Shricharan N J, and Sanjay Sunku (Drink Prime) also participated in the round.Launched in January 2022, GroClub offers products on subscription for growing kids which kids can upgrade as they grow. It specialises in accountancy, income tax, GST, and compliance to take up any challenge in these fields.Its offline branches provide a conducive learning environment, ensuring students receive hands-on training from expert faculties. With a strong focus on practical skills development, Ready Accountant empowers students to take up various challenges in the accounting domain and thrive in corporate cultures.Cisco and Social Alpha have selected the cohort of startups for its second edition of Krishi Mangal, a scale-up accelerator programme to support agritech enterprises working on solutions for smallholder farmers.The 18-month market access and scale-up accelerator programme will support seven in-revenue startups impacting agriculture and allied livelihoods.