Manish Maheshwari's Invact Metaversity raises funds; valued at $33 million

Former Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari's ed-tech platform Invact Metaversity has raised the first round of funding at a valuation of $33 million from more than 70 global corporate leaders and founders of unicorns.

The round saw participation from Future Group's Kishore Biyani, ex-Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai, Innov8 founder Ritesh Malik and former Facebook MD Kirthiga Reddy among others. Entrepreneurs from startups like Zilingo, Zerodha, Razorpay, Sheroes, Snapdeal, Koo, Cars24, Bounce, Leap Finance, Suki, others also pitched in.

Leaders from global companies such as Microsoft, Facebook parent Meta, Coinbase, Google, Twitter, Uber, Amazon, Softbank, Spotify, GoJek, LinkedIn, and Disney also participated in the funding round. Maheshwari, who quit Twitter in December, did not disclose the size of the round but told CNBC-TV18 that Invact Metaversity isn’t scripted like other online edtech platforms.

"Imagine a game like Pubg or Roblox. It’s a 3D space, you can actually walk into it, experience it and you can run into friends and people. With the VR device, rather than looking at the screen, you would actually feel like you’re inside it. This is a 3D immersive experience. That’s the key difference between Invact and existing platforms,” added Maheshwari.

Maheshwari launched the company along with Tanay Pratap who has worked as a senior software engineer with Microsoft and is now the chief technology officer of Invact Metaversity. The platform will allow students to communicate with one another and their teachers via animated avatars regardless of their physical location.

Trifecta Capital gets Rs 1,500 crore for maiden equity fund; to raise Rs 375 Cr under greenshoe option

Trifecta Capital has raised Rs 1,500 crore for its maiden equity fund called Trifecta Leaders Fund-I. The venture debt firm is now looking to exercise the greenshoe option to raise another Rs 375 crore in order to capitalise on strong investor demand for its fund, it said in a statement.

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Trifecta Leaders Fund- I, which was launched in May 2022, focuses exclusively on investing in late-stage Indian Tech startups. So far, the fund has invested around Rs 730 crores in eight well-known companies, namely Livspace, Cars24, Pristyn Care, ixigo, Good Glamm Group, API Holdings (Pharmeasy), and Meesho.

These eight companies currently have over Rs 17,000 crores of cash on their balance sheet to pursue their growth plans for the next 18-24 months without needing to raise additional capital in volatile times and are likely to grow at over 50 percent annually over the next few years, the firm added.

"We provide growth capital to companies to further their expansion plans and we strive to add value to portfolio companies and founders in their journey to an IPO,” said Sandeep Bapat, Partner, Trifecta Capital.

Goldsetu raises $1.2 million from Village Global, iSeed, Titan Capital and others

Mobile-first micro SaaS platform for jewellery retailers Gold Setu has raised $1.2 million in a seed round of funding led by Village Global, Better Capital, Titan Capital, iSeed and Anjali Bansal for Avaana Seed. The funding round also saw participation from other angel investors such as Kunal Shah, Suhail Sameer and Revant Bhate, amongst others.

The company plans to deploy the fresh capital to add new products and expand into newer markets, it said in a statement. The company is working on adding more products like digital gold, jewellery insurance, gold loans, and marriage loans that jewellers can offer to their customers.

HRtech startup Meraqui raises $1 million in seed round

HRtech startup Meraqui has raised $1 million in a seed funding round from HNI investors. The platform said it will use the funds to accelerate its journey to $20 million gross revenue by expanding to more cities in the next 6 months, launching new modules and developing the next generation of technology services to make experiences immersive and effective.

Meraqui is a tech-enabled, grey and blue-collar work resource management platform specialising in employee lifecycle management. Since its inception, the firm claims to have expanded at a rate of over 200 percent each year, with positive unit economics and has a presence in over 25 states and 82 cities.

Water management firm Kritsnam bags Rs 6 crore in Pre-Series A

Water management startup Kritsnam Technologies has bagged a pre-Series A funding of Rs 6 crore led by an IIT Kanpur’s alumni of the 1987 batch. The funding round also saw participation from Ashish Gupta (Founder of Helion Ventures), Kunal Shah (Founder of Cred), Basab Pradhan (former Infosys Executive) and Sanjiv Verma (former Managing Director of Baxter India), among others.

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The fresh capital will be used to commercialise smart IoT (Internet of Things) and SaaS (software-as-a-service) solutions that help businesses manage their water usage digitally, reduce groundwater footprint, and comply with government regulations, it said in a statement. Kritsnam provides IoT/AI solutions to water managers for managing their limited and dwindling water resources sustainably. The company’s immediate goal is to help businesses reduce water risks and ensure water security.

Burgerama bags Rs 5 crore in funding round led by Anicut Angel Fund

Burger delivery platform Burgerama has raised Rs 5 crore in a funding round led by Anicut Angel Fund. The round was also participated by new and existing investors, including Rishab Malik (Droom, Jungle Ventures), Ashvin Chadha (co-founder, Anicut Capital), Bikky Khosla (Chairman, TradeIndia.com) and Arjun Seth (angel investor), the company said in a statement.

"The new investment would be leveraged to expand the brand's geographical presence across north India along with entering tier-1 cities like Mumbai and Bangalore," it added.

Besides, some part of the funds would help strengthen the supply chain, product standardisation, creation of a franchise ready operation model, acquire talent, bolster marketing, develop backend operations to sustain and support the next phase of growth, the company said. In September 2020, Burgerama had raised Rs 2 crore, which was also led by Anicut Angel Fund. It currently has delivery kitchen outlets in Delhi-NCR serving cheeseburgers.

GoalTeller secures $500K in pre-Series A round

Fintech startup GoalTeller has raised $500,000 in its pre-Series A funding round led by existing investors, founders, family and friends. Dr Ranjan Pai (Chairman MEMG), Vivek Banka (Co-founder, GoalTeller), Pankaj Fitkariwala and Himanshu Bhagat (senior professionals from the wealth management industry), Vikas Poddar (Co-founder, Ashirvad Pipes and Principal at Vikas Poddar Family Office),  Prashasta Seth (angel investor and Founder, Prudent Inv Managers) and Harsh Chhaparia (Partner, McKinsey and Co), participated in the funding round.

Other names among the startup's early backers are Rainmatter (Zerodha), Kunal Shah (Founder, Cred), Raghunandan G (ex-founder, TaxiForSure and Founder, Zolve), Vivek Hinduja (Ex-promoter, Gokaldas Exports) and Sousthav Chakravarthy (Founder, Siply).

With the current capital raised, the company plans to focus on further building the team and ramping up marketing activities, it said in a statement. GoalTeller aims to bring financial planning advice across investments, goals and succession planning to every individual in the country with the help of technology and its proprietary algorithms.

Edtech startup IITian Chacha raises undisclosed amount

Edtech startup IITian Chacha has raised an undisclosed amount from Laksh Yadav, Director of the Strategic Advisor of the Sunshine group and the Chief Executive Officer of Cocoberry.

The startup said the fresh capital will be used to ramp up technology, physical resources, facilities, administration, and management. "I am thrilled and welcome Laksh on this journey. Edtech development is definitely necessary and it is great to have more hands join the initiative,” said Dushyant Kumar, Founder, IITian Chacha.

Kalaari Capital invests in gaming startup Atirath

Game development company Atirath has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Kalaari Capital. Atirath develops games in casual and strategy genre bringing sub-continent cultural elements with global appeal. The funds will be used for strengthening products to evolve and develop the economic model of the game metaverse and for team expansion, it said in a statement.

"As the model evolves, we see a lot of innovation happening in a centralized and decentralized metaverse world. Business models like Play-to-earn, Play-to-collect models with technology innovation in blockchain-based solutions in NFT/FT will fuel phenomenal growth. Players are no longer passive and new platforms will be enabling them to contribute and monetize from the success of games. We are building game metaverse in strategy genre with Indian mythology theme with unique gameplay features," said Shiva Bayyapunedi, co-founder, Atirath.

Atirath Gaming Technologies currently has a team size of 15 members based out of Hyderabad developing a casual/strategy genre-based gaming metaverse platform.

(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)