Tracking pre-seed and seed rounds that close in India every week
Links out to the the websites of the startup and its investors, along with LinkedIn profiles of the founders and fundraising news.
Animal and plant nutrition products, made from insects. Fundraise towards building a Black Soldier Fly factory (i.e., a facility dedicated to rearing Black Soldier Fly larvae) that will process 150 tonnes of feedstock on a daily basis; and global expansion. ₹32CR (~3.8M) seed round. Other investors in the round: Blume Founders Fund, Nitin Sharma (Nexus), Sameer Brij Verma (Northpoint), Anchit Gupta (Samara), David Chen (Equilibrium Capital). Founders: Siddharth (BITS/Kellogg) comes from Intact Infosys (a system integrator); Shivali (TERI, Humbodlt Fellow- Leibniz University) is a waste management expert. Comps: Loopworm (WaterBridge, Omnivore), Arthro Biotech (not funded).
Construction materials marketplace: connects US contractors and distributors directly with vetted manufacturers, offering integrated logistics, quality control and financing. AI is used for pricing predictions, lead-time optimisation and supplier recommendations. $750K pre-seed round. Founders: Harsh built product at US construction tech startup Katerra; Nasir, Raghav and Shubham (not listed here) are from OfBusiness.
B2B auto spare parts marketplace for independent workshops. Currently in Gurgaon with an "on-demand retail" model, i.e. quick delivery. $1M seed round. Other investors in the round: 1947 Rise, a dozen angels. The founder, Vivek, was the Head of Business at Spinny for four years, prior to which he was Co-Founder at Stichio, a social network. Comps: SparesHub (Anthill), Boodmo, Koovers (acquired by Schaeffler), TyrePlex (PeerCapital).
Enables influencers to earn by recommending products from Myntra, Flipkart, Nykaa and D2C brands. Product =~ Wishlink. ₹12.5CR (~$1.5M) seed round. Founder Ashna Ruia is from the Essar family. Comps: Wishlink, Faym, HYPD.
Ride-hailing platform operating on zero commission, fixed monthly subscriptions fees for drivers. Claims to be the only platform with an LOI to operate auto services in Chennai; 45,000 drivers; 75,000 passengers (monthly or till date, unknown). Operates in Chennai, Salem, Tiruppur, Erode, Coimbatore. ₹1.5CR seed round. The founder Pinku was CTO and then CEO of Remote Backup Services. Comps: Rapido, Namma Yatri - Uber itself has moved to the zero subscription model for autos this February.
Logistics provider across last-mile delivery, bulk transportation and warehousing, using an electric vehicle fleet. Present in the Chandigarh tri-city area and NCR. $500K pre-seed round. The CEO's and COO's backgrounds aren't available. Chandra, the CTO, spent 17 years at QA Source.
Materials science-driven manufacturer of technical textiles and engineered fashion. The company functions as a cross-border Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), bringing together its in-house design lab and a global supply chain to innovate on and manufacture newly developed textiles for a range of industries beyond fashion (e.g. automative; housing; medical; protective clothing). Founded by the Business Head for Textiles at Zetwerk. Bengaluru based. $4.2M seed round.
Helps companies track, analyze and improve their fleet operations. Undisclosed round size.
B2B assisted marketplace for the procurement of raw materials. Currently at ₹300CR ARR (gross). Started with a focus on steel, now covers aggregates, bitumen, wires and cables. Founders include Former Head of Sales and Head of Procurement at Metalbook. Tushar Agarwal (not linked below) is the COO and fourth Co-Founder. $1.7M raised in this seed round. Angels include Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn) and Rajesh Sawhney (GSF).
Real innovation in sustainable packaging solutions. Seaweed is sourced from villages and converted into clear thin films (to produce bags and wrappers); coatings (to ensure food preservation in food takeout/delivery packaging); and to produce wood-free paper (used for clothes tags, cartons and bakery boxes). Supplies primarily to Europe and GCC countries. ₹20CR raised in this seed round, which also included VC Grid, 7th Gen Ventures, Spectrum Impact and LNB Group. Also received a $100K grant from the Peak XV Spark Fellowship Programme.