Digital radio solutions startup Inntot gets seed funding

Kerala-based startup Inntot Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which offers software solutions for digital radio receivers, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from venture capital firm Unicorn India Ventures.

Inntot said the funds would be used for procuring hi-tech testing equipment, stepping up marketing efforts, field-testing of solutions and hiring key personnel in critical areas like marketing, sales, and software.

This marks Unicorn’s sixth investment in Kerala’s startup ecosystem. The five startups the fund invested in early this year are: GenRobotic Innovations, Perfectfit Fashion, SectorQube, Bank Open and Clootrack.

As part of the funding deal, Unicorn principal Aayush Jain has been appointed as Inntot’s board member.

Founded in 2014 by Rajith Nair and Prasanth Thankappan, Inntot develops software solutions to bring down the cost of digital radio receivers for original equipment makers (OEMs), without using specialised hardware chipsets.

Inntot claims to be the only company in India today working on digital radio receiver software stack to make home and car audio affordable.

Inntot has already sold the first licence for software-defined radio to Telechips Inc., a South Korean company that offers semiconductor solutions.

Inntot says its software solutions are now being considered by OEMs in Asia for digital radio receivers.

“Our mission is to ease a seamless switchover from analogue radio broadcast (AM and FM) to digital radio broadcast by providing high-quality and cost-effective digital radio receiver solutions that enable mass acceptance,” said Nair.

Unicorn India Ventures
Unicorn was founded in early 2015 by Anil Joshi and Bhaskar Majumdar. The Mumbai-based venture capital firm invests in early-stage startups in consumer, enterprise, healthcare and other sectors.

Last month, Unicorn and Recruit Group backed accounting automation firm Open Financial.

Unicorn has already announced investments in 15 startups including GenRobotic, SectorQube, Perfectfit, Boxx.ai, Sequretek, SmartCoin, GrabonRent, Inc42, NeuroEquilibrium, VLCC VanityCube, Roder, and Pharmarack.

In November last year, Unicorn launched its maiden debt fund, with a target corpus of $93 million (Rs 600 crore). The fund will look to invest in 10 ventures in a year, with an average ticket size of Rs 20 crore ($3.5 million).