SME accountant KhataBook may raise $20 mn; data platform Atlan gets $2.6 mn: Reports

Bengaluru-based KhataBook, which helps users to manage business and personal ledgers on mobile phones, is in talks to raise $20 million (about Rs 138 crore at current exchange rate), a financial daily reported.

Kyte Technologies Inc., which operates the venture, will raise its Series A funding round from investors that include Russian investor Yuri Milner’s DST Partners, Ribbit Capital and Sequoia Capital, persons in the know told The Economic Times.

Besides, the round will also see participation from more than 20 angel investors including Jitendra Gupta, Citrus Pay co-founder; and Kunal Shah, Freecharge co-founder.

E-mail queries to KhataBook did not get a response till the time of filing this report.

KhataBook was launched in October 2018 by Ravish Naresh, Jaideep Poonia, Dhanesh Kumar and Ashish Sonone. It is a multi-language mobile application for small and medium businesses to record cash transactions and track payments. 

In April, KhataBook was among the Indian startups selected for the first cohort of Sequoia Surge, the accelerator and incubator programme of multi-stage investment firm Sequoia Capital.

Atlan

Singapore-based data platform Atlan, founded by the team behind SocialCops that is backed by former Google's Southeast Asia and India vice-president Rajan Anandan, has raised Rs 18 crore (about $2.6 million at current exchange rate) funding led by early-stage venture capital firm WaterBridge Ventures, The Economic Times reported. 

Anandan, who quit Google earlier this year to join as managing director at Sequoia Capital India, is also an investor in Atlan. Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons; US-based 500 Startups; Singapore-based venture capital firm Hatcher; and family offices such as the Bhagchandka family fund are also investors in Atlan.

E-mail queries to Atlan did not get a response till the time of filing this report.

Founded in 2018 by Prukalpa Sankar and Varun Banka, Atlan allows teams to collaborate on data projects while automating repetitive tasks. It currently has a client base of over 200 companies globally including Unilever and Milkbasket.

Carpooling

The Centre is likely to issue an advisory to states asking them to encourage carpooling, a financial daily reported.

Persons in the know told The Economic Times that the larger intent was to curb pollution and ease traffic congestion.

The development comes even as the ministry of road transport and highways, in parallel, is working on a vehicle pooling policy, which is expected to be announced soon, the report added.

The development also comes even as the Karnataka state transport department, last week, asked cab-hailing majors Ola and Uber to drop the ride-sharing feature on grounds that it was hurting the income of cab drivers.

UPI

In the month of June, digital payments transactions on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) grew to 754.5 million transactions, marking a three per cent rise month-on-month. UPI is a real-time payment system designed to enable peer-to-peer inter-bank transfers.

Data from retail payment body National Payments Corporation of India showed that 733.5 million UPI-based transactions were done in May.

The UPI-based transaction space is dominated by players such as the Indian government’s BHIM, Google Pay, and Paytm.

WhatsApp

National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), which advises the Prime Minister’s Office, said it has come up with a locally developed solution to address traceability of WhatsApp messages.

The Economic Times, citing IIT Madras professor V Kamakoti, who is a member of NSAB, said that the solution would help WhatsApp provide the phone number of the sender of a message, without tampering with the encryption feature.

Peebuddy

Delhi-based First Step Digital Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates hygiene products maker Peebuddy, has raised an undisclosed amount in bridge funding from existing investor Indian Angel Network.

In a statement, the company said that the funds will be used to sustain the marketing and distribution expansion initiatives. Deep Bajaj, co-founder of Peebuddy, said that the funds will be used to expand the reach of its products to a wider audience.

The company also said that it is on track to raise $5 million as part of its next funding round. Prior to this, the company had raised Rs 2.96 crore from Indian Angel Network in 2017.

Founded in 2014 by Deep Bajaj and Mohit Bajaj, the company makes sanitation and hygiene products. Its first product was a portable as well as disposable urinary device for women that helped female users to urinate while standing before a western toilet. Other products include face masks, mosquito repellents and products focused on menstrual hygiene.

Delhi-based First Step Digital Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates hygiene products maker Peebuddy, has raised an undisclosed amount in bridge funding from existing investor Indian Angel Network.

In a statement, the company said that the funds will be used to sustain the marketing and distribution expansion initiatives. Deep Bajaj, co-founder of Peebuddy, said that the funds will be used to expand the reach of its products to a wider audience.

The company also said that it is on track to raise $5 million as part of its next funding round. Prior to this, the company had raised Rs 2.96 crore from Indian Angel Network in 2017.

Founded in 2015 by Deep Bajaj and Mohit Bajaj, the company makes sanitation and hygiene products. Its first product was a portable as well as disposable urinary device for women that helped female users to urinate while standing before a western toilet. Other products include face masks, mosquito repellents and products focused on menstrual hygiene.