mCaffeine, SignalX, Cub McPaws raise fresh funds

Mumbai-based Pep Technologies, which owns personal care brand mCaffeine, has raised about $2.99 million in a Series B funding round from a clutch of investors.

The firm has allotted a mix of Series B Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) and equity shares to a total of eleven entities for Rs 22,95,21,489, regulatory filings show. 

A majority of the investment came from Amicus Capital Private Equity I, which invested Rs 18,47,53,521; Amicus Capital Partners India Fund I, which put in Rs 1,87,58,007 and Milestone Trusteeship Services’ Trustee of RP-SG Venture Fund 1, which infused Rs 2,00,14,251. 

The company last raised funds in June 2019, when it received $2 million in a Series A round of funding from a clutch of investors, led by RP-SG Ventures. 

Founded in 2016 by Vikas Lachhwani and Tarun Sharma, mCaffeine is a personal care startup that offers caffeine-infused skin and hair care products.

Cub McPaws to invest in tech, global expansion with fresh funds 

Mumbai-based Pochemuchka Kids, which operates kids-focused consumer technology startup Cub McPaws, has raised an undisclosed amount of capital from a syndicate of investors from the US, Japan, Dubai and India. 

The bridge funding round, dubbed a pre-series A round, was led by an undisclosed family office from Dubai, a statement said. 

Angel investors from Japan, including Takayuki Sugiura, CEO of Circus Capital; Daisuke Takagi, executive director of UBS; Motoko Tanabe, founder of HMF Corporation; Toshiro Wakimaru, ex-COO of MedPeer; and Taichi Nakamura, CEO of Venex, also participated in the round.

Returning investors in the round included Samyakth Capital.

Cub McPaws has previously raised funds from Mumbai-based startup incubator Venture Catalysts; Ambareesh Murty, CEO of Pepperfry; Robin Joffe, managing director of Frost and Sullivan; and Anuj Golecha, co-founder of Venture Catalysts. 

With the latest investment, the company has raised a total of $800,000.

Launched in December 2018 by former Pepperfry colleagues Abhay Bhat and Kinnar Shah, Cub McPaws uses its patented augmented reality technology to create engagement with its children’s merchandise. The company claims to have recorded a 50% month-on-month growth even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The new investment will help us scale our technology offering and create a complete range of products. We will explore international markets where our products have generated significant interest . We are in discussion with an ex-Facebook, Uber senior executive to head our technology team,” Bhat said.

SignalX scoops up fresh funds from 3Lines Venture Capital

Hyderabad-based SignalX, which runs an eponymous governance risk management and compliance startup, has raised $750,000 in a fresh funding round from 3Lines Venture Capital, an early stage venture capital firm in the US.

As part of the deal, Rajiv Roy, venture partner at 3Lines, will join the SignalX board of directors, the startup said in a statement.

Founded by Govind Balachandran in 2018, SignalX offers an artificial intelligence-powered SaaS platform to assess corporate risk and conduct due diligence to get a comprehensive financial, legal, regulatory and reputational risk analysis on any given target company. 

“With this funding, we will strengthen our core platform and open up our SaaS application further to enable compliance and risk professionals to leverage AI in running comprehensive analysis and risk assessments with ease, at high speed and with high quality,” Balachandran said.