Smallcase, MobiGarage and 7Classes raise capital

Smallcase Technologies, which offers an online investment platform, has raised $14 million (Rs 103 crore) in a Series B funding round led by asset management company DSP Group.

This round also saw participation from Arkam Ventures; Utpal Sheth, CEO, Rare Enterprises; and Kunal Shah, founder, CRED. Returning investors in this round included Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Beenext and WEH Ventures.

The fresh capital will be used to improve the company’s infrastructure stack, add investment products and partners to the platform, and expand its technology and product teams, a statement said.

Founded in 2015 by IIT Kharagpur graduates Vasanth Kamath, Anugrah Shrivastava and Rohan Gupta, Smallcase operates a platform for individual investors to invest in ready-made portfolios of stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) -- which it calls smallcases -- with their existing demat accounts.  

“Our mission is to develop simple and transparent investment products for the Indian retail investor and in the last few years, we have built a very unique brand and have some of India’s most respected financial institutions as strategic partners to further this goal,” Kamath said.

The platform is integrated with brokerages including HDFC Securities, Zerodha, AxisDirect, Kotak Securities and 5Paisa. 

The company raised $8 million in a Series A round, led by Sequoia Capital India, in February last year. 

SOSV invests in MobiGarage

New Delhi-based mobile hardware and service platform MobiGarage, operated by Fuevation Technologies, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in an ongoing funding round, dubbed a pre-Series A round, from the US venture capital fund SOSV.

The capital will be used for product development and to expand its presence in the tier 2 and tier 3 retail markets, the company said in a statement.

Founded in 2017, MobiGarage is an ecommerce platform for refurbished electronics. It primarily sells refurbished smartphones with certified components and warranty that it claims are 70% cheaper than new smartphones. Besides the online platform, it has a network of offline service stations through which it offers mobile repair services and spare parts. The startup provides onsite and doorstep mobile repair services with pick up and drop facilities.

“India’s booming electronics market, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, has been the main enabler of the country’s economic growth. We’re proud to back the entrepreneurs at MobiGarage as they serve the fast-growing mobile-first population in India,” William Bao Bean, general partner at SOSV, said.

The Silicon Valley-based investor, with over $650 million under management, has backed more than 800 startups. SOSV operates seven global accelerator programmes such as HAX (Shenzhen and San Francisco) for hardware; IndieBio (San Francisco) and RebelBio (Cork, London) for life sciences; Chinaccelerator (Shanghai) and MOX (Taipei) for cross-border internet; and dLab and FOOD-X for blockchain and food-tech (New York) respectively.

Venture Catalysts backs 7Classes

Startup incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts has invested an undisclosed amount in 7Classes, which operates an eponymous e-learning platform.

Founded by Anup Raaj, Arun Kumar Gupta, Ranjan Kumar Soni and Arvind Patel, 7Classes is an edtech platform for aspiring IIT JEE, engineering, medical and Olympiads students to prepare for competitive exams. It offers personalised online learning sessions to students with just seven students in one batch.

“Our current fundraise will allow us to reach out to the grassroots of the country. This year our goal is to ensure we are a known educational brand in Indian and Dubai market. The funds will be spent on building the confidence diagnosis, teacher empowerment technology in 12-15 languages to make it reachable and accessible to almost every parent,” Anup Raaj said.

It currently focuses on students from classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 in India, Dubai and the US.