Genius Teacher, Limeroad, Ultraviolette Automotive raise fresh funds

Mumbai-based Genius Learning Labs, which operates edtech platform Genius Teacher, said it has raised $2 million in a fresh funding round.

The round saw participation from two institutional investors, Whiteboard Capital and VKG Ventures, as well as about 50 marquee angel investors, including WhatsApp India CEO Abhijit Bose, Cred CEO Kunal Shah, Freecharge co-founder Sandeep Tandon and PropTiger CEO Dhruv Agarwal.

The startup, founded by former Housing.com co-founder Advitiya Sharma, looks to create products for teachers and have over one million students on its platform in the next 12 months, a statement said.

Set up in 2016, Genius Teacher differentiates itself from other edtech players with its “interest-based learning” offering for students in the  K-12 category. The company uses tools such as food, movies and sports to teach concepts in maths, science and English. As of now, it claims to offer 10,000+ interest-based videos to over 70,000 paid students.

“Genius Teacher is all about transforming boring education to a learning adventure,” Sharma said in the statement. “Our big innovation of interest-based learning teaches children like never before.”

Limeroad secures $1.5 mn: Report

AM Marketplaces, which owns and operates ecommerce platform Limeroad, has reportedly raised over $1.5 million (Rs 11 crore) from Mauritius-based MA Willmind Holdings.

The Gurugram headquartered company has issued 13,974 equity shares at a face value of $0.14 (Rs 10) per share and a premium of $107.6 (Rs. 7,905) per share to the investor, Inc42 reported, citing regulatory filings.

The company reportedly last raised funds in 2019, when MA WillMind Holdings invested Rs 3.19 crore in it, valuing the firm at Rs 838.5 crore at the time. It also raised about $30 million from returning investors Lightspeed Management, Matrix Partners and Tiger Global in 2015.

Read: Limeroad customer data allegedly breached

The ecommerce platform, which offers products such as clothing, fashion accessories and home decor, was started in 2012 by Ankush Mehra, Manish Saksena, Prashant Malik and Suchi Mukherjee. The platform also provides a “social shopping” offering, where users can create and share virtual looks with products on the platform.

GoFrugal CEO backs EV firm Ultraviolette Automotive

Bengaluru-based electric mobility startup Ultraviolette Automotive has raised an undisclosed amount from GoFrugal Technologies CEO Kumar Vembu in the latest tranche of a Series B round of funding.

The investment comes a little over a month after TVS Motor Company infused $4.09 million in the startup in an earlier tranche of the same round. 

Both parties backed the electric mobility startup in its Series A round.

In a statement, Ultraviolette said that the fresh capital will be used to scale its operations in the immediate future by expanding the team, investing in research and development, and building manufacturing capabilities.

Founded in 2015 by Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan, Ultraviolette Automotive has been working on F77, a vehicle it describes as India’s first high-performance electric motorcycle. The pre-production version of F77 was unveiled back in November 2019, and now, the company is gearing up to launch the motorcycle in the market and expand its footprint.