Eggoz, Lattu Kids raise fresh capital; ANSR acquires FastNext

Bihar-based Nupa Technologies, which owns farm-to-consumer egg brand Eggoz, said it has raised $1.5 million in a fresh funding round, dubbed a pre-Series A round.

The fresh capital from Avaana Capital and Rebright Partners will be used by the agritech startup to expand to new markets, launch products, and strengthen its supply base and technology platform, a statement said.

Founded in 2017 by Abhishek Negi, Uttam Kumar, Aditya Singh and Pankaj Pandey, Eggoz claims to offer fresh, antibiotic-free and high nutrition eggs and related products. 

It uses a deep integration model and fast supply chain to provide technology-backed solutions to egg farmers that it sources produce from. The startup claims to have sold over 25 million eggs, with over 1,00,000 birds under management.

The company last raised capital in a Rs 2.5 crore seed funding round in May.

“India produces more than 100 billion eggs every year. However, the category has seen minimum innovation and product development and lacks a consumer-focused brand serving the country’s growing need for fresh and nutritious food products,” co-founder Negi said.

Edtech startup Lattu Kids raises seed capital 

Lattu Media, which runs edtech platform Lattu Kids, said it has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round from Mumbai Angels Network.

The investment comes months after Airtel picked up a strategic stake in the company as part of its startup accelerator programme.

In a statement, the Mumbai-based startup said it plans to use the fresh capital to ramp up hiring for its product, curriculum and technology teams, and scale its product portfolio. 

Founded in 2017 by Vivek Bhutyani and Vivek Lath, Lattu Kids focuses on children under the age of 10 and looks to build their English vocabulary and reading, and Maths foundation skills through animated videos and games.

The company claims to have reached 27 million Indian kids in the past two years, and is working with Airtel and other Indian companies to ensure deeper penetration of its content through their digital platforms.

“Lattu Kids have the solid background and deep domain expertise to connect the dots to deliver this efficiently in a fun learning format in the early learning education space,” Abhishek Mitta, lead Mumbai Angels investor, said. “Their commendable digital distribution network such as the partnership with Airtel along with presence on YouTube, Ola Prime Play and the Xiaomi ecosystem gives them access to rapid growth platforms, which will help them scale.”

ANSR buys AI startup FastNext in all-stock deal

Dallas, Texas headquartered ANSR Consulting, which helps multinational firms set up offshore, global capability centres (GCCs) in countries including India, has acquired Bengaluru-based AI recruitment startup FastNext in an all-stock deal.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to ANSR, the acquisition will boost its core business by helping global enterprises build and operate teams for their GCCs more effectively. 

The company said its clients will be able to use FastNext’s deep learning and AI-powered tools across talent acquisition and management, smart workspace management and business workflows to drive efficiencies.

“Building global capability and engineering centres for technology innovation is a priority for multiple Fortune 1000 companies who are on this journey,” Lalit Ahuja, founder and CEO of ANSR, said. 

“As a global market leader in this industry, we are excited to integrate FastNext’s portfolio of AI-based tools and solutions into our portfolio so that data is at the core of everything that our customers do to win in the digital age.”

Since its inception in 2016, FastNext’s data-driven recruitment platform, backed by machine learning-based relevance algorithms, has helped enterprises make more informed hiring decisions by analysing potential candidate profiles and predicting essential parameters relevant to a role, including how likely they are to switch the company.

“FastNext has managed to carve a niche for itself,” Vikram Ahuja, co-founder of Talent500, ANSR’s continuously curated ecosystem for enterprise-ready talent, said in a statement. 

“By combining FastNext’s recruiting tech products and Talent500’s capabilities, we are paving a new era of AI-led talent acquisition market... Through this acquisition, we will be able to leverage their resources and serve GCCs better.”

So far, ANSR has set up to 60 GCCs with over 65,000 employees.