Rapawalk, Klovechef, Oga Fit raise early stage capital

Online footwear seller Rapawalk Fashion Technologies on Thursday said that it has raised $300,000 in a seed round of funding led by angel investment platform Inflection Point Ventures (IPV).

The Bengaluru based provider of customized services will use the fresh capital to continue expanding its online business for the next 12-15 months, as well as to offer an omnichannel shopping experience, a statement said.

“We believe in the growth story of customized footwear in India, especially with our insight that every customer’s foot is different, and standard shoe sizes are not enough for the discerning customer… Their (Rapawalk) light inventory business model and continued growth path on online platforms stands Rapawalk in good stead to reach further heights,” Vinay Bansal, IPV founder and CEO said.

The digital first footwear brand, founded in 2018, by IIM-Ahmedabad alumni Kashif Mohammad and Aravind Maddireddy, counts marquee investors like Raveen Sastry, co-founder Myntra, Sanjay Ramakrishnan, former Marketing Chief, Myntra; and Ravi Garikipati, former CTO, Flipkart, among others, the statement added.

Venture Catalysts announces two deals

Venture Catalysts on Thursday said it has led a $1 million bridge round of funding, dubbed, pre-Series A, at Bengaluru and New York based IOK Labs.

The startup operates Klovechef, a conversational artificial intelligence-based technology to enhance consumer culinary and buying experiences.

The funding round, the statement said, saw participation from new investors JPIN VCATs, Ravindranath Chenna and Klovechef’s existing investors SOSV (Food-X), NB Ventures, among other angel investors.

“Klovechef has earlier raised Seed round from visionary Angel investors like Rajan Anandan, Swamy Kotagiri, Rajshekhar Metgud, Berro Family as well as LetsVenture,” a statement added.

Founded in 2017, Klovechef’s founding team of Bahubali Shete, Asha Shete, and chef Sanjeev Kapoor later joined as a cofounder. Its platform works as a conversational kitchen assistant on voice assistant platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. It enables users to add ingredients to their grocery list, get endless recipe recommendations, and receive personalized step-by-step help with meal preparation.

Klovechef has been live in India since July 2019 on Amazon Alexa, where it has more than 850,000 unique users and has clocked nearly 2.5 million meals searched on Alexa.

“The global voice shopping market is still young and holds tremendous growth potential. With our innovative platform, we hope to tap into the growing interest around healthy eating and home cooking in the post-COVID-19 market,” Bahubali Shete said.

In a separate statement on Thursday, Venture Catalysts said its startup accelerator fund 9Unicorns has invested an undisclosed amount in an ongoing bridge round of funding, dubbed pre-Series A, in Qvady Technologies, which operates fitness tech platform Oga Fit.

The Bengaluru based startup had secured investment from United States-based venture fund Joyance Partners, in October, and the 9Unicorns investment is part of the same funding, according to a statement.

Previous funding rounds saw participation from other early-stage investors including Pi Capital CEO David Giampaolo, Sarva Yoga and IPV.

Founded in 2017 by Ashish Rawat, Oga Fit offers live and on-demand workouts through an online platform. “The platform’s proprietary motion comparison technology compares the movements of the user and trainer to provide a similarity score and real-time feedback to the user,” the statement said.

Oga Fit will use the capital infusion to drive product development, content creation, and to improve its marketing strategies. “Moving ahead, the startup envisions establishing itself in the United States and, slowly and steadily, expanding its geographical footprint across the globe,” the statement added.

Park Place Technologies acquires Curvature

Data centre hardware maintenance company Park Place Technologies on Thursday said it has acquired Curvature, an IT support, products, and services company. 

It did not disclose the transaction size.

The deal, a statement said, has doubled employee as well as revenue size of Mayfield Heights, Ohio headquartered Park Place Technologies.

“In an environment where infrastructures rarely rely on equipment from a single supplier, and where budgets and resources are tighter than ever before, we have created a new tier of TPM (third-party maintenance) that positions us as a more compelling option versus the OEM,” Chris Adams, Park Place president and CEO said.

With offices across the globe, including India, Park Place’s latest international expansions consist of Denmark, Australia, Thailand, and Japan. It is a portfolio company of private equity firms Charlesbank Capital Partners and GTCR.