Karkhana, Siply, TresMoto, PurpleTutor raise funding

Karkhana.io, a business-to-business on-demand manufacturing platform, has raised $1.5 million (Rs 11 crore) in a seed funding round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia (SEA) and India.

Other participants in this round include industry leaders and angel backers, Mumbai-based Karkhana.io said in a statement.

The platform, run by Bendable Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd, was set up in 2018 by Sonam Motwani, who also serves as its chief executive officer. 

The company says it aims to digitise and streamline the manufacturing industry in the country by addressing pain points including delivery and production coordination, quality inconsistencies, and delays.

It will use the capital it has raised for accelerating its growth and enhancing technological infrastructure, with a focus on meeting the demand for custom manufacturing in the country.

“Through its online platform, Karkhana.io is well-placed to disrupt the status quo and enable production processes which are simpler, faster and more transparent,” said Vertex Ventures SEA and India executive director Kanika Mayar.

Other domestic portfolio companies of Vertex Ventures include child-focused online retailer FirstCry, social commerce platform Glowroad, and fresh meat platform Licious.

Siply

Micro-savings platform Siply, operated by Siply Services Pvt Ltd, has raised $1 million (around Rs 7.33 crore) in a seed fundraising exercise.

The round in Bengaluru-based Siply has been led by Inflection Point (IP) Ventures, one of the more active domestic early-stage investment platforms in the country. 

Some of its recent investments include HobSpace, EWar Games, short video startup Bolo Indya, and relocation platform HappyLocate.

Siply was set up in July last year by Sousthav Chakrabarty, Anil Bhat, and Nitin Mittal. The company says it operates a platform-as-a-service model that enables micro-savings for users of other platforms.

It has so far signed memorandums of understanding with companies including BigHaat, Gig4CE, Pickmywork, and Xoxoday. 

The financial technology company will use the capital it has raised for expanding its team, enhancing technological infrastructure, and conducting pilots with partners.

“The market they [Siply] are addressing is largely untapped providing them an opportunity to grow faster and capitalise on their early-mover advantage,” IP Ventures co-founder Ankur Mittal said.

TresMoto

TresFuture Energy Pvt Ltd, which runs smart electric vehicle (EV) startup TresMoto, has raised an undisclosed sum in seed funding from angel investor Raaj Kumar, who has led companies including GMR Energy and JSW Energy.

TresMoto was set up by Shubham Jain and Indrajeet Singh. The company was initially incubated and funded by global energy giant Shell.

It is currently developing a range of electric two-wheelers based on its in-house platform. The startup will use the capital for the final stages of product development and securing approvals .

Jain said TresMoto is also working on a separate product that will be optimised solely for fleet-based usage. 

PurpleTutor

PurpleTutor, which provides online classes focused on computational thinking, has raised seed funding in a round led by IvyCap Ventures.

Other participants in this round include Simplilearn founder and CEO Krishna Kumar, PurpleTutor said in a statement.

The development comes after VCCircle in August last year reported that the Mumbai-based platform was in talks with early-stage venture capital firms to raise funding.

The platform, run by Purplefirst Technologies Pvt Ltd, was set up in 2019 by Gaurav Perti and Yatish Gupta, both alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay. The company offers its own curriculum and provides teachers with tools to ensure customised classes.

It will use the capital it has raised to enhance its technology, increase footprint and expand customer base. 

PurpleTutor says it has registered over 30,000 users on its platform, and claims a monthly growth of 50% and an annualised revenue of nearly $500,000.