Junio, Zouk, Sova Health raise funding

Junio, a children-focused startup that provides a digital pocket money smart card, has raised $1 million (around Rs 7.28 crore) in a funding round from a clutch of angel investors.

They include Deepak Abbot, Cred founder Kunal Shah, Bharatpe’s Ashneer Grover, PolicyBazaar’s Yashish Dahiya, Amit Lakhotia of Park+, and First Cheque’s Pravin Jadhav, the startup said in a statement.

Junio, operated by Firstpay Technologies Pvt Ltd, was set up in September last year by Shankar Nath and Ankit Gera, both having previously worked at Paytm. 

Its product, targeted at children between the fourth and tenth grades, focuses on digitising pocket money while teaching financial knowledge and discipline. It will use the capital it has raised for product development, hiring talent, customer acquisition, and expanding its footprint.

Other startups offering financial products for children and teenagers have raised capital in the past year. These include FamPay, which also counts Kunal Shah as an investor, and YPay, backed by Venture Catalysts.

Zouk

Zouk, a vegan lifestyle brand, has raised an undisclosed amount as part of a seed funding round from a clutch of investors.

Participants in this round include Titan Capital, which is a firm set up by Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, as well as founders of consumer firms Beardo and Mamaearth.

In a statement, the company says it will use the capital it has raised to focus on aspects of its business including expansion of product range, hiring talent, and streamlining supply chain.

Zouk was set up by Disha Singh and Pradeep Krishnakumar, both of whom are alumni of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. The company says its products include bags, wallets, and accessories. These items are handmade by artisans at its in-house facility in Mumbai.

“Having taken their vegan bags to over 30,000 customers, they have reached early product-market fit,” Mamaearth co-founder Varun Alagha said. 

Sova Health

Sova Health, a lifestyle disease-focused nutrition startup, has raised $350,000 (around Rs 2.5 crore) in funding from investors including CIIE.CO, an incubator established by IIM-Ahmedabad.

Other participants in this fundraise include Practical VC, LetsVenture, and angel investors, Sova Health said in a statement. The company says it has also been selected for a food-technology accelerator programme by Brinc, a venture capital firm that has offices across the world.

The startup, operated by Wednesday Health India Pvt Ltd, was set up by Tanveer Singh, Max Kushnir, and Rahul Tiwari. It is building an artificial intelligence-based recommendation engine that combines blood biomarkers with health statistics to provide customers with nutrition recommendations to achieve health goals.

It will use the capital it has raised to build out the first version of this engine as well acquire talent for key verticals.