Jeevam Health, UnoTag raise fresh capital; Unacademy acquires Handa ka Funda

Delhi-based telemedicine startup Jeevam Health said it has raised $150,000 (about Rs 1.08 crore at current exchange rates) from global accelerator Y Combinator (YC) in a fresh round of funding, dubbed as pre-seed. 

The startup, a statement said, has been selected as part of the S20 batch of YC. Twice every year, the accelerator picks a group of young companies to invest in and participate in its startup programme. It then mentors those startups to achieve best results. 

Jeevam Health, founded in 2020 by Kamran Alam and Piyush Vishwakarma, did not say how it planned to deploy the funds. 

The startup aims to solve healthcare problems in India through a dedicated subscription service for telemedicine.  

Unlike the conventional healthcare system, where a doctor assesses the condition of a patient for a few minutes and prescribes medication, Jeevam provides long-term access to doctors to ensure that the root cause of the chronic condition is identified and addressed permanently. 

NeoDove Technologies scores $1.5 million seed round 

Jaipur-based NeoDove Technologies, which runs a sales and marketing automation platform for small and medium businesses, said it has raised $1.5 million (about Rs 10.8 crore) in seed funding. 

The investment was led by India Quotient, with participation from Vyapar founder Sumit Agarwal, WakeFit founder Ankit Garg, and other angels whose names have not been disclosed. 

According to a statement, the capital from the round will be deployed by NeoDove towards accelerating product development and growing customer base in India and abroad.  

Founded by Arpit Khandelwal and Ankit Kumar Agarwal in January 2020, the SaaS startup offers a cloud-based communication platform to help small businesses engage effectively with potential customers and close more sales. It is backed by real-time analytics, AI driven insights and a portal for 360-degree lead management. 

“This round of funding reinforces the potential of the (SaaS) category and empowers our customers to achieve greater business agility and increased efficiencies by automating end-to-end processes,” Agarwal said in the statement. 

Currently, NeoDove counts Hero, Bajaj, Honda, KIA, Tata Motors, Dawaa Dost, and Maruti Suzuki among its customers and is witnessing more than five million interactions on its app every month. The startup had also raised an undisclosed sum in an angel round back in August 2020. 

Unotag secures angel funding 

Bengaluru-based KM Unotag, which offers a gamification-based all-in-one toolkit to enhance performance of companies, has secured an undisclosed sum in angel round, a statement said on Tuesday. 

The investment was led by the Indian Angel Network (IAN) investors Vikas Kuthiala, Anand Saklecha, Pradeep Jaisingh. It will be geared towards developing the product for providing enhanced services and expanding into newer markets. 

Founded in 2019 by Mohit Ambani, Unotag’s platform helps companies design gamified incentive programmes to motive their sales teams, channel partners, and influencers to improve their performance. It is used by more than 300,000 users with Rs 100 mn+ incentives given throughout India. 

“At Unotag, we intend to motivate people, help them crush targets and unleash their full potential. We are using elements like points, leaderboards, goals, Fantasy Leagues and badges to drive users in completing their tasks,” Ambani said.

“Unotag can be integrated easily with major CRM’s such as Hubspot, Salesforce, Freshdesk, Zoho, Teams to name a few," he added. 

The startup has already surpassed Rs 10 mn annual recurring revenue with 120% month-on-month gowth in the last 6 months. They are targeting Rs 100 mn ARR by end of this year. 

India Accelerator leads seed investment in e-commerce platform Recycle.Green 

India Accelerator, which runs a seed-stage accelerator programme, has invested an undisclosed sum in Ahmedabad-based InnovateGreen Technologies, a startup building an e-commerce platform for ecofriendly products. 

The seed investment, a statement said, will be used by InnovateGreen to develop the platform -- dubbed Recycle.Green -- and transform it into a robust digital marketplace, aggregating all green product brands under one roof.  

India Accelerator backed the startup as part of its summer 2020 cohort, the statement said. It was founded in 2017 by Hardik Shah and Chintal Shah and was bootstrapped until this round. 

Using the Recycle.Green platform, customers can simply buy sustainable, recycled ecofriendly products and exchange their waste against it. Then, once the lifecycle of the product is over, they can give it back including the packaging, and get attractive cashback for their next purchase.  

This works systematically, as the company integ rates waste collectors, recyclers, artisans, recycled product sellers, and consumers on the platform.  

The ultimate goal of the effort is to create a circular economy, where the money automatically rotates in the cycle of waste-to-products and then again getting products back to recycle. 

Precision oncology startup 4baseCare raises $2 mn in Series A round 

Bengaluru-based 4baseCare Genomics, which offers solutions for precision oncology, said it has raised $2 milion in a Series A round of funding, led by a consortium of VCs including Mount Judi Ventures, growX Ventures, Season Two Ventures, and First In Ventures.  

The round, according to a statement, also saw the participation of a few strategic angels, although the names of these investors has not been disclosed. It will be used by the company to strengthen R&D and operations, expand presence across Asia, and to further develop its portfolio of genomic tests, the statement added. 

“With this capital, we will be increasing the affordability of our genomic test portfolio through research and process efficiency,” Kshitij Rishi, COO at 4baseCare, said.  

Rishi and his CEO Hitesh Goswami founded 4baseCare in 2018 to make affordable precision oncology a standard of care in Asia. The two have since been working on biotech solutions, including genomic tests, for more effective screening and treatment of cancers. 

The startup is also developing a first of its kind, Indian population-specific gene panel that will analyze a large number of genes for cancer-associated mutations to help doctors identify optimal treatment options leading to improved outcomes for patients.  

Unacademy acquires Handa Ka Funda 

Ed-tech unicorn Unacademy, which operates under Sorting Hat Technologies, has acquired Handa Ka Funda -- an online teaching portal for CAT and other MBA examinations -- for an undisclosed amount. 

The deal was announced by Ravi Handa, the founder of the platform, in a YouTube live stream on Tuesday evening. However, an official announcement from the Gaurav Munjal-led startup is still awaited.  

Handa said that he will be joining Unacademy’s platform as an educator, which will help him reach 10 times more students in the near future. He started his online teaching portal in 2012 – after teaching at several eminent institutes – and has so far taught more than 20,000 students.  

The educator further noted that his programmes for the year 2021 will continue as planned and he will be hosting free live classes on YouTube for learners. For those who need additional services from Handa and other educators, including weekly tests, structured courses, and personal guidance, there will be the option to subscribe to Unacademy’s Plus and Iconic courses.