Unbox Robotics, 335bazaar raise early-stage capital

Singapore based venture capital firm BEENEXT on Friday said it has participated in a $1.2 million bridge round of funding, dubbed as Pre-Series A, at Bengaluru based logistics automation startup Unbox Robotics.  

Other participating investors included Karthik Bhat, through a syndicate on AngelList India, Redstart Labs, and WEH Ventures, among undisclosed angel investors. Returning investors were venture capital funds Arali Ventures, SOSV, and HAX, and Entrepreneur First.  

The fresh infusion will be used to scale early client pilots, hiring, and product development, as per a statement.  

The company uses an in-house plug-and-play artificial intelligence-powered system to improve package sorting and consolidate orders in supply chain management, helping with 50-70% warehouse space reduction, the statement added.   

Currently, the company is working with six e-commerce and logistics enterprises in India, Southeast Asia, and the United States to deploy its solution in the next twelve months, and scale to revenue $1 million, CEO Pramod Ghadge said in the statement.  

335bazaar

Phygital retail startup 335bazaar on Friday said it has received an undisclosed amount of seed round of funding from venture capital fund Village Global. 

The Delhi based startup claims to provide a mall-like experience by transforming stores and offering products via a direct factory to consumer model with the flexibility to shop both online and offline, as per a statement. 

The company founded by former investment bankers Taponeel Mukherjee and Poornima Vardhan in August 2020, has so far launched two experience centres – Bhogal, South Delhi and Madhu Vihar, East Delhi. 

335bazaar now plans to open 100 more stores in the months across all neighbourhood markets in Delhi, by September 2021. 

Apart from its primary model, 335bazaar also operates a social commerce model where it offers live deals, group shopping and entertainment, via live streaming, the statement added. 

San Francisco based Village Global’s network of investors includes global entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Reid Hoffman. 

In November 2020, it backed Delhi based shared kitchen solution and infrastructure provider Kitchens Centre in another undisclosed investment.