Nivesh, Thingsup, KikoTV raise funds

Providential Advisory Services-operated fintech platform Nivesh.com on Tuesday said it has raised $1.6 million (Rs 11.81 crore as per current exchange rates) in a fresh funding round. 

Led by IAN Fund, the round also saw participation from Indian Angel Network, LV Angel Fund as well as angel investors Vir Mehta and Raghav Kapur, a statement said. 

Founded in 2016 by Anurag Garg and Sridhar Srinivasan, Nivesh is a mobile-first digital platform helping distributors of mutual funds expand their businesses. It also helps them bring in new clients who can be serviced for different AMCs for improved portfolio performance. 

The firm will use the fresh capital to expand its product portfolio, specifically insurance and lending products, and add investment products for its partners and customers.  

The expansion will also focus on technology enhancements – it will use automation to suggest products to customers based on their needs. Nivesh will also scale up partner onboarding and ramp up its team, the statement said. 

“We are looking at making Nivesh a full-stack platform taking care of all financial needs of our customers. So, we will continue to integrate all possible products towards that end. The aim is to increase the penetration of financial products like mutual funds, corporate FDs, insurance, in India’s tier 2,3 and 4 cities,” co-founder Garg, also the CEO of Nivesh.com, said. 

GSF Accelerator backs Thingsup 

Pune-based iobot, which runs low code internet-of-things (IoT) platform Thingsup, on Tuesday said it has raised $100,000 (Rs 0.73 crore as per current exchange rates) from GSF Accelerator.  

Thingsup was launched in 2020 as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. It offers ready-to-use wireless IoT sensors and enables businesses to digitalise their entire supply chain operations within a few days, instead of months.  

The platform analyses IoT sensor data with machine learning-based predictive algorithms to help cold chain stakeholders get end-to-end supply chain visibility, reduce wastage and optimise their operations with data driven insights. 

The fresh capital will be used to cater to the demand for digitalising cold chain logistics, a statement said. 

iobot was founded in 2016 by Akshay Ghadage and Pranav Naiknavare. The company looks to expand its market and target other fast-growing verticals such as EV mobility connectivity.  

“While the cold chain logistics market is our primary and core target, we are looking to take advantage of the sector-agnostic nature of our technology to serve customers in other industries as well,” Ghadage said. 

SOSV leads funding round in KikoTV 

Smooth Tag Technologies-run social ecommerce startup KikoTV on Tuesday announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount in a fresh funding round. 

Led by SOSV, its participants included Venture Catalysts and angel investor Neil Bahal, CEO of Negen Capital, a statement said.  

“Our plan is to use the funding to speed up the seller onboarding process, develop the product, and expand the team,” Shivam Varshney, co-founder and CEO of KikoTV, said. 

Founded in 2020 by Varshney and Alok Chawla, KikoTV is a live-streaming social ecommerce platform that enables users to virtually shop, sell and discover products, and access entertainment. 

“On the back of its unique service offering, KikoTV is poised to disrupt a burgeoning social commerce market whose GMV is currently pegged between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, and is projected to hit $16-20 billion valuation in the next five years,” Anil  Jain, co-founder of Venture Catalysts, said.