Upside AI raises $1.2 mn in Endiya led round; PazCare, Superplum, Portl get investor cheques

Mumbai-based Upside AI, a SEBI registered investment management startup, raised $1.2 million in a seed funding round led by Endiya Partners.  

Other investors in the round include Vijay Kedia, a veteran stock market investor; Ajay Nanavati, chairman of Quantum Advisors; and Gopichand Katragadda, CEO of Myelin Foundry.

The firm will use the investment to scale up distribution, product and technology teams that will focus on growing AUM from HNIs, family offices, and institutional investors, it said in a statement.

Founded in December 2017 by Kanika Agarrwal, Nikhil Hooda, and Atanuu Agarrwal, Upside AI spent a year in beta and went live with its products in July 2019. It aims to build India’s first end-to-end technology-led asset management company. It plans to use technology to run the entire chain from client onboarding to live tracking and reporting via a seamless UI/UX experience for clients.

“Upside AI has already attracted marquee clients ranging from large family offices, VCs, CEOs of large MNCs in India and the US on the back of unique investment tech that the team has built in-house and extensively tested.  The funding will help them build a robust pipeline of differentiated tech products and a network of large distributors, wealth managers, brokers, and IFAs,” Sateesh Andra, managing director, Endiya said. 

PazCare

Mumbai-based Get Paz Solutions, which operates employee benefits and insurtech platform PazCare,  has raised an undisclosed amount from marquee angel investors and entrepreneurs including BookMyShow founding team Ashish Hemrajani and Parikshit Dar. 

Haresh Chawla, partner, TrueNorth; Mohit Garg, co-founder, Oloid and Mindtickle; and Deepak Diwakar, co-founder and CTO, Mindtickle; were among the investors who participated in the round, the startup said in a statement. 

The amount raised by the firm is a part of its seed round and marks its first external fundraise. The company will use the capital to strengthen its insurance and technology infrastructure in a bid to build a stronger business and employee foundation while expanding its client base and partnership network, the statement added. 

Founded in late 2020 by Sanchit Malik, former co-founder of Townscript, and Manish Mishra, former director of engineering at Mindtickle and Cleartax, PazCare launched its employee benefits platform in early 2021 and has since onboarded over 70 companies including MamaEarth, BookMyShow, Goodera, Mindtickle, GoMechanic, Appknox, Upekkha and Avail Finance.  

“There are 1 million+ employers in India who aspire to provide seamless health insurance and full stack benefits to their employees but are unable to find the right mix if appropriate measures and competent cover schemes at volume. PazCare aims to enable 10,000-plus such employers to insure over 3 million lives through its platform in the next 3 years with a razor-sharp focus on providing the best value to our customers,” said Malik.

Superplum

Noida-based Freshcore Provisions, which operates agritech platform Superplum, has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-series A round from a clutch of new and existing investors.  

The fresh capital will be used to build out farm infrastructure, augment the management team and to expand the company distribution capabilities, the company said in a statement.

Founded in 2019, Superplum has raised $6.8 million since its inception from investors including Draper Fisher Jurvetson founding partner Steve Jurvetson; Dan Rose of Coatue Ventures; Mark Siegel of Menlo Ventures (Uber); Kabir Misra of Softbank, RPS ventures; Curtis Macnguyen of Ivory Capital; Ron Snyder (Flextronics, Crocs, Codigo); and Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal.

Founded by Shobhit Gupta, the startup aims to address Indian agriculture’s supply chain problems by designing and building an all-new state of the art supply chain and digitizing the farm-to-store network.

Superplum’s products can be found at most large format retail chains including Spar, Metro, Reliance Retail and Starbazaar. The company claims to have a distribution network of more than 320 stores in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. Superplum started operations in 2020 and currently employs 70 people. Over the last year, the company claims to have delivered more than 1000 tons of fresh produce through the Covid induced shutdowns.

Portl

Hyderabad-based home fitness and wellness startup Portl has raised an undisclosed amount in its seed round of funding from Kalaari Capital. 

The capital will be utilised to grow the team across hardware, engineering and AI domains and expand the sales and marketing efforts, the company said in a statement.

Portl is a fully integrated, multi-functional, smart fitness and health system. The company has developed two products built using the proprietary Portl Smart Mirror platform that provides a wide range of personalised workouts, nutrition and mental wellness programmes.

Portl products come equipped with cutting-edge bio-sensors that monitor a wide range of health metrics at home including ECG, Blood Pressure, Blood Glucose etc., and forms the basis for a highly personalised wellness programme. The Portl product range includes two products - The Portl Mirror and the Portl Pro. Both devices use advanced AI to provide Real-time Exercise Form Analysis and correction feedback to ensure that each exercise is performed with the correct technique and helps prevent injuries.

The startup was founded in March 2021, by second time entrepreneurs Indraneel Gupta and Vishal Chandapeta.  

“Our aim is to ultimately deliver simplicity and convenience for consumers by creating tangible, long-lasting value through the products we design. At Portl, we are reimagining the way people will access, manage and control their overall health. In many ways, the hardware and software that we are building will empower people to take charge of their own health and fitness, while we provide personalised and holistic services to support their efforts,” Gupta said.