Backpacker hostel brand goSTOPSraises USD 1 million in Pre-Series A roundled by Indian Angel Networkand family office of Xander Group founder Sid Yog

The freshly infused funds will be used to grow the company’s supply over the next 12 months and investin marketing and technology.

8th July, 2021: Backpacker hostel brand goSTOPS has raised USD 1 million in its Pre-Series A round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Yuj, an investing arm of the family office of Xander Group founder Sid Yog. The round also saw participation from The Chennai Angels, Chandigarh Angels, Lead Angels, Mumbai Angels Network, LetsVenture as well as goSTOPS’ existing lead investor 1Crowd. KRS Jamwal, Uday Chatterjee and Mitesh Shah led this round at IAN.

goSTOPS caters primarily to the GenZ population. With community and design-led hotel transformation, the brand harnesses the efficiencies of the shared economy to make a high-quality youth-focused stay accessible within a GenZ friendly budget of INR 500 per night. Operating across 20 destinations in India, goSTOPS has hosted over 500K guests in its properties since its inception.

Pallavi Agarwal, CEO & Co-Founder of goSTOPS

Speaking on the capital infusion, Pallavi Agarwal, CEO & Co-Founder of goSTOPS said, “We are thrilled to have great investors backing us in our quest to make youth travel accessible, safe and fun. This pandemic has challenged lives in an unprecedented manner. Despite that, we saw a robust demand recovery from our young travelers post the first wave, and the same is happening today. This has helped us validate strong market-need fundamentals and business model resilience. This is also an opportune time for us to aggressively expand supply across the country to cater to the needs of the ever-increasing number of GenZ travelers."

Nandini Mansinghka, Co-Founder & CEO of Mumbai Angels Network

Commenting on the investment, Nandini Mansinghka, Co-Founder & CEO of Mumbai Angels Network said, “Post-pandemic travel is drastically different than what it was during the pre-pandemic times. There has also been an uptick in demand from young travelers who prefer to be digital nomads and are constantly on the lookout for brands offering a unique travel experience. goSTOPS has been committed to offering affordable yet one-of-a-kind experiences to the youth and we believe that this collective investment will help the brand scale up and cater better to the growing demand and needs of youth travelers.”

Sid Yog, Founder of Xander Group and Yuj

In the same vein, Sid Yog, Founder of Xander Group and Yuj, shared, “The travel and hospitality industry is witnessing a watershed moment, and youth travel is emerging as a frontrunner in the segment. We are excited to partner with goSTOPS as they grow their offering to match a burgeoning demand, and deliver a high-quality stay brand focused on needs and aspirations of the youth.”

Document Execution platform - Leegality picks up Pre-Series A funding from IIFL; Existing investor Mumbai Angels also participates.

The freshly infused funds will be used to expand Leegality’s team in key departments to fast-track product development and deepen enterprise adoption of its solution.

5th July 2021: Document Execution platform Leegality, has raised Pre-Series A funding led by IIFL Securities Capital Enhancer Fund. Existing investors including Mumbai Angels also participated in the round. While the funding amount has not been disclosed, Leegality will be using the freshly infused capital to expand its team in key departments to accelerate product development and deepen enterprise adoption of its solution.

Leegality's eSign, eStamp and Document Workflow Platform enables Indian businesses to sign and manage their paperwork with customers, vendors, employees, investors and other stakeholders in a faster, easier and more legally compliant way.

Shivam Singla, Founder of Leegality 

Shivam Singla, Founder of Leegality, said, “Over the past few years, Leegality has become the go-to solution provider for any Indian enterprise looking to digitize their paperwork processes. We are now the market standard for electronic signatures and digital documentation in India. This funding round is a great vindication of the efforts of our wonderful team so far, and will provide us further fuel to grow exponentially in the war against paper. We have managed to solve a very hard and important problem within a short span, and have created an entirely new product category in the Indian market. It's very exciting.”

R Venkataraman, Co-Promoter, IIFL Group

R Venkataraman, Co-Promoter, IIFL Group said, “The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation across businesses. Leegality is at the forefront in digital legal documentation processes. We expect rapid growth in this segment and an entity like Leegality would benefit from this. We are excited to partner with Leegality in their growth journey.”

Nandini Mansinghka, Co-Founder and CEO of Mumbai Angels Network

Nandini Mansinghka, Co-Founder and CEO of Mumbai Angels Network, added,  “The world is going digital in all aspects and paperwork is no exception. Companies often find streamlining the paperwork processes challenging and Leegality is committed to helping businesses go paperless since its inception. We believe that this investment is a testimony to the work Leegality has been doing and will help them expand their team and scale up their offerings to better serve the needs of Indian enterprise." 

Leegality has registered a ten-fold growth in revenue over the last 2 years and has been cash flow positive since last year. Leegality offers a horizontal product tailor-made for the Indian market, and is used by businesses across scale, sectors, verticals and use-cases. The Gurugram-based startup is helping more than 850 businesses including Federal Bank, HDFC Ltd, Bajaj Finance, HDB Financial, ICICI Lombard, Axis Finance, Razorpay, Udaan, WeWork, and Cars 24, amongst others to digitally transform their documentation processes.

About Leegality

Leegality was founded in 2016 by  Shivam Singla, Prakhar Agarwal and Sapan Parekh  with the vision of liberating Indian businesses from the clutches of paper. Today, more than 850 top Indian businesses use Leegality’s eSign, eStamp and Document Workflow platform to digitize their documentation process in a fast, easy and legally secure way.

About IIFL Securities Capital Enhancer Fund

Launched by IIFL Securities, one of the leading players in the Indian retail brokerage and distribution space, IIFL Securities Capital Enhancer fund's objective is to invest in entrepreneurs that are developing promising fintech solutions targeted primarily at retail financial services that can drive financial inclusion. 

About Mumbai Angels:

Started in 2006, Mumbai Angels Network is India’s premier platform focused on new venture investing. Mumbai Angels today has a 160 strong portfolio across sectors and cities across India. Of the overall portfolio the platform has exited/ secured the next round of funding for 60 of them. Today the platform has 550+ investors spread across 40+ cities within and outside India. 

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Mumbai Angels Network, SucSEED Indovation Fund, and other Angel Investors invest USD 300,000 in Edmingle

Having grown its top line by 400% over the past year, Edmingle will be using the freshly infused capital to strengthen its technology and operations divisions and expand its business

 July 3rd, 2021: Mumbai Angels Network, a premium startup investment platform for early-stage venture investments, along with SucSEED Indovation Fund and other marquee angel investors has invested USD 300,000 in Edmingle, a fast-growing online teaching academy entrepreneurship enabler as part of its Seed round of funding. Edmingle will be utilizing the freshly infused funding to augment its technology and operations divisions and scale the business.

Gaurav Doshi, Founder & CEO- Edmingle

Speaking on the funding, Gaurav Doshi, Founder & CEO - Edmingle said, “Trainers often rely on marketplaces to sell their courses and reach their target audience. Edmingle, however, allows them to run their courses on their own and convert their passion into a sustainable knowledge business. We are thrilled to be backed by eminent investors in our quest to offer seamless services for educators by bolstering our product offerings and expand our business by taking it to the larger market.”

Co-Founder and CEO of Mumbai Angels

Commenting on the investment, Nandini Mansinghka, Co-Founder and CEO of Mumbai Angels Network said, “Online education is amongst the fastest-growing segments in the world and with the pandemic introducing new trends and further fuelling the adoption of online education, the sector is set to continue this exponential growth in the foreseeable future. Edmingle has been committed to ensuring that educators can reach their target audience without having to rely on revenue-sharing marketplaces and this funding is a testament to the work the platform has been doing and will help scale up to cater better to its customers

J.A. Chowdary, Co-founder & Partner- SucSEED Indovation Fund

“Edmingle is a next-generation all-in-one platform which substantially reduces times to create, market, and sell online courses. We believe their comprehensive and easy-to-use solution helps prepare and deliver online and offline courses faster and more effectively. It was Edmingle’s well-laid outgrowth and sustainable customer-focused business model that encouraged us to invest”, added J.A Chowdary, Co-Founder & Partner - SucSEED Indovation Fund.

Edmingle provides a subscription-based software platform to educators where they can build their courses and market them on their website or app to engage students.

Over 4000 trainers are delivering their courses to over 3,00,000 learners across 30 countries through Edmingle. During the pandemic, Edmingle has helped several training businesses completely digitize their classroom training, growing its top line by 400% over the last year.

About Mumbai Angels Network: 

Started in 2006, Mumbai Angels Network is India’s premier platform focused on new venture investing. Mumbai Angels today has a 160 strong portfolio across sectors and cities across India. Of the overall portfolio, the platform has exited/ secured the next round of funding for 60 of them. Today the platform has 550+ investors spread across 40+ cities within and outside India.

Singapore on the Horizon for Investment and Partnership Opportunities

While India and Singapore share strong economic ties based on several bilateral treaties, the strong connection that the two countries share historically by virtue of being neighbours as well as being erstwhile British colonies is indisputable. Singapore has a thriving Indian diaspora, many of whom are the descendants of Indian tradespeople and workers, who immigrated to the island city-state in the early 19th century.

Singapore has always had the unique distinction of being a meeting point for the East and West in terms of the business world. This highly developed financial market is also home to a burgeoning startup ecosystem that is ahead of its time in terms of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Crystal clear policies, government funding and university research programs have been instrumental in making Singapore a go-to destination for startup investors, the world over. Today, Singapore can boast of 184 incubators, accelerators as well as other participants like angel networks who have been vital to its growth and overall success. 

As the preferred platform for angel investing in India, Mumbai Angels Network is always looking for exciting opportunities for both the Indian investor and founder to be a part of. This time around, we are collaborating with Meet Ventures (Singapore) to showcase three incredible startups from Singapore - ZeeMart, Mantheos and Amtiss, for partnership and investment opportunities. We hope to have you join us on Tuesday, 6th July at 8.30 am for an action-packed hour! To save your seat, register now at - https://forms.gle/KMVHeH3frTJ3ebcz5 

June Spotlight

 

‌Blive to open physical EV stores in India ‌Blive, an e-bike startup company funded by MA is now opening multibrand physical EV stores to sell e-bikes and e-scooters in India. BLive is also India’s first EV experience platform that offers experiential tours on e-bikes through EV tourism. The startup has partnerships with brands like Club Mahindra, Taj, Marriott, Hyatt etc. and also, tourism boards in Goa and Pondicherry.

‌Leegality launches platform to find vaccination slots ‌Leegality, has recently launched a platform - covid.leegality.net to help citizens find vaccination slots over the country. The platform specifically targets available vaccination slots for citizens above 18 years of age. ‌Unocoin brings bitcoin to billions in India ‌Unocoin is an exchange platform for cryptocurrencies. It allows users to buy, sell and trade digital assets through encrypted networks. The daily trading on the platform is roughly at Rs. 10 crores. It is now a trading platform for 30+ different kinds of cryptocurrencies and the company hopes to be India's first crypto assets exchange to file for IPO. ‌BluSmart to have 50% women drivers ‌BluSmart, aims to create an earning opportunity for everybody and anybody who aims to work. They plan to take the number of women driver-partners on its platform to 500 in a year, making it 50% of the total driver-partner base. Job Openings ‌Bookingjini Sector - Hotel Booking Platform Inside Sales Executive Apply Now

Nemo Sector - Finance CTO Apply Now Avishkaar Sector - Education Business Development Apply Now

Mumbai Angels and Auxano lead Pre Series A funding round of INR 5 Cr for Ed Tech startup Avishkaar

Mumbai, 1st June 2021: Mumbai Angels Network, a premium platform for early-stage investments, along with Auxano, and other eminent angel investors, has invested INR 5 crore in Ed-tech startup Avishkaar as a part of pre series A. Avishkaar is a category leader in next-generation technology education that focuses on robotics, AI, coding, and app development for children between 5 and 15 years of age through its hardware and software products. Avishkaar plans to utilize the funding towards product development and further expansion of its portfolio in addition to hiring talent. Further, with its mission to build an army of young innovators globally, the company will invest in marketing; India will continue to be a focus market this year with enough scope to grow in Tier-I and Tier-II cities while catering to inbound queries from international institutions.

Speaking about the investment, Tarun Bhalla, Co-founder, and CEO, Avishkaar said, “Avishkaar’s goal since its inception has been to create an army of innovators. Exponential technologies like AI, Robotics, Coding, and 3D printing are already defining the world around us. However, with COVID-19, technology is at the heart of everything, and we must impart these skills amongst our children if they find these fields exciting. Avishkaar’s approach is one of the platforms that comprises hardware kits, software solutions, and LIVE online classes to ensure that children have the right tools, curriculum, coaching, and environment to excel at these skills. “We are quite thrilled to have Auxano further its faith in the Avishkaar story, and we are happy to have the new investors coming on board to take our cause forward”, he added.

Adding to this, Nandini Mansinghka, Co-Founder and CEO of Mumbai Angels Network said, “Ed-tech is one of the most lucrative sectors and one of the few industries that has emerged triumphant from the pandemic’s impact. The education sector will heavily rely on technology-driven teaching and learning even after the pandemic has passed. Avishkaar has been consistent in providing seamless solutions that cater to today’s learners and we believe that this investment will enable them to further innovate, expand their offerings, and grow.”

"Avishkaar, having developed hardware, software, curriculum & communities to learn tech skills for the future like Robotics, AI, Coding, IoT & drones within 1100+ schools, extended their model to add student learning as a B2C strategy. This B2C focus has seen early traction accelerated by the tech adaption in the education industry due to Covid19, capitalising on the need of the parents and students to learn these future-ready skills. Accoutred with a hybrid model targeted at schools and direct students allows them to address both ends of the spectrum. Lead by a proficient team that understands the education space with a decade+ experience in educational offerings. Lastly, NEP 2020’s focus on STEAM education is another impetus that will enable growth. A combination of these ingredients leaves Avishkaar poised for growth hereon." said, Angad Singh Bilochpura - Deal Lead.

 

Mumbai Angels Network, JITO Angel Network, and other angel investors invest USD 200K in Pickright Technologies

The freshly infused funds will be directed towards enhanced marketing efforts, designing new tech, and creating awareness on the significance of investing right and early to secure maximum returns. May 25, 2021: Mumbai Angels Network, a premium startup investment platform for early-stage venture investments, along with JITO Angel Network, and other eminent angel investors, has invested USD 200K in Pickright Technologies, an AI-enabled app to plan and manage finances and diversify investments for millennials across direct and indirect assets. A wealth-tech platform for digitally native masses, the Pickright app enables users to organize finances by intelligently saving and investing smartly across asset classes with AI and ML-powered deep personalization. Founded by Archana Elapavuluri and Namandeep Bhatia, Pickright Technologies has curated, powerful, and diversified portfolios for every user based on user profiling and allows them to invest according to their eligibility month-on-month across asset classes using AI and ML, thereby being a financial assistant in your pocket. The freshly infused funds will be utilized for enhancing the platform’s marketing, designing new tech, and most importantly, to create awareness on the importance of investing right and early to avail maximum returns in an organized manner. Speaking on the new capital infusion, Archana Elapavuluri, Co-Founder and CEO of Pickright Technologies said, “The world is going through an extremely challenging time with rampant uncertainty, and we are staring into a pension-less future with the erosion of interest rates and growing inflation. This is the right time for people, young and old, to take a step towards wealth creation. Every penny counts.” Commenting on the investment, Nandini Mansinghka, Co-Promoter, and CEO of Mumbai Angels Network said, “Wealth creation, especially for today’s millennials, is integral to ensure they have financial backing amidst this uncertainty looming over the world and for their post-retirement. Pickright Technologies has been committed to help enhance their assets and investments and we believe that our collective investment will help the platform scale-up and cater to more customers. This capital infusion is a testament to Pickright’s expertise in the wealth creation area and its constant innovation through tech-driven methods.” “I am delighted to be associated with Pickright Technologies’ growth story. I strongly believe in their proposition as an AI-enabled app offering curated, diversified portfolios across asset classes with single-click execution. Pickright is the ideal solution for digital native users to assist with micro saving, planning, and investing right”, added Arun Thukral, the deal lead for the funding round. Pickright is currently working with different discount brokers and other partners to partner and scale the same. The platform is currently clocking 30,000 users on the platform doubling month-on-month.