Edtech startup Language Curry said it has raised $600,000 from LetsVenture, IAN, Varsha Rao, CEO, Nurx and former head of global operations AirBnB, and Rebalance.
The round also saw participation from Ajay Rajgharia, Nitin Zamre, Shashvat Nakhrani, co-founder, BharatPe, Karan Tanna, founder, Ghost Kitchens India, and Rohit Chanana, amongst others.
Founded by Aneesha Jyoti, Vatsala Sharma, and Puneet Singh, the company aims to make Indian language learning effective through their culturally relevant colloquial approach that allows learners to “speak Indian”.
The company said it has grown over 500% in the past 6 months to close in on 8,00,000 downloads to become the most loved app in the language learning space, often pegged next to global language learning apps. They currently offer 10 Indian Languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Kannada, and Gujarati.
AiRTH, an antimicrobial air purifiers manufacturing start-up, said it has raised an undisclosed seed funding from Whiteboard Capital, Syrma Technology, and FIRST (IIT Kanpur).
The company said it plans to use the funding to bolster its production lines to meet pan-India demand and modernise its after-sales services to provide the utmost convenience to its customers.
Founded by Ravi Kaushik, the company aims to counter the deadly effects of unseen viruses and germs in the air. Its key product is an antimicrobial air purifier that works on a unique DCD (deactivate-capture-deactivate) mechanism to provide real-time deactivation of unseen viruses and germs in the surroundings.
“It’s only been a year since we started our journey, and we are delighted to host an impressive clientele, including the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), hospitals, and more, who believe in our product and vision of the company. Besides countering COVID-19 strains in the air, our purifier is designed to deactivate other harmful germs and viruses, which is quite beneficial in the age of rising pollution and deadly air-borne diseases,” Ravi Kaushik, founder and CEO of AiRTH, said.
“Today, more and more people have understood our work’s importance and reached out to us to help them have a healthier indoor environment. The recently acquired funding will help us strengthen our operations to continue serving our customers, making India a place to breathe without toxicity,” he added.
Siply, a Bengaluru-based microfinancing platform, said it has raised $3.2 million in equity and debt as part of its pre-Series A round led by LetsVenture, AngelList India, Founder Room Circle.
The round also saw participation from Kunal Shah, founder of Cred, Beerud Sheth of Gupshup, Satish Grampurohit, ex-Infosys, Shanti Mohan of LetsVenture and Pratekk Agarwaal, Angel Investor, Ex CBO-BharatPe. Existing investor JITO Angel Network also participated in the round.
Founded in July 2020 by Sousthav Chakrabarty and Anil Bhat, Siply provides "sachet financial services" to contract workers, blue-collar workers, gig economy workers, and small business owners.
In 14 months the Startup has 15 Lakh users and has collectively done 20 Lakh transactions amounting to total savings of 150+ Crores. These are via the 37+ large partnerships including Swiggy, Awign, Hesa, Apna, Moneytap, and Grameen among others. The company said in a statement.
The company launched micro-credit in July, and in 4 months it has disbursed more than 50 thousand loans for a total volume of more than 30 Crore. It said the loan book has grown at 150% month on month over the last 4 months.
Siply said it plans to soon raise Series A and in the next 12 months reach a user base of 1 Crore users and process 3 Crore transactions with overall savings of 600 Crore and disburse over 500 crore in loans through its micro-credit offering.
