Venture Catalysts, a Mumbai-based incubation platform, has invested an undisclosed sum of money in peAR Technologies, a deep-tech and artificial intelligence-focussed startup.
The startup, operated by DVDP Technologies Pvt. Ltd, will use the funds to enhance its technological infrastructure and patent, the Mumbai-based peAR said in a statement.
Dharmin Vora, co-founder at peAR, said the investment will also help the firm to create between 2,000-3,000 digital assets a day from the current 200. “We are currently working on building the infrastructure around creating these digital assets at scale for multiple sectors,” he said.
Separately, Venture Catalysts Apoorv Ranjan Sharma said the firm was confident in its investment in the startup because of its management team and technology.
The startup, Sharma said, will be mentored by Standard Chartered Bank executive director for project financing and leveraged financing Prashant Vora and former Ola Cabs chief financial officer Mitesh Shah.
peAR was founded in 2018 by Dharmin Vora, Dhruvesh Mehta and Parth Vora. The company says it currently is focussed on the restaurant industry, with its hardware and software being used to capture and convert images into three-dimensional models at scale.
The firm charges restaurants for this service, and is also looking to provide software development kits (SDKs) to food-technology companies such as Zomato, Swiggy, UberEats and Dineout.
Venture Catalysts
The firm was set up in December 2015 by Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain. It usually invests between $250,000 and $1 million in early-stage startups.
In August, it floated a fund, the 9Unicorns Fund, with a corpus of Rs 300 crore ($43.44 million) to help early-stage Indian startups expand their business. The fund will typically invest Rs 60 lakh for a 5% stake in a startup, and may put in additional Rs 3-5 crore in subsequent funding rounds depending on company’s ability to meet its growth objectives.
Last month, it participated in a $500,000 (around Rs 3.5 crore) seed funding round in Blackburn Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates online dermatology solutions provider Remedico. Other investors that participated in that round included the US-based Parkview Investment Advisors, Vida Ventures and angel investors.
In July, it invested Rs 4 crore (around $580,260) in Pariksha, a startup which helps aspirants prepare for government exams in their regional languages. It also placed an undisclosed sum in Vested, an investment platform enabling Indian investors to invest in the US stock market.
In April, snacks and sweets brand Haldiram’s invested an undisclosed sum in Venture Catalysts to facilitate more investments in the packaged foods segment.
