Several Indian startups have raised funds across various categories from April 29 to May 3, including agritech robotics, packaged food, computer vision, etc. We will highlight six such transactions, including how these startups plan to use the raised capital.

Go DESi | Traditional Handmade Snacks

Go Desi, a Bengaluru-based packaged foods startup, has made headlines by raising Rs 41 crore (about $4.9 million) in a Series B funding round from Aavishkaar Capital. Existing investors Rukam Capital, Roots Ventures, and DSG Consumer also participated in the funding round. 

As per the startup, the freshly raised funds will be used for business expansion geographically, to deepen stock-keeping units’ presence, and to build and strengthen capacity.

Founded by Raksha Kothari and Vinay Kothari, Go Desi is a packaged food brand inspired by regional flavours, tastes, and formats. Its top-selling products are candy pops, branded as Desi Popz, which are available on online marketplaces, quick-commerce platforms, and general trade stores.

With its products available in more than 40,000 stores nationwide, Go Desi claims to have sold over 15 million units.

Kyari | Home-grown Plants 

Kyari, an Indore-based consumer brand, bagged $778,805 (Rs 6.5 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Agra Gwalior Pathways and Airen Holdings.

The funding round also saw participation from Amit Kumat from Prataap Snacks, Rajesh Patel from Apricot Foods, Sawan Laddha from Workie, We Founder Circle (WFC), Ivy League Ventures, and Jito.   

As per the startup, a significant portion of the raised capital will be used to increase its brand presence and develop growth initiatives. Additionally, part of the capital will support the introduction of new brands into the Select Brands’ portfolio.

Founded by brothers Agam Choudhary and Saksham Jain in 2022, Kyari is an Indore-based home decor brand that offers a variety of home-grown plants through its D2C platform.  

Fresh From Farm | Fresh Fruits Demand Aggregation Platform 

Fresh From Farm, a B2B2C fresh fruits demand consolidation platform, secured $2 million (Rs 16.6 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by angel investor Ashish Kacholia. Early-stage investor Inflection Point Ventures also participated in the funding round.  

As per the startup, the freshly raised funds will be used for team expansion, tech enhancement, and to introduce new product lines.

Founded by Rohit Nagdewani, Fresh From Farm is a B2B2C fresh fruits demand consolidation platform that allows for fresh fruit wastage reduction at the retailer level. The startup leverages its proprietary tech interface to predict and create a demand-supply equilibrium to minimize the wastage of fresh produce. 

F3, the flagship product, transforms fruit vendors into mini-franchises by sourcing, grading, and handling fruit for them, allowing them to focus solely on sales.

Niqo Robotics | Agritech Robotics Firm

Niqo Robotics (formerly TartanSense), a Bengaluru-based agritech robotics firm, raised Rs 74.7 crore or $9 million in a fresh funding round led by Brida Innovation Ventures. The fresh funding, which came after a hiatus of three years for the company, also saw participation from existing investor Omnivore Partners.

As per the startup, the raised capital will further its goals to revolutionize crop care spraying in agriculture through its flagship AI-powered Spot Spray Technology.

Founded by Jaisimha Rao in 2015, Niqo Robotics is a climate-smart deep tech company in agriculture. The startup specializes in crafting compact agricultural robots powered with AI-driven computer vision technology, helping reduce costs and increase profitability.

Its proprietary retrofittable custom AI agricultural camera empowers farmers to convert their existing traditional farm equipment to be AI-capable and climate-smart.

Assert AI | Computer Vision SaaS Startup

Assert AI, a computer vision software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup, secured $4 million (Rs 30 crore) in a Series A funding round from several investors. These investors include Prashant Purker (ex-ICICI Venture), Ramesh Hariharan (ex-LatentView), and grain commerce platform Arya.ag, among others. 

As per the startup, the freshly raised funds will be used to expand its presence across markets and improve its research and development (R&D) efforts. 

Co-founded by Job Philip, Nitin Jain, and Shalabh Shalabh, Assert AI is a SaaS platform that leverages the latest computer vision technology to help businesses and organizations automate processes, improve customer experiences, and gain valuable insights into their operations.

Its latest solution, Pratham, is a no-code platform for computer vision tailored for non-AI users. It democratizes access to AI-powered video analytics. 

The computer vision SaaS startup has developed two more platforms, Alpha and Falcon. Alpha offers options for data integration through APIs, hardware integration, and dashboards for insights from computer vision algorithms, while Falcon optimizes warehouse inventory management with real-time tracking.

BriskPe | B2B Cross Border Payments Platform

BriskPe, a Mumbai-based fintech platform, bagged $5 Mn (around INR 42 Cr) in a seed funding round from Prosus-backed digital payments major PayU. 

As per the startup, the freshly raised funds will be used to boost its product and service offerings. Further, the raised capital will enable the startup to expand its team and scale up its reach to facilitate more Indian businesses to expand globally with seamless cross-border payments.

Founded by Sanjay Tripathy, Nilesh Pathak, and Indunath Chaudhary in  2023, BriskPe is a Mumbai-based B2B cross-border payments platform for MSMEs and freelancers.

Claiming to have a customer base of more than 1000 exporters, BriskPe competes against EximPe, Salt, Instarem, Skydo, and Payglocal in the cross-border payment space. BriskPe was one of 30 early-stage fintech startups that participated in PayU’s inaugural accelerator program, Infinity. You can read more about it here.

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