[Funding roundup] Shaka Harry, Veg Route, BugBase, Shri Chyawan Ayurved raise early-stage deals

Shaka Harry raises $2 million in seed round

Shaka Harry has raised $2 million in a seed round led by Better Bite Ventures, Blue Horizon, and venture debt fund Panthera Peak. Other investors include Dexler Holdings, Chef Manu Chandra, and a group of domestic family offices and angel investors.

Founded by Anand Nagarajan, Sandeep Devgan, Hemalatha Srinivasan, Ruth Renita, and Anoop Haridasan, Shaka Harry has a monthly customer base of 25,000. The monthly growth expected for the next few quarters is around 20 to 30 percent, the company said.

“Plant-based meats have a huge scope of acceptability in India, particularly among the growing flexitarian population. Yet not many brands have been able to make a mark due to the inability to replicate real meaty tastes in vegetarian profiles. That’s where Shaka Harry has been able to make a difference,” said Sandeep Devgan, Co-founder, Shaka Harry.

“By partnering with top flavourists, who are masters in recreating impactful meaty top notes using vegetarian ingredients, we have been able to offer Indian consumers a first-of-its-kind ‘just-like-chicken’ and ‘just-like mutton experience minus the guilt,” he added.

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Veg Route raises $1.1 million in seed round 

Chennai-based agritech startup Veg Route has raised Seed funding of $1.1 million led by VGROW Ventures from the the US, along with Ravi Shankar Kathirvelu, Chief Business Officer, Venture Partner. 

The round also saw participation from Mohan K and Jai Kumar, founders of Chennai-based fintech startup Ippopay; Hari TN, Co-founder, Artha School of Entrepreneurship; and Abhishek Raj Pandey, Head of Commercial Operations, Mama Earth; with other angel investors from India, the UAE, and the US.

Veg Route said that fresh funds will be used to enhance tech and data-driven solutions for strengthening and revolutionising the fresh produce supply chain. The startup plans to establish cold stored warehouses and invest in e-vehicles for last-mile delivery operations and establish collection centres in smaller towns and villages in south India.

Founded in November 2020, Veg Route is an online delivery platform that offers fresh produce from farms right to your doorsteps in five cities and across Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns.

ElevateHQ raises $1.1 million to automate sales commissions

India & Singapore-based B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup ElevateHQ has raised $1.1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Leo Capital. The round also saw participation from Veda.VC, PointOne Capital, and 100X Entrepreneurs.

The latest round of funding will be deployed towards the acquisition of talent, strengthening the product further, and making further inroads in North America, the startup said.

Founded in 2021 by Apoorv Singh, an INSEAD alumnus and former sales leader at Capillary & Mercer-Mettl, and Kartik Arora, former engineering leader at Skyscanner & Milkbasket, ElevateHQ helps companies motivate their sales teams and drive performance through its Sales Commission Automation platform.  

The platform has customers across the USA, Europe, and Asia, and automated sales commissions across diverse industries including insurance, pharma, education, services, and SaaS. Some of ElevateHQ’s customers include Airmeet, Edgepetrol, Mercer-Mettl, LeverageEdu, Vymo, FreshConsulting, Horangi, and ESCO.

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Growcoms raises $1 million in Pre-Series A

Kochi-based agritech startup Growcoms, supported by Kerala Startup Mission and incubated in Indigram Labs foundation, has raised $1 million in Pre-Series A round led by Info Edge.

The company intends to use this funding to scale up the tech platform and enhance its market reach. Besides, the firm plans to facilitate cross-border trade and further strengthen the traceability and transparency of the spices value chain.

Founded in 2021 by George Kurian Kannanthanam, Bibin Mathews and Narendranath P., the vision of Growcoms is to improve efficiencies across the complex nodes in the highly fragmented spices value chain.

BugBase raises $500k in funding led by 2am VC

100X.VC-backed Startup BugBase has raised $500k in funding led by 2am VC. The funding round also saw successful participation from Finsight Ventures, Dholakia Ventures, SAT Industries, and marquee angel investors like Neeraj Roy (Founder, Hungama Entertainment), Nilesh Sangoi (Founding CTO and ex-CEO Meru Cabs), Puneet Deora (MD, Deoras Group), Kushal Khandwala (Director, KIFS Group), and Anoop Mathur (AM Capital and Founder, CORE Media), among others.

Founded by Dhruva Goyal and Kathan Desai, BugBase is a marketplace of ethical hackers, which assists organisations in staying cyber safe by providing an all-in-one platform for continuous and comprehensive security testing.

"Businesses face all types of breaches, and these vulnerabilities pose a great risk to sensitive data. Therefore a need for an integrated testing platform arose. Our platform's success in India is based on a commitment to excellent service quality and compliance requirements, as well as a desire to foster sustainability and innovation," said Kathan Desai, Founder, BugBase.

Shri Chyawan Ayurved raises $200k in seed round

Shri Chyawan Ayurved, a firm providing herbal products, has raised $200K in its seed round. The round was led by Dhaval Shah and Vibhor Kanodia, Raipur-based Chartered Accountants and Angel Investors.

Founded by Devkar Saheb, Shri Chyawan Ayurved offers herbal products to help with problems related to Hair Care, Skin Care, Weight Loss, Menopause, Diabetes, Heart, Varicose Veins, Stress, and other health issues.

Additionally, the company launched the EHO Healthcare App, which provides users a one-click solution for various healthcare services such as ambulance, hospitals, and labs.

The company said the funds raised will be used for research and development of Shri Chyawan Ayurved Product, expansion and marketing activities of EHO Healthcare App.

(This article will be updated with the latest funding news throughout the day.)