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Deeptech startup SatSure acquires Philadelphia-based Geospatial services company

Bengaluru-based deeptech startup SatSure has acquired Philadelphia-based firm, Old City Innovations (formerly Geospoc LLC, USA), in a cash and stock deal, marking its entry into the US market.

Founded in 2014 by Archie Menezes and Cara Kolson, Old City Innovations (OCI) provides geospatial services in the domains of mortgage, agriculture, insurance, and drone markets in the US. Some of its key clients are Syngenta, DMI, and Applied Residential. 

Post the acquisition, the key management personnel of OCI will be joining SatSure, which will take over the customers’ contracts and leverage OCI’s expertise to expand its geospatial analytics business footprint in the US market.

“The US is undoubtedly the largest market for solutions with Earth Observation (EO) data at its core, and hence having our presence there is the next step in our plans to become a global force in the space industry as a full-stack EO company with a keen focus on customer’s decision intelligence,” said Prateep Basu, Founder and CEO, SatSure.

In February 2022, SatSure had raised $5 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Baring Private Equity India and ADB Ventures, Asian Development Bank’s venture arm. It had previously acquired Indore-based farm management SaaS tool CropTrails.

Founded in 2017 by the IIST and ISRO alumni Prateep Basu, Rashmit Singh Sukhmani, and Abhishek Raju, SatSure offers three main decision intelligence products, including SatSure Sparta — a platform for providing agriculture and climate-related insights as open innovation freemium model; SatSure SAGE — life cycle risk monitoring and business intelligence platform for agriculture financial services; and SatSure SKIES — a high-resolution satellite imagery-based infrastructure change detection platform.

Indifi Technologies witnesses 35 pc surge in credit demand from restaurants during IPL season

MSME lending platform Indifi Technologies said it witnessed over a 35 percent surge in credit demand from restaurants during the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as demand for food orders spiked. 

Over 50 percent surge came through relatively smaller restaurants, with a turnover of less than Rs 3 lakh per month. 

“Digital-ready restaurants, being beneficiaries of this IPL induced externality (food demand), have been increasingly turning to digital lenders to supplement their working capital needs and meet the seasonal spike in orders. With the support of the delivery platform partners, we offer these restaurants a one-stop and presence-less access to multiple credit options,” the firm said in a statement. 

On the supply side, the startup is steadily increasing its partnerships, adding both NBFCs and banks, to cater to the entire breadth of the MSME market, it added. It claims to have a turnaround time, from lead to offer creation, of less than four days. The startup had introduced instant loan products in December 2022.