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MSME banking super-app ‘mewt’ raises $4.6M in seed round

mewt, a banking super app for India’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), on Wednesday announced that it raised $4.6 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by global fintech investor Quona Capital, with participation from existing investors BEENEXT, DG Daiwa Ventures, Goodwater Capital, and Allin Capital, as well as a clutch of fintech angels. 

The funds will enable the startup to work towards financially empowering a million small businesses in India by the end of 2022.

The 10-month-old Bengaluru-headquartered company, founded by entrepreneurs Rishabh Jain and Kushal Prakash, has impacted over 200,000 small businesses across 600+ Tier-II and III cities in India within just four months of its launch in January 2022. The startup aims to reach a million users by 2022-end. The company will use the funds raised to expand its team and launch its super-card, a rewarding debit card for Indian MSMEs.

Rishabh Jain, Co-founder and CEO of mewt, said, 

“mewt began with the mission of impacting the lives of as many Indians as possible. Within four months, mewt has been able to reach over 200,000 small businesses, and in the coming four years, we aim to be the face of the Indian business banking ecosystem. With the funding, we are all set to grow our team to unlock the next level of growth, as well as elevate the banking experience for millions of small businesses in India.”

The company is looking to hire product, engineering and development talent. In 2021, mewt raised around $600,000 as seed capital from BEENEXT and a slew of angel investors. In March 2022, the company hit the milestone of one million transactions and a $25 million monthly transaction volume in just two months after its launch.

Fintech startup DPDzero  raises Rs 3.9 Cr from Better Capital 

Fintech startup DPDzero has announced raising Rs 3.9 crore in pre-seed funding led by Better Capital. Angels  Kunal Shah (Founder, CRED), Ramanathan RV (Co-founder, Hyperface), Nishchay AG (Co-founder and CEO at Jar), Vijay Rajagopalan (Head of Sales and Business Development, Amazon Pay—Offline), and Abhishek Kothari (Co-founder, FlexiLoans.com) also participated in the round.  

The fresh funds will be used to make DPDzero’s technology accessible across all cohorts of lenders, and help them limit their focus to acquiring new borrowers and not spend expensive engineering bandwidth building non-scalable internal tools to keep operations running. The company has witnessed strong interest from several fintech lenders and NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Companies) and has partnered with companies such as  OTO capital, BharatX, OkCredit, ZeroPay, RupeeLend, Saija MicroFinance, Kanakadurga Finance, Padmasai Finance, among others. 

Ananth Shroff, Co-founder and CEO, DPDzero, said,

“We’re excited to announce our first round of financing to help financial institutions all over India streamline their lending operations. To meet the shortfall in credit demand in India, lenders need to scale up their capital base and improve their operational processes. We’re helping fintech and NBFCs of all sizes automate and streamline the entire lending operations, so they can focus fully on acquiring the right borrowers.”

“Having seen the automation opportunity across several organisations—from marketing and sales to finance and design—via our investments, we are excited to be founding stage partners to DPDZero as the team builds the automation stack for fintechs in India and across global markets,” added Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital, an early backer of breakout companies like Open, Teachmint, Slice, and many others.

DPDzero identifies that only 100 million people in India today have access to formal credit and the rest are stuck with money sharks. The startup is aiming to solve this issue by increasing the formal credit penetration and working with lenders to drive down the cost of operations.  

Jade Forest raises $1M led by Mumbai Angels Network 

Jade Forest, a non-alcoholic beverage brand, has raised funding of $1 million in a round led by Mumbai Angels Network, a premium platform for early-stage investments, along with other investors. The funds will be utilised towards further geographical expansion and launch into the ready-to-drink beverage segment.

Launched in August 2019 by two experienced entrepreneurs in the F&B industry—Shuchir Suri and Punweet Singh, the company is currently growing at 15-20 percent MoM (month-on-month). By creating a range of drinks that are low in calories and sugar without the use of any artificial ingredients, the brand says it was able to reach a larger audience, especially during the pandemic, which witnessed a sudden positive shift towards homegrown consumption of beverages. The products are currently priced between Rs 80 and Rs 85 for a 250ml glass bottle, and are now available in all major metros in the country, taking consolidated presence to over 23 cities pan India.

The company previously raised a seed round of $250,000 in November 2020. Following an omnichannel sales approach, it sells through a number of offline retail channel partners and last-mile delivery platforms, as well as through its own ecommerce website and Amazon. 

Nandini Mansinghka, Co-founder and CEO of Mumbai Angels Network, further added, 

“Today, the younger generation is constantly on the lookout for beverages that are low on sugar and carbs and yet please their taste buds. Jade Forest has managed to capture the attention of thousands of millennials and Gen Z consumers, and has established its presence in 23 cities in two years. This funding is a testament to the brand’s remarkable growth and progress. We believe that the fresh capital will allow them to achieve their goals, and further scale the business.”

Co-founder Punweet added, “Apart from this, we have invested and continue to grow our digital marketing efforts and hope to reach a larger consumer base. We use a combination of digital performance ads, social media content, and brand collaborations and tie-ups.” 

The brand plans to expand its portfolio of drinks into different verticals as well as venture into the export market in the coming years.   

Plutoverse raises undisclosed sum from multiple investors 

After receiving backing from Polygon co-founder Jaynti Kanani, tech-entertainment startup Plutoverse raised undisclosed funding from investors including Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Tykhe Block Ventures founder Prashant Malik, and OYO Global CSO Maninder Gulati.

Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder, Polygon said, 

“Plutoverse is not just an attempt at creating a world unseen, but also a revolutionary idea that can redefine the Metaverse. It will allow users to holistically immerse into a shared universe with an easy interface and seamless integrations. I am looking forward to working with this team of young guns to make a memorable product.” 

According to the official release, this fresh round of funding will further strengthen the company’s efforts to provide Indian users with a unique yet world-class Metaverse experience.

Elaborating on the road ahead, Prashant Sharma, CEO and Co-founder, Plutoverse added,

“With Plutoverse, we want to give consumers a never-before-seen experience. Nailwal, Gulati and Malik’s backing will further strengthen our mission. Nailwal has been a maverick of the fintech space; the way Polygon changed the blockchain arena is what we are attempting to do in the Metaverse market.”

(This is an ongoing story and will be updated with the latest updates throughout the day.)