Bits’n’bytes: Know about business events in Pune - Hindustan Times
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Bits’n’bytes: Know about business events in Pune

BySalil Urunkar
Oct 23, 2021 04:24 PM IST

All you need to know about the upcoming business events, startups and programmes in Pune city. Read on...

FITTR raises US $11.5 million in Series A

ConveGenius has raised $5 million in venture capital funding to launch its conversational AI platform, ConveGenius AI in India and global markets. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)
ConveGenius has raised $5 million in venture capital funding to launch its conversational AI platform, ConveGenius AI in India and global markets. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

Health and fitness community platform, Fittr, announced that has raised $11.5 million in a Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Dream Capital, the corporate venture capital and M&A arm of Dream Sports and Elysian Park Ventures, the private investment arm of the LA Dodgers ownership group. Existing investor Sequoia Capital’s India Surge also participated in the funding round.

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The new capital will enable India-based Fittr to accelerate its growth and expansion into new markets, including North America, the UK and Singapore, which currently accounts for 30 per cent of the company’s overall revenue, while continuing to educate the Indian population around health and fitness.

“Fittr has always been committed to democratising fitness, and raising awareness around physical, mental and emotional well-being. The investment raised will assist us to make strategic headways in achieving this goal,” said Jitendra Chouksey, CEO and founder, Fittr.

Nikhil Bahel, managing partner, Elysian Park Ventures, said, “The fitness market has changed dramatically over the last year, and we believe the demand for digital fitness training will only continue to grow. Fittr’s community-based model is well positioned for success, and we believe it has the ability to become a dominant global fitness and health brand.”

ConveGenius raises $5 million in venture capital funding

ConveGenius has raised $5 million in venture capital funding to launch its conversational AI platform, ConveGenius AI in India and global markets. The pre-seed round was led by new investors, BAce Capital, Heritas Capital and 3Lines Venture Capital as well as existing investor, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

Convegenius.AI aims to expand its products on a Whatsapp ecosystem and other conversational AI-based channels horizontally, to service more customers across different verticals and allow developers to launch their solutions on the platform.

Jairaj Bhattacharya, CEO, ConveGenius Group, said, “We are aiming at making quality education accessible for middle- and low-income groups across India and make quality education accessible to 100 million marginalised children in India.”

Pallab Chatterjee, chairman 3 Lines VC Rocket Fund, said, “ConveGenius has focused on the broad and hitherto unserved market of 235 million students who belong to the first-generation mobile internet users with households using smartphones and mobile devices for the first time. Its focus on mass market users and democratisation of personalised content distribution by building conversational user experiences for mobile devices has created a niche segment for innovation and value creation.”

Sixth Element Finserv launches setup services in Pune

Sixth Element Finserv has launched ‘Setup Services India’ (SSI) a one-stop financial services solution for next-gen entrepreneurs to facilitate their business registration, compliance management and to make the advisory processes robust, transparent and cost-effective.

Nishant Arora, founder, Setup Services India (SSI), said, “Pune has consistently ranked among the top-5 cities in software and IT startups. The city has an edge in the probability to give India the next-gen startups and making unicorns. It will help founders/ entrepreneurs focus on their core business activities and grow instead of being tied up in managing their financial processes and wasting time on something that can be outsourced and managed with ease.”

The company says that it is trying to replace accounts dept and not the CA; SSI is introducing CRM in financial services so that startups feel secure while being associated with a consulting firm.

Blockchain startup Arcana raises $2.3 million

Blockchain startup Arcana Network has raised $2.3 million from leading investors in the Blockchain ecosystem. The strategic round of funding was led by Republic Crypto and Woodstock Fund, and also saw participation from Digital Currency Group (DCG), Hyperedge, Sahil Lavingia’s shl.vc, Fenbushi Capital, LD Capital, and Paradigm Shift VC.

The $2.3 million round also saw participation from Ganesh Swami, CEO of Covalent, Ajeet Khurana, Buidlers Tribe, Nishal Shetty of WazirX, Ajit Tripathi from Aave, along with Arcana’s seed investors AU21 and Arcanum Capital who’ve also invested in this round.

Founded by Mayur Relekar (CEO) and Co-founders Aravindh Kumar, and Abhishek Chaudhary in 2019, Arcana can expect to expand its squad, strengthen its product portfolio and soon launch Arcana’s XAR token after this fundraise.

Mayur Relekar, CEO of Arcana believes, “Data privacy and security will be first-class citizens in every app’s stack. Privacy and ownership of data will be a necessity for every product and developers need easy to use tools to fulfil this. With a vision to be privacy-first and developer-friendly platform, Arcana is working with developers across sectors from DeFi, NFT platforms, Social Networks, and Wallets, to traditional web 2.0 products in Fintech, Healthcare, and Enterprise SaaS, to bring privacy and security to their data.”

Registrations open for MCCIA annual awards

Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) has announced it is now accepting registrations for nominations for its annual awards .

The MCCIA Annual Awards cover contributions in areas of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Green Initiatives, Corporate Social Responsibility, Defence Production and Women Entrepreneurship, amongst other verticals.

Those applying for it can apply online at https://www.mcciapune.com/awards/mccia-annual-awards/. The last date for submitting the application is October 30.

DIAT Innovation and Incubation Centre has first startup on the road

Defence Institute of Advance Technonology (DIAT) Innovation and Incubation Centre hosted its first start-up firm Navyukti Innovations, that launched its first nanomaterial based indigenous product, Silvo-Kavach on October 20.

The product is developed under Sangeeta Kale, and co-director, along with market experts including DIAT alumni. The product is a nanoparticles-based antimicrobial solution and a water-based solution which protects spaces from microbial infection and can be used at large public spaces, complexes, industrial premises and public targeted areas.

The start-up company is also working in the field of biosensors and other industrial sensors .

FBGaming presses start in India

Facebook hosted its first-ever gaming event FBGamingPressStart in India. Spread across two days, the virtual event saw sessions from developers, publishers, and creators on how to build and scale their gaming presence on Facebook, find new audiences and grow their community. The event’s opening address was made by Gio Hunt, VP of Gaming Business and Operations, Facebook, Ajit Mohan, managing director and vice-president, India, and Manohar Hotchandani, business development director, Facebook.

Hotchandani said, “India is emerging as one of the largest gaming markets in the world and we have seen an increased focus on gaming on Facebook, especially gaming video with viewership of live gaming video growing by over 530% over the past year. We are committed to building the gaming ecosystem in India and creating value for people who love gaming content and the businesses that drive the industry.”

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