Applyifi, a Gurgaon-based platform that helps startups raise capital, has announced the results of its recent Fundraising Assistance Program (FRA). Four startups viz. Paintcollar, Meta IoT, Vahann and One-Way-Cab has raised funding through the platform.
While One-Way-Cab closed a round of $444.87K (INR 3 Crore) from a angel investor network; Paintcollar, Vahann and Meta IoT raised smaller rounds from individual angel investors.
The fundraising program was launched in April this year, wherein Applyifi helps startups refine their business plans and pitch deck, and then connects them to investors.
As per Prajakt Raut, co-founder of Applyifi, many startups start reaching out to investors before they know how to make a sound and compelling investment case for their business – and how to articulate that. Often even strong entrepreneurs with good ideas do not get a foot in the door, or catch an investor’s attention because they have not been able to present a compelling case to investors.
In the Applyifi program, Prajakt played a key role in guiding the winning startups on their fund raising process. “These were strong ventures by good teams. However, what also worked in their favour was that they had very sharp pitch decks which gave investors a good view of the opportunity, business case, go-to- market plans, aspirations and the potential.”.
Here is a brief overview of each startup:
Paintcollar (Applyifi score: 104 of 114)
Based in Mumbai, the startup was launched in September 2014 by a team of five viz. Akash Arun, Amogh Vaishampayan, Deepak, Shantanu, and Manu Dwivedi.
Paintcollar enables artists, designers, institutions and brands to create products like T-shirts and phone cases by uploading designs on product templates using their Creation Engine. These products then go live on the marketplace and all orders are fulfilled by Paintcollar. It also offers the platform as a white label solution for brands. They further intend to offer this as a platform for educational institutions for selling merchandise to alumni and students.
“ One of biggest factors that helped us close this round was that in the previous 6 months we had focused on building a strong foundation while staying bootstrapped. This helped us present strong numbers and a solid growth plan to our current investors.” said Amogh Vaishampayan, co-founder of Paintcollar.
Last month, it raised a seed funding from angel investor Santosh Shetty, Co-founder of Neev Technologies, and Apurva Agarwal, Founder of Universal Legal. Earlier in September 2015, it also raised a bridge round of funding from a bunch of high networth individuals (HNIs) through investment platform Applyifi.
Meta IoT – Vehico (Applyifi score: 97 of 114)
Backed by Calcutta Angels, Vehico was founded in 2015 by Abhishek Chatterjee and Subhajit Banerjee Purnapatra. Based in Bangalore, it aims to be a Fitbit for cars and bring the power of the Internet to automobiles.
Vehico plugs into the on-board diagnostics port of cars to provide users real-time tracking, diagnostics like fuel-consumption, vehicle health, accident detection, driver performance management and monitoring.
It is currently targeting the B2B segment first i.e the fleet owners and the car rentals.
Vahann (Applyifi score: 105 of 114)
Angad Singi, the 23-year old founder of Vahann is making an electric moped that folds into a stroller bag that you can drag along.
One Way Cab (Applyifi score : 101 of 114)
Based in Gujarat, One-Way-Cab was launched in 2015 by Vivek Kejriwal, Devang Sanghvi, and Pankaj Gandhi.
One Way Cab is a taxi service provider, charging only for a one-way trip in inter-city travel.
“Before you reach out to investors for fundraising, it is imperative to ask: Are we ready to raise the funds? What are the requisites to raise funds? It is important as fundraising is an intense and time-taking exercise and your approach has to be right first time as you may not get second chance with the same investor. Applyifi helped us in getting ready for same.” said Vivek Kejriwal, co-founder One Way Cab.
Launched in April 2015, Applyifi aims to nurture and mentor early stage ventures and to bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and potential investors. So far, the team at Applyifi has already been generating a 36-point scorecard and assessment reports of startups. The scorecard categorically helps entrepreneurs understand their strengths and weaknesses, and provides them actionable inputs to sharpen their plans.
In near future, Prajakt looks forward at creating an umbrella of services for startups in and in all the major cities of Asia.
