D2C Home Appliances Brand ‘Up’ Bags Funding From Zerodha’s Rainmatter

Home appliances startup Up has secured $1.3 Mn in seed funding round led by Zerodha’s fintech fund and incubator Rainmatter, which infused $500K in the round.

Tim Draper and the founders of Ather Energy, Unacademy, Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs India have also participated in the fundraising round.

Interestingly, Up informed that many consumers backed the startup during its beta testing period.

Founded in 2021 by former executives of Ather Energy and Chaayos, Mahek Mody and Mohit Sharma, Up sells a signature smart home appliance called ‘delishUp’. 

Up claims that its appliance delishUp has been tested in more than 250 Indian kitchens during the pilot project. The startup will begin selling the product to the general public from December 2022 onwards.

“Helping people become healthy is something we are passionate about at Rainmatter. When Mahek and Mohit showed us delishUp and what they were trying to build, we really liked it. We could instantly see that this could go a long way in helping people eat healthy,” said, Nithin Kamath, cofounder and CEO, Zerodha. 

Through its appliance, Up aims to help millennials and Gen Z prepare healthy food easily at home. 

Explaining features of the appliance, the startup said its product has a touch screen that displays varied recipes while its jar heats and cooks food. In addition, the appliance performs chopping, stirring and other allied culinary activities.

“With this new funding, we are looking forward to taking delishUp to consumers across the country. Most other services available in the market focus on the exercise or ‘calories out’ options, but nearly none of them are offering users the superpower to take control of ‘calories in’,” said Mahek Mody, cofounder and CEO, Up.

The Mumbai-based startup will use the fresh funds to promote its product – delishUp. 

The startup claims to be a part of Qualcomm’s accelerator program 2022-23. The startup further plans to collaborate with Qualcomm to disrupt the consumer tech segment in the Indian market.

According to a report, the Indian consumer electronics and home appliances market is likely to become a $2.12 Bn market opportunity by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 1% during 2020-25.

A few emerging home appliances startups–Cubical Labs, Home Brain, Oakter and PicoStone are currently operating in the space.