My Funding Picks For Last Week (W21)
Every Monday, I sit with my team to review the funding activity of the previous week. From that list, I pick out 3 companies that I would have loved to invest in or find founders that are doing similar things. Click here to know about my rationale behind this weekly exercise.
Another 2 weeks of lockdown (probably more for metro cities) should not dampen the investment spirits. Deal activity continues to temper, but it hasn’t completely stopped. Last week saw 13 startups raise $88 million – 8 of which were in the early-stage space.
After sifting through the news (aggregated from Tracxn, Inc42, and YourStory), I picked out these three as my favorite funding news from last week!
Name: Refrens
Amount Raised: Undisclosed from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Anupam Mittal, others
What does Refrens do?
Edited from Traxcn: Refrens is accounting software for freelancers. The features of the product are expanding customer base by referrals, budget planning, creating GST invoices, reminders, and more. The product is free for freelancers such as software developers, logo and graphic designers, digital marketers, to name a few.
Why do I like Refrens?
The recent economic earthquake and the related job losses will give wings to the gig economy. Several platforms help gig workers promote their wares, but not many that will help them with organizing their back-end operations. The stellar angel investor star cast backing this deal should provide Refrens an edge over the indirect competition.
Name: Log9 Materials
Amount Raised: USD 164K from Deepak Ghaisas
What does Log9 do?
Edited from Traxcn: Log9Materials is a startup in the nanotechnology space. It focuses on graphene-based materials. Also, it undertakes custom synthesizing orders. R&D is centered on energy-efficient technologies based on graphene derivatives. As of November 2016, the company is developing graphene quantum dot-based LEDs and foldable displays and graphene composite based water purification systems. They have developed ‘Smoke-Free’- graphene-based cigarette filter and claims to reduce the risk of getting cancer by 90%.
Why do I like Log9?
I had looked at Log9 in the past when they were utilizing graphene-based technologies for fuel cells & filtration. However, their new product, CoronaOven could get serious traction as the importance of disinfecting things before using or consuming them is taken seriously. If the technology works as it is supposed to, there is a massive market for this product.
Name: Scribble Data
Amount Raised: Undisclosed from unnamed Angels
What does Scribble Data do?
Edited from Traxcn: Their platform, Enrich, helps prep data at scale (feature engineering) for data science, and our consulting services are aimed at turning every data science team into well-oiled machines.
Why do I like Scribble Data?
ML engineers love challenges. These engineers take on projects that test their skills and will build their reputation. Eventually, the projects get completed, and they venture out to find a new challenge, and the cycle repeats – but there could be a better solution. Scribble Data’s ML engineering as a service could offer exciting projects to keep ML engineers engaged but, at the same time, provide continuity at a more affordable & flexible payroll for the company. I have asked a couple of my portfolio company’s to reach out to Scribble and test out this hypothesis – the proof will be in the pudding.
