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My Funding Picks For Last Week (W26)

Every Monday, I sit with my team to review the funding activity of the previous week. From that list, I pick out three 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 week where we maintain the 2 deals a day average with 18 startups raising $31 million. There are green shoots of recovery everywhere, but I expect that the deal closure numbers could be much higher if early-stage valuations cooled down by 30-40% (more on that in a future post!)
 
Out of the 18 deals, 14 were in the early-stage rounds (compared to 10 last week), which made the cut for my weekly analysis. After sifting through the news (aggregated from Tracxn, Inc42, and YourStory), I pick out these three as my favorite funding news from last week!
 
Name: GoldenPi
Amount Raised: $460k from Rainmatter Technology
What does GoldenPi do?
Edited from Traxcn: GoldenPi is a Robo-advisor that enables users to invest and manage a portfolio across investment instruments like bonds, NCDs, corporate fixed deposits, micro-loans, etc. Users can customize and select the weight allocation for each investment instrument.
Why do I like GoldenPi?
Democratizing the discovery of investable debt instruments is a noble cause. But what I like even better is the strategic investor that the GoldenPi founders have chosen – Zerodha’s Rainmatter accelerator.
GoldenPi offers an excellent investment product range for Zerodha’s high-value clientele, and Zerodha can funnel investments from their best clients for GoldenPi. It should be a perfect partnership.
 
Name: Biomoneta
Amount Raised: Undisclosed from Beyond Next Ventures, ArthaVida Ventures & Aniruddha Malpani
 
What does Biomoneta do?
Edited from Traxcn: Biomoneta has developed technology that extracts and kills a broad spectrum of microbes (bacteria, fungi, and viruses). With the patented trapping technology and air-flow design, it kills the microorganisms and prevents the spread of infections.
 
Why do I like Biomoneta?
Let’s face it, we must learn to live & work with the COVID19 virus for another 9-12 months before we have a viable vaccine. Biomoneta brings an interesting solution for disinfecting spaces, and it has impressive applications, especially for the hospitality sector, which has had the toughest hit in this lockdown. Dr.Maplani’s interest in this company is the right fit as well.
 
Name: Jimmy’s Cocktails
Amount Raised: $350K from Vidur Talwar, Ekcle Ventures & Angad Bhatia
 
What does Jimmy’s Cocktails do?
Edited from Tracxn: Jimmy’s Cocktails has developed a non-alcoholic drink that can be consumed as a non-alcoholic virgin mocktail or as a cocktail mixed with the consumer’s choice of spirit. Their USP is their low price and the convenience of being able to make cocktails at home.
 
Why do I like Jimmy’s Cocktails?
I’ve had an investor’s soft corner for branded alcoholic beverages space; therefore shortlisting Jimmy’s was an easy sell. Jimmy’s has a multi-use, high-margin product range with a long shelf life. If the founders keep firm control of their expenses and a tight control on inventory – this one could go places!