In this cohort, we observed that a mere eight startups raised more than $1 Mn in funding, signalling the fading reliance of external capital.
While 16 early stage startups raised below $1 Mn or $1 Mn, the remaining lot of 6 startups in this cohort is proudly bootstrapped
As we welcome the resurgence of optimism in the Indian startup space with the annulment of angel tax and funding winter, here are the 30 startups that caught our attention in July.
What an eventful month it has been, the July of 2024! While the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem breathed a sigh of relief following the demise of the angel tax, industry stakeholders have officially declared the end of the funding winter.
According to Inc42’s “India’s Top Startup Investor Ranking H1 2024 Survey,” more than 90% of the 50+ surveyed investors view 2024 as the turnaround year for Indian startups. In contrast, only 7% of stakeholders believe that funding corrections, which have been going on for the last two years, could prove to be the dead weight Indian startups may have to carry for some more time.
Nevertheless, early stage startups continue to be as resilient as ever, filled with their founders’ passionate fervour to change this world for good.
With that thought, we are happy to bring you the 49th cohort of ‘30 Startups To Watch’ — Inc42’s much-awaited monthly series. In this cohort, we observed that a mere eight startups raised more than $1 Mn in funding, signalling the fading reliance on external capital. However, 16 early stage startups raised $1 Mn or below and the remaining were proudly bootstrapped.
With this trend, it is safe to assume that the persistent funding correction has made early stage startups less reliant on initial funding. Meanwhile, around a quarter of these startups are in the D2C space, with the remaining spanning fields as diverse as cleantech, B2B SaaS, generative AI, edtech and gaming.
Now, as we welcome the resurgence of optimism in the Indian startup space with the annulment of angel tax and receding funding winter, here are the 30 startups that caught our attention in July.
Editor’s Note: The list below is not a ranking of any kind. We have listed the startups alphabetically.
Bitscale
Reimagining UI Of Chat-Based AI Platforms
Founded by Sanket Goyal, Abhinay Kumar, and Yash Sharma in 2023, Bitscale aims to revolutionise sales and marketing jobs by automating their manual workflows.
The startup is reimagining the UI of current AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity to give them a more intuitive and scalable Excel-like interface. This innovative UI is aimed at enabling the creation of complex AI-driven tools for web scraping, prospecting, content generation, and LinkedIn searches, enhancing efficiency and productivity in sales and marketing tasks.
Last month, Bitscale raised its pre-seed funding round led by First Cheque
The Gurugram-based startup plans to primarily use the fresh capital to launch new products and increase its market reach.
Care.fi
Helping Patients Settle Insurance Claims Promptly
In the healthcare segment, financial hurdles can often impede the efficiency of hospital operations and patient care. This is where Care.fi, a fintech startup, steps in by focussing on bridging critical funding gaps within the healthcare sector.
Founded in 2021 by Sidak Singh and Vikrant Agarwal, Care.fi specialises in providing smart financing solutions tailored to the unique needs of hospitals, doctors, and allied suppliers. It addresses the complex financial challenges faced by healthcare professionals and institutions, to enable smoother operations and foster growth.
Care.fi’s core offering falls in the area of insurance claims management. Recognising the urgency and complexity involved in settling insurance claims promptly, Care.fi’s solutions streamline this process, ensuring that patients can wrap up payments quickly and efficiently, allowing them to focus on their recovery.
Care.fi’s secured a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence within just two years of its launch. The startup already claims to have partnered with over 50 hospitals and assisted more than 2,000 patients with their claims.
It recently raised $2.6 Mn funding in debt capital from Trifecta Capital and UC Inclusive Credit.
CHOSEN
Innovative Skincare Solutions
CHOSEN is a Chennai-based beauty and wellness brand founded by cosmetic dermatologist Dr. Renita Rajan. The startup tting-edge formulations and IoT-led skincare solutions.
With a design patent for an LED mask and four additional patents in progress, the company recently launched Tinted Sunscreen Lotion. This product is a combination of non-nano zinc, non-nano titanium, and non-nano iron oxide.
The sunscreen, designed for the Indian market, is safe for use during pregnancy and provides high-level protection against HEVL, UV, and IR rays.
The startup has several projects in the pipeline, including a melanin lab and IoT-driven personalised skincare technology. The company is also focussed on sustainability through eco-friendly packaging and emphasis on natural, biodegradable ingredients.
Devnagri AI
AI-Powered Language Translation Engine
Founded by Nakul Kundra and Himanshu Sharma in 2020, Devnagri is an AI-powered translation platform designed to bridge the language gap for non-English users in India. Recognising that 90% of India’s population does not understand English, Devnagri aims to make the internet accessible in native languages, ensuring equal access to knowledge and education.
Leveraging advanced natural language processing and small language models, Devnagri helps businesses and government entities translate data online. The startup also helps businesses personalise their content, making it hyper-local and accessible to non-English speaking audiences. The platform accepts multiple file formats from various domains, enabling machine translation to bring valuable information to youth.
Devnagri’s mission is to integrate non-English users into the internet ecosystem, helping them learn and access information in their native languages. The company focusses on helping businesses expand their operations to Tier II and III cities by addressing the language barrier.
Currently, Devnagri is also working towards offering enterprises and government departments a private cloud infrastructure.
EleFant
Subscription-Based Toy Library
Sourabh Jain’s parenting experience with his daughter made him realise that kids often have a clutter of unused toys. This insight led him to recognise the need for a sustainable solution, resulting in the creation of EleFant, a subscription-based toy library. EleFant addresses the high costs and environmental impact of purchasing toys by providing parents with an easier and more sustainable alternative.
Founded in 2023, EleFant is a mobile app-based toy library that offers a curated selection of educational toys and books through a subscription model. Parents can borrow and exchange toys as per the liking of their kids.
The subscription service provides high-quality, age-specific toys that promote cognitive thinking and social development among kids. EleFant focusses on affordability, sustainability, and convenience to build its unique selling proposition (USP).
The startup offers both monthly and annual subscription plans as part of its business model. Additionally, it generates revenue through its librarian model, where independent business owners set up mini toy libraries.
Currently, EleFant operates in over 16 cities across India. This year, EleFant plans to expand to over 30 cities, make its app more interactive, and increase its customer base to over 25,000 families. Going forward, it aims to introduce new educational products and explore international markets with a target of reaching over 1.5 Lakh families.
Eximfiles
Documentationation Platform For Enhanced Ops
Eximfiles is an online platform designed for comprehensive document management and communication needs in global trade operations. The platform offers tools for remittance tracking, auto-generated reports, compliant document templates, and more, all in one collaborative space.
Eximfiles helps businesses create and manage compliant documentation efficiently, from product catalogues to shipping documents. The platform provides compliant document templates to prevent errors, allowing users to create and manage documents with ease.
For financial operations, Eximfiles offers a convenient remittance tracking tool, enabling users to track their remittances and monitor the status of their funds with just a few clicks. This tool helps businesses stay on top of their international cash flows effortlessly.
The platform also includes features for auto-generated reports, optimising business operations by saving time and money. These reports provide valuable insights into performance, aiding informed decision-making.
Felicity Games
Catapulting Indian Gaming Studios Into High-Score Trajectory
Despite having a thriving game development ecosystem in the country, many gaming studios in India struggle to navigate variables beyond core game development such as product-led growth, user acquisition at scale, and live ops.
Founded in 2023 by Anurag Choudhary, Felicity Games aims to empower Indian developers by helping them create high-quality game prototypes at a much lower cost than their Western counterparts. By combining a data-driven approach to testing with innovative methods for growth, Felicity supports the development of new intellectual properties (IPs) and provides publishing opportunities that are more accessible and developer-friendly for the homegrown gaming community.
The startup partners with Indie studios early, when the game is in the conceptualisation stage, and helps set it up for global success by leveraging its proprietary commercial testing framework, Pokhran.
In under a year, Felicity has launched over 10 game titles in partnership with several studios. Its two most prominent titles are Seek & Find and Nova Solitaire.
In the short term, by March 2025, Felicity aims to test 10 more games and achieve a tenfold increase in revenue. By 2026, the goal is to have three to four games reach the US Top 10 Charts and achieve an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of over $50 Mn.
Helium
Helping D2C Brands Bolster Their Personalisation Game
The current approach to personalisation among D2C brands often leads to everyone seeing similar landing pages and products, regardless of their unique preferences or demographics. Helium collaborates with leading brands in the fashion and consumer tech sectors to create intelligent collection and product landing pages by using advanced AI.
Founded by Shray Arora, Sidharth Sahni, and Deepak Kapoor in 2023, Helium is a no-code AI platform that builds brand and visitor intelligence in real time and offers dynamic brand webstore optimisation to convert more of a brand’s visitors into loyal customers.
It has helped several brands achieve 30% higher conversions and 50% lower bounce rates than their existing webstores.
The startup works with fashion brands to merchandise products based on visitors’ demographics and based on real-time behaviour to find and recommend the next step in the journey.
Helium offers a range of advanced features designed to enhance ecommerce experiences through personalised and efficient technology. Through location-based merchandising, the startup dynamically adjusts the products displayed to visitors based on their geographical location, considering factors like local weather, historical orders, and sales trends.
The platform also uses smart tags to enhance product intelligence. This helps in creating more relevant and organised product collections on the site. Helium analyses user behaviour to provide personalised suggestions and nudges. This ensures that each visitor receives a unique experience tailored to their specific interests and actions on the site.
Built for Shopify, Helium’s headless tech stack significantly improves page load speeds—up to three times faster. This results in a smoother user experience, reducing bounce rates and enhancing overall satisfaction.
Honestly
Bumble For BPC Products
It’s a common practice to check user reviews before buying products online. However, people often end up disappointed with their purchases, especially in the beauty and personal care (BPC) space.
To address this glaring issue, Vivek Madani and Karishma Rathaur are building Honestly. This platform works like Bumble but for beauty products, matching users with similar skin tones, skin types, ages, genders, and even weather conditions.
Currently, the platform is working on launching a mobile app by the end of this year. The app will allow users to search for products based on ingredient lists and formulations, not brand claims, and match with people similar in skin tone, skin type, age, gender, and weather conditions to get accurate product reviews.
Currently, users can sign up for the waitlist and get verified, which gives them access to an insider club of power users of skincare and makeup products.
Honestly’s USP lies in its independence from brands and ecommerce platforms. They do not sell products and are not affiliated with any brand or ecommerce player. In the next two years, the startup aims to go deeper into the Indian market and expand globally.
Hoop
A Range Of Wellness Products For Young India
Founded in 2023 by two former McKinsey consultants, Twinkle Uppal, and Saharsh Agarwal, Hoop is a wellness brand, which emerges from the wellness needs of young India. Its products are made to help individuals with pain relief, muscle recovery and a good night’s sleep.
Ranging from gym-related injuries to back and neck pains from long sitting hours, hoop offers a range of natural products like cryotherapy cooling pain sprays, magnesium lotions for muscle recovery, and lavender mist for relaxed sleep.
Before the launch of the startup in October 2023, the founders spent over 18 months in research and development. Within a few months of launch, the brand claims to have built a customer base of close to 50,000 individuals spread across 1,500+ cities in India.
In July 2024, Olympian PV Sindhu invested in Hoop and came onboard as a brand ambassador.
House of Biryan
For The Love For Biryani
Indians’ love for biryani runs deep, driven by the dish’s rich variety and regional adaptations.
The House of Biryan, a Mumbai-based restaurant chain, specialises in delivering biryani through its cloud kitchen model. Founded by chefs Mikhail Shahani and Mohammed Bhol in 2022, the company has rapidly expanded its customer base and operations.
In 2023, the company added 80,000 new customers, leading to an average monthly income of INR 28 Lakh per store. Each of its cloud kitchens handles over 120 daily orders with an average order value of INR 700-800, resulting in an annual revenue of INR 3.2 Cr per kitchen.
House of Biryan has raised $3 Mn since its inception.
Icanheal
Enabling Comprehensive Healthcare Financing
Founded by Girish Poddar and Amit Backliwal in 2024, Icanheal, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rx Consultants Pvt Ltd (RXCS), addresses a critical challenge in the Indian healthcare system where many patients struggle to afford timely and effective treatments.
Icanheal is a comprehensive healthcare financing and patient navigation platform dedicated to enhancing affordability and adherence to treatment. By integrating financing solutions with patient navigation services, Icanheal aims to support patients through every step of their healthcare journey, ultimately reducing overall healthcare costs.
The platform offers tailored financing options to democratise access to advanced medical interventions, including medicines, devices, and hospital surgeries. This approach not only enhances accessibility but also improves adherence to treatments. As healthcare in India evolves rapidly, Icanheal strives to make advanced treatments more affordable and accessible to all patients.
immunitoAI
Faster Antibody Discovery
ImmunitoAI is a biotech startup, which specialises in accelerating antibody discovery using artificial intelligence (AI). Founded by Aridni Shah and Trisha Chatterjee in 2020, the company combines AI with an in-house lab to provide faster and more accurate solutions for designing novel antibodies.
Antibody discovery traditionally takes 4-5 years and is costly. ImmunitoAI leverages AI to cut this time down to just 11-12 months by using AI to design antibodies from scratch. The startup operates in a growing market projected to reach $13.21 Bn by 2028 due to increased investments in drug discovery and the demand for precision therapeutics.
In September 2020, the startup secured $1 Mn in seed funding from pi Ventures. Currently, immunitoAI plans to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to design antibodies aimed at specific diseases. It also plans to earn revenue by licencing these designs to its clients for further development and clinical trials.
Jugyah
A Contemporary Real Estate Platform
After identifying a gap in the market for a unified platform to facilitate end-to-end home buying and renting, Arshad Balwa and Ansuman Mohanty incorporated Jugyah in 2023.
The startup integrates all stages of a real estate transaction, connects buyers and tenants with sellers and landlords, and offers free legal assistance and insurance benefits.
For tenents, the startup claims to give 100% owner-verified properties and a platform that handles everything from scheduling visits to electronic document signing. For customers looking to buy a home, it offers a diverse selection of legally verified properties, along with a free one-year seepage warranty and legal assistance to secure the best home loan terms.
For sellers, Jugyah enhances property visibility with free HD photoshoots and listings on over 20 online portals. It also claims to provide accurate home valuations and free legal assistance to ensure a successful sale.
Jurisphere.ai
Navigating Legal Intricacies Through GenAI
After spending nearly four years as an M&A lawyer at AZB & Partners, Varun Khandelwal realised that generative AI would fundamentally transform how legal professionals interact with data. Whether conducting swift compliance checks, engaging in exhaustive due diligence processes, or meticulously drafting transaction documents, Varun experienced firsthand the relentless pace and precision required in the field.
This led to the inception of Jurisphere.ai, a legal, tax & regulatory platform, which claims to host 4000+ professionals. Jurisphere.ai has three products designed to transform legal practice through the power of Generative AI.
Its JurisChat serves as a knowledge copilot for legal, tax, and regulatory professionals, providing instant access to critical information and insights. The startup’s second product, JurisDocReview, assists in conducting comprehensive document analysis, streamlining the review process, and ensuring accuracy and efficiency.
Finally, JurisDraft facilitates the drafting of agreements, notices, and letters, significantly reducing the time and effort involved in creating precise legal documents.
Jurisphere is currently running multiple pilot projects with in-house counsel teams, law firms, litigation chambers, and tax consultancies. The company aims to onboard its first group of enterprise customers this year. Looking ahead to 2026, Jurisphere.ai has plans to serve global legal, tax, and regulatory players, positioning itself as a leading provider of AI-powered solutions in the industry.
Kalam Labs
ISRO For Kids
Founded by Ahmad Faraaz, Sashakt Tripathi, and Harshit Awasthi, Kalam Labs is building a STEM metaverse for kids aged 6 to 14. The startup leverages live multiplayer gaming where children attend live streams in a virtual world to learn science topics, including space and dinosaurs, and interact with instructors via live video and chat.
It provides a platform for space-loving kids to pursue their passion for astronomy. At Kalam Labs, kids participate in quizzes done in fun space games. Top performers get opportunities to work on real-scale space projects under India’s top universities.
Kalam Labs claims to have grown into a community of 3 Lakh kids who spend 3-5 hours per week on the platform. It has raised funding from investors, including Lightspeed India, GSV Capital, and Y Combinator, since its inception.
Lazo
Designer Clothing Made Affordable
Founded in 2021 by Chanaya Gupta, Lazo is a new-age homegrown womenswear brand, which wants to address the gap in affordable, trendy clothing tailored for Indian bodies.
Originally founded by the founder’s father in 1991 as a menswear label, Lazo was shut down in 1995. Gupta’s experimentation with style, along with the realisation of the need for affordable, trendy clothing, led to the rebirth of Lazo.
Lazo caters to women in their 20s and early 30s. The brand’s core business value is providing high-quality, trendy fashion at an affordable price point, with designs priced under INR 2,000. Each product is designed and manufactured in-house at their facility, which has a monthly production capacity of 3,000 units.
Lazo operates on a D2C model, selling exclusively through its website and shipping pan-India, with top markets in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, and Kolkata.
The D2C fashion startup aims to reach a revenue milestone of 1 Cr by March 2025, increase its SKU depth to 300, and optimise the supply chain for better product success and turnaround times. Long-term plans for 2026 include becoming category leaders in occasion wear, expanding to ecommerce marketplaces such as Myntra, Nykaa, and Amazon, and clocking INR 50 Cr in yearly revenues.
Let’sTry
Healthy Snacking
Founded in 2021 by Nitin Kalra, Let’s Try is A Delhi NCR-based snack brand that offers a variety of snacking products, including namkeens, mixtures, roasted channa and cookies. The startup predominantly sells online and uses in-house manufacturing to ensure quality and innovation.
Let’s Try follows traditional methods to make snacks and uses 100% groundnut oil with no preservatives, artificial flavours, colours, trans fats, or cholesterol.
Recently, Let’s Try bagged an undisclosed amount of funding from Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting’s venture arm Wipro Consumer Care – Ventures, with participation from existing investor 100Unicorns (erstwhile 9Unicorns). With this investment, Wipro Consumer Care – Ventures also picked up a minority stake in the company.
Let’s Try operates in a competitive market alongside players like EAT Anytime, The Whole Truth, Naturell India, Soulfull, and Snackible.
Machaxi
Premiumising Sports Centres
Access to affordable, quality sports coaching in urban residential areas has become increasingly challenging for adults and parents. To address this need, Pratish Raj, Tushar Raj and Ashish Anand started Machaxi in 2022 with the goal of promoting a more active lifestyle among Indians.
Machaxi offers technology-enabled sports coaching for kids, facilities for adults to play sports in their neighborhoods, and an app to buy sports equipment. The startup’s facilities support a wide range of sports, including badminton, swimming, table tennis, football, and cricket.
Machaxi plans to expand to 30 sports centres in Bangalore by the end of 2024 and enhance its app with AI-based progress assessments for kids, a shop experience, and community engagement features for adults.
By 2026, the startup aims to scale operations to major Indian cities like Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR, establish a robust e-commerce platform for sports equipment, and introduce advanced AI features to enhance coaching and playing experiences, making sports more accessible and engaging for all users.
Moxie Beauty
Freedom From A Bad Hair Day
Launched in November 2023 by founders Nikita Khanna and Anmol Ahlawat, Moxie Beauty addresses the specific needs of Indian hair textures with its range of salon-quality hair care products.
The brand offers essentials like shampoo and conditioner, as well as styling products to help tackle dryness and frizz.
Based in Gurugram, Moxie Beauty aims to empower individuals with the right products, tools, and knowledge to care for their natural hair texture.
To solve the problem of poor hair care regime, the company’s products are formulated for Indian hair types, habits, and weather conditions.
Moxie’s mission is twofold — To provide salon-quality products tailored for each hair type and to promote honest representation in hair care marketing. The brand focusses on delivering clean, high-performing products that cater specifically to the unique needs of Indian consumers.
Multipl
Helping Individuals Spend Smartly
To encourage smart spending, savings and investments among individuals, Paddy Raghavan, Jags Raghavan, and Vikas Jain founded Multipl in 2020.
At its core, the Bengaluru-based platform enables users to spend for their lifestyle needs in a fun and rewarding manner.
With each purchase, the app offers users market returns through SEBI-registered investment advisory and exclusive benefits from over 80 of Indian brands like Ather, Yatra, and Easemytrip. It also gives an appealing alternative to spending via Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), credit, or savings bank accounts.
Users can manage their entire journey of planning, saving, investing, and spending in one place. Based on their risk profile, time horizon, goal amount, and current market valuations as per Multipl’s Proprietary Market Valuation model, users are allocated mutual funds.
Upon reaching their savings goal, users can redeem their investments with top brands across categories like travel, jewellery, gadgets, home furnishings, school fees, insurance premiums, and long-term wealth creation, all while availing exclusive offers.
Currently operating in India, Multipl has plans for global expansion in the coming years. The startup has floated several features in the past three months and added over 1,000 members to its WhatsApp community.
While the startup has plans to launch its app by the end of this year, its long-term plans, by 2026, include establishing Multipl as the category leader in the spendvesting space with a user base of over 10 Mn.
Natureswad
Making India Fit As A Fiddle
Natureswad offers a range of health-focussed food products designed for better well-being. The retail brand offers flour, oils and spices.
Its key product, Diabetic Care Atta, is a blend of eight food grains, including millet. Besides, its range includes cold-pressed oils, kids care powder (sprouted multigrain health supplement), and jaggery. These products are crafted with carefully selected grains, processed, and packed hygienically to ensure optimal nutritional care.
Natureswad’s products are aimed at addressing specific nutritional and healthcare needs of individuals. Processed under certified conditions by trained women SHG members, these products retain ethnic flavours and taste. Primary raw materials are sourced from Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).
nhance AI
Smart Solutions For Buildings
Founded by Deepak Nagraj in 2020, nhance.ai wants to transform the smart building industry with its nhanceTwin platform. The product allows owners to have complete real-time visibility into the operations of a building through advanced machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).
The platform provides actionable insights that help businesses optimise their operations and control aspects such as space management, safety and security, and lighting, among others.
nhance.ai claims to bring decades of cross-domain expertise in architecture, interior design, turnkey projects, consulting, and software development. With strong relationships in the commercial real estate sector, the startup is eyeing global opportunities to create digital-first, smart spaces that leverage cutting-edge technology, analytics, and design to meet and exceed customer expectations.
Ninecamp
House Of Premium F&B Brands
Ninecamp Ventures is a new entrant in the premium food and beverage sector, focussed on redefining dining experiences in India. The startup aims to introduce a genre of premium dining that meets global standards. Its first restaurant, Marièta, opened in Gurugram in April this year.
Founded by former Zomato executive Chaitanya Mathur, a veteran with 17 years in India’s food and beverage industry, Ninecamp is rooted in creating innovative brands that elevate the sector. Mathu’s journey began with cofounding The Grub Fest, a major food festival in India. He then led Zomato’s new division, Zomato Live, and launched Zomaland. At the same time, he helped create popular Delhi restaurants and bars like Dear Donna, Bohca, Dirty Good, and Dirty Jungle.
Ninecamp also wants to expand beyond premium dining into categories such as quick service restaurants, casual dining, and potentially delivery-only brands.
Inc42 exclusively reported that the startup raised $2 Mn (about INR 16.7 Cr) in its seed funding round from a clutch of angel and non-institutional investors.
Pintel.ai
AI Assistant For Sales Professionals
Founded by Aman Garg and Nirmal Vatsyayan, Pintel.ai enhances prospect research and outreach through advanced AI technology. The platform addresses key challenges faced by sales development professionals such as time-consuming research and the need for customisable tools.
Existing market tools often lack usability and efficiency, creating bottlenecks in the prospecting process. Pintel.ai integrates multiple data sources and applies custom research logic, reducing research time by up to 90% and boosting productivity by 50%.
The platform includes a browser extension and a tabular UI, facilitating high-quality outreach at scale. Last month, Pintel.ai, secured $1 Mn in its seed round led by IvyCap Ventures.
Pivot Robots
Minimising Malfunction Risks In Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry is fraught with various risks that can lead to accidents and injuries to humans. These risks can range from machinery malfunctions to hazardous materials exposure. The International Labour Organisation estimates that there are about 2.3 Mn work-related deaths annually worldwide, with a significant proportion occurring in the manufacturing sector.
Founded in 2023 by Carnegie Mellon University graduates Siddharth Girdhar and Vignesh Rajmohan, Pivot Robots leverages AI vision control software to automate industrial robots and help manufacturers automate some of their most labour-intensive tasks.
The company focusses on the use case of surface finishing, especially grinding metals after they come out of foundries. It has currently deployed its software on more than 10 robots in a cast-iron foundry.
While currently operating in the US market, Pivot Robots plans to step foot in India in the next two years. The startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding from early-stage venture fund NuVentures in July.
Pneucons
B2B Marketplace For Industrial Maintenance & Repairs
Founded in 2022, Pneucons is an Ahmedabad-based B2B industrial marketplace focussed on transforming transactions in the maintenance, repairs, and operations (MRO) space. The platform aims to address key challenges such as credit defaults, opaque pricing, and the availability of genuine products. Pneucons serves SMEs and MSMEs in India, with a mission to offer a straightforward marketplace for industrial goods.
The startup also aims to build a global platform from India, targeting SMEs and MSMEs across various industries that prefer to avoid credit transactions.
The startup claims to have expanded its reach to 42+ countries, with 7,000 buyers and 70 sellers acquired through word of mouth. It supports cross-border transactions in over 12 countries and domestic transactions throughout India. Established entities, including Indian Railways, Indian Oil and ISRO are some of its cherished clients.
Pushpak AI
AI-Enabled Surveillance For Enterprises
Pushpak AI is a computer vision AI company that delivers AI-powered video analytics, intelligent traffic management systems and crowd-monitoring solutions. Focussed on automating solutions and improving operational efficiency, Pushpak AI provides accurate, flexible, and scalable AI software for on-camera, on-PC, and on-mobile applications.
Its software is continuously trained to meet specific business requirements, ensuring enhanced performance over time. The company prioritises complete data and system control with a client-centric approach.
Pushpak AI addresses industry challenges such as the need for improved security surveillance, efficient traffic management, and effective crowd monitoring. By empowering cameras with advanced AI algorithms, it enhances the ability to visualise and analyse environments in real-time.
Since its inception, the startup has developed products to help entities, from SMEs to conglomerates, determine vehicular traffic density in real time, parking management using existing camera setup, and most recently driver image capture for enhanced security.
Besides, its product stack also includes fire detection software, animal counter, perimeter safety among others. It claims that its solutions have helped businesses improve processes, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.
The company’s mission is to democratise AI across various sectors, enabling small to large enterprises to achieve high levels of business automation.
Shoffr
Changing The Face Of Cab-Hailing In Bengaluru
Bangalore’s cab-hailing sector grapples with several challenges — heavy traffic and higher fares, long waiting times and cancellations, and safety concerns for women.
To address these issues, Vikas Bardia and Kislay Verma founded Shoffr in November 2022. To redefine the face of taxi services in Bangalore, Shoffr offers pre-booked, premium cars equipped with amenities like water bottles and mints to ensure comfort and convenience.
Shoffr drivers greet passengers, assist with luggage, and provide a distraction-free ride. Shoffr provides these premium services at competitive prices, positioning itself in the ride-hailing market alongside giants like Ola and Uber.
In March, the startup raised $1 Mn after bootstrapping for 15 months through a “user-only” community investment route.
Zerito
AI-Driven Doorstep Health Services
Based in Calicut, Kerala, and founded in 2022, Zerito.in is an AI-enabled platform that offers comprehensive physical and mental health services directly to users’ doorsteps. When users engage with the app, its AI model assesses their overall health, generating detailed reports shared with healthcare professionals through an advanced matching algorithm.
Currently, Zerito charges a subscription fee from these professionals. It aims to launch a fully functional AI model by the year’s end. It also has plans to establish a presence in three Tier-II cities.
Additionally, Zerito provides a platform for booking various local services like home nurses, psychologists, plumbers, painters, electricians, and more, allowing users to connect with skilled individuals for diverse needs.
With a serviceable addressable market of $300 Mn, Zerito aims to capture 10% of this market within three years.
[Edited by Shishir Parasher]
