Tag: start-up

Business

Merak Ventures invests in Farmtheory to Target Food Waste and Farmer Prosperity

Feb 28, 2024 by Sujata Muguda 0 Comments #Arpit Agarwal, #Farmtheory, #Merak Ventures, #New Delhi, #Sakshi Agarwal, #Sheetal Bahl, #start-up

New Delhi, India – February 28, 2024: Merak Ventures, a sector-agnostic early-stage venture capital (VC) firm, has announced its second significant investment of $1.45Mn (~12CR INR) in Farmtheory, a B2B agri-food start-up. Farmtheory helps in minimizing food waste at the source, boosting farm yields and delivering quality ingredients to commercial kitchens.

farmtheory founders

A sizeable portion of food supply in India remains unsold at the source due to unrealistic cosmetic standards – fruits and vegetables that outwardly look different but are perfectly edible are often discarded. Farmtheory acquires this nutritious, ‘freeform’ produce directly from farmers and supplies it to a range of buyers, from cloud kitchens and catering companies to food processors and restaurants, who can use it just like conventionally shaped produce.

As pioneers in India at addressing food loss by changing narrow definitions of what produce can make it to market, Farmtheory, a Y-Combinator backed startup, aims to enhance farmer incomes, address food loss, and combat climate change by redirecting edible produce to new markets rather than letting it go to waste.

Sheetal Bahl, Partner at Merak Ventures, remarked, “At Merak Ventures, we recognize the brilliance and audacity of Farmtheory’s team. Not only are they addressing the challenges of food waste, farmer income, and climate change — they’re reimagining solutions with the potential to transform the agri-food landscape. By coining the term ‘freeform produce’ to describe crops that are irregularly shaped or sized, Farmtheory is reframing the narrative from ‘ugly produce’ to appreciating the value of these untapped crops. Their leadership in India’s ‘freeform produce’ movement, proven successful in developed markets as the ‘ugly produce movement’, demonstrates a game-changing approach, echoing our own ethos of investing in ventures that promise not only returns but contribute towards a sustainable future.”

Arpit Agarwal and Sakshi Agarwal, the founders of Farmtheory, bring a blend of passion, innovation, and expertise to the company. Arpit’s background in technology and Sakshi’s early commitment to revolutionising the food industry constructed the foundation of Farmtheory’s success. Their shared vision for an ethical food ecosystem that benefits growers, makers and the planet is at the heart of Farmtheory’s mission.

“Farmtheory embodies a vision where every connection between farmer and consumer signifies more than just a transaction — it represents a commitment to enriching lives and fostering sustainability. Through our platform, we empower farmers to share their harvests with the world, creating meaningful connections that sustain communities and promote environmental responsibility. We’re thrilled to welcome Merak Ventures as our partner, sharing our values and vision as we work together towards our goals,” said Arpit Agarwal, Co-founder of Farmtheory.

The investment from Merak Ventures will enable Farmtheory to scale its operations, mainly focusing on expanding its supply arm, enhancing its technological infrastructure and bolstering its supply chain by reaching out to more farmers, ensuring a robust and sustainable source of produce.

Since its inception in 2019, the brand has on-boarded 3000 partner farmers, so far, and has served over 1500 kitchens. The company plans to significantly scale up its partner and geographic footprint, forging ahead to bring its innovative model to benefit more farmer communities nationwide.

Business World

These leading Start-ups are helping entrepreneurs of today to strengthen their business

Oct 30, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Crediwatch, #entreprenuer, #HungerBox-, #PrimaDollar, #Shopmatic, #Simpl, #start-up, #Wave

Being a business visionary is an experience of accomplishment. One has numerous tasks to perform and handle on a day to day basis. They need to do an expansive investigation, collection and management for the structure that they are going to present to the new clients. They also need to screen all their records, extensively. With such a huge amount on different work on their plate, 24 hours is not enough. In that case, the adaptable applications that can help us with managing the time and enhance proficiency become essential. Here is a list of 6 Startups that can help entrepreneurs of today can avail to strengthen their business.

Crediwatch– Crediwatch is an AI-enabled platform that provides actionable insights and flexible workflows for seamless credit management and faster lending decisions. Crediwatch does this with no human intervention by deploying AI /ML and NLP tools that use scalable deep learning technologies across disparate digital footprints left by private entities (big and small). The company has partnered with respected financial institutions such as – SBI, Aditya Birla Financial Services, Karur Vysya Bank, RBL Bank, APAC Financial etc. to provide credit intelligence of more than 50 thousand businesses. The company has provided insights on 50,000+ businesses and $7 billion loan portfolio.

Simpl – Redefining the way payments are done in India, Simpl is a mobile application that provides consumers to buy now and checkout in one click with pay later functionality to build trust and provide strong buyer protection. The technology company works with merchants and financial institutions to enable a world where every monetary interaction is effortless and transparent. This helps online retailers give their consumers an exceptional checkout experience and post-transaction customer service. Within four years of going live, Simpl has evolved from mere 5-6 merchants to a network of 1000+ merchants presently. It is now focused on both large e-commerce and offline commerce merchants.

PrimaDollar- PrimaDollar is the leading FinTech player in global trade finance, offering a simpler, quicker and lower-cost trade finance product, needed by exporters and importers globally. With clients already in over 30 countries, PrimaDollar trade finance product is set to become a mainstream option for mid- and large-cap companies, allowing exporters to ship promptly and importers to pay later. Prima Dollar aims to bridge the timing gap involved in international trade.

HungerBox– HungerBox is a leading institutional food tech company which digitizes cafeterias and provides a platform for food vendors to expand their reach. Till date, they have onboarded close to 2400 vendors. With COVID in the picture micro-entrepreneurs have been affected and may possibly need support to stay in the business. Companies like HungerBox give that opportunity to work in an ecosystem and provide the necessary support.

Shopmatic – Shopmatic is a Singapore-based technology firm that provides e-commerce solutions to small businesses and individual entrepreneurs. Launched in 2014 with an objective to empower millions of aspiring entrepreneurs with a digital footprint, the company recently partnered with Singapore-based retail management solutions company Octopus to disrupt the retail market in Asia-Pacific with a suite of services to address the gaps that exist for offline businesses in going online. The synergy is helping local retailers implement an efficient Omnichannel retail management system post establishing their business online.

Equipped with a holistic online and offline ecosystem, these local retail stores are now able to manage their customers, reduce operational costs, synchronize inventory, onboard new customers, and offer loyalty points, etc. Such facilities, supplemented by real-time visibility of sales and staff performance, are enabling retailers to enhance their efficiency and scale up their retail business further. Through such a value proposition, Shopmatic is facilitating an efficient omnichannel ecosystem for Kirana stores across the country, thus digitally empowering them.

Wave- In the event that overseeing invoices is at the apex extensive tasks, entrepreneurs can make it more intriguing with Wave application. This cloud programming and application help business pioneers to make and send altered solicitations, record the salary and costs, send amicable suggestions to other people, filter receipts, get a notice on instalment, etc. Entrepreneurs can even acknowledge card instalment with this application.

Moneycontrol launches Pitch Right
Business World

Moneycontrol and Inflection Point Ventures collaborate to launch ‘Pitch Right’, a competitive initiative for high potential startups to secure funding

Oct 21, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Ankur Mittal, #Binoy Prabhakar, #entrepreneurship, #Inflection Point Ventures, #Moneycontrol, #start-up, #Vinay Bansal

In a bid to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship and start-up in the country, moneycontrol, one of India’s leading financial news platforms and Inflection Point Ventures, one of India’s largest and most active angel platforms, have come together to launch Pitch Right, a competitive initiative for high potential startups to secure funding. Through the platform, the two industry pioneers will identify promising startups that are building innovative solutions and help them grow and succeed in the current challenging environment.

Kick-starting the registration, eligible participants can submit their entries till November 8. The platform will provide a chance to early-stage startups to showcase their idea and potential to top VCs, successful founders and leading Angels of India. Based on that, the jury will select one winner who will receive INR 50 lakh in funding from IPV on the finale, scheduled for 5th December 2020. The identified and shortlisted startups will be mentored and given access to a widespread network of industry professionals and luminaries.

Commenting on the initiative, Binoy Prabhakar, Editor, moneycontrol said, “We at, moneycontrol have accompanied the evolution and growth of the Indian Startup industry by providing a holistic reportage on the entire ecosystem. Over the years, we have seen aplenty startups change the world with disruptive ideas and innovative technology. Following which, we have launched Pitch Right with Inflection Point Ventures with an aim to present entrepreneurs a direction to use their most disruptive ideas and provide more than just an avenue of investment for the budding entrepreneurs.”

Vinay Bansal, Founder CEO, Inflection Point Ventures, added, “We are pleased to associate with moneycontrol, a brand recognized for its credibility, accuracy and authority on India’s startup industry. More than just being a funding platform, through Pitch Right we aim to offer an entire ecosystem for both the investors as well as startups. We seek to identify the promising entrepreneurs and startups of tomorrow and aid them by providing mentoring and capital.”

The initiative was launched on October 8 via a highly engaging and successful 30-minute AMA session that saw the presence of new-age startups and well-known investors who discussed and debated on the topics of how to raise funds amid a Pandemic and make them last longer. The session was conducted with Vinay Bansal, Founder CEO, IPV and Ankur Mittal, Co-founder IPV, moderated by Priyanka Sahay, Special Correspondent, moneycontrol.

To know more and register your startups please visit: https://t.co/nsNcm9UNQ8?amp=1

Qlik Logo
Business World

Qlik Acquires Knarr Analytics to Expand Real-Time Collaboration Across Entire Data and Analytics Supply Chain

Aug 27, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Data and Analytics, #Knarr Analytics, #Qlik, #start-up

Qlik® today announced the acquisition of the assets and IP of Knarr Analytics, an innovative start-up that provides real-time collaboration, sophisticated data exploration and insight capture capabilities, to complement Qlik’s cloud data and analytics platform. Acquiring Knarr Analytics advances Qlik’s vision of Active Intelligence, where technology and processes trigger immediate action from real-time, up-to-date data to accelerate business value across the entire data and analytics supply chain.

“Every process and decision can be informed and enhanced by real-time data to trigger action and augment decision making when it matters most – what we call Active Intelligence,” said James Fisher, Chief Product Officer at Qlik. “Acquiring Knarr Analytics will help us further advance customers’ Active Intelligence, enabling tighter collaboration between data stewards and business users that will increase data use and value throughout the organization.”

The need for real-time data-driven decision making, which requires merging and using new data sources on-demand, has exposed a gap in data and analytics supply chains. This gap requires a new way of thinking that centres on collaboration between all data and analytics personas, from data integrators and data stewards to BI developers and analytics consumers.

Knarr can help create unique data and insight fabric by engaging more users throughout the analytical process, surfacing greater business context for both underlying data and resulting insights. This level of collaboration and sharing is essential to the creation of continuous intelligence at the core of Active Intelligence that drives action and value from data.

Knarr IP will enhance the Qlik Sense® analytics cloud platform Insight Advisor experience, as well as the data exploration experience in the catalogue. Qlik’s customers will realize increased value and benefits through:

Sophisticated visual exploration of underlying data models before building analytics

A glossary in the catalogue for an added business context, helping data consumers understand what specific data will best help answer their questions

Real-time, multi-player collaboration to generate insights interactively with a team, helping organizations remove barriers between data and analytics users

Ability to capture and share these insights with notes and snapshots, while automatically capturing the exploration state and context, enriching understanding and driving action

Increased effectiveness through machine learning of Qlik’s unique approach to Augmented Intelligence, helping drive more complex analysis and better outcomes for users of all levels

Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Knarr Analytics co-founder and CTO Speros Kokenes, a Qlik Luminary, will be joining Qlik as a member of the Applied Research and Emerging Technology Team. As of today, Knarr Analytics products will no longer be for sale, and Qlik will support existing prospects and partners while bringing Knarr IP into Qlik’s cloud platform throughout 2021.