[Funding roundup] Geekster, Trainman, Burger Singh, others report early-stage deals

Geekster raises Pre-Series A round from IPV, MyNavi Corporation

Gurugram-headquartered technology upskilling platform Geekster has raised $1.3 million in a pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The round also saw participation from Japan-based MyNavi Corporation and returning investors We Founder Circle and Ah Ventures. 

The startup will use the funds to expand the team and offerings, including the addition of new programmes and to build learning and hiring platforms. 

Founded in 2020 by Ankit Maggu and Sahil Miglani, Geekster offers online training for on-demand skills for tech jobs and soft skills. The students do not have to pay till they find a job. Over 300 companies across MNCs, product companies, and startups hire from Geekster, the company claims. 

Trainman closes seed round from Goodwater Capital, others

Gurugram-based online train ticketing platform Trainman raised $1 million in a seed round from Goodwater Capital, Hem Angels, and angel investors such as Justin Hamilton and Ivy Growth Associates. 

The company will utilise the funds to optimise its platform for seamless train travel by investing in technology and product. It will also tap into predictive and data analytics going ahead. The company will also add flight tickets as a category.

Founded in 2016 by IIT Roorkee graduates Vineet Chirania and Karan Kumar, Trainman offers a one-stop solution for booking train tickets, checking PNR status, and predicting confirmation status before booking. 

Fintech company Backspace Tech raises pre-seed round

Chennai-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup Backspace Tech raised $450,000 in a pre-seed round from strategic investors, including Mohan K and Jai Kumar (Founders of IppoPay), Omar Bin (Founder of UAE-based Foloosi), besides the founders of M2P and other angel investors. 

The startup will use the capital to strengthen its technology stack, expand the team, and fund its go-to-market strategy. 

Founded in 2020 by Praveen Krishna Dev, Vishwanath Vijayan, and Karthick Sivaram V, Backspace Tech offers a SaaS platform to financial institutions to solve disputes and chargebacks on UPI and card payments. The product targets both issuer and acquirer banks with its chargeback and dispute product. 

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Edtech platform xQ raises funding from Gujarat-based angel syndicate

Mumbai-based edtech platform for video creation raised $1.4 million from a Gujarat-based angel syndicate and a clutch of HNIs, including senior leadership from Google, Deloitte, Tata 1MG, Axis Capital, and photographer Joseph Radhik. 

Founded in 2021 by IIM alumni Simon Jacob and Kartik Talwar, xQ works in collaboration with professional filmmakers, educators, and advertising professionals to teach video making as a skill to school-going children.

xQ offers its flagship product xQ Video Lab in schools similar to science labs. It offers access to a video-creation curriculum, state-of-art shooting gear, and access to an e-learning platform so students can continue to learn and practice at home. 

Fundflo raises seed round from Ashish Kacholia of Lucky Investments

Pune-based SaaS platform for fintech Fundflo raised undisclosed seed funding from Ashish Kacholia of Lucky Investments.  

Founded in May 2021 by Rattan Chugh and Rajesh Patil, Fundflo Technologies offers SaaS solutions for the CFO’s office for manufacturing and trading businesses, digitising the working capital cycle. The services address manual and error-prone ‘order-to-cash’ processes, poor predictability of cash flow, and lack of access to credit for distributors and suppliers. 

The platform claims to serve nearly 6,000 distributors and has collected Rs 860 crore of receivables since inception. 

Infrastructure automation startup Adaptive raises pre-seed round

DevOps and infrastructure automation startup Adaptive has raised undisclosed pre-seed funding from Antler India, Pareto Holdings, Adept Ventures, Hustle Fund, and Haresh Chawla.

Founded in 2021 by serial entrepreneur Ronak Massand and DevOps engineer Debarshi Basak, the Adaptive platform offers an intelligent bot framework to software companies to enable shipping solutions in a fraction of the current time.

The platform empowers tech stakeholders in a software company such as engineering managers, DevOps engineers, and site reliability engineers to build out-of-the-box templates and functions. 

Burger Singh raises $3.7 million in Series A round

QSR brand Burger Singh raised $3.7 million in a Series A funding round led by Negen Capital. Other investors in the round include Lets Venture, Mumbai Angels, Old World Hospitality, and singer and songwriter Jasleen Royal. The funding round valued the startup at $25 million.

Returning investors RB Investments, Rukam Capital, KCT Family Office, and VM Salgaocar family office also participated in the round. 

The company will utilise the capital for food court expansion and will set up 120 food court outlets in FY23. It has 80 stores and aims to take the overall store count to up to 200 by FY23. 

Founded in 2014 in Gurugram by Kabir Jeet Singh, Burger Singh has 12 franchises under fit-outs across the country in addition to its own stores.

(This story was updated after a factual error was corrected.)