4 rising startups in India

Photo credit: Sarah_Ackerman.

As The X-Files would have us believe, the truth is out there: It’s been a nice week for funding in India. A startup in Mumbai is matching students with after-school hobbies, while a used car marketplace brought in millions. In the meantime, a matchmaking app bagged funds to help you find your Mulder or Scully for life. Check out those and more in our picks for rising startups today.

FindUrClass

Class is in session! After school, that is. FindUrClass announced a round of funding today from a set of investors, including members of India’s VentureNursery. The funding series was not announced, but this is the second round that it has raised from the Indian VC firm.

Founded by Rina Nathani, who spent nearly ten years consulting for KPMG’s Advisory Practice in New York, FindUrClass focuses on extracurricular activity and hobby class curation, particularly at international schools. The company offers 20,000 classes listed in over 100 categories like arts and crafts, sports, singing, music and dance, cooking, and photography. Class trainers are hyper-localized, and the startup is based in Mumbai.

“Our experience in Mumbai pointed to a growing trend among Indian families to invest about one-third of their education spend on extracurricular activities,” Rina said in a statement. “This trend is driven by the growing emphasis on [the] overall development of kids and more and more young Indians opting for passion-based careers.”

Rina, who is also CEO of FindUrClass, previously graduated from VentureNursery’s season 5 acceleration batch in 2014.

FindUrClass will use the funds to scale up and expand to other first-tier cities. The company recently expanded to Pune and Bangalore, where 5,000 classes are offered in each city. The startup also offers a “UR Family Activity Pass” that encourages families to participate in after-school extracurriculars together.

TrueBil

TrueBil, an online marketplace for buying and selling used cars, has bagged US$5.2 million in series A funding from venture capital firms Kalaari Capital, Inventus Capital, and San Francisco-based Tekton Ventures. Kae Capital, which contributed US$471,000 in seed round funding to the startup in March 2015, also participated in the round.

TrueBil seeks to give customers as close to the same amount of information about a car as the seller has. Cars on the site undergo inspections for quality and are rated. The site also provides vehicle service warranties, loans, paper transfers, and insurance papers.

Over the next year, TrueBil hopes to improve its tech and products. It also has plans to expand to four different cities. At the moment, the company is based in Mumbai.

Aisle

Bangalore-based matchmaking company Aisle.co secured US$183,000 yesterday in a pre-series A round of funding from TermSheet.io and ah! Ventures. A group of angel investors, including Anand Chandrasekaran, chief product officer of Snapdeal, and Mekin Maheshwari, ex-chief people officer at Flipkart, also participated.

Last year, Aisle raised US$100,000 in seed round funding from angel investors. The company reports 500-800 registrations per day in over 50 countries and picks its users after a round of screening.

The startup, founded in 2014 by Able Joseph, will use the money to expand its team and to enter into partnerships.

DesignBids