4 rising startups in India – Mar 29

Photo credit: Pixabay.

Does your family bakery need a loan? You’re in luck today, because an SME lending portal has gotten funded to help you out. Meanwhile, a school products ecommerce site gets better suited to help take the stress off sending your kids to school, while a healthtech startup aimed specifically at mothers and children wants to keep your family healthy. And what’s physical health without mental health? There’s a startup for that as well. Feed your mind and your body with these four startups that received funding in India today and yesterday.

Veritas Finance

Chennai-based Veritas Finance, a lending agent for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has raised US$4.5 million in a series A round led by Sarva Capital’s Lok Advised Fund. Caspian Impact Investment Adviser also participated in the round.

Venky Natarajan, managing partner at Lok Advisory Services, will join the board of Veritas Finance, the company said in a statement.

“Despite significant intervention efforts from many including the financial institutions and banks, credit delivery to the MSME segment remains a huge challenge, given the heterogeneous nature and unorganized functioning of these enterprises,” founder and CEO D Arulmany said in a statement. The company – along with startups like Capital Float, SMEcorner, and Lendingkart – seeks to rectify this sector.”

Founded in November 2015, Veritas Finance has 12 branches in Chennai and the city’s surrounding state Tamil Nadu. It plans to grow to 35 branches in the next few months, increase its customer base of 200 to 5,000, and expand to states like Karnataka, Odisha, and Andra Pradesh. It’s average loan is US$6,000.

Babygogo

Photo credit: Pixabay.

Child healthcare startup Babygogo has secured US$300,000 in a seed funding round led by angel investor Rajul Garg. Fortis Healthcare president Daljit Singh, Fortis Healthcare ex-CEO Aditya Vij, Cloudnine Hospitals founder and chairman Kishore Kumar, and Cygnus Hospitals co-founder Shuchin Bajaj also made up the crowd of angel investors.

Healthtech is an area that’s gaining a lot of funding in India. Practo might be the most well-known of these medtech startups, but there are plenty of startups focusing on society’s smaller members. Babyberry helps parents keep track of vaccinations and other development milestones for their children. Tinystep is a forum for parents to ask questions about everything from planning for their first child to green poop. MyChild is a mobile app that helps parents track their children’s growth and possibly disgnose developmental disorders.

What Babygogo aims to have going for it is a specific focus on the mother-child relationship, as well as healthcare for both. It has pediatric doctors available to answer questions about health, food, growth, and psychology. It also has a team of experts for pregnant women and mothers to tap into for further knowledge.

HealthEminds

Bangalore-based HealthEminds, an online mental healthcare startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Caffeine Ventures, owned by cricketer Robin Uthappa. Arjun Goutham, one of the directors of online meal service iTiffin, has also participated.

HealthEminds was founded by Carnegie Mellon alum Ankita Puri and Yale medical school graduate Sunita Maheshwari in 2013. Users can access psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and life coaches through HealthEminds’ website. They can book sessions like video consultations with them.

Emotional wellness startup YourDOST and online counseling service ePsyclinic are among companies that are making use of video conferencing to help others take care of their mental wellness.

Schoolkart