6 startups scaling up in India

Photo Credit: Pascal

Startups that operate in important sectors such as healthcare, analytics, and small business lending found funding today. And then there was news of an investment by industry honcho Ratan Tata. Here are the six on our list today:

UrbanClap

Local services marketplace UrbanClap has just found an investor in industrialist Ratan Tata, who has put in money in his personal capacity, the company said in a statement.

UrbanClap is a marketplace for hiring professionals for local services such as plumbing, yoga training, tutoring and wedding photography. It provides over 80 services and operates in NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, and Hyderabad. The company has a network of over 25,000 professionals.

OmiX Labs

Social enterprise incubator Villgro Innovations Foundation has pumped US$74,000 into Bangalore-based healthcare company OmiX Labs, VCCircle reported today. It will use the funds to set up a tech platform for cost-effective DNA testing.

The company says its handheld portable device can help diagnose vector-borne infections – something that can reduce the time and cost of detecting infectious disease pathogens.

“This platform allows for cost-effective DNA testing for pathogens, outside of laboratory settings, to address this stark gap in our healthcare systems,” said Sudeshna Adak, co-founder and CEO of OmiX.

The company was launched last year by Adak and her husband Abhinanda Sarkar. She is an alumnus of Stanford University.

Villgro’s chief investment officer Mukesh Sharma said the startup has great potential to save lives through early diagnosis and treatment.

PropheSee

PropheSee, a Delhi-based digital analytics platform, today said it has raised an investment of US$516,000 from Indian Angel Network, Stanfod Angels and Entrepreneurs India.

The service provides data-driven insights to brands so that they can take more informed decisions. Since its launch a year ago, the startup has worked with over 15 brands across six industries in India as well as abroad.

The funding will be used to scale technology and build core talent. The key focus areas for the next six months will be the development of more industry-specific analytics and modules, and investing in predictive algorithms and data visualization methods.

Ajay Lavakare led the round on behalf of IAN and SA&E India. “With its affordable cost to small and medium businesses and its focus on empowering companies to understand and act upon their social/digital performance, PropheSee has the potential to scale rapidly,” he said.

The data analytics market is expected to surpass US$42 billion through 2018, at a growth rate that is almost six times that of the overall IT market.

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