India Roundup: Kalaari Capital co-leads $12m round of NFT startup, and more

Kalaari Capital joins NFT bandwagon with investment in GuardianLink

• NFT (non-fungible token) startup GuardianLink has banked US$12 million in series A round led by Kalaari Capital and other private investor groups.
• The five-year-old startup grabbed everyone’s attention recently when it launched an NFT collection of Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan. The collection was auctioned for US$1 million.
• The fresh funds will be used to expand the startup’s design labs in Japan and Singapore and improve the brand’s creative development capabilities, among other things.

Times Internet-backed Clinikk rakes in US$4 million in new funding

• MassMutual Ventures led the five-year-old healthtech and insurtech startup’s pre-series A round.
• The round also saw participation from individual investors such as Cred founder Kunal Shah, Cloudnine Hospitals co-founder Rohit MA, Avaana Capital founder Anjali Bansal, as well as, existing investors Times Internet Group, EMVC, 500 Southeast Asia, and WEH Ventures.
• Clinikk plans to use the fresh funds to consolidate its offerings, grow its footprint in Bengaluru and other cities, invest in product development, and hire more talent. It also aims to onboard 20 million subscribers from 50 Indian cities by 2025.

Ola expands leadership team with new hires

• PV Harinarayan has joined the mobility major as vice president of its lending division at Ola Financial Services. During his nearly 20-year-long stint in the banking and fintech domain, Hari has worked with firms like Bajaj Finserv, Barclays, and ICICI Bank.
• V Ramesh has been roped in as the new vice president and head of operations at Ola Futurefactory. Ramesh brings three decades of experience in production and design and development and other related areas, and has worked with firms like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Hitachi, Lucas TVS, and Toyota.
• Priteesh Mahajan, who has been hired as head of two-wheeler product planning and program management at Ola Electric, will oversee the engineering program management for the company’s two-wheeler offerings. Mahajan previously worked ABB as the Head of the Global Instrumentation business.

Mindler Education acquires virtual internship firm Immrse

• While financial details were not divulged, the deal is likely to help Mindler Education provide a virtual internships to students.
• To date, more than 10,000 students have enrolled on Immrse’s platform, which provides virtual internships in fields such as hospitality, law, architecture, fund management, and more.
• Mindler’s latest acquisition comes shortly after it raised US$1.5 million in pre-series A funding round from Inflection Point Ventures, nVentures Singapore, Ecosystem Ventures, and Chennai Angels.