Edtech player upGrad has invested $30 million (about Rs 245 crore) to launch its new offline higher education brand ‘UGDX’. With this investment, UGDX will open 10 institutes by next year, including three in the US.
Of these, the company’s San Francisco unit will go live in January 2023. Five of these institutes will be set up in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, and one each in Singapore and the Middle East, the edtech said in a statement. The company aims UGDX to reach an operational break-even in five quarters from its launch, it added.
“As part of our goal to be the world’s first and largest fully integrated higher edtech company spanning college learners and working professionals from the age of 18 years to over 60 years, this is a natural extension as we move to a very scaled blended offline and online model under our own upGrad brand,” upGrad Co-Founder and chairperson Ronnie Screwvala said.
Ad-tech firm SilverEdge Technologies has raised Rs 95 crore in a funding round led by JM Financial Private Equity, Mirabilis Investment Trust and Seven Hills Capital along with angel investor Ashish Kacholia. Proceeds from the investment will be used to accelerate its overseas expansion and for inorganic growth opportunities, the firm and JM Financial said in a joint statement.
SilverEdge provides advertising solutions to media agencies/brands/advertisers and claims to offer more effective and privacy-focused advertising using its proprietary AI platform. Apart from the home market, SilverEdge is present in over nine countries across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the US.
Rivaara Labs, which is into testing services and R&D-focused molecular diagnostics, has raised Rs 60 crore in a funding round from Amicus Capital and Kotak Investment Advisors. The funding round also saw the participation of Bharat Daftary, the founder of Rivaara. Rivaara is a vertically integrated molecular diagnostic company founded in 2019 by Daftary, who was also the promoter of Bharat Serums & Vaccines.
The company has developed PCR-based test kits in collaboration with European research labs for illnesses such as respiratory diseases, sepsis, TB and anti-microbial resistance among others. Rivaara plans to utilise the funds to accelerate development and commercialisation of proprietary test kits, upgrade the manufacturing facilities, expand its lab network and scale up the scientific sales force as well as technical talent.
Women’s grooming brand Sanfe on Monday said it has raised another round of funding of USD 1.5 million (around Rs 12.28 crore) from existing investors. The existing investors are S Chand Family office, Seeders, Lets Venture, and angel investors, including Abhay Tandon, Yash Kotak. Last year, Sanfe raised USD 1 million in a Series A funding round, which makes the total funding USD 2.5 million, the company said. “Sanfe intends to use the additional funding raised to enter the offline market,” Sanfe, a digital-first brand in the femcare market, it added. Sanfe has also signed actor Radhika Apte as its brand ambassador.
