Shashank Kumar

Loantap secures $6.2 million in fresh funding from July Ventures and existing investors 📌 Pune-based digital lending platform LoanTap Financial Technologies has raised $6.2 million in fresh equity funding led by July Ventures. Existing investors 3one4 Capital, Avaana Capital, Kae Capital and the Swapurna Family Office also participated in the round. 📌 With this, the total capital raised by the company stands at around $26 million. The company has also raised another $2.3 million in venture debt as a part of this round. Story By: Pratik Bhakta Read more at: https://lnkd.in/gZu76KYr

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OneCard rewrote the rules of the credit card category in India: no hidden fees, full control, metal meets mobile. #AnuragSinha, Vibhav Hathi, and Rupesh Kumar didn’t just build a great fintech product. They built trust at scale. We backed them before the first OneCard card shipped. Now, they’re leading a quiet revolution. Love the #BackTheBold campaign by Razorpay bringing together Indian’s boldest founders. Harshil Mathur, Shashank Kumar, Rajat Agarwal, Vikram Vaidyanathan, Tarun Davda.

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For platforms like Meesho, Khatabook, and Ninjacart, growth didn’t come from adding more steps. It came from removing them. In the world of merchant finance, visibility can kill velocity.  When credit is treated as an add-on, requiring separate applications, disjointed onboarding, or manual approvals, merchants drop off. And when they drop off, platforms lose the chance to unlock the very growth that embedded finance promises. We’ve seen it firsthand. The most effective lending programs are the ones merchants barely notice and feel like an organic part of the platform experience. That’s why at Niyogin, we’ve built an embedded lending model designed to disappear into the background. Our APIs power real-time underwriting, seamless disbursals, automated collections, and program monitoring – all directly within the platform interface. Because for credit to truly scale, it has to feel invisible. #poweringambitionspoweringgrowth #lending #embeddedlending #credit #growth #finance #merchantfinance

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Agilitas x Virat Kohli partnership is one of the masterstroke deals I have seen in recent times. Virat invests 40 CR in Agilitas for a 1.94% stake, putting Agilitas’s valuation around 2000 CR. 📈 In turn, Agilitas acquires one8world, making Virat a co-founder and shareholder. They now get two very important growth levers: ⬇️ 1. A powerful manufacturing (via Mochiko Shoes - a 600 CR+ footwear brand that Agilitas acquired in 2008 ), 2. India’s biggest athlete — exclusively aligned. Easily becomes a 4000 CR revenue brand in the next 5 years. Footwear + retail scale requires capital — but this partnership compresses customer acquisition, product cycles, and brand-building like few others. Even Virat said in his podcast with Abhishek Ganguly, the co-founder of Agilitas that, “I didn’t want a brand deal… I wanted to build something that outlives me.” And Abhishek said something even beautiful - “An ambition to build from India but be globally relevant.” This isn’t marketing. This is legacy building with shared skin in the game. And that is how startups work - shared ambition with one goal (to make the company big) and food (read stake) in the table for everyone! A company that can be built in the long term with culture, capital, and conviction aligned. This might be the first time in India, where an athlete joins hands with a sport company to re-imagine and build the sport ecosystem of India - truly revolutionalising the game with a clear vision. 🙌

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SaaS-based flex workspace aggregator Stylework has raised Rs 30 crore ($3.39M) in a pre-Series B round led by Equentis Angel Fund at a pre-money valuation of Rs 250 crore ($28.5M). The round also saw participation from Karekeba Ventures, LetsVenture Fund, MoneyVyapaar, and other existing investors. The funds will fuel its AI-driven SaaS marketplace, expansion into domestic and international markets, and leadership hires across product, business, and enterprise growth. Stylework connects enterprises with coworking and managed office operators across 125 cities, covering over 5,000 centres with 70,000+ seats sold. #stylework #flexworkspace #saasstartup #preseriesb #fundraisingnews #workspaceaggregation #coworking #managedoffices #startupfunding #growthstory #indiastartups #saasindia #digitalworkspace #enterprisegrowth #aiworkspace #workspaceanalytics #proptech #flexibleoffice #businessinnovation #scaleups

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#Funding: Fintech startup Kiwi raises $24 Mn in Series B round led by Vertex Ventures ◾It has set a target of issuing 1 Mn RuPay credit cards by 2027. ✍️ Shashank Pathak https://lnkd.in/gBFP3xHM

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Bhavin Turakhia didn’t chase hype. He built profits. 🚀 Started at 17, built Directi created global SaaS products like Radix , Flock & Zeta and crossed $1B+ in exits — mostly bootstrapped. Key Learnings: • Profitability beats valuation • Build global, think long-term • Discipline > funding • You don’t need noise to win 📌 Quiet execution builds loud results. #BhavinTurakhia #StartupLessons #Bootstrapped #SaaS #Entrepreneurship

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Consumer lending startup Olyv India (formerly SmartCoin) secures $23 Mn to scale operations and strengthen its product offerings Rohit Garg, cofounder of Olyv (formerly Smartcoin), highlighted that the company plans to deploy the capital strategically. Specifically, Olyv will allocate 50% of the funds to capitalise its NBFC, while it will use the remaining amount to scale operations and strengthen its product offerings. Read more :- https://lnkd.in/gcP584kK #ConsumerLending #DigitalLending #FintechGrowth #FintechIndia #IndianFintech

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🇮🇳 Bengaluru-based startup Pronto has raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Epiq Capital, taking its valuation to $100 million. Existing investors Glade Brook Capital Partners LLC, General Catalyst, and Bain Capital Ventures (BCV) also participated, bringing total funding to around $40 million. Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/g9U6A3s8 Anjali Sardana Chetna Gupta Manoj Jadhav Chirag Maheshwari Aashi Rathore #india #funding #investment #innovation #startups #technews #vcfunding #valuation #womenintech #femalefounders

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Mannjal, a full-stack unified lending platform, has raised Rs 17.5 crore in a seed funding round led by Arali Ventures and B Capital. The funding round saw participation from Sparrow Capital and Gemba Capital. https://lnkd.in/eMbB6rcn

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🚀 API Banking Startup TransBnk Raises $25 Mn in Series B Round. Mumbai-based API banking infrastructure startup TransBnk has raised $25 Mn (approx. INR 220 Cr) in its Series B funding round, led by Bessemer Venture Partners. 💰 Funding Overview: • The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Arkam Ventures and Fundamentum Partnership. • Existing investors 8i Ventures, Accion Venture Labs, and GMO Venture Partners also joined the round. • The fundraise signals strong investor confidence in India’s growing API banking ecosystem. 🌍 Expansion Plans: • TransBnk plans to deploy the fresh capital to expand into Southeast Asia and the Middle East. • A significant portion of the funds will also be used to strengthen operations and market presence in India. • The expansion will put TransBnk in direct competition with other Indian API banking players already active in these regions. 🧩 What TransBnk Does: • Founded in 2022 by Vaibhav Tambe, Lavin Kotian, Pulak Jain, and Sachin Gupta, TransBnk offers an API-based platform that connects corporates, fintechs, and lenders to multiple banks through a single system. • The platform enables seamless transaction management and reconciliation, reducing dependence on multiple bank portals and manual processes. • TransBnk currently works with 40+ banks and serves 220+ clients. 📈 Growth & Traction: • The startup claims to have achieved double-digit million-dollar revenue within two years of operations. • While exact numbers were not disclosed, the growth highlights strong adoption of API-led banking infrastructure. 🏦 Industry Landscape: • India’s API banking space is seeing rapid innovation with players like Decentro, Setu (acquired by Pine Labs), and M2P Fintech driving automation across banking operations. • These platforms are reshaping how banks and fintechs manage payments, credit, savings, and compliance. 🤖 Regulatory & Tech Tailwinds: • The fundraise aligns with a growing regulatory push toward AI adoption in financial services. • Recently, the RBI introduced the FREE-AI framework, outlining principles such as trust, fairness, accountability, and explainability for responsible AI usage. • The framework emphasizes strong governance, AI-specific compliance, and consumer transparency. 🌟 Big Picture: • India’s fintech sector is projected to become a $2.1 Trillion opportunity by 2030, making infrastructure-led startups like TransBnk key enablers of this growth. TransBnk’s latest funding round highlights the rising demand for scalable, API-first banking infrastructure as India’s fintech ecosystem moves toward its next phase of growth. TransBnk - Transaction Banking Platform #TransBnk #StartupFunding #APIBanking #FintechIndia #SeriesBFunding #BessemerVenturePartners #IndiaStartups #Microshots #August #Aug_updates

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Deep-tech startup Assessli has raised ₹44.37 crore in its first institutional funding round from Foxhog Ventures. The funds will help it expand into US markets, strengthen its technology, and hire talent. Assessli builds “Large Behavioral Models” combining genomics, psychology and digital life. It claims 99 % personalization accuracy. Patents and global expansion are underway. https://lnkd.in/g7mAfDF4

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🚀 Big funding alert in India’s SaaS space! BambooBox has raised $6.6 Mn (₹55 Cr) in a funding round led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from Emergent Ventures, Arc180, Uncorrelated, HAF, and angel investors. Founded by Ankur Saigal and Divyesh Dixit, BambooBox is helping enterprises win high-value clients through AI-powered Account-Based Marketing (ABM). Its platform combines data, AI, and human expertise to drive targeted campaigns and better ROI. With this fresh capital, the startup plans to boost its AI capabilities, expand globally, and scale its AI-native ABM services—helping businesses get more value from their go-to-market strategies. 👉 Read more: https://lnkd.in/gzh2cD7X #BambooBox #StartupFunding #SaaS #ABM #B2BMarketing #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #MarketingTech #StartupIndia #VentureCapital #TechNews #BusinessGrowth

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