P2P car sharing platform Drivezy raises USD 10 M
Drivezy
Founders: Ashwarya Singh, Hemant Sah, Vasant Verma, Abhishek Mahajan, and Amit Sahu
Founded in: 2015
Financing status: USD 10 million for undisclosed round in 2017
Mumbai-based car and motorbike sharing platform Drivezy (formerly known as JustRide) has raised USD 10 million in a fresh round of funding from Das Capital, Axan Ventures, CrowdWorks, and IT-Farm.
Drivezy was founded in 2015 by a group of alumni of Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Ashwarya Singh, Hemant Sah, Vasant Verma, Amit Sahu, and Abhishek Mahajan, alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Drivezy is a self-drive peer-to-peer car and motorbike sharing platform. Vehicle owners can list idle cars or motorbikes on the platform to engage customers and conduct business. The users can make a booking via the platform’s website, Android app, or iOS app. The startup operates in the five Indian cities of Bangalore, Mumbai, Puna, Mysore, and Goa.
Reportedly Drivezy already accepts bitcoins for payments via a partnership with Indian bitcoin exchange company Unocoin. Also, it has recently announced its venture into the initial coin offering (ICO) area.
In July 2016, Drivezy joined the summer program of Silicon Valley-based accelerator Y Combinator (YC). It was reportedly one of the first Indian startups inducted by YC.
The startup will use the newly raised investment to enter new markets across India and overseas.
Other players in this field in India include Zoomcar, Revv, Voler Cars, and more.
Rooftop solar startup Oorjan raises USD 450,000 for seed round
Oorjan
Founders: Roli Gupta and Gautam Das
Founded in: 2014
Financing status: USD 450,000 for seed round in 2017
Mumbai-based rooftop solar startup Oorjan has raised USD 450,000 in a seed funding round led by online venture capital firm Globevestor. Individual investors with banking and financial services backgrounds, including Sayandev Chakravartti, Aditya Sharma, Nisha Pillai and Mayur Bhat, also participated in the round.
Oorjan was founded in 2014 by Roli Gupta and Gautam Das, alumni of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Gupta previously worked as the business development manager of Areva Solar while Das previously worked as director of treasury sales and structuring at Citibank India.
Oorjan is a cleantech startup that provides rooftop solar tech solutions. It provides design, installation, financing, approvals, and ongoing monitoring and maintenance of its solar system. Its product has algorithms driven by geospatial info, weather APIs, solar irradiation data, and customer electricity consumption, which enable users to make decisions. Oorjan allows its users to monitor system performance, receive notifications regarding regular maintenance, and share energy saving data with friends and family. The startup claims to have completed around 70 projects so far and already has operations in four Indian cities, such as Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Chennai.
Commenting on the investment, Globevestor partner Ankur Shrivastava said, “India is witnessing a joining of forces and commitment from government, industry, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs, which has brought momentum to the solar sector and makes now a great time to invest in it. ”
The startup will use the newly raised investment to scale operations, augment sales efforts, and further enhance its technology.
Other players in the solar tech area in India include CleanMax Solar, Oriano Solar, Hero Future Energies, Azure Power, Ostro Energy and more.
(Top photo from Pixabay)
