Palette Brands, Clapingo, and Finsall Raise Early-Stage Funding Here are the Indian startups that announced early-stage funding rounds.

D2C Company Palette Brands Raises About USD 2 Mn in Pre-Series A

Palette Brands (formerly White.Inc), a next-generation consumer goods company that is building aspirational brands across high-growth verticals, has raised close to USD 2 million in a pre-series A round.

The round was led by Rockstud Capital, along with participation from existing investors, including Inflection Point Ventures and Dholakia Ventures, and some prominent angel investors, including Stoffer Anko Norden and Apurva Salapuria.

Siddharth Gadodia, Founder of White Inc, said, "This funding will predominantly focus on the launch of Ember, a cookware brand, as this category is ripe for innovation, with consumers looking to upgrade their kitchens while making healthier choices. This is a huge white space, marrying form and functionality. Ember aims to solve this by bringing India's first absolutely non-toxic cookware brand with non-stick properties and stunning looks."

Founded in 2022 by Siddharth Gadodia, Young Yun, Himanshi Tandon, and Bret Recor, Palette's current brands include 'Unbottle', which is a reusable and sustainable drinkware product, and 'Totem', which creates accessories exclusively for the growing Apple consumer base in India.

The Bengaluru-based brand will soon be launching the cookware brand 'Ember'.

Additionally, Palette's exclusive partnership with Box Clever. Box Clever is known for creating products and experiences that captivate consumers' imaginations and for creating products for market leaders in the USA.

On-demand English Tutoring Platform Clapingo Raises Pre-Series A Round

Clapingo, an on-demand English tutoring platform, has raised an undisclosed amount from notable investors including Biswa Kalyan Rath (comedian and writer), Sandeep Aggarwal (Droom and Shopclues), Appurv Gupta (comedian and satirist), and Foundership HQ.

The raised capital will be allocated to enhance Clapingo's product, specifically to develop the fluency report system on the platform, ensuring customers receive prompt and precise feedback. Additionally, the funds will be invested in marketing efforts to attract more users and significantly expand the user base, driving the company's growth and impact in the market.

Founded in 2021 by Sameer Agrawal and Abhishek KG, Clapingo is an English learning platform providing a supportive environment for practice, essential for professional success in diverse linguistic landscapes.

Clapingo allows students to engage and practice with one another using an AI teaching assistant for a monthly subscription of INR 999. It offers peer-led and tutor-led models.

"During college, I struggled with English and felt self-conscious. Enhancing my fluency through interactions with native speakers was pivotal for my career, and I am immensely grateful for it. Investing in Clapingo is my way of supporting others who face similar challenges. I am excited to see Sameer and Abhishek scale Clapingo, empowering more people to speak English with confidence," said Biswa Kalyan Rath, investor and stand-up comedian.

Clapingo is currently operating in India and the Middle East and claims to have achieved approximately INR 1.5 crore in revenue in 2021, INR 8 crore in 2022, and INR 14 crore in 2023. This year, Clapingo is targeting INR 80 crore in revenue.

Finsall Raises INR 15 Cr from Unicorn India Ventures and Seafund

Insurance-first BNPL startup Finsall has raised INR 15 crore in a bridge round led by Unicorn India Ventures and Seafund, with additional involvement from other institutional investors.

Finsall received a pre-Series A round of funding of INR 12 crore (USD 1.45 million) led by Unicorn India Ventures and Seafund in January 2022.

The new funds will be used to establish an NBFC to enhance lending operations and insurance premium financing. It will also improve technology for user-friendly digital experiences and develop strategic partnerships with insurers, intermediaries, and lenders to expand service offerings and distribution channels.

Tim Mathews, Co-Founder and CEO, Finsall, said, "This interim bridge round will help us focus on scaling our books and taking a huge leap forward in creating an NBFC in the insurance premium financing industry. Building a category is no easy task, especially in the lending and insurance space."

Founded by Promod Khanna, Tim Mathews, and Prabal Khanna, FINSALL (Financing Insurance for All) is a fintech firm in the insurance space.

It has launched credit as a service (CaaS) platform, which is a plug-and-play model designed to help its customers benefit by simply choosing the insurance products they need to offer credit for without the complexity of building separate credit or lending software systems.

The Bengaluru-based platform claims to have seen 9X revenue growth over the last two years. Today, it is serving customers across 8,000 locations in India.