My Funding Picks For Last Week (W50)
Every Monday, I sit with my team to review the funding activity of the previous week. From that list, I pick out three companies that I would have loved to invest in or find founders doing similar things. Click here to know about my rationale behind this weekly exercise.

Last week, 23 startups raised $118 million.

The ecosystem is striking back!

The deal momentum sustains at a deal every 7 hours now, with the amount raised staying over $100 million 2 weeks in a row. As I said before, the revival is a harbinger for bigger things to come. We will see higher funding weeks as we close out the year and possibly a strong start into the new year.

This week, 18 deals were in the early-stage rounds (compared to 15 last week), making the cut for my weekly analysis. After sifting through the news (aggregated from Tracxn, Inc42, and YourStory), I picked three as my favorite funding news from last week!

Name: Sawo

Amount Raised: Rs 5.5 crore from StartupXseed.

What does Sawo do?

Edited from Tracxn: SAWO Labs offers a secure authentication solution for apps and websites, removing the need for password authentications and OTPs. It provides Authentication as a Service (AaaS) for app publishers and IT/software enterprises deploying authentication for their products. Some of the features include end-to-end encryption, device-based security, dashboard, etc.

Why do I like Sawo?

As a user that is irritated by entering OTP’s multiple times during the day, especially when I’m traveling to places where the network fluctuates — there is an immense need for this service.

As someone who continually watches telecommunication costs balloon for our startups with growth in sales — the promised savings are welcome with open arms! Our teams have started connecting our FinTech companies to Sawo, and I will be super happy if we could cut these OTP verification costs across our portfolio.

Sawo could potentially be an acquisition target for Microsoft, Google, or other enterprise players — definitely, one to keep an eye on!

Name: Signzy

Amount Raised: $3 million from Vertex Ventures

What does Signzy do?

Edited from Tracxn: Signzy provides AI-based customer on-boarding & KYC solutions for NBFCs. Its features include identity verification, facial recognition, regulatory reporting, fraud detection, customer identification, data management, and more. Signzy offers an image and video-based fraud detection system along with smart contracts based on due diligence and algorithmic risk intelligence solutions.

Why do I like Signzy?

Another exciting startup that is streamlining the backend processes of the finance world. In a contactless world, the services of video KYC platforms like Signzy will find ready takers at banks that continue to operate on archaic IT infrastructures with outdated operating procedures.

I’ve been complaining about HDFC Bank’s confusing IT systems on my social media channels.

Besides, they’ve got racked lately for providing broken digital journeys for their customers. Hence companies like Signzy are of pressing priority. As the old war dogs start implementing services like this, they will realize not only is it timesaving, but it also delivers better customer satisfactio

Name: The ePlane Company

Amount Raised: Undisclosed from VC Speciale Invest and FirstCheque, JavaCapital and Sharechat Co-founder Farid Ahsan.

What does The ePlane Company do?

Edited from PitchBook: Manufacturer of an aerial vehicle intended to transform urban transportation by air — moving goods and people. The company’s vehicle is designed to uplift payload up to 6 kgs, with an impossible range of 100 km and a cruise speed of 50 km/h, enabling users to have a human-less flight to fly in cities.

Why do I like The ePlane Company?

I do not know if their business model will make sense or whether the aerial vehicle could withstand India’s extreme weather conditions. Nonetheless, I picked up ePlane purely for the SciFi factor and the fact that it will be uber-cool to watch one of these flying around. Is there a waiting list to be one of the first to get a delivery?
['Anirudh A Damani']
['News', 'Venture Capital', 'Startup', 'Funding', 'Technology']