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Indian Angel Network has made undisclosed investments in two start ups- Kwench and Karmic Lifesciences. While Kwench is an online library service provider for corporates, Karmic Lifesciences is a company dedicated to contract research/clinical research.

 

IAN members Ajay Garg and Shankar Maruwada, among others, have invested in Kwench and have also taken up seats on the company board. Ajay Garg is the founder of Equirus Capital and was an investment banker with DSP Merrill Lynch. Muruwada, is the founder of Marketics, a marketing analytics services provider.

 

Kwench is conceived and founded by four Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad alumni- Sunder Nookala, Mitesh Damania, Prashant Koshy and Krishnan Madhabushi. Kwench works on a model that allows corporates to order books online, which is followed by the physical delivery of the ordered books to the employees’ offices or homes.

 

Kwench’s clientelle include Wipro, WNS. Kwench’s expansion plans include multi city operations and building a multi product-service platform.

 

According to Mitesh Damania, Kwench founder, “The IAN investment is smart money for Kwench. It is an investment which comes with a wealth of experience, huge potential for building our client base and most importantly, brings valuable guidance as we build this nascent venture, into what we hope, to be a trendsetter company.”

 

Karmic Lifesciences, on the other hand, is a Mumbai based CRO (clinical research organisation) focused on oncology. It was founded in 2006. Karmic provides concept to clinic services for new drugs as well as generics development and its services include Regulatory Strategy/Submissions, pre-clinical support, clinical trial management (Phase I to IV), clinical data management, bio-statistics and pharmacovigilance services.

 

Karmic is also partnering with early stage R&D innovators to co-develop and create joint IP on promising new molecules in various stages of development and take them to market.