Navadhan, two others raise early-stage funding

By K Amoghavarsha

  • 06 Dec 2023
(L-R): Arka Datta and Sudipan Sinha, co-founders, ChainRisk

Fintech startup Navadhan, audio consultancy platform VoiceClub and Web3 security startup Chainrisk raised early-stage funding, the companies said on Wednesday.   

Navadhan, a rural NBFC catering to MSMEs, has raised $5 million in a pre-Series A funding round, led by early-stage investor Prime Venture Partners.

The round also saw participation from existing investors Varanium NexGen Fintech Fund and Gemba Capital.

The capital will be used to improve its technology platform and scale its distribution and service delivery model.

The funding comes a few months after the startup had raised $1.5 in seed funding. The round was co-led by Varanium NexGen, along with existing investor Anicut Capita and also saw participation from Gemba Capital.

Founded by Nitin Agrawal, Vijay Haswani, Anirudh Ramakuru and Amit Biswal, Navadhan is a rural-fintech startup with an NBFC licence, whose platform helps micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to secure loans from institutions like NBFCs and banks.

The startup counts lenders like Ugro, Vivriti, Northern Arc, Caspian, Unitus, and TruCap, as part of its network.

Earlier, Navadhan has also raised funding in a pre-seed funding round from Anicut, BOPA, Flowstate, and notable angels such as Prasanna Rao (Arya.ag) and Sarah Djari (Impact Fintech PE). 

VoiceClub has secured $700,000 (Rs 6.2 crore) in a seed funding round led by Better Capital. The round also saw participation from TDV Partners, Blume Founder’s Fund, Sunn91 and Astir Ventures, along with undisclosed angel investors.  

The funds raised will be used for product development and for expansion of the platform.   

Founded by Ayush Singh, Mohammed Wasim Ali, and Azhar Rabbani, VoiceClub is a platform that offers on-demand audio consulting services in different categories like astrology, love, legal amongst others.   

VoiceClub currently recorded an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $300,000 and aims to achieve $2 million in the next 12-18 months, according to a statement.  

The platform claims to have a user base of around 30,000 paid subscribers currently.  

Web3 security infrastructure company Chainrisk has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed funding round from early-stage investor Antler.  

Founded by Sudipan Sinha and Arka Datta, Chainrisk is an economic risk management software for Web3. Chainrisk is designed to stress-test a protocol against economic scenarios by running agent-based simulations. 

Web3 is used to describe the latest iteration of the World Wide Web and includes aspects such as artificial intelligence, decentralisation and blockchain. 

Chainrisk’s custom engine helps in creating a security ecosystem with built-in analytics, risk monitoring and alerting dashboards.  

“We at Chainrisk are building the tech to enable protocol engineers to take a simulation-driven approach against a test-driven approach. This will encourage them to test their protocol in near-production environments and changeless deployments to main net. Also, in contrast to a test-driven environment used in security audits, they will be able to test the composability risk of their protocol,” added Saha, co-founder and chief executive officer, Chainrisk.