Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (Dec 17, 2024)

Funding news

Mili raises $2M seed round led by Chiratae and BoldCap

Mili, an AI meeting assistant for wealth management firms, has raised $2M in seed funding led by Chiratae and BoldCap, with participation from Sparrow Capital, SFMG Wealth Advisors, Gregg Fisher, and Better Capital.

The funds will accelerate product development, enhance customization, expand integrations, and grow its engineering and customer success teams.

Founded in 2024 by Chirag Gandhi, Vennela Miryala, and Siddharth Bulia, Mili offers enterprise-grade AI-powered meeting documentation software.

"Wealth management firms manage trillions of dollars in assets, but they hardly have any software built for them. Most of them struggle to keep up with customer requests as they don't have large customer service teams. With Mili, they don't need to worry about any back-office operations. They will have a highly compliant digital worker working in the background to solve every customer need and also perform back office tasks such as taking notes in meetings, onboarding new customers, planning financial strategies with the advisors, and more", said Sathya Nellore Sampat, Partner at BoldCap.

Zalon raises Rs 1.37 Cr in a seed round led by Black Marlin Ventures

Zalon, a brand brand under Z Revolution Tech Pvt Ltd, has raised Rs 1.37 crore in a seed round led by Black Marlin Ventures, with participation from Sundararaman Ramasamy and co-founders Abhiishekk Raj Pandey and Sunil Khatri.

The funds will accelerate growth, enhance product innovation, and expand Zalon’s reach across India.

Zalon is a B2B ecommerce platform that connects salons with a comprehensive range of beauty products while offering free salon management software for business operations. The platform aims to simplify inventory procurement and provide innovative solutions to streamline salon operations.

"Zalon has demonstrated exceptional growth and innovation and have revolutionised this industry. While this segment is new, we have conviction that this segment will work We believe in their vision and are excited to be a part of their journey," Vinay Chadha, Managing Partner of Black Marlin Ventures said.

Other news

Fi Money partners with GoKwik to offer instant card-based discounts on D2C payments

Neobank Fi Money has partnered with ecommerce enabler GoKwik to offer instant card-based discounts on D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) brands.

By integrating Fi Federal Debit Card benefits into GoKwik’s KwikCheckout platform, the collaboration aims to enhance digital payment adoption among over 120 million online shoppers in GoKwik's network.

Shoppers using Fi cards can access exclusive discounts while buying from D2C brands, boosting prepaid payment success rates and reducing cash-on-delivery reliance for brands. This helps mitigate return-before-delivery losses and improves profitability. Brands like mCaffeine, Neemans, and Mivi are already leveraging these offers, GoKwik said.

Pepperfry Appoints Madhusudan Bihani as Chief Financial Officer

Ecommerce furniture platform Pepperfry has promoted Madhusudan Bihani to Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

With nearly two decades of experience in finance, compliance, taxation, and auditing, Madhusudan has been instrumental in driving Pepperfry’s growth since joining in 2019, Pepperry said.

As CFO, he will oversee corporate strategy, financial planning, fundraising, and legal affairs, supporting the company’s next phase of growth.

“His extensive experience, combined with his exceptional strategic and leadership capabilities, will be critical in helping us execute our vision for the future. His contributions have been invaluable in strengthening our financial foundation, and we look forward to the continued impact. Madhusudan has always been a leader that the organisation has looked up to and in his new role I look forward to him taking up external mandates around investor relations and fund raise," Ashish Shah, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pepperfry said.