[Funding Roundup] GREENEST, Tortoise, TyrePlex, iPiD raise early-stage deals

GREENEST raises pre-seed round

Plant-based protein brand GREENEST has announced raising an undisclosed amount in a pre-seed round from Better Bite Ventures, and former chief executive for fresh fruits and vegetables and frozen foods vertical at ITC, Sachid Madan. The startup will utilise the funds for team and product portfolio expansion and increase its distribution footprint.

Founded in 2017 by Gaurav Sharma, GREENEST offers plant-based mock meat products through business-to-business (B2B) partnerships. It works with the likes of Burgrill, Wat-a-Burger, Chocolate Room, Biggies Burger, Freshmenu, Eatfit, and others—covering nearly 200 stores. 

Tortoise onboards Sriharsha Majety, Lizzie Chapman in mentors’ round

Gurugram-headquartered fintech startup Tortoise has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from CEO and Co-founder of Swiggy, Sriharsha Majety, and CEO and Co-founder of ZestMoney, Lizzie Chapman, in a mentors round. 

This is an extension of the startup’s seed round, which was first announced in April 2022. Tortoise had raised $2.3 million led by Vertex Ventures in the previous round, and will be adding a few more mentor-investors as part of the ongoing fundraising. 

Founded in 2020 by Vardhan Koshal and Surya Harsha Nunnaguppala, Tortoise offers a platform for goal-based savings and rewards users for meeting their savings goals. Former Vice President at ZestMoney, Nikhil Joy, has also joined Tortoise as Co-founder, said the statement issued by the company.

TyrePlex raises $1.5 million in Pre-Series A round

Delhi-headquartered B2B ecommerce player for tyres, TyrePlex, has raised Rs 12 crore ($1.5 million approximately) in a Pre-Series A round of funding led by 9Unicorns and founders of AdvantEdge.

Other investors who participated in the round include Venture Catalysts, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal of Titan Capital, Tracxn co-founder Abhishek Goyal, Droom Founder and CEO Sandeep Aggarwal, and Rajesh Sawhney, Founder and CEO of GSF Accelerator.

The startup will utilise the funds to onboard new retailers and expand the company’s operations to top five cities in India. 

Founded in 2020 by Puneet Bhaskar, Rupendra Pratap Singh, Nikhil Kalra, and Jiveshwar Sharma, TyrePlex helps multi-brand tyre dealers digitise their businesses and offers them a dealership management system to manage their stores. 

International payments company iPiD raises seed round

Singapore-headquartered fintech company iPiD has raised $3.3 million in seed round from Rapyd Ventures, Jungle Ventures, 1982 Ventures, Resolution Ventures, Saison Capital, the XA Network, and angel investor Wing Vasiksiri. 

The startup, which also has offices in India, as well as Belgium, Malaysia, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and Vietnam, was founded in 2021 by Damien Dugauquier, Eddie Haddad, and Geertjan van Bochove. The startup, International Payments Identity (iPiD), helps financial institutions simplify cross-border payments, reduce failed payments and reduce frauds through its global bank account validation and proxy addressing service.

(This article will be updated with the latest news throughout the day)