StayVista, India’s preferred villa rental platform with an average rating of 4.7 across 30K+ reviews, has 1,000+ operational properties across 85+ locations in India, and has served over 1 million happy customers to date. The company operates three categories of properties under its umbrella, catering to the mass premium, premium, and luxury segments. Customer experience lies at StayVista’s core; apart from accommodation, the company also offers customizable F&B services, event curation & planning, concierge services, among others, delivering a highly personalized and holistic experience for its travellers. The company leverages technology to streamline the entire vacation rental ecosystem, offering guests a seamless booking platform while empowering property owners with comprehensive property management, operations oversight, and booking optimization tools.

To ensure standardization and a high-quality experience for their customers, StayVista has set up stringent SOPs to ensure listed properties meet their brand guidelines in terms of amenities as well as maintenance. The properties listed on StayVista’s platform are largely second homes owned by individuals. StayVista has successfully created a win-win model for homeowners as well as its travellers.

Domestic travel in India is witnessing a surge, driven by rising disposable income and flexible work models. India’s vacation rental market stands at $22.3 billion and is expected to grow at a 9% CAGR to reach $34.1 billion by 2029. Within the travel sector, the holiday home rental market stands at $2.1 billion and is the fastest-growing segment, at a CAGR of 13.5%.

Commenting on the fundraise, Pranav Maheshwari, Co-Founder at StayVista, said, “Over the past few years, we have quietly but consistently built a strong foundation for long-term growth. Along the way, we have achieved several meaningful milestones — turning profitable, scaling to over 1,000 luxury homes, and hosting more than a million guests. Each of these achievements is a reflection of the trust our homeowners and guests place in us. As we look ahead, we are excited to build on this momentum and shape StayVista into not just India’s largest villa hospitality brand, but also the largest platform for alternative accommodations in India.”

Commenting on the investment, Sachin Tagra, Managing Partner at JSW Ventures, said, “We are seeing a clear shift in preference of travellers from hotels to alternate sources of accommodation. With technology, standardization, and a strong customer-first philosophy, StayVista, being the largest player in this space, has a front row seat to capitalize on this trend. The founders have built a highly capital-efficient business, and we are excited to partner with StayVista as they continue to scale with multiple offerings.”

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PUNE: uppercase, the innovative, sustainable luggage brand has raised $9 Million in its Series B round led by Accel, a global venture capital firm. The funding will support business expansion, aiming to increase its customer base across India. The Mumbai-based company, currently selling its travel gear online and through 1800 multi-brand stores across India, aims to achieve its Rs 500 crore goal by adding 250 exclusive retail stores over the next three years.

uppercase was launched with a vision to revitalize the luggage market through innovative, consumer-centric designs that are visually striking. It offers innovative, customer-centric designs that break away from typical, monotonous styles. The brand is committed to sustainability, emphasizing eco-friendly practices. Additionally, uppercase’s focus on affordability ensures that high-quality, fashionable travel gear is accessible to a broader audience.

With the USD 9M series B round led by Accel, uppercase’s total funding now reaches Rs. 150 crores since its inception three years back.

“We are excited to have Accel join us as we revolutionize the sustainable travel gear industry. Their investment reflects trust in our eco-friendly approach and 100% made-in-India business model. This partnership will help us to build our brand and distribution by expanding our exclusive retail channels. With Accel’s extensive international experience, we look forward to increasing our global footprint soon. We will continue to drive growth, innovation and impact the way the world travels and we will do it from India,” expressed Sudip Ghose, Founder and Managing Director of uppercase.

uppercase which designs and manufactures 100% of their products in India, recently achieved a significant milestone by winning the prestigious Red Dot Award for their product, Bullet— becoming the first Indian luggage brand in 69 years to receive this honor. It is a smart durable eco-friendly bag which is made out of recycled plastic, ideal for environmentally conscious customers. This accolade highlights uppercase’s dedication to innovation and excellence in design.

Barath Shankar Subramanian, Partner at Accel said, “uppercase is carving out a unique space in the market with its deeply rooted Indian identity and unwavering commitment to sustainability. With over two decades of industry expertise, Sudip drives the brand’s cutting edge approach to eco-friendly travel gear. We are excited to support uppercase as they deliver a seamless omnichannel experience, capitalizing on emerging market opportunities to set new standards for growth and responsible business practices.”

As part of its strategy, uppercase’s plans to further expand its offline presence in leading metros solidifying its market position. The brand’s steadfast dedication to sustainability has yielded significant environmental impact, minimizing waste and promoting eco-friendly practices through its production and supply chains.

uppercase’s journey has been strongly backed by existing investors, Sixth Sense Ventures and Enam’s Akash Bansali. With their continued support and the latest round of investments, uppercase is set to accelerate its growth plans, expanding its reach and bringing environmentally friendly products to a broader consumer base.

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• New EBRD funding and support for Ukraine announced at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin
• The bank also mobilizes more than €600 million of de-risking, risk-sharing tools
• Commitments bring the total EBRD financing deployed in wartime Ukraine to €4.5 billion

BERLIN: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is extending its support for Ukraine with new funding commitments. At the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in Berlin on 11-12 June, the Bank signed multiple financing and pre-financing agreements, which brought the total EBRD financing deployed in wartime Ukraine to €4.5 billion.

The Bank has also mobilized new de-risking and risk-sharing tools from the European Union and other development organizations for over €600 million.

The EBRD, Ukraine’s largest institutional investor, has significantly increased its finance to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale war there, and aims to continue investing between €1.5 to 2 billion in the country annually.  

EBRD shareholders have recently agreed to provide a €4 billion paid-in capital increase to enable the Bank to continue investing at these levels in wartime, with the potential for more investments when reconstruction starts.

Ukraine is now a candidate for European Union accession. But the Berlin conference comes amid weeks of Russian air attacks on the country’s energy facilities. These have damaged or destroyed more than half of the national energy generation capacity and raised questions about how Ukraine will provide many of its citizens with light and heating this winter.

While visiting Kyiv last week, EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) setting out €300 million of new EBRD emergency support for the energy sector. The EBRD will continue to explore with its partners further ways to support the country’s energy security.

In Berlin, the EBRD was active in all four of the conference’s thematic areas: EU accession; business development; local, municipal and regional development; and human capital development.

In the area of EU accession, the European Union agreed to provide €517 million to Ukraine through EBRD programs to support its economy and recovery. The agreements were signed on Tuesday by Managing Director for Ukraine and Moldova, Arvid Tuerkner, and European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.

In the business category, the EBRD signed multiple transactions.

• An EBRD equity investment in a renewable energy joint venture led by a German investor to build and operate new solar power generation facilities in Ukraine. The EBRD is also lending €60 million to finance the construction of a privately owned Ukrainian greenfield biofuels project.
• Two transactions with local banks: a €20 million local-currency loan to Bank Lviv and a €50 million unfunded portfolio risk-sharing facility to Raiffeisen Bank Ukraine. These instruments will strengthen the banks’ lending capacity and boost access to finance for Ukrainian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
• A pre-financing agreement with PrivatBank for an unfunded portfolio guarantee, which, once signed, will cover up to 50 percent of PrivatBank’s credit risk on newly issued sub-loans worth up to €400 million to private businesses. This will help Ukrainian companies continue their operations, safeguard livelihoods, and invest in projects that contribute to the country’s food production, energy efficiency, and energy generation.
• To support Ukraine’s cross-border trade, the US International Development Finance Corporation and the French development agency Proparco declared their intent to share the risk of the EBRD’s trade finance exposure in Ukraine in the coming year. The two institutions intend to provide up to US$ 50 million each in risk-sharing guarantees, to support the export and import of critical goods. The arrangement builds on a plan drawn up last year by development finance institutions to collaborate on co-investments in Ukraine’s private sector.
• The EBRD and IFC agreed to continue advancing their joint appraisal to support the creation of a leading integrated telecoms operator in Ukraine through the merger of Datagroup-Volia, a national fixed telecoms leader, and Lifecell, the country’s fastest-growing mobile operator. The landmark deal for Ukraine would entail potential joint financing of up to US$ 435 million to support the expansion and improvement of telecommunications infrastructure.
• The Bank joined the SME Resilience Alliance, an initiative launched by the conference’s German organizers.
• Lastly, the EBRD is partnering with Endeavor Global to launch Endeavor Ukraine. The organization’s Ukrainian chapter will support high-impact entrepreneurs through mentoring, networking, and investment opportunities, promoting an entrepreneurial ecosystem, which is crucial for a vibrant private sector and long-term economic growth.

To support Ukraine’s cities and regions as they grapple with the fallout from the war, the EBRD signed two municipal transactions and four pre-financing agreements worth a total of €143 million, under the conference’s local and regional heading, as well as MoUs for regional transport and water infrastructure projects.

• The EBRD is lending a financial package of €25 million to the port city of Mykolaiv to repair its water infrastructure. The package includes a €10 million grant component provided by Denmark and a €5 million grant from the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P).
• The Bank is lending €15 million, which includes an EU component, to Lutsk to upgrade its district heating system.
• Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, which has come under heavy Russian attack in recent months, was one of three municipalities along with Kyiv and Kryvyi Rih to sign pre-financing agreements for the provision of emergency liquidity to maintain vital services. The Kharkiv project will also include an EU component. A fourth pre-financing agreement was signed with the city of Zhytomyr for a public transport project.
• MoUs were also signed with Ukrainian Railways and the Ministry of Infrastructure for a potential €300 million project in which the EBRD would provide co-financing for the purchase of electric locomotives, and with the Ministry to support the regional water sector.
• The Bank joined the Coalition for Sustainable Municipalities.
  

Under the umbrella of human capital, the EBRD, Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) launched a new Human Capital Resilience Charter to help employers in Ukraine support returnee workers and veterans in meeting the challenges they face in the wartime labour market. The EBRD also joined the Skills Alliance for Ukraine as well as the Alliance on Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Recovery.

Lastly, the Bank reconfirmed its deepening partnership with USAID by signing an MoU with shared objectives regarding Ukraine’s resilience and recovery. It establishes a basis for ongoing cooperation between the partners in energy, infrastructure and finance.

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• Concluded funding of the entire USD 750 million Holdco Bond redemption resulting in significant deleveraging in AGEL by way of equity proceeds while continuing to deliver on the growth plans
• Demonstrates unwavering promoter commitment to meet AGEL’s strategic priorities of achieving its target of 45 GW by 2030

AHMEDABAD: Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) has completed the funding for the USD 750 million 4.375 notes due 09 September 2024 (Holdco Notes) with the receipt of the funds under the preferential allotment of INR 9,350 Cr (USD 1,125 million) to the promoters of AGEL

The shareholders of AGEL, approved the preferential allotment with overwhelming 99.9% majority on 18 January 2024 and thereafter the promoters funded INR 2,338 Cr (USD 281 million) primary infusion into AGEL last week. AGEL has set aside the funds in the Senior Debt Redemption Account (SDRA) and other reserve accounts of the Holdco Notes, post which the funding of the reserves has been completed. 

A brief summary of the funding status is as detailed below – 

With the above, the entire bond redemptions are fully set aside in the respective accounts by way of term fixed deposits which can be utilised only for the redemption of the Holdco Notes. According to Clause 4.6 (b) (i) of the Project Account Deed as summarized in Page 303 of the offering circular dated 01 September 2021 of HoldCo Notes, the withdrawl from this account can only be used “to repay, prepay or purchase any Senior Debt including the principal which is due and payable under the Document”. The bond stands defeased, 8 months prior to the maturity date of the Holdco Notes.

Underpinning the repayment is the successful equity capital raise program of USD 1.425 billion (includes USD 1.125 billion of preferential issuance by promoters and USD 300 million from TotalEnergies JV), reflecting the deep interest of long-term investors, strategic partners, coupled with unwavering promoter commitment to meet AGEL’s strategic priorities of achieving its target of 45 GW by 2030.

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PUNE: Data sharing in businesses is broken and current mechanisms are not secure, resulting in data breaches, insider threats, ransomware attacks, and unauthorized access. Addressing this impasse, data analytics startup Blockfenders is today announcing a $1.5m pre-seed funding round from a range of institutional and angel investors* to remedy the problem and enable businesses to achieve their goals.

Blockfenders has removed the burden on IT and data engineering teams to enable complete data sharing with its enterprise-grade, no-code platform in a zero-trust environment while preserving data privacy. It combines the best of blockchain, cloud, and distributed ledger technologies (DLT) like Hedera and Hyperledger to create an enterprise data exchange network that simplifies fine-grained and controlled data exchange between multiple parties without revealing raw data.

Without any code and just using the Blockfenders user interface, companies can establish data exchange channels with their internal or external partners so that they can start sharing data securely and granularly with zero trust from any data source including databases, data warehouses, and other data platforms. Zero trust which is central to Blockfenders enables protecting the actual data resource instead of the perimeter of security, adds tamper-evident data verifiability and lineage, and allows data owners to control on-demand or scheduled data access using smart contracts and cryptography-based passwordless access control. It automates data workflows and expedites transparent data agreements. Blockfenders minimize liabilities associated with data sharing using end-to-end encryption, tamper proof ness of raw data, and increase data utility at 80% lower costs

According to Gartner, companies that encourage data sharing will surpass their competitors in terms of business performance. However, Gartner also predicts that only a small fraction (less than 5%) of data-sharing initiatives will be successful in identifying and accessing trustworthy data sources. Further, in a recent survey of Chief Data Officers, Forrester Research found that more than 70% of global data and analytics decision-makers are increasing their capacity to utilize external data.

Blockfenders co-founder & CEO Viraj Phanse commented: “Data sharing has been limited to direct access to data sources, data views, APIs, sending data via emails and ETLing. Each of these mechanisms is resource-intensive, cost prohibitive, and technically complex to implement, thus increasing the dependency on IT and data engineering teams. Because of failing data-sharing methods that result in increasing data liabilities, CIOs, CISOs, and Chief Data Officers are unable to unlock the true potential of data and maximize its business value. Consequently, zettabytes of enterprise data are locked, siloed, and kept inaccessible leading to failed digital transformation initiatives. In spite of spending millions of dollars on cybersecurity and data management, organizations are unable to prevent attacks that cause a lot of brand and reputation damage.”

Co-founder & CTO at Blockfenders Niranjan Ingale added: “Enterprises, healthcare, and financial services organizations want to share data internally and externally to meet their business and operational goals. Although this is a top priority of their IT, data, and security leaders, data sharing while enhancing data privacy and security, is not easy and secure. If performed incorrectly, it can lead to brand and reputational damage with heavy penalties. Blockfenders solves these challenges by making data sharing as simple as sharing photos on the phone. We are democratizing data sharing by enabling businesses, researchers, and non-technical folks to share data from their own environment without writing any code or worrying about privacy, security, and implementation. Now organizations can easily establish a single source of truth of data and share data in a fine-grained manner while meeting stringent regulations and compliances.”

Headquartered in Palo Alto, Blockfenders was co-founded in 2022 by friends of 20 years Viraj Phanse and Niranjan Ingale with the aim of making it easier to securely exchange data across borders. Both co-founders have extensive global experience in the tech industry, with Viraj having held leadership roles at AWS, Oracle, Persistent, and Aerospike, and Niranjan leading engineering teams at AllScripts and Persistent.

In just nine months, Blockfenders has grown to a team of 10 and plans to use its pre-seed funding to grow the team further, build new capabilities like supporting multiple data sources and tokenization, and expand its presence in industries such as healthcare, banking, and financial services, enterprises, and technology.

Speaking about the investment into Blockfenders, Sanjay Nath, the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Blume Ventures, said, “What excited us about Blockfenders was Viraj and Niranjan’s articulation of the expansive scope of the problem statement and the promising tailwinds associated with it. Enterprises and Healthcare & BFSI companies today struggle with setting up and managing zero trust data-management platforms and Blockfender’s unique positioning and inherent technology moat is well poised to solve that.”

Rashid Mayes, Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft and co-founder at Philanthropy.AI, who is also an angel investor in the current round, added, “Businesses will face a greater reliance on securely and efficiently operationalizing data from diverse sources to meet the growing analytics/actionable insights, intelligence, end-to-end observability, and personalization needs of modern applications and services. Blockfenders’ platform enables organizations to break data silos and drive more value from data without sacrificing privacy, governance, or integrity.”

Blockfenders has already gained traction for its innovative approach to helping customers collaborate with internal and external partners across boundaries. The company has attracted two major industry players in the USs, including a digital health company in the eye care industry and a global employee engagement platform provider. Both partners are currently undergoing proof of concept and pilots. Blockfenders have also seen keen interest from two global banks for secure data sharing.

The round saw participation from investors including Blume Ventures, Together Fund, Veda VC, Behind Genius Ventures, Better Capital, Arka Venture Labs, Global Devc, FortyTwo, Eximius, GSF Fund, Pointone, Upsparks, and industry leaders like founder and chairman of Persistent Systems, Dr. Anand Deshpande, engineering leader at Microsoft, Rashid Mayes, founder and CEO at IndiaMart.com, Dinesh Agarwal, COO at IndiaMart.com, Dinesh Gulati, investor and sports presenter/producer, Gaurav Kapur, General Partner at Wagmi Ventures, Henry Zitou, and CEO and joint MD at Nazara Technology, Nitish Mittersain.

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