Animal-free dairy company Zero Cow Factory has raised $4 million in seed funding round, while online insurance policy platform InsuranceDekho has acquired Verak.
Green Frontier, pi Ventures lead Zero Cow funding
Zero Cow Factory has raised $4 million in a seed funding round, reported The Economic Times.
India-based climate change-focused VC Green Frontier Capital and early stage venture fund pi Ventures led the funding round. Spanish dairy group Calidad Pascual’s investment arm Pascual Innoventures also participated.
The company plans to invest the new capital in research and development, to increase production capacity, and to get regulatory approvals before launching, according to The Economic Times.
Founded in 2020, Zero Cow Factory is reinventing the traditional dairy and food industry by producing India’s first animal-free milk protein and dairy products by bioengineering microbes and through precision fermentation.
The company is developing a technology to reproduce milk proteins to craft real dairy products that are ethical, safe, and identical to cow milk without any animal involved.
Asia-Pacific is catching up with more developed markets, including the US and Europe, as investors show an interest in alternative proteins — a key foodtech segment. Alternative protein startups in Asia-Pacific raised a combined $312 million in 2021, almost doubling from the previous year, according to a report by the non-profit industry think tank Good Food Institute APAC.
InsuranceDekho, Verak team to merge
InsuranceDekho has acquired MSME-focused insurance company Verak, reported Tech in Asia.
Launched in 2020, Verak generates a commercial insurance quotation, provides expert guidance on selecting the policy best suited to MSMEs, and has a one-click support system for endorsements and claims. The company’s current team will be fully integrated into InsuranceDekho.
Earlier known as BimaPe, Verak has launched its pre-seed and seed round backed by investors such as early-stage startup investor Lightspeed India Partners, Y Combinator, Titan Capital, and Gemba Capital.
InsuranceDekho had raised $150 million in a mix of equity and debt in the largest Series A funding round by any insurtech company in Southeast Asia in February this year, led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital Funds.
In an interview with DealStreetAsia, InsuranceDekho’s CEO and Co-founder Ankit Agrawal had said that with the newly acquired funds, the company plans to expand its presence at the district and village levels and make 3-4 acquisitions in a year.
Started as an automobile aggregator by CarDekho in 2019, InsuranceDekho allows customers to compare and buy motor and health insurance. The company has since expanded into other forms of insurance such as life, term, and retirement plans.