Sohal Lohana

Founded in 2024, Proxigo is a Dhanbad-based startup that offers home and electronic repair services to people and ensures that mechanics and workmen get paid more fairly than current market rates. Zishan comes from a humble family in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. After financial constraints came into the picture, he was forced to stop going to school. He became a helper for a repair technician and started earning a daily wage. “I was worried about how little I was making. My friend, Md. Sahil was in the same boat. He was working as a helper along with me. We would do the majority of the repair and still get paid peanuts. We were worried about our families. I personally wanted to go to school again and send my siblings to school as well,” Zishan tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview. The technician whom Zishan and Sahil would accompany for repair jobs would charge customers Rs 1,500 for an AC repair and give them only Rs 50 to Rs 100. Feeling extremely exploited by this system, the friend duo, barely 16 years of age at the time, decided to dismantle the process and bring customers closer to the direct technicians and repairmen. In November 2024, Zishan and Sahil did something that immediately unleashed the start of Proxigo. With no website or application in hand, they decided to create a WhatsApp group of all technicians, helpers, and repairmen in Dhanbad. “We promised fair rates and decided to be extremely transparent in our dealings. With the hope of making an increased amount per job, technicians flocked to the WhatsApp group. We set up “technicians available” statuses on WhatsApp to bring in initial customers,” Zishan says. With very little money initially, they decided to obtain a phone database of people in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. “We would then manually send out SMS and WhatsApp messages to these thousands of numbers we had obtained,” Zishan says. He built Proxigo’s website and application himself. “By February 2025, the Proxigo website was ready and launched. With a small budget of Rs 1,500 per day, we started running Meta ads as well,” he adds. In July 2025, they started documenting their startup journey online and regularly posted reels on Instagram. “That is when I got to know the power of social media. One kind person from Mumbai even sent his laptop for us to use,” Zishan shares. Through their reels, a fishing export business owner in Jharkhand has shown interest in funding the startup with Rs 25 lakhs. “If an AC repair is charged at Rs 1,500, then the repairman gets Rs 1,000 and Proxigo gets Rs 500. Our payment gateway automatically splits the amount between the technician and the company,” Sahil mentions. To date, Proxigo has catered to more than 3,000 customers in Dhanbad. With a total revenue of approximately Rs 7.5 lakh, the founders have made a direct profit of Rs 2.5 lakh. Read More: https://bit.ly/4nwvqMz Website - https://proxigo.in/ #startup #startupfounder #startuppedia #youngentrepreneurs #urbancompany

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Travel tech startup Holiday Tribe has raised INR 25 Cr in Pre-Series A funding led by Powerhouse Ventures and GSF. The funds will enhance AI capabilities, focusing on real-time personalization and itinerary optimization. Founded in 2022 by Anshu Sharma and Chirag Goyal, Holiday Tribe aims to exceed INR 500 Cr in GMV within a year. The company previously raised INR 5.4 Cr in seed funding in 2024. India's travel tech sector is booming, with $127 Mn raised in H1 2025. Competitors include MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip, and Yatra. #TravelTech #AIFunding #HolidayTribe #DeccanFounders #PowerhouseVentures #GSF #DeccanFounders

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🚀 From 8 People to 3,000+: Razorpay’s Startup DNA We sat down with Chetty Arun, one of Razorpay’s founding team members, who joined as a designer in the chaotic 8-person days and now leads the People & Culture function after 10+ years with the company. From juggling sales calls and customer chats to printing stacks of paper to make “paperless onboarding” work, Chetty has seen it all. And even today—with 3,000+ people across geographies—he believes Razorpay still carries the same startup DNA: agility, challenging the status quo, and now pushing every employee to adopt AI in their work. From celebrating ₹10 lakh GMV to becoming a money movement company at scale, Chetty’s story reflects how Razorpay’s culture evolved, but never lost its startup spirit. Watch the full video to know more! In the Blume Podcast, Karthik B. Reddy unearths what makes Razorpay special and how Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur are on course to build a generational company. Click here to watch how Razorpay transitioned from being just a payment gateway to a money movement company at scale: https://lnkd.in/gcY-TRUT Ashish Fafadia, Sanjay Nath, Arpit Agarwal, Sajith Pai, Rohit Kaul, Ria Shroff Desai, Mitul Mehta, Alok Mehta, Deepika Jain, Sarita Raichura, Gautham Sivaramakrishnan, Vikram Gawande, Elton C.

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🚨 Reliance and Meta form $100 mn JV to launch AI tools for Indian businesses Reliance and Meta are collaborating to develop an AI platform for Indian companies, utilising Meta’s Llama technology. The joint venture will offer ready-to-use AI tools for sales, finance, and operations, aiming to help businesses of all sizes upgrade quickly and affordably, starting late 2025. Reliance will hold 70% while Meta will take 30% in JV. Meta is also an investor in Reliance's telecom unit Jio.

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Mobile app testing platform Drizz has raised $2.7 million (around Rs 23.4 Cr) in a seed funding round led by Stellaris Venture Partners. The funding round also saw participation from Shastra VC with angel investors such as former chief business officer at Cleartrip Anuj Rathi and Better Capital founder and chief executive Vaibhav Domkundwar. The fresh funds will be used to drive product innovation, further development of the Vision AI engine and team expansion. Asad Abrar | Partha Sarathi Mohanty | Yash Varyani (Hiring software engineers) | Raj Mishra | Zaid Abdul Bari | Zaid Ahmed Ansari Read full article link in the comment 👇 #Drizz #mobileapptesting #ai #funding #startupnews

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Bengaluru-based lifestyle startup Escape Plan has raised $5 million in a seed funding round led by Jungle Ventures via First Cheque@Jungle and Fireside Ventures. The startup plans to use the raised capital to expand its retail footprint, accelerate customer acquisition, and strengthen its quick-commerce integrations. Read the full story here:👇 https://lnkd.in/dp5pe2K3 #lifestyle #travelling #funding #investors #investment #bengaluru #startup #indianstartupnews

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The story of Rocket begins far from India’s traditional startup hubs. From Surat, Vishal Virani, Rahul, and Deepak are reimagining how software gets built, turning natural-language prompts into production-grade applications. What stands out isn’t just early traction, but the clarity of their ambition: to solve not only for the excitement of day one, but for the harder work of day two. Their seed round, led by us and Salesforce Ventures, reflects the scale of this vision. As TechCrunch's Jagmeet Singh reports, Rocket has already reached hundreds of thousands of users across the world in just a few months, and we're excited to partner with them on this journey. #AccelFamily Read more: https://lnkd.in/gTEzJtEm

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Short video learning platform Seekho has raised $28 Mn (INR 250 Cr) in its Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Goodwater Capital, Lightspeed, and Elevation Capital. Founded in 2020, Seekho offers bite-sized educational videos across categories like technology, finance, and social media to help users with upskilling and professional growth. The platform has over 10 Cr downloads, 2.5 Cr monthly active users, and charges INR 199 per month for an ad-free subscription. In FY24, its operating revenue grew 475% to INR 11.5 Cr, though net losses also widened to INR 4.6 Cr. With India’s smartphone user base expected to reach 1.5 Bn by 2030 and UPI autopay enabling subscriptions for millions, Seekho aims to expand its AI-driven learning offerings while competing with content giants like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Team Seekho✅ Rohit Choudhary | Yash Banwani | Keertay Agarwal | Aman Kumar | Shreya Pandey | Akhilendra Singh | #seekho #funding #news #startupUpdates #startupro

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Grexa AI Raises $1.85 Mn to Power Small Biz Marketing with AI Marketing automation startup Grexa AI has raised $1.85 million (Rs 15.5 Cr) in a seed round led by Utsav Somani, with participation from DeVC (Z47’s seed fund), Bharat Founders Fund, and notable angels including Revant Bhate, Vaibhav Domkundwar, Ramakant Sharma, and Sumit Gupta. Founded in 2024, the Thane-based startup is building a full-funnel, AI-powered marketing platform for India’s 60M+ small businesses—enabling salons, cafés, clinics, gyms and more to run always-on, autonomous digital marketing without relying on agencies or freelancers. The funds will be used for product innovation and expanding market reach. Already used by 21,600+ businesses, Grexa AI is reimagining how India’s small businesses grow online. Read more: https://lnkd.in/deadNDJN #FundingNews #Startups #AI #MarketingTech #SeedFunding #SmallBusinessIndia #GrexaAI #IndianStartups #SMBTech #SaaS #MarketingAutomation #DigitalIndia #Entrepreneurship #AIForSMBs #BusinessGrowth #LocalBusinesses #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #TechForGood #GrowthTech #AIInnovation

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Bengaluru-headquartered SaaS startup iTuring.ai has raised $5 million (INR 43.2 crore) in its Series A funding round, led by Dallas Venture Capital and Mela Ventures. The funding marks a significant milestone for the company as it gears up to accelerate the rollout of its proprietary zero-code AI/ML platform, tailored specifically for the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) industry. Founded in 2018 by tech entrepreneurs Suman Kumar Singh, Amit Kumar, Mohammed Nawas M P and Srivalsan Ponnachath, iTuring.ai aims to bridge the AI adoption gap in BFSI through its no-code AI/ML offerings. Its platform empowers enterprises to leverage data intelligently enhancing decision-making, reducing operational costs, and boosting customer satisfaction without the need for complex coding or data science expertise. Speaking on the investment, the founders emphasized that the funding will be utilized to scale product development, expand their team, and deepen market presence across India and select global markets. With increasing demand for AI-driven automation and decision intelligence in financial institutions, iTuring.ai is poised to play a key role in transforming traditional workflows and analytics systems. This funding round also highlights growing investor confidence in India’s AI-first SaaS ecosystem, particularly in verticalized enterprise solutions that address sector-specific challenges. #ai #startups #bengaluru #fintech #nocodeai #machinelearning #iTuring.ai #venturecapital #saas

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