AI platform Budy.bot has raised $4.2 million in seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm RTP Global. 

Other participating investors include BeeNext Pte Ltd, The Neon Fund, BITS SPARK Angels, and over 15 angel investors. Among the notable angels were Raju Reddy; Abhinav Asthana, CEO and co-founder of Postman; John Hayes, co-founder of Pure Storage; Bruno Kurtic, co-founder of Sumo Logic; and several former executives of GreyOrange.

The newly-raised funds will be utilised to fuel the training and development of Budy’s core AI skills, said the company in a statement.

Founded by Samay Kohli, founder of GreyOrange, Budy.bot streamlines the deployment and management of sales and marketing software stacks for enterprises.

“My experience in my last company was that in sales and marketing today, anytime you want to do anything, you keep adding more and more apps on top of your sales and marketing stack. As a result, any growth stage company ends up using anywhere between 100 to 150 different sales and marketing apps, which is really unfortunate.. because from operations and operating point of view, it becomes so complex,” Kohli told YourStory. 

By drawing his experience on scaling go-to-market strategies from $0 to $100 million in ARR, Kohli built Budy to assist growth-stage companies with annual revenues between $25 million and $200 million. These companies often face issues with setting up crucial systems and processes, like forecasting or improving sales efforts during rapid growth. 

Buddy.bot is launching at a time when several industries are adopting AI agents to handle specific tasks with minimal or no human intervention, leading to significant time and cost savings.

“I spent my last decade on automation and warehouses. I thought, why don’t we look at it with the automation purview? What are the steps that can be automated and handed over to an AI agent so that the consultant can really concentrate on understanding the business, implementing the right change, and changing processes?” he explains. 

“The heavy lifting of all the tasks—from setting up things, logging in, and copying—all of that stuff can be done with the AI agent. And that’s essentially what Budy does,” he said. 

“The power of agents is a lot dependent on tools. Tools are all the things that an agent can call on to be able to execute any of its tasks. The specific part we are spending time on is increasingly giving it more tools. We’ve been so far focused a lot on giving it tools around Salesforce specifically. Now we have been giving it tools on how it can move data from one system to another,” said Kohli. 

Currently, the company is working with select enterprise customers to tackle challenges like resetting Salesforce to fit the company’s current needs while maintaining data, improving lead conversion, and enhancing revenue and cash forecasting.

Buddy.bot is currently serving a SaaS company with $12-13 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), which sells marketing software, and another company with $35 million ARR, which provides contact centre software to banks.

“This investment aligns perfectly with RTP Global’s focus on backing visionary founders in transformative sectors like AI. We believe founders with bold ideas can redefine industries, and supporting them early is crucial for driving innovation,” said Nishit Garg, Partner at RTP Global.  

Self-drive car sharing platform Zoomcar is undergoing debt restructuring to reduce its outstanding debt of approximately $31 million as of June 30, 2024.

The company has negotiated with lenders and vendors to reduce 75% of their immediately payable debt, either allowing a deferred payment schedule of up to 24 months or reducing payouts by up to half in a short term.

It plans to finish its exercise by November 2024 to decrease cash outflow and invest in strategic initiatives for long-term sustainability and value for all stakeholders.

“Zoomcar’s business fundamentals are strong, and this debt restructuring is an important step towards positioning the company for long-term success. We are very grateful to all our partners who have stood by us and supported us in our debt restructuring endeavor showcasing their commitment towards our growth,” said Hiroshi Nishijima, CEO of Zoomcar.

“Our focus remains on sustainable growth and fulfilling our financial obligations, which is key to maintaining trust with our partners and customers,” he added.

Zoomcar, founded in 2013, offers car rental services in Bengaluru. It offers hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly rentals. The company has received investments from Peak XV, Ford Smart Mobility, Nexus Venture Partners, and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Recently, It launched a new app with over 100 new features for guests and hosts. The app offers faster booking experiences, top-rated cars, and guest favourites. Hosts can now control their listings, have flexible booking options, and automatically extend listings. New hosts can also use GPS trackers and keyless entry devices.

Everstage, an enterprise sales performance management software, has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures, with participation from existing investors Elevation Capital and 3one4 Capital. 

With this round, the Chennai and Delaware-based company has raised a total of $45 million in funding so far. It will use the new capital to expand its product capabilities and invest in in-house professional services. 

“Our Series B is not just about growth; it’s about a long-term commitment to our customers. This investment will allow us to double down on product innovation and elevate our customer experience with the highest standard of service, unlike anything the market has seen before,” said Siva Rajamani, Co-founder and CEO of Everstage. 

Founded in 2020 by Rajamani and Vivek Suriyamoorthy, Everstage enables companies to boost the performance of their customer-facing teams through a no-code sales commission automation platform.

Before founding Everstage, Rajamani served as the head of Freshworks‘ global revenue operations team, where he oversaw the growth of annual recurring revenue from $30 million to $300 million.

“Everstage’s modular product helps organisations dynamically manage their evolving Sales Performance Management needs and align frontline teams with broader organisation goals. We are excited to partner with Siva and Vivek, who have assembled a strong team with extensive experience in Revenue Operations,” said Aditya Systla, Partner at Eight Roads Ventures. 

Eight Roads, a global investment firm backed by Fidelity, manages $11 billion in assets across Asia, Europe, Israel, and the US. Everstage now joins the investment firm’s expanding SaaS portfolio, which includes startups such as Moengage, SaaS Labs, and Icertis, among others.

Everstage also plans to launch an AI Agent Creation Studio to assist RevOps professionals in building and customising their own AI assistants. These agents will handle tasks like sales performance analysis, plan building, and providing modelling recommendations, further streamlining sales operations.

Some of its clientele include several global Fortune 1000, publicly-listed companies and large enterprises such as GrayTV, Wiley, Diligent, Trimble and Paychex. The company in a statement said it clocked a 300% YoY revenue growth last year.

The company recently appointed Kelly McGuire as VP of Customer Success, who has over 15 years of experience from companies like Glassdoor and Sisense.

Additionally, Everstage announced an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) buyback valued at Rs 5 crore.