New Delhi, Feb. 17 -- Software company CraftifAI, restaurant chain Babai Tiffins, biomanufacturing startup Intrinsic Foundries, Exponent Energy's fintech and asset management arm Exponent One, and edtech startup Beep have raised early-stage funding.

CraftifAI

AI-embedded software startup CraftifAI has raised $3 million (around Rs 27.2 crore) in seed funding led by Ankur Capital, with participation from IvyCap Ventures, Capital-A, Antler and other investors.

The company said the fresh capital will be used to expand its engineering and go-to market teams as it targets global embedded, edge and IoT markets.

Founded in 2025 by Pratik Sharda and Yashwant Dagar, CraftifAI is building CraftifAI Orbit, an agentic AI platform aimed at automating embedded software development for edge, IoT and AI-enabled devices.

The platform supports automated, hardware optimised code generation and AI or ML deployment, with the goal of reducing development time and costs. The startup is targeting industries such as robotics, drones, industrial IoT, automotive and consumer electronics, and has secured pilot projects with several Indian OEMs as well as a US listed semiconductor company.

Babai Tiffins

Babai Tiffins, a quick service restaurant chain focused on pure vegetarian Andhra cuisine, has raised Rs 15.5 crore (around $1.7 million) in a funding round led by Warmup Ventures and CDM Capital.

Warmup Ventures invested Rs 6 crore and CDM Capital Rs 4.25 crore, with participation from nX Capital Partners, 888VC, IPV, Thyrocare founder Dr A. Velumani, Open Secret founder Ahana Gautam and String Ventures co-founder Shivam Mishra.

The company plans to use the capital to expand from three to 10 outlets over the next two years, strengthen its supply chain, hire senior leadership and invest in technology.

Founded by Allu Siva Rama Krishna Reddy and Ravi Morampudi, Babai Tiffins operates three outlets in Bengaluru and serves nearly two lakh orders a month, with an annual revenue run rate of about Rs 50 crore.

Intrinsic Foundries

Intrinsic Foundries, a carbon-to-value biomanufacturing startup, has raised Rs 12 crore (around $1.3 million) in seed funding led by Transition VC. The Hazaribagh-based company converts industrial carbon emissions into high-value biochemicals using proprietary microbial biorefinery systems, including microalgae-based photobioreactors.

The company plans to use the fresh capital to run industrial pilots, expand research and intellectual property filings, scale up engineering and commercial teams, strengthen manufacturing capabilities, and set up a US entity to support global expansion.

Founded in 2023 by Shreyansh Jain, Sanjay Jain and Umang Jain, Intrinsic aims to make carbon capture commercially viable by turning emissions from hard-to-abate sectors such as steel, cement and refineries into inputs for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic industries.

Exponent Energy

Bengaluru-based energy-tech firm Exponent Energy has launched a fintech and asset management venture, Exponent One, to address financing gaps in the commercial electric vehicle segment.

The new entity will be led by financing and mobility veteran Sandeep Divakaran as co founder and chief executive officer. Exponent One has also raised $2 million (around Rs 18 crore) in pre-seed funding from AdvantEdge Founders to support its early rollout across key commercial EV hubs.

Exponent One will focus exclusively on commercial electric vehicles, including three wheelers, light commercial vehicles, buses and trucks. The platform aims to offer adaptive, earnings-linked financing and lifecycle management solutions tailored to driver-owners and small fleet operators.

Beep

Beep, a Pune-based edtech startup focused on career access for students in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, has raised $850,000 (around Rs 7.7 crore) in a pre-Series A round.

The round saw participation from Knowhere Ventures LLC, Pacific Global Solutions Limited and LeadAngels FLV, along with angel investors including Vipul Prakash, founder of wowJobs, and Sandeep Johri, CEO of Checkmarx.

With this raise, the company's total funding to date stands at $1.5 million.

Founded in 2021 by Saurabh Mangrulkar, Rakhi Pal and Yogesh Nogia, Beep plans to use the fresh capital to scale its user base to 5 million and onboard 150 additional colleges over the next nine months.

The platform currently runs more than 28 live programs across design, work-ready certification and internship tracks, and has partnered with over 1,500 colleges and 7,800 hiring companies.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.