New Delhi, Jan. 8 -- Nitro Commerce, an AI-powered growth platform for digital consumer economy, AI services companies Aivar and Spector.ai as well as five other startups have raised early-stage funding from venture capital firms and angel investors.

Nitro Commerce

Nitro Commerce, an AI-powered growth platform for digital consumer economy, has raised $5 million (about Rs 45 crore) in a Series A round led by Cornerstone Ventures.

India Accelerator, Finvolve, Equentis Wealth Advisory Services, Grand Anicut Angel Fund, Razorpay Ventures, Rukum Sitara Fund, and Ankurit Capital also participated in the round.

Nitro Commerce said in a statement it will use the capital to accelerate platform-led growth, expand hiring across key functions, strengthen AI and agentic capabilities, and scale international operations.

The startup was founded by Umair Mohammed, Atyab Mohammed, Shamail Tayyab, and Pratik Anand in 2024. It provides a commerce identity network, which enables brands to convert anonymous users into identifiable, high-intent customers and stitch online and offline journeys into a single customer view. It is currently used by more than 2,500 brands like Rare Rabbit, Dot&Key, Pepperfry, Kapiva, Blue Tokai, VIP Industries, Perfora, and Neeman's.

Aivar

AI services firm Aivar has pocketed $4.6 million in a seed round led by Sorin Investments, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners.

The funding will be used to expand Aivar's presence across India, the US, and the Middle East, while continuing to invest in its AI accelerators, senior talent, and global delivery capabilities.

The startup was founded in 2024 by ex-AWS colleagues Kousik Rajendran, Praveen Jayakumar, Ashwin Ram Ravichandran, and Aadharsh Ayappan. It is an AI-first technology services partner that delivers rapid, high-quality AI projects for startups, technology intensive companies, and enterprises, supported by strong AWS validation, and early productized accelerators for voice, data and various AI/ML workloads.

Spector.ai

Spector.ai, an industrial AI company building agent-driven reliability and performance intelligence for asset-intensive industries, has raised Rs 58 crore ($6.7 million) in a funding round led by IvyCap Ventures.

US-based "strategic" investors also joined the round, Spector.ai said in a statement, without disclosing their names.

The company said it will use the funds to accelerate product innovation, expand enterprise deployments globally, and strengthen its foundational AI, knowledge-graph, and agent-based capabilities across reliability and operational performance use cases.

Spector.ai is led by founder and CEO Prashant Nedungadi.

&Done

&Done, a premium professional haircare brand focusing on Indian hair and weather conditions, has raised $3 million in a Series A funding round led by RTP Global.

All-in Capital, Suashish, and angel investors such as Kitty Agarwal, partner at Info Edge Ventures, and Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, co-founders of Titan Capital, also participated in the round.

The Gurugram-based company will use the capital to scale research and product development for portfolio expansion, grow the team, expand the salon network, and invest in brand building.

&Done was founded in 2023 by serial-time entrepreneurs Saumya Yadav and Atit Jain. Yadav, a Stanford graduate previously set up edtech brand Udayy, while Jain, a BITS Pilani alumnus, set up video shopping app BulBul.

The startup is focused on creating science-backed products specifically designed for Indian hair and climate conditions. It works closely with global formulation partners and salons to develop high-performance products validated in real Indian environments.

MiniPix

MiniPix, a micro-drama platform catering to the Bharat audience, has secured Rs 2.4 crore in its maiden pre-seed funding round led by startup accelerator PedalStart.

Venture Catalysts and some other investors, including Route Mobile founders Sandip Gupta and Rajdip Gupta, also participated in the round.

The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the fresh capital to strengthen its product-market fit, scale high-quality regional content creation, and build a strong execution-focused team.

Founded in 2024, MiniPix is a mobile-first regional micro-drama OTT platform, which offers a collection of short films, micro-dramas, and regional entertainment in bite-sized formats.

Capture a Trip

Capture A Trip, an experiential travel brand, has pocketed Rs 75 lakh from Shark Tank India judges Kunal Bahl, founder of Titan Capital, and Mohit Yadav, co-founder of Minimalist. The deal valued the startup at Rs 15 crore.

The Delhi-based brand will use the funding to expand its international routes while deepening its presence in offbeat Indian destinations.

Capture A Trip is travel brand, curating community-led journeys across India and international destinations and is known for its focus on first-time travelers, safety and immersive experiences.

Fabpad

Fabpad, a menstrual hygiene brand offering both reusable and disposable products, has raised an undisclosed amount of capital in its seed round led by early-stage investor Inflection Point Ventures.

It said it plans to use the funds to expand distribution and market presence across direct-to-consumer channels, online marketplaces, quick-commerce platforms, and offline retail. It will also use the funding for brand-building, customer acquisition, senior growth and operations hires and working capital.

Kolkata-based Fabpad, set up in 2020 by Shripriya Dhelia, is a menstrual hygiene brand focused on products designed for Indian realities and offers products ranging across reusable and disposable categories and operates across consumer, institutional, and private-label segments through an asset-light, scalable model.

"The next phase is about aggressive, responsible growth. We're scaling faster across products and channels while fundamentally re-engineering period care to be more sustainable, affordable, and performance driven," said Dipesh Dhelia, chief executive. "Our ambition is not to participate in this category, but to reset its standards, proving that environmentally responsible menstrual care can also be mainstream, high-quality, and commercially scalable.

Project Studio

Project Studio, a AI-based platform for managing interior design and fit-out projects, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Modulor Capital. We Founder Circle, EvolveX and Thapar Innovate also participated in the round.

The round was advised by capitalCORN.

The startup plans to use the capital to improve its AI capabilities, strengthen its presence in India and support expansion into international markets.

Project Studio, founded by Nikhil Kaushik and Abhishek Jha, is building an end-to-end operating system for independent interior design studios to manage project execution, coordination, sourcing and payments using AI. The platform aims to address execution delays and margin leakages caused by fragmented tools, manual workflows, and lack of real-time visibility.

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