Smart home appliances start-up Up raises $1.3 mn in pre-seed funding

Start-up's device assists people with no cooking experience by listing recipes, nutrition information

Up, the smart appliance start-up, has raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding led by Zerodha’s venture capital arm Rainmatter, which invested $500,000 in the company.

The round also saw participation from co-founders of Ather Energy, Unacademy, Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs India, alongside early Tesla investor Tim Draper. Consumers from the brand’s beta testing programme are mini-angel investors in Up.

Up will use the funds to market its first appliance, delishUp. “Everyone knows the best way to manage your health is to eat home cooked food, and with this new funding we are looking forward to taking delishUp to consumers across the country,” said Mahek Mody, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Up.

The delishUp device is made for people with no experience of cooking. It offers recipes, displays their nutrition and calculates calories of meals. The device, which has been tested at some 250 Bengaluru homes, features a touch screen with numerous in-built guided recipes, coupled with a jar which heats and cooks, and offers controlled chopping, stirring and other cooking functions. Deliveries for delishUp will begin in December this year.

“Helping people become healthy is something we're really passionate about at Rainmatter. We could instantly see that this could go a long way in helping people eat healthy. We're really excited to join Up in this journey,” said Nithin Kamath, co-founder and CEO, Zerodha.

Up is part of Qualcomm’s 2022-23 accelerator program through the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge (QDIC), and plans a technical collaboration with Qualcomm.

“The next generation of smart and connected innovation will be designed to elevate the quality of our domestic lives. The next generation of smart and connected devices for the world will be built in countries like India and by the upcoming generation of hardware startups. Up's mission aligns with ours - taking long odds-on extraordinary outcomes,” said Siri Srinivas, principal investor, Draper Associates.