Rural tech startup Hesa bags $2 Mn seed round

Rural tech startup Hesa has raised $2 million in its seed round led by Manish Modi of Mastermind Capital at Venture Catalysts (VCats) along with Accelerator Fund, 9Unicorns.

Founded by Vamsi Udayagiri, Hesa partners with brands and helps in promoting and selling their products or services, including banking and financial services, in rural markets. 

According to Vamsi, the company’s physical network of village-level entrepreneurs assisted by a digital commerce platform at every village enables its businesses to reach the target audience.

The Hyderabad-based startup claims to have connected with over 65 brands to 600,000 rural customers through 8000 Hesaathis in around 5000 Indian villages. It has tied up with brands across sectors which include Wycool, BigHaat, Walmart, HDFC Life, Reliance General Insurance and Apollo Hospital.

The lead investor of this round, Venture Catalysts has backed over 88 startups since 2016 across multiple sectors such as deeptech, B2B SaaS, fintech, AI and others.