Up (previously React Labs) a smart consumer technology startup raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding, the round being led by Tim Draper of Draper Associates. Draper has been an early investor in breakthrough products like Tesla, Angelist, Coinbase, Switch, Skype and Hotmail. Their portfolio includes more than 100 category shaping products. The round also saw investments from Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs of India (SAE India), Tarun Mehta & Swapnil Jain (co-founders of Ather Energy), Gaurav Munjal & Roman Saini (co-founders of Unacademy), among other prolific angel investors. In addition to this consumers from the beta testing program also turned into mini-angel investors of Up after using the product for a week.
Up , the first company in India to use an emoji as a part of its identity, is building home appliances (dubbed upliance). The devices are designed in Bengaluru and made in India for young Indian homes. DelishUp comes with a smart cooking jar that controls all chopping, stirring and cooking functions, making it a mess-free and hassle-free experience. The touchscreen has hundreds of in-built recipes and enables users to cook anything at whim through a guided recipe flow which simplifies all cooking steps. The recipes on the DelishUp have been designed in-house to delight Indian palates and offer delicious food that will make ordering in and takeaway redundant. The recipes offer diverse options from all parts of the country, and a variety of curries, gravies, rice dishes, and global cuisines too.
The combination of a smart cooking jar, touch screen and weighing scale ensures that great food can happen irrespective of cooking skills. The first product DelishUp has already been in advanced Beta for the past 6 months and 120 homes in Bengaluru have stopped eating boring food, during their time with the device. DelishUp deliveries begin in November 2022, with the mission to have homes Stop Eating Boring Food. At launch this will be one of the quickest concepts to launch hardware product timelines in the country, a rapid product development cycle of 14 months.
Up has been recently shortlisted for Qualcomm’s 2022-23 accelerator program through the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge (QDIC). This is a recognition of Up’s ability to design and build products in India for Indians. Through QDIC, the startup will build a technical collaboration with Qualcomm to unlock the potential in smart connected consumer technology in Indian homes.
Quote by Mahek Mody, Co-Founder & CEO, Up
“We are very excited to have Draper Associates and what they stand for on board. Their mission statement -“Taking long odds on extraordinary outcomes” is exactly what Mohit and I are doing at Up. Smart TVs and Phones are only the tip of the iceberg of connected tech that will revolutionise Indian homes. We are making investments towards hardware, software, and cloud technology to deliver superpowers to Indian homes via our connected upliances. We developed DelishUp and the connected platform within a year, leveraging our years of hardware and F&B experience. We are eager to build more and better, towards extraordinary outcomes”
Quote by Tarun Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, Ather Energy
“India is giving rise to more hardware startups, across sectors and industries and is great to see engineering talent and experience building innovative products and addressing new challenges. Smart connected technology for homes has been overdue and I am excited to join Up on their journey to building great products for Indian homes.”
