20 Startup Funding Took Place In The Indian Startup Ecosystem This Week [26-31 March 2018]
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We bring to you the latest edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week.
This week 20 startups raised around $100 Mn in funding altogether in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.).
One of the biggest Indian startup funding news this week was Flipkart infusing $79.6 Mn (INR 519 Cr) in fresh funding into Phonepe.
Indian Startup Funding Of The Week
Creditas Solutions: Gurugram-based fintech startup, Creditas Solutions, raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A funding round led by its existing investor 1Crowd, an equity crowdfunding platform. The startup plans to use the latest funding for expansion of the team, data science capabilities and to make investments in technology, particularly to focus on providing banks with a single platform to manage the entire delinquency cycle.
USPL: Bengaluru-based fashion startup Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd (USPL) raised $4.64 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in venture debt funding from newly launched venture debt fund Alteria Capital. The company plans to use the funding to invest in 80-100 startups in the course of next three to four years.
Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week
- Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group, along with global financial services firm Morgan Stanley and Singapore’s state-run investment firm Temasek might acquire one-third stake in Mumbai-headquartered payments bank and financial technology solutions provider Financial Information and Network Operations (FINO). For this, the company is expected to be valued at $308 Mn (INR 2,000 Cr).
- Homegrown cab hailing company Ola might acquire Mumbai-based Ridlr, a public transport app startup. With this, the company aims to improve its navigation technology and expand its services.
- Ola is in talks to acquire Uber’s Indian operations and the deal will be facilitated by the common stakeholder, SoftBank. The finer details of the deal are still under discussion and will be revealed in the coming months. However, the person close to the possible deal said that with Uber targeting initial public offering in the US in 2019, it is necessary for the company to cut off its losses, which the SoftBank has been continuously focussing on.
Other Developments Of The Week
- Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal owned Fundamentum raised an initial investment of $20 Mn from CDPQ, a Canada-based institutional investor, for its first growth fund “Fundamentum Partnership – Fund I”.Beyond this, CDPQ will also explore direct investments in Fundamentum’s portfolio companies.
- Microsoft Ventures is looking to open an office and invest in tech startups using new age technologies like autonomous vehicles, Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain.Till now, Microsoft Ventures has backed over 45 startups globally. Also, Microsoft India claimed that it is helping 650 India-based partners use the Microsoft cognitive services, IoT, AI and machine learning platforms to build solutions for India.
- SEBI has planned to amend and ease the game rules of angel funding to revive the same. The regulator is also considering to raise the maximum period of accepting funds from an angel investor to five years from the present limit of three years.
- Quona Capital, the Washington-based fintech impact investor, is now en route to raising its Fund III. It is also planning to broaden the scope of its investment portfolio by leveraging fintech to include sectors as diverse as education, healthcare and insurance and small business.
- Global energy major Shell selected five startups for the first cohort of its Shell E4(Energising and Enabling Energy Entrepreneurs) accelerator programme. The five selected startups are Detect Technologies, ION Energy, IoTrek, Trashcon and Ossus Biorenewables.
- New York-headquartered technology hedge fund Coatue Management is reportedly holding discussions with a couple of other investors to pump $50 Mn-$100 Mn in homegrown online food delivery startup Swiggy. This comes two months after the Swiggy raised $100 Mn in Series F funding round led by Naspers at a valuation of $700 Mn.
- Mumbai-based mid-market private equity firm SeaLink Capital Partners has closed its maiden fund at $315 Mn (INR 2,045.45 Cr). The amount has been raised from a clutch of family offices as well as business leaders based in India, North America, Europe and Southeast Asia
- Venture Catalysts launched its operations in Jaipur and hosted panel discussions on angel investment and its opportunities, with a specific focus on Rajasthan. With this, it plans to bring in about 50+ investors to be a part of the VCats angel network and gradually add more angels over the coming months.
- SAP SE has signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) with NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), to adopt 100 Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATL) to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education among secondary school children across India.
- Gurugram-based coworking space incubator Huddle raised $300K from industry experts and investors from the bay area and Singapore. The investment comes with a partnership interest in order to expand
Huddle’s model of pairing each startup with a dedicated industry expert as their Huddle mentor. - NASSCOM announced that six of its incubated startups have been selected for the 2018 batch of Israel’s MassChallenge accelerator. Intello Labs Pvt. Ltd., Olivewear Pvt. Ltd., OCEO WATER, S&I Engineering Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Streamingo, and Ziroh Labs, will join a cohort of the early-stage startups in Jerusalem this April.
- Naspers announced to sell off 190 Mn shares (around 2% stake) in Chinese Internet giant Tencent gaining $10 Bn as part of the sale proceeds. Post the share sale, Naspers’ shareholding in Tencent reduced from 33.2% to 31.2%.
- SEBI board has approved the amendments to Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) regulations with respect to “angel funds” after recommendations of its working group. Also, the minimum corpus size required for an angel fund to register with SEBI will now be $770.5K (INR 5 Cr) and the maximum period of accepting funds from an angel investor has been raised to five years.
Stay tuned for the next edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!
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