Funding Galore: Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week [7- 12 May 2018]

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week.

This week 13 startups in the Indian startup ecosystem raised around $53 Mn in funding altogether and three acquisitions took place. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.)

One of the biggest funding this week was healthcare data analytics startup Innovaccer raising $25 Mn Series B investment led by Westbridge Capital with participation from Lightspeed Ventures. Innovaccer plans to use the latest funds to continue building on its industry-leading suite and go-to-market capabilities. In addition, Innovaccer will be investing in building a set of new patient engagement applications and platform capabilities for partners to access and build upon InData.

However, the blockbuster news of this week was SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son’s slip of the tongue on revealing the done deal of Walmart-Flipkart. The global retailer Walmart has finally acquired 77% stake in Flipkart for $16 Bn.

Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon called the deal a step towards ensuring the next generation of growth, in an investor call in which he also said that India will play a major role in helping Walmart run its global retail operations by being a key centre of learning for the company. Walmart described the team at Flipkart as “creative problem solvers”.

Following the deal, eBay has decided to end its strategic partnership with Flipkart. The company is apparently planning to relaunch eBay India with a differentiated offering to focus on cross-border trade. eBay has categorically communicated its intentions of selling its holdings of 6.55% in Flipkart. The holding which the ecommerce company is planning to sell is worth $1.1 Bn.

On the same day, Amazon Corporate Holdings and Amazon.com Inc have allocated $385.7 Mn (INR2,600 Cr) investment to the Indian marketplace unit. The fresh funds will act as an arsenal for Amazon.in, which has been aggressively investing in expanding infrastructure and adding solutions to enhance consumer and seller experience.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

Disprz: Chennai-based SaaS startup focussed on B2B education and skill training, Disprz raised $2.5 Mn (about INR 16.5 Cr) in a Series-A funding round led by IL&FS Private Equity and Kae Capital. The startup plans to enhance its data science capabilities and also to expand its overseas markets operations.

Rare Media: Delhi-based online classifieds company, Info Edge, invested $513.58K (INR 3.43 Cr) in Rare Media Company Pvt. Ltd. as a follow-on investment round of $1 Mn.

I3 Systems: Mumbai-based i3 Systems, an AI-Powered Insure-tech platform raised $1 Mn funding from Unitus Ventures. The startup plans to use the funds in planning to partner with India’s top 20 Life and Health insurance companies and process one million policies through its digital platform, in the next 12 months.

Avaamo: California-based AI startup Avaamo raised $14.2 Mn in a Series A funding round, led by Intel Capital. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its sales and marketing channels to meet the demand in the enterprise for conversational AI solutions in the growing global market.

Toppr: Mumbai-based personalised elearning solutions provider and online test preparation platform, Toppr raised a venture debt funding of $2.3 Mn (INR 15.5 Cr) from Alteria Capital.

Easypolicy: Noida-based online insurance comparison startup Easypolicy raised $6.7 Mn – $7.43 Mn (INR 45-50 Cr) from Unilazer Ventures.

Blackboard Radio: Jaipur-Bengaluru based Blackboard Radio, an AI-powered personalised spoken English coach, raised $111.25K of seed funding from Villgro Innovations Foundation. In addition to funding, the entrepreneurs will receive mentoring from senior advisors who provide strategic guidance to grow and scale their respective businesses, and access to Villgro’s network of downstream investors, channel partners, and domain experts.

Promorph: Kanpur-based Promorph which provides actionable, real-time data on RTE, raised $111.25K of seed funding from Villgro Innovations Foundation. In addition to funding, the entrepreneurs will receive mentoring from senior advisors who provide strategic guidance to grow and scale their respective businesses, and access to Villgro’s network of downstream investors, channel partners, and domain experts.

MadGuy Labs: Hyderabad-based mobile-based online test-preparation platform for government jobs in vernacular languages, MadGuy Labs raised $111.25K of seed funding from Villgro Innovations Foundation. In addition to funding, the entrepreneurs will receive mentoring from senior advisors who provide strategic guidance to grow and scale their respective businesses, and access to Villgro’s network of downstream investors, channel partners, and domain experts.

Charcoal Eats: Mumbai-based Tech-enabled, full stack QSR startup Charcoal Eats raised $742.9K (INR 5 Cr) Pre-Series A round of funding led by HNI investors such as Rajesh Ramanathan – Head Global Growth Mondelez, Kush Verma – Asoka Capital among others. The startup plans to use the funding to increase its footprint across new geographies as well as consolidate its presence in existing markets and invest in customer acquisition and brand building.

Wishfie: Bengaluru based Wishfie, a short-video platform that helps people voice their opinions on news, trending stories and issues, raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Staffopedia CEO, Abhishek Singh and a New York based angel network, Tusker Invests. This funding will be used to develop the product further, to support vernacular content, and to build its community.

PaisaDukan: Mumbai-based PaisaDukan.com, a P2P Lending marketplace, raised $225K through angel investment. The funding will boost company’s progress and will help in hiring experienced key resources and expand our technology workforce.

Apart from these, other startups which announced their expected plans this week to raise fundings in near term are BigBasket ($300 Mn-$500 Mn), Pine Labs ($350 Mn-$400 Mn) and Yatra ($100 Mn).

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Content sharing platform SHAREit acquired South Indian movie app Fastfilmz. After the acquisition, Karam Malhotra, the founder of Fastfilmz, will join as the CEO of SHAREit India. SHAREit expects to expand its content catalogue and increase its regional user base in India with Fastfilmz. Fastfilmz was valued at around $13 Mn (INR 80-100 Cr) and raised $4 Mn (INR 25 Cr) in its last funding round in 2017.
• Snapdeal offloaded its cloud-based inventory management subsidiary, Unicommerce to Infibeam for $17.8 Mn (INR 120 Cr). The acquistion amount is almost 55% low as compared to $40 Mn, at which Snapdeal acquired the Unicommerce in 2015.

Other Developments Of The Week

• YES Bank, has announced the graduation of seven startups from the Autumn cohort of its Global Fintech Accelerator, YES FINTECH. These seven startups sre Sentimer, bNESIS, Pingal, Karza, Balance Technology, Fyle, and FinBit. Within the domain of fintech, the key focus areas for YES FINTECH’s Autumn Cohort were Alternative Lending, Digital Payments, Real-time Data Analytics, Process Automation, Smart Decisioning, Wealthtech, and Invest Tech.
• T-Hub’s cohort-based incubation program Lab32™ announced that it has selected 70 startups for its first cohort of six months to ensure the strategic growth of startups. The programme aims to support the government’s ‘Startup India Initiative’ by directing entrepreneurship, innovation and addressing the challenges faced by startups.
• Epygen Biotech, a privately held biotechnology company, plans to raise $44.59 Mn (INR 300 Cr) in the next three years to fuel  launch of its exciting Biosimilar pipeline. The funding will provide Epygen with the best possible conditions to propel clinical trial programs of its pipeline molecules in the field of Oncology and Cardiology, which are showing substantial promise in protein expression and purification.
• The startup programme launched by the Startup Promotion Cell, Department of IT, Government of Goa, is supporting the launch of the first ever angel investors network in Goa- Goa Angels network. The network will extend the full membership experience that being a part of a larger network offers, including investing best practices, learning sessions and active portfolio management for the invested companies.
• Huddle, the incubator based out of the corporate hub, Cyber City, in Gurugram, has partnered with open innovation platform, IncubateHub. The partnership offers a community of over 10,000 startups to provide corporates with solutions for problems and platforms for future growth. Huddle’s worldwide mentor panel is providing structured mentorship to further strengthen the startup-corporate fit, to increase the success rate.
• T-Hub announced that it is accepting applications for the second edition of its India Market Access Bridge (IMAB) programme, a nine-month programme that provides international startups with tangible business opportunities, market understanding and access to clients in India, while also mentoring them to scale. It is a tailor-made program for post-series A startups and scaleups focused on B2B enterprise products and technology solutions for sustainability.
• The Chennai Angels and LetsVenture have partnered with an aim to bring together the strengths of both the networks, TCA’s commitment to make their portfolio companies successful and LV’s deal flow.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

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