Funding Galore: Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week [21- 26 May 2018]

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

One of the biggest Indian startup funding this week was content aggregator NewsDog raising $50 Mn in Series C round led by Tencent, in participation with DHVC, Legend Capital, and Dotc United Group. The company plans to use the funding to pursue its vision of empowering individuals and professional content creators to showcase their work and reach digital readers in large numbers.

In another major development, post the Walmart acquisition of Flipkart, SoftBank has finally confirmed that it will sell its entire stake of 23.6% in the ecommerce unicorn. Following this, reports surfaced that Amazon is in talks with Future Retail Limited to acquire 10% stake in the company for about $500 Mn to $600 Mn.

In all, this week 14 startups in the Indian startup ecosystem raised around $80 Mn in funding altogether and five startup acquisitions took place. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

Cure.Fit: Bengaluru-based fitness startup Cure.Fit raised $878.2K (INR 6 Cr) from Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan. In August 2017, Cure.Fit had signed on Hrithik Roshan as its brand ambassador. The five-year contract is valued at $14.63 Mn (INR 100 Cr).

Mobisy: Bengaluru-based SaaS startup Mobisy raised a second round of venture capital funding of $3.5 Mn (INR 24 Cr), led by SIDBI Venture Capital Limited (SVCL). The startup plans to use the funding to strengthen its R&D and power expansion plans through an intensified sales and marketing push.

Edyoo: Bengaluru-based ecommerce startup Edyoo raised $1 Mn in pre-Series A funding from RS Shanbag, chairman and managing director of the diversified Valuepoint Group. The startup plans to use the funding for product development, technology, marketing, and to expand its team and areas of operation.

BetterPlace: Bengaluru-based BetterPlace, an HRtech startup for the blue-collar workforce, raised $3 Mn in a Series A funding round led by 3one4 Capital. With the funding, the startup aims to add new solutions and expand to new verticals such as skilling, compliance, and fintech services in order to consolidate its position as a single platform for the semi-formal workforce in the country.

Smartivity Labs: Delhi-based edtech startup Smartivity Labs raised $2 Mn (INR 13.5 Cr) from small- and mid-cap stock picker Ashish Kacholia. The startup plans to use the funds to scale its operations into international geographies, among others.

Milkbasket: Gurugram-based micro delivery startup Milkbasket raised $7 Mn in Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital with participation from the Singapore-based BeeNext. The startup plans to use the funding to bring efficiencies in its supply chain, last-mile logistics, and to expand into other geographies.

Raw Pressery: Mumbai-based organic juice startup Raw Pressery secured $9.55 Mn (INR 65 Cr) in funding from its existing investors such as Sequoia Capital, Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. With the fundraise, the startup plans to expand its footprint to Southeast Asia and also strengthen its distribution and supply chain as it looks to scale up new offerings.

ImpactGuru: Mumbai-based Non-profit crowdfunding startup ImpactGuru raised $2 Mn (INR 13 Cr) in Series A round of funding co-led by Apollo Hospitals Group and Venture Catalysts. The startup plans to use the funding to scale crowdfunding in India by ramping up sales and marketing as well as by developing its technology platform

Arzooo.com: Bengaluru-based reverse auction ecommerce platform Arzooo.com secured $221.19K (INR 1.5 Cr) in a seed round of funding from Omphalos Ventures India. The startup plans to further develop their technology, and expand its operations to the top-ten Indian cities by March 2019.

Rocketium: Bengaluru-based web-based video creation startup Rocketium raised $294.94K (INR 2 Cr) from Blume Ventures and angel investors. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its global footprint by hiring sales and marketing talent and building a Machine Intelligence team to further automate the video creation process.

DheeYantra: Bengaluru-based conversational chatbot startup DheeYantra secured an undisclosed amount of seed investment from CIIE Initiatives, Gopal Krishna and Vijay Kedia. The startup plans to use the funding to strengthen its sales, marketing, and also feature additions such as support for more vernacular languages being used in India and the global market.

Cashkumar: Bengaluru-based P2P lending platform Cashkumar raised $737.33K (INR 5 Cr) pre-series A round of funding. The startup plans to use the funds to meet regulatory norms, start paid marketing campaigns and expand operations from the current 6 to 20 cities.

PLiNG: Kochi-based FMCG startup, PLiNG Foods and Beverages raised $191.69K (INR 1.3 Cr) in equity funding. The startup is in talks with distribution partners to accelerate their retail presence and is also investing in its R&D.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Pune-based fintech startup EarlySalary acquired consumer lending platform CashCare. As part of the acquisition, Vikas Sekhri, the CEO of CashCare will be the Head of Strategy at EarlySalary, and Suraj Mundada, the CTO of CashCare will be the Chief Architect. EarlySalary is also planning to expand into consumer financing business with this deal.
• Bengaluru-based bike taxi startup Rapido acquired Hyderabad-based Getbike to enter B2B segment. Getbike founder Shravya Reddy will move to Bengaluru as part of the deal.
• Digital payments giant Paytm acquired TicketNew, Chennai-based online ticketing platform. With the acquisition, Paytm is seeking to connect its more than 300 Mn customers to TicketNew partner cinemas and further invest in helping grow their occupancy and revenues.
• Cure.Fit acquired Fitness First in India. With this deal, Cure.Fit has also merged its subsidiary, Cult Fitness, with the Fitness First business in India. The joint entity will now operate under the Cure.Fit platform. The consolidated business will have more than 50 fitness centres across the country, to begin with, and claimed it will add five fitness centres every month.
• Gurugram-based renting platform FastFox.com acquired Roofik.com, real estate review and rating platform. With the acquisition, FastFox expects to strengthen its efforts to directly source rental inventory from homeowners across neighbourhoods. Roofpik’s founders, Arpit Mittal and Divij Goyal will be working in a consulting role for the next three months to oversee the transition process and ensure seamless transfer of operations.

Other Developments Of The Week

• SoftBank asked OYO to get new investors, following which it will participate in a funding round of nearly $500-700 Mn. It is to be noted that if this funding round materialises, it will likely catapult OYO to the status of a unicorn.
• Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) plans to create over 7,600 rural enterprises aimed at boosting rural livelihood and employment. It further aims to create around 36K rural enterprises by March 2021. The initiative has been launched across 42 blocks across 11 states so far, and assisted in getting credit linkage to the tune of $3.1 Mn (INR. 21.2 Cr) for providing funds to rural enterprises.

• With Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte visiting Bengaluru on May 25, Netherlands aims to set up Startup Link, an umbrella initiative to help Dutch startups explore the Indian market. The Netherlands India-delegation, comprising 120 business delegates along with two ministers and the mayor of the Hague to Bengaluru, is their largest delegation to any foreign country. IoT, 3D Printing, cybersecurity and blockchain are some of the areas where the startups can collaborate under Startup Link.
• Urban Ladder launched its first store in Gurugram across 4000 sq ft of retail space. This is the fifth installment of the furniture brand’s offline offering, with its earlier stores located in its hometown of Bengaluru. Additionally, the brand has also timed its bi-annual ‘Full House Sale’ with the launch of its first store in NCR. The Gurugram store will be the first of three planned stores in NCR, kicking off the next phase of Urban Ladder’s offline expansion.
• Delhi-based RevStart will now provide startups with dedicated acceleration assistance to enable entrepreneurs to translate their unique ideas into successful products and services. Under the acceleration programme, the early and growth stage startups will get mentorship and funding opportunities from global investors and mentors. On  the completion of mutually decided milestones, RevStart will lead the investment invest in the selected startups.
• Google is bringing its Demo Day to Asia, which works like a crash course of an early-stage startup programme without the months-long training leading up to it. Google identifies promising companies to start working with them ahead of the Day.
• While Israeli startups and enterprises are expected to launch their technology solutions in the Indian market, as part of the collaboration, Intel India will extend its Maker Lab facilities to some Israeli startups. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB)’s Israel Centre will also play an active role in the partnership by conducting training for Israeli and Indian startups.
• Indian Angel Network (IAN) has raised more than $33.22 Mn (INR 227 Cr) for its maiden fund launched in April 2017. IAN has already invested in 15 startups through the maiden fund. It targets to invest around $731.72 Mn (INR 5,000 Cr) over the next 10 years across 500 companies and help create around 50,000 jobs in the process.

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

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