Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [27 August-01 September 2018]

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

In a major development, Noida-based Paytm closed a funding deal with US-based conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway — more than a century old company, currently led by American business magnate and investor Warren Buffet. The deal may get Berkshire a 3-4% stake in Paytm through a primary subscription of shares and the deal is pegged to be valued at around $282 Mn – $352.7 Mn.

In another major development, global ecommerce company Amazon acqui-hired Tapzo, an “all-in-one” app that aggregates 35+ different apps in one place, to boost Amazon Pay in India. Tapzo team will sit with Amazon Pay team in their WTC office. The deal was valued at between $40-45 Mn, including the stock component, and will give a cash-out to investors while co-founders of Tapzo Ankur Singla and Vishal Pal Chaudhary will get some cash along with shares in Amazon.

Apart from the above, this week nine startups raised a total of $41.2 Mn funding and five acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

Servify: Mumbai-based device management and ownership platform Servify raised $15 Mn in a Series B investment round led by Mumbai-based venture capital firm Iron Pillar. Other existing investors including Mumbai-based Blume Ventures and Singapore-based BEENEXT also participated in the funding round. The startup plans to use the raised funds to add depth to its senior management and to also build new technology solutions for their clients.

 WheelsEye: Gurugram-based logistics startup WheelsEye raised $1 Mn from Bengaluru-based venture capital firm Prime Venture Partners. The startup plans to use the funding to refine its product, which is still in the early stages of development.

myUpchar: Delhi-based healthcare startup myUpchar raised $5 Mn from Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, and Shunwei Capital in a Series A funding round. The startup plans to use the raised funds to develop its product and technology offering. It will further strengthen its voice, video, and virtual reality interfaces and also work on the development of newer interfaces.

MissMalini: Mumbai-based entertainment-and-lifestyle content platform MissMalini closed a $1.4 Mn (INR 10.4 Cr) pre-Series A funding round led by venture capital firms Orios Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The company plans to use the raised funds to expand its leadership position with a focus on community building and to further expand its content, technology, analytics, and sales operations.

Shubh Loans: Bengaluru-based Datasigns Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs fintech platform Shubh Loans, raised $4.2 Mn in a funding round led by venture capital firm Saama Capital. Existing investors, including SRI Capital, Beenext, and Pravega Ventures, also participated in the round. The platform plans to use the raised funds to expand its customer sourcing platform and invest more in augmenting its technology.

ZestMoney: Bengaluru-based digital lending startup ZestMoney raised $13.4 Mn in an extended Series A round of funding led by Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. Existing investors PayU, Ribbit Capital and Omidyar Network also participated in the round. The startup plans to use the raised funds to strengthen its technology and data science capabilities as well as expand use cases for the core ZestMoney Affordability Product.

 Medcords: Pune-based digital medical platform Medcords raised $373.8 K (INR 2.64 Cr) from Noida-based Naukri.com owner Info Edge. With this funding, Info Edge will take buy 11.37% stake in Medcords.

Rooter: New Delhi-based live sports social engagement platform Rooter raised $634.6 K (INR 4.5 Cr) in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Venture Catalysts. The funding round also saw participation from VCats’ investors including Khalid Al Tawil, Anjali Malhotra, Pranay Nigotiya, Vishal Agarwal, Nishil Agarwal, Tharun Dhariwal, and Vivek Awasthi. The startup plans to use the raised funds to further expand its growing user base, offer a multilingual experience on apps and launch new web products aimed at mass adoption.

Playtoome: Bengaluru-based entertainment solutions provider Playtoome raised $282 K (INR 2 Cr) in a Pre-Series A investment from Venture Catalysts. Arihant Patni, Bhaskar Raju Konduru, Goverdhan Singh Jamwal, Akhileshwaran Krishnan also participated in this funding round.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Mumbai-based engineering company Greaves Cotton announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in the Tamil Nadu-based electric vehicle maker, Ampere Vehicles. With the acquisition, Ampere Vehicles will become an independent subsidiary of Greaves.
• Samara Capital and Xponentia Fund Partners acquired Bengaluru-based logistics provider Spoton for $78.48 Mn (INR 550 Cr). With the acquisition, the Spoton leadership team will continue to drive and execute the next phase of Spoton’s growth strategy, working closely with the Samara and Xponentia Teams.
• Gurugram-based real estate company PropTiger acquired Delhi-based premium office space aggregator/platform CBIX in a deal worth $4.7 Mn (approx). With this acquisition, Proptiger will enter project servicing, project financing, and the commercial leasing business.
• Himanshu Gupta, a professional serving legal industry, and Ashish Bhatia, CEO, India Accelerator acquired Gurugram-based online legal tech company Lawyered for an undisclosed amount in an all-cash deal. With the acquisition, the founders of Lawyered have handed over the lead to Himanshu Gupta and Ashish Bhatia.
• 1-India Family Mart’s founder and COO Ravinder Singh announced the sale of his fintech startup Starfin India to BLS E-Services for an undisclosed amount.  BLS E-services will set up its own network of franchisees to provide B2C (Business to Consumer) services across the country, mainly targeting small towns and villages. This business model will promote entrepreneurship, employment generation, and skill development contributing to the development of rural India by making world-class services easily accessible.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Global search engine giant Google is in talks to acquire Where is my Train startup, which helps provide live train updates without the use of internet and Global Positioning System (GPS) for $30-40 Mn. Also, smartphone maker Xiaomi is planning to invest an undisclosed amount in the startup as well. With the acquisition, Google will be able to tap the Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 cities and even the remote locations where internet penetration is negligible.
• VC firm Unitary Helion raised $100 Mn funds from US-based early stage venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. With the latest fundraise, Unitary will be nearing a  first close of $100 Mn fund and the VC firm has already got commitments of $40-45 Mn.
• T-Hub and HSBC announced the selection of five startups in the first wave of the Accelerator 2030 programme. The startups were asked to use AI and machine learning in developing the PoCs, which were presented to a judging panel of leaders from HSBC Operations and a T-Hub team of finance, marketing, and emerging technology experts. The list includes names such as Abda Digital Pvt. Ltd., Tookitaki Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Capital Quant Solutions Pvt Ltd, Morph.ai, and vPhrase Analytics Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
• Lufthansa launched Elevator Pitch contest for startup entrepreneurs to make a three-minute business pitch at Startup Expo 2018. The winner will get a sponsored seat in a business programme at Cambridge University,  a Lufthansa Business Class ticket to Europe, and a coveted TiE Delhi-NCR mentorship. The startup entrepreneurs are invited to apply online by September 15, 2018.

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

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