Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [June 27 – July 2]

This is the 100th edition of Funding Galore!!

We started doing Funding Galore almost 2 years back with the intention of keeping our readers updated on all the funding and acquisitions stories spread across the web on different portals. We publish one weekly article that encapsulates all funding activities of the week, so that it can be consumed in under 5 minutes.

After publishing this section continuously for the past 100 weeks, it seems like we have set a lofty trend here. We have got a lot of regular followers and this is what happens when we get a little bit late in publishing sometimes:

Let’s look at the fundings that took place this week:

This week 20 startups raised $73 Mn in funding altogether. (The funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startup Fundings Of The Week

PressPlay TV: Video content discovery platform PressPlay raised an undisclosed amount in funding from SD ventures. The investment will help in accelerating development of content discovery and distribution on the startup’s platform. It will also fuel further expansion of its hotspot services.

Razorpay: Online payment gateway Razonpay collaborated with MasterCard to speed up the adoption of online and mobile payments among small businesses in India. As part of the collaboration, MasterCard also invested an undisclosed amount in Razorpay. With this, Razorpay has integrated the MasterCard Payment Gateway to enable merchants and card issuers to authenticate each other prior to the authorization of a transaction.

Meru Cabs: Brand Capital, the investment arm of Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL), invested $25 Mn (INR 150 Cr) in cab service provider Meru Cabs. Meru plans to use these funds to further strengthen its foothold in the Indian market with a focus on providing quality service based on a sustainable business model, increase brand salience, and brand awareness with the aim of widening its customer base.

Scripbox: Fintech company Scripbox raised an undisclosed amount in Series B round of funding. The investment was led by Omidyar Network and existing investors. The startup plans to use the raised funds to help Scripbox establish itself as a trusted brand for savings and investments in mutual funds.

FabHotels: Budget accommodation startup FabHotels raised $8 Mn in Series A round of funding from Accel Partners and RB Investments. Mohandas Pai’s Aarin Capital and Qualcomm Ventures also participated in the funding round. The startup will use the newly raised funding for brand building and to expand its network.

VelvetCase: Online jewellery marketplace VelvetCase secured $1.5 Mn in second round of funding. The investment was led by Uniqorn Ventures Fund and angel investors – T. V. Mohandas Pai and S. Somasegar via the LetsVenture platform. The Chennai Angels also participated in this round.

Locanix: Logistic IoT startup Locanix raised $294K (INR 2 Cr) in funding from private investors and government scheme including senior executive from Goldman Sachs, large customer in the mining space and senior manager at Cisco. It plans to utilise the fund for further scaling up.

Voler Cars: Self-drive car rental startup Voler Cars raised an undisclosed amount in funding led by prominent investors like the Kanodias, along with Amit Banka. The startup is planning to reach 1000 car fleet operations within 12 months.

Gomalon: Wellness services startup Gomalon raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a form of strategic partnership with a company that makes essential oils, natural food colours and spice extracts. The startup will utilise the new investment in increasing traction via marketing, advancing in technology and acquiring talent.

BlogBeats: Blogging platform BlogBeats raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A investment from Michigan, ­US-based investors. Also, it has launched the Geo­Time tagging feature, which will allows users to exchange information about places and interests they encounter in their daily lives and travels.

YourDOST: An online emotional wellness platform YourDOST raised $1 Mn in Pre Series A funding from venture capital firm SAIF Partners. Its existing investors Venk Krishnan, Subbarao Telidevara, Phanindra Sama, Aprameya Radhakrishna, Paula Mariwala, Vibhu Garg, and Gaurav Bhalotia, also participated in the round.

Lendingkart: Fintech startup Lendingkart raised $32 Mn in (INR 205 Cr.) in Series B round. The funding was divided into two parts viz. $20 Mn as equity and $12 Mn as debt. The investment was led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), with participation from Darrin Capital Management and existing investors – Mayfield India, Saama Capital and India Quotient.

Pratilipi: Self-publishing e-platform Pratilipi raised about $925K (INR 6.3 Cr) in seed funding from Nexus Venture Partners and other investors. The round also saw participation from Contrarian Opportunities Fund I and Times Internet Ltd. Equity Crest founders Deepak Gupta and Amit Wadhwa, and Amit Banka, director at Voler Car Private Limited, put in money as well.

MySuperBrain: Online talent discovery platform for students MySuperBrain, raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Soniks Consulting. It plans to use the funds for marketing initiatives and augmenting the technology vertical, co-founder and CEO Raghavendar Reddy Bojja.

Travelyaari: Online ticket booking platform Travelyaari raised $3 Mn in a bridge round of funding led by existing investor GVFL Ltd.

Hello Tax: Income tax e-filing platform Hello Tax raised $294K (INR 2 Cr) in angel funding from Sanjeev Sinha, chief managing director of brokerage firm Amrapali Aadya. The startup will use the funds for marketing and other purposes.

Wealthtrust: Wealth management app WealthTrust raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from India Quotient. The startup will use the newly raised funds to strengthen the team and enhance the product and technology.

Drawinbox: An HR software services startup Darwinbox raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Mohandas Pai’s family fund 3one4 Capital, Tracxn Labs, Aaruha Technology Fund, and Endiya Partners. The new funds will be used to develop more modules and to expand sales and marketing.

Swarmx: TV Mohandas Pai invested an undisclosed amount in Singapore-based drone technology startup SwarmX. SwarmX’s offering SwarmX Hive allows users to operate drones with minimal training.

Campus Diaries: Campus Diaries Media and Communications Pvt. Ltd, which operates a content discovery portal targeted at school and college students, has raised $220K (INR 1.5 Cr) from Aarin Capital and others in its second round of angel investment. The new capital will be used to develop the technology platform and make it a collaborative portal.

Social network and ecommerce startup Sagoon with offices in Washington DC and Delhi is looking to raise $ 1.8 Mn on BankRoll, an equity crowdfunding platform in the USA.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• Growth solution provider DCMN acquired Kochi-based startup 1SDK for an undisclosed amount. With this, 1SDK will be integrated with DCMN’s existing technology suite as the company ramps up its efforts to address the growing demand for mobile marketing solutions.
• Mumbai-based video advertising and app monetisation platform POKKT’s incentivised Android app, Pocket Money, has been acquired by Adways Inc, Japan and South East Asia’s mobile marketing company, for an undisclosed amount. With this, the Japanese company will establish its Indian subsidiary, Adways Innovations India, in the country. It will also appoint Yu Ishida as their Country Manager.

Besides, after acquiring Bookmycab, travel and transport firm Wings Travels is close to acquiring another startup in the staff transportation technology space.

Other Developments Of The Week

• TapChief was announced as the winner of SeedStars Bangalore event 2016. It was a part of Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes.
• Axis Bank launched ‘Thought Factory‘ an innovation lab facility to accelerate innovative technology solutions for the banking sector. Thought Factory will work closely with the startups that are redefining banking in the digital era.
• Angel investor and private equity veteran Manish Kheterpal launched WaterBridge ventures with a fund corpus of $15 Mn (INR 100 Cr). It is a SEBI registered, early stage startups fund with initial focus on Seed and Series A funding in the technology startups.
• Cisco launched a startup accelerator LaunchPad to bring together Cisco technologies, startups and the developer community to deliver business relevant end-to-end Digital Solutions. LaunchPad offers startups a worldwide Go-To-Market engine to validate and scale innovative ideas.
• Societe Generale Global Solution Centre (SG GSC) launched Catalyst – a startup accelerator program for Indian startups, in partnership with Nasscom. It has selected eight startups to work with SG GSC for a period of ten weeks including Agora Analytics, Datum Informatics, FixNix, GAVS Technologies, Arya.ai, Stride.AI, Tookitaki Technologies and Uniphore Software Systems.
• Seed investment and innovation platform, Venture Catalysts (VCats), raised $500K from Zaffiro Ventures at a post money valuation of $6 Mn (INR 40 Cr). The firm will utilise the capital to diversify its offerings by adding a bouquet of services.