SUMMARY
Ninjacart raised $89.5Mn from Tiger Global
Quikr acquired used goods marketplace Zefo
In all this week, 12 startups raised $208.9 Mn funding
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We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!
This week one of the biggest funding came to Bengaluru-based agritech startup Ninjacart, which raised $89.5Mn from US-based venture capital company Tiger Global. With this, the startup is now valued at over $320 Mn (INR 2,232 Cr). As a part of this investment, Tiger Global has now acquired 26.5% stake in the company.
One of the interesting developments this week came as Japanese conglomerate SoftBank was reportedly looking to invest around $2 Bn to $3 Bn in Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio through the $100 Bn Vision Fund. It is being speculated that SoftBank is currently undertaking due diligence for the investment.
Also, global ecommerce player eBay is expected to lead a $160-170 Mn strategic investment in Paytm Mall as it looks to explore an offline-to-online commerce and payments strategy in India. US-headquartered eBay will continue to run its own independent online portal in India and the deal is likely to be announced next month.
In all this week, 12 startups raised $208.9 Mn funding and two startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)
Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week
Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week
- Online classifieds marketplace Quikr acquired Bengaluru-based used goods marketplace Zefo, for INR 200 Cr ($28.51 Mn). With Zefo, Quikr is looking to further scale its pre-owned goods and services vertical. As a combined entity, the companies will be able to offer a broader selection of products at even more competitive prices.
- M3 India, the Indian subsidiary of Japanese Healthtech company M3, picked up a majority stake in Bengaluru-based edtech startup Neuroglia Health Private Limited (NHPL), which owns and operates the app DailyRounds, for an undisclosed amount. Post-acquisition, M3 said it will foray into case-based problem-solving community platform and medical test preparation business in India. The 200 odd strong DailyRounds team will be part of M3 group. Further, Dr.Deepu Sebin will be taking leadership roles in M3 group as well.
Other Developments Of The Week
- South African Internet conglomerate Naspers has sold its stake in online travel company MakeMyTrip (MMT) to Chinese travel agency Ctrip. MakeMyTrip said that Naspers will exchange its entire shareholding in the company for newly issued shares of Ctrip while the later will acquire Naspers’ current shareholding in MMT.
- Ministry of Commerce and Industry has proposed setting up ‘India Startup Fund’ with a corpus of INR 1,000 Cr to support high technology startups. Apart from this, the government has also proposed a corpus of INR 1,000 Cr as part of incentives under the vision document ‘Startup India Vision 2024’, an official told Press Trust of India.
- Mumbai-headquartered impact venture fund Omnivore announced the final close of its second fund, Omnivore Partners India Fund 2, at $97 Mn. The firm has raised funds from investors such as CDC, FMO, SIFEM, BIO, BASF Venture Capital, Mistletoe, Sonanz, and various family offices. With Fund 2, Omnivore expects to make around 20 investments, with an average of five per year.
- Indian sweets and snacks brand Haldiram has entered the Indian startup ecosystem with an undisclosed investment in Mumbai-based integrated incubator Venture Catalysts (Vcats). The company is looking to work with startups in the consumer packaged goods (CPG).
- Tata Trusts and Social Alpha announced the launch of the second edition of Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 (SAEC 2.0) to find disruptive, innovative and impactful technology blueprints and prototypes across the energy value chain from generation, distribution and storage to consumption. The last date to submit applications is June 30, 2019.
Stay tuned for next week’s edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!
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