Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [26 September – 1 October]

Pune-based converged data protection solution provider Druva raised $51 Mn funding from Sequoia India, Singapore-based EDBI, as well as Blue Cloud Ventures and Hercules Capital. This round also includes contributions from other existing investors including NTT Finance, Nexus Venture Partners, and Tenaya Capital.

This week 13 startups raised about $56 Mn in funding altogether. (Funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding.)

Startups Fundings Of The Week

Canvs: An online community of designers and artists Canvs raised an undisclosed investment from Pratik Seal, former CMO at Housing.com. Prior to this, Canvs had received an investment of about $150K (INR 1 Cr) from multiple HNIs.

Eventjini: Chennai-based ticketing platform Eventjini raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai-based end-to-end sports management company Procam International. With this funding, Procam acquired a 26% stake in the company.

Let’sBarter: Tech-based bartering platform Let’s Barter raised an undisclosed amount in investment from VC firm Scale Ventures, and Sanjay Choudhary. The funding will be used to scale up its operations across different cities of India and for expansion of its team

InstaCar: Indore-based online outstation taxi marketplace InstaCar secured $1 Mn Seed funding from Hong Kong-based Swastika Co Ltd. Within two months of its launch, the startup claims to have on-boarded over 500 cars in Madhya Pradesh.

Beardo: Actor Suniel Shetty-backed men’s grooming brand Beardo raised $500K Seed funding from Venture Catalysts. Others who participated in the round were Raj Vazirani from RHV enterprise; Siddharth Somaiya of Godavari Biorefineries & Somaiya Group; Anuj Golecha and Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, co-founders of Venture Catalysts (VCats).

Celes Care: Hyderabad-based virtual health clinic for women Celes Care raised $1 Mn in a Seed round of funding from early-stage venture capital firm Endiya Partners and a few affluent individuals. The funds will be used for technology enhancement, marketing, and brand building.

TinyStep: Bangalore-based  parenting social network TinyStep raised $240K (INR 10.6 Cr) in funding from one of its existing investors, Flipkart. Post the deal, Flipkart’s holding in the company increased to 47.19% stake.

PromOn: Online deals and marketing platform PromOn raised a bridge round of $180K (INR 1.2 Cr) led by Now Capital. With this, Sahil Baweja and Ankit Gupta from Now Capital have joined Promon as directors and will be helping them in forming corporate strategies.

Unocoin: Bengaluru-based Bitcoin startup Unocoin raised $1.5 Mn in a Pre Series-A round. The investment was led by Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures. The round also saw participation from a few international investors such as Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, Bitcoin Capital, and FundersClub.

Kalaage: Social networking platform for writers Kalaage, raised funding from Rajasthan Angel Innovators Network. The amount of funding remains undisclosed. The funding will be used to enhance its technology and collaborations with publications and writing communities. It will also be used to expand its marketing and operations in the South Asian market and enter the North American market as well.

Fastudent: Noida-based education supplies marketplace Fastudent raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding from a group of investors. Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures; Ajay Lakhotia, former Vertex Venture Director; Pavan Ongole, former SoftBank Director; and Ashish Gupta, Trustee Ashoka University and former COO of eValueServe participated in this round. Fastudent will utilise this round of funding to expand into Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune etc., and strengthen its technology platform.

InMotion: Noida-based fintech company InMotion Media Ventures received an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round of funding, led by online pharmacy 1mg’s founders Prashant Tandon and Gaurav Agarwal. Other investors in the round included Gaurav Bhogle, Shrishti Sahu, Shantanu Mathur, and Prabhat Agarwal. The round is not yet closed and InMotion is looking to raise a total of $225K (INR 1.5 Cr) from other investors. The funds will be used for expansion of its network and operations to Tier II and Tier III cities in north India.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• NIIT has acquired Bengaluru-based startup Perceptron Learning Solutions. The acquisition accelerates NIIT’s digital transformation initiatives – StackRoute, digiNxt, and Training.com.
• Sequoia-backed Indonesian bike-taxi service Go-Jek, acquired Bengaluru-based healthcare marketplace Pianta for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will help fast track the development of Go-Jek’s logistics and transportation platforms to support its Indonesia operations.
• Mobile payments and ecommerce platform Paytm acqui-hired edtech startup EduKart. Post-acquisition, EduKart’s founder Ishan Gupta will join Paytm and be responsible for the merchant department of the company.
• Restaurant discovery and food-ordering portal Zomato acquired tech-based logistics company Sparse Labs. With this acquisition, Zomato aims at improving delivery service for its users.
• Procurement solutions provider Xeeva, acquired cloud-based e-procurement and vendor relationship management solution ProcurePack, for an undisclosed amount. Almost all the team members of Source Web will exit the company with the acquisition.

Other Developments

• The Karnataka startup cell funded eight startups with $300K (INR 2 Cr) that have built unique tech solutions for the tourism industry in India. The funding has been made in association with the Department of Tourism under the Idea2POC Scheme of the Karnataka Startup Policy.
• Gurugram-based early stage venture capital firm, YourNest launched a second fund with $45.12 Mn (INR 300 Cr) corpus. The new fund aims to increase its focus on early stage startups and a corresponding rise in the amount of investment in each startup.
• Global startup accelerator, Startupbootcamp launched its three-month Startupbootcamp FinTech programme in Mumbai. Selected startups will work with Startupbootcamp partners and fintech biggies like ICICI Bank, ICICI Lombard, RBL Bank, AZB & Partners, and PwC.
• IBM, under its Global Entrepreneur Program and in association with Manipal Hospitals and T-Hub, is organising a startup challenge, IBM Smartcamp for HealthTech.
• The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), which is responsible for promoting software exports, is planning to float a fund to provide angel funding to IT and electronics startups in the country.
• IvyCamp entered into a partnership with Zhucloud to provide Chinese investors access to Indian startups. As part of the agreement, over 30 Chinese early stage VC funds will invest from $200K up to $2 Mn in early stage startups.
• Offline gaming products startup, MadRat launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds for the launch of prototype SuperSuit– a gaming wearable to play shooting games outdoors.