Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [7 November – 12 November]

Ecommerce major Flipkart’s valuation took another beating as two of its mutual fund investors marked down the value of their holdings in the company. Mutual fund Valic marked down the valuation of Flipkart shares from $108.04 (May end quarter) to $95.84 (August end quarter), a decrease of 11.3%. On the other hand, Fidelity marked down the valuation of its Flipkart shares from $84.29 per share assigned to them at the end of May to $81.55 per share for the August-ended quarter.

In another major development, Softbank Group Corp marked down close to $555 Mn in two of its Indian investments, cab hailing firm Ola and ecommerce marketplace Snapdeal, as per its six monthly earnings report, ending September 2016. Around half the value of the reported mark-downs in its investment is due to the Japanese currency’s appreciation against others. The company stated a loss of $557 Mn from financial instruments for the six-month period ending 30 September 2016 compared to a gain of $1 Bn in the year-ago period.

This week 10 startups raised over $97 Mn in funding altogether. (Funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts.)

Startup Fundings Of The Week

iimjobs: Online job search platform for mid-to-senior level managers, iimjobs secured $2 Mn in its Series A round of funding led by India Quotient, Tracxn Labs and Calcutta Angels Network (CAN). The funding will be used to scale its product, engineering, and infrastructure. It will also be used to increase its sales’ reach.

Square Yards: Gurugram-based online to offline (O2O) real estate transaction player Square Yards raised $12 Mn investment from the private equity arm of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group. The company will use the newly raised funding to strengthen its distribution network across Indian and global markets.

OnlineTyari: The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation made an equity investment of $2.1 Mn in mobile-first multilingual test preparation app OnlineTyari (OT). The startup will use the funding to expand its vernacular offering, widen exam coverage, and strengthen its technology and analytics engine.

Browntape: Hyderabad-based express distribution and supply chain solutions provider, Gati Ltd invested $2.7 Mn in BrownTape – a cloud-based software solutions company which helps online merchants manage the orders for multiple ecommerce marketplaces. Gati will utilise the BrownTape platform to develop our unique single-window solution to customers by integrating an all established pan-India logistics network and BrownTape’s multichannel order management platform.

JustRide: Mumbai-based car sharing platform, JustRide raised $3 Mn in a bridge round of funding from YCombinator partners Justin Kan & Qasar Younis (COO of YCombinator), and Paul Buccheit (creator of Gmail). San Francisco-based Susa Ventures, Kima Ventures, Axan Venture, London-based SCM Holdings, and IT-Farm from Japan also participated in this round. The fresh funds will be used to bolster JustRide’s car sharing platform JustConnect and Yabber, an IoT device for cars which is based on the company’s Smart Vehicle Technology.

Rivigo: Gurugram-based logistic platform, Rivigo raised $75 Mn from an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm focussed on growth investing. The infusion of capital will help the team to scale up its various service offerings across India, and accelerate its investment in technology and talent. This funding will also support its aspiration of becoming the largest logistics company in India by 2020.

AsepsisLife: Healthtech startup AsepsisLife raised an undisclosed amount in angel investment. The startup has also been selected for Facebook’s FbStart, the early stage, mobile-focussed startup programme of Facebook. The funding will be used to enhance company’s inorganic reach via social marketing.

Altigreen: Bengaluru-based cleantech startup Altigreen is in advanced discussions with existing investors and venture capital firms to raise a new round of funding. The fresh funding will be used to scale its manufacturing, sales and marketing.

GolfLAN: Delhi-based GolfLAN, online golf community and marketplace, has raised $1 Mn from existing investors, YourNest Angel Fund, and Africa’s leading IT/ITES group, iSON. With this investment Ramesh Awtaney, founder and Chairman of iSON group, has also taken up a minority stake in GolfLAN. The startup will use the funds to expand to Africa, Middle East, and SEA countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

ToneTag: Offline, proximity-based mobile payment solutions startup, ToneTag announced a strategic fund raise. With this, Arun Seth (Trustee at Nasscom foundation); T.V. Mohandas Pai (Chairman of Manipal Global Education); Anand Chandrasekaran (former Chief Product Officer of Snapdeal) and Deepak Ghaisas (Chairman of Gencoval Strategic Services Pvt. Ltd) will join ToneTag’s board along with other global investors. Last year in August it raised $1 Mn in its first round of funding from Reliance Capital’s Venture fund arm.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• Sequoia-backed Indonesian bike-taxi service Go-Jek acquired Pune-based mobile application developer Leftshift. The acquisition is aimed at strengthening and upscaling Go-Jek’s product development, design, and engineering platforms to support its Indonesia operations.
• Integrated mobile services provider, Mogae Media acquired personalised video platform Ao1 in an all-stock deal. Ashish Dabral, founder Ao1, will join Mogae Media as Executive Director and will work towards the development and deployment of the platform.
• Ecommerce and payments platform Paytm has acquired app-based, hyperlocal, fashion commerce startup Shopsity. Shopsity co-founders Danish Ahmed and Gaurav Arya will join Paytm’s management and will work towards strengthening Paytm’s offline seller network.

Other Developments

• IvyCamp has entered into a partnership with Airbus BizLab to announce Season #2 of its six-month accelerator programme in Bengaluru. The partnership will support startups in the field of robotics, IoT, data analytics, image processing, VR/AR, fintech, supply chain, and more. Season #2 will start on January 9 next year.
• Online restaurant discovery and food ordering platform Zomato has geared up for aggressive investments in food delivery and new businesses such as cloud kitchens. It has also roped in Morgan Stanley to raise fresh funds.
• Mumbai-based venture fund and accelerator housed at BSE, Zone Startups launched, Gateway91, a program to work with international startups and growth stage companies looking to access the Indian market. Gateway 91 will offer end-to-end services for international technology companies looking to set up their first office in India.
• Video-based talent exchange platform Talocity won the UK Trade and Investment’s (UKTI) Tech Rocketship Award, hosted at India UK Tech Summit 2016. The startup won the award in ‘Disruptive Technology’ category. The top 10 startups won a trip to the UK and a chance to pitch in front of potential investors.

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