Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [14 November – 19 November]

Naspers is planning to set up its venture capital arm in India to expedite its investments. Naspers Ventures’ strategy will be to back scalable technology startups, which leverage India’s consumption growth.

This week 15 startups raised over $40 Mn in funding altogether. (Funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts)

Startup Fundings Of The Week

Tpot: Tpot, a Delhi-based foodtech startup focussed on serving the ‘chai-nashta’ segment, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding. The investment was led by principal investor at Tpot, Ashish Gupta, Founder & Trustee of Ashoka University and ex-co-founder & COO of Evalueserve. The raised funds will be used to add 19 more outlets by the year-end and reach up to 200 by March 2018 at various corporate offices, metro stations, and hospitals.

Trip Tap Toe: Gurugram-based travel portal and travel concierge app, Trip Tap Toe raised fresh capital in exchange of 26% stake for an undisclosed amount. R.S Sharma, former Chairman and Managing Director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) invested through his son Nayan Parashar, Director at Trip Tap Toe. The raised funds will be used to expand its sales team, initiate new marketing initiatives, invest in the mobile & web technology platform, and hire talent in the industry.

LawRato: Tech-based legal advice startup LawRato raised an undisclosed amount in its Pre-Series A round of funding led by Indian Angel Network (IAN). Post funding, V.P. Rajesh and Srikant Sastri from IAN will join the company’s Board of Directors. The raised funds will be used for the development of its online platform and expansion of operations.

Koovs: Koovs plc, a Delhi- and UK-based fashion etailer raised a strategic investment of about $4.8 Mn from the Times of India Group and a further $8.7 Mn (£7 Mn) investment by new and existing shareholders. The funding was raised through the issue of 21.7 Mn new Ordinary Shares at 50 pence/share. This capital raise is part of the final tranche of the company’s three-year investment programme to raise approximately $43.6 Mn, announced in September 2015. It brings the total raised under this programme to$38.6 Mn to date.

Scienaptic: Data analytics startup Scienaptic secured an undisclosed amount in investment from Pramod Bhasin, former Nasscom Chairman and founder, Genpact. The funding will be used to scale its big data platform, Ether.

Stasis Labs: Los Angeles- and Bengaluru-based Stasis Labs, a cloud-powered health monitoring company, raised $5 Mn in a Seed financing round led by RTP-HC, the healthcare-focussed investment arm of RTP Ventures. Wonder Ventures, Techstars Ventures, along with a few others also participated in the funding round. Milena Adamian, MD, who previously founded LSAN & Azimuth Ventures, heads RTP-HC and will be joining the company’s Board of Directors. Stasis will be using the funds to continue expanding throughout Indian hospitals and prepare to enter the US and other markets worldwide.

GoZefo: Bengaluru-based ecommerce portal for second-hand and factory seconds goods GoZefo, raised $6 Mn (INR 40 Cr) in a funding round led by Sequoia India. BEENEXT and existing investor Helion Ventures also participated in the round. With this move, Abheek Anand, Principal Partner, Sequoia Capital India Advisors, has joined the company’s board.  The startup plans to spend the funds raised on its plan to tap the value conscious online customer.

NoBroker: Bengaluru-based brokerage free real estate portal, NoBroker raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. This investment will fuel NoBroker’s next phase of growth and customer acquisition.

PlaySimple: Bengaluru-based mobile gaming startup PlaySimple raised $4 Mn in Series A round of funding from SAIF Partners and IDG Ventures India. The secured funds will be used to develop new titles, expand its teams and market its brand.

ElasticRun: Kalaari Capital and Norwest Venture Partners invested $2 Mn (INR 13.7 Cr) in ElasticRun, a Pune-based stealth mode startup. The two venture capital firms have invested a million dollars each at a post-money valuation of $7.25 Mn (INR 49 Cr). The deal was closed in May this year. Post-investment, Raju Rajesh of Kalaari joined the Board of Directors of NTex Transportation Services Private Limited, the company that runs ElasticRun.

Active.ai: Singapore-based fintech startup Active.ai secured $3 Mn fundingfrom Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures India. The infused funds will be deployed towards expansion of its AI Product platform and payments in Asia and North America.

Aermed: Aermed, a pharmacy and lab aggregator raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding round led by Hitesh Windlass, CEO of Windlas Healthcare. Other investors who participated in the round included angels from a Boston-based private equity firm and a New York-based global investment bank. Aermed will use the funds for customer acquisition and ramping up the technology team.

Pictor Imaging: Product photography startup Pictor Imaging secured an undisclosed amount in funding from Quarizon, a Delhi-based early-stage startup fund. The funding will be used to strengthen its team, technology and for marketing purposes.

vClusive: An omnichannel marketplace for luxury brands, vClusive reportedly raised $6.3 Mn in a round led by venture capital firm Hunch Ventures and a few other angel investors. The company will use the capital for technology development along with marketing and branding campaigns.

GramCover: Venture capital firm Omnivore Capital reportedly backed GramCover, an insurance marketplace for the rural sector, with $1 Mn funding. The startup is based in Delhi and was launched in March this year.

WorkIndia: A job portal for blue-collar workers, WorkIndia raised an undisclosed amount in investment from Japanese venture capital investor Asuka Holdings. The investment was done through its Singapore-based subsidiary Asuka Global.

In yet another development, human capital and management consulting services provider Aon Hewitt acquired online assessment platform, CoCubes, for an undisclosed amount. Post the transaction, CoCubes founders, Harpreet Singh and Vibhore Goyal, will continue to run CoCubes as a separate entity, and will join Aon Hewitt’s Talent, Rewards and Performance (TRP) vertical.

Other Developments

• A curated online platform for independent consultants and clients, Feelance Co. got selected in the Nasscom 10K Program. The team aims to enhance its reach and increase the depth and width of its service offerings with the support of Nasscom.
• Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP announced the results for the twelfth edition of its Deloitte Technology Fast50 India programme. GreyCampus Edutech Private Ltd emerged as the overall winner in this year’s ranking with a three-year revenue growth of 1622%.
• IBM, under its Global Entrepreneur Program, announced to organise IBM Smartcamp for Deeptech. B2B and B2C startups functioning for less than five years in the areas including IoT, big data & analytics, security, storage, mobile, cognitive, machine learning, blockchain, and social or cloud Infrastructure that can be used across various industries, can apply for the event.
• ah! Ventures announced its profitable exit from Mumbai-based Entropy Innovations within a year of its investment, for an undisclosed amount. This is ah! Ventures’ second exit in the last two years after edtech startup Harness Handitouch, from which it exited within two years of its investment.
• Pune-based DesignGild, claimed to be India’s first Design-led startup accelerator programme and an initiative of the MIT Institute of Design (MITID), announced the launch of its first batch. The boot camp for these startups will begin from January 2017 in Pune.
• The Government of Ontario and Zone Startups India awarded six Indian startups a rocket-powered launch in North America, through its annual Next BIG Idea Contest. The selected startups win a two-week market incubation at Ryerson University’s DMZ – North America’s top-ranked business incubator. The winning startups are Uncanny Vision, Heckyl Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Data Resolve Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Algo Engines Pvt. Ltd. , Senseforth Technologies Pvt Ltd and Cloudrino.
• Microsoft Accelerator released the Ecosystem Report on Indian Enterprise Ready Startups 2016 today at Bengaluru which revealed that banking, retail, and healthcare are the top adopters of startup technologies in India. The report is focussed on those startups that are serving large and small enterprises through deep and complex technological solutions. It showcases 151 enterprise ready startups and the 10 hottest sectors in the country.
• G-Startup Worldwide announced the winners for its 2016 Bengaluru competition, recently held at the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC). Fintech startup StockViews has emerged out as the winner and second and third positions have been bagged by nu,mb,erz and WorkIndia.