Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [28 November – 3 December]

Flipkart’s valuation took another beating as a mutual fund managed by Morgan Stanley slashed the value of its Flipkart shares by 38.2%. The recent markdown pegged its valuation at $5.54 Bn. Morgan Stanley, as of September 2016, has marked the value of its Flipkart shares at $52.13 per share, as compared to $84.29 per share in June 2016. This is the fourth consecutive markdown by Morgan Stanley in the last nine months. Prior to this, Flipkart witnessed a series of markdowns from other mutual fund investors like T Rowe Price, Fidelity, and Valic over the past year.

This week 19 startups raised over $48 Mn in funding altogether. (Funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts.)

Startup Fundings Of The Week

Indofash: Bengaluru-based online fashion marketplace Indofash secured $150K (INR 1 Cr) from angel investors, Shekhar Sahu and Nitesh Pant. The startup will use the raised funds to scale up its international presence and for developing its technology further.

ShopsUp: Location-based shopping app ShopsUp raised a Seed funding of about $963K (INR 6.6 Cr) from Anand Sankeshwar, managing director at VRL Logistics and Yang Shu, CEO of Taojinjia.

HandyTrain: Mobile-based SaaS platform HandyTrain raised around $1 Mn in funding from Silver Range Investments, Lumina Datamatics and Shun Yoshida, Managing Director, Merrill Lynch, Tokyo, and other angel investors. This is Yoshida’s maiden investment in India. The startup has also entered into a strategic partnership with Lumina Datamatics, a media company, to further increase the former’s reach to global clients as well.

Affordplan: Delhi-based Affordplan, a savings led platform for medical expenses raised $3 Mn (INR 20 Cr) as part of its Series A funding, led by Prime Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital as a co-investor. The startup plans to use these funds to expand the current team, build the network, and scale the business to new cities across India.

Crossahead: Indian cricketer Mohit Sharma invested in a social networking-based discovery platform for artists, Crossahead. The amount of funding remains disclosed. The company plans to increase the sub-categories offered to streamline users’ search and also plans to launch a host of user-friendly options for the website as well the Android app.

WholeSaleBox: B2B online marketplace in the fashion and lifestyle segment, WholeSalebox secured $2 Mn in its Pre-Series A round of funding from angel investors. As per an official statement, the investors included Manish Maheshwari, CEO, Network 18 Digital, and Contrarian Vriddhi Fund among others. The raised funds will be used to scale its technology and expand its operations in new markets. It’ll be also used to improve the supplier and customer experience.

Kloseby: Proximity-based SaaS platform Kloseby raised $100K Seed funding from an undisclosed investor. The startup will use the funding to invest in building up the technology, hardware (beacons) and expanding the tech team. A chunk of the funding will be invested in user acquisition for mobile app (on B2C side) and merchant/client acquisition (on B2B side).

MarianaIQ: US- and Indian-based, AI-driven B2B marketing startup MarianaIQ secured $2 Mn in a Seed financing round from Exfinity Venture Partners. The company aims to help marketers deliver the right content to enhance the sales of their respective products.

Entropik: Bengaluru-based emotion recognition startup Entropik raised $200K in Seed funding from a group of angels. The angel investors who participated in the round included Dileep Bhatt, President of downstream operations, JSW Steel Ltd, and Milind Chaudhary, Director, Sea Global Services Pvt. Ltd. The raised funds will be used to ramp up its research and development efforts and get more customers on board.

Pulse: Delhi-based hyperlocal social networking app Pulse raised $500K in Pre-Series A funding round led by SAIF Partners. Earlier, the startup also raised $200K from angel investors like Rajan Anandan, Rajesh Sawhney, Anupam Mittal, Uday Shankar (CEO, StarTV), Anand Chandrasekaran, Amit Ranjan, etc. Pulse is a product of Instalively Livestreaming Pvt. Ltd.

Sidqam Technologies: Noida-based digital healthcare company Sidqam Technologies secured $1.2 Mn Seed funding led by SQue Capital. Grace Capital Ventures and Soham Vencaps, also participated in the round. The company will use the funds to expand its services beyond the NCR market, where it currently operates and for marketing visibility.

TESSOL: Infuse Ventures along with Ankur Capital invested an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding round in cold chain technology company TESSOL. The startup plans to use the fresh funds to expand its sales and service network across India and create more products

Carcrew: Mumbai-based car service startup Carcrew raised $500K in an angel round led by TVS Group. Other investors who participated in the round were Punit Goyal, Rajesh Agarwal, Ketan Kothari. The startup will be using the money to fund growth and expansion to other cities.

MonkeyBox: MonkeyBox Food Tech Pvt. Ltd, which delivers healthy food for children  raised an undisclosed amount in Seed investment from early-stage investor Blume Ventures and a clutch of high net-worth individuals (HNIs). The team plans to use the funds mainly for setting up of its kitchens.

Math Buddy: Vadodara-based edtech startup Math Buddy raised $438K (INR 3 Cr) from Menterra Venture Advisors, an early-stage impact fund that makes investments in startups working in the agriculture, energy, education, healthcare, and skill sectors. The funding will be used to expand operations to more schools and strengthen training modules for teachers.

SlideApp: Delhi-based SlideApp, a lock screen app that awards Android users for reading content, raised $3.6 Mn Series A funding. The round was led by Songhyun Investment, a leading South Korean VC firm. The app had previously raised $1.2 Mn as Seed funding. The company will use the newly raised funding to scale its user base, develop products, and strengthen its brand presence in the market. It will also use part of the funding to further develop the platform in order to make it more and more innovative and user-friendly.

Streo: Live music streaming app, Streo secured an undisclosed amount in Seed funding from GEMs Advisory and early-stage VC fund Quarizon.The startup will use the raised funds for expansion across Tier I cities in India.

IndiaLends: Delhi-based credit and financial technology startup, IndiaLends raised $4 Mn Series A funding from American Express Ventures, existing investors DSG Consumer Partners, Chinese investment firm Cyber Carrier VC, and AdvantEdge Partners. The funding will be used to expand its credit underwriting and analytics capabilities, offer more consumer-focussed products and increase its market footprint across India.

TYGR: Transport and logistics app startup TYGR received Pre-Series A funding of $3 Mn from Franchise India and a group of fellow investors. This fund will be utilised for marketing, product development, and to expand the franchisee-led distribution network in India and globally.

Hyderabad-based learning solution provider for K-12 students Next Education acquired edtech startup Xolvr for an undisclosed amount. Post-acquisition, the Xolvr team will move to Hyderabad and its platform will be integrated to Next Education’s self-learning product LearnNext. With this deal, LearnNext will get access to over 50 tutors and will be launched in July next year.

Other Developments

• T-Hub, in association with Intel India, announced the top 20 startups selected for the Innovate for Digital India Challenge 2.0. These startups will compete to participate in an 8-week accelerator programme including a 4-day USMAC boot camp, to be held from December 5, 2016 at T-Hub, Hyderabad.
• BCCL’s (Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd) strategic investment arm Brand Capital and GSVlabs’ joint venture Brand Accelerator, an accelerator-cum-Seed fund investment arm announced eight investments in 2016. The program was launched on May 16, 2016 and currently has close to$2.5 Bn assets under management, across sectors such as retail, FMCG, durables, realty, digital, health, financial services, and more.
• Singapore-based early-stage venture capital fund, Jungle Ventures closed its second fund on target at $100 Mn. The funding saw participation from Temasek Holdings, International Finance Corporation, National Research Foundation of Singapore, Hubert Burda Media, as well as family office investors such as the Kewalram Chanrai Group and Khoon Hong Kuok.
• US- and Bengaluru-based venture capital firm Accel Partners raised $450 Mn funding as part of its fifth India fund. The fund will begin to deploy in early 2017 and will invest in sectors such as consumer Internet, enterprise software, financial technology, business-to-business and healthcare
• Hyderabad-based venture capital and private equity firm, Anthill Ventures in association with Hyderabad-based startup engine T-Hub is hosting the semi-final of the Global Mobile Challenge 2016 competition in Hyderabad on December 9-10, 2016.