Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [5 December – 10 December]

This week 14 startups raised over $12 Mn in funding altogether. (Funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts.)

Startup Fundings Of The Week

Rupaiya Exchange: Delhi-based fintech startup that facilitates peer-to-peer lending, Rupaiya Exchange, has secured $200K in its angel round of funding from HNIs and a group of professionals. The company plans to deploy the raised funds towards enhancing its technology and strengthening its team.

WittyParrot: WittyParrot, a cloud-based SaaS platform has raised about $444K (INR 3 Cr) Seed funding led by Mumbai Angels Network with participation from Silicon Valley-based angel investors. The startup will use the newly raised funding to expand its sales team and grow footprint in the US as well as India.

GoMechanic: Automotive services platform for cars, GoMechanic has secured $250K from Venture Catalysts, a Mumbai-based Seed fund and innovation platform. The raised funds will be utilised to build its tech infrastructure and towards the expansion of its team.

NeuroEquilibrium Diagnostics: Jaipur-based healthtech startup NeuroEquilibrium Diagnostics Systems Pvt. Ltd, a super-speciality healthcare chain of vertigo and balance disorders clinics, raised $250K in Pre-Series A round of funding. The investment is led by Unicorn India Ventures, a Mumbai-based  VC with INR 100 Cr fund corpus. The organisation is looking to raise a further $2 Mn in Series A funding in near future.

Revv: Delhi-based self-drive car services company Revv secured $9 Mn in its series A round of funding led by Edelweiss Private Equity. The round was divided across equity and debt, where it received debt financing from Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services and car leasing partner LeasePlan India. The startup will deploy the raised funds towards expansion, development and launch of new products, and for building its proprietary technology.

TailsLife: A mobile application that addresses the pet parent’s’ needs, TailsLife secured an undisclosed amount of angel funding in a round led by Mohan Kumar, Executive Director Norwest Ventures Partners India and V. Balakrishnan, Exfinity on LetsVenture. Other  investors that participated in the round include Encube Venture Partners LLP, Satish Tembad, Vineet Jain, and Nishanth Ramkutty. The startup aims at making pet parenting easier and happier by providing content specific to the breed and age of a pet and easier access to vets, grooming and boarding services.

BookEventz: Online event booking platform BookEventz raised an undisclosed amount of funding in an angel round led by Mumbai Angels with Girish Mathrubootham (The Chennai Angels) and Anbu Pandian (PanZeea Solutions) and other investors of LetsVenture. Formerly known as Urbanrestro, BookEventz claims to have served more than 73,000 event enquiries, booked over 5,000 events with GMV of over INR 50 Cr.

NeTree: Delhi-based retailers’ networking platform Netree raised undisclosed funding in a Pre-Series A round led by The Chennai Angels and LetsVenture. The raised funds will be utilised for technology enhancement, business development, and expansion.

LookAtMe: Fashion based social media mobile application LookAtMe raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding round from Eros Labs. The startup plans to infuse raised funds in the team, technology, and growth.

Diro Labs: Delhi-based Info Edge (India) Ltd further invested about $147K (INR 1 Cr) in VCare Technologies, that offers a phone directory app called Diro Labs. Diro Labs had initially raised funding from Info Edge in June 2016.

ONN Bikes: On-demand, self-drive bike rental platform, ONN Bikes raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Grace Capital Ventures. The company will utilise the funds to develop its technological base to further minimise human involvement in the routine ground operations.

UrDoorStep: On-demand delivery portal UrDoorStep raised $1.4 Mn (INR 10 Cr) in a bridge round. The round saw an undisclosed HNI investing about $733K (INR 5 Cr) and an equal amount coming in as debt from Lakshmi Vilas Bank. With the current round, the team will expand to new pin codes in the city.

Mr.HotFoods: Bengaluru-based foodtech startup Mr. Hot foods raised an undisclosed amount in a Seed funding round led by IvyCamp Ventures. Pawan Raj Kumar, an alumnus of  IIT Delhi and IIM Lucknow has also invested and will mentor the startup.

Pinwi: Gurugram-based parenting app Pinwi (Play-Interest-Wise) raised seed funding from Mothers, who have been users of the app during its research and beta phase. The funds raised will be used to scale up and for user acquisition.

Other Developments

• Ecommerce giant Amazon invested a fresh capital of $23.5 Mn (INR 160 Cr) in its wholesale arm, amazon business.in. The wholesale platform works with 10,000 sellers in Bengaluru and registered annual sales of $1Bn in 2015.
• Intel India announced the top 10 finalists of the Intel & DST – Innovate for Digital India Challenge 2.0. The shortlisted solutions can potentially accelerate the country’s Digital India vision and comprise of projects in healthcare, smart cities, sustainability, and agriculture. The selected startups are – Oizum Instruments, IoTrek Technology, AllizHealth, NeuroTech, iNICU, Thyrometer, Gayam Motor Works, Banyan Sustainable Waste Management, Waste Ventures India and E-DeWeeder.
• Private sector bank, RBL in association with 1Crowd hosted the finals of The Big Pitch, a startup funding and incubation competition at Christ University, Bengaluru. Out of the 10 shortlisted startups, three winners of the incubation contest were offered admission to ‘Inspire!.’ The Winners of incubation contest were Aspartika Biotech, Booksbeka and Codeister Technologies. The winners of the funding competition were Denovo Biolabs, Doctors’ Circle,  and Fourth Ambit.
• Bengaluru-based Microsoft Accelerator has entered into a partnership with Wipro Limited, an information technology, consulting and business process services company to boost startups by providing them with opportunities to innovate and grow their businesses. The announcement was made at the accelerator’s flagship event – Think Next 2016. The event also marked the graduation of 13 startups from its ninth cohort.

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