Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [9 January – 14 January]

In what could be termed one of the most spoken-about announcements in the real estate sector (and the most inevitable), Softbank-backed Housing.com announced that it was merging with rival PropTiger. As part of the transaction, PropTiger’s eventual investor REA Group Limited will invest $50 Mn in the joint entity with an affiliate of SoftBank Group pumping in another $5 Mn.

Next up, Mumbai-based payment app FreeCharge received $57.2 Mn (INR 390 Cr) from Snapdeal’s parent company, Jasper Infotech, as per documents filed in the last week of Decembe 2016 at the Registrar of Companies (RoC). In April 2015, Snapdeal acquired Freecharge for nearly $450 Mn. Before its acquisition, FreeCharge had secured funding from Sequoia Capital, Tybourne Capital Management, and San Francisco-based fund Valiant Capital Management.

This week 13 startups raised around $83 Mn in funding altogether. (Funding amount is based on startups that disclosed their funding)

Startup Fundings Of The Week

SecureAX: Bengaluru-based biometric and surveillance solutions provider SecurAX raised an undisclosed funding round. The investment was led by Axilor, Parampara Early Stage Opportunities Fund and a group of angel investors. The startup will use the funds to enhance technology offerings, expand customer base and scale up its operations across India and the Middle East.

Unacademy: Bengaluru-based edtech startup Unacademy secured $4.5 Mn (INR 30 Cr) funding in Series A round led by Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. Girish Mathrubootham, CEO, Freshdesk and Ananth Narayanan, CEO, Myntra, along with Stanford Angels have also participated in the round.

Square Yards: Gurugram-based real estate portal Square Yards received $10 Mn in funding. The funding is led by a group of high net worth individuals including global beauty brand L’Occitane CEO Andre Hoffman and the family office of Kanpur-based Lohia Group. It is now targeting double-digit market share in Indian real estate distribution and is planning to expand to 25+ countries on the ground advising on global real estate.

Hansel.io: Bengaluru-based real-time mobile app management platform, Hansel.io raised $1.35 Mn from IDG Ventures. Existing investors Endiya Partners also participated in the current round of funding. The raised funds will be used towards the development of cross-platform capabilities, hiring and expanding its presence in the North American market.

Supercraft3D: Flipkart founder Binny Bansal invested in a 3D Printing startup Supercraft3D, pouring in $1 Mn (INR 6.6 Cr) into the company. Four other undisclosed angel investors also participated in the funding round. This is Flipkart’s fifth investment in the healthcare space.

InstaOffice: Business centres and coworking space provider InstaOffice raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding led by Globevestor. Zishaan Hayath (co-founder Toppr); Karan Chellani (Managing Partner at SQUE Capital) and Mohit Satyan (Director at DFM Foods and Chairman of Teamwork Arts), along with a cluster of other industry experts and angel investors also participated in this round. It aims to grow to over 1,000 active members by the next quarter.

IntelligenceNODE: Mumbai-based big data analytics startup, IntelligenceNODE raised $733K (INR 5 Cr) from NBFC firm BlackSoil Capital. This is the company’s third disclosed round to date. The team is also backed by investors such as Gaurav Sharma, Sunil Varrier, Arindam Das, Anupam Mittal, and Gul Mukhey.

Securens Systems: Mumbai-based e-security startup Securens Systems Pvt. Ltd raised around $5 Mn (INR 35 Cr) from Trifecta Capital. Existing investor Mayfield India also participated in the current funding round. The raised funds will be used to increase its client-base.

iService: Bengaluru-based gadgets repair firm iService has raised $439K (INR 3 Cr) in a Seed round of funding led by Blume Ventures. Angel investors such as Freshdesk co-founder Girish Mathrubootham, TaxiForSure co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna, Tapzo CEO Ankur Singla, former Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari and Belong co-founder Vijay Sharma also participated in this round.

Medinfi: Bengaluru-based healthcare startup Medinfi raised $100K from a group of angel investors including Vinod Martin, chief operating officer of a Singapore-based IT services company; Singapore angel investor Evan Lim; Kanchan Ghoshal, a Qatar-based alumnus of management school XLRI; and Ram Kumar Kakani, a professor at XLRI. The company will use the funding to expand its user base to 50 cities in India.

PaisaWapis: Bengaluru-based deal discovery and cashback portal PaisaWapas raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Vividhity Ventures, a group of IIT (BHU), Varanasi alumni and a few executives from Infosys and Dell. The funds will be used for increasing team strength, expanding college network to over 200 colleges, marketing, and partnering with various players working in the education space.

Roambee: Silicon Valle- and Mumbai-based IoT company Roambee raised $3.1 Mn funding from Deutsche Telekom Strategic Investments. Also, it partnered with Deutsche Telekom’s corporate customer arm, T-Systems to offer a real-time visibility solution for goods and assets in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Together, employing an “on-demand” pay-per-use business model, the two companies are delivering an end-to-end solution featuring real-time visibility, tracking, and condition monitoring of shipments and assets in-transit and in-field.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• BYJU’s is reportedly in talks to acquire US-based gaming and learning startups to expand its footprints internationally. The deal is expected to be closed in the next six months and the ticket size of the potential acquisition(s) could be in the range of $5 Mn-$30 Mn.
• Mumbai-based fashion recommerce platform CoutLoot acquired Bengaluru-based competitor ‘Once Again Store’ for an undisclosed amount in an all-stock deal. The team at Once Again has joined CoutLoot and all the products listed on Once Again Store will now appear on the CoutLoot app.
• Delhi-based GolfLan, online golf community and marketplace acquired Singapore-based online golf aggregation platform GolfGreedy in a mixed cash and stock deal. As per the terms of the deal, GolfGreedy will become a part of the GolfLan group but will continue to operate under its own brand name. With this deal in place, GolfLan will now manage GolfGreedy’s 10,000 subscribers from Singapore and nearby areas on its platform.
• Online baby care retailer FirstCry is in talks with parenting platform mycity4kids for an acquisition deal worth $15 Mn. The company has supposedly completed several rounds of discussions with the Delhi-based startup
• Global CRM company Arvato CRM Solutions acquired Bengaluru-based IT and analytics company Ramyam Intelligence Lab Pvt. Ltd. Ramyam will continue to operate under its brand name following the acquisition.
• Travel search engine ixigo acqui-hired mobile content sharing app Reach. As a part of the deal, the Reach team will join ixigo to enhance its existing products and also help with consumable content for the travel space.

Other Developments

• The Odisha government announced to set up a Startup-Park on the lines of T-Hub in Hyderabad. The park will facilitate a physical space for budding entrepreneurs and will create an ecosystem for them and encourage innovations as well.
• The 21st Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) announced the winners of its Fourth Wharton India Startup Competition. Detect Technologies, and HelpUsGreen led the list while Kings Learning received an additional three-month mentorship with Unilazer Ventures.
• The private equity arm of IDFC Group, IDFC Alternatives announced to launch its fourth fund with a corpus of $100 Mn. With this fund, IDFC is looking to invest in approximately 10 startups with a ticket size of around $30-50 Mn.
• YES Bank announced the launch of a business accelerator programme – YES FINTECH (YFA) for fintech startups. The initiative is in association with T-Hub and Anthill Ventures, with LetsTalkPayments (LTP). With the YES FINTECH platform, YES Bank aims to co-create innovative solutions and partner in taking the solution to the bank’s retail and corporate customers.
• East Ventures, a Singapore-based VC firm launched its fifth fund with a corpus of $27.5 Mn. The new fund aims to invest in startups in Southeast Asia. The capital has been raised from undisclosed prominent families and entrepreneurs. The firm will invest in more than 20 startups in a year in the region.
• Airbus Bizlab Bengaluru launched the second season of its startup accelerator programme today. It has shortlisted six Indian startups for the same. The list includes Earth2Orbit, eFlight, Neewee, Stelae Technologies, SYmbosim, and Accelo. One more startup is selected from Singapore – Innovative Binaries.
• Mumbai-based venture debt fund InnoVen Capital extended debt funding of more than $16 Mn (INR 110 Cr) in 13 new deals. A statement issued by the fund stated that its deployment for the year ending 2016, totalled almost $58.6 Mn, (INR 400 Cr) across 43 loans, to 35 startups. Out of these, 26 investments were new additions to the portfolio.
• Gujarat government introduced India’s first Student Startup and Innovation Policy. A State Innovation Fund with a corpus of $29.3 Mn (INR 200 Cr) will be provided to the students during the next five years. For this, $14.6 Mn (INR 100 Cr) will be allocated by the State Government and the remaining amount will be created by internal sources.
• Uber announced the winners of UberPitch 2016. The list included SeekSherpa, LeanAgri, and Ambee. Uber will now invest US$ 50,000 into the companies and invite them to San Francisco, where they will get advice and guidance from meeting top Uber executives and other venture capitalists.