Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [27 March – 1 April]

This week 18 startups raised about $84 Mn in funding altogether and 3 acquisitions took place.

Startup Fundings Of The Week

BigBasket: Bengaluru-based online grocer BigBasket raised about $6.9 Mn (INR 45 Cr) venture debt from Trifecta Capital. The funds will be used to meet the CapEx requirements of the company, including setting up new warehouses, strengthening the cold chain, and reprocessing facilities for fruits & vegetables.

Adurcup: Delhi/NCR-based online procurement startup Adurcup raised growth capital from strategic corporate investors and well-known family offices. The startup plans to raise a total of $500K and has already closed 65% of the round. The overall plan is to reach 10,000 unique orders a month by the end of this financial year. The company also plans to launch Adurcup Prime for restaurants, capturing all their procurement needs in one place.

Icertis: ERP solutions startup Icertis raised $25 Mn in Series C funding led by B Capital Group, Ignition Partners, and Greycroft in partnership with e.ventures and Eight Roads Ventures. The company will use the recent round of funding to accelerate R&D investment in the ICM platform. They also plan to double their staff in Seattle, San Jose, Pune, and Stuttgart and expand geographical footprint with new offices in the US and Europe.

IndusOS: Mumbai-based fully indigenous mobile operating system Indus OS raised an undisclosed amount from JSW Ventures, VenturEast, and Omidyar Network. The startup will use the raised funds towards product development and hiring new talent. The investment will also be used for enhancing the platform’s language technology to cover more Indian languages.

Licious: Bengaluru-based gourmet meat delivery, Licious secured $10 Mn in a Series B round led by Mayfield India, 3one4 Capital, Sistema Asia Fund, and Neoplux Technology Fund. The raised funds will help the company boost business growth and facilitate expansion plans in markets like Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR.

FalconBrick: Bengaluru-based real estate tech startup FalconBrick secured an undisclosed amount in its Angel round of funding led by Satveer Thakral of Singapore Angel Network, LetsVenture, and Mumbai Angels. An international venture fund has also participated in the deal. The round also saw participation from Apurva Salarpuria (founder, Salarpuria Sattva Group), Sidharth Pansari (Director, Primarc Group), Abhishek Bhatewara (promoter Family – Rohan Builders), Mridul Upreti (CEO, JLL), and others. The company plans to use the funds to strengthen product, for geographical expansion as well as its customer service/retention operations.

BYJU’s: Edtech company BYJU’s raised additional funding from Belgian-based diversified investment holding company Verlinvest. As per media reports, the company has raised over $30 Mn in this round. The fund raise will give a boost to BYJU’S international expansion and acquisition plans, announced earlier this year.

Perpule: Delhi-based fintech platform Perpule raised $650K in a Seed round led by Kstart Capital, Venture Highway, and Raghunandan G, co-founder of TaxiForSure. The company plans to deploy the freshly infused funds to expand the current team, scale the product to more cities and retailers, and to boost marketing efforts on the consumer side.

Rooter: Chennai-based sports engagement platform Rooter raised an undisclosed amount of funding from electronic goods and accessories manufacturer Intex Technologies. The startup will use the freshly infused capital to strengthen the tech team.The startup is also planning to add more members to the sales and marketing team as well as the content division to bolster vernacular versions of the app.

Crystal Logistic: Kolkata-based complete cold logistics and supply chain service provider Crystal Logistic Cool Chain Ltd raised their first private equity funding of $10 Mn (INR 66 Cr) led by Neev Fund. The raised funds will be used in expanding the company’s infrastructure and warehousing capacity by building sophisticated cold chain distribution hubs across India.

Zapyle: Bengaluru-based luxury fashion marketplace Zapyle raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a bridge round of funding.

INSOFE: Hyderabad-based professional skills training institute International School of Engineering (INSOFE) raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Kaizen Management Advisors Pvt. Ltd. The startup currently focusses on areas such as big data analytics/data science.

Fynd: Mumbai-based ecommerce fashion platform Fynd secured $500K in its Series A round of funding from Venture Catalysts. Investors including Anand Chandrasekaran, Global Director, Platform/Partnerships at Facebook, Rajiv Mehta (CEO of Arvind Sports Lifestyle Limited), and Ramakant Sharma (co-founder of Livspace) have also participated in this round. The startup plans to deploy the raised funds to enhance its consumer offerings as well as brand strategy.

Wigzo: Delhi-based machine intelligence-based personalisation platform Wigzo secured an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by existing investor, 3one4Capital. The round also saw participation from Aarin Capital Partners, Singapore Angel Network, Advantedge Partners, Rohit Malik of DMA Cap, Arjun Sharma of Select Hospitality, Mohit Gulati of Altius Ventures and Vic Kaul (ex-Executive – VMware).

Ithaka: Mumbai-based online travel planning portal  Ithaka raised $325K in a Seed funding round from angel investors based in India, US, and Singapore – including Ankit Gupta (co-founder of Linkedin Pulse), and Puneet Motihar.

DoneThing: Delhi-based on-demand personal assistant service DoneThing raised $300K from Brand Capital (the investment arm of Times Group). The raised funds will be used for geographical growth and service expansion.

Sports Flashes: Delhi-based sports content app Sports Flashes raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Vikas Bajaj (Joint Managing Director, Bajaj Motors Ltd), Amit Kharbanda (founder, MyBox Technologies Pvt. Ltd). The firm will use the funding primarily for marketing and to expand its team and domestic operations.

Jhakaas: Mumbai-based local offline business aggregator Jhakaas raised $154K in a Seed funding round. The list includes Mumbai-based management consultancy firm Stelcore Management Services Pvt. Ltd; Malini Patel, Country Manager, Bloomberg Data Services Pvt. Ltd; CP Sanadhya, director at housing finance company India Shelter Finance Pvt. Ltd; and Anjani Prasad, Managing Director at colour and specialty chemicals company Archroma India. The company will use the funds primarily to develop the technology platform and boost merchant awareness.

BadiyaJobs: Delhi-based online recruitment platform Badiyajobs wasg selected for Facebook’s developer-focussed programme “FbStart” which caters to early-stage, mobile-focussed startups. As part of the programme, the startup will be provided with services & credits worth $40,000.

Acquisitions Of The Week

1. AI-driven photography curation platform SIFTR Labs was acquired by Chinese’s mobile Internet company APUS Group, for an undisclosed amount.
2. Bengaluru-based omnichannel engagement and commerce platform Capillary Technologies acquired a minority stake in the customer management startup, Exclusife. The move on Capillary’s part aims at expanding their CRM footprint across India.
3. Software services firm Zensar Technologies Ltd acquired Keystone Logic Solutions Pvt. Ltd, for an undisclosed amount. The deal also involves its US unit acquiring Keystone’s Atlanta-headquartered subsidiary.

Other Developments

1. Early-stage venture fund, pi Ventures secured an undisclosed amount of investment from venture capital fund Accel Partners for their fund. The World Bank’s financial arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC) has also proposed to make an equity investment of $3 Mn in the fund.
2. Private equity firm Kaizen Management Advisors Pvt. Ltd achieved the first close of its second fund – Kaizen Private Equity II – at $43 Mn (INR 285 Cr) with five investors, including strategic investors, pension funds, family offices. The new fund will expand Kaizen’s focus from India to Southeast Asian countries.
3. Manohar Parrikar, Chief Minister of Goa announced the allotment of about $25.8 Mn (INR 169 Cr) for the IT sector, including $2.29 Mn (INR 15 Cr) for startups with the aim of creating 4,000 jobs per year. The Goa Government will also set up a startup promotion board in the coming financial year. Furthermore, he allocated $76K (INR 50 Lakhs) to encourage incubation centres and entrepreneur development centres in the state.
4. Droom and Shopclues founder Sandeep Aggarwal is looking to establish a family office as well as a corpus nearly seven times his startup investments last year. Aggarwal has earmarked $3 Mn (INR 20 Cr) for personal investments in nine-twelve startups this year. Once the family office is incorporated, all investments will be routed through it.

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