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In one of the biggest deals in Indian startup ecosystem, Flipkart swept in $1.4 Bn from Tencent, eBay, and Microsoft, at a post-transaction valuation of $11.6 Bn. Flipkart will buy eBay India operations as part of this deal. Also, eBay will infuse cash in Flipkart against an equity stake.
Next up, Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd secured $260 Mn (INR 1675 Cr) from its largest stakeholder SoftBank Group in November 2016. The funding round was completed last year only, however, it was never officially announced.
Besides the $1.6 Bn raised by the above-mentioned Indian unicorns, 16 startups raised about $40 Mn in funding altogether.
Startup Fundings Of The Week
WeAreHolidays: NCR-based holiday planning startup WeAreHolidayssecured $7.7 Mn in its Series B round of funding led by Urrshila Kerkar, founder and promoter of Cox & Kings, against 50% stake in the company. The funding will be used to relaunch WeAreHolidays’ app on the Android and iOS and to develop the company’s social media-driven approach to travel.
Squad: Delhi-based Squad (earlier known as SquadRun) raised $2.1 Mn funding from Blume Ventures, Contrarian Capital, 91springboard, Emergent Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Anthill Ventures, Axilor Ventures, angel investors Gokul Rajaram (Product Engineering Lead at Square) and Shamik Sharma (Senior Technology Advisor at Myntra). The funds will be used to expand its technology, product, and data teams in India and the sales team in the US.
HackerEarth: Bengaluru-based professional talent management startup HackerEarthraised $4.5 Mn in an equity financing round led by US-based DHI Group Inc. along with BEENEXT, BEENOS, Digital Garage, BizReach, and Prime Venture Partners also participating in the round. The startup will use the raised funds to strengthen product team and for international expansion.
Clovia: Noida-based online lingerie retailer Cloviaraised $4 Mn in an extended Series A funding round from Singularity Ventures and former BCCL CEO Ravi Dhariwal. The raised funds will be used for marketing, expanding sales channels, and to boost product and technology development.
Ninjacart: Bengaluru-based B2B agri-marketing platform Ninjacartraised $5.5 Mn from Accel Partners, Nandan Nilekani’s NRJN Trust, Mistletoe, Qualcomm Ventures, and M&S Partners. The startup will use the newly raised funding to expand its team and invest in supply chain automation, technology and data science.
Capital Float: Bengaluru-based online lending platform for SMEs Capital Floatraised $2.3 Mn from Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services. The funds have been raised against the allotment of non-convertible debentures (NCDs).
Omnify: Bengaluru- and California-based SaaS platform for SMEs, Omnifysecured $150K from Rajan Anandan (VP, Southeast Asia and India, Google), L.D Sharma (CEO, Shoogloo Group and MD, Optimise Media Group, India), and Saurabh Arora (founder and CEO, Airwoot). The round also saw participation from a few investors via LetsVenture’s platform. The startup will deploy the infused funds to improve its technology for small businesses.
FastFox: Online rental brokerage platform FastFoxsecured $4.6 Mn in its Series A round of funding from Lightspeed India Partners, Blume Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, GrowX Ventures, and IMJ Investment Partners. The startup plans to use the funding to enhance technology, delivery model, and team expansion across engineering, sales, and operations.
Lendingkart Group: Ahmedabad-headquartered fintech startup Lendingkart Groupraised $4.65 Mn in the form of non-convertible debentures from alternative asset management firm Anicut Capital. The company will use the newly raised capital to strengthen lending operations of its subsidiary NBFC, Lendingkart Finance Limited.
Simulanis: Delhi-based e-learning and skills development startup Simulanisraised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Village Capital. A consortium of angel investors including Pawanjit Ahluwalia (Chairman, India Skills), Apurva Chamaria (VP and Head – Corporate Marketing, HCL Technologies) and Mridul Upreti (CEO, Segregated Funds Group – Jones Lang LaSalle) also participated in the current funding round. The company will use the raised funds to expand its sales team in the pharma and automotive sector while exploring other domains such as industrial goods.
Emiza Inc: Supply chain management and logistics startup Emiza Incsecured $4.5 Mn in a funding round led by US-based VC firm Mayfield.The round also saw participation from Nishant Rao, Global COO at Freshdesk & Chairman, IAMAI and Dileep Nath, MD Aaroha Pte. Ltd. The investment has been facilitated by Mayfield’s India- focussed fund, Mayfield India II. The infused funds will be deployed by the startup to enhance its technological base and acquire talent for its senior leadership team.
SportsFlashes: Delhi-based sports content app Sports Flashes raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Sushil Kumar, the wrestler and Olympic medallist and Sandeep Singh of Global Edusports Ventures. The startup will use the funds for marketing and expansion of operations.
MergerWare: Software solutions provider for post-merger and acquisition integration MergerWare raised $100K from Philippe Bouchet, former Vice President at Schneider Electric. The company will use the fresh capital for global expansion plans.
TinMen: Hyderabad-based food delivery startup TinMen raised an undisclosed amount of funding from MAPE Advisory Group, Sify co-founder R Ramaraj and Corvus Ventures along with existing investors. The startup will use the funds for marketing, team-building, and expansion to other cities.
SafetyKart: Gurugram-based Redcliffe Capital invested an undisclosed amount in SafetyKart Retail against a 10% stake and its private label brand and product PeeSafe. With this deal, PeeSafe has also been moved to a newly founded entity Redcliffe Hygiene Pvt. Ltd.
Kiji Foods: Bengaluru-based, tech-driven FMCG startup Kiji Foods raised an angel round of $470K from HealthcareMagic co-founders Kunal Sinha and Shekhar Sahu. The startup has launched its first product “Fit-0-slim” in the market six months ago.
Also, under JumpStart, a pre-seed funding opportunity, 25 startups and innovations receive INR 40K each, sourced via the Gujarat CSR Authority for scaling their operations. The initiative was started in March 2017.
Acquisitions Of The Week
Info Edge bought “AmbitionBox.com.” Under the arrangement, the founders of AmbitionBox, Mayur Mundada and Subramanya Jingade, have also joined the InfoEdge team.
Cashback and analytics company Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services acquired online cashback and coupons startup Pennyful for an undisclosed amount. Post-acquisition, the Pennyful team will be integrated with Zaggle.
Other Developments
Amazon Internet Services Pvt Ltd is inviting applications from startups to participate in its Innovation Pavilion at the AWS Summit on May 3, 2017. The programme will give a chance for startups running on AWS to showcase to the Summit audience.
Axilor inducted 20 startups as part of its accelerator programme for the Summer 2017 batch. At the end of the 100 days, most startups achieving the programme goals get a funding of $38.87K (INR 25 Lakhs) through Axilor’s Scale-up programme.
advantEdge Partners selected Ango Health and Unanth for its six-month incubation programme. The startups will receive up to $23K (INR 15 Lakhs) in exchange for 5%-8% equity.
Government changes rules for ‘Fund Of Fund’ AIFs. The AIFs supported by FFS shall now invest at least twice the amount of contribution received from the FFS in startups qualifying as per the DIPP criteria.
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