Funding Galore: Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week [17 April – 22 April]

Japan’s SoftBank, amidst talks of selling Snapdeal to rival Flipkart, has reportedly been in talks with Paytm to make an investment of $1.5 Bn. The proposed deal is expected to raise Paytm’s valuation to somewhere between $7 Bn-$9 Bn.

Also, online food delivery startup Swiggy is in talks with South African Internet and media conglomerate Naspers for a possible fundraise at a valuation of about $400 Mn. As per reports, Swiggy has a pre-money valuation of about $320 Mn and Naspers is expected to invest $50 Mn-$60 Mn.

This week 12 startups raised about $15 Mn in funding altogether.

Startup Fundings Of The Week

Holachef: Mumbai-based foodtech startup Holachef raised $5 Mn in its extended Series B round of funding led by Kalaari Capital, SIDBI Venture Capital and India Quotient. The round was completed in two tranches – in April 2016 and October 2016, and values the startup at around $22 Mn. The fresh funds will be used to strengthen its logistics and in opening its first customer-facing offline kiosk in Mumbai.

Be U Salons: Delhi-based chain of standardised salons, Be U Salons secured $619K in its Seed round of funding from a clutch of investors from UAE, Singapore, and India. The funding round was led by Gaurav Kachru from 5ideas Startup Superfuel and saw participation from Jatin Aneja, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas; Sundeep Singh Sahni, founder, Lazada Group and former VP, Ola – New Initiatives; Bikramjiet Kukreja, and Arun Malhotra, among others. The infused funds will be used to strengthen Be U’s position in North India, strengthen the back-end operations and tech infrastructure of the company, acquire core talent, and marketing.

Innefu Labs: Delhi-based artificial intelligence startup Innefu Labs raised $2 Mn Series A funding from IndiaNivesh Venture Capital Fund. With this move, IndiaNivesh will also acquire a minority stake in the company. The startup will primarily use the funds to enhance its AI platform for predictive intelligence and facial biometrics.

Absentia: Bengaluru-based AI and virtual reality startup Absentia VR secured $1.2 Mn in its Pre-Series A round of funding from Exfinity Venture Partners, TV Mohandas Pai, Deepak Ghaisas, Girish Paranjpe, and V Balakrishnan. The startup will deploy the funds to build its new offering, Norah AI, an artificial intelligence-driven solution.

Whodat: Bengaluru-based augmented reality startup Whodat secured $600K in its latest round of funding from early-stage venture fund, Ideaspring Capital. Whodat was previously a part of Target Accelerator.

Credihealth: Gurugram-based medical assistance company Credihealth raised $1.5 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round from Tolaram Inc., Mountain Pine Capital, Bala Swaminathan, ex-KPMG Partner and one of the earliest investors in the platform. The funding will primarily be utilised to augment technology and infrastructure to expand services and introduce new products. Also, Credihealth aims to expand operations and fund new services to address the non-clinical pain points of patients.

Raw Pressery: Mumbai-based Rakyan Beverages, the parent firm behind packed juice brand Raw Pressery raised $543K funding from Bollywood’s Jacqueline Fernandez. The new funding pegs the company’s valuation at around $18.6 Mn. With the raised funds, Rakyan plans to improve upon the company’s manufacturing and marketing segments.

Navia Life Care: Delhi-based healthtech startup Navia Life Care raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding round from Benori Ventures LLP. The raised funds will be used for technology and business development.

Snackible: Mumbai-based health snacks seller Snackible raised $175K in an angel funding round from Nibhrant Shah, founder of Isprava and Themis; Anandbir Singh, founder of Anandini Financial Services; Anirudh Sheth, founder of Wealth Whispers; Pratik Singhi, CEO of Lakshya Consulting; Jitendra Mahnot, CEO of Startech Engineers India; and Mastercard executives Vikram Mehta and Murali Nair. The raised funds will be used for expanding operations in India and abroad as well as marketing and hiring across verticals.

Videoken: New Jersey- and Bengaluru-based VideoKen Inc raised $1 Mn in an angel funding round from Flipkart’s CTO, Ravi Garikipati; former Product Head Surot Chatterjee; former Engineering Head Ashish Agrawal; Chairman of Sutures India, LG Chandrasekhar; and partner at US-based SRI Capital LLC, Sashi Reddi. The raised funds will be used to improve artificial intelligence capabilities of the platform and enhance sales and marketing efforts.

ASADEL: Dheeraj Jain, Managing Partner at Redcliffe Capital, through his investment portfolio, invested an undisclosed amount in Delhi-based ASADEL Technologies Pvt. Ltd against a 10% equity stake. The startup provides an enhanced safety and security platform and an advance video and image enhancement solution.

Wooplr:  Bengaluru-based fashion commerce platform Wooplr raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Ankit Nagori, Ex-CBO Flipkart, and co-Founder CureFit. He also joined as a full-time Board member at Wooplr.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• Myntra acqui-hired Bengaluru headquartered InLogg, a cloud-based B2B technology platform for logistics providers, ecommerce and retail industry. Post-acquisition, the entire team of InLogg will join Myntra.
• Cloud-based asset management company Asset Vantage acquired Santa Clara-based portfolio management firm, Financial Navigator, for an undisclosed amount. Post the deal, the entire team of Financial Navigator will join Asset Vantage.
• Chennai-based on-demand laundry services startup Wassup acquired Mumbai-based home services platform Doormint in an equity swap deal. Post-acquisition, Doormint investors Kalaari Capital and Helion Ventures will hold equity in Wassup Laundry.
• Japanese advertising and public relations company, Dentsu Aegis Network acquired Smile Group owned SVG Media Pvt. Ltd. With this move, SVG Media will join Dentsu’s Asia Pacific digital marketing agency Columbus to become SVG Columbus. The acquisition will also support Columbus’ expansion in Asia Pacific.
• MapmyIndia acquired Bengaluru-based VIDTEQ for an undisclosed amount. VIDTEQ’s technology allows a user to see a video clip of a route between two locations within a city.

Also, according to recent reports, BigBasket is in talks with Grofers for a merger. If the proposed deal falls into place, Japanese investment major SoftBank will invest $60 Mn-$100 Mn in the merged entity. Both Grofers and BigBasket are Softbank backed entities.

Other Developments

• Chairman of Hero Enterprise, Sunil Kant Munjal announced an investment of $15.4 Mn in Aavishkaar’s new fund, the Aavishkaar Bharat Fund. The fund will focus on financial inclusion, employment, and promoting grassroots entrepreneurship.
• NASSCOM announced the Nasscom Innotrek 2017’s delegation which included 26 tech Startups from India and five from Silicon Valley. The startups will get a chance to visit the Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, IBM, and Target campuses. They will also get an opportunity to showcase their innovations to various stakeholders.
• Global investment bank, Nomura announced the Voyager-Nomura FinTech Partnership in India. The program is aimed at harnessing the technologies and products of mid- and high-growth stage fintech global startups to better engage Nomura’s businesses and services.
• The Tamil Nadu state government revealed plans to set up a $77.4 Mn (INR 500 Cr) venture capital fund to boost the startup ecosystem in the state. The fund is proposed to be run with the help of industry experts.
• Kishore Biyani-led Future Group launched the Future C&D (consumer and digital) Lab in Bengaluru. The initiative will focus on the consumer and digital space to bring in next generation innovations using artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchain, Internet of Things, robotics and allied technologies.
• Global Accelerator Network (GAN) has launched accelerator programme ‘India Accelerator’. The four months programme will provide startups an access to the investors and top-tier technical & business support services along with perks worth $15K-$20K.
• As of March 31, 2017, SIDBI has committed about $96.5 Mn (INR 623.50 Cr) to 17 Alternative Investment Funds. The corpus of these 17 funds is about $1.18 Bn (INR 7,675 Cr) and, out of the committed amount, it has disbursed about $5.2 Mn (INR 33.63 Cr) till March 31, 2017.
• Sequoia Capital concluded a $180 Mn secondary stake sale of eight of its portfolio companies to Madison Capital. The VC firm has divested small stakes in Pine Labs, Star Health and India Shelter Finance Corporation, along with 1.5% ownership in Snapdeal. It has also fully exited from its investment in Micromax and legal process outsourcing firm UnitedLex.

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