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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
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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