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Flipkart, this week once again swept the top bench of news with its plan to raise $5Bn from an IPO in US bourses over a span of 18 months. This week, 10 startups raised more than $60 Mn in funding.
A Quick Recap Of The Fundings That Took Place In The Last Week
Cardekho: Auto-portal CarDekho.com raised about INR 307 Cr. ($50 Mn) in a new round of funding led by Chinese funds Hillhouse Capital and Tybourne Capital. After this round, CarDekho is valued in the neighbourhood of $300 Mn. The funds raised will primarily be used for brand building and marketing purposes.
Grabhouse: Real estate firm Grabhouse.com raised $2.5 Mn funding in Series A round from Kalaari Capital and existing investor India Quotient. The raised funds will be used to develop new products, improve existing technology and to increase the company’s footprint in the country.
Printvenue: Personalized printing startup Printvenue raised $4.5 Mn from Asia Pacific Internet Group to expand globally and join the APACIG network, a joint venture between Rocket Internet and Qatar-based telecom player Ooredoo. The company is expecting to touch revenues of $2 Bn in the next five years. At present, 85% of Printvenue revenues come from India and the global revenue contribution is expected to grow to 50% by 2021.
Aasaanjobs: Mumbai-based job portal Aasaanjobs raised $1.5 Mn in seed round funding from Inventus Capital Partners and IDG Ventures India. According to the company, it would deploy the funds towards hiring staff and ramping up product development.
Mad Street Den: Chennai-based artificial intelligence startup raised $1.5 Mn funding from Reservoir Investments’ Exfinity Fund and GrowX Ventures. Mad Street Den’s flagship product is a visual search engine which can be used for fashion based ecommerce.
Impartus: An educational video technology startup, Impartus Innovations, with an annual revenue close to $1 Mn,raised series A round of funding led by private investment firm Kaizen to extend its services and enhance technology.
Purple Squirrel: Mumbai-based private equity investment firm Matrix Partners India invested in the second round of funding in Purple Squirrel Eduventures. The startup creates programs for college students so that they can visit and interact with entrepreneurial and big player companies.
Trumplab Edusolutions: The Company behind communication app for schools-Knit, Trumplab Edusolutions Pvt Ltd, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed round of funding led by a group of investors including Rohit Jain, Co-founder Mexus Education and Amit Rambhia, Vardhaman Technology. This will allow teachers to broadcast reminders, announcements, homework etc to the parents via the app or SMS.
Simplotel: Makemytrip made its first investment through its $15 Mn Innovation fund kept aside for travel-related technology startups. The company invested in a Bangalore-based digital hotel marketing solutions company Simplotel to promote the online distribution of accommodation inventory in India. MMT further plans to invest in the same company in June 2015, increasing its stake to 25%.
CouponMachine: Discount Coupon website Couponmachine.in raised $140K from UK based Angel Investors against a stake of 11.5%. The company has plans of using their first investment received for content creation and marketing.
Apart from this, in a bid to expand its ecommerce business, express distribution and supply chain solutions provider Gati is planning to raise over INR 120 Cr ($20 Mn) by issuing securities to Indian or Foreign Investors/QIBs/FIIs/Venture Capital Funds.
Let’s have a look at the acquisitions of the week:
Travel booking website Expedia acquired Travelocity, the most recognized travel brand in North America, for $280 Mn from Sabre Corporation. With this acquisition, Travelocity gets technology powered platforms for Travelocity’s U.S. and Canadian websites along with Expedia’s hotel supply and customer service programs. Expedia in return gets the additional web traffic.
