Funding Galore: Startup Funding Of The Week [23Feb – 28Feb]

In the fervor of funding from National and International investors India is enjoying the boost of startup ecosystem in investors lap. This week, in total 13 startups grabbed more than $45 Mn in funding. (This is based on startups that disclosed their funding amount)

A Quick Recap Of The Funding Of The Week

Industrybuying: Venture capital and private equity firm SAIF partners invested over $2 Mn in Industrybuying.com, a B2B ecommerce startup for industrial material. The funds raised are planned to be used for increasing traffic growth, expansion and accessibility of products and drive massive revenue growth.

PepperTap: Online hyperlocal grocery startup PepperTap raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Sequoia Capital to expand its business geographies and develop a significant brand to fit its customers’ daily call of work.

SquadRun: SquadRun, a mobile marketplace for crowdsource work which raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a group of investors including Amit Ranjan of Slideshare, Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato, Zishaan Hayath, founder of Toppr and Girish Khera, co­founder at Scientific Animations. The raised funds will be used for product development and team expansion.

Tinyowl: TinyOwl raised INR 100 Cr in Series B funding round from Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners to expand in 50 more cities and gain market traction. It plans to improve the customer experience and satisfaction by investing in user friendly technology.

Clonect: Clonect Solutions is a Software Company focusing on products in governance, risk and compliance management (GRC) that raised seed funding of around $2, 50,000 from Balakrishnan and T V Mohandas Pai. The company plans to invest the funds in the development of the product and its sales and marketing.

Momoe: Mobile payment startup Momoe raised $1.2 Mn (INR 7.4 crore) from investors led by IDG Ventures India and Jungle Ventures, with participation from India Quotient. The raised funds will be used to expand the team as Momoe plans to reach 500 merchant outlets in the next few months.

Grofers: On-demand delivery startup Grofers raised $10 Mn funding from Tiger Global & Sequoia India to upgrade the business and increase orders served by the company from 180 a day to 3,000 by end of this year.

TaxSutra: TaxSutra, an online tax information platform raised $161K from a group of individual investors including V Balakrishnan and T V Mohandas Pai to scale its operations and product development.

Trip38: Mobile-first travel technology solutions provider, Trip38 raised around INR 6 Cr ($1 Mn) from InterGlobe Technology Quotient and Singapore based Lantern Capital. The funds raised is
planned to be invested in improving technology, product features and expanding consumer base through effective marketing.

Smartairtrip: Online travel startup, Smartairtrip.com raised $10 Mn in first round of funding for 10% equity in the company. The funds will be used to enhance technology, strike exclusive deals with airlines and hotels, operational expansion and marketing.

FreshWorld: Kris Gopalakrishnan, cofounder Infosys, along with angel investor Nagaraja Prakasam who led the deal for Indian Angel Network, invested undisclosed amount in food tech startup, FreshWorld. The funds are planned to be used for scaling the retail network by employing 250 employees, upgrading the electric carts system and improving technology. The company aims to triple the number of electric carts to 60 by the end of the year.

NoBroker: Online real estate startup NoBroker raised $3 Mn from SAIF Partners & Fulcrum Ventures to expand its service to more cities beyond Mumbai and Bangalore.

Caravan Craft: A handicrafts startup Caravan Craft raised INR 3 Cr. in a round of funding led by Bijou Kurien and Narayan Ramachandran and seed-stage investment fund Unitus Seed Fund.The funds raised will be utilized to expand its operations in India and Europe as well as online operations.

With this, Yuri Milner’s investment firm DST Global is likely to invest about $400-500 Mn in cab booking startup Ola.

Ravi Agencies and Touchstone Enterprises merged to co-create B2B ecommerce office supply store, Offineeds.com. The founders have together invested a seed capital of about INR 1.5 crore to set up the platform. The store will target entrepreneurs/business owners, purchase managers in large corporates and educational institutions.

Other important developments of the week include:

Bessemer Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based investor raised INR 10,000 Cr for its IX Investment Fund. It is expected that a tenth part of the total amount raised around INR 1,250 Cr would be invested in Indian startups.

Corporate social leader, TV Mohandas Pai announced the formation of Mangaluru Angels, to encourage Mangaloreans to start entrepreneurial units. The incubator will energize entrepreneurs to ideate and create business models and provide them with facilities to nurture their dream.

There have been more developments apart from funding those happened over a week. Business World announced the launch of BW ACCELERATE Women program for startups to support networking, mentorship, skill-building, and education of female entrepreneurs in India. Avani Parekh, a serial social entrepreneur and founder of LoveDoctor.in, will lead this initiative.

In another innovator program Citrix announced the graduation of its first batch including entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Citrix has given a combined grant of $10,000 (around INR 6.2 lakh) to the four external teams whereas the internal teams are  being supported as employees. The graduates are InstaSafe, Karmasnap, ParaBlue, Maxerience, Sharecard, Oppcee, Buzzybee, 140 Bytes and Zipzapdata.

Persistent Systems, a software product development services company launched a $10 Mn venture capital fund. The funds will be invested in early stage startups, with an eye on evolving technology.

Also in this budget season finance minister Arun Jaitley is likely to announce INR 2,000 Cr ‘fund of funds’ to accelerate startups.

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