Funding Galore: Startup Funding Of The Week [2-7 March]

SAIF Partners plans to infuse more money in the Indian early stage tech startups. This week the venture capital firm, SAIF Partners, raised $350 Mn for its India-dedicated fund from 27 investors. The VC already backs Paytm, Bookmyshow, MakeMyTrip and JustDial. If the sources are to be believed the firm is likely to increase investments in tech startups.

In total, 6 startups raised over $25 Mn in funding. (this is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amount.

A Quick Recap Of The Funding Around The Week

CustomFurnish.com: Custom-made furniture etailer, CustomFurnish.com raised INR 16 Cr in funding from Serial entrepreneur and MedPlus Group founder Madhukar Gangadi. The interior startup announced the launch of its services in Hyderabad.

Niffler: Mumbai-based startup has raised $ 1 Mn (approx INR 6.18 Cr)  in seed investment from SAIF Partners, a leading venture capital firm with over $4Bn under management. The freshly infused capital will be used towards expansion and diversification

Vserv: A mobile advertising technology provider Vserv raised $15 Mn from hedge fund Maverick Capital and its existing investor IDG Ventures India. With this investment US-based hedge fund Maverick Capital also marks its entry in the country. The hedge fund manages more than $8 Bn business worldwide.

TrulyMadly: Delhi-based online dating startup TrulyMadly raised INR 35 Cr from Helion Venture Partners and Kae Capital. The startup plans userbase of 5 Mn by next year. Also as per the company, the app is growing at 100% month on month in terms of downloads, with women making up over 35% of all users.

InstaLively: Delhi-based Instalively raised over $120k funding led by a group of investors. As per the website, it has already broadcasted over 1000K+ minutes with 10k+ viewers. The company has also recently filed a Patent in “Mobile LiveStreaming to YouTube”

Intruo: Bangalore-based Intruo Technologies Pvt Ltd raised undisclosed amount in angel funding from a bunch of angel investors including Ashutosh Lawania, co-founder, Myntra, and Freecharge co-founder Alok Goel, among others. The funds will be used for product development and marketing.

Apart from the funding raised the startup ecosystem saw two acquisitions:

The much awaited acquisition by Ola was announced this week by acquiring TaxiForSure, for $200 Mn in a cash and equity deal. With this deal, Ola, with over 1-lakh vehicles on its platform, has further deepened its footprint with TaxiForSure’s operator led model.

Mumbai-based recruitment app, Super acquired Viraltrics, a mobile SaaS startup for deep linked referrals. Viraltrics, previously known as WiGi, allows developers to create a referral, referral reward or notification trigger and map it to the trigger points in the app. The app can be used for both job seekers and companies to help companies connect with the right candidates.

Other Developments:

Microsoft Ventures launched 2 new accelerator programs – Accelerator Plus and Scale Up, focussed on helping later stage startups in gaining acceptance. It also announced 11 startups that are part of its Summer 2015 batch are AdPushup, Frilp, iReff, DailyRounds, iBot, FortunePay, CustomerXPs, FlamencoTech, WAGmob, UberLabs & Uninstall.

With this, the Karnataka government is in plans to launch an exclusive fund for startups in the upcoming budget to be presented on March 13 in line with the Centre government’s announcement of INR 1000 Cr fund to promote innovation among tech startups. The state government has already started working to have at least 10,000 startups by 2023 and set up many new age incubators to promote student startups.

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