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

The week went pretty interesting with a number of startups from different domains raising funds. The most interesting transaction of the week was Times Internet and Uber’s strategic partnership which was announced during the week, the partnership is aimed to support Uber’s expansion in India. The deal is centered around a commercial marketing arrangement accompanied by a small investment. The size of the deal is somewhere around INR 150 Cr.

Let us have quick view of the funding and acquisitions that took place this week. In total, 15 startups raised about $61 Mn in funding altogether. (based on the startups which disclosed their funding amounts)

A Quick Recap Of The Funding Around The Week

Roposo: Gurgaon-based fashion discovery site, Roposo.com raised $5 Mn (over INR 31 Cr) in series A round of funding from Tiger Global Management to strengthen the product further. The deal also saw the participation of its early investors Indian Quotient and Binny Bansal (co-founder and COO of Flipkart.com).

Artoo: Bangalore-based IT Solutions startup, Artoo secured INR 3.1 Cr in Series A from Accion Venture Labs and Switzerland-based Rianta Capital Zurich’s Artha Initiative. The company plans to utilize the funds to hire more people in order to expand to South East Asia and to improve performance and features of the technology platform to allow customers to personalize their financial product.

FxKart: Bangalore-based, online currency exchange startup, FxKart.com raised a $2 Mn seed funding from its founder Dr Mushtaq Shah and its Strategic Advisor Dr Faraz Naqvi. The startup brings in-time facility for the travelers to obtain the best rate from various forex dealers on a single platform.

ePoise: Bangalore-based startup ePoise Systems Pvt Ltd, which automates interviews and enables talent analytics, has raised an undisclosed amount from a venture capital fund. The infused funds are planned to be used towards product development and sales effort. The company offers a cloud-based automated video interviewing solution for enterprises where the clients set the questions which are put to candidates.

Teewe: Bangalore-based Mango Man Consumer Electronics, makers of Teewe, announced a raise of $1.75 Mn in seed funding from global venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and India Quotient Fund. The funds are to be used for product enhancement, new product development, scaling production and distribution, as well as for international expansion of the company’s flagship product – Teewe.

Teabox: Siliguri-based Teabox, a premium tea brand delivering tea all over the world, raised about INR 40 Cr ($6 Mn) in Series A funding from venture capital firms JAFCO Asia, Keystone Group and Dragoneer Investment. The company plans to invest the funds in the back-end infrastructure to enable transactions and order processing, to hire and build cold storage facilities in close proximity to the plantations in the three prime tea plantations region viz Darjeeling, Guwahati and Nilgiri.

Mosambee: Mosambee, dealing in the mPOS segment, raised an undisclosed amount in its Series B round of funding from existing investors Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVCF) and SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd, the former investing a little more than the latter. As part of the deal, both RVCF and SIDBI will get a significant minority stake in Mosambee.

Cubito: The startup raised INR 1 Cr. seed funding from Sol Primero. This Bangalore-based startup is a technology-based enabler and has created a proprietary solution for corporates to manage its employee transportation.

Furlenco: Bangalore-based Furlenco raised $6 Mn in a Series A funding round led by LightBox VC. The stratup is India’s first rental subscription program for furniture which helps clients choose the relevant furniture and furnishings for their home (or for just a room), delivers it to doorstep and sets it up for them – all within a couple of days.

Anant Learning: Delhi-based placement agency for the semi-skilled Anant Learning & Development Pvt Ltd raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Impact Investment Holding, a fund managed by Ennovent GmbH and Upaya Social Ventures. Anant Learning aims to become one of India’s leading organisations providing placement support to both urban and rural youth.

OYO Rooms: OYO Rooms raised over $25 Mn in a funding led by San Francisco-based Greenoaks Capital and existing investors i.e. Lightspeed and Sequoia at a valuation of $100 Mn. The startup has been growing aggressively since past 6 months, and from 30 hotels it has added over 200 and from one city to 10.

Mahindra First Choice Wheels Ltd: MFCWL is a multi-brand second-hand car sales venture operating through a hybrid offline-online model, raised $15 Mn (around INR 94 Cr) from San Francisco-based investment advisory firm Valiant Capital for a minority stake in the company. The company plans to use the fresh funds to accelerate growth and adopt technology enabled products and services used by its stakeholders—NBFCs, banks, OEMs, dealers and consumers.

Razorpay Software: Jaipur-based, online payment startup, Razorpay Software raised $120K (about INR 74.7 lakh) funding from US-based startup accelerator Y Combinator. As a part of the deal, Y Combinator will also provide the startup with three-month acceleration. The funds will be used for covering compliance expenses for setting up a payment gateway and product development.

Urjas: Mumbai-based, Urjas Energy Solutions Pvt Ltd raised $100K (about Rs 62 lakh) in funding from Solidarity Venture Capital and a few unnamed angel investors, a top executive of the company. The firm will use the funds to expand its reach across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka, as well as to launch new products.

Yogurt Labs: This mobile video tech startup raised INR 72 lakh Valley-based angel investor Nick Adams and the author of “No Holy Cows in Business”, Kiran Bhat. The company plans to develop and expand its business through the funds raised.

With this, online lingerie platform Prettysecrets.com, is also said to be in talks to raise over INR 100 Cr. in a new funding round.

With the increasing penetration of technology, there has been an expansion of platforms and the mobile platform is getting the attention it needs. On this league Mumbai-based Super App acquired Crunchcommerce to disrupt jobs on mobile.

Online real estate startup, Housing.com has acquired online discussion forum for sharing real estate information, “Indian Real Estate Forum” (IREF) for about INR 8 Cr. The company is also said to be in final talks for acquiring Gurgaon-based P.E. Analytics Pvt Ltd, which owns a real estate data product PropEquity for over INR 80 Cr., the deal is expected to close in the coming weeks.

Other Developments:

• Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program announced the entry open for its summer 2015 batch focussing on startups that leverage software for customer information management, mobile, data analytics, location-based services, ecommerce management and machine learning.
• IIIT-Bangalore, and Peesh Venture Capital (PVC) entered a partnership to accelerate and fund India’s Internet of Things & Mobile App startups. The partnership will aim at creating successful, world-class Indian mobile app companies.
• California-based venture and growth equity firm, Accel Partners has raised $305 Mn for its new India-focused fund, which will fund early stage startups focussing on investing in consumer, enterprise software, mobile and healthcare businesses.
• InTech50, announced the list of its 2nd and 3rd batch of startups. The total accounts for now a list of 30 startups out of 50 altogether.
• Infosys, plans to allocate quarter of $500 Mn (around INR 3000 Cr) funds to invest in startups of Silicon Valley, Israel and India, which align with the ideas of the company.

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