Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [30 March – 4 April]

Perhaps, its time for India’s ecommerce giant Flipkart to celebrate, as it achieved a valuation of $12.5 Bn. Besides, Helion Venture Partners sold its entire stake of 0.2%, estimated to be worth INR 156 Cr in Flipkart along with IDG Ventures India, that entered Flipkart through fashion portal Myntra, who has also trimmed a portion of its holding of 1% by selling stake worth nearly INR 940 Cr.

On the other side Snapdeal, that has raised more than $1 Bn funding in total last year, from investors including Softbank, has decided not to raise any funds. The officials were heard justifying that they have enough funds for now and will not raise just because it is fashionable.

Let us have quick review of the fundings and acquisitions that took place this week. In total, 8 Startups raised around $68 Mn funding altogether this week.

A Quick Recap Of The Funding Around The Week

Bluegape: The company that pivoted its business and launched a new platform has raised $200K in an angel round of funding led by Rudy Gopalakrishnan of Fidelity and Ah! Ventures.

Swiggy: Bangalore-based food ordering startup raised about INR 12 Cr from the venture capital firm Accel Partners and private equity firm SAIF Partners. The company will utilize the funds to hire talent and expand its reach to Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai by the end of this year.

Aryaka Network Inc: Bangalore-based WAN optimisation and cloud computing startup, Aryaka that delivers solutions to 3,000 customer sites across 300 cities in 50 countries, has raised $16 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in Series D round of funding from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners. The funds are to be used to scale up the company’s sales infrastructure.

TripHobo: Pune-based, formerly known as JoGuru, travel startup, TripHobo secured $3 Mn in Series B funding led by Mayfield and existing investor Kalaari Capital. TripHobo  provides planning related information for over 50,000 points of interest that aid users in travel planning.

AppsDaily: The digital app distributor, which currently sells anti-virus and insurance services for new phones, raised INR 100 Cr in a new round of funding led by Zodius Capital. It plans to help customers discover and buy mobile apps the way they buy FMCG goods.

LimeRoad: Gurgaon-based social shopping platform, raised over $30 Mn in a funding round led by Tiger Global and its existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Matrix Partners.This Series C round of funding comes in 10 months after it had raised $15 Mn in Series B from the investors mentioned above.

Keeptrax: Us and India-based, an ‘Internet of Me’ mobile technology company, KeepTrax Inc, secured $1 Mn (around INR 6.2 Cr) seed funding from Naya Ventures. Besides KeepTrax has released ‘showcase’ apps for iPhone and Android to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology. The funds are to be infused for a mobile-tech platform that can redefine how people record, retain, and recall location data.

LensBricks: Exfinity invested $1 Mn in Silicon Valley-based LensBricks. The startup works in developing new kinds of imaging technologies for healthcare, defence and other industries. This includes a camera that can stitch photographs to make it look like a video. The funds will be infused to back strong promoters having in-depth ideas underpinning the latest technology.

There are rumors that, etailer BlueStone is in talks to raise $25 Mn, and there are also rumors that the SAIF Partners may lead a $30 Mn (INR 190 Cr) financing round in Bengaluru-based ZoomCar.

With this, Alibaba plans to make a strategic investment in radio cab service, Meru. The existing investor IVF, that presently holds 80% stake, will divulge its stake to make way for Aliababa.  With this investment, Meru looks at an valuation of around $400 Mn.

One of the investors, Tiger Global has part-exited its eight-year-old investment in Mumbai-based JustDial by selling just over a quarter of its stake in the company for INR 300.5 Cr. It sold 3.4 per cent of its 13.22 per cent stake through a stock market transaction.

Number of startups got acquired this week, these include:

With an aim to personalize customer engagement through an omni-channel strategy, Software-as-a-Service CRM solutions provider, Capillary Technologies Pvt Ltd acquired digital commerce solution provider MartJack. The company has raised a loan of INR 15 Cr for the acquisition.

IT retail solution provider firm, Software Paradigms Infotech (SPI) acquired mobile and ecommerce solutions provider for retailers firm, QwikCart. SIP’s eighth acquisition is aligned with its aggressive plans for growth this year.

Snapdeal acquired a majority stake in the loans and the credit provider startup RupeePower and has also acquired online order management startup,Unicommerce for an undisclosed amount. Snapdeal, separately, will also be investing about INR 25 Cr. in its wholly owned logistics unit, Vulcan Express Pvt. Ltd.

Online home decor startup, LivSpace, acquired a dynamic design community and marketplace for design professionals DezignUp for an undisclosed amount. With the acquisition, Livspace plans to offer a wide variety of choice to homeowners with the online marketplace.

Online assessment and campus hiring platform, CoCubes.com, acquired Edcited, which provides enterprise resource planning solutions to schools and colleges.

Amazon.com, has called off the proposed deal to buy Rocket Internet-backed Indian lifestyle etailer Jabong. Though the reason for the uncertainty remains untold, however, if the deal took off then it will mark the biggest ever valuing Jabong to around $1.2 Bn.

Other Important Developments Of The Week

• PE firm, India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA), raised $500 Mn (INR 3,130 Cr) to close its new fund Indium-V. Also, the firm plans to complete the fundraising within three months with a total corpus of $700 Mn.
• LabInApp & Math Adventures grabbed a chance to pitch for seed funding through StartEdu platform launched by Unitus Seed Fund to identify, mentor, incubate, and invests in the most promising early-stage education startups.
• The private investment arm, Burman Family Office, of the promoters of consumer conglomerate Dabur India, plans to invest INR 250-300 Cr across asset classes and stages, including in technology and consumer internet ventures, as well as in sectors such as food, hospitality and healthcare.
• Amrita Technology Business Incubator (TBI), has announced that it will invest over $150,000 in the five startups i.e.Pingbits, StratDecider Analytics Private Ltd, Velnatural Fibers, Shradhanjanli and Discover Dollar Technologies, these startups were the finalists for edition of its annual event ‘The TBI Pitch Fest 15’
• Nasscom announced the entry open for its fourth phase of NASSCOM 10,000 Startups. The applications are invited from the technology startups across the country.
• In order to foster Mcommerce & Mobile Internet Startups In India, Alibaba has announced to launch a Startup Incubator with mobile and analytics solutions company, Globals Inc. The startup incubator which is set to be operational since May-June, will focus primarily on mcommerce and mobile internet related startups.
• US based Target’s incubation program – Target Accelerator Program announced five startups graduating from its second batch of startups, these include: Synapse, Whodat, Wazzat, Torch and Visarity.

Checkout this week’s news roundup. 

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