Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [6 April – 11 April]

One of the biggest development of the week was online marketplace, Snapdeal acquiring Freecharge for over $450 Mn through cash and equity, which made this exit the biggest one in the Indian startup space (Flipkart acquired Myntra for over $300 Mn).

In total, the week saw 13 startups raising over $603 Mn in funding and 5 startups getting acquired.

Lets have a look at the startup fundings of the week:

Zomato: The restaurant and event-listing site raised about $50 Mn in a new round of funding. InfoEdge (India), which held 50.1% stake in the company, has brought in half of the total to retain its majority shareholding.

Ola: Cab hailing app Ola raised $315 Mn in Series E round of funding led by  DST, Tiger Global, Steadview, Accel Partners, and others. Of the total funding amount, DST alone has invested $200 Mn.

PressPlay: This Delhi-based bus travel entertainment startup, founded by two ex-Zomato Employees Anand Sinha and George Abraham, recently raised funding worth $2.2 Mn from Sequoia Capital and a group of angel investors in pre-series A round. These funds will be used in improving services, new products innovations and in hiring new talent. The company has tied up with over 8 state transport operators of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh and over 50 private operators.

Firstcry: The Pune-based baby products retailer raised $10 Mn more in its Series D round of funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and San Francisco-based Valiant Capital. Firstcry had already raised over $26 Mn in February from investors which included Valiant Capital Partners and also existing investors IDG Ventures India, Ventex Venture Holdings and SAIF Partners. The total funds raised till now amounts to around $36 Mn.

MobiKwik: Indian mobile wallet company MobiKwik raised about $25 Mn in a Series B round led by Tree Line Asia and other investors. The company has over 15 Mn users and 25,000 merchants and the funds will be used for investments in technology/data analytics, brand building and growing network of users and merchants.

Quikr: An online classifieds listing startup secured $150 Mn in funding from their existing investors Tiger Global Management, Investment AB Kinnevik, and their first time investor Hong Kong-based Steadview Capital. Due to 80% of the site’s traffic being from mobile users, these funds are said to be used to consolidate it’s leadership position, expansion of key categories and mobile business.

Whatfix: A Bangalore-based SaaS platform, allowing users and businesses to create interactive help guides on websites, raised INR 5.5 Cr in a seed round of funding led by US-based Powerhouse Ventures, Helion, alongwith GSF and few others. With these funds, the startup aims to increase conversions and engagement, provide better support to reduce churn and give effective training for employees & customers.

Purple Squirrel Eduventures: The IIT Bombay incubated startup has received an undisclosed amount in funding from Matrix Partners India. The fresh funding will be utilised towards product and operation expansions. The firm was founded in 2013 by Aditya Gandhi and Sahiba Dhandhaniaand aims at promoting industry academia interaction to improve career awareness and help in informed decision making. Last year, the startup had raised undisclosed sum from VC firm India Quotient.

Urbanladder: Online furniture retailer raised $50 Mn in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital alongwith TR Capital. The existing investors including Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners and Kalaari Capital also participated in the fund raise.

Pricejugaad: Price comparison portal Pricejugaad’s parent company, IESoft Technologies raised INR 1 Cr from senior technology executives. These funds will be used to expand its team size and product offering. At this moment, Pricejugaad has 30 online stores and 200 offline stores.

Gadgetwood: Founded in 2013 by Jayant Jha, Ankit Saraf and Anmol Gupta, the Mobile & tablet repair service provider raised an undisclosed amount of funding from different investors like Indian Angel Network (IAN), Ajai Chowdhry of HCL and few others. The company will use the funds to strengthen the core team, enhance technology and expand to other metros in the country.

Changer Mints: Kolkata-based 4 year old startup, that aims to solve the ubiquitous “nochange” problem across retail outlets in India, raised INR 1Cr from a Hyderabad-based investor. The firm’s aim is to fix the issues with NFC or Near Field Communication.

iMMi Life: Early stage investor Unitus Seed Fund, under its StartHealth Investment Program, invested in mobile based cardiac services locating startup iMMi Life. The startup offers doctors access to on-demand opinions of multiple cardiologists for ECGs. The StartHealth Investment Program provides up to INR 10 crore in grants and investments to promising very early-stage startups working in affordable technology-driven healthcare products and services.

Fashion and lifestyle online retailer Jabong merged with Global Fashion Group (GFG) and the newly merged entity has raised $35 Mn in funding from Tengelmann Ventures and Verlinvest at the merger valuation of 2.8 Bn euros (in early September). The fresh funding will be used in accelerating its growth plans across 27 countries in four continents.

Let’s have a look at this week’s acquisitions:

• Singapore based education solutions company XSEED Education bought Delhi-based edu-tech startup Pleolabs for an undisclosed amount. As per the deal, co-founders of Pleolabs Kshitij Chopra and Yash Sahay, will join XSEED as key members of the core technology product development team.
• Matrimony.com bought out Bangalore based Matchify, a dating mobile application that is especially focused on women.
• Gurgaon based Hyper-local delivery startup Grofers acquired My Green Box, a smartphone-based grocery delivery platform.
• In a bid to add up to its technology, News Corp-backed real estate portal PropTiger.com had acquired Bangalore-based Out of Box Interaction (OoBI).

With this, Future Group founder Kishore Biyani was in talks with Flipkart and Amazon, and few others, to sell a 49% stake in his logistics and warehousing company Future Supply Chain Solutions which is valued at over INR 2,500 Cr. The Future Supply Chain reported revenues of INR 600 Cr. with about an 18% operating margin, and expects to earn revenues of INR 850-900 Cr.

Lets have a look at other important developments of the week:

• Yuvraj Singh launched an investment company named YouWeCan Ventures Technology Llp to support online startups and encourage entrepreneurship. The Indian Premier League’s costliest player this season is planning an investment of around INR 50 Cr. in startups in healthcare, travel, hospitality, real estate and media sectors over the period of 3-5 years.
• State university Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIITD), to promote innovision in IT, inaugurated its on campus incubation centre. The IT sector agnostic centre aims to provide upcoming entrepreneurs with essential services and mentorship during the one year programme. The organisation is also undergoing talks with the govt. for funding.
• Unitus Seed Fund, an India-focused venture capital fund investing in startups, has closed INR 36 Cr in funding. New investors like Anil Rai Gupta of Havells, Harsh and Rishabh Mariwala of Marico, and Ajay Parekh from Pidilite were among others who pooled INR 12 Cr for the fund. Pramod Bhasin of Genpact also participated in this round of investment.
• US-based venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital raised another $210 Mn to its existing $530 Mn India fund. Reportedly, the $210 Mn has been raised by the same set of limited partners or LPs, investors who provide capital to funds.
• China-based ecommerce giant, Alibaba eyeing for acquisition of Indian ecommerce firms with a large customer base as well as a robust network of merchants that can help improve customer experience and expand the range of products and services.

Checkout the news roundup of the week.