Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [27 April – 2 May]

The week started with one of the biggest announcement of  Foreign fund house, JP Morgan Asset Management buying the early stage investor Canaan Partners’ India portfolio. The deal was rumored for around a month which has now closed for over $200 Mn (about INR1, 260 Cr). The transaction is stated to be the largest secondary portfolio sale in India’s private equity and venture capital market.

Another major development of the week was RBI announcing allocation of INR 10,000 Cr. for the startup fund to Small Industries Development Bank of India(SIDBI).

This week, 15 startups raised approximately $50 Mn in funding altogether. (This is based on startups that disclosed their funding amount.)

Lets have a look at the startups that raised funding this week:

Icertis: Cloud enterprise software startup, Icertis secured $6 Mn Series A funding from Greycroft Partners and Fidelity Growth Partners India. The startup plans to utilize the funds to scale up sales and marketing and build its contract lifecycle management product. The startup is US-based and has its operations centre in Pune and an office in Mumbai.

UrbanLadder: Online furniture retailer grabbed undisclosed amount of funding from web and technology entrepreneurs Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan. The investors have joined the company at the time when, it is working on several tech innovations to solve the ecommerce problems with a focus on mobile, data and analytics and product visualization.

Jay Robotix: Hyderabad-based edutech startup raised INR1.56 Cr. from Cross Border Angels (CBA) and the family office of Singapore-based Thakral Group. The company will soon plan a Series A round to expand into markets such as North America and Japan.

Naaptol.com: Tele-Shop & ecommerce Platform Naaptol raised INR136 Cr. from Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. This third round of institutional funding raised will be used for its expansion plans.

Grab: Mumbai-based hyper local delivery startup that focuses on delivery in restaurants and food enterprises and has raised $1 Mn from Oliphans Capital and independent investor Haresh Chawla. The funds will be used to expand its operations to Pune and others cities.

LogicRoots.com: Jaipur-based edutech startup that provides interactive games like boardgames and app for learning Mathematics raised about INR 2.5 Cr ($400,000) funding in a round led by angel investment firm ah! Angels.

Tradelab: Financial technology early-stage fund Rainmatter invested INR 2.5 Cr in Tradelab, stockbroking & analytics Software Company. The startup has been founded by two IIT-Kharagpur alumni.

Travel Triangle:  Delhi-based online travel startup raised $8 Mn from Bessemer Venture Partners along with existing investor SAIF Partners. The startup plans to use the funds in pushing its product to wider markets, expand the set of destinations and increasing its team size.

TermSheet.io: Chennai-based startup that simplifies fundraising process raised around $100k in a pre seed round of funding led by angel investors from India, Dubai, Singapore and the US.

ReGlobe: The online recommerce company, ReGlobe raised undisclosed amount of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. The startup plans to utilize the funds to build on its technology platform, increase its partners and outreach to a number of cities in the country.

Tracxn: Sequoia and Accel alumni’s analytics startup raised its Series A round of $3.5 Mn from Saif Partners. The startup which describes itself as the Gartner for startup information currently has a team of 30 analysts which it plans to take it up to 150.

Babajob: Bangalore-based, mobile first job platform, a marketplace for grey collar jobs, secured $10 Mn from SEEK Limited. Babajob.com is one of few players that is targeting informal (grey collar) job sector as their primary market.

Spoonjoy: The startup raised $1 Mn in its Series A round from SAIF partners, the startup will be using this funding round to upgrade its technological capabilities and also expand to more cities.

Dazo: Previously known as Tapcibo, the mobile-only food ordering startup raised undisclosed amount in funding led by industry professionals—Rajan Anandan (MD, Google India), Amit Agarwal (country manager, Amazon India) and Vinay Goel (director, product management, Google Maps & Local).

PiQube: Chennai-based HR startup PiQube raised $500K from The HR Fund (The Fund). PiQube will use investment primarily for expanding its technology and sales team along with aggressive geographic expansion – both within India and the South East Asia.

With this, Rocket Internet backed food delivery startup Foodpanda raised an additional $100 Mn funding led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. The company plans to use the latest fundraise to further expand its own delivery activities and improve overall customer experience.

Ratan Tata invested in China’s largest smartphone maker, Xiaomi. This investment has made him the first Indian investor in the world’s most valued technology startup.

Also, reports suggest that the Chennai-based online real estate startup, IndiaProperty.com is planning to raise $50 Mn to fund expansion plans to expand to northern India, invest in mobile commerce and incorporate more features on its website.

There are also reports that PremjiInvest, the private investment arm of Wipro Ltd chairman Azim Premji, might be leading $50 Mn Series C investment round in online groceries marketplace BigBasket.com. A human resources-focused private investment company, The HR Fund invested $500,000 in Chennai-based startup assisting in hiring, PiQube.

Along with the various findings this week a few acquisitions also took place.

Let’s have a look at the acquisitions that took place this week:

• Bangalore-based event solutions platform, Explara acquired the entertainment event ticketing company IndianStage.in.
• India’s leading online marketplace, Flipkart acquired mobile engagement and marketing automation platform for native mobile apps Appiterate, for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its mobile technology presence.
• News Corp backed PropTiger acquired people group’s Makaan.Com for an undisclosed amount. The deal will bring the two platforms together to create one stop comprehensive online real estate platform to offer end-to-end services to home buyers, real estate developers, property brokers, banks and private equity investors.
• Gurgaon-based auto portal, CarDekho announced the acquisition of BuyingIQ.com. Buying IQ is a price comparison site and intelligent shopping engine, for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its product and analytics capabilities.
• Hyderabad based food-on-demand startup HelloCurry acquired city-based startup Paratha Post to add to its current offering in the Indian fast-food range in a cash and stock deal. This is the first acquisition by the food startup incorporated in 2014 and backed by Sri Capital which had invested INR 3 Cr into the company.
• San Francisco-based low-cost apparel manufacturing platform, Sourceeasy acquired online manufacture and design service for plus-sized clothing, AbbeyPost. The acquisition is destined to offer near-shore manufacturing to clothing brands using the “Made in USA” brand.

Other important developments of the week include:

• The other development that took place this week was hiring of Yusuf Bashir by Infosys to oversee $500 Mn startup fund, at a time when the company is attempting to regroup for the 2015-16 financial year after a disappointing performance last year.
• Japanese VC firm, Rebright Partners launched a new $20 Mn India specific fund.
• With an aim to become a one-stop technology window for all schools and colleges, Gurgaon-based Rise India announced its plans to invest INR 35 Cr. in elearning startups this year.

Checkout this week’s news roundup.

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