Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [8June – 13June]

With 10 startups raising about $44 Mn in funding altogether and 3 startups getting acquired, this second week of June went pretty interesting for the startup ecosystem in the country.

Faircent: Gurgaon-based peer to peer lending platform Faircent raised pre-Series A round of $250Kfrom M&S Partners Pte. Ltd at an enterprise valuation of $8 Mn. The startup will infuse the funds to strengthen technology, talent and brand.

PayMango.com: Former CTOs of PayU and Zomato have raised around $234k (INR 1.5 Cr) angel funding for its soon-to-launch mcommerce marketplace for local traders. The startup also has plans to raise another $1 Mn (INR 6.4 Cr) in a month.

Printland.in: New Delhi-based online printing solutions startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding from SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd. Printland Digital India Pvt Ltd, that runs printland plans to infuse the funds in business’ growth, better customer experience through investment in technology, launch of new products and acquisition of new clients.

AdStringO : Mumbai-based mobile compression software company, has raised $350K from Indian Angel Network to strengthen its research and development team in order to discover other new useful possibilities and further build on its advanced and robust technology solutions as well as increase marketing awareness about its revolutionary product.

Guiddoo: Mumbai-based mobile tour guiding app raised undisclosed amount of seed funding from a group of angel investors. Guiddoo’s mobile app provides in-depth and highly researched audio visual guide for world’s famous monuments and attractions.

ZenRooms: Budget brand hotel raised $1 Mn (about INR 6.4 Cr) from Kingfisher’s chief executive Sanjay Aggarwal along with Kaneswaran Avili.  The startup claims to have around 4000 rooms in countries like India, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Voonik: Bangalore based fashion app secured $5 Mn in a series A round of funding led by Seedfund and Sequoia. The funds will be infused to enable Voonik to enhance its personalisation and style recommendation technology.

Swiggy: Bangalore-based food ordering startup raised $16.5 Mn in Series B round of funding from the Silicon Valley-based venture capital investor Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and an undisclosed global investment entity.The funds will be used to support Swiggy’s next phase of growth in establishing a stronger brand platform.

Clovia: Online lingerie retailer grabbed undisclosed Series A round of funding from venture capital firm IvyCap Ventures to aggressively expand its footprint globally.

PosterGully: Delhi-based curated marketplace for artists and designers, raised $160K amount of angel funding by a group of angel investors through LetsVenture. The curated marketplace aims to foster hundreds of thousands of artists, to monetize their designs by showcasing their talent to the world though the platform.

With this, Bangalore-based startup accelerator Kyron Accelerator’s parent company  ANSR Consulting raised $9 Mn from Accel Partners including participation from CEOs of some MNCs and family offices. The funds will be used to attract global in-house captives (GICs) to start an engagement programme for startups to work directly with the MNCs.

Other funding activities that are likely to take place include: 

• With this, MakeMyTrip is in talks with Bangalore-based holiday Information Company Leisure and Lifestyle Information Services Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates online portal HolidayIQ.com to invest $30 Mn in it.
• Bangalore-based health tech startup, Practo, is in advanced talks with global investors including Google Capital and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner for a funding round, which is estimated to be around $62 Mn (INR 400 Cr.). According to the sources the deal is expected to close in the next four to five weeks.
• Mumbai-based, on-demand home services platform, Zimmber, is in the final stages of discussions to raise its next round of equity financing from three prominent venture capital firms. The deal amount is estimated at $12 Mn (about INR 77 Cr).
• With an aim to expand to multiple cities Bangalore-based food distribution service, Petoo is also in plans to raise $10 Mn (about INR 63.87Cr) in Series A round of funding to scale up its business.
• A community-based online exchange for finding rented accommodation, Grabhouse is planning to raise $5-$8 Mn (about INR 31-51 Cr) in a fresh round of funding from existing investors. The portal presently offers houses in four major cities and plans to enter other tier I and tier II cities.
• Blume Ventures-backed BedBathMore, is in talks to raise fresh capital from existing and new investors to fund its growth plans.

The acquisition that took place this week are:

• Bangalore-based last mile techno-logistics solution provider, LetsTransport (LT) has acquired a mini-truck online procurement service, Shifter to increase their presence in both business and consumer space.
• Bangalore-based online grocery retailer BigBasket acquired hyperlocal delivery startup Delyver in a cash-and-stock deal. The deal will enable strengthen delivery mechanism for BigBasket for all 50 cities in which it is currently operational.
• Mumbai-based real estate startup Housing.com acquired Realty Business Intelligence for $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr.) in cash towards purchase of 100% equity of Realty Business Intelligence.

The other developments that took place this week are:

• The Viridian Group announced a joint venture with UK based startup accelerator, Entrepreneurial Spark, to launch a startup accelerator in India under the name “ESpark-Viridian”. The accelerator will accelerate early to growth stage startups in India for upto 18 months.
• Intel Capital, will back companies with women and minorities in their leadership roles with Intel Capital Diversity Fund. The fund will be shedding about $125 Mn in women and startups founded by minorities.
• SEBI is planning to relax listing norms for startups aiming at encouraging startup industry to tap the proposed institutional trading platform (ITP). The ease of relaxation will extend to knowledge-based sector, nanotechnology, biotech or any other industry in which at least 50% of pre-issue capital is held by qualified institutional investors such as private equity funds and venture capitalists, said a regulatory official familiar with the matter.