Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [22 June – 27 June]

Securities market regulator, SEBI approved a few changes in the proposed startup listing. The market regulator decided to bring down the minimum investor participation level to 200 investors as against 500 as proposed in the draft norms in March this year. It also prescribed a period of three years after which such startups can move to the main stock exchange platform which was earlier a one-year period.

This week 18 startups raised more than $46 Mn in funding altogether and 4 acquisitions took place.

GetMyPeon: Mumbai-based errand-running and same day delivery service startup, GetMyPeon secured around $250,000 (INR 1.5 Cr) in seed funding after being bootstrapped for two and half year. The startup provides quick on demand service that receives orders over mail, call, whats app or tweets.

Zinka: Earlier known as Blackbuck, Bangalore-based online marketplace for freight transportation booking raised about $6 Mn (INR 38 Cr.) from Flipkart and Accel Partners.

Sigrid Education: This Noida-based elearning startup raised undisclosed amount from Oliphans Capital. The startup plans to infuse the funds in creating and introducing courses in 50 most prominent test-prep and K12 curriculum areas.

Indix: Chennai and Seattle-based, cloud based product intelligence platform for brands, retailers and developers Indix raised $15 Mn (INR 95.3 Cr.) in Series B round funding from Nokia Growth Partners, existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Avalon Ventures. The startup plans to use the funds raised in increasing the sales and marketing of the product and expand operations to Brazil, Mexico, China, Japan, Australia, Singapore and Korea.

Retention.ai: Bangalore-based uninstall intelligence platform for mobile apps raised undisclosed funding from Mercury Fund and few other angel investors. Though the amount remains undisclosed, ET had confirmed it to be $502k (INR 3.2 Cr.). TLabs backed startup will use the funds to fuel expansion in US and Japan.

The Porter: Mumbai-based online logistics startup, ThePorter raised $5.5Mn in Series A round of funding from Sequoia Capital, Kae Capital and other investors. The funds will be used to facilitate geographical expansion, recruit talent and improve existing products and solutions.

LabInApp: Hubli-based education startup raised a seed round investment led by Unitus Seed Fund. The startup plans to use the funds for improvement and development of current & new product, operational costs and sales & marketing.

EduKart: Delhi-based online education startup that helps students in connecting with educational institutions, Edukart raised $1 Mn fresh round of funding from YouWeCan Ventures and United Finsec. The startup aims at enrolling 100,000 students per year in the next three years and list 10,000 courses and 500 course providers on the marketplace in the near future.

Treebo Hotels: Bangalore-based tech-enabled chain of hotels, Treebo raised $6 Mn from Matrix Partners India and SAIF Partners. The startup plans to use the funds for expanding its network of hotels, developing state-of-the-art technology and hiring top talent.

GoodService:  Delhi-based chat based mobile app raised $1.6 Mn from Sequoia Capital. The personal, on-demand concierge service plans to use the funds to expand into Bangalore and Mumbai over the next few weeks.

Ixigo: Gurgaon-based mobile travel search & marketplace, ixigo raised funds from Micromax Informatics Limited. The startup helps travellers plan their trips, find the best train & bus services, book cheapest flights, cabs, hotels and more.

Edsix Brain Lab: Chennai-based edutainment startup, Edsix raised an undisclosed amount in a second round of angel funding from Sprout Angels LLP. The startup plans to infuse the funds to expand its services in the B2C segment, enhance technology platform and B2B integration with the new funding.

Belong: This Bangalore-based recruitment startup raised over $5 Mn in Series A round of funding from Matrix, Blume & others to bring big data analytics to talent sourcing. The company, launched publicly this month and has helped in hiring of over 100 plus candidates for its 15 client companies.

Holachef: Mumbai-based food tech startup raised $3.1 Mn from Kalaari Capital. The funds raised will be used to invest in modern infrastructure, technology and delivery.

Healthians.com: Cricketer Yuvraj Singh investment fund YouWeCan Ventures acquired a stake in online healthcare marketplace for an undisclosed amount. The startup aggregates diagnostic labs, crowd sourced sample collectors and nearby doctors, as well as makes patients’ medical records available online.

Fine Art Bourse: Art aficionado Abhishek Poddar, who is also director of Bangalore-based Sua Explosives & Accessories, has invested $200,000 (INR 1.24 Cr) in international online arts auction startup Fine Art Bourse. Poddar currently owns 5% stake in the company.

CreditMantri: Credit management service provider, CreditMantri raised $2.5 Mn Series A round of funding from IDG Ventures India, Elevar Equity and Accion Venture Lab. The startup will be using the funds raised to broaden and accelerate their platform development and to further build out their user base

Banihal: Match making startup, Banihal announced its seed funding from Dr. David Cheriton. The startup has developed a neuroscience based algorithm to give users five recommendations which are likely to lead to marriage.

With this UK-based OneWeb, which is building a new global communications system to create affordable broadband services for all, raised $500Mn of funding from a group of leading international companies. OneWeb will use the funding to further develop key technologies to enable affordable broadband for rural and underdeveloped locations.

Lets have a look at acquisitions that took place this week:

• Healthkart’s online drug search business which was previously known as Healthkartplus and was recently rebranded to 1MG has acquired online homeopathic drug startup Homeobuy. The financial terms of the deal have been left undisclosed. As a part of acquisition, Homeobuy has been rebranded to 1MGAyush and will now deal in homeopathic, ayurvedic medicines and cosmetics.
• Gurgaon-based Squareyards acquired Singapore-based real estate advisory firm Luxe Real estate. The acquisition will enable Squareyards to have direct access into the prime district areas of Singapore real estate market and catapult it into the top 30 agencies by number of agents.
• Hyderabad-based, quick service restaurant chain (QSR) specializing in Indian cuisine, Hello Curry acquired cloud and mobile-based POS (points of sale) systems startup Fire42 for an undisclosed amount in a stock cum cash deal. With this acquisition, 15 months old, Hello Curry aims at pan India expansion of its restaurant chain.
• Bangalore-based Simplilearn, a global edtech company has acquired Market Motive, a pioneering Silicon Valley-based digital marketing training company for $10Mn.