Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [29June – 4July]

Gujarat-based online shopping portal, Infibeam Inc. Ltd. has filed Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI and is planning to raise funds around $70 Mn (INR 450 Cr.) through IPO route. The startup plans to utilize the IPO proceeds for setting up cloud data centre and shifting and setting up of registered corporate office of the company and 75 logistics centres, purchase of software and for General Corporate Purposes.

This week 28 startups raised approximately $110 Mn in funding altogether. (Calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

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

Cloudcherry Analytics: Chennai and Singapore-based real-time customer sentiment mapping & experience analytics startup, raised seed funding of about $1 Mn (INR 6 Cr.) from The Chennai Angels (TCA) and IDG Ventures India.

Retigence Technologies: Bangalore-based IT and services startup, Retigence received undisclosed amount of funding from Omnivore Partners. The VC firm has also picked up a minority stake in the startup, which plans to utilize the funds for R&D, launch of new products and targeting clients globally.

HandyHome: On-demand electronics services startup raised seed funding of around $630K (INR 4 Cr) from early stage Silicon Valley-based Bessemer Ventures and Mumbai-based Kae Capital. With the raised funds HandyHome plans to enhance its technology, and expand its team.

iDreamCareer: Delhi-based Edtech startup, raised undisclosed amount of angel funding through ah! Ventures. The angels from ah! Ventures together with angel investors Vivek Joshi, Mohit Satyanand, Indian Designs Group and others partnered to fund iDreamCareer.

Ola: Ratan Tata invested in Indian cab & auto booking startup Ola and has picked up a minority stake in the company. Ola has served millions of customers in 100+ cities with over 200,000 driver entrepreneurs through its platform.

Zoomo: Bangalore-based pre owned car marketplace, Zoomo raised $5 Mn funds from SAIF Partners. With this, the total funds raised by Zoomo is $6 Mn. The investment will be used to strengthen its operations, technology and product leadership in their niche.

AdWyze: Bangalore-based digital marketing automation and optimisation platform startup, AdWyze raised $1 Mn from investment bank Mape Advisory. The funds will be utilized to build an extensible marketing platform which helps marketers eliminate data storage and take decisions that have a direct impact on their ROI.

Urbanclap: Gurgaon-based mobile service marketplace, Urbanclap raised $10 Mn from SAIF and Accel Partners. The startup plans to use the infused funds in building its technology, hiring and expanding to at least 15 cities this year.

Stayglad: Bangalore-based mobile marketplace for beauty services raised undisclosed amount in angel round of funding led by a group of investors. With services only in Bangalore the startup plans to expand to other cities.

Zimmber: Mumbai-based on demand home services startup, Zimmber raised $400K (INR 2.5 Cr) in its first round of funding from InMobi’s core founding team including Naveen Tewari and has also acqui-hired Mumbai-based laundry service Dhulai. The startup plans to expand its footsteps to tier 2 and tier 3 cities in the upcoming months.

RailYatri: Noida-based web and mobile-based tool that provides comprehensive information for trains raised undisclosed amount of funding in pre-series A round led by Helion Venture Partners along with Omidyar Network. The funds raised will be used to consolidate its product leadership in the domain focusing at growth acceleration at the same time.

Unikrn: A gaming startup founded by former Microsoft GM Rahul Sood raised over $7 Mn in its Series A round of funding led by Jonathan Teo and Justin Caldbeck. With the infused funds, the startup plans to develop its eSports platform that offers safe and legal wagering on competitive video games matches and tournaments around the world.

Flatchat: A mobile only app for students and bachelors to find accommodation and flatmates raised $2.5 Mn in funding from CommonFloor.com. The infused funds are to be used for hiring talent and scale up operations.

MyCFO: Mumbai-based startup raised $1.5 Mn in Series A round from Sameer Koticha. MyCFO hosts a range of services from budgeting to cash flow management to ERP implementation. The funds will be used by the company to expand its team of senior level professional which has 135 executives at the moment across seven cities.

Parcelled: Bangalore-based on-demand shipping startup raised funding from logistics firm Delhivery and Tracxn Labs. The company will be using funds to strengthen its technology, back-end and expand to at least eight cities in the next six months.

Zenatix: Gurgaon-based internet of things (IoT) startup raised $161k(INR 1.27 Cr.) led by Rajan Anandan, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal and Rahul Khanna. Zenatix plans to use the recent funds for product expansion and offer solutions outside of the NCR, which is the focus at the moment.

BankBazaar: Chennai-based online financial marketplace raised $60 Mn (about INR 375 Cr) in Series C round of funding from Amazon. The startup plans to use the infused funds for technology integration, hiring, strengthening partner relationships, marketing and branding. The startup is also investing heavily on its mobile App.

NxtGen: Bangalore-based IT infrastructure services provider raised $13.5 Mn (INR 86 Cr) Series B round of funding from International Finance Corporation (IFC). The funds will be used to open new high density data centre in Bangalore and augment its investments in cloud infrastructure.

 AAGAAR.com: Hyper-local grocery delivery service startup raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from a group of investors. The startup plans to use the money to restructure its portal, augment warehouse infrastructure and improve its delivery setup.

GOQii Technologies: Mumbai-based startup has raised  an undisclosed amount of funding from Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. With this, the total amount funds raised becomes $2.8 Mn.

CultureAlley: Jaipur-based startup raised $5 Mn funding from Tiger Global. The startup focuses on english reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, while building vocabulary.

Gingercrush: Gujarat-based yet to be launched ecommerce startup Gingercrush raised $1 Mn in a seed round of funding led by Gokul Jaykrishna & Brand Capital, a division of Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd. The startup will offer T-Shirts, Mugs, Mobile/Tablet Covers, Mouse pads, etc.

Elanic: Bangalore-based women only P2P online marketplace for pre-owned goods raised seed funding in a  round led by Rebright Partners. Elanic’s website presently is in beta phase and has services in Bangalore. With the newly acquired funds, it plans for a pan India expansion.

GetNow.at: Nagpur-based online marketplace received undisclosed amount in seed funding from Atulya Mittal, founder of Avan Projects. The startup plans to use the funds for building technology and expand more into local market.

Buttercups: Bangalore based lingerie startup Buttercups raised undisclosed amount in angel funding led by Kanwaljit Singh, Angie Mahtaney, Sridhar Viswanathan and Manoj Varghese. The raised funds will go in brand development and expand its product offering.

With this, Utthishta Yekum Fund, the debut seed fund from Hyderabad-based Utthishta Management Advisors LLP invested $39K (INR 25 Lakh) each in three startups viz SmarterSMB, Scanova and Rapport.

Also, Luxembourg-based Global Fashion Group (GFG), the holding company of Gurgaon-based lifestyle fashion and apparel etailer Jabong.com, raised $167.7 Mn from existing investors AB Kinnevik and Rocket Internet. The funds will be used to strengthen its fulfilment, marketing and product development capabilities in addition to building infrastructure.

Also, Angel investment network Hyderabad Angels has built a pipeline to invest around $950K (INR 6 Cr) in five Indian startups.

The other developments that took place this week are as follows

• Unitus Seed Fund announced the results of its India StartHealth Competition declaring Bangalore-based Research & Diagnostics Labs, OmiX Labs as the winner and xBITS as the runner-up. The winner has been selected amongst 130 scrutinised competitors of health-tech startups.
• Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of the Indian Conglomerate, Tata Sons, and an iconic business leader of modern India has joined the boards of early stage venture capital fund Jungle Ventures as a Special Advisor.
• Japanese telecom and internet giant SoftBank has roped in Deep Nishar, former senior vice president of LinkedIn as managing director of SB Group US, Inc. In this role, he will work closely with Nikesh Arora, president & COO of SoftBank Group Corp. and the leadership team to direct the investments of the SoftBank Group internationally.