Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [27 July-1 August]

Homegrown, ecommerce player, Flipkart raised over $700 Mn from its existing investors including Steadview and others taking the valuataion of the company to $15 Bn.

The week was full of funding activities, and as per our data, the week witnessed maximum number of deals got announced in the current year. In total, 23 companies raised over $885 Mn (including Flipkart’s $700 Mn & Pepperfry’s $100 Mn) altogether this week.

Let’s have a quick look into the details of startups that got funded this week!

Little: Zovi founders, Manish Chopra and Satish Mani announced that they have raised $50 Mn in funding to launch their new venture, Little, a diversification into the burgeoning Online to Offline (O2O) market. Little will be ‘app only’ and targets to be India’s largest consumer lifestyle deals marketplace. The funding was led by Paytm alongwith SAIF Partners and Tiger Global Management.

Wrig Nanosystems: New Delhi-based this medical technology startup raised $2.3 Mn (about INR15 Cr.) from Flipkart cofounders and others to commercialise and develop the product further. The startup specializes in minituarising medical devices, like Swiss watchmakers who minituarised big wall clocks to pocket and wrist size. The device costs between INR3,000 – INR12,000

LivSpace: Bangalore-based home design and decor startup secured undisclosed amount from prominent angel investor, Gokul Rajaram. Rajaram will also be the Special Advisor on Livspace’s board and will work with Livspace advising on product and technology strategy across mobile, web, and emerging platforms.

Zimmber: Mumbai-based, on-demand home services marketplace raised $2 Mn (about INR 12.8 Cr) from IDG ventures, Omidyar Network, Sherpalo Ventures and TV Mohandas Pai. The startup plans to use the funds to add more categories on its platform, develop technology, expand its team and enter other tier I, II and III cities.

Opinio: Bangalore-based on demand food and grocery startup raised $1.3 Mn in a funding round led by Accel Partners, TraxcnLabs and few other angel investors to expand in more cities as well as strengthen the company’s technology infrastructure.

Droom: Ex-Shopclues CEO, Sandeep Aggarwal’s new venture, an online automobile marketplace, droom, raised about $16 Mn (INR 100 Cr.) in a funding round led by Mumbai-based LightBox Ventures & Japanese internet firm Beenos to expand in Southeast Asia by next year.

Zoctr: Startup that allows users to buy health-related services and home-based wellness packages online, secured $1 Mn in funding from group of angel investors. Zoctr plans to use the funds to expand services into Delhi-NCR and to enhance hiring and training activities.

Noodle Play: Mumbai-based on demand Chinese food delivery startup raised over $150,000 (INR 1 Cr) from its own delivery-led customers. The startup gathered funds from its elite customers who have invested in the startup in their personal capacities these included Elliot Stechman, managing director, EK Wireless; Gautam Sinha, co-founder, myfirstcheque and Ambarish Ray, director and COO, Metal Communications.

MadRat Games: Bangalore-based offline gaming products startup which builds educational board games has raised about $168k (INR 1.8 Cr.) in a seed round funding led by Snapdeal’s founders. The startup will use the funds for branding, marketing and expanding its business. Interestingly, Flipkart founders are already investors in the startup.

Cartisan: Bangalore-based automotive services marketplace startup raised undisclosed round of funding from YouWeCan Ventures and TaxiForSure’s co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna. The funds will be used for expanding in 5 metro cities including Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Hyderabad by the end of this year.

Pipa + Bella: Mumbai-based fashion accessories startup secured $600k in pre-series A round of funding led by Singapore’s Lionrock Capital. The newly raised funds will be used to expand company’s current product offerings and marketing channels, hire  key management team and build out a robust technology platform.

Pepperfry: U.S investment bank, Goldman Sachs Group Inc led a $100Mn investment in a Mumbai-based online home and furniture marketplace, Pepperfry.com. The company will use the funds to expand its logistics footprint in over 300 towns and for ‘quadrupling’ the size of its technology team.

Bevy: US and Bangalore-based online hiring platform raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Varun Agarwal of Alma Mater and other angel investors. The startup plans to deploy the funds to hire experts in the fields of HR, Artificial Intelligence, and Software Development.

Locus: A machine learning startup focussed on simplifying logistics solution raised undisclosed amount of funds from growX ventures and Manish Singhal. Locus is banking big on the “Uber for X” business model and is helping the other logistics player build the same and enhance the end-customer experience.

Delight Foods: Bangalore-based ecommerce startup for branded food products raised about $156k (about INR 1 Cr.) in seed round funding led by investment bank MAPE Advisory Group and Fireside Ventures. The funds will be used in expansion of the team as well as in launching the marketing campaign in Bangalore in August.

ManageMySpa: The Seattle and Hyderabad-based global wellness SaaS provider startup raised about $6 mn (around INR 38.4 Cr.) in its Series A round of funding led by Accel Partners. The funds will be used by company to accelerate its sales and marketing growth globally as well as in expansion of its mobile product offering.

Townrush: Bangalore-based B2B logistics delivery startup raised undisclosed amount in seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The funds will be used in the company’s physical infrastructure, technological development and scaling up its core team.

Wow Express: Co-promoter of consumer electronics maker Onida, made a seed investment of $500,000 (INR 3.17 Cr) in Mumbai-based logistics solutions company Wow Express. The startup will use the funds to fill gaps within the ecommerce supply chain with the use of technology.

99Tests: Infosys’ Kris Gopalakrishnan and Japanese investor Teruhide Sato invested undisclosed amount in Bangalore-based crowdsourced software testing platform, 99Tests Software Pvt Ltd. The startup was launched in 2010 and has over 12,000 testers across the world on its platform.

Bona Vita: Snapdeal CTO, Amitabh Misra’s startup Bona Vita raised $5 Mn in a funding round led by MakeMyTrip. The startup is currently in its stealth mode and plans utilize the funds to build differentiated products in the travel industry.

TripFactory: Based out of Bangalore, Tripfactory is a holiday customization platform for travellers to plan and customize trips. The startup announced that it has undisclosed amount in its Series A round of funding led by Aarin Capital Partners led by former Infosys Ltd board member T.V. Mohandas Pai and Manipal Group chairman Dr. Ranjan Pai.

Lazylad: Gurgaon based hyperlocal delivery startup raised $500,000 in Pre-Series A funding led by overseas investors including Tekton Ventures, Singapore based M&Y Partners and Japan based Kiyohiro Sugashita. Backed by GHV Accelerator, LazyLad is witnessed 10x growth in last 6 months.

Online retail store Jaypore.com plans to raise $10 Mn for brand building, technology upgradation, developing its private label and building corresponding supply chains. The company wants to build its presence offline as well.

A fitness solution marketplace, beFITsocial, is in talks with institutional investors to raise $2-3 Mn as it eyes expansion in India as well as other Asian markets. The app allows users to choose sessions for gyms, pilates, yoga, boxing, dance, tennis and martial arts.

Indian cab & auto booking startup, Ola, is in advanced stages for closing a $500 Mn (about INR 3150 Cr) funding round from its existing investors to maintain its leadership in the market against its closest competitor, Uber. The deal will value the company at about $4.5 Bn.

Private equity arm of Fidelity is in advanced talks to lead a $15 Mn (about INR 96 Cr) fundraising round for CredR, an online marketplace for used two-wheelers.

The Acquisitions That Took Place This Week Are

• Hyderabad based GetMeFood, a player in the online food ordering domain has been acquired by Monocept.
• Hyper local marketplace Jugnoo announced its successful acquisition of BookMyCab, a startup which helps people by rendering an affordable taxi service in most of the Indian metros. This acquisition will help Jugnoo achieve the required foothold to expand its services for its Mumbai launch.
• Gloob Décor, a player in Interior Designing and home furniture and furnishing has acquired Banana Interactive, with a vision of becoming a market leader in Augmented Reality enabled interior designing. Banana Interactive is a self funded gaming and application development startup which will spearhead the Visual App Development vertical at Gloob.

With this, there were also reports that Flipkart is planning to pick up stake in logistics and supply chain analytics startup LogiNext Solutions Pvt Ltd in a few weeks. Flipkart will provide Series A investment of around $10-15 Mn for a 10-20 per cent stake.

As per the soaring rumours, Rocket Internet-backed FoodPanda is on a look out to pick up stake in food ordering app TinyOwl. However, TinyOwl has denied any such thing at this point of time.

The Other Developments That Took PLace This Week Are:

• Uber is planning to invest $1 Bn over the span of next nine months exclusively for the Indian market. The online cab company will be channelizing the funds to improve operations, expand into newer cities and to develop new payment solutions.
• Startup incubator InnAccel is in talks with strategic partners to raise $10-12 Mn in next few months to open branches in other Indian cities and support at least 12 startups every year that are into medical devices, prosthetics and diagnostics.
• AngelPrime announced that they are rebranding themselves as Prime Venture Partners and has raised about $47 Mn (INR 300 Cr.) for a new seed stage fund. The investment was led by Social+Capital partnership.
• Singapore-based venture capital fund Jungle Ventures plans to launch its second fund that would invest across South Asia, which will also include startups in India. The VC firm plans to announce the fund by next month which will include cheque size of about $3-5 Mn.
• Pitney Bowes India (PBI) has announced four startups that will be part of its second batch of Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program in India. The four startups will be Ipsator Analytics, Fetchon, Kayeura and ShipDesk.
• In a bid to support its 10,000 startups programme, NASSCOM has partnered with Government of Haryana to set-up a 16-acre warehouse in Gurgaon. The warehouse will provide number of facilities and one-on-one mentorship to the startups.