Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [3 August-8 August]

Its raining money for the Indian companies. Last week more than 20 startups disclosed about their funding. This week too, large number of startups disclosed their funding. From hyperlocal delivery to healthcare to ecommerce, startups in different categories got funded.

There are reports that Alibaba had made a $500 Mn investment in the ecommerce biggie, Snapdeal with Foxconn and Softbank also participating in the round. Snapdeal had a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $2 Bn at the end of 2014 and is aiming for $10 Bn in GMV by the end of this year.

This week 23 startups raised about $745 Mn in funding altogether. (Calculations are based on startups that disclosed their funding amount.)

WizRocket: The in-app solution startup that offers an evolved customer experience, WizRocket raised $8 Mn from Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners to grow its prescriptive mobile ad platform. The platform is used by ecommerce, mcommerce, event ticketing, travel, crowd funding, classifieds and other diverse businesses.

JustRide: Mumbai-based car rental startup, JustRide, raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Alok Mittal, Zishaan Hayath, Niraj Singh, Nikunj Jain, Punit K Goyal, Anirudh Damani, Rohit Chokhani, Parag Shah and Palaash Venture. The funds will be used for expanding to other major cities by the end of this year.

Cue Learn: The Delhi-based edutech startup raised an undisclosed amount from former Managing Director of Canaan Partners, Alok Mittal. The startup plans to expand operations across India with an aim to reach 1,000 teachers within an year.

Ressy: Pune-based restaurant discounts startup  raised $400k in a seed round to develop its sales and tech team and expand in sectors like wellness, adventure as well as modern retail. The fund was raised through LetsVenture and was led by Vikram Chachra, Founding Partner, Eight Capital.

ZO Rooms: Delhi-based budget hotel marketplace, Zo Rooms, raised $30 Mn (INR 192 Cr.) in a funding round led by its existing investors, Tiger Global Management and Orios Venture Partners.  The funds will be used to expand its presence across the country.

OYO Rooms: Budget-hotels marketplace, Oyo Rooms, closed a $100 Mn funding round led by SoftBank Corp to increase its network to 50,000 rooms across 100 cities by the end of this year.

Ezetap Mobile Solutions: The Bangalore-based mobile payments startup raised about $23.53 Mn (INR 150 Cr.) in a fresh round of funding led by Social+Capital and Helion Advisors. Besides, Berggruen Holdings, Horizons Ventures and the Capricorn Investment Group also participated in the round. The startup plans to reach over 2 lakh merchants and agents across India in the next 12 months.

Klozee: Bangalore-based startup that allows customers to access apparels on rent, Klozee,  raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by TracxnLabs and other investors. With the funds, Klozee plans to boost its marketing efforts and expand its operations.

NeoGrowth Credit Pvt Ltd: Mumbai-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) raised a total of $7 Mn (INR 45 Cr) in its third round of funding led by Khosla Impact to invest in new products and platform technologies and digital marketing and branding activities.

Pickingo: This Gurgaon-based on demand B2B hyperlocal logistics startup raised $1.3 Mn in its first round of institutional funding led by Orios Venture Partners to expand to more than 20 Tier I cities by the end of this year.

Practo: Bangalore-based healthcare platform, Practo, raised $90 Mn in Series C round funding led by Tencent, along with participation from Sofina, Sequoia India, Google Capital, Altimeter Capital, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital Global Equities and Yuri Milner. to expand its product lines and look for potential acquisition of companies to encompass key healthcare segments and provide a seamless experience across medicine, wellness and fitness, globally.

Sunday Realty Solutions: Mumbai-based, mobile-enabled real estate solutions provider raised more than $780K (INR 5 Cr) in early-stage of funding from a group of investors to use it for marketing, product enhancement and expanding its presence across 10 more cities.

Wegilant Net Solutions: Mumbai-based mobile security startup that helps developers find security faults in their Android applications, Wegilant, raised $500K in a pre-series A round of funding. The funds will be used towards technology expansion, research and development and customer acquisition.

NightStay: Noida-based last minute hotel booking App raised around $500K in a pre-seed round from BedRock Ventures and angel investors Rajesh Sawhney and Seedfund’s Shailesh Vickram Singh. With the funds, startup plans to bring more hotels on its platform and expand to other cities.

Doormint: Mumbai based home services platform, Doormint, raised $3 Mn in its  series A round of funding to enhance its reach in Mumbai and to further expand in Delhi, Gurgaon and Bangalore in the next quarter.

Zocalo.in: New Delhi-based online marketplace for broker-free rented accommodation, Zocalo, raised undisclosed amount of funding from Sachin Bhatia, Rajesh Sawhney. Besides, other investors who participated in this round were Mahesh Parasuraman, Laksh Vaaman, Udaan Angels and Dheeraj Jain.

LetsTransport: Bangalore-based tech-logistics startup, LetsTransport, raised $1.3 Mn in seed round of funding led by Rebright Partners. The newly raised funds will be used for expansion, technology advancement and hiring new talents.

Wetravelsolo: Singapore based angel investors’ community, Ccube Angels and Mauritius-headquartered investment firm Frontline Strategy Ltd. invested in Noida-based solo traveler networking community Wetravelsolo.com.

Loud Shout: Noida-based hyper local bulletin board app, Loud Shout,  raised undisclosed amount of funding from Sethi, Ravi Jaipuria and a Hong Kong based investment banker. The funds will be used to add new features to the app in order to drive user engagement and have a plan to roll them out systematically over the next year.

The Home Salon: Mumbai-based on-demand home beauty and wellness services portal raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from angel-backed startup accelerator VentureNursery.

Glowship: Bangalore-based online marketplace, Glowship, that focuses on bringing together energy and environment related products on to one platform to make it easy for consumers to purchase and install them, received an undisclosed amount of funding from Infuse Ventures.

iOrderFresh: This Delhi-based online fresh food and grocery store raised undisclosed amount of funding led by Best Foodworks Pvt. Ltd. The raised funds will be used for developing technology, increasing supply-chain, customer acquisition and services.

With this, NDTV also raised an undisclosed amount in funding at a combined valuation close to $80 Mn for its new ecommerce ventures in Gadgets and Car & Bike. The two ventures will be Gadgets 360°, a curated marketplace for exclusive launches of mobile phones and other electronic gadgets and Fifth Gear Auto, an auto portal leveraging on the massive following of NDTVs car and bike programming.

Mahindra group’s former head of engineering services, Prashant Kamat raised $20 Mn for his engineering services startup. The funding has been led by IT industry veteran Atul Nishar and Zodius Capital.

Also, Alibaba plans to infuse about $625 Mn (INR 4,000 Cr) into Paytm, via its group entity Ant Financial Service. With this latest round of funding and continuous increase in transactions via its mobile Paytm is expected to be valued around $4 Bn.

This week, Bangalore-based assessment conduct and reporting platform, Learning Outcomes was acquired by Liga Edutech for an undisclosed amount. Post acquisition, five member team of Learning Outcomes will be moving to Liga.

Real estate portal, Housing is in advanced talks to buy cloud-based real estate platform, HomeBuy360 for an estimated amount of over $780K (INR 5 Cr) and as per reports, doctor’s discovery platform, Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd is planning to buy Qikwell Technologies. However, Qikwell denied the rumours and mentioned its plans to raise a new round of funding soon.

The Other Developments Of The Week

• Tiger Global Management plans to set up a coworking space for its startups in India. The firm plans to set up 20,000 sqft building in Bangalore.
• Gurgaon based food-tech startup, Foodport has been selected into GHV Accelerator. As a part of this, GHV infused $100K into Foodport.
• Co-founded by S Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal, Axilor Ventures announced Kris Gopalakrishnan as its Non-Executive Chairman of the organization. The venture which was launched, to incubate entrepreneurs and early-stage startups to succeed in diverse verticals, has opened applications for the second batch of startups to apply.
• Northgate Capital invested and co-sponsored early-stage venture capital firm, YourNest Angel Fund. The partnership will provide capital and investment opportunities to the VC fund whereas, Northgate will be able to invest in YourNest’s portfolio of companies.
• Aditya Birla Group is planning to launch a dedicated startup fund to invest in innovative startups across sectors like financial services, healthcare and retail.  The average ticket size of the investment will be from $2 Mn to $10 Mn.