Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [09- 14 July 2018]

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week.

Two of the biggest funding in the Indian startup ecosystem this week was raised IndiaLends and Headout, both raising $10 Mn.

Further, the Chinese venture capital firm Ganesh Ventures announced its entry into India with plans to invest $250 Mn in Indian startups. The venture capital firm is seeking to build a strong network of Indian entrepreneurs and Chinese investors and entrepreneurs. The firm aims to invest this amount in Indian startups across sectors like TMT, consumer products, fintech, and healthtech over the next three to five years.

This week 15 startups raised around $32.7 Mn in funding altogether and four startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

SynThera Biomedical – Pune-based healthcare startup, SynThera Biomedical raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding from an equity crowdfunding platform 1Crowd and the Biotechnology Industry Research Council (BIRAC) seed scheme. The funding will be used for the expansion and launch of their first line of bone graft substitute products in the market.

Survaider– Bengaluru-based SaaS-based customer experience management platform Survaider raised an undisclosed amount of money from Rajesh Dembla, an investor for Justdial and Dunzo. The startup plans to scale to $1Mn ARR along with adding more geographies internationally.

 Groww– Bengaluru-based Groww raised $1.6 Mn in a pre-series A round of funding from Insignia Ventures Partners, Lightbridge Partners, Kairos with participation from existing investors Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori. The startup plans to use the funding to further strengthen its technology and build scalable growth channels.

IndiaLends – Delhi-based consumer lending startup IndiaLends raised $10 Mn in a Series B round of funding. The investment was led by London-headquartered asset management firm ACPI Investment Managers and India-focused venture capital firm Ganesh Ventures. Amex ventures, along with the other existing investors in the company, such as DSG Consumer Partners and AdvantEdge Partners, also participated in the latest funding round. The startup will be launching new products such as an app-based line of credit and point-of-sale loans to meet the needs of our customers.

Boodmo– Gururgram-based online marketplace for automobile spare parts Boodmo raised its share capital with an additional $729.6K (INR 5 Cr) worth of investment through FDI from an undisclosed investor. The startup will be expanding its sorting hubs nationally and strengthen its existing operations.

5th Vital: Bengaluru-based healthcare services startup 5th Vital raised $250K from Brand Capital, the Times of India’s strategic investment arm. The company will use the funds for expansion and marketing.

Zippserv– Bengaluru-based real estate risk assessment platform Zippserv raised pre-Series A funding of $440K (INR 3 Cr) from their existing investors, including Info Edge (India) Ltd. ZippServ will use the fresh funds to aid in the expansion of their offerings to Mumbai and Pune in the coming months.

Genext Students– Mumbai-based O2O education solutions providing platform Genext Students raised $250K in a bridge round of funding from a clutch of undisclosed investors. The startup will use the funds raised to fuel its expansion plans in terms of services and markets while it will also make its tech backbone more robust. In terms of tech integration, it will expand the role of AI and other tech tools that will be useful for tutors to deliver much better & measured learning outcomes.

Magic Crate– Bengaluru-based education startup Magic Crate raised an undisclosed amount of money in its third round of funding led by Fireside Ventures and 3one4 Capital. Magic Crate will be using the funds to develop a new range of products, market the brand, and to grow the sales channel.

SmartVizX– Noida-based virtual reality startup SmartVizX raised $1.45 Mn (INR 10 Cr) in a pre-series A funding round led by YourNest Venture Capital along with the participation of the Indian Angel Network’s IAN fund. The funds will be used for scaling up the product team and building additional capabilities to the product, along with international expansion.

Shop101– Social ecommerce platform Shop101 raised $5 Mn in a funding round led by Stellaris Venture Partners. Others who participated in the funding round were Vy Capital, TaxiForSure co-founder Raghunandan G, and Lispace co-founder Ramakant Sharma. The startup will be using the funds to strengthen its core leadership and product team, scale the supplier network and enhance the technology platform.

 Spanugo– Chennai-based Spanugo raised an undisclosed amount of money from the Ideaspring Capital and the Fabric along with strategic angel investors. The funding will be used for product development, go to market and expanding the tech team in India.

McXtra– Mumbai-based digital insurance startup McXtra raised a pre-Series A round of $1.3 Mn funding from a clutch of twelve unnamed investors. The startup will be using the funds to scale up its tech platform and to reach out to more users.

 Headout-US and India-based spontaneous experiences provider Headout raised $10 Mn in a Series A Funding round from Nexus Venture Partners. The funds will be used for launching services in 100 cities by 2019, expanding the team worldwide and investing in technology to further enable seamless last-minute mobile reservations for local experiences.

Wishberry– Mumbai-based crowdfunding platform raised $1.4 Mn in a series A round of funding from Reliance Entertainment and 3one4 Capital. The funding will be used to launch crowdfunded film studio for low-budget cinema. Further, the firm will use funds to expand its team, especially to hire experienced talent in the film production and distribution space.

 19th Mile– Gurugram-based AI-based field acceleration startup 19th Mile raised a round of angel investments $180K from HNIs. The startup will be using the funds to strengthen its product, bolster technology team, and launch brand awareness initiatives in India and other international markets.

iNICU– New-Delhi based information technology service provider iNICU (Integrated Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit) raised an undisclosed amount of money from Venture Catalysts. The investors included Vishal Jhunjhunwala¸ Vikas Khandelwal, Dipan Dalal and Vikas Kapoor amongst others. The startup will be using the funding to enter into international healthcare market to address the global need with its solution.

MEngage– Jaipur-based app factory platform MEngage raised seed round of $175K from clutch of angels- Siddharth Agarwal (CEO, Silk Asia and President , TiE Rajasthan), Mahaveer Sharma (Chairman, RAIN ),  Amit Singal (Founder & CEO, Startup Buddy),  Anil Gupta from Doha , Sanjay Harpavat ,  Dr. Bharat Mohan Raturi,  Dr Dhananjay Mangal  and 100 Co-founders Lab.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• OYO Hotels acquired Mumbai-based IoT startup AblePlus. With this acquisition, OYO aims to create a sustainable ecosystem powered by technology and artificial intelligence for managing hotels and assets. It further aims to ensure better tracking of assets with the help of AblePLus.
• Tata Motors Ltd acquired a 26% stake in logistics startup TruckEasy,  through Tata Motors Finance Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors. With the help of acquisition, Tata aims to gain a foothold in mobility services to be future ready.
• Healthcare startup NirogStreet acqui-hired Brahm Ayurveda, a  platform of Ayurvedic doctors. After the acquihire, Dr Abhishek Gupta will be joining NirogStreet as its co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer.
• Accenture acquired Kogentix- a company that provides big data and AI solutions. Kogentix aims to benefit from acquisition with a greater share of this market and long-term career and growth opportunities. After the acquisition, Accenture plans to be better positioned to help clients realise the value of open source analytics platforms and embed new intelligence at the core of their businesses.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Walmart announced its plans to make a tech acquisition to strengthen its technology unit, Walmart Labs. Walmart Labs is mostly looking for acquihires and niche tech-product startups.
• Bengaluru-based early-stage venture capital firm Inventus Capital Partners marked the first close of its third fund at $29 Mn (INR 200 Cr) to invest in capital-efficient startups within the business-to-business and business-to-consumer spaces. The target of the fund was $47.31 Mn (INR 325 Cr) and the company has capped at $58.23 Mn (INR 400 Cr).
• Home design and decor service provider Livspace announced its plans to raise $40 Mn in funding from US-based private equity company TPG. The funding is expected to be a booster for Livspace since the company is planning to open offline stores in major Indian cities.
• Global Venture Capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners closed its second India fund with a corpus of $175 Mn. Lightspeed’s total capital under management in the country stands at $310 Mn.
• Delhi-based Brun Health and Kerala-based Ajna won the Singularity University Global Impact Challenge (GIC) India 2018, organised in Trivandrum by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) and Silicon Valley-based think tank Singularity University (SU). The startups will be flying to Silicon Valley to participate in a 10-week, all-expense-paid, transformational SU venture incubator programme.
• Google introduced Launchpad Accelerator in India and has called in applications for its next batch for Indian startups that are using machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to build solutions for the pressing problems in the country. The startups will get Google’s mentorship and $100K Google credits.
• Venture debt and speciality-lending firm InnoVen Capital raised funding worth $60.9 Mn (INR 418 Cr) which it will be investing in early and growth-stage startups. It has already disbursed $43.7 Mn (INR 300 Cr) and will be investing the remaining capital in the next two months.
• Kabir Misra, managing partner at Softbank Capital announced plans to launch his own startup fund with a corpus of $250 Mn. Post the launch, Kabir Misra will be making early-stage to mid-stage investments in US, India and Southeast Asia. The startup fund will count Softbank Group as an anchor limited partner.
• Sashi Reddi, managing partner at venture capital firm SRI Capital launched a $100 Mn technology focused early-stage venture fund named SRI Capital Fund-I. It is a Delaware-registered investment vehicle which will focus on startups working in the emerging areas of deep tech.
• Gurugram-based bike sharing platform Mobycy announced plans to raise $3 Mn from Venture Catalysts, IDG Ventures, and Orios Venture Partners. The startup will be using funds to foray into e-bikes and e-scooters on its platform
• Singapore-based state investment firm Temasek Holdings announced plans to strengthen its Indian commitments through sector-focused investment platforms. Firm’s focus will be subdivided into many other areas such as healthcare services, food, QSR, financial services, and digital payments.T he investments through the platforms will be for the long-term i.e. 10-15 years.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

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