Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [28 September – 03 October]

Alibaba Group Holding and its affiliate, Ant Financial Services Group, announced an undisclosed amount of investment in One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm. According to sources, Alibaba has invested over $830 Mn in this round against 30% stake.

On the other side, Didi Kuaidi confirmed its investment in cab hailing company Ola. Ola was on a lookout to raise over $500 Mn at a valuation of $5 Bn to expand in the country. Didi will join Ola’s existing investors which include Falcon Edge, GIC, Tiger Global Management and SoftBank in the latest funding round.

This week 16 startups raised more than $56 Mn, in funding altogether. (The funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Let’s Have A Look At The Startups That Raised Funds This Week

Eywa Media: A digital signal processing technology startup, Eywa Media, secured $ 1 Mn in seed funding through ah! Ventures, the US-based Viktor Koenig PE Fund and Mantra Ventures. The startup will use the funds in technology building and scaling its reach in focused countries.

Firstouch: A fully indigenous mobile operating system targeted at enabling next 500 Mn users to connect to the internet in their native language, raised its angel round of funding led by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal from Snapdeal’s Pranay Chulet, Quikr’s Naveen Tiwari, Amit Gupta from Inmobi and Mayank Singhal from Temasek. The startup aims at bridging India’s digital divide by bringing millions of rural consumers online.

LoanCircle: Consumer lending platform LoanCircle raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Toppr’s co-founder Zishaan Hayath, Trifecta Capital’s MD Rahul Khanna, Quintype’s CEO Amit Rathore and Appiterate’s co-founders Anuj Bhargava and Mayank Kumar. The funds will enable the company to expand its team in the areas of risk, technology and operations.

Infoworks: An automated big data management startup, Infoworks, raised $5 Mn in its Series A round led by Nexus Venture Partners. The round also saw participation by Knoll Ventures and a few others. The funding will enable the startup to expand its management team to prepare for the next stage of growth.

RedDoorz: Asset light budget accommodation startup, RedDoorz, raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A round of funding led by Jungle Ventures. The startup offers budget accommodation owners access to expert advice & assistance to standardise their offering and directly distribute online via RedDoorz technology platform.

Brigge Technologies: The Chennai Angels (TCA) invested an undisclosed amount in  activity-based social network Brigge. It is a social platform where people can discover and participate in activities happening in their areas of interest.

Hugefly Technologies: Ecommerce personalization and recommendation startup, Hugefly Technologies, raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Temasek Holdings’ associate director, Mayank Singhal, Oliphans Capital’s co-founder Mohit Gulati and icustommadeit.com’s CEO and CMD Raj Iyer. The newly raised capital will be used by the company to increase its team and upgrade systems and operations. Hugefly also aims to attract more ecommerce platforms as clients globally over next six months.

PepperTap: Hyperlocal grocery delivery services startup, PepperTap, raised Series B funding round of $36 Mn led by Snapdeal and its existing investors Sequoia India and SAIF Partners. The funding also saw the participation from new investors including Ru-net, JAFCO and BeeNext. The funds will be used to increase its team size, expand its presence and invest in strengthening its technology and supply chain capabilities.

Zakoopi: An online aggregator of offline stores startup, Zakoopi, garnered $350K from Harminder Sahni, a veteran of India’s retail industry and Uniqorn Ventures. The startup looks up to disrupt its technology and business model and expand to more cities with the newly raised capital.

Quickli: On-demand delivery startup, Quickli, secured an undisclosed amount of funding from 500 Startups and from some high net worth individuals. The raised funding will be used in team expansion and going deep with a limited set of customers and region.

EasyFix: Professional services marketplace, EasyFix, raised an undisclosed amount in its first round of institutional funding from Axilor’s early stage funding program Axilor Ventures. The funds will be used to expand startup’s geographical reach and invest in growing their on-field professional network.

Wydr: Droom’s founder and ex-Shopclues CEO, Sandeep Aggarwal invested an undisclosed amount in performance based wholesale marketplace Wydr. The company is also in talks with potential investors for another funding round in order to raise around $2 Mn as fresh funds.

Indifi Technologies: Alok Mittal, former India head of Canaan Partners, launched Indifi Technologies that would enable country’s micro and small enterprises to gain greater access to debt financing. The startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Accel Partners and Elevar Equity along with Pramod Bhasin (founder and former CEO of Genpact), Rajan Anandan, Gaurav Dalmia, Abhishek Goyal, Gagan Hasteer and Arun Tadanki.

Chillr App: VC firm Sequoia invested $6 Mn in Backwater Technologies, the startup behind Chillr app. The startup plans to use the funds for customer acquisition.

Shopalyst: A startup that enables product discovery and shopping from any website or app, raised $2 Mn (INR 13 Cr.) in venture capital funding from Kalaari Capital. The raised capital will be used in team expansion and to reach out to global markets.

Muvizz: Movie-on-demand platform, Muvizz, raised $350 K (INR 2.2 Cr) in angel funding from three Singapore-based investors. The funds will be used to increase traffic to the website.

Also, reportedly One97 Communications Ltd, the parent company of Paytm, has invested undisclosed amount in bus ticketing platform AbhiBus and income tax filing website ClearTax.

HashLearnNow, an on-demand mobile tutoring platform, was announced as the winner of the third edition of StartEdu competition, organized by Unitus Seed Fund and Sylvant Advisors. HashLearn has won of $7.5K (INR 5 lakh) and got a chance to pitch to Unitus Seed Fund for a seed investment of upto $151K (INR 1 Cr).

According to media reports, mobile advertising platform, InMobi raised $100 Mn from a consortium of lenders led by the US-based Tennenbaum Capital Partners.  

Acquisitions That Took Place This Week

• Auto-hailing app, AUTOnCAB, acquired BigZop, an hyperlocal grocery delivery startup, for an undisclosed amount in a cash and stock deal. AUTOnCAB is focused to develop a smart ultra-budget platform for urban commuters and improve services.
• Online furniture marketplace, Mebelkart, acquired 53central, a crowd bargaining platform that enables group buying options for sports enthusiasts worldwide.
• Online customer service provider, Freshdesk, acquired Frilp, a social recommendation app for exchanging references and recommendations for an undisclosed amount.
• Quikr that was earlier rumored to eye real estate startup Housing.com, is now eyeing to acquire majority stake in Commonfloor for over $50 Mn.
• With this, there were reports of  Jabong in talks with  Snapdeal, for getting acquired.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Infosys invested in a VC firm, Vertex Ventures to boost its presence in the startup space. Vertex Ventures is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Temasek Holdings.
• IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program has opened applications for its Chennai edition. The startups can apply till October 5, 2015 for IBM Smartcamp 2015 Chennai.
• IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) announced the winners for its SmartCamp Hyderabad edition. The startups who stood out were StoreONGO, Meltag, FreightBazaar, TruckSumo and Goose Technologies.
• 35 startups were selected for the first India-US Startup Konnect to be hosted in Silicon Valley.
• Anti-virus software maker, Quick Heal Technologies Ltd., backed by Sequoia Capital, filed a for a stock listing with the domestic market regulator. The IPO comprises of a fresh issue of shares to rise up to $38 Mn (INR 250 Cr) and an offer for sale of up to 6.8 Mn equity shares by promoters and Indian units of Sequoia Capital.
• Multiples Alternate Asset Management that backs ecommerce logistics firm, Delhivery, sold about 10% stake to Tiger Global Management. The company has clocked returns of six times from their entry valuation and now partially exits by selling its stake to Tiger Global, another investor in the ecommerce logistics startup Delhivery.
• Qualcomm has committed to invest over $150 Mn in Indian startups as a part of Digital India program. The new venture fund, advised by Qualcomm Ventures is expected to fuel innovation and foster promising Indian startups which are contributing to the mobile and Internet of Everything ecosystem.