Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [23 November – 28 November]

SoftBank Corp along with Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital, invested about $120 Mn (INR 780 Cr) in on-demand hyperlocal delivery startup, Grofers, marking its fifth investment in an Indian startup. Besides, Apoletto Managers, a personal fund managed by DST Global’s partners, also participated in this round.

This week 23 startups secured more than $75 Mn in funding altogether. (The funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startups that got funded this week:

Pluss: Hyperlocal delivery startup for healthcare and wellness, Pluss, raised $1 Mn in Pre-Series A round,  led by IDG Ventures India, M & S partners (Singapore) and Powerhouse Ventures (USA). The raised funds will be utilised for expansion in five cities, technology upgradation and developing marketing strategies.

EarlySalary: Fintech startup EarlySalary.com raised $1.5 Mn in seed round of funding from Ashok Agarwal of Transcorp Group. The startup will use the proceeds in building a mobile app-based lending platform with which it plans to revolutionise the lending space in the country.

Medikoe: Online hyperlocal healthcare-services discovery provider, Medikoe, raised $100K in an angel round from Anil Menon, CEO of CMS Computers Ltd. The startup plans to use the funds for its expansion in Mumbai and NCR region by end of 2015. It also has plans to get into 20 more cities by the first quarter of 2016.

GOQii: Wearable tech startup, GOQii, raised about $13.4 Mn (INR 88 Cr) in Series A round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and China-based Cheetah Mobile. The startup plans to expand its  markets in China.

Stelae Technologies: Content management and segregation software product company, Stelae Technologies, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round led by Earlsfield Capital. It also saw participation from Saha Fund, former Infosys veteran TV Mohandas Pai and Cross Border Angels.

Crayon data: Crayon Data, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata. It  claims to bring Amazon-like personalisation and Google-like scale to customer engagement in traditional enterprises.

Naaptol: Naaptol Online Shopping that owns and runs TV shopping and ecommerce platform, Naaptol.com, raised about $51.7 Mn (INR 343 Cr.) in a new round of equity funding from existing investors including Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co., New Enterprise Associates, Canaan Partners and Silicon Valley Bank. Naaptol will use the funds to expand its reach and to build an efficient supply chain.

Envoged: A social marketplace for purchase and sale of pre-owned branded fashion products, Envoged, secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Viveck Goenka-owned The Indian Express Group.

PayMango: An horizontal mobile marketplace, matching demand with local supply, PayMango, raised around $234K in angel funding round from Viveck Goenka-owned The Indian Express Group.

Mr.Homecare Services: On-demand maintenance services platform, Mr. Homecare Services, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Viveck Goenka-owned The Indian Express Group. The startup offers AC and car services with cleaning, handyman, bike care, painting and pest control services. It wants to expand to Delhi and other markets in the country.

Spiral Content Solutions: Spiral Content Solutions has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Viveck Goenka-owned The Indian Express Group. Spiral’s flagship product ‘Scatter’ (launched by Rajan Srinivasan in February this year) that provides personalised content for advertisers and helps them to plan content.

ServX: A marketplace for authorised automotive service providers, ServX, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Manish Gupta, chairman of the Jagan Institute of Management Studies (JIMS) group of institutions. The raised capital will be used to create on-field operation base, for implementation of tech and expansion to other cities such as Chandigarh and Jaipur.

Stylofie: Beauty and wellness startup Stylofie raised $250K in seed round of funding from Hong Kong-based company Swastika. The new round of funding will help the startup to strengthen its technology stack and expand to Delhi.

Rentomojo: Online home appliances and furniture rental startup, RentoMojo, raised $1.96 Mn (INR 13 Cr) from IDG Ventures India and Accel Partners India. The startup is targeting 6,000 subscribers by the next year, March..

Caravan Craft: Caravan Craft, a startup that develops and creates traditional Indian craft products for the urban Indian society, raised funding of $1.2 Mn (INR 8.5 Cr.) from existing investor, Unitus Seed Fund and others. Other participant investors in the round were Bijou Kurien, ex-CEO at Reliance Retail and Narayan Ramachandran, ex-country head at Morgan Stanley. Besides, the company also secured a debt of $2 Mn (INR 14 Cr.) NSDC

KountMoney: Elending marketplace, KountMoney, raised an undisclosed seed round of funding from Ashish Goenka and other Angels, through TracxnSyndicate. The startup aims to make lending simpler and hassle-free for both borrowers and lenders.

LearnOn Technology: Ed-tech startup that operates a cloud-based learning platform for K-12 schools, LearnOn, reportedly raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from IT services company JMR Infotech India Pvt Ltd. The startup will utilise the funds to expand its operations and strengthen its technology and sales teams.

Tooler: Pigeon Household Services Pvt Ltd raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A round from CASHurDRIVE founder Raghu Khanna and former Paytm executive Samir Gupta. thatIt operates an on-demand laundry services firm Tooler and  the startup will use the money to enhance marketing strategies and improve customer experience.

Fastudent: An ed-tech startup, Fastudent, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Ashish Gupta, founder and trustee at Ashoka University. The raised funds will  be utilised for expanding the team, strengthening the technology and increasing the geographical footprint.

Justride: Self drive car rental startup Justride raised $2 Mn (INR 13.3 Cr.). The company aims to provide vehicles within half an hour of booking at various location.

Stayglad: On-demand Beauty Services Platform, Stayglad, raised an undisclosed amount in Series A round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Anil Chopra, former CEO Lakme Lever.

Bro4u.com:  Bangalore-based home services marketplace, Bro4u raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Sargod Ventures, led by Alok Sargod. The funding will enable the company to strengthen its position in Bangalore.

With this, Australian music streaming service, Guvera, has raised $100 Mn from high net worth families and AMMA Private Equity. The platform will use the funding to further expand in India.

HDFC has sold its entire stake (4%) in Mahindra First Choice, Mahindra & Mahindra’s pre-owned cars retail chain. Also, US based Cox Automotive acquired ‘significant strategic stake in Mahindra First Choice.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• Payment gateway platform NumberMall acquired BankSmarts Solutions, an analytics firm for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is expected to enhance NumberMall’s analytics capabilities, customer reach and merchant offers.
• Home health care provider Portea Medical acquired Medybiz Pharma, a specialty pharmaceutical distributor, for an undisclosed amount in an all cash and stock deal. The acquisition will help Portea further to strengthen its patient engagement and provide better care for chronic disease patients in India.
• Mahesh Bhupati backed online sport store Sports365 acquired Tennishub.in, an online tennis store, for an undisclosed amount. With this deal, the complete team of Tennishub will join Sports365 and continue to drive the business forward.

Besides, ethnic etailer Craftsvilla.com has set aside around $9.8 Mn (INR 65 Cr) from its latest round of funding to acquire technology startups that will complement its business and enhance customer experience. The startup aims to announce at least two acquisitions this quarter from the five companies  which is still in talks.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Competing for a prize of $175K in cash and over $1 Mn in other investments, three startups viz Maax Market, Truelancer and MyPoolin have won the “The Challenge Cup”, organised by the US-based global incubator and venture fund, 1776.
• GHV Accelerator will onboard 10 more startups (under its 12 month acceleration program) by March 2016. The accelerator is well poised to lap up disruptive startups with potential for hockey-stick growth and offer them necessary ingredients in order to strengthen their business metrics.
• IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program has announced 15 winners for its Delhi regional finals that was held on November 21, 2015. The startups were judged by Nipun Mehrotra, Dulles Krishnan, Anil Joshi, Shailesh Vikram Singh, Manish Choudhary, Vivek Malhotra, Pradeep Gupta , Padmaja Ruparel , Digvijay Singh and Sunil K Goyal.
• Next Orbit Ventures Fund will focus on creating a manufacturing hub in India for Electronic System and Design Manufacturing (ESDM) sector including semiconductor chips, solar and LED components. NOVF has announced the launch of its second fund called ‘$750 Mn dollar Fund II’ to fuel the fresh venture.
• Global private equity firm Warburg Pincus closed a $12 Bn private equity fund. It has altogether raised 14 equity funds and invested more than $50 Bn in over 720 companies across 35 countries.
• French accelerator NUMA announced the list of 11 startups that will be part of its first batch in Bangalore. Numa will have a six month accelerator programme in Bangalore wherein the startups will be trained, nurtured and mentored.
• Business World’s accelerator program, BW Accelerate, announced second batch of 20 startups, for which it received more than 450 applications from Delhi & NCR.
• Pfizer and IIT Delhi announced an incubation accelerator initiative “Innovation & IP Program” to help create healthcare innovations in India. The program will offer funding upto INR 50 lacs for each innovator. The Program will invite two rounds of proposals during the period 2015-2016. The first round will be open from November 27, 2015 till January 15, 2016.
• Dell Ventures, a venture fund arm of Dell, has decided to invest in Indian startups in the space of mobile, big data, security, cloud computing, IoT and security. Dell venture will support the growth stage startups with its strategic innovation fund.