Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [14 December – 19 December]

Early stage technology investor, Blume Ventures, announced its first close for Fund II. The VC firm raised more than $30 Mn. It is targeting to close its Fund II at $60 Mn. ICONIQ Capital, IIFLWealth and the Government’s India Aspiration Fund, administered through SIDBI, have invested in the fund.

This week 17 startups raised more than $72 Mn in funding altogether. (The funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startup Fundings Of The  Week:

Stage3: An omni-channel fashion styling & rental platform, Stage3, raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Nisha Kumar, Puneet Dalmia and Balaji Prabhakar. The startup has shed 16% of its equity in this round. It will use the raised capital to expand its operations and strengthen its back-end technology.

Rivigo: Logistic platform Rivigo raised $30 Mn in Series B round with equity and debt financing led by SAIF Partners and other investors. With the raised funds, the platform is aiming to achieve its target of scaling 10X in the next 12 months.

Eatfresh: An online marketplace for meals prepared by Chefs raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Kalaari Capital. The startup plans to utilise the funds towards the expansion of startup’s delivery network to Bangalore and Chennai, with further cities to be added by 2016.

Springboard: Edtech company, Springboard (formerly known as SlideRule) raised $1.7 Mn in a seed round of funding from Allen Blue, John Katzman, Naveen Tewari, Kartik Hosanagar, 500 Startups, Blue Fog Capital and others. The startup will utilise the raised capital to increase its capacity in currently sold-out courses, provide additional student services & support and launch courses in new fields.

Meradoctor: A platform for virtual consultations between doctors and patients raised about $1 Mn (INR 7 Cr) in pre series A round led by Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures. Its existing investor India Quotient also participated in the round. It will utilise the capital to extend its technology platform, scale its doctorbase, increase its technology and management teams.

Blubirch: An IT/Reverse logistic service provider Blubirch raised $2 Mn in an angel round of funding from Chicago Capital Ventures, Sanjay Mehta, angel & PE investor and others. The raised funds will be used to expand its team and services in India and other countries.

BookEventz: An end-to-end service provider for event planning requirements, BookEventz, raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding led by Mumbai Angels and prominent angel investors along with participation from Singapore Angel Network and Zishaan Hayath. The startup will use the funds to strengthen its back-end technology and push marketing campaign for the portal.

Housejoy: On-demand service provider Housejoy raised about $22.5 Mn in Series B round led by Amazon along with participation from Matrix Partners, Vertex Ventures, Qualcomm and Ru-Net Technology Partners. The startup plans to use the funds for the growth and innovation of  its service category to solve deep operational issues apart from strategic acquisitions, partnerships and team expansion.

DealStreet: A digital media venture DealStreet raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Singapore Angel Network. The company is also in a strategic tie-up with its business daily Mint, which will collaborate and share content and resources across Singapore and India.

Cabsguru: Cab search, comparison and booking platform, Cabsguru, raised angel funding from a group of investors at a valuation of $3.5 Mn. The round was led by Prashanth Ranganathan. The company will use the funds to further strengthen their product.

JetSetGo: Marketplace for private jets and helicopters, JetSetGo Aviation Services Pvt. Ltd, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Puneet Dalmia. The company will use the funds to expand its ground presence in key airports, launch inter-city private jet shuttles, air ambulance services and an online platform for helicopter bookings.

Capricoast: An online marketplace for modular furnishing, Capricoast, raised $3.5 Mn in a Series A round of funding led by existing investor Accel Partners India and Singapore-based VC firm RB Investments. The raised capital will be used to broaden and accelerate its product development, as well as to expand its sales, marketing and team.

FocusDigit: Digital seller management startup Focus Digit raised an undisclosed amount from angel fund Turning Ideas. The startup will use the funds to develop products, strengthen technology and expand to 20 cities in India.

Streamoid: Visual-based search and discovery services provider for ecommerce and publishing industries, Streamoid Technologies, received $1 Mn (INR 6.7 Cr) in angel funding from two investors from Bangalore and Silicon Valley.

The News Minute: A news website that focuses on curating news and content from southern India has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funds from Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd. It plans to use the funds to hire more reporters and enhance its technology platform.

Ampere Vehicles: Electric bike company Ampere Vehicles Pvt Ltd. raised angel funding from a group of angel investors including Kris Gopalakrishnan & others. Kris has put in roughly $1.2 Mn (INR 8 Cr) in the company. It plans to use the raised funds to scale up operations and hire new talent.

Obino: The startup is a virtual weight loss coaching platform, it raised an undisclosed amount of seed round funding from RoundGlass Partners. It will utilise the investment for product feature and functionality enhancements and marketing activities.

Acquisitions That Took Place This Week

• Freshdesk acquired Konotor for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition would help the Freshdesk to serve an increasing number of mobile first businesses and to enhance its support channels and mobile solutions.
• Multi format retailer Spencer’s Retail acquired Omni-Present Retail India Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed amount, which operates the online grocery store Meragrocer.com. This move will allow Spencer’s to enter the ecommerce sector.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Google launched Launchpad Accelerator to provide mentorship, training and support to mobile startups in India, Brazil and Indonesia. Besides, Google will also provide up to $50K in equity-free funding. The company has also announced Doormint, Frankly.me, Holachef,Justride, Murmur, Nestaway and English Dost among the selected startups for the program from India.
• India’s first angel-backed accelerator,VentureNursery, signed a MoU with Paris&Co to help its graduating companies explore the French market. The partnership will benefit the participants and alumni of VentureNursery to explore French market and in turn. The Paris&Co incubated startups will be offered varied services by angel-backed accelerator in India.
• Newly launched venture firm Rainmaker Ventures raised $50 Mn in its maiden fund to invest in early-stage startups .
• To support businesses into retail, financial services and telecom, Aditya Birla Group announced 24 startups under its Bizlabs incubation program to provide an opportunity to interact and learn from CEOs and CXOs of Aditya Birla Group.
• With an aim to improve the Innovation Quotient in India, Venture Catalysts (VCats) launched itself as Seed Investment & Innovation platform. The platform will provide venture fund, co-working facility, angel network and post-investment support to boost startups in their early stage of growth.
• Winding up its months-long Global Entrepreneurship Program, IBM announced SirionLabs as the winner of Smartcamp 2015 challenge. The winners will be provided access to IBM’s enterprise cloud portfolio and third-party cloud services built around open APIs through which startups will be able to build and monetize their solutions.

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