Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The week [25 January – 30 January]

This week 22 startups raised about $30 Mn in funding altogether. (The funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startups That Raised Funds This Week

FindUrClass: An extracurricular activity and hobby class curation startup, FindURClass, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a set of angel investors associated with VentureNursery. The startup will use the funds to scale up and expand to more Tier 1 cities apart from Pune and Bangalore.

Truebil: Peer-to-peer car sales startup, Truebil, raised about $5 Mn (INR 35 Cr.) in series A round of funding from Kalaari Capital, Inventus Capital and Tekton Ventures. Existing investor Kae Capital also participated in this round. The startup will use the newly raised capital to scale up its operations and for expanding to four cities including Bangalore and Delhi.

Qriyo: A startup that aims to provide avenues for a fitter & active lifestyle, Qriyo Infolabs, raised $160K in its seed round of funding from Idein Ventures. The startup is currently active in Jodhpur and is now looking for expansion to Mumbai and Bangalore.

Wizn: Home-automation startup, WiZN Systems, raised an undisclosed amount in angel round of funding led by Foxconn Technology Group along with Kanwaljit Singh. The raised capital will be used to fuel the expansion. Foxconn will manufacture the initial set of hardware products for WiZN, as per the terms of the agreement.

DesignBids: A marketplace for architecture and interior design services, DesignBids, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the Indian Angel Network. The startup will use the raised funds to improve its technology, expand the team and scale up operations in all the major metros.

JustDoc: Video consultation startup for patients, JustDoc, raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from TracxnLabs, T.V.Mohandas Pai, Mohit Saxena, Raghunandan G, Singapore Angel Network and others. The startup is presently targeting five specialised areas and plans to add more over the span of time.

What’sonrent: Online rental platform, What’s On Rent, raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Lalit Mangal and Neeraj Gupta. Angel investor Sanjay Gupta and Nixel Technology also participated in this round. The raised capital will be used for introducing more categories on the website, and to expand the core operations and technology team.

Teabox: Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount of funding in Teabox, an online startup that sells premium teas. The startup delivers tea all over the world and is focused on the vertical integration of sourcing, branding and distributing teas.

Buildzar: Ecommerce portal for construction materials, Buildzar, raised $4 Mn from Puneet Dalmia, managing director of Dalmia Bharat Ltd., in his personal capacity. The funding will be used for team expansion, product enhancement and marketing activities.

Applicate: A startup that develops software to help enterprises manage workforce better, Applicate, raised a bridge round of $1 Mn from a couple of HNIs to develop their new product  Trade Gini. The investors who participated in the round were Rishi Vasudev, Amit Gupta, Rajiv Nayan, Rakesh Mishra among others.

Gajty: Wellness chain Gajty raised an undisclosed amount in seed round funding from the US-based venture capital firm Purvi Ventures. The raised capital will be used for expansion in all the metros and tier-I cities.

Power2SME: A ‘Buying Club’ for SMEs in India, Power2SME, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and existing investors Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Inventus Capital. The company will use the raised capital to add more products including rubber, alloys, copper, aluminium, paper products, etc. to its platform.

Qlivery: On-demand concierge service startup, Qlivery, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Chandigarh Angels Network (CAN). The startup plans to use the funds to scale its operations and enhance its technology, especially implementation of artificial intelligence (AI).

Siftr: Venture Catalysts (VCats) invested $150K in a photography curation platform SIFTR Labs. Angel investors Vishal Maheshwari, Vikas Kapoor, Daud Ali and Nitin Agarwal led the round. The startup aims to assist photographers in curating individual digital content photography platforms, claiming to have created the world’s’ first self-updating photo website.

PlexusMD: An online networking platform that connects healthcare professionals and organisations together, PlexusMD, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Patni family scion Arihant Patni, private equity veteran Avnish Mehra and a few other early-stage investors. Other investors who participated in the round were Pranay Adhvaryu of India Equity Partners and Ravi Sampat from Sea Link Capital.

CodingLabs: A portal for aspiring technologists to showcase coding skills, CodingLabs, raised an undisclosed amount in funding from 50K Ventures. The investment was led by Vineel Nalla, CEO of NBOS Technologies, and co-founder of 50K Ventures.

Aisle: Matchmaking startup Aisle raised about $183K (INR 1.25 Cr) in its Pre-Series A round. The round was led by Anand Vijay, a Bay Area-based angel investor on TermSheet.io and jointly advised and syndicated with ah! Ventures. The startup plans to utilise the funds primarily for building a strong team and effective partnerships.

BitGiving: Crowdfunding platform, BitGiving, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a cluster of angel investors including Harminder Sahni, Krishna Mehra and Sanjay Bakshi. The raised capital will be used for ramping up the team, product development and marketing.

Zebi: A startup that claims to track and clean heterogeneous digital data through its analytics platform, Zebi India, raised $1 Mn in funding from a bunch of unnamed San Francisco-based angel investors. The startup allows users to check for fraudulent documents and incorrect data.

Rare Media: Info Edge has invested about $1 Mn (INR 7.4 Cr.) in Rare Media Company Pvt. Ltd. to acquire a 35% stake. The investment is done to boost Info Edge’s real estate business 99acres.

Tinmen: Hyderabad-based food delivery startup, TinMen, has raised an undisclosed amount in angel round of funding from the Lead Angel Network. The raised capital will be used to serve a larger set of customers in Hyderabad and thereafter expand to other cities.

Private equity investment firm Nalanda Capital invested around $18 Mn (INR 120 Cr.) in local search service JustDial. With this, Nalanda’s total stake in the company increased by 2% to 7.58%.

With this, Daily Ninja, a subscription-based daily needs hyperlocal platform, is in talks to raise its next round of funding from its existing investors — Aprameya Radhakrishna of TaxiForSure, Venk Krishnan of NuVentures and Subramanya SV, former MD at Bessemer Venture Partners — and a clutch of other investors, within the next two months.

Reliance Capital Ltd acquired more than 9.57 per cent stake in Radiant Hues CRM Solutions, the firm behind affordable luxury merchandise etail platform Luxehues.com. This is part of the first tranche of the investment that would be topped up with more to take the total exposure to $677K (INR 4.61 Cr) representing 14.07 per stake by May 2017.

Branch Metrics, the deep linking solution for app developers and marketers, raised $35 Mn in series B round of funding led by Founders Fund. It presently has 1000 apps integrated in India alone. Some of Indian apps that use Branch Metrics are Snapdeal, GoIbibo, Cleartrip and Dailyhunt. Further, the company is also planning to increase its team size in India to support more apps in the country.

Also, Giftxoxo acquired Actizone, Mumbai-based online marketplace for booking and discovery of kids related activities. As per the deal, Actizone co-founder, Rajat Varma will join Nreach and will lead the sales & business development in Western India market.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Unicorn India Ventures partnered with JRLaddha Financial Services Pvt Ltd.This will enable the fund to attract funding from traditional family business houses for their fund. Just this month, the venture fund had got a commitment from the India Aspiration Fund, a INR 2,000 Cr. fund of funds launched by the government of India.
• Rocket Internet is planning to take exit from its portfolio companies Fabfurnish and Printvenue.
• Venture Capital firm, Saama Capital India Advisors, raised $100 Mn for three funds.
• Venture debt fund, Innoven Capital, decided to extend the amount of loan that it lends to early stage startups. It plans to lend over $67.6 Mn (INR 460 Cr) to early-stage companies this year, continuing with its sector-agnostic approach.
• Former Infosys global sales head, Subhash Dhar, joined hands with other IT industry executives to form an early-stage fund and startup incubator named Commence Mint, with the backing of California-based venture capital firm Accel Partners. Subash Dhar, Sanjay Dutt and Arun Singh have formed the “startup school” to incubate at least 20 early-stage startup ideas and fully fund each idea for 12 months.
• Lowe’s Inc, a fortune 50 home-improvement company present in United States, Canada and Mexico, announced the launch of its accelerator program in India. Lowe will be focusing on startups working in key technology areas like augmented & virtual reality, robotics & 3D scanning and printing technologies.
• Deep-learning startup HyperVerge which uses image recognition technology to create a smart sharing experience for photographs emerged as the winner of ‘Get in the Ring (GITR)’ East Asian finals held in South Korea. It is a unique platform where startups compete against each other in a boxing ring, with each entrepreneur having 150 seconds to pitch their businesses.
• Red Ribbon Advisory Services partnered with Mehta Fincon Services to raise funds for startups. Through this partnership, Red Ribbon expects to build investor base for its upcoming projects such as Modulex and Eco Hotels.
• The government has set up six focus incubation centres at a cost of INR 17.4 Cr to help budding entrepreneurs develop innovative technical textile products and boost manufacturing in the sector. These centres would help budding entrepreneurs build innovative technical textile products in a ‘plug and play’ model, and would help promote ‘Make in India’ in textiles.
• Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) will be picking out startups in India for its four month-long accelerator programme. In a joint session with Anthill Ventures and Singapore-based collaborative investment platform Fundnel, MaGIC will handpick two to three startups from a session at the T-Hub in Hyderabad.