Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [19-24 Nov 2018]

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week.

This week’s biggest startup funding came to Mumbai-based digital lending application InCred which raised $41.9 Mn (INR 300 Cr) in a funding round led by its founder Bhupinder Singh along with some other private equity investors such as Siddharth Parekh’s Paragon Partners.

The company will use the fresh funds to incubate new businesses and also to expand its lending business model, which currently caters to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the retail sector.

In another development, Bengaluru-based fitness startup Cure.Fit acquired mental health platform Seraniti for an undisclosed amount to add to its mental wellness vertical Mind.Fit. Cure.Fit will onboard Seraniti’s team of 15 therapists and its 8,000 customers. With the acquisition, Cure.Fit will have more than 70 centres under Mind.Fit.

This week, $96.64Mn funding was received by sectors including fintech, deeptech, healthtech among others and one startup acquisition took place in the Indian startup ecosystem altogether. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

DeTect Technologies: Chennai-headquartered Internet of Things (IoT) startup DeTect Technologies raised $3.3 Mn in Series A funding from SAIF Partners, Bharat Innovation Fund, Axilor Ventures, BlueHill Capital Pvt Ltd, and a few angels from the Keiretsu Forum. DeTect plans to use the fresh funds to expand internationally and supplement the core R&D focus of the company.

CashRich: Mumbai-based wealth management startup CashRich raised $1 Mn in equity funding from three UK-based angel investors. The company plans to use the funds to develop its Dynamic Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) technology to automate important steps of investment management such as asset allocation, portfolio diversification, and rebalancing while personalising the experience for each user.

Magicpin: Gurugram-based Samast Technologies, which runs hyperlocal discovery platform Magicpin, raised $20 Mn (INR 141 Cr) in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners US. Following this deal, the platform is now valued at $100 Mn. Lightspeed partners Jeremy Liew and Ravi Mhatre who participated in the round will be joining the Magicpin board.

BillDesk: Mumbai-based payments gateway BillDesk raised an undisclosed amount of funding from global payments technology company Visa to develop new product lines for its payments and loyalty businesses and also expand its footprint into other geographies.

HealthifyMe: Bengaluru-based mobile health platform HealthifyMe raised $6 Mn in an extended Series B funding round which is a mix of both equity and debt. The round witnessed participation from existing investors such as Sistema Asia Fund, US-based early-stage VC Samsung NEXT,  Chiratae Ventures, Inventus Capital, Blume Ventures and Innoven Capital. The company will use the newly raised funds to expand its presence in the international market

Aye Finance: Gurugram-based digital lending company Aye Finance raised $9.8 Mn (INR 70 Cr) in debt funding from Delhi-based social impact fund BlueOrchard. The company plans to use the fresh funding to expand to newer geographies and disburse loans more actively to its existing borrower base.

Signzy: Bengaluru-based fintech company Signzy raised $3.36 Mn (INR 24 Cr) in Series A funding round led by Stellaris Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital, along with other investors. Angel investors including Rajan Anandan from Google, Dilip Khandelwal from SAP Labs India, and Amrish Rau from PayU India also participated in the funding round. The company plans to use the fresh funds to expand its product portfolio, strengthen its technology stack, and expand overseas. Alok Goyal, partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, will be joining the board of Signzy as part of the deal.

Skillbox: Gurugram-based art social network and discovery startup Skillbox raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from US-based angel investor Sandip Ranjhan. The company plans to utilise the funds for marketing and scaling as well as strengthening the product.

Genius Corner: Noida-based edtech startup Genius Corner raised $283K (INR 2 Cr) angel funding from Ranbir Singh, Mahesh Mohta, Dipak Varshney, Puneet Garg, and Lakshmikantan Sundereswaran. The company plans to use the funds for its pan-India expansion.

Vedantu: Bengaluru-based online tutoring startup Vedantu raised $11 Mn in Series B funding round led by philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network, with participation from existing investor venture capital firm Accel Partners. The company plans to use the funding to expand its technology and further expand its service in tier 2 and 3 cities.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Gurugram-based ecommerce logistics company Delhivery may soon join the unicorn club with a fresh round of funding from Softbank; talks on the investment are reportedly in the final stage. With the announcement set for next month, SoftBank may emerge as the largest shareholder in Delhivery with a 32% stake.
• Mumbai-based industrialist Akshaypat Singhania has allocated $14.01 Mn (INR 100 Cr) for supporting early stage startups which are operating in the media and entertainment, lifestyle, food and beverages healthcare and other segments. The new fund will invest in the range of $2-4 Mn in early-stage startups looking to raise seed to Series A round of funding.
• Self-styled impact investment firm Aavishkaar-Intellecap Group is reportedly raising $31 Mn (INR 225 Cr) from US-based Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA).  The capital raising will help the group scale up its asset management and lending business as well as fund new strategic initiative.
• Bengaluru-headquartered home rental platform NestAway is reportedly in initial talks to raise $100 Mn and may end up securing $150 Mn given that there’s strong investor demand.
• Speaking at the Inc42 The Ecosystem Summit held on November 16 in New Delhi, the DIPP secretary Ramesh Abhishek said that out of the $309 Mn (INR 2200 Cr) authorised under the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS), $226 Mn (INR 1,611 Cr) has been committed to the SIDBI, and, so far, 170 startups have raised catalysed funding of $127.6 Mn (INR 879 Cr) from 32 AIFs under the FFS scheme.
• SoftBank and Invest India launched Tech4Future, the challenge which will seek to identify the most promising startups working in AI, Machine Learning, Face Recognition and Cyber Security sectors. For the top solution, SoftBank Group will provide the cash prize of $50K and also invite them for an incubation opportunity in Japan for 2-3 months, depending on the quality of the solution.

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