Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [28 March – 2 April]

IDG Ventures, an investor in Myntra which became one of Flipkart’s stakeholders after the company’s acquisition, is looking to sell its remaining 0.9 percent stake in Flipkart. It is looking to discuss with other investors for a stake sale.

This week 11 startups raised about $9 Mn in funding altogether (the funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startups That Raised Funds This Week

Touchkin: Proactive healthcare provider Touchkin raised $400K in seed funding from a group of  angel investors including Alok Mittal, Amit Gupta, Anuj Srivastava, Himanshu Aggarwal, Raghunandan G, and Puneet Agarwal. The startup plans to use the raised funds to build its team, grow user base and run healthcare pilots in domestic and international markets for depression and diabetes patients.

SwitchMe: Fintech startup SwitchMe secured an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of investors including Mohandas Pai, Hiro Mashita and Singapore Angel Network.The round was an extension of an earlier round led by 500 Startups Rajan Anandan and Ajay Sarupria. The startup will use the newly raised capital to strengthen its technology and expand the service to more cities.

Babygogo: Child healthcare startup Babygogo raised $300K (INR 2 Cr.) in seed funding a group of  angel investors including Rajul Garg, Dr Aniruddha Malpani, Daljit Singh, Aditya Vij, Salil Kapoor, Dr Kishore Kumar, Ashu Agarwal, Ashish Tulsian, Afsal Salu, Dr Shuchin Baja,j and Dr Ritesh Malik.

SchoolKart: An online marketplace for school products, SchoolKart, raised $300K from 12 angel investors, some of whom are prominent angel investors while, the others are HNI’s. The startup has over 25,000 products listed on its website, and claims to have a traction of up to 5000 visits per day.

HealthEmind: Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa invested an undisclosed amount in healthcare startup HealthEminds. The investment has been made through Uthappa’s fund Caffeine Ventures.

FixNix: A SaaS-based governance, risk and compliance (GRC) platform for enterprises, secured $500K in its Pre-Series A round of funding led by Jay Vijayan and four other investors from Singapore and San Francisco. The company received part of the proceeds from equity crowdfunding, and will utilise the funds to finish the development of their GRC analytics. It is in talks to raise additional $1 Mn in its Pre Series A round through private placements and strategic investors.

Veritas Finance: Fintech startup Veritas Finance raised $4.5 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in Series A round of funding led by Sarva Capital and others including Caspian Impact Investment Adviser. The startup will use the newly raised capital for expansion as well as increasing the range of financial products and services, besides using a sizable amount of the capital for disbursing loans.

QikShip: On demand logistics startup Qikship has raised $200K in an angel round of funding. The funds raised in this round will be used to build next generation technology for simplifying the logistics and create technology packed solutions, expansion to Gurgaon and Delhi, hiring people in sales & Operations, tech and pickup agents.

True Balance: SoftBank Ventures Korea invested an undisclosed amount in True Balance, a mobile application developed by a South Korean expatriate to help users keep track of the credits available on their prepaid phone accounts. This is the first investment in an Indian company this year by a Soft-Bank unit.

Dil Mil: A matchmaking app Dil Mil raised $2.7 Mn in its Pre-Series A round of funding from a clutch of investors including Nelstone Ventures, Transmedia Capital, Maiden Lane Ventures, CSC Upshot, Naval Ravikant, Kunal Shah, Sameer Parwani, and Vijay Ullal. The startup will use the raised capital to experiment and harness emerging technologies and expand the product offerings.

Picsdream: An online marketplace for photography Picsdream has raised angel funding from a group of investors led by Raman Roy, and other prominent investors including Ankit Nagori, and Harish Natarajan. The startup will utilise the newly raised capital for selective and targeted marketing to build its community of Picsdreamers, and to invest in product and technology development for an enhanced user experience.

Sachin Tendulkar-backed fashion firm Universal Sportsbiz is looking to raise up to $20 Mn (around INR 130 Cr.) as it gears up to open 100 exclusive outlets for flagship brand Wrogn in three years.

An IoT startup Smartron India is planning to raise $25 Mn in the next quarter to take its products and services to Middle East, Russia, and South East Asian markets.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• Flipkart acquired PhonePe, mobile payment startup, for an undisclosed amount. Under acquisition terms, PhonePe team will move to Flipkart but will function as an independent business unit.
• Home healthcare firm, Portea Medical acquired Health Mantra India, home medical equipment service provider, for an undisclosed cash and stock deal. The development will help expand Portea’s penetration into large home healthcare areas such as respiratory care, geriatric care, orthopedics among others.

Paytm has been reported to pick up stake in travel portal Yatra.com. The company is said have held a couple of rounds of talks with Yatra and details are being worked out.

Myntra is in advanced talks to manage the local retail chain of Forever 21. The deal will mark Myntra’s entry into offline retailing. It already sells Forever 21’s products online in India under an exclusive tie-up.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Director of Currae Healthtech Fund Apoorva Patni is looking to invest about $15 Mn (INR 100 Cr.) in the healthcare sector through fund Currae Healthtech Fund. He plans to expand the fund’s portfolios to 20 companies with the expected investment.
• Startup Tunnel (STun) announced seven startups that have graduated from its second batch. The incubator helps startups by providing mentorship, passionate teams working on game changing ideas to enhance their capabilities in product development, marketing strategy, rapid prototyping, and design & user experience.
• Startup incubator Kstart announced collaboration with IBM to foster the startup ecosystem in India. Kstart portfolio startups will be able to benefit from IBM’s mentors and training sessions and gain exposure to its Global Entrepreneur Program where startups can apply for up to $120K in cloud credits to develop and run their applications on IBM Cloud.
• Belgium-based investment holding company, Verlinvest, is planning for more direct investment opportunities in India in the space of food and beverages, retail, hospitality and ecommerce sectors.
• Venture Catalysts, which has over 150 angels in its network, plans to invest over a crore in artificial intelligence startups over the next one year.
• Venture capital firm dedicated to the clean-technology sector, Infuse Ventures Inc. is planning to raise INR 1000 Cr to invest in agriculture, healthcare, clean technology and technology for small businesses under a new fund called Bharat.