Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [11 April – 16 April]

OYO Rooms reportedly raised $100 Mn in its fifth round of funding from existing investors including Japan’s Softbank, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, DSG Consumer Partners, and Venture Nursery.

Also, Next Orbit Ventures invested about $17.2 Mn, picking up a stake of 5% in the ecommerce firm Infibeam. The investment has been made from $140 Mn (INR700 Cr) fund constituted by the firm.

This week 22 startups raised about $172 Mn in funding altogether (the funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startups That Raised Funds This Week:

LegalRaasta: Tech platform that simplifies legal and business related matters, LegalRaasta.com, raised $1 Mn (INR 6.7 Cr) in an angel funding from Pravin Khandelwal and Yatin Kumar Jain. The startup plans to use the newly raised capital for team expansion, and to strengthen tax returns and marketplace verticals, and set up full-service offices in metro cities.

Nestaway: Home rental startup NestAway has reportedly raised $30 Mn (INR 200 Cr) in a round led by Tiger Global. The startup is planning to expand to Mumbai and Chennai soon.

Mind Your Fleet: Car fleet management service provider, Mind Your Fleet, secured an undisclosed amount in an angel round of funding from undisclosed investors. The raised funds will be used to scale up infrastructure and talent acquisition.

Organicshop: A marketplace for organic products, Organicshop.in, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round of funding from Vivek Nathani, Yogesh Chaudhary and existing investors Mahavir Pratap Sharma, Kamal Kothari, and H C Jain. The funds will be used in developing new business lines to reach out to customers in India and globally.

Deal4Loans: A B2C loans marketplace, Deal4Loans, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from high profile investors. These investors include Ram Shriram, Neeraj Arora, and Puru Vashishtha.

Vyomo: Mobile beauty and wellness services startup, Vyomo, raised about $15 Mn (INR 100Cr) in Series A round of funding led by salon chain Naturals. With this, Naturals has taken the controlling stake in the company and Vyomo has rebranded as Naturals @Home.

KredX: A startup that helps small businesses raise working capital by connecting them to individual investors, KredX, raised $750K from seed fund Prime Venture Partners. It’s service, so far an invite-only platform called Mandii, has now gone commercial.

Hippily: An app that personalises shopping experiences, targeted at young women, Hippily, raised $250K in seed round of funding from a group of high-profile angel investors across India, USA, and Singapore.These include Dr. Sridhar Ramaswamy and Rakesh Mathur.

Tapchief: A startup that offers a cohesive platform to discover and schedule calls with experts to get advice across domains, Tapchief, has raised $150K funding from Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. It has been announced as the winner of the Mind batteries, Chase Your Dreams – Ideathon’ Contest.

MagicX: A chat enabled Artificial Intelligence platform, which strives to personally assist the user with daily tasks, MagicX, has raised $1 Mn from investors including Kris Gopalakrishnan, Dr. Ranjan Pai, Ramaraj, Hari Kumar, and Aarti Grover.

90Seconds: A cloud video production platform 90 Seconds raised $7.5 Mn in Series A round of funding led by Sequoia India. TSKY TV NZ, Airtree Ventures, Beenext, and Fotolia.com founder Oleg Tscheltzoff also participated in the round.

RainCan: Subscription-based grocery delivery startup, RainCan, raised an additional funding of about $150K (INR 1 Cr.) in its angel round funding led by Aniruddha Malpani and others. The Pune-based startup will use the additional capital to increase its customer base and set up state-of-the-art logistics platform from farm/factory to door-step delivery in order to ensure quality. The startup is also said to be in talks with potential investors to raise another $2 Mn.

Blue Box Media: Digital media startup Blue Box Media raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding led by Mahavir Pratap Sharma and Ajay Data. The round also saw participation from existing investors Yogesh Chaudhary, Sanjay Phophaliya, Siddharth Agarwal, and Kamal Kothari. The startup will use the raised capital to expand its technology and editorial team, and for marketing the mobile app of The Tech Portal.

Edcast: EdCast Knowledge Media & Intelligence Network, completed a $16 Mn Series B round of funding led by GE Asset Management. Other investors who participated the round included SoftBank Capital, Cervin Ventures, Stanford StartX Fund, and Penta Global.

RenewBuy: A web-based auto insurance platform RebewBuy raised $1 Mn from Mount Nathan, a Singapore-based principal investment and advisory firm, through its investment entity Havelock Road LLP. The funding will be used to grow its business and build more innovative solutions on claims.

LenDenClub: Peer-to-peer lending platform LenDenClub raised an undisclosed amount of angel investment through Venture Catalysts. Investors that participated in this round include Anirudh Damani, Daud Ali, Narendra Karnavat, Vikas Kapoor, Vikram Lakhotia, Krishna Jhunjhunwaala, and Jayesh Shah. The startup will use the newly raised funds to create a strong technology platform and increase its reach to borrowers and lenders.

PriceRaja: A product & price comparison and deal aggregation platform, PriceRaja, raised about $300K (INR 2 Cr) from Prashant Puri, CEO Of AdLift. With this, Puri will also join PriceRaja in an advisory role. The startup will used the newly raised capital to fund its expansion.

Living Local: Hyperlocal social discovery platform, Living Local, raised $200K in seed round of funding from Rattan Chadha. The startup is focusing on expanding the business, and designing and launching its app by the end of this month.

Vegfru: An online B2B marketplace for fruit and vegetable trade, Vegfru, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Wingify, a website performance testing startup.

Rapido: Roppen Transportation has reportedly finalised its pre-Series A round of funding to expand its bike taxi booking platform Rapido.

Wedwise: A portal for wedding planners, photographers, caterers and other related service providers, Wedwise, reportedly raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Startup Equity Partners (STEP), co-founder Ginny Kohli. The funds will be used for the development of Wedwise TV, a YouTube channel focused on wedding planning and wedding themes.

With this, Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor invested an undisclosed amount in a video social network Indi.com, which is yet to be launched in India. Indi in India will be managed  by Divyansh Bajpai and Shikha Uberoi as co-founders, along with Anil Kapoor.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• Cloud-based customer service software provider Freshdesk announced the acquisition of Airwoot, a startup that uses machine learning to help brands deliver quick customer services on social media. At Freshdesk, Airwoot will help companies scale their teams properly and provide stellar support on social media. Freshdesk has put in about INR 20 Cr. for the acquisition.
• Marketing and advertising agency Muses Marketing Pvt Ltd merged with an online branding agency AdOnStream Services LLP. The value of the merged entity is estimated to be at around $2 Mn. The partnership will enable Muses Marketing to offer a complete marketing, branding and consulting solution for its brands.
• An online store that buys and sells new-like or gently used fashion wear, Revamp My Closet, is now joining forces with Spoyl, another startup in the same segment. The two startups together aim to take the concept of recycling fashion to the masses in India and build a better recommerce experience.

The OYO-ZO deal, which is yet to be completed, is facing hurdle from OYO’s early investor Venture Nursery. VentureNursery is demanding access to information that large investors typically receive from a company and the right to exit from the combined entity at a predetermined valuation, which is quoted to be $700 Mn.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Jaarvis Accelerator (JA) is all set to enroll a fresh batch of startups for its four-month program. The four-month residential accelerator program helps startups to develop, build and grow their business.
• India Quotient (IQ) is all set to launch an accelerator programme IQ Snipers. Through this accelerator, it would look to invest in startups at very early stages and enhance the fund’s internal deal flow.
• DSG Consumer Partners (DSGCP), an investment company, closed its second fund at $35 Mn. The fund saw participation from Verlinvest and has targeted a corpus of $40 Mn (about INR 266 Cr.), with its hard cap at $50 Mn (INR 332.6 Cr.).
• Venture Capital firm Ivy Cap raised about $45 Mn (INR 300 Cr) for the first close of its second fund of $90 Mn (INR 600 Cr). Sponsor investor IIT Alumni Trust led the round as it chipped in $18 Mn (INR 120 Cr). Institutional investors from the first fund have also extended their commitment to the new fund.
• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is looking to invest in early-stage financial technology startups through strategic partnerships in India. The investments will be made by Goldman’s Principal Strategic Investments (PSI) Group and it will start investing in companies in Bangalore and then expand to the rest of the country.
• Aavishkaar Venture Management Services plans to raise a new fund this year with a total target corpus of $300 Mn (INR 2,000 Cr). This will be the sixth fund of the company.