Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [4-9 Feb]

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

In one of the biggest Indian startup fundings this week, Gurugram-headquartered food delivery and restaurant discovery company, Zomato, raised $39.74 Mn (INR 284.42 Cr) in a private equity round from US-based Glade Brook Capital Partners. With thi,s the company is valued at $2.8 Bn.

Another major funding of the week came to Bengaluru-headquartered ride-hailing company Ola which raised $15.6 Mn (INR 112 Cr) as part of the ongoing Series J round of funding from Raymond S Cahnman, chairman of Transmarket Group; philanthropist Tina and Steven Price; J3T Ventures and Lyon Assets.

In all, this week 12 startups raised $103.87 Mn and two startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem altogether. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week

Country Delight: Gurugram-based milk delivery startup Country Delight raised $ 9.8 Mn (INR 70 Cr) led by Matrix Partners with participation from Orios Venture Partners. The fresh funds will be used to scale its operations across the country and enter into other fresh food segments such as yoghurt and paneer.

GIFSKEY: Hyderabad-based microcontent platform GIFSKEY raised $1Mn (INR 7.1Cr) in a seed round led by Kstart with participation from existing investors WEH Ventures, Angelist and Touchstone Equities along with Whiteboard Capital.

Guarented: Bengaluru-based rental and seller of refurbished home appliances and furniture, Guarented raised an undisclosed amount in its ongoing Pre-Series A funding round from Mumbai Angels Network. It plans to build its brand and expand into three more Indian cities with the latest funds.

FleetX: Gurugram-based artificial intelligence (AI)-driven logistics platform, fleetx.io raised an undisclosed Pre-Series A funding from India Quotient and LetsVenture’s Angel Fund, with participation from angel investors — Ajay Prabhu, Prashanth Susarla, Sajid Rahman and Aditya Pratap Singh. The startup plans on using the fresh funds towards product and tech enhancement and drive expansion in other cities such as Bengaluru, Kolkata, Gujarat and Mumbai.

Vidooly: Delhi-based video intelligence platform Vidooly raised $2.11 Mn (INR 15.08 Cr) as a part of Series C funding round from Alibaba and Times Internet. An Inc42 source confirmed that the investment is part of a larger funding round, where the investment is expected to come in tranches.

Rivigo: Gurugram-based logistics startup Rivigo raised $35.6 Mn (INR 255 Cr) in a Series E funding round from existing investors Warburg Pincus and SAIF Partners. With this round, the company has also inched closer to the much-coveted unicorn club at a valuation of $950 Mn.

Armsprime Media: Mumbai-based new age technology startup Armsprime Media raised an undisclosed amount of funding from entrepreneur Raj Kundra. The company plans to use Kundra’s nexus and relationships in the media industry to scale up the business.

MyPetrolPump: Bengaluru-based MyPetrolPump won $10K in the sixth edition of the Wharton India Startup Challenge (WISC) hosted by The Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF). It is an online diesel delivery service for generator or cars in specialised refuellers.

ITILITE: Bengaluru-based travel desk solution ITILITE raised $6K in Wharton India Startup Challenge hosted by The Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF). It is a SaaS-integrated travel desk solution for corporates and helps them reduce travel cost and improve booking experience, by incentivising employees to save on their travel expense.

Credenc: Delhi-based Credenc raised $4K as the winning amount of Wharton India Startup Challenge (WISC) hosted by The Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF). Credenc is an educational financial services company that helps students to get college loans.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Bengaluru-headquartered food delivery unicorn Swiggy acquihired Bengaluru-based Kint.io for an undisclosed amount. With this, the Kint.io team, led by founders Pavithra Solai Jawahar and Jagannathan Veeraraghavan will join Swiggy to boost its computer vision technology and give a superior consumer experience. Swiggy looks to leverage the tech to increase its expertise and talent in the sector. Belong.co was the consulting partner for this tech acqui-hire.
• Mumbai-based Rainshine Entertainment acquired significant stakes in Culture Machine, Weirdass Comedy and Kinsane Entertainment. With these three deals, Rainshine will have teams located in Mumbai, Los Angeles, New York, Chennai and Hyderabad. The primary focus of the company will be to create content across four genres drama, comedy, music and kids/fantasy.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek raised $1 Bn as part of its Series F funding round led by Alphabet’s Google, JD.com and Tencent Holdings. Although the company is yet to launch its services in India, it has been rapidly expanding its talent acquisition program. In October, the company said it will hire 200 engineers in Bengaluru.
• Bengaluru-based 3one4 Capital launched its Continuum I fund with a target corpus of $50 Mn (INR 350 Cr). Continuum I will focus on Series B rounds of companies belonging to the 3one4 Capital portfolio and hand out cheques worth between $3 Mn and $5 Mn. The Continuum I fund’s limited partners (LPs) include a significant investment by a top-tier university endowment in the US along with Sojitz Corp, a global conglomerate from Japan.
• Chicago-based freight tracking logistics startup FourKites announced that it will utilise a part of its $50 Mn Series C funding in doubling the employee headcount of its engineering arm in Chennai. Its existing investors — August Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, CEAS Investments and Hyde Park Angels — had invested in the startup’s latest funding round.
• Kerala has collaborated with Unicorn India Ventures, Exseed Electron Fund, Indian Angel Network and Speciale Incept Fund for an investment of more than INR 1,000 Cr ($139.6 Mn) in the state startups over the next four years. The pact mandates investing 25% of the volunteered amount in the next four years, the state is guaranteed with a minimum investment of INR 300 Cr ($41.87 Mn) by 2022 fiscal.
• Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries is planning to invest $1.4 Bn (INR 10K Cr) in the eastern state of West Bengal. A part of this investment will be used to fund the company’s ecommerce venture as well.
• Bengaluru-based hyperlocal grocery delivery company, BigBasket, is closing a $150 Mn (INR15 Cr) funding round. The funding round values BigBasket at $1 Bn pre-money, which would make the company the first India startup to join the unicorn club in 2019.
• The winning teams of Microsoft India’s AXLE, a Microsoft Academia Accelerator include IIT Madras: UAVs for Disaster Management, IIT Guwahati: DUBG, and  IIT Jodhpur: Disaster Chain.

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

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