Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [25 April – 30 April]

TV Mohandas Pai, Patni scions Arihant Patni and Amit Patni, angel investors Naganand Doraswamy, and Prashant Desphande have joined hands with Sasken Technologies CMD Rajiv Mody to float a $18.7 Mn (INR 125 Cr) fund Ideaspring Capital. The fund will provide up to $450K seed funding and $750K in subsequent co-investment at Series A.

This week 16 startups raised about $57 Mn in funding altogether (the funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startups That Raised Funds This Week

DocsApp: Online medical consultation platform, DocsApp, raised $1.2 Mn in seed funding from Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan, along with Rebright Partners. With the newly raised capital, the startup aims to develop technology, expand operations and recruit talent.

Impact Guru: Crowdfunding startup, Impact Guru, raised $500K in seed round of from Singapore VC, RB Investments and Southeast Asia private fund, Fundnel. The funds will be utilized to scale social/donation crowdfunding (online) for nonprofits, social enterprises and personal causes.

The Wedding Brigade: Formerly known as Indear, online wedding planner portal Wedding Portal raised $600K (INR 4 Cr) in Pre-Series A round of funding from Blume Ventures and four other undisclosed angels. The funds will be used to enhance product & services offerings, growth activities and acquire talent.

Arre: UDigital’s digital media firm Arre raised an undisclosed investment from Enam Holdings, against a minority stake in the company. The funds will be utilized for scaling the business and for content development. With this one of the co-founder, Ronnie Screwvala also exits the company.

RailYatri: Mobile train travel app RailYatri raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. Its existing investors Helion Venture Partners, Omidyar Networks and Blume Ventures also participated in the round.

MUrgency: MUrgency Inc., an emergency response app, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Axilor Ventures. The company will use the proceeds of the funding to develop the brand, recruit talent, augment technology, and scale operations.

CareOnGo: Co-branded pharmacy chain CareOnGo raised an undisclosed amount of funding in Pre-Series A round of funding. The round was raised on LetsVenture, led by Farooq Oomerbhoy of FAO Ventures. The round also saw participation from angel investors including Anupam Mittal, Anand Mittal, Ravi Garikipati, Vibhu Garg, Singapore Angel Network, and Konglo Ventures.

MilkBasket: Micro delivery startup Milkbasket raised $500K in Pre Series A round of funding led by EVC and a group of Chinese investors. Zhu Dao Investments, Peter Zou, Partner Beam Capital VC & CEO of YeahMobi, along with Vikas Banga & Manav Kamboj of Snapdeal also participated in the round.

LetReach: An affiliate marketing network vCommission invested in push notification tool for websites that ensures enhanced efforts to maximize reach to desired consumers for a brand. The accelerator aim is to help the startup with funding and mentorship at various stages, through an accelerator program designed to support the upcoming ventures in the digital industry. The deal was facilitated by Delhi Angels.

Roposo: Fashion discovery site, Roposo.com, raised $5 Mn in Series B round of funding from Bertelsmann India Investments (BII). Bertelsmann will offer guidance on how to scale Roposo to its next level of growth and expansion.

ClearTax: Fintech startup ClearTax raised $1.3 Mn (INR 8.6 Cr) in Seed funding from a group of prominent Silicon Valley investors including PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and Scott Banister, an early investor in Facebook and Uber. Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, WhatsApp business head Neeraj Arora and Ruchi Sanghvi, VP Operations at Dropbox, Y Combinator alum Sumon Sadhu, and Flexport’s Founder & CEO Ryan Petersen also participated.

TranServ: Digital payments company Transerv raised $15 Mn in Series C funding led by IDFC SPICE Fund and Micromax Informatics. Besides, its existing investors Nirvana and Faering Capital India Evolving Fund also participated in this round. The startup will utilise the newly raised capital towards accelerating business growth and investing in new product lines including microcredit.

DropKaffe: On-demand online coffee shop DropKaffe raised $550K in a funding round led by Kanwaljit Singh of Fireside Ventures. Other investors that participated in this round include Srini Anumolu & Meena Ganesh, Apurva Salarpuria, Sidharth Pansari, Rahul Gidwani, Hitesh Oberoi, Nirupa Shankar, Bhupen Shah among others.

InTouch: Contacts management app InTouchApp raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding from Blume Ventures. The startup will use the newly raised funding for to building its technology team and upping its marketing operations.

Commut: Shuttle service provider Commut raised $200K from 50K Ventures. Red Bus co-founder Sudhakar Pasupunuri, has joined the board of Commut. The newly raised capital will be used for its expansion, team building and technology upgrade.

Koovs: Koovs Plc, the parent firm of Indian lifestyle ecommerce venture Koovs.com, raised $32 Mn from its existing investors Waheed Alli, the Nahata family and Michiniko. The company raised the money by issuing 87.6 Mn new shares at 25 pence each.

Also, Food tech startup FoodCloud got selected in the FbStart program, that was launched by Facebook in 2014 to help early stage mobile startups build and grow their apps. FoodCloud’s Android app has been accepted into the Bootstrap track of FBStart Programme and has received $30K worth of rewards from Facebook.

With this, 12 startups received Seed funding of $600 (INR 40,000) each from Gujarat Corporate Social Responsibility Authority (GCSRA) in an event organised by Gujarat University.

GFG raised $339 Mn at a valuation of $1.1 Bn, a 68% less than previous $3.5 Bn in July last year. The investment came from its primary backers, Germany’s Rocket Internet SE and Swedish investment firm Kinnevik. Kinnevik will invest up to €200 Mn while Rocket Internet will underwrite the remaining.

Wipro Ventures invested an undisclosed amount in Silicon Valley-based cybersecurity startup Vectra Networks. And, Infosys, invested in Silicon Valley-based startup Trifacta, which helps clean up data and make it more usable and insightful.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• Ethnic etailer Craftsvilla acqui-hired F2SO4, clothes rental startup, for an undisclosed amount. After acquisition, F2SO4 will continue working as a standalone entity.
• A SaaS-based startup, Connecto has been acquired in a cash and stock deal by GirnarSoft, the parent company of online auto portals CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com and Zigwheels.com. The deal aims at utilizing Connecto’s tools to improve user experience across all the websites and apps of the company.
• Apparel and accessory design and distribution company of licensed and private label merchandise, BIOWORLD Merchandising, Inc., acquired India-based licensing and merchandising startup VoxPop.com. The acquisition will help BIOWORLD to build a strong product portfolio for apparel, accessories and footwear with over 100 brands across the entertainment industry, in India.
• Quick service restaurant chain (QSR), Hello Curry acquired The First Meal, a food and delivery startup which takes pre-orders for customised health food. The deal is a cash and stock deal that will allow Hello Curry to enter the breakfast and meal box segment.
• Entrepreneur Sandiip Modi acquired on-demand hyperlocal delivery service startup, Street Jumper, for an undisclosed amount in an all-cash deal. Post acquisition, the founders of the company have exited and are no longer associated with it. The startup also plans to expand its operations to other cities apart from Jaipur.
• Logistics analytics firm LogiNext acquired YourGuy, a cross-category last mile delivery service startup, in a mixed cash and equity deal. Under the deal terms, YourGuy’s 200 delivery personnel and the 20 membered team including the founders will be completely absorbed by Sprintr, the last mile delivery vertical launched by LogiNext recently.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Reinsurer company Swiss Re Group is planning to launch a fintech startup accelerator in Bangalore that will focus on Indian startups working within the insurance sector.
• To promote Startups and commercially exploit technologies developed in its laboratories, CSIR has decided to start incubation centres in over 30 different labs across the country.
• Reliance Entertainment has announced its plans to invest in over 20 Indian gaming startups this year. The corpus of the investment fund remains undisclosed for now.
• Jharkhand’s Director of State industries, K Ravikumar, revealed that the industries department is planning to create a $15 Mn (INR 100 Cr.) venture fund for startups by the middle of next month.
• Unitus Seed Fund is in the process to close its $50 Mn (INR 30 Cr) India-focused fund. The venture capital firm expects to get the first tranche of the new fund by the end of this year or early next year. The firm is in talks with some of its existing investors including Bill Gates’ Gates Foundation, Ranjan Pai, Mohandas Pai and others for the new fund.
• Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan advocated encouraging the startup culture in country, thereby easing business environment for startups, lighter regulations for small firms and better social security.

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