Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [2 May – 7 May]

Two funds Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II and Valic Co. have marked down their stake in Flipkart by 20%. Valic and Fidelity had picked up shares in Flipkart as a part of its series D round of funding in 2013, when Flipkart had raised $360 Mn in two tranches.

This week 36 startups raised about $77 Mn in funding altogether (the funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startups That Raised Funds This Week

Zebroads: Online logistics and warehousing startup, Zebroads, raised $75K (INR 50 Lakh) in seed round of funding from undisclosed investors. The team plans to invest the raised funds in increasing warehousing space, technology upgradation and improvement in manpower.

EduAce: Edtech startup EduAce Services raised $1 Mn (about INR 6.6 Cr.) in Seed funding from Delhi-based mobile Internet company MoMagic Technologies. The raised capital will be used to add more learning programmes and expand its operations pan India.

Unbxd: Ecommerce product discovery & recommendation platform, Unbxd Inc., raised an undisclosed amount in its Series B round led by Nirvana Venture Advisors. Other participants in the round were IDG Ventures, Inventus Capital, and IAN. The startup will use the funds to improve the product, accelerate sales, and to expand the sales & marketing team.

Lenskart: Eyewear etailer Lenskart raised $60 Mn (INR 400 crore) in Series D round of funding. The round was led by World Bank arm IFC with an investment of $25.6 Mn (INR 171 crore). This round saw participation of Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Zurich-headquartered asset management firm Adveq Management, along with the existing investor TPG Growth and IDG Ventures.

Seclore: A startup that offers digital rights management solution to organisations, Seclore, secured $12 Mn in Series B round of funding led by led by Sistema JSFC’s Sistema Asia Fund. The proprietary venture capital fund has provided funding as part of a four-member investor consortium, which included Helion Ventures, VentureEast, and India Alternatives Private Equity Fund.

Active.AI: Kalaari Capital invested $500K in fintech startup Active.ai. The investment was done as a part of Kalaari Capital’s accelerator program Kstart.

Indee: Kalaari Capital invested $500K in Indee. It is a web video streaming platform that helps film studios and entertainment companies to promote and test their content before releasing it to viewers. The investment was done as a part of Kalaari Capital’s accelerator program Kstart.

Affordplan: Kalaari Capital invested $500K in a tech product for doctors and patients to co-design payment plans for non-emergency healthcare services Affordplan. The investment was done as a part of Kalaari Capital’s accelerator program Kstart.

MyDentistChoice: An ecommerce portal for dental products MyDentistChoice raised $150K in seed round of funding from angel investor.

iDreamCareer: An edtech startup iDreamCareer raised an undisclosed amount of funding in Pre-Series A round from Bennett, Coleman, and Company Ltd’s strategic investment arm Brand Capital. The raised capital will be used for brand building and marketing strategies.

 

Zuver: A startup that provides on-demand, location specific driver services raised $180K (INR 1.2 Cr) from IT consulting & infrastructure management group Shruth & Smith Holdings and retail assisted ecommerce network Hermes Group. Zuver plans to use the raised funds to launch its Mumbai operations.

Prepathon: A learning app for competitive exams raised an undisclosed amount of funding in Pre-Series A round from Blume ventures. The funds will be used to add 50 more courses to the app.

Mobikwik: Mobile wallet company MobiKwik raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway and Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company MediaTek. This round was part of Series C round that it raised last month. The round saw participation from its existing investors Sequoia Capital and Asia-focused hedge fund Tree Line Asia.

Prescribez: Soon-to-be-launched healthcare app Prescribez raised $145K in seed funding from angel investor Ankush Mehta. The startup will use the newly raised funding for product development and marketing. The team is also planning to start operations in Mumbai in the next six months.

Agile Parking Solutions: The Chennai Angels announced an investment of $376K (INR 2.5 Cr) in parking technology startup Agile Parking Solutions, known by the brand name  Get My Parking.

MotoMojo: App-based vehicle maintenance startup MotoMojo raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from the founders of Ventes Avenues. The funds will be used for building the product and team, as well as customer acquisition.

Comarete Technology: A technology and consulting company raised funding from GREX, an integrated exchange like platform for unlisted companies. It raised $210K (INR 1.4 Cr) together with SolarTown Energy Solution. It plans to raise further capital on GREX platform soon.

SolarTown Energy Solution: A startup that specialises in the sale, lease and installation of solar rooftop systems for residential, commercial and industrial customers, raised funding from GREX, an integrated exchange like platform for unlisted companies. It plans to raise further capital on GREX platform soon.

Airwood Aerostructures: An agri-tech startup raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from StartupXseed Ventures LLP. Airwood’s patent-pending drones are retrofitted with multispectral cameras and fly around plantations, capturing real-time data on weather, water availability, and crops.

Meesho: Social commerce platform Meesho raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from investor Rajul Garg along with other unnamed investors.

Weballigator: Blueleaf Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates a cloud-based SaaS platform called Weballigator for providing HR software to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), raised $375K (around INR 2.5 Cr) in angel funding from a bunch of angel investors and high net-worth individuals (HNIs).

Zwayam: A startup that runs an online recruitment platform targeting small and medium businesses, Zwayam, raised $250K (around INR 1.7 Cr) in seed funding from unnamed angel investors. The startup plans to use the raised capital to expand its services to other cities in India and to international markets, starting with Southeast Asia and Middle East.

Easy Roads: A startup that facilitates road trips raised $200K from five angel investors in its first external round of funding. Easy Roads will use the funds to acquire customers and build a scalable technology platform.

Zapdel: Food ordering marketplace Boibanit rebrand itself to Zapdel and has reportedly raised an undisclosed amount of money in its second round of angel funding. The startup will use the funds raised to increase its market share in ten cities where it operates.

In an event held by Gujarat University Startup And Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC), 12 startups were selected for seed funding of $600 (INR 40, 000) each. Another seven startups were invited for a second round to understand their startups in detail before they receive approval for the seed money.

Also, Inkmonk, an online marketplace for merchandise printing is close to raising an undisclosed amount in its Pre-Series A round of funding led by Dubai-based existing investor Vamm Ventures. The deal is expected to close by end of this month.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• In a bid to integrate machine learning-based solutions on its platform, Snapdeal acquired predictive marketing technology startup TargetingMantra for an undisclosed amount
• Volob Technologies has been acquired in an all-cash deal by CarDekho.com. The acquisition will help CarDekho’s 3D visualisation capabilities through technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality
• A firm that aggregates on-demand drivers for private car owners, DriveU, acquired on-demand driver service provider CallAtHome for an undisclosed amount. With this acquisition, DriveU will add 150 partner-drivers to continue the high quality, on-demand DriveU driver service in the Gurgaon area.
• Titan, the owner of jewellery chain Tanishq, acquired a majority stake in Caratlane, a Mumbai-based online private label jewellery brand. The acquisition is expected to close by mid June 2016.

Also, Google acquired enterprise software company Synergyse, founded by Indian-origin entrepreneur Varun Malhotra. The amount of the deal remained undisclosed. As part of the acquisition, Google will make Synergyse Training for Google Apps available for free to all Google Apps customers.

Other Developments Of The Week

• American venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) sold its entire India portfolio to Hong Kong-based private equity platform NewQuest Capital Partners. DFJ had invested in about a dozen companies in India, which included Piqora, Attero, Bharat Light & Power, Canvera, Cleartrip, dlight design, iYogi, and Naseeb Networks, with a net asset value of $60 Mn (about INR 400 Cr), through its US-based fund
• The IIM Bangalore is launching a first-of-its-kind startup incubator with support from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, exclusively to nurture early-stage non-profit organisations working primarily in education, financial inclusion, and jobs & livelihoods for the urban poor
• IIT Bombay alumni Raj Mashruwala and Avinash Manudane have invited entrepreneurs to come up with innovative idea in the healthcare space. The duo will be offering INR 50,000 fellowship every month for two years
• Unitus Seed Fund announced Pune-based Module Innovations, a startup that develops low-cost point of care diagnostic devices, as the winner for its third edition of StartHealth Competition
• Venture capital firm Accel Partners plans to raise $400 Mn-$500 Mn in its fifth India-focused fund, which is expected to close by the year-end
• Zone Startups India, a venture fund and accelerator housed at BSE, launched a six week accelerator programme “empoWer” to support women entrepreneurs who are building technology ventures
• Encashing the opportunities in the Indian startup space, the Chinese mobile ad network YeahMobi launched an India-focused venture capital fund
• Village Capital is inviting applications from Indian entrepreneurs to participate in a mentoring program Village Capital Education: India 2016. It aims to fund and scale ideas that can help improve unprivileged students’ education and enabling them to find jobs.