Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [6 June – 11 June]

Flipkart is in talks to sell a small stake to Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL) in a $75 Mn (INR 500 Cr) deal. Under the proposed deal, Flipkart will issue shares to BCCL in return for cash and ads over several years in its media properties such as The Times of India & The Economic Times newspapers and ET Now & Times Now channels.

This week, 21 startups raised about $50 Mn in funding altogether (the funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startups That Raised Funds This Week

Kyazoonga: Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in entertainment and sports ticketing company Kyazoonga. The startup will use the funds to expand into international markets including the United States, West Asia, Pakistan and the Caribbean Islands.

Shopwati: An online fashion community Shopwati raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Sanjiv Rai of SRKK Advisors. The startup plans to utilise the raised capital to fund its next phase of technology development and reach out to customers & vendors in cities outside Delhi.

Kickstart Jobs: Entry-level talent acquisition startup Kickstart Jobs raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding round led by  ah! Ventures. The round also saw participation from Vivek Joshi – Founder, Wyzen Tech; Mohit Satyanand – Chairman, Team Works Art; Amit Banati – President (Asia Pacific), Kellogg’s; Arun Khanna – President (Asia), Dun and Bradstreet and a few others.

MadRat Games: The wearable gaming platform MadRat Games raised fresh funds from investors including Ratan Tata, Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati, Binny Bansal, and Girish Mathrubootham. The startup has also launched the prototype of SuperSuit  for which it has now  opened the early bird registrations.

SillyMonks: Digital and entertainment startup raised $448K (INR 3 Cr) from HNI Sreenivasa Reddy Musani, CMD EKTHA Group. The company will utilise the raised funds to augment their market leadership and to introduce new digital media properties.

6Degree: Fashion talent and tech startup 6Degree raised $200K seed funding from Indian Angel Network. The investment was led by Abhishek Agarwal, who will be joining the company’s board. The raised funds will be utilised in technology enhancement and in expanding the portal’s reach. There are also plans to launch enterprise solutions for Fashion Weeks and expand its fashion services.

ListUp: P2P marketplace ListUp raised $500K (INR 3.3 Cr) in its seed round of funding led by Kae Capital, along with participation of Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon. Sasha Mirchandani of Kae Capital will be joining the board with this round. The startup will use the proceeds to build technology for connecting relevant buyers & sellers with personalised feed using data, product enhancements, and creating network density in the target markets.

Helpshift: Customer support platform Helpshift raised closed $23 Mn in Series B funding with participation from Microsoft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and existing investors, including Intel Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, True Ventures and Visionnaire Ventures. The proceeds would go towards further expansion across teams in R&D, sales and marketing.

CueMath: Edtech startup CueMath raised $4 Mn in Series A round of funding from Sequoia Capital India with participation from existing investor Unitus Seed Fund. The startup will use the newly raised capital to expand to international markets and increase the number of teachers that use its platform from 1,200 to 5,000.

Koovs: Koovs PLC confirmed $3.4 Mn strategic investment from HT Media Ltd. The company has raised the capital through the issue of 12,000,000 new ordinary shares at a price of 25 pence per ordinary share.

PayTunes: Mobile ad platform PayTunes raised close to $500K in its Pre Series A round of funding led by CIO Angel Network and Indian Angel Network (IAN). Vishal Khare and Rajeev Arora have led this round of investment on behalf of IAN and will join the company board to mentor the team. The company plans to utilise the investment for expanding the team and hiring talent.

Teabox: Online premium tea seller Teabox raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Cameron Jones. Concurrently, Teabox has also raised venture debt from DBS Bank Limited (“DBS”), South­East Asia’s financial services company.

StoreKing: Ecommerce enabler StoreKing raised $16 Mn (INR 106 Cr.) from Malaysian telecom operator Axiata Digital. The funds will be utilised to expand team, enter tier III markets and tie up with 1 lakh retailers by 2017 and up to 250,000 in 2019.

Wired Hub: Co-working Space WiredHub raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a seed round led by angel investors Ankit Maheshwari and Anand Singh. Both investors will have an advisory role for the Business Development and expansion of Wired Hub, and Ankit Maheshwari will be joining the board.

Cookifi: Chef and cook hiring platform Cookfi raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Kunal Shah, Aneesh Reddy, Venkat Tadanki, Krishna Mehra, Amit Rathore and other angels through TracxnSyndicate.

CreditVidya: Fintech startup CreditVidya raised $2 Mn (INR 13.3 Cr) in Series A round of funding led by venture capital fund Kalaari Capital. Siddharth Parekh, managing partner of Paragon Ventures and an existing investor, has also invested an additional $150K (INR 1 Cr) in his personal capacity.

ExtraaEdge: An edtech startup ExtraaEdge Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd that helps educational institutions acquire students and increase admissions, raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from a group of investors including Ritesh Dwivedy, CEO of Petoo.in and Priti Padhy, global director of business intelligence and information management at Microsoft.

ePaylater: Fin-tech startup ePaylater has raised $2 Mn in a seed round from three undisclosed HNI investors. It will use the funds for product development and marketing.

Intgrea Partners: Intgrea Partners is a M&A Company that raised $100K, in a pre-Series A round of funding from an undisclosed Bangalore-based serial angel investor. The funds will used for strengthening the team and innovating product features.

KhanaGaDi: App-based food delivery aggregator, KhanaGaDi, raised an undisclosed amount on funding from Hyderabad-based 50K Ventures. KhanaGaDi offers its Meal on seat Services at more than 90 Stations across 3500 Trains with over 12,000 menu items. It is also planning to start our Bus Delivery services on Jaipur-Delhi and Pune-Mumbai Route by October end.

GreyCampus: GreyCampus secured $1 Mn in angel funding from Sarath Sura, co-founder of Sierra Atlantic. The funds will be used for digital marketing, technology enhancement, course development and hiring.

Online jewellery retailer Bluestone.com is in advanced talks to raise about INR 200 Cr in a fourth funding round led by venture capital firm Iron Pillar and online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow.com (BMS), is in advanced talks to raise around $75 Mn from growth equity fund Stripes Group to lead the round.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• Voonik acqui-hired three startups, Zohraa, Picksilk.com and Styl, to build and launch its premium ecommerce platform  Vilara
• Pawas Jain, co-founder of Blue Box Media (company that owns and manages The Tech Portal) has acquired online incubation platform Startify, in a mix of cash and stock buy out deal in his personal capacity
• Hyperlocal startup Roadrunnr finally acquired Tinyowl and has rebranded itself as Runnr. The company has also pivoted its business model to become a food ordering and delivery app

Other Developments Of The Week

• U2opia Mobile launched a startup program, Catapult, for early-stage startups and entrepreneurs to help them grow and scale products for a global audience. It plans to invest $3 Mn over a period of three years.
• The  Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, and NIPA (National IT Industry Promotion Agency), as part of the Government’s Creative Economy initiative, has announced the launch of K-Startup Grand Challenge programme.
• Oracle has announced its first batch for its startup incubation centre in India called ‘Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator’. The selected startups are ExpertRec, Niyo Solutions, Ray iCare, Tydy, and Vear.
• Microsoft entered into a global partnership with Temasek, to help support and scale startups across the world. As part of the collaboration, Temasek and six of its portfolio companies have joined the Microsoft Accelerator (MA) program as official global network partners in the technology and innovation hubs of Bangalore, Berlin, Seattle and Tel Aviv.

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