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Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $196 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $26.2 Bn, inclusive of LinkedIn’s net cash. Post acquisition, LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand, culture and independence. The deal is expected to close this calendar year and is subject to approval by LinkedIn’s shareholders.
This week 20 startups raised about $57 Mn in funding altogether. (funding amount is based on number of startups disclosed their funding).
Startups That Raised Funds This Week
ClearTax: FinTech startup ClearTax that facilitates users to file taxes and returns online, raised $12 Mn (INR 80 Cr) in Series A round of funding led by Ravi Adusumalli of SAIF Partners. The startup will use the newly raised capital to build and launch new products, hire 100+ engineers and build its executive leadership team. It aims to triple its overall team size to 300 employees by the end of this year.
Voonik: Fashion app Voonik secured $20 Mn (INR 133 Cr) in Series B round of funding led by Sequoia Capital along with participation from Beenos, Beenext, Tancom Investments, Times Internet, Parkwood Bespin, Seedfund and Kunal Shah. The funding will be used towards strengthening all three product categories on its platform, which includes premium products category – Vilara, menswear offering Mr. Voonik, and its core women-focused vertical Voonik.
Greytip Software: A people management software company Greytip raised about $5.2 Mn (INR 35 Cr) in Series B round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Blume Ventures. With this, Tarun Sharma, managing director – India, NEA and Karthik Reddy, managing partner, Blume Ventures, will join the board of Greytip Software. The startup will use the capital to enhance its cloud solution, greytHR, to enable its adoption among a wider set of enterprises and small businesses and for expansion into tier 1 and tier 2 markets.
Saavn: Music streaming service, Saavn, raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Guy Oseary. Guy will also be joining Saavn as partner. As an investor and partner in Saavn, Oseary will help the company continue to build a robust platform for streaming entertainment in India.
VCare Technologies: Info Edge (India) Ltd has picked up minority stake. It has invested $450K through convertible preference shares for acquiring 11.5% stake, on fully converted & diluted basis.
Unnati Online: Info Edge (India) Ltd has picked up minority stake in Unnati Online, which works as an employment exchange network for informal sector workers in the country. It invested $600K through convertible preference shares for acquiring about 28.5% stake, on fully converted & diluted basis.
OneWay.Cab: One way taxi service provider OneWay.cab raised $450K (INR 3 Cr) from IAN. Ajay Gupta, lead IAN investors, will join the startup’s board. Besides, Abhishek Agarwal, director at Fortune Interfinance, and Rahul Mehta, private equity investor at IL&FS Investment Managers, will provide guidance and mentoring.
Athletto: Sports tech startup that helps in booking sports infrastructure in the vicinity, Athletto, raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from industrialist Atul Ingle. With the newly raised capital, the startup aims to focus on aggregating listings on their platform and digitise the unorganised sports sector, which is estimated at more than $50 Bn in Asia.
GrabOnRent: On-demand product rental marketplace GrabOnRent raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round. The funding was led by IvyCap Ventures and Unicorn India Ventures. The company plans to utilise the funds in product development and customer acquisition. A part of the fund will also be used to acquire more quality merchants on the platform.
Bombay Shirt Company: Custom shirt retailer Bombay Shirt Company raised about $1 Mn (INR 6.6 Cr) in a bridge round from existing investors and an undisclosed investor. The startup will use the capital to expand to other cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai, along with hiring key hires in the technology space.
EdTechReview: An edtech media platform and community, EdTechReview, raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding from EVC Ventures. The round was led by Anjli Jain, Managing Partner, EVC Ventures. The startup will use the newly raised funding to expand activities in different cities in India.
Matrubharti: Ebook publisher Matrubharti raised $30K (INR 20 Lakh) in Seed funding from Viridian Capital. The startup will use the newly raised seed funding for investment in technology and expanding the team.
Bonhomia: The premium tea and coffee capsules brand Bonhomia raised $500K in a Bridge round of funding. The round was subscribed by most of its existing shareholders as well as some new investors including Valpro Capital and an entrepreneur running one of India’s largest consumer electronics companies. The company is currently in talks with potential strategic investors for investments.
Gobolt: Transportation solution provider in B2B segment Gobolt raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round. The investment was led by startup incubator MCube8. The company will use the raised funds in ramping up operations and improving technology.
American Vision: A startup that aggregate optical store, American Vision, raised an undisclosed amount in second round of angel funding from HNIs. The startup will use the amount to fuel its expansion in states like Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.
CureJoy: A startup that has an online community to connect users with alternative medicine experts, CureJoy, raised $4.4 Mn in Series A round of funding led by Accel Partners India. The startup will use the funds to grow its healthcare vertical focusing on fitness duty and nutrition, strengthen the team and build a strong tech infrastructures with an emphasis on video content.
Xchange Leasing: In a bid to take on its rival Ola, Uber invested $6.4 Mn (INR 43 Cr) in car leasing firm Xchange Leasing India Pvt. Ltd. Both companies have Mohd Akbar Khan as common Director, and it also operates with Uber in the US and South Africa.
Jivox: Multi-screen interactive advertising technology company Jivox Software India Pvt Ltd raised $6 Mn (INR 40 Cr) from investors led by brand-tech group You & Mr Jones and its founder David Jones, former global CEO of advertising conglomerate Havas. Existing investor Fortisure Ventures and Jivox CEO Diaz Nesamoney also participated in the round. The company will use the funds to grow sales and marketing globally and to invest in its market-leading platform.
BYG: Fitness startup BookYourGame (BYG) raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by Sanjay Verma and Amit Khanna. Deal-making platform LetsVenture conducted the funding deal.
Alibaba is looking to buy or invest in Delhivery and Xpressbees Logistics in next four to six months. It also plans to spin off Paytm’s marketplace business and top it up with more capital.
Ola is currently in talks with both its existing and new investors to raise $300-400 Mn this year.
Ecommerce platform Shopmatic is in the process of raising fresh venture capital funding in its Series A round, which might be in the range of $8 Mn – $10 Mn.
Acquisitions Of The Week
Data center and cloud infrastructure management company Arkin has been acquired by VMware, a virtualisation and cloud infrastructure firm. The terms and amount of the deal remain undisclosed. The transaction is expected to get closed in 2nd quarter of 2016.
Internet devices firm Gaia Smart Cities acquired IoT business of communications service provider Netcore in an equity deal. With this, Gaia will get ownership of Netcore’s IoT business and Netcore will invest in Gaia. The acquisition will also give about fourfold jump in number of customers.
Online gifting platform Giftxoxo acqui-hired BookMyInterest, an online marketplace for hobbies and extra activities. Post acquisition, two of the 10 members team at BookMyInterest including one of the co-founder Navin will join Giftxoxo team. With this, Giftxoxo is bidding on the potential vendor base built by BookMyInterest in hobbies and activities space in Bangalore.
Travel portal Yatra.com acquired mGaadi, auto rickshaw aggregator. The terms of the deal are undisclosed. As a part on the deal, its employee transportation platform – Cartr and related mGaadi technologies will be integrated into Yatra’s products.
Also, online used car marketplaces Hopcar announced merger with Spinny. Post merger, the two companies will work under a common brand name Spinny. The four co-founders of Hopcar, Arijit Biswas, Rahul Thakur, Anish Karan, and Rahul Anand will join the core-team members at Spinny.
Other Developments Of The week
Lok Capital, an India focused impact investment fund achieved the first close of Lok Fund III at $40.5 Mn. The third fund has a total target corpus of around $100 Mn and is expected to close in the next 12-18 months.
Investment firm, Venture Factory launched VF-Healthcare program, to accelerate seed stage startups working in healthcare domains. It will be a three-month hands-on program for entrepreneurs to partner with in-house experts, to prove a business case and get seed-funded by Venture Factory.
Technology startup accelerator Zone Startups India has selected 15 women entrepreneurs for its accelerator programme titled empoWer. It launched the 6-week accelerator programme – “empoWer” in April 2016, to support women entrepreneurs who are building technology ventures.
State Bank Of India launched $30 Mn (INR 200 Crore) ‘IT Innovation Startup Fund’ to support startups in the fin-tech space. This will provide assistance of up to INR 3 crore to a firm registered in India for promoting their business innovations using technology in financial services.
Incubation and acceleration platform TurningIdeas Solutions launched an Angel investor network, TurningIdeas Venture Partners (TVP), to back technology-oriented startups. The fund will be domain agnostic within the technology space.
Barclays launched its fintech innovation platform, Rise Mumbai, for fintech startups in India in partnership with 91springboard. Rise Mumbai will provide a physical site for innovative fintech companies, offering a co-working environment, world-class event spaces and meeting rooms.
The family offices of Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma and executive vice chairman Joseph Tsai are reportedly exploring investments in India. The two have been holding meetings with representatives of Indian startups in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Malaysian billionaire T Ananda Krishnan’s Astro Holdings, which owns 90% stake in Getit Infoservices, is reportedly exploring options to exit from its hyper local businesses focused internet firm AskMe. The actual reasons for the step are not yet disclosed.
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