Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [8-13 Apr]

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

This week one of the biggest funding came to San Francisco and Mumbai-based WizRocket, the parent company of CleverTap, a mobile marketing platform, raised $26 Mn (approx INR 180 Cr) from Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management. Accel Partner an existing investor in CleverTap, also participated in the round. The company will use the funds to double down efforts in machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, expand team, add more engineers and data scientists.

Further, this week Mumbai-based fantasy gaming startup Dream11 joined the Indian unicorn club with an investment from Steadview Capital. According to a company statement, the deal involves a secondary sale of shares by Kalaari Capital, Think Investments and Multiples Equity.

In all this week, 17 startups raised $98.03 Mn funding and one startup acquisition took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week

Setu: Bengaluru-based financial services startup Setu raised $3.5 Mn in a seed round led by Lightspeed India Partners. IIM Ahmedabad’s initiative Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund had also participated in this round. The startup plans to use the funds to build a technology layer over the banking system to help the fintech players provide better services to its customers.

ShoeKonnect: Info Edge India invested around $1 Mn in ShoeKonnect, a B2B marketplace for the footwear industry. The fund will be deployed for scaling the business. Post this deal, Naukri.com will hold 30% in ShoeKonnect and is now valued at INR 80 Cr.

Eduvanz: Mumbai-based fintech lending startup Eduvanz Financing raised $2 Mn (about INR 13 Cr) from Unitus Ventures and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. The capital from this round will be used to strengthen its technology and expand its lending operations.

Thekabadiwala: Bhopal-based startup Thekabadiwala raised $433K (INR 3 Cr) of equity funding from early-stage investors, HNIs and senior industry professionals. Among the investors include Naveen Reddy, Supply Chain Director, Unilever, Bhushan Gajaria, founder of Beehive Capital Advisors, Bharat Mandloi of Singapore-based ABCOM Investments, Suresh Parekh of Parekh Marine Transport, and angel investor Vishal Thaker. The capital raised will be deployed to upgrade its technology, strengthen its presence across several cities and for organic & inorganic growth. It also plans to venture into e-waste recycling in the forthcoming future.

GlowRoad: Bengaluru-based social commerce platform GlowRoad raised $10 Mn in a Series B round of funding led by China-based CDH Investments with participation from Accel Partners and two other international and Asian funds. The company plans to use the funds for growth which include growing business, marketing, loyalty programmes, technology stack, product development and also strengthen the supply chain.

Colive: Bengaluru-based co-living startup Colive raised $9.2 Mn (INR 63 Cr) in its Series A funding round led by the real estate company Salarpuria Sattva Group. The startup will use the funding to expand its presence in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. It is also looking to offer around 1 Lakh beds over the next two years and to invest in the build-to-suit model inventory for developing its coliving services.

SigTuple: Bengaluru-based healthtech startup SigTuple raised $16 Mn in its Series C funding round led by Trusted Insights, with participation from Accel Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Pi Ventures, Binny Bansal, and Trifecta Capital. As part of the deal, Binny Bansal will join the board of the company.  The company will be launching a new version of its device, AI101 by end of this year.  It is also working on a smart device to enable these tests in clinics.

Cashfree: Bengaluru-based payment gateway startup Cashfree raised $5.5 Mn (INR 38.2 Cr) in its series A round of funding, led by South Korea-based venture capital company Smilegate Investments. Existing investor, Y Combinator along with other investors such as George Osborne, former chancellor of the exchequer of the United Kingdom, and Vellayan Subbiah, former managing director of Cholamandalam Investment, also participated in this round. The startup plans to more than double the number of its employees in the next two-three months to 100 from 45 at present.

Kuliza: Bengaluru-headquartered provider of software development tools Kuliza raised $3 Mn in fresh funding from Emergent Ventures. The company will use the fresh funds to fuel research and development for its flagship product— Lend.in and assist its customers and partners better.

BalleBaazi: New Delhi-based online Cricket Fantasy gaming platform BalleBaazi received a funding of $1 Mn from Baazi Games, its parent company. With this development, Baazi Games has consolidated its majority stake in the company. BalleBaazi plans to utilise the funds to further expand its verticals and introduce various innovative concepts to

BookEventZ.com: Mumbai-based chain of branded venues raised an undisclosed amount of Series-A funding from Mark Mobius backed Equanimity Ventures. The fresh funding will be used to increase the number of flagship venues. The company that already has over 30 venues in Mumbai aims to push the envelope further with 1000 venues in India by 2021, to reemphasize its market leadership position.

Azah: Premium organic wellness startup for women, Azah, raised seed funding of $200K in the seed-round funding from a group of angel investors. Funds will be used to expand business and optimize supply chain management.

Tripoto: Delhi-based online global travel community for travellers, Tripoto raised $3.6 Mn (INR 25 Cr) in a fresh funding round from Orchid India, Hornbill Orchid India Fund, Chiratae Ventures, 3one4 Capital and Lasmer NV. The startup plans to use the funds to further scale up the community and marketplace. It is now looking to focus on vernacular content, short video and influencer commerce to leverage the strength of the growing community.

Credy: Bengaluru-based full-stack consumer lending company Credy raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A round of funding. The company has raised funds with a mix of equity and debt financing. The debt part of it comes from an Ahmedabad-based non-banking financial company MAS Finance, while some of the existing investors participated in the equity funding round. It plans to use the funds to continue building Credy’s loan book and grow a solid distribution network within India through more partnerships.

Medlife: Bengaluru-headquartered epharmacy startup, Medlife, raised $17 Mn ( INR 118.95 Cr) in an equity funding round from founder Tushar Kumar’s family trust, Prasid Uno Family Trust. The company has issued equity shares in three tranches over the last two months.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Naspers-owned fintech company PayU acquired Bengaluru and Cupertino-based Wibmo that specialises in processing online payments in a deal worth $70 Mn. Post-acquisition, Wibmo will enable PayU to build a robust digital payment ecosystem capable of harmonizing transaction processing on both issuing and acquiring side, to deliver a seamless payment experience and industry-leading success rates in online and mobile payments.

Other Developments Of The Week

• The leAD Sports Accelerator launched its third cohort to search for the most promising sports tech startups. Applications are open till May 15, 2019. The program kicks off in September 2019 and runs for three months in Berlin, Europe’s leading tech and startup hub.
• Sachin Bansal is looking to acquire as much as 75% stake in Bengaluru-based Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services which runs a microfinance institution, Chaitanya India Fin Credit (CIFCPL) in a deal worth INR 200 Cr.

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

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