Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [22-27 Jan 2018]

We bring to you the latest edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week.

This week 15 Indian startups raised about $76 Mn in funding altogether and six acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.).

One of the biggest funding in the Indian startup ecosystem this week was the Mumbai-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) /digital lending platform  NeoGrowth Credit raising $47 Mn (INR 300 Cr) in equity funding from investors led by LeapFrog Investments. Existing investors Aspada Investment, Company and Quona Capital have also participated in the fundraising, through Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund

Also, Mumbai-based BookMyShow was said to be in final talks with private equity firm TPG Growth to raise $50 Mn – $ 60 Mn (INR 320 Cr – INR 380 Cr). BookMyShow might be valued at $750 Mn with this fundraising.

Indian Startup Funding of The Week

HungerBox: Growth Story-promoted B2B foodtech company, HungerBox closed a Pre-Series A funding of worth $2.5 Mn led by Lionrock Capital and Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder, Infosys.

OptaCredit: OptaCredit, the alternative-lending fintech startup, secured an initial $4 Mn credit line from DMI Finance. The credit facility will be directly imbibed in aiding the company’s present financial offerings in aiding salaried customers across India to get access to timely and transformational credit.

Skillate: AI-based HRTech startup Skillate raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Incubate Fund India, and Industry expert and Director of Zyoin, Anuj Agrawal, says co-founder Anand Baranwal. The newly raised funding will be used to accelerate product development, expand its team and bolster marketing initiatives to ramp up its customer base in India and abroad.

Axio Biosolutions: MedTech startup Axio Biosolutions raised $7.4 Mn in a Series B funding round led by Ratan Tata’s RNT Capital. Existing investors Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India also participated in the funding round. The startup plans to use the funds for expansion to new markets while continuing to work on high-impact medical products.

MilkBasket: Gurugram-based online grocery startup, Milkbasket received $3 Mn funding in a Pre-Series A round led by Unilever Ventures. The startup plans to use the latest funding and Unilever’s expertise to strengthen technology as well as in expanding their assortment and customer base and monetising other streams of revenues.

GreyAtom: Mumbai-based edtech startup GreyAtom raised $1 Mn in a funding round led by early-stage fund Pravega Ventures. The startup will use the raised funds to develop its innovative AI-based learning solution Commit.Live. GreyAtom further aims to utilise the raised funds in further strengthening its ecosystem of quality instructors, hiring partners and academia.

AEON Learning: Edtech startup, AEON Learning raised $3.2 Mn in a Series B funding round from MEMG Family Office LLP, a fund set up by Dr. Ranjan Pai, chairman of the Manipal Education and Medical Group. The edtech startup plans to use the latest investments towards growing business from its university partnerships, and skill programmes. The startup expects to reach a student base of over 100K in the next five years and is currently operating in India and the US.

Paymatrix: Hyderabad-based end to end rent management platform Paymatrix raised $4K (INR 25 Lakh) from International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad’s IIIT Seed Fund. The startup was a portfolio company of Axis Bank’s accelerator programme and was among five fintech startups recently shortlisted for PayPal’s India Incubator Challenge.

Spoofin: Mumbai-based video-based entertainment platform, Spoofin raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai Angels Network. The app allows users to interact and manipulate video content by way of an intuitive creator’s studio, equipped with video editing, voice-over and audio imposing capabilities. The launch of their MVP in the international markets is scheduled early 2018.

ZiffyHomes: Gurugram-based home Rental Service Startup, ZiffyHomes raised $314.6K (INR 2 Cr) as seed funding from individual investors. The round was led by Bikky Khosla, Angel Investor, and CEO at TradeIndia.com and Anirudh Agarwal, Managing Director at Shree Sharda Group.  The duo will also join ZiffyHomes as Board Members to mentor the team for fast growth. The startup plans to utilise the newly-raised capital in infrastructure expansion including exclusive studio Apartments which would further cater to the niche segment of executive class accommodation.

.Advantage Club: Gurugram-based Advantage Club, a platform for employee perks and reward & recognition, raised $300K from Axilor Ventures, Mumbai Angels, Purvi Ventures, and Prominent Individual Investors including the existing investors Avtar Singh Monga (COO IDFC Bank), Amit Singhal and Manish Agarwal (Startup Buddy directors). The funds will be used to enhance the reward and recognition program, building distinguished features and redemption options.

WealthTrust: Mumbai-based digital investment advisory startup WealthTrust raised $500K in a Pre-Series A funding round from IndiaQuotient on LetsVenture. The funds will be used for product enhancement and growth of India’s first Zero Commission wealth management app.

Paperflite: Chennai-based SaaS startup Paperflite raised $400K in a Seed funding round from The Chennai Angels. Lakshmi Narayanan, ex-Vice Chairman and ex-CEO of Cognizant, along with Like Mind Ventures and an HNI group led by Adrian Rusu from Singapore also participated in the deal, both of whom will join the board as Observers. With its affordable cost to small businesses, the startup aims to drive higher growth.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Future Group has acquired Vulcan Express, in an all-cash transaction of $5.5 Mn (INR 35 Cr). The deal will add to Jasper Infotech’s capital to better its core marketplace operations.
• Times Internet acquired a majority stake in Gangnam (Seoul) based MX Player for about $200 Mn, as per The Ken (Paywall). As per the report, the deal was in all cash and was reportedly closed a few weeks ago. The investment is expected to help Times Internet to launch its over-the-top (OTT) video service.
• Nazara Technologies Ltd. acquired 55% stake in NODWIN Gaming, one of the leading Indian esports venture. With this investment, Nazara aims to strengthen its portfolio of offerings in the virtual interactive sports genre in India and other emerging markets. Post acquisition, NODWIN will become an independent subsidiary of Nazara.
• Pocket Aces acquired Loco (formerly called Showtime App), an interactive game show app where contestants can win real money. The company did not disclose the price of the acquisition.
• Taking a step ahead for customer’s convenience, Noida-based long-distance travel app, RailYatri has acqui-hired Kochi-based food delivery technology startup, YatraChef. With this, YatraChef will manage the pan-India supply side of RailYatri’s in-transit delivery services.
• Mumbai-headquartered traveltech startup Goomo acquired a B2B vehicle rental marketplace WagonBee. Founded by Navneet Misra and Vikash Singh in 2016, Noida-based WagonBee is currently present in over 40 cities across India with nearly 8,000 itineraries and connections.

Other Developments Of The Week

• VC (Venture Capital) firm Sequoia Capital is preparing to raise up to $1 Bn for its sixth fund called India Fund, as per four people familiar with the development. This would make it the firm’s largest India focussed fund raised ever.

•  3one4 Capital announced the launch of its Fund II with an initial corpus of $39 Mn (INR 250 Cr). The fund had an initial target corpus of $23.5 Mn (INR 150 Cr) that was fully subscribed within a quarter of the fundraising, which was initiated in 2017. Now with an oversubscribed interest in the fund, the fund Managers have decided to exercise the greenshoe option of an additional $15.69 Mn (INR 100 Cr).
• In addition to 112 startups under Elevate 100 programme, the Karnataka government approved funding grant to 44 more startups. Out of 44, 16 are agritech startups. Besides the agritech startups, seven startups in animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector were also given grants along with nine operating in the Karnataka culture sector and 12 in the tourism sector.
• In collaboration with Facebook, Hyderabad based T-Hub kick-started ‘India Innovation Hub Accelerator Program’ to discover the best amongst startups working in the field on AR/VR in India. The programme plans to aid the startups with cutting-edge technology to scale using innovation programs, global outreach, and technology depth.
• Nexus Venture Partners is expected to raise its fifth fund targeting a corpus of $350 Mn-$400 Mn. The VC firm will increase the share of investments in the US-based software companies.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.