Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [26 Feb-03 March 2018]

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

This week 18 Indian startups raised about $394 Mn in funding altogether and two startup acquisition took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.).

One of the biggest Indian startup funding rounds of the week was online music streaming service provider Gaana revealing $115 Mn fundraise from Tencent and Times Internet in order to boost the user experience on its platform and strengthen its tech. The company intends to use AI to personalise music experiences for each consumer, to further develop its subscription product for paying users, and to develop aligned music experiences for Gaana consumers.

Also, Indian ecommerce major Flipkart infused $176 Mn in its fashion arm Myntra Jabong Private Limited. The fund infusion was done in February this year and the funding was routed through Flipkart’s Singapore-based subsidiary FK Myntra Holding Private Limited.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

NestAway: Making it the third biggest Indian startup funding of the week, home rental startup NestAway raised a $51 Mn funding from Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT Fund and the University of California.Apart from that, existing investors – including Tiger Global and IDG India – also participated in the financing round. NestAway’s post-money valuation reportedly stood at $180 Mn-$200 Mn.

Urban Ladder: Bengaluru-based online furniture retailer Urban Ladder raised $12 Mn from Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners and Kalaari capital in Series E1 funding round. The startup will use the funding to further it’s omnichannel expansion, online and offline.

Qandle: HRTech startup Qandle raised $1.2 Mn (INR 7.7 Cr) in a Pre-Series A funding led by Hong Kong-based venture capital firm Redwood Internet Ventures Ltd. Arun Chandra Mohan, former managing director at fashion e-tailer Jabong and ex-venture partner at Rocket Internet, had also participated in the round.

Lollypop: Bengaluru-based digital design startup, Lollypop raised angel funding from Dr. Devi Shetty and Family. The funding will be used by the startup for expansion into multiple cities with an aim to be able to serve the clients better.

Survaider: SaaS-based customer experience management startup Survaider raised $500K in a funding round co-led by The Chennai Angels and Axilor Ventures with participation from other angels. The team had earlier raised a small round from Axilor Ventures in 2016. With this round of funding, Survaider aims to focus on product enhancement, expanding to other verticals, in India as well as internationally.

Trilyo: Trilyo, a Bengaluru-based B2B hospitality industry SaaS startup that offers AI driven Voice and chat-based solutions for providing next-generation customer experience raised $250K funding from Startup Buddy, Pulse Venture Capital, Amit Manocha and others. The funds will be primarily used to scale the operations in India and Southeast Asia.

Gegadyne Energy: Indian startup Gegadyne secured an undisclosed amount in a funding round led by Mumbai Angels Network. With its patent-pending battery technology, Gegadyne will enable to recharge batteries in a rapid manner without the need for Fast charging.

Avishkaar Box: Edtech startup, working on creating an ecosystem to create immersive learning experiences that encourage innovation, raised $767K in Pre Series A funding from Auxano Deals. The startups plan to use these funds to strengthen its presence pan-India and for a rapid expansion in Asia. The deal values Avishkaar at around $4 Mn.

Buddy4Study: Noida-based online scholarship providing platform Buddy4Study raised around $3 Mn in Series A funding round. The funding was led by existing investor CBA Capital through its $15.6 Mn Education Catalyst Fund or ECF. The startup will use the newly raised funding to scale up in a major way and expand its operations significantly

Planys Technologies: Chennai-based submersible robotic inspection startup Planys Technologies raised $2.16 Mn (INR 14 Cr) in Series A round of funding. The investment round was led by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) Start-up Fund and Ranjan Pai’s MEMG Family Office. Kris Gopalakrishnan’s (Co-Founder, Infosys; Chairman, Axilor Ventures) Pratithi Trust, Keiretsu Forum (Chennai and Singapore) and other individuals also participated in the round.

Predible Health: Artificial Intelligence-based cancer radiology platform Predible Health raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Unitus Seed Fund, an impact venture fund investing in early-stage startups. Predible Health will the funds to scale its cancer AI platform as well as invest in regulatory approvals for its existing products.

PharmEasy: Mumbai-based healthtech startup PharmEasy raised $30 Mn (INR 196 Cr) in Series C funding round. The funding round was led by existing investors: Bessemer Venture Partners and Orios Venture Partners, and new investors: JM Financials and MEMG. PharmEasy will use the funds to boost up its geographical expansion and in hiring tech talent.

Credy: Online lending platform Credy raised $1.4 Mn in Seed funding from prominent investors including Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, Vy Capital, and a bunch of Silicon Valley-based angel investors. The startup will use the proceeds to significantly ramp up the loan book, forge partnerships with institutional lenders, hire talent for operations, and further build the technology to underwrite the customer.

MintClean: Faridabad-based home cleaning venture MintClean, a subsidiary of  integrated laundry services providing startup UClean raised $1 Mn in initial funding from UClean’s existing backer Franchise India, and Anubhav Chopra, an angel investor based out of The US. The startup plans to use these funds to create a tech platform for the business, which predominantly is B2B2B and B2B2C in nature. It also aims to use these funds to recruit suitable franchises and lead them through marketing.

Furlenco: Bengaluru-based online furniture rental startup Furlenco raised $773.1K from Mumbai-based Signet Chemical Corporation. As per filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs accessed by Inc42, the funding was raised against the issue of 500 negotiable certificates of deposit (NCDs) at $1,545.46 (INR 1 Lakh) apiece on February 13, 2018. This brings the furniture rental startup’s total fundraise till date to around $30.1 Mn (INR 195 Cr).

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Also, online matchmaking platform Matrimony acquired serial entrepreneur Vivek Pahwa’s venture SecondShaadi, operating under Accentium Web Pvt. Ltd. Post acquisition, the offerings of SecondShaadi will be merged with DivorceeMatrimony, a similar platform operated by Matrimony.com.
• Minjar Inc., the provider of Botmetric – a service that offers customers with unified cost control and visibility into their workloads running in public clouds., has executed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Nutanix Inc.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Cisco Systems revealed plans to launch a second India-focussed technology fund. The company is searching for collaborations with VCs and investments in promising tech startups in the country. It is also evaluating potential acquisitions in this space.
• Real estate services firm, JLL, launched IDEA Lab, an incubation cell, to tap into the ecosystem of startups and vendor partners and bring the best of technology applications, tools and solutions with an aim to drive client experience and productivity.
• US-headquartered data storage and management company NetApp selected startups for the second cohort of its startup accelerator programme, NetApp Excellerator. The six startups, which have been selected from 450 applications, include ArchSaber, SigTuple Technologies, Nanobi Data and Analytics, Data Ken Technologies, BlobCityInc and Anlyz.
• Venture debt firm Alteria Capital announced the first close of its maiden venture debt fund with a corpus of $123 Mn (INR 800 Cr). The firm has received commitments of $56.1 Mn (INR 365 Cr) for the first close of Alteria Capital India Fund I. Alteria is planning to raise a total of $125 Mn with a green-shoe option of a further $30 Mn.
• Lok Capital, an India-focussed impact investment fund, revealed its plans to raise a debt fund of $50 Mn (INR 325 Cr). The fund will make investments ranging from $1 Mn-$3 Mn across sectors such as education, healthcare, agriculture, clean energy and financial services, among others.
• Rajasthan government released a framework for $77.3 Mn (INR 500 Cr) startup promotion fund launched during the Kota Digifest in August 2017. As stipulated, the fund corpus will include components for women-led and green solutions startups and has earmarked $15.4 Mn (INR 100 Cr) and $7.73 Mn (INR 50 Cr) for both respectively.
• CoWrks launched ‘The CoWrks Foundry’ which will offer homegrown businesses a solid foundation and gives them a competitive edge. The program will nurture early-stage startups over a 24-week period in the areas of Urban Tech, Enterprise Tech and Social Enterprise.
• UP Government has signed a MoU with National Stock Exchange. Under the MoU signed, UP startups and SMEs would be informed about the opportunities to raise capital, SME exchange guidelines, listing processes, compliances with listing agreement, among others. The startups would receive mentorship from NSE about capital markets, capital raising mechanism and regulatory compliances.

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