Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [05-10 March 2018]

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

This week 19 Indian startups raised about $72 Mn in funding altogether and three startup acquisition took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.).

This week Ola was said to be in talks with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek and other investors to raise another $500 Mn to $1 Bn in funding. On the other side, Paytm Mall was also reported to be in talks with SoftBank to raise $600 Mn at a valuation of $2 Bn.

Further, Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick launched a new venture investment fund called 10100, which will focus on backing innovative technologies in emerging markets like India and China.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

Pepperfry: This is the biggest startup funding round of the week. Online furniture retailer Pepperfry secured about $38.5 Mn (INR 250 Cr) in its fifth round of funding from State Street Global Advisors, the asset management business of State Street Corporation. The raised funding will be deployed to expand Pepperfry’s Experience Centers in Tier II Towns, invest behind developing AR/VR technology for virtual touch and feel, and enhance the Private Brand franchise in preparation for its next financial milestone of an IPO.

AUS: Bengaluru-based drone startup Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS) raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A funding round from GrowX Ventures, 500 Startups, and BellWether Advisors. The round also saw the participation of existing investors StartupXseed, 3ONE4 Capital and Sanjay Jesrani, aided by ValPro’s ‘Enablers’. The proceeds from the round will be used for expanding the company’s reach and furthering R&D activities.

MagicPin: Hyperlocal discovery platform MagicPin raised about $1 Mn in venture debt from Trifecta Capital. This is the first round of venture debt funding for the Gurugram-based company. With this venture debt round, the company has raked in a total of $11 Mn in funding since its inception in 2015.

PictureTime: Mobile movie theatre PictureTime raised $3.85 Mn (INR 25 Cr) in a Pre Series A funding round from a group of high net-worth individuals (HNIs). The round of funding was led by Ajay Relan, Founder and Chairman of CX Partners. The company will use the funding to expand its mobile theatres to 100 operational units, from its current 10 units, by March 2019.

Hotelogix: Cloud-based hotel property management system (PMS), Hotelogix raised $5 Mn in a funding round led by Vertex Ventures, with the participation of Accel Partners and Saama Capital. The company plans to use the funds for product innovation and market expansion. Hotelogix is also gearing up to expand its operations in Thailand, and make it the hub for Southeast Asia.

MedGenome: Bengaluru-based genomics research and diagnostics company MedGenome secured an additional $10 Mn in funding from HDFC Ltd., HDFC Life and HDFC Asset Management to complete its Series C round of  $40 Mn. Earlier in August 2017, MedGenome secured $30 Mn in Series C financing led by Sequoia India and Sofina s.a. With participation from Zodius Capital, Kris Gopalakrishnan of Infosys, and Lakshmi Narayanan, former CEO of Cognizant. This made the total amount of funding raised by MedGenome to date to around $64 Mn.

Tripeur: Shorebird Technologies, the makers of the third generation, end-to-end corporate travel management platform Tripeur raised $600K in Pre-Series A funding led by Japan-based Incubate Fund and a few angel investors including existing investor Rajul Garg. The startup will use the funding for deploying latest innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning and personalisation in various aspects of corporate travel space.

Finova Capital: Jaipur-based NBFC Finova Capital, raised $6 Mn from Sequoia India. The startup will utilise the funds raised for expanding operations, investment in technology and talent acquisition

Kuvera: New Delhi-based online platform for mutual fund investments, Kuvera raised $250K from angel investors for product expansion and growth. Investors in the round include Baskar Subramanian, co-founder of Amagi Media Labs, Saket Kumar, managing director at Swank Capital, Gaurav Suri, managing director at Livermore Capital, and Ankit Kesarwani from New Vernon Investment Management.

NestAway: Bengaluru-based home rental startup NestAway raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy. Nestaway recently received $51 Mn from Goldman Sachs and a joint venture firm of former Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata. It has so far raised $100 million in funding.

CureFit: Bengaluru-based fitness startup CureFit raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy. CureFit also recently raised $10 Mn in debt financing from HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.

Ultraviolette: Bengaluru-based electric bike startup received $430K (INR 2.8 Cr) from Kumar Vembu’s Gofrugal Technologies. The e-bike startup has so far raised a modest ₹10.6 Cr from investors including TVS Motors and filmstars Dulquer Salmaan and Mamooty.

Anaek: Delhi-based SaaS startup Anaek raised roughly $1 Mn in a Seed funding round from Matrix Partners India. The startup funds will be used for marketing and promotion activities.  Anaek will also hire across functions such as engineering, accounting, sales, and advertising.

Ninjacart: Bengaluru-based B2B agri-marketing platform Ninjacart raised around $1 Mn (INR 7 Cr) in venture debt funding round from Trifecta Capital. Ninjacart will use the funding to invest in capital expenditure and strengthen the supply chain infrastructure of the company. The latest funding round raised the total (disclosed) external investmentHireXP in the company to $9.5 Mn.

Gramophone: Indore-based Agstack Technologies, which owns and operates agritech startup Gramophone raised $1 Mn (INR 6.40 Cr) Pre-Series A funding from Info Edge. Post the investment, the aggregate shareholding of Info Edge in Gramophone would be 25% on fully converted and diluted basis.

LiveHealth: Healthtech startup LiveHealth, working on digitising diagnostic lab workflows, raised a Seed round of $1.1 Mn from Nexus Venture Partners. The funding will further enhance its focus on addressing the tech gap in healthcare and enable seamless interaction among all stakeholders.

Wellthy Therapeutics: Mumbai-based digital therapeutics healthtech, Wellthy Therapeutics raised $2.1 Mn in Seed funding from Dr. Ranjan Pai’s family office MEMG (Manipal Education and Medical Group), along with Beenext Ventures, GrowX Ventures, Currae Healthcare and other strategic HNIs like Ashutosh Taparia and Karan Bhagat. This fundraise will help the startup continue to pioneer a new category of medicine that aims to revolutionise chronic disease care across Asia.

InnerSense: Organic antimicrobial lingerie brand InnerSense raised $384.5K (INR 2.5 Cr) from Venture Catalysts in Pre-Series A round.  This funding will work as catalyst in the company’s growth plan. Prominent investors of the VCats network who participated in the network included Dharmesh Dalal, Vijay Lakhani & Matulya Shah. I

HireXP: Gurugram-based HR solutions startup HireXP secured an undisclosed amount of funding from the CEO of Knowlarity, Ambarish Gupta along with a British entrepreneur, Marina Zoltoverkh. The startup plans to use the capital to assemble a new product line, CamXP – Campus hiring and Inject AI in the existing platform. The funding will also boost product sales in existing markets and will be used to open new markets by the end of 2018.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Noida-based startup MotorWhiz gets acquired by Blume Ventures-backed Pitstop. The acquisition is a part cash-part stock deal and the startup hasn’t disclosed the essential financial details of the deal.
• SaaS-based HR tech platform Recruiterbox got acquired by San Francisco based private equity firm Turn/River Capital in an undisclosed all cash deal (no stock or earn-outs). Recruiterbox will merge under the Applied Training Systems Inc (ATSI) banner of Turn/River.
• The Everstone Group backed Servion Global Solutions acquired Innoveo AG (formerly known as Pactera Switzerland AG).  Te deal will enable Innoveo to scale and play an important role in the global InsurTech market. For Servion, the acquisition will strengthen the group’s focus on omnichannel cloud offerings,as well as propel them further in the InsurTech space.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Venture Gurukool, which offers mentorship for early and growth stage startups, revealed its plans to launch its maiden fund, VG Coop Fund. The fund is targeted to have a corpus of $20 Mn and is expected to launch by end of April. It will also have a greenshoe option of another $20 Mn and the company has already tied up with three Chinese investors who will co-invest in the fund with Venture Gurukool.

• Estonia introduced its E-Residency programme for Indian startups to work in the country without any hassle. The E-Residency programme offers startups access to a government-issued digital ID, thus enabling them to open a global EU company online while working from India.
• US-based Seed accelerator and incubator Techstars will launch its new startup accelerator programme in India next month. To this end, the company has hired Bala Girisaballa, former Managing Director of Microsoft Accelerator India, to run the programme. Additionally, it has announced plans to set up a separate fund to invest exclusively in Indian startups.
• 1Crowd, an India-based early stage investment firm, announced the first close of its debut venture capital fund at $3.5 Mn. The firm’s funding interests span across investments from the seed to pre Series A spectrum, incubation programmes and virtual acceleration programmes.
• Prime Venture Partners announced the close of its third fund at $61.6 Mn (INR 400 Cr). The fund, which is an internationally structured fund based in Mauritius, saw investments from LPs based out of the US, Singapore and Hong Kong.
• SR Group, in association with the Department of Science and Technology, launched a technology and business incubator called SRiX in Warangal, Telangana. SriX plans to nurture innovative startup ideas into successful companies and will focus on agriculture, clean tech, Internet of Things (IoT) hardware and related cutting-edge technologies.
• In order to create a mutual platform under NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Cell (WEC), NASSCOM entered into a partnership with NITI Aayog to provide a continuous stimuli for innovation & growth among the women entrepreneurs in the country. NASSCOM through its startup warehouses in 10 states would make available space for 15 women entrepreneurs led startup across locations.
• NASSCOM further entered into the partnership with Kotak Mahindra Bank to launch an exclusive co-creation programme for startups and fintechs. Targeting the startups in the digital payment space, the program will offer them a chance to work with Kotak’s Innovation Lab as well as an opportunity for a pilot launch.
• The Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator program started accepting applications from startups for the second cohort in Delhi and Mumbai and fourth cohort in Bengaluru. Applications are also invited for Oracle’s new virtual-style, non-residential global program called Oracle Scaleup Ecosystem. The addition of Oracle Scaleup Ecosystem allows Oracle to work with startups at all stages of growth, regardless of location. Applicants can apply here.
• Bengaluru-based accelerator and seed fund, Axilor Ventures invited applications for the seventh cohort of its startup accelerator programme starting in March 2018. As part of the programme, shortlisted startups will also get some upfront funding from Axilor.
• Chinese Internet conglomerate Tencent revealed its plans to look for investment opportunities in the Indian gaming market. Tencent is evaluating the startup gaming market and is scouting for players to invest in.
• Addressing the small number of registrations on Emerge ITP, National Stock Exchange (NSE) has initiated talks with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). As suggested by NSE, the registration requirements such as external funding of not more than $4 Mn, and more have been the reasons for the small number of startups registering on Emerge ITP.

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