Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Funding Galore 7 – 12 Aug]

We bring you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week. This week, 12 Indian startups raised about $50 Mn in funding altogether, apart from the $2-2.5 Bn funding round raised by Flipkart, and two startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts.)

The biggest Indian startup funding deal for the week was, Flipkart raising an undisclosed amount in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund at a valuation of $11.6 Bn. Though the amount has been kept undisclosed, Flipkart claims this round to be the largest round raised by an Indian technology startup. The round is said to be somewhere between $2-2.5 Bn, giving Flipkart an excess of $4 Bn of cash on its balance sheet, as claimed by the company.

Earlier this week, SoftBank co-founder Masayoshi Son announced his intentions to remain “engaged“ with homegrown ecommerce firm Flipkart. The deal comes at a time when the buzz about the Snapdeal Flipkart deal falling out has settled a little. Flipkart also recently availed $58.7 Mn (INR 375 Cr) working capital credit line from Axis Bank. The credit from Axis Bank was extended in March 2017, but the company entered into an agreement last month.

Indian Startup Funding Of the Week

EM3 Agri Services: Amidst the 12, this is the highest Indian startup funding of the week. Noida-based EM3 Agri Services raised $10 Mn in a Series B funding round led by Global Innovation Fund (GIF). The investment will be utilised to expand the startup’s geographical reach, build new technologies, and boost ecosystem capacity.

Crofarm: Gurugram-based agritech startup Crofarm secured about $783K (INR 5 Cr) in Pre-Series A funding round from a clutch of investors. The list included US-based Factor[E] Ventures; Rajan Anandan, VP of Google Southeast Asia and India; and Jitendra Gupta, MD of PayU India. The investment, which took place through the LetsVenture platform, will allow the startup to gain a stronghold in the country’s emerging agricultural technology industry.

MyForexEye: Noida-based Forex solutions provider MyForexEye secured $220K (INR 1.4 Cr) in Pre-Series A funding from a consortium of high net-worth individuals and senior bankers. The investment round saw participation from Rahul Dev Kumar, Executive Director – Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered Singapore; Ankit Sharma, MD at KCS Group of Companies; and Rajesh Mahajan, Head – Power Trading of Knowledge Infrastructure Systems. The funding will allow MyForexEye to widen its reach to around 15,000 B2B and 500K B2C customers by the end of 2021.

Truxapp: Delhi-based logistic service mobile app Truxapp raised $3.1 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round. Currently, the startup has the pan-India presence, with operations in 150 cities across 21 states. An official statement claims that the company also reached its operational break-even point in 2016.

Teknophile: Hyderabad-based Teknophile, a technology startup promoted by a team of young students raised $25K of angel funding from a group of NRIs. Their app, titled ProblemBolo and a social empowerment application, will be launched globally for various cities in India, the US and Sri Lanka over the next few months.

Newcastle Technologies: Chennai-based hospital management software development firm, Newcastle raised $243K in Seed funding from undisclosed tech industry veterans based in India and abroad. The firm will use the funds to expand its footprint to 1,000 hospitals over the next three to five years.

Doodhwala: Bengaluru-based e-grocery subscription startup Doodhwala secured an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding from Tom Varkey, a partner at Stonehill Capital, USA. The startup is digitising milk delivery. It claims to be the first in Bengaluru to provide fresh farm milk directly to houses. The startup has expanded operations to Pune while other cities are in its pipeline. The company aims to be operationally profitable by the end of 2017.

StayAbode: Bengaluru-based StayAbode, a startup that is building co-living spaces, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Incubate Fund. Apart from this, a group of investors from the real estate industry including Legacy Global Projects MD Sanjay Shenoy and Mridul Upreti (ex Joint MD JLL India), as well as some existing investors participated in the round. The startup will use the funds to scale the business by strengthening technology and team. The startup currently offers over 260 units spread over five properties across Bengaluru.

Surgeri Technologies: Digital healthcare startup Surgeri Technologies Pvt. Ltd is raising an angel round of funding. The startup funding will be led by a clutch of resident and non-resident Indians.

Moong Labs: Mumbai-headquartered mobile gaming studio Nazara Games poured an undisclosed amount of investment in Moong Labs, a developer of 3D simulation games. The two companies previously entered into a partnership to launch 4D simulation mobile cricket games Virat Super Cricket and Epic Cricket. The newly-raised funding will be spent on improving Moong Labs’ core game engine and developing realistic simulation cricket games that have a global appeal.

Also, Ola (ANI Technologies Ltd) raised over $36.04 Mn (INR 231 Cr) from Tekne Private Ventures through the issue of preference shares. The Ola funding deal involves allotment of 171,173 fully and compulsorily convertible preference shares.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of the Week

• Belgium-headquartered WABCO Holdings Inc. acquired AssetTrackr, a Bengaluru-based telematics startup, in a bid to expand its global fleet management solutions (FMS) business to India. The company has entered into an agreement to purchase 100% of AssetTrackr’s shares. The transaction is now subject to customary conditions precedent and is expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2017.
• Hike Messenger acquired Creo, a Bengaluru-based technology startup. The Creo team will begin work on a developer platform to enable third-party developers to build services on the Hike platform.

Other Developments Of The Week

• LOGOS Group, an Asia Pacific logistic real estate company entered into a partnership with real estate developer Assetz Property Group to expand its operations in India and raise a new fund. LOGOS India is working on closing its first Indian logistics venture with an expected $400 Mn of equity commitments.
• Bengaluru-based health and wellness startup CureFit signed on Hrithik Roshan as its brand ambassador. The Bollywood star picked up $15.6 Mn equity stake in the fitness startup. The partnership, according to sources, is expected to generate $39.2 Mn (INR 250 Cr) in annual revenue within the next few years.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding, next week.

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