Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Funding Galore 21-26 Aug]

We bring you the new edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week. The funding activity in the Indian startup ecosystem.

This week 12 Indian startups raised about $244 Mn in funding. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Making it the biggest startup funding of the week, Gurugram-based Just Buy Live, an e-distributor that connects retailers to consumer brands, raised $100 Mn Series B funding from Ali Cloud Investments, a Dubai-based investment firm. The startup will use the recently raised funds towards expansion into Indian operations as well as international markets. It will target markets that have high SME density and fragmented distribution.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

Capital Float: This is the third-highest Indian startup funding of the week. Bengaluru-based online SME lending platform Capital Float raised $45 Mn Series C funding led by Silicon Valley-based Ribbit Capital. The round also saw participation from existing investors SAIF Partners, Sequoia India and Creation Investments. Capital Float currently has an active loan book of $109 Mn (INR 700 Cr) and plans to grow these assets under management to $234 Mn (INR 1,500 Cr).

EasyGov: Noida-based SaaS startup EasyGov raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding round led by Social Alpha, a Tata Trusts initiative. Other angel investors including Rajan Anandan, Rajeev Ahuja (Navayuga Group), Kshitij Arora and other investors on LetsVenture also participated in the round. The startup funding will be used to develop local language support. The Indian startup will also utilise a part of the money towards product enhancement and research and development.

Ezetap: Bengaluru-based mPOS solutions provider Ezetap raised $16 Mn in a funding round led by JS Capital Management, the VC arm of Jonathan Soros. As part of the round, the startup’s existing investors, Social Capital and Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures, also increased their stake in the digital payments company. The Indian startup will be using the investment to innovate further and expand its payments platform. Ezetap is also currently looking to increase its sales and operations across most cities in India as well as overseas. Post the funding round, Salil Seshadri, the Chief Information Officer at JS Capital Management, will be joining Ezetap’s Board.

Indiez: Bengaluru-based software development talent platform Indiez raised $500K in Seed funding from veteran investor Haresh Chawla. The startup funding will be used to invest the newly raised funds towards technology and expanding into the US market.

Bombay Shaving Company: Delhi-based male grooming startup Bombay Shaving Company raised about $2.3 Mn Pre-Series A funding in a round led by Fireside Ventures. Existing investors S Ramadorai, former CEO at TCS; Pankaj Gupta, supply director at USL Diageo, and senior executives at McKinsey & Co. also participated in the round. The Indian startup will utilise the recently raised funds to fuel its branding efforts, new product development and expansion into offline sales channels like salons and supermarket chains.

Druva: This is the second highest Indian startup funding of this week. California and India-based cloud data protection and management firm Druva raised $80 Mn in growth equity funding in a round led by Riverwood Capital. The round also saw participation from Sequoia Capital India, Nexus Venture Partners, Tenaya Capital and its existing venture investors. This round brings the total funding raised by Druva to nearly $200 Mn.

Milk Basket: Gurugram-based online grocery startup Milkbasket raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A funding round from Blume Ventures. Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG) also participated in the round. The startup funding will go into expanding the company’s operations in Gurugram. A portion of the funding will be used to acquire new talents in technology, supply chain, and operations.

Inkmonk: Chennai-based Inkmonk, an online printing marketplace for customised products raised around $750K in a Seed funding round. The investment was led by VAMM Ventures, which invests in seed and early stage startups, and is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Two Japan-based companies, Raksul and Dena, also participated in the startup funding round. The Indian startup aims at expanding categories from 30 to 100, in the next four months and further increase their marketing activities, with the newly raised funding.

Websites.co.in: Mumbai-based Websites.co.in got selected by social media giant Facebook Inc. for its early-stage startup mentorship programme FbStart. The startup received credits worth $40,000 and free tools and services from Facebook and its more than 30 partners including Amazon, UserTesting, Dropbox and MailChimp. Besides partners, startups get free access to more than 25 services including open source tools like React Native, FB Login and Account Kit and App Analytics.

GoMechanic: Delhi-based car repair and automobile servicing startup GoMechanic raised seed funding from Orios Venture Partners and Dhianu Das, one of the leading angel investor. The startup funding will be used for expanding partnerships with car service centers and customer acquisition.

Crowd4Test: Smart Software Testing Solutions Inc. (SSTS), invested in Crowd4Test, a Bengaluru-based startup building SaaS platform for managed crowd testing and user experience testing. SSTS is a company behind pCloudy.com, one of largest mobile device cloud platform. As part of the arrangement, Avinash Tiwari, Co-founder & Director of SSTS will join the board of Crowd4Test.com.

Also, Noida-based content discovery app Inshorts was said to be in talks with Tiger Global for a $10-15 Mn round of funding. Tiger Global had earlier invested $20 Mn in the media startup.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• US-based Ebix acquired the Money Transfer Service Scheme (MTSS) business of YouFirst Money Express for an undisclosed amount. The current acquisition was funded using Ebix’s internal cash reserves. This marks Ebix’s second Indian acquisition in the last five days.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Sailesh Tulshan who is the personal investment adviser to Flipkart’s Bansals is launching a venture capital fund 021 capital, with a corpus of about $50 Mn. Backed by Binny Bansal, the venture fund is expected to invest up to $2 Mn each in startups, across sectors such as biotechnology, agritech and internet.
• Microsoft Accelerator announced its 11th cohort and selected 14 startups for the current batch. Microsoft Accelerator also entered into strategic partnerships with various corporates, including TCS, Temasek and Wipro to help these startups with their Go To Market efforts globally.

Stay tuned for the next Indian Startup Funding of the week!

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