Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Funding Galore 4-9 Sep]

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

This week 14 Indian startups raised about $300 Mn in funding and three acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Making it the biggest Indian startup funding of the week, Budget hotel booking marketplace OYO raised $250 Mn in a Series D funding round led by SoftBank through SoftBank Vision Fund. The round also saw participation from existing investors Sequoia India, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Greenoaks Capital. With this round Hero Enterprise has also joined OYO as a new investor. The newly raised funds will be used to support expansion to newer markets in India and abroad and will enable the budget hotel marketplace to bring additional resources to accelerate enhancement of customer experience and strengthen its technology stack.

In another development, Paytm Payments Bank raised $9.3 Mn (INR 60 Cr) from One97 Communications founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and other existing investors. The development comes at a time when the firm is gearing up to launch its own debit card.

Also, Logistics firm Vulcan Express raised another $23.8 Mn in funding round from parent company Snapdeal. Earlier in July 2017, Vulcan Express secured a $5.68 Mn (INR 36.5 Cr)investment from Jasper Infotech.

Besides this, Ola’s wholly-owned cab leasing subsidiary, Ola Fleet Technologies procured a term loan of $156.3 Mn (INR 1,000 Cr) from India’s fifth largest private-sector bank, YES Bank. The loan will go into financing the purchase of a new fleet of commercial vehicles.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

PrimaryIO: Storage management startup PrimaryIO raised $5.6 Mn Seed funding in an investment round from Accel, Exfinity Ventures and Partech Ventures. The Indian startup will use the newly raised funds to expedite its product development efforts. The startup funding will also help to accelerate product development to bring innovation to the enterprise IT customers.

LendingKart: Ahmedabad-based SME lending platform Lendingkart Technologies raised $10.9 Mn (INR 70 Cr) funding round, in the form of equity funds from Sistema Asia Fund, others. Existing investors Bertelsmann India Investment, Mayfield India, Saama Capital, India Quotient and Darrin Capital Management also participated in this round. The latest round of startup funding will enable the company to increase its loan book and strengthen its technology & analytics capabilities. Additionally, the startup funding will be utilised to expand reach to the underserved markets.

Power2SME: Gurugram-based Power2SME, a ‘Buying Club’ for SMEs in India raised $10 Mn in equity funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment arm of the World Bank. In addition to the investment, IFC will also advise the Indian startup on expanding beyond its current reach in 14 states. The startup funding will also help Power2SME improve its ability to provide working capital to SMEs by adding more banks as partners.

Senority: The venture-capital arm of Indian industrial conglomerate RPG Group invested $1 Mn in Pune-based Seniority, an ecommerce portal for senior citizens and elderly-care products.  Seniority currently imports most of its 3,000 products. The startup funding will be used to start a private label soon, and there are also plans to manufacture some of the products in-house.

CreditVidya: Mumbai-based fintech startup CreditVidya raised $5 Mn in a round led by Matrix Partners India. The Indian startup funding round also saw participation from existing investor Kalaari Capital. Last year in June 2016, CreditVidya had raised $2 Mn (INR 13.3 Cr) in Series A round of funding led by Kalaari Capital.

OncoStem: OncoStem Diagnostics, an oncology-focused cancer diagnostics startup raised $6 Mn in a funding round led by Sequoia India. Existing investor Artiman Ventures also participated in the startup funding round.  OncoStem will use the newly raised funds to deepen its R&D efforts, develop effective tests for oral, brain and colon cancer and automate these tests. Apart from this, the Indian startup will focus to expand its presence across the country and introduce the test in new markets in Asia as well as Europe.

GoFro: GoFro, an online holiday deals marketplace raised $10 Mn Series B funding led by H.I.S. Co. Ltd, along with participation from the existing investor, MakeMyTrip. With the recent round of funding, the online holiday deals marketplace will look to strengthen its technology platform, supply and agent network. Apart from this, the partnership with Japan-based HIS will allow the Indian startup to expand into international markets.

EarlySalary: Pune-based fintech startup EarlySalary raised $782K (INR 5 Cr) in a debt financing round from IFMR capital. The newly raised startup funding will provide an impetus for further accelerating the company’s exciting growth plans. EarlySalary has already disbursed 7,000+ loans last month and plans to reach a target of around 30,000+ loan disbursements per month by end of this financial year. The Indian startup also recently received its Series A round of $4 Mn (INR 28 Cr) equity funding in May of this year from IDG Ventures India & DHFL, and plans to leverage its equity multiple times over the next few months.

Mamaearth: Fireside Ventures, the Lead Investor in Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd ‘s  brand Mamaearth have agreed on a term sheet to lead another round in the Indian startup. The newly raised startup funding will be used to to fund the brand’s innovation pipeline for entering into more categories with safer & healthier products for mother & child starting with the launch of ‘Traditional Recipes’ by Mamaearth a range of wellness solutions for mothers including herb teas & supplements.

TailsLife: Bengaluru-based pet care startup TailsLife raised an undisclosed amount in a bridge round from existing investor Exfinity Ventures chairman V Balakrishnan.The startup funding round is still open and other investors are also likely to participate. The startup will use the latest round of investment to add more value to its services and products line-up. It is also revamping its user interface to make user experience more seamless.

Datasigns Technologies: Bengaluru-based Datasigns Technologies Pvt. Ltd that runs the fintech platform Shubh Loans raised $1.5 Mn Pre Series A funding from SRI Capital, BeeNext and Pravega Ventures. The startup funding will be to build its technology team and for expansion into 18 new markets. The company is also planning to onboard 1 Mn customers in formal credit.

ORBO: Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled facial technology and computer vision startup ORBO came out of stealth mode and raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Bollywood singers The Meet Brothers (Harmeet Singh & Manmeet Singh) and AJ Ventures.  Part of the funding has gone into maintaining and hiring computer vision scientists and deep learning experts.

NEST Education: Gurugram-based edtech company, NEST Education (Naandi Education And Support Training) raised $600K in follow-on funding from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Anand Mahindra, Chairman and MD of the Mahindra Group. With this round of funding, the Indian startup aims to grow its outreach to a larger number of students and achieve its goal of educating 10,000 students by FY 2022.

Also, the news surfaced that foodtech startup Zomato is in talks to raise up to $200 Mn from Alibaba and its payments affiliate Ant Financial. If the investment goes through, the Chinese ecommerce giant is likely to pick up a stake in the company.

Indian Startup Acquisition Of The Week

• Bengaluru-based printing retail startup Printo acquired Delhi-based rival Print Retail India in an all-stock deal. Print Retail India owns and operates The Print Bazaar. Post-acquisition, The Print Bazaar brand will be discontinued.
• Pune-based consumer Internet startup Mazkara Internet acquired Mumbai-based BazingaLabs. The move was in a bid to increase the company’s focus on mobile technology, especially for its flagship platform Fabogo. The deal is part equity, part cash.
• Paris headquartered Altran acquired GlobalEdge Software Limited, an India-based product engineering company specialized in embedded software solutions and IoT Solutions.  The acquisition of GlobalEdge significantly increases Altran’s presence in India with additional 1,000 engineers.

Besides this, One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, revealed its plan to acquire Bengaluru-based O2O deals platform Little and Gurugram-based Nearbuy. The reports of the acquisition come in just months after Paytm picked up a majority stake in the events ticketing venture Insider.in.

Other Developments Of The Week

• German media group Bertelsmann looks to invest $200-250 Mn in Indian startups over the next four years. The group aims to invest $50-60 Mn each year in funding Indian startups in areas such as ecommerce, fintech and edtech.

• Government Selects 60 Startup Proposals To Support Through $15.5 Mn North East Venture Fund. Each investment will be limited to a minimum of $39K (INR 25 Lakhs) and a maximum of about $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr). Launched in April 2017, North East Venture Fund was the first dedicated venture capital fund for the North-Eastern region.
• The government of Chhattisgarh facilitated 36 startups who were part of the Startup Chhatisgarh Grand Challenge. In line with the state’s mission to nurture a startup policy and help startups grow, CM Raman Singh also inaugurated 36inc. 36inc will be a state-run incubator for the felicitated startups. It has been approved by the Atal Innovation Mission and comes under its purview.
• Chinese accelerator and venture fund ZDream Ventures, known as Zhudao in China, announced the launch of its incubator ZDream Labs in Gurugram. It aims to to find out the next unicorn startup from India.
• Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF), announced the 5th edition of the Wharton India Startup Challenge (WISC). With the final event scheduled for January 5, 2018, the first deadline for submitting applications is September 17, 2017 (Phase 1) and the second deadline for submitting applications will be October 15, 2017 (Phase 2).
• The New Delhi Chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a global network of entrepreneurs, announced its Accelerator Program for First-Stage Entrepreneurs from all over India. The three year program is aimed at those who wish to scale up their company to $1 Mn and beyond. EO New Delhi will support them by helping them to develop and enhance their skills in strategy, human resources, finance, sales, and marketing.
• Venture Catalysts announced its operational launch in Kolkata. VCats has tied-up with Ideal Insurance and Kreative Fingers for its Kolkata expansion, with the partnership aimed at boosting the innovation quotient of startups in the region by enabling state-of-the-art support facilities.

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