SUMMARY
15 Startup Funding Took Place In The Indian Startup Ecosystem This Week
We bring to you the latest edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week. This week 15 Indian startups raised about $1.193 Bn in funding in the Indian startup ecosystem and two startup acquisitions took place. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts)
Making the biggest Indian startup funding news of the week, Ola confirmed $1.1 Bn funding round led by Tencent Holdings Limited. Nearly eight days after reports of the fundraiser first surfaced. Existing investor SoftBank, in addition to other new US-based financial investors, also participated in the round.
Further, Flipkart Group allocated $460 Mn (INR 3000 Cr) to Ekart for the investment deals and also fuelled in $500 Mn in digital payments subsidiary PhonePe. Recently, Flipkart also raised its investment fund from $460 Mn (INR 3000 Cr) to $1.2 Bn (INR 8000 Cr) considering the future opportunities in line.
Indian Startup Funding Of The Week
PolicyBazaar: The second biggest Indian startup funding news of the week was online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar raising $77 Mn (INR 500 Cr) equity funding in a round led by global asset management firm, Wellington Management. The round also saw participation from IDG Ventures India and PE firm True North. A clutch of existing backers, including Tiger Global Management, Singapore government-run Temasek and PremjiInvest, also joined in. The funding will get invested in technology, customer service, and towards geographical expansion.
Meesho: Bengaluru based social ecommerce startup Meesho raised $3.1 Mn in a round of funding led by SAIF Partners. Existing investors YCombinator and Venture Highway also participated in the round. The startup plans to use the funding to hire for its tech and business operation teams. It is also looking to scale up its platform by bringing in more resellers through community engagement and referrals.
Chaayos: Gurugram-headquartered chai startup, Chaayos raised $2 Mn funding from existing investor Tiger Global Management. A few individuals also participated in the round. The investment is part of an internal round of funding and will be used to expand the chain of tea outlets currently operating under the Chaayos brand.
ParallelDots: Gurugram-based AI and deep learning solutions provider ParallelDots raised $1.4 Mn in an additional funding round from Multipoint Capital, a U.S. based investment firm. This follows Multipoint’s earlier investment of $600K in early 2016 and brings the total funding from Multipoint Capital in ParallelDots to $2 Mn. The newly raised funding will be used to add to its technology team, support its expanding global footprint, and general operational expenses.
GridRaster: California and Bengaluru-based GridRaster Inc. raised $2 Mn in Seed funding from Exfinity Ventures. Lumia Capital, Pipeline Capital, NexStar Partners, Unshackled Ventures and Explorer Group also participated in the funding round. GridRaster will use the funding for product development and marketing.
BigBasket: Bengaluru-based online grocer BigBasket raised $839K (INR5.5 Cr) from its existing investor Trifecta venture debt fund. The funding announcement comes after BigBasket raised about $6.9 Mn (INR 45 Cr) venture debt from Trifecta Capital in March this year. BigBasket has to date raised about $305.8 Mn spread across six rounds.
LetsService: Bengaluru-based B2B automobile service startup LetsService secured an undisclosed amount of funding in a Pre Series A round. The round was led by Aequs Group and has marked the group’s first steps to expand into the digital space. The investment will be used towards strengthening its team, expand into multiple cities and enhancing technology stack.
MyGubby: Bengaluru-based home decor and furnishings startup MyGubbi secured $2.5 Mn Pre-Series A funding in a round led by the family office of Firoze Irani. The round also saw participation from existing investors, including Bigbasket co-founder Vipul Parekh, NeoBytes founder Ananda Kallugadde and InfosysBSE President Rajesh K Murthy. The newly-raised funding will be spent on accelerating the startup’s growth and expansion.
EazyDiner: Making it the third biggest Indian startup funding of the week, Gurugram-based online restaurant reservation platform EazyDiner raised $4.5 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by existing investors, including Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. Two news backers, Singapore-based VC firm Beenext and a Middle Eastern family office, also participated in the round. The funding was reportedly secured at a pre-investment valuation of $38.2 Mn (INR 250 Cr).
UCLID: Hyderabad-based edtech startup UCLID EduLabs Pvt Ltd raised a Seed funding round of $235K from a bunch of US-based investors at a valuation of over $1 Mn. UCLID is currently running in the alpha mode with services in Hyderabad and will make a global beta launch in April 2018.
IBSFINtech: Corporate treasury management solutions provider IBSFINtech secured an undisclosed seed funding from Shailesh Haribhakti, Chairman of Haribhakti & Co. The company is also in an early stage of discussions to raise growth funding of $2-4 Mn for scaling up operations globally, product research and development.
ThirdWatch: New Delhi-based artificial Intelligence startup ThirdWatch raised an undisclosed angel funding from Indian Angel Network and IAN Fund led by lead investor Rahul Agarwalla. This also marked Indian Angel Network’s first investment from the INR 450 Cr IAN Fund. The round also had participation from Keshav Sanghi, former MD of Goldman Sachs India & founder of VentureWorks India along with Batlivala & Karani Securities.
Gapoon: Bengaluru-based home services startup Gapoon raised $250K in a Pre-Series A funding round. The investment is led by Vida Ventures and other independent and seasoned investors including Snehal Mantri, Anshu Bahadur, Partner at Cognizant and angel investors from their previous round Pankaj Kapoor, Director at one of the leading investment banks and Chandrasekhar BV a veteran in the telecom industry. Gapoon claims to be very close to becoming the first startup in the industry to achieve net profitability while maintaining the growth targets.
Oplifi: Mumbai based early-stage venture capital fund Rainmaker Ventures invested $750K in Oplifi, a Singapore based programmatic media company that focuses on transparency, simplicity, and accessibility. Currently, Oplifi works with brands like Lufthansa, Motorola, Vicco in India, RWS and Amex in Singapore, Trapper Media in Malaysia, Cyber One Group in Hong Kong amongst others.
Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week
- Hyderabad-based payment and customer retention solution provider, Paynear announced the acquisition of Singapore-based GoSwiff. The deal, which is reportedly valued at around $100 Mn, will provide Paynear a quick access to 20 new markets in South East Asian, Middle East, Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern European markets.
- YASH Technologies, a leading technology service and outsourcing partner for global companies, acquired Codiant Software Technologies, a global mobile application development company with operations in the USA, UK, and India. The acquisition is in line with YASH’s vision to provide best in class digital services to its global customers. Additionally, it will expand YASH’s footprint across enterprise mobility, user experience management, and commerce platform development.
Other Developments Of The Week
- UCLA Berkeley, in collaboration with startup incubator and makerspace IKP Eden, launched a medtech accelerator in Bengaluru. As per reports, the accelerator programme will be open to 15 Seed-funded startups per batch.
- Mumbai-based IvyCap Ventures announced plans to launch a $76.5 Mn (INR 500 Cr) venture debt fund within the coming three months. This is the VC firm’s third fund. It raised its first fund of $36.7 Mn (INR 240 Cr) in 2012 and a second $91.8 Mn (INR 600 Cr) fund in 2015.
- Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator witnessed the entry of 18 Indian startups for its two batches in 2017. This is more than the aggregate of 12 between 2011 and 2016. The winter 2017 batch that ended this March had 11 Indian startups, while the summer batch that finished in August had seven Indian startups.
- VC firm Equanimity Investments partnered with Sanctum Wealth Management to launch a $15.4 Mn (INR 100 Cr) debt venture capital fund targeting early-stage startups. The fund will come with a greenshoe option of an additional $15.4 Mn (INR 100 Cr).
- Shell India announced to invite all energy and IT startups to enter its pan-India programme, Shell E4 (Energizing and Enabling Energy Entrepreneurs). Shell will work with the selected cohort for a period of six months and provide them with access to Shell’s Technology and IT labs in Bengaluru, technical and commercial mentorship from within and outside of Shell, access to potential customers through its network of partners and a fixed sum investment of $20K per startup.
- Philips HealthWorks, the accelerator programme by Dutch technology company Philips, recently held its first Breakthrough Day at the Philips Innovation Campus in Bengaluru. As part of the event, top four healthtech startups were shortlisted, out of a pool of 600 startups. The shortlisted startups were Bengaluru-based NIRAMAI, Parentlane, healthtech company Touchkin and Theranosis.
Stay tuned for the next edition of the Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!
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