Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [30 Oct -04 Nov]

We bring to you the latest edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week. This week 12 Indian startups raised about $36 Mn in funding altogether in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts)

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

EdGE Networks: Bengaluru-based EdGE Networks, an AI-driven HRTech solutions company secured $4.5 Mn in Series A funding round led by Kalaari Capital and Ventureast. The startup will use the capital to strengthen its core product offerings for workforce optimisation and talent acquisition.

HalaPlay: Kae Capital, along with Nazara Games made an undisclosed amount of investment in HalaPlay, a Mumbai-based daily fantasy sports platform. HalaPlay uses data analytics and machine learning to help users draft teams, analyse their playing behaviour and help them to improve fantasy skills. The aim is to increase sports fan engagement and improve viewership for sports by making matches interesting for its users.

Kalpnik Technologies: Venture Catalysts made a seed investment worth $500K into Mumbai-based AR/VR tech startup Kalpnik. The investment was led by Ashwani Kakkar (Mercury Travels & Via.com), G G Gulati (Chairman, United Group of Institutions), Bobby Reddy ( Indus Homes), Dr. Tinku Acharya (Co-architect-Webcam & MD-Videonetics), and Raja Sahi ( SVP, Pixelogic Media) and more along with  investments from professionals from leading companies like CISCO, 24/7 etc. Vansh Gulati from UGI and Anuj Puri from Venture Catalysts will be joining the board of Kalpnik. The startup will use the funding to develop content for hundreds of temples and gurus and onboard the same on its platform.

Netmeds: Making it biggest Indian startup funding of the week, online pharmacy Netmeds raised $14 Mn funding led by Cambodian investment holding company Tanncam. The round also saw the participation of the Sistema Asia Fund. The startup is looking to utilise the capital infusion for expanding its geographical reach across India. The ultimate aim is to make affordable healthcare accessible to the masses.

Bigbasket: Making it second biggest Indian startup funding, online grocery startup BigBasket raised $8.02 Mn (INR 52 Cr) in funding from four of its existing investors. The startup funding round was led by Abraaj Basket, Bessemer Venture Partners along with International Finance Corp and Sands Capital.

Gobasco: New-Delhi and Lucknow-based agritech startup Gobasco raised an undisclosed amount in its seed funding round from Matrix Partners India. The startup will use the raised funds for scaling and building a full stack commerce platform that yields higher operational efficiency, improves realisations for farmers, reduces wastage and enhances price and market discovery for agricultural commodities.

Benoit: Deepak Nathani, Cybage co-founder picked up 30% stake in fashion startup, Benoit. The investment amount remains undisclosed. This funding will be utilised for scaling-up faster by adding more designs and expanding the marketing efforts. The brand also stands to benefit with Nathani’s sustained mentorship which will help the firm grow.

Gold Farm: Agritech startup, Gold Farm raised $2 Mn Seed funding from Mahindra & Mahindra and Infuse Ventures. The newly-secured capital from VC fund Infuse Ventures and Mahindra will be utilised to expand the company’s services across most village districts in Karnataka. The funding will also facilitate infrastructure building and farmer outreach programmes.

Meritnation: Delhi-based elearning platform Meritnation raised $5.8 Mn (INR 38 Cr) from online classifieds platform Info Edge. This is the third largest funding round raised by Indian startup this week. With the latest funding round, Info Edge now holds a 66% stake in Meritnation. Of the newly-raised capital, around $5 Mn will be spent on paying off some of Meritnation’s debt on its books, while the remaining amount will be infused towards scaling the startup’s daily operations.

AadhaarAPI: An Aadhaar-based technology startup, Aadhaar API raised an undisclosed amount in an angel round of funding from CIO Angel Network (CAN). The round was led by Kalpana Maniar, CIO Edelweiss; Sanjay Mehta, Private Investor and Anoop Mathur, Founder of CIO Angel Network. The newly raised funding will enable the company to boost its operations and scale up.

OneAssist: Mumbai-based OneAssist Consumer Solutions raised an undisclosed funding from Arun Sarin, Former Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Group Plc as part of the Series C fundraise it announced in June this year.

Freshboxx: A fresh produce supply chain management startup Freshboxx raised an undisclosed fund in an angel round funding led by Belgaum Industrialist Joint MD of Ashok Iron Works. It first pivoted the business model in January 2016 and soon it would be rolling out HoReCa in some of the places to strengthen the bottom line.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• ItzCash parent, US-based Ebix acquired Via.com, a Bengaluru-based omni-channel online travel and assisted ecommerce exchange. As part of the acquisition, one of the Singapore-based subsidiaries of Ebix has entered into an agreement with the online travel portal.
• Gurugram-headquartered on demand hyperlocal delivery startup Shadowfax acquired assets of NuvoEx Logistics, the parent company of now-defunct egrocer PepperTap. By merging with NuvoEx, Shadowfax is looking to expand its presence across 75 cities and also increase its daily transaction volume to 90,000.

Also, Zomato and Swiggy, are said to be in talks about a potential merger. According to sources, Bengaluru-based Swiggy proposed a stock-based merger with its arch nemesis, Zomato.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Mumbai based Zone Startups India unveiled the names of 15 selected startups amongst 376 applications across India for the second edition of its flagship all-women accelerator programme “empoWer.” The selected startups will join the six-week-long community programme.
• The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), India made an announcement that it has already extended its funding support to 75 startups under its ‘Fund of funds’ initiative. Aimed to equip emerging startups, DIPP has also opened its lines for India-Israel Global Innovation Challenge applications. Selected startups will be incubated under the collaborative incubation programme of India and Israel.
• SIDBI launched a financial technology incubator at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L), for nurturing high-impact technologies towards the financial inclusion agenda. The incubator is named SIDBI Centre for Innovations in Financial Inclusion (SCI-FI). The Centre would handhold financial technology ideas into reality. IIM-L would provide the required managerial and technological resources and support towards the incubation process.
• RBL Bank announced the second chapter of its flagship event — The Big Pitch 2.0 — which aims to strengthen the startup ecosystem in India. The incubation and funding contest will be held at Amity University, Noida, on November 17, 2017. The Big Pitch 2.0 will comprise 30 startups from the application pool, out of which top six winners will have the opportunity to win curated packages from the many event partners.

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

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