Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [06 -11 Nov]

We bring to you the latest edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week. This week 17 Indian startups raised about $47 Mn in funding altogether in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts)

One of the most important Indian startup news of the week was Valic marking down Flipkart’s valuation to $7.9 Bn.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

Kissht: Mumbai-based fintech startup Kissht raised $10 Mn (INR 67 Cr)  from Chinese investment conglomerate, Fosun International. The startup’s existing investors,  Endiya Partners, and Ventureast also participated in the equity financing round, which closed last week. In a bid to bolster its data science capabilities, the startup is looking to utilise the proceeds from the fundraise to hire new engineering and analytics teams. Furthermore, Kissht is keen on expanding its presence across 15 to 20 tier II and tier III cities in India. This was the second biggest Indian startup funding round raised by an Indian startup this week.

Qubole: Making it this week’s biggest Indian startup funding round, Bengaluru and Singapore-based big data startup Qubole raised $25 Mn in a funding round led by Singtel Innov8 and Harmony Partners. Qubole’s this round was the second biggest Indian startup funding round for the week. Startup’s existing investors Charles River Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Institutional Venture Partners also participated in this funding round. The funding will enable the startup to strengthen its presence in the Asia Pacific region.

FreshUp: Chennai-based hospitality startup FreshUp raised $1.5 Mn in Seed Funding from Singapore-based Lotus Global Investments. Freshup now aims to strengthen its presence in South India. The startup will further utilise the funding to expand its presence in other Indian cities including Guruvayur, Bengaluru, Chennai, Sabarimala.

FarmLink: Agritech startup FarmLink closed $3 Mn (INR 20 Cr) funding in a round led by investment firm-cum-incubator Pioneering Ventures and agrochemical company Syngenta. With the newly-secured funding, FarmLink is planning to create a pan-India network of collection and service centers. The platform will also spend the capital from Pioneering Ventures and Syngenta on bolstering its technological and analytical capabilities to improve the supply chain from farm to shelf.

Nopaperforms: Mumbai-based online classifieds platform Info Edge (India) Ltd. invested about $871K (INR 5.66 Cr) in Nopaperforms against a 27.92% stake. “As a part of company’s strategic investments, the acquisition would help the company to diversify its presence into a new line of business within the Internet services industry,” said, Info Edge in a filing.

HappilyUnmarried: Info Edge (India) Ltd. made a follow-on investment of $770K (INR 5 Cr) in HappilyUnmarried against a  47.21% stake. Out of $770K (INR 5 Cr), about $632.9K (INR 4.11 Cr) is proposed to be used by HappilyUnmarried for repayment of existing debt advanced by a wholly owned subsidiary of the company to HappilyUnmarried, from time to time. It was also reported that Wipro Consumer Care will be investing $7.6 Mn in the company against 20% stake.

Fisdom: Personal wealth management startup Fisdom raised $3.8 Mn (INR 25 Cr) in its second institutional round of funding led by Quona Capital with the participation of existing investor, Saama Capital. With this new investment round, the Indian startup intends to further enhance the technology, expand its team and increase its customer acquisition efforts.

Hevo Data: Bengaluru and San Francisco-based Hevo Data secured $1 Mn in a Seed funding round led by VC firm, IDG Ventures India. The startup functions as a cloud-based data integration platform that assists businesses in utilising data efficiently to make better and more informed decisions. The newly raised financing will go into hiring a team and expanding operations across the US.

Itlilite: Bengaluru-based B2B SaaS travel startup Itilite raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Matrix Partners and a clutch of angel investors. The fresh capital will be used to strengthen its technology while it also looks to hire an additional workforce.

Automate.io: SMB SaaS startup Automate.io raised an undisclosed amount of funding from 50K Ventures. The startup looks to leverage the strong presence of 50K Ventures in the US markets to help them scale quickly.

Evolve Snacks: Mumbai-based Evolve Snacks, which deals in healthy snacks segment, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from 50K Ventures. With this funding, the startup looks forward to expanding into omni-channel retail and establish partnerships with other food/ fitness-focused firms.

Play Shifu: Bengaluru-based augmented reality-enabled interactive educational games startup Play Shifu raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A round led by IDG Ventures and IDFC-Parampara Fund. The startup will use the money to extend its reach, globally, and to strengthen its technology and design team.

Open Appliances: Bengaluru-based Open Appliances Pvt Ltd, a manufacturer of industrial grade smart locks for enterprises raises $550K from Axilor and Kumar Vembu Co-Founder, ZOHO and CEO, Gofrugal. It will use the fresh round of funding to strengthen its product offering and expand into new verticals.

Crayon Data: Bengaluru-based big data startup Crayon Data raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan, Infosys co-founder. The investment is part of Crayon’s Series A2 round of funding. Previous investors include Jungle Ventures, Tata Son’s chairman emeritus Ratan Tata, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and many prominent angels. Crayon will use the Series A2 investment to further enhance Maya^TM and expand the global footprint of the company.

The Office Pass: Gurgaon based TOP Technologies Private Limited that runs a coworking platform The Office Pass, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of individual investors led by Dhruv Agarwala, CEO of PropTiger, Makaan & Housing & an institution. The company will use the funds for hiring technology & product talent and drive the expansion of coworking centers over the next 18-24 months.

Meetingsandoffices.com: Meetingsandoffices.com – a pan India platform aggregating shared and flexible workspaces, secured angel investment at the Nasscom Product Conclave Live Funding event.  Meetingsandoffices.com secured investments from five investors led by Abhishek Bhatewara. Sharan Aggarwal, Sandipan Chattopadhyay, Dr.Anu Gupta and Gagan Gupta.

AHA Taxis: Noida-based online aggregator for outstation travel AHA Taxis (a division of WAAH Taxis Pvt Ltd) raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding from ah! Ventures and Lead Angels Network. The company plans to use the funding to expand its reach to newer geographies, and further strengthen the operations and service offering to customers.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Mumbai-based Digital payments startup Benow acquired Gurugram-based Finmo and their flagship product DigiBharat in a cash and stocks deal. As part of the acquisition, all the existing merchants acquired by Finmo will be on-boarded as Benow merchants over the next few weeks.
• Ahmedabad based digital trust and safety company Motif got acquired by Nasdaq listed the US-based customer engagement solutions firm TeleTech Holdings for an undisclosed amount. Edelweiss served as the financial advisor to Motif for this deal.
• Vadodara-based Phonon Communications acquired iDelivr, a Gurugram-based chatbot startup for an undisclosed sum. As part of the transaction, iDelivr’s co-founders Vijayendra Singh and Kumar Gyanendra will join Phonon as the new chief operating officer and chief technology officer.

Also, in a bid to acquire a stake in online grocery startup Bigbasket, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba sought the approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). If the deal goes through, Bigbasket’s post-money valuation is expected to reach $900 Mn, according to sources.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Blume Ventures announced its plans to raise its third and largest fund worth $80-100 Mn. The fundraising is expected to kickstart early 2018 and will be raised by mid-2019. With a ticket size of $500K-$1 Mn, the fund will be used to invest in some 35-45 startups with subsequent follow-ons.
• Jindal Stainless, in collaboration with Japanese VC firm ANEW Holdings launched an accelerator programme for agritech startups. The newly-established accelerator will provide Indian agritech startups with access to networks and collaborations with Japanese companies.
• In a bid to facilitate entrepreneurship and job creation in the state, the Government of Rajasthan launched a dedicated platform for startups called iStart. iStart is envisioned as a one-stop online platform that provides startups with access to all the essential resources needed for enhancing their chances of success.
• The Economic Times, which recently launched the 2017 edition of The Power Of Ideas, started conducting its scheduled startup sessions in eight different cities prior to Phase one closure. So far, the sessions were conducted in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. The remaining sessions will now be conducted in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi, and Pune.
• Intel India Maker Lab held its demo day at its Bengaluru campus. The event featured 12 startups that were part of its second accelerator programme. These 12 startups were shortlisted out of 250 startups which applied for the accelerator programme.
• HDFC Bank announced to launch a fund for startups. With an initial corpus of $25 Mn-$30 Mn, the startup fund is aimed at helping promising new companies to raise capital.
• The US incubator Nexus selected four Indian startups for nurturing and scaling up their business. The list included CleanLife, White Cub, RoadBounce and VCP.
• Commut got selected for  MAN Accelerator Program in collaboration with non-profit venture fund Yunus Social Business. The 6-month MAN Truck & Bus Impact Accelerator program will kick off at the Global Social Business Summit in Paris in November. This will be followed by sessions in Munich, Mumbai, Cape Town and San Francisco. Commut is of the 8 startups that have been selected from around the globe.
• Financial services company Avendus Capital acquired Mumbai-based private equity firm Zodius Capital Advisors. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.

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

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