Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [13 -18 Nov]

We bring to you the latest edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week. This week eight Indian startups raised about $13 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 talked about funding speculation for the week was a possible infusion of massive $50 Mn in Swiggy from Flipkart, with Tencent likely to follow the deal.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

Active Intelligence: This is the highest funding in the Indian startup ecosystem this week. Active Intelligence, a Singapore-headquartered fintech platform with an innovation lab in Bengaluru raised $8.25 Mn in its Series A funding, led by Vertex Ventures, Creditease Holdings and Dream Incubator. Existing investors Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures also participated in the round. The current funding will be used to scale up the talents and R&D works regarding AI technology in the banking sector.

Kahaniya: Hyderabad-based multi-lingual storytelling platform Kanhaiya raised $200K from  a group of three NRI HNIs. The startup will use the raised funds to build a wider gamut of content accessible across different languages while improving revenue opportunities for creators.

ElderAid: Mumbai-based social enterprise catering to wellness industry raises an undisclosed amount of Angel funding from Rugmini Menon, a Hong Kong-based entrepreneur, to bolster its operations in Bengaluru. This investment will enable augmentation of operations, investment in critical customer management technology, marketing and brand building efforts.

Reniso: New Delhi-based property management startup Reniso raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a consortium of HNIs. The startup will use the funds to expand to other cities, develop its technology platform and build its marketing team.

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Josh Talks: Gurugram-based Ted Talks like conference organiser Josh Talks raised an undisclosed amount of funding from angel investors such as Girish Mathrubootham, founder of cloud-based customer engagement platform Freshworks; Apurva Chamaria, global brand director at IT services firm HCL; and Rohit Chanana, head of strategy and finance at scooter manufacturer Hero Corporation. The newly raised funding will bring on board strategic mentors and advisors in order to launch its platform in vernacular languages such as Telegu, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and Bhojpuri.

I2e1: Delhi-based i2e1 (Information To Every One), a smart network layer platform raised $3 Mn in Series A funding led by Omidyar Network. The round also saw the participation of Auxano Ventures and 3one4 Capital along with some of the organisation’s existing investors. The raised funds will be used to scale up the existing operations and launch a mobile application.

Easyrewardz: Mumbai and Delhi-based Easyrewardz, an enterprise focused end to end customer engagement providing platform secured $2 Mn in Series A funding round. The investment was led by TransContinental Venture Fund, and existing angel investors Jitendra Gupta and Vinay Chatlani (MD and CEO Soch). Venture Catalysts angels – Jagdish Gothi (Kamdhenu Retail), Vikas Kapoor (Rivoli Fashions), Nitin Bardia (AT Jewellers) Ankit Kankariya (Sumeet Jewellers), Akash Gajwani (Diaa Global), Amit Agarwal among others also participated in this round. The newly raised funding will help the startup to expand its sales and marketing efforts, both in India and overseas, as well as broaden and accelerate product development. With this deal, Ashesh Shah, founder of TCVF, will also join the EasyRewardz Board of Directors.

Perspectico: New Delhi-based edtech startup Perspectio raised an incubation support and an undisclosed amount of seed funding from the incubation cell of Delhi University, SIIF. SSCBS Innovation and Incubation Foundation (SIIF) is an outcome of Incubation Policy from Govt. of NCT, Delhi. Perspectico will use the funds for marketing, expansion of team and footprint across multiple colleges/geographies.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of the Week

• VDeliver acquired Towny App, an Andhra Pradesh-based mobile marketplace for hyperlocal services, for an undisclosed amount. This deal will allow VDeliver to to reach out smaller towns across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. And also, this will open up new avenues of true hyperlocal business with strong unit economics.
• Phonon Communications announced the acquisition of AI chatbot iDelivr. Gurugram-based iDelivr was founded in 2015 by IIT/IIM alumni Vijayendra Singh and Kumar Gyanendra with a vision to develop game-changing AI-based bots that can revolutionize customer acquisition and servicing on digital channels by reducing acquisition costs and ensuring scalability. Post the acquisition, Vijayendra would be joining the Phonon team as Chief Operating Officer (COO) while Gyanendra will be the new Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Other Developments Of The Week

• North East Institute of Advanced Studies, an institute for promoting leadership in the northeastern region launched a business incubator centre in collaboration with Ashden India Renewable Energy Collective (AIREC) and Ekoenergy and Climate. The centre has also offered free co-working spaces to the budding entrepreneurs of the Northeast in its Guwahati premises.
• Serial high-tech entrepreneur and Welsh-Canadian business magnate Sir Terry Matthews, who is Chairman of Canada-based investment management firm Wesley Clover International launched the Alacrity India startup fund in collaboration with Pune-based Ideas to Impacts, an organisation promoting innovative business ideas that can create significant positive impact. The Alacrity India Startup Fund will have a corpus of $10 Mn and will help in growing sustainable and investable technology companies in India using B2B SaaS business model.
• Zone Startups India (ZSI) awarded five Indian startups a Rocket-Powered launch In North America, through its fifth edition of annual Next BIG Idea contest. The winners’ list included Sequretek IT Solutions, Element42 Management Solutions, Gray Routes Technology, Cooey Technologies and Fingpay.
• New Delhi-based marketplace for home chefs FoodCloud got accepted into Food-X, a leading Global Food Innovation Accelerator.  Scalable business model and the committed team were the factors which impressed the jury.
• StartupXseed Ventures LLP has on-boarded Canbank Venture Capital Fund Limited (CVCFL) for the investment of 20% of the fund size. This collaboration will help enhance StartupXseed’s plan of reaching out to more and more tech entrepreneurs.
• Rajasthan government announced its two-day mega event ‘Rajasthan Digifest’, including a 24-hour coding hackathon. The top three winners will also earn a contract with Department of Information Technology & Communication, Government of Rajasthan upto $22.9K.
• Aavishkaar Venture Management Services made the first close of its Aavishkaar Bharat Fund at $95 Mn (INR 620 Cr). The fund will focus on financial inclusion, employment, and promoting grassroots entrepreneurship.
• National Research Development Corporation(NRDC), an enterprise of Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, set up an Incubation Centre (physical and Virtual). This is established with an objective to nurture high-performance startups in the field of science and technology, provided that they offer a highly scalable business model and disruptive technologies.
• Global investment bank Nomura hosted a demo day at their Powai campus for its latest batch. The startups were selected from over 150 global applicants.
• Gurugram-based India Accelerator invested $150K in six startups, shortlisted for its first batch. Following are the startups shortlisted for the accelerator programme: Kuants, EValk, Voko, Wish-a-Mitr, CabBazar and Square1.
• Hyderabad-based startup engine T-Hub, in collaboration with American tech conglomerate United Technologies Corporation (UTC), selected five video analytics startups for the first cohort of its Smart City/Smart Building Nano Accelerator programme. The finalists of the accelerator programme include IntelliVision, Duranc Inc, Emza Visual Sense, Uncanny Vision Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and Cognitifai.
• The Kerala government has decided to revise norms in the state IT policy to align with the national Startup India campaign, providing greater incentives to startups in Kerala. Also, the orders are issued to develop an additional 500,000 sq ft of incubation space outside of the existing incubators in Trivandrum, Kochi and Kozhikode, where it already has plans to develop 500,000 sq ft.

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