Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Funding Galore 26 June-1 July]

We bring to you the new edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week. This week 16 Indian startups raised about $100 Mn in funding altogether and six startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

South African Internet and media conglomerate Naspers invested an additional $71 Mn in Flipkart. This deal marked the biggest startup funding round this week. This investment takes its holdings in Flipkart to 16.5%. The investment was actually done in April 2017. Naspers had first invested in Flipkart in 2012 during its Series D round and then in its $1 Bn Series G round raised in July 2014.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

Quantta Analytics: Data Analytics startup Quantta Analytics raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its Pre-Series A round. The round was led by undisclosed entrepreneurs and investors from India and Silicon Valley. The startup funding will be used in enhancing its tech stack, strengthening the core technology team, and expanding its presence across various cities in India. Also, the startup is in the process of setting up Quantta Labs in Silicon Valley.

SparesHub: The Chennai Angels (TCA) invested $61.8 K (INR 40 Lakhs) in Pune-based Iradium Automobiles Private Limited, the parent company of automobiles parts marketplace SparesHub.com. The investment was as part of the total investment round of INR 2 Cr. The round also saw participation from Anthill Scale Ventures (Singapore), Esvee Technologies Inc. (USA), Inc95 Consulting and other HNIs. The startup funding will be used to grow the current customer base of SparesHub, enter new geographical areas of operations and strengthen its technology platform.

FORMCEPT: Data analytics startup, FORMCEPT Technologies and Solutions Pvt. Ltd raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from VC fund GVFL (Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd). The Indian startup will use the newly raised funds to accelerate global growth.

ZingHR: Bhavin Turakhia-backed fintech startup Zeta invested an undisclosed amount in ZingHR, a Chennai-based cloud services provider. With this move, India startup ZingHR will now offer Zeta’s digital employee benefits solutions such as meal vouchers, paperless claims for medical, LTA, fuel, mobile and so on. This investment will further bolster equity infusion along with existing investors Triton.

Fitpass: Delhi-based healthtech startup Fitpass raised $1 Mn from venture fund Shooting Star, backed by Olympic gold medalist and Indian ace shooter, Abhinav Bindra. The startup funding will be used to expand the network of gyms and fitness studios on the platform to 10 cities in the next six months.

Rubique: Mumbai-based fintech startup Rubique raised $3 Mn in a bridge round of funding. The Indian startup raised the funding round three months ago but the company chose not to disclose it. The investment was led by existing investor Kalaari Capital and Udayan Goyal, Managing Partner at Apis Partners. Earlier, Rubique also raised about $3 Mn in funding from Kalaari Capital, YourNest Angel Fund, Globvestor & Dexter Angel Circle, and Globevestor.

Stashfin: Delhi-based fintech startup Stashfin raised $5 Mn Pre-Series A funding from Snow Leopard Ventures and Singapore-based Alto Partners. Snow Leopard Ventures is the VC arm of the Kirloskar Group. Managing Partners at executive search firm Positive Moves, Vibhav Dhawan and Praveen Malhotra; Avendus Capital founder Ranu Vora; Trafigura CEO Raoul Bajaj; and senior executives from global investment firm KKR also participated in the startup funding round of the Indian startup. Stashfin is the parent company of digital lending platform, StashEasy.

V Resort: Noida-based V Resorts, an asset-light resort management startup raised $4 Mn in its third round of funding led by Seedfund and RB International. The startup funding will get invested in consumer and operator interfaces. The Indian startup also plans to double its inventory by the end of this year.

HUG Innovations: Indian startup HUG Innovations raised $5 Mn funding in Series A round. Hyderabad-based company raised this round of funding at a $15.5 Mn valuation from NRI Startup India. The startup has developed a gesture control smartwatch weighing 46 grams.

Tagos Design: Bengaluru-based in-video discovery platform Tagos Design Innovations Pvt. Ltd raised $5 Mn Series A funding with participation from a leading venture capital fund and two large global corporations. The name of the investors are undisclosed. Zee Entertainment is an investor in the Indian startup.

Authenticook: Mumbai-based food startup Authenticook raised $231K (INR 1.5 Cr) from Booking.com. The Indian startup aims to extend its presence to 35-40 cities from current nine cities by the end of 2018. Also, the company plans to break even by 2019.

Fitraq: Delhi-based fitness centre discovery platform Fitraq raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a bridge round. The startup funding round was led by Aparup Sengupta, operating partner at Singapore-based investment firm Capital Square Partners, and Devendra Reddy, a sales and marketing veteran who has previously worked at EXL, WNS Global Services, and HCL.The company will use the funds for product development and to penetrate the market.

Baadshah: OceanKing Software Solutions LLP, the Mumbai-based company that owns and operates online gaming startup Baadshah Gaming raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Casino Pride against a 30% stake in the company. As part of the deal, the Indian startup will launch its ‘Baadshah Gaming Live’ property at Casino Pride.

Time of Sports: Delhi-based sports company specialising in sports consultancy service raised an undisclosed amount of funding. The startup funding was led by Sandeep Arya Chairman and Managing Director of Amtrak Technologies Pvt Ltd, Presto Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, and Sanvei Overseas Pvt Ltd. The Indian startup will invest the raised funds in expanding the existing Sports Consultancy Leg of the company and to develop a sports mobile app to reach 100 Mn school kids and their parents. Also, a part of funding will be used to launch the World’s Largest STEM Based Technology Challenge – F1 in Schools™ in India.

ZineOne: Hyderabad-based data analytics startup Zino raised $2.5 Mn funding from Hyderabad Angels. New York Seed Angels and a few HNI’s also participated in this funding round. The startup funding will be used to strengthen its offering in the fields of streaming analytics and machine-learning models.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Hike Messenger acquired InstaLively Livestreaming Pvt. Ltd, the company behind hyperlocal social networking app Pulse. Post-acquisition InstaLively co-founders joined Hike Messenger.
• News Corp acquired Bengaluru-based GyanMatrix Services Private Limited (GMX). Post acquisition, GMX will be rebranded to News Technology Services (NTS). Founder Rajan Parasuraman will lead the new entity as Managing Director.
• US-based DevOps Accelerator JFrog acquired universal DevOps Intelligence platform CloudMunch. The acquisition was made in a bid to expand its product offerings for developers. This deal marks the third strategic acquisition by JFrog in the last eight months.
• Weddingz.in acquired Mumbai-based WedCraze, which creates private social platforms for weddings, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will enable Weddingz.in to have a presence in the social space for weddings.
• Globetouch Inc. acquired IoT solutions provider Teramatrix Technologies Ltd. Globetouch will leverage and integrate the Teramatrix Fusion platform to create high value IoT applications that support Connected Cars, Autonomous Driving, predictive maintenance and edge intelligence.
• Career Point Ltd is in an advanced stage of discussions to acquire Mumbai-based e-learning platform Plancess. With the combination of Career Point’s brand and Plancess’ solutions, the team is confident of achieving the next stage of growth.

Also,  Tata Group revealed its intentions to acquire Gurugram-based GrocerMax to enter the online grocery space. As part of the deal, Tata Group will acquire the management team and technology infrastructure of GrocerMax. This would be used to set up an online platform for Trent Hypermarket.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Trend Micro launched a $100 Mn corporate venture fund. The Tokyo-headquartered multinational conglomerate aims to nurture a portfolio of startups in emerging ecosystems majorly in IoT sector.
• Indian Angel Network (IAN) launched in Israel’ to build a bridge for innovative startups across India and Israel. It has also partnered with Israel-India Chamber of Commerce and Israel-India Friendship Association (IIFA).
• The Indian School of Management and Entrepreneurship ISME announced the launch of a new accelerator headed by YES Bank chief Rana Kapoor’s daughter Radha Kapoor. The programme called ISM ACE has been launched for for fintech startups in Mumbai. Kapoor also announced the launch of $15.5 Mn (INR 100 Cr) fund aimed at early-stage startups.
• Japanese cyber security firm Trend Micro launched a $100 Mn corporate venture fund. The fund aims to nurture a portfolio of startups in emerging ecosystems. These startups can be in domains that are incubating ideas and living at the epicenter of hyper growth markets, such as the Internet of Things (IoT).
• Startup India Hub has partnered with Collaborizm a NYC-based tech incubator. Collaborizm will help the Startup India Hub select potential Indian startup projects and help entrepreneurs pursue their ideas. It will select one or two promising Indian-led Collaborizm commercial ventures each week and will provide The Startup India Hub with a detailed description of these projects, including the kind of assistance they need.
• Kerala Govt. signed MoU with IESA to woo investments from South-East Asia in IT and Electronics sectors. Partnership with leading Indian electronics body will offer markets and collaborations in tech hubs of Taiwan and South Korea. The MoU is valid for five years.