Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Funding Galore 3-8 July]

We bring to you the new edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week. This week 13 Indian startups raised about $67 Mn in funding altogether and four startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Once again, the most discussed news for this week continued to be Flipkart-Snapdeal merger. In the latest development, Snapdeal board has rejected an offer of about $700-800 Mn from Flipkart for the proposed deal. The development comes just a few days after Flipkart completed its commercial and legal due diligence of Snapdeal. The offer made by Flipkart is just for Snapdeal’s marketplace and will not include Freecharge and Vulcan. the deal isn’t off at the moment and the negotiations will continue but valuation differences between the two companies are likely to delay the process.

Cab aggregator Uber poured $7.9 Mn (INR 51.46 Cr) into its Indian arm – Uber India Systems. This infusion occurred in May 2017. The amount was transferred from the company’s subsidiaries in Netherlands, including Uber Holdings International BV, Uber International BV, Besitz Holding BV and Mieten BV.

Also, it came to notice that in May 2017 Amazon fuelled about $52.7 Mn (INR 341 Cr) in Indian subsidiary Amazon Wholesale, through Amazon Corporate Holding Singapore and Amazon Inc Malaysia. It takes the total investment to about $117 Mn (INR 756 Cr). Also, the company poured in about $260 Mn (INR 1,680 Cr) in Amazon Seller Services. This takes the total money invested in the Indian unit to about $2.1 Bn (INR 13,800 Cr).

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

UrbanClap: The biggest Indian startup funding of this week was raised by Gurugram-based mobile services marketplace UrbanClap. The startup raised $21 Mn Series C funding. The round was led by Internet investment fund Vy Capital. Existing investors SAIF Partners, Accel Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners also participated in the round. The startup will use the recently raised funds ‘to expand to more cities, invest in technology, and add new vendors.

Droom: The second largest Indian startup funding to this week was raised by another Gurugram-based startup Droom. The automobile marketplace raised $20 Mn (INR 130 Cr) Series C round led by Integrated Asset Management and Japan’s Digital Garage. The round also saw participation from existing institutional investors including Lightbox Ventures, BEENEXT, Beenos. Apart from this, a number of prominent institutional investors and family offices from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan participated in the round.

Minjar: Bengaluru-based cloud computing startup Minjar raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by Blume Ventures. The roundalso saw participation from early-stage funds Contrarian Capital and Emergent Ventures. Individual investors include Pallav Nadhani, founder of FusionCharts; Ashish Gupta, co-founder Helion Ventures; Indus Khaitan of SirionLabs, and Sharad Sharma of iSPIRT. The startup funding will be utilised in scaling up its US-based business operations and in strengthening product R&D.

Jumbotail: Food and grocery wholesale marketplace Jumbotail raised $8.5 Mn Series A funding from Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. Nexus had previously invested $2 Mn in Jumbotail. The company plans to utilise the funds for building technologies and enhance operational capabilities.

Moglix: B2B ecommerce startup Moglix raised $12 Mn Series B fundingmaking it the third largest Indian startup funding of this week. The round saw participation from International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Rocketship. Existing investors Accel Partners, Jungle Ventures, Shailesh Rao (ex-VP Twitter & Google), and Venture Highway advised by Neeraj Arora of WhatsApp also participated in the round. With this round, the total amount of funding raised by Moglix stands at $18 Mn. The startup will use the newly raised funds to support the demand for its robust technology solution in the supply chain and manufacturing domain. Apart from this, the funds will be used for infrastructure growth and geographical expansion plans.

Ecolibrium Energy: Indian startup Ecolibrium Energy raised $2.6 Mn (INR 18 Cr) in funding from Infuse Ventures Inc, JLL Technology Ventures and an anonymous angel investor. The investment will be used to expand the company’s international presence and also enhance customer engagement. A portion of the newly-raised funds will go into developing advanced deep machine learning algorithms to ensure the better performance of electrical equipment.

Clip App: Bengaluru-based digital media video startup Clip App raised $1 Mn Seed funding from India Quotient and Chinese investment firm ShunweiCapital. The startup will utilise the newly raised capital to enhance features for the video only app.

Billionloans: Reliance Capital made an investment of $1 Mn (INR 7 Cr) in Bengaluru-based alternative digital lending startup Billionloans. The seed funding round was routed through its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Corporate Advisory Services Limited. With the raised funds, Indian startup Billionloans aims to focus on providing loans to SMEs and to the individuals for affordable housing, education, and personal loans, etc.

Refabd: Bengaluru-based pre-used home appliances and furniture seller Refabd raised $92.5K in seed funding from Athamus Venture. The startup will use the funds to expand its team and to grow to four more cities. Refabd currently operates only in Bengaluru.

Upwardly: Bengaluru-based financial advisory startup Upwardly raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding round. The investment was led by Sreeram Iyer of ANZ Bank, Suvo Sarkar of Emirates NBD, and Anita Gupta of Emirates NBD and Likemind Ventures. Upwardly aims to expand its offering and grow its 10-member team.

Cashify: Gurugram-based pre-used gadgets seller Cashify (formerly known asReGlobe) raised a Series A round from new and existing investors. The other details of the deal could not be accessed.

Timesaverz: Mumbai-based online home services marketplace Timesaverz raised $1 Mn from media conglomerate Bennett, Coleman, and Co. Ltd (BCCL), in an Ad for equity deal. The funding was raised in January by issuing five warrants valued at Rs 1.3 crore each.

ZanDeal: ZanDeal, a stealth-mode Sino-Indian online marketing analytics startup raised $150K from US-based investor Sean Chan. The company will use the capital to develop its tech and for marketing initiatives so that it can accelerate the process to launch its services by the end of July.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Outsourcing firm Navigant Technologies acquired Delhi-based specialised outsourcing company Quick Call for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was done in a bid to strengthen its presence in the Indian outsourcing realm.
• Edtech startup BYJU’S acquired TutorVista and Edurite from Pearson. The partnership is focussed on expanding the international reach and creating a diverse product portfolio.
• BookMyShow acquired Burrp, a Mumbai-based local food and restaurant recommendation engine. The acquisition was an all-cash deal from parent company Network18. The value of the deal remains undisclosed.

Also, Mumbai-based software firm Datamatics Global Services Ltd is in talks to acquire 71% stake in TechJini for $6 Mn. Through the acquisition, Datamatics is looking to strengthen its mobility offerings with TechJini’s range of smart technology solutions.

Other Developments Of the Week

• Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), an Assam-based company launched a $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr) fund to promote startups in Northeast India. The company is also looking to reach out to educational institutions, to spread awareness about the programme.
• Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited joined hands with Russian Government-owned Vnesheconombank to create a $200 Mn fund. The fund aims to facilitate innovation in the field of information technology (IT).
• The Government of Karnataka has launched the ELEVATE 100 programme to boost startups in the state. The programme aims to identify 100 of the most innovative startups in Karnataka to elevate them to next level of success.
• Former Infosys CEO, Nandan Nilekani and Helion Ventures founder Sanjeev Aggarwal have joined forces to launch a new scale up platform – the Fundamentum Partnership. Fundamentum will have an initial corpus of $100 Mn which can be extended to $200 Mn in future.
• NCR-based accelerator Espark-Viridian opened applications for its July 2017 cohort to invite early-stage and idea-stage startups. The applications are open for all five centres –  Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Greater Noida (NCR), and Mumbai. The team will soon launch a centre in Bengaluru.
• Invest Spain has launched the second edition of its flagship Innovation programme – Rising Startups Spain. The nine-month programme begins with an incubation period. This year,  the programme is looking to provide financial assistance to not more than 15 companies.
• Yatra India would settle BCCL outstanding with the payment of an aggregate sum of about $6 Mn (INR 39 Cr) under the terms of Advertisement Agreement with no further liability on Yatra. This amount paid to BCCL also includes an interest of about INR 90,000 as per the company filings. The equity warrants were originally issued to BCCL in 2011.
• During his three-day trip to Israel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a five-year technology fund – The Israel India Innovation Initiative Fund, or I4F. The fund aims to grow the business relationship between both countries. Also, both the countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set up a $40 Mn Industrial Research and Development (R&D) and Technical Innovation Fund.
• IvyCap Ventures is in the last leg of closing its second fund with a corpus of $92.9 Mn (INR 600 Cr). The firm had made the first close of the new fund at $46.4 Mn (INR 300 Cr) in April 2016.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week.