Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Dec 16-21]

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

In one of the biggest funding rounds, Delhi-based eyewear startup Lenskart has raised $231 Mn (INR 1,645 Cr) from SoftBank Vision Fund II Lightbulb Ltd as part of its Series G funding round.

Founded in 2010 by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi, Lenskart is an eyewear brand that deals in eyeglasses, powered sunglasses, and contact lenses. The company manufactures, assembles, distributes, and supplies its products across 460 stores across India. The company plans to expand its services to include an additional 150 stores by March 2020 and 2K stores over the next five years.

Overall, 23 startups raised around $383.6 Mn funding and three startup acquisition took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Licious: $30 Mn
2. Appnomic Systems: $22 Mn
3. Quantiphi: $20 Mn
4. Medlife: $15.5 Mn
5. Pristyn Care: $12 Mn
6. HungerBox: $12 Mn
7. Springboard: $11 Mn
8. Riversand Technologies: $10 Mn
9. Toffee Insurance: $5.5 Mn
10. Kaleidofin: $5.1 Mn
11. LivFin: $5 Mn
12. Bijak: $2.5 Mn
13. Seekify: $1.5 Mn
14. payAgri: $200K
15. WitBlox: $180K
16. truMe: $145K
17. ZestMoney: Undisclosed
18. DROR: Undisclosed
19. Azah: Undisclosed
20. Cub McPaws: Undisclosed
21. Open Secret: Undisclosed
22. FlytBase: Undisclosed

Licious:

Bengaluru-based gourmet meat startup Licious has raised $30 Mn in Series E from Singapore-based Vertex Growth Fund. With this funding, Licious plans to expand its presence into more Indian cities. In addition, the Licious will also be focusing on the seven cities it already operates in. These cities include Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. Licious also plans to strengthen its omnichannel presence, expand its workforce and launch new products, especially in the ready-to-eat segment.

Appnomic Systems:

Bengaluru and California-based self-help enterprisetech startup Appnomic Systems has raised $22 Mn funding from Avataar Ventures, The company will be utilising the funds to expand its global presence and market reach to enable autonomous business operations across various digital enterprises.

Quantiphi:

Deeptech startup Quantiphi has raised $20 Mn (INR 142 Cr) from Multiples Alternate Asset Management, the Renuka Ramnath-led private equity (PE) firm. The startup plans to utilise the funds to expand its presence in North America and Europe, grow the sales team, expand research and development (R&D) functions and strengthen its leadership team in the next two to three years.

Medlife:

Bengaluru-based epharmacy Medlife has raised $15.5 Mn (INR 110 Cr) from Wilson Global Opportunities Fund in a debt funding round. Medlife will be utilising the funds towards the development of technology, marketing, employee expenses and to support the future growth of the company.

Pristyn Care:

Gurugram-based healthcare platform Pristyn Care has raised $12 Mn in Series B from Sequoia Capital India, Hummingbird Ventures, Greenoaks Capital and AngelList to expand its healthcare operations and technology. Founded in 2018 by Harsimarbir Singh, Dr. Vaibhav Kapoor and Dr. Garima Sawhney, Pristyn offers affordable advanced surgical care to patients through innovative surgical techniques and recovery measures.

HungerBox:

Bengaluru-based B2B foodtech startup HungerBox has raised $12 Mn from Paytm and other investors. The round also included NPTK, Sabre Partners Trust and Neoplux. With this, the company has raised total funding of $16.5 Mn till date. HungerBox plans to utilise this funding to expand into new geographies in Southeast Asia. In addition to this, HungerBox would be expanding its services to hospitals, educational institutes and multiplexes.

Springboard:

San Francisco and Bengaluru-based online edtech startup Springboard has raised $11 Mn in a post-Series-A funding round led by Reach Capital. With the recently raised funds, Springboard will expand its operations, add more courses, and bring more talent to the company. “We will use this funding to grow our Indian presence with more courses in design and software engineering and continue our expansion into additional geographies,” said Vivek Kumar, Springboard India’s managing director.

Riversand Technologies:

Houston-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) Riversand Technologies, which also has its operations in Bengaluru, raised an additional $10 Mn from its existing investor Crestline Investors, a US-based investment company. The company plans to use this additional capital to further develop its product through innovation, amplify its sales and marketing efforts, and accelerate growth in new geographies and market verticals.

LivFin:

Delhi-based fintech startup LivFin has raised $5 Mn from German development finance institution DEG, which a subsidiary of KfW Group. The recently raised funds will help LivFin to further expand its operations and to achieve the assets under management (AUM) target of $40 Mn by March 2020. Rahul Chander, MD and CEO of LivFin said that the investment will be a boost to LivFin’s planned growth over the next 12-18 months.

Toffee Insurance:

Gurugram-based insurtech startup Toffee Insurance has raised $5.5 Mn in a Series A funding round led by IVM Intersurer, Omidyar Network, Flourish Ventures, Accion Venture Lab and Kalaari Capital. The company will be utilising the funds to expand its product portfolio, improve merchant and customer experience, enhance technology and increase distribution efficiency.

Kaleidofin:

Chennai-based fintech startup Kaleidofin has raised $5.1 Mn (INR 36 Cr) Series A round led by Netherlands-based cooperative and social investor, Oikocredit. With the recently raised funds in this round, Kaleidofin will strengthen its technology backend and invest in new growth opportunities.

Bijak:

Gurugram-based B2B agritech platform Bijak has raised $2.5 Mn in a seed round from investment firms Omnivore and Omidyar Network India, and Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator programme Surge. This will be Sequoia Surge’s and Omidyar Network’s first investment in an agritech startup.

Seekify:

Delhi-NCR and Singapore-based enterprisetech platform Seekify has raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital’s Surge. The company said it will be utilising the funds to improve the tech stack and expand its team by hiring talent across various departments.

ZestMoney:

Bengaluru-based digital lending startup ZestMoney has raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs. Zestmoney’s existing investors Naspers fintech, Quona Capital and Flourish also participated in this round. With this funding, Zestmoney will focus on product development, forming more strategic partnerships and scale its platform to get more customers on board.

DROR:

Gurugram-based security management startup DROR announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funds from IP Ventures. With the recently raised funds, the startup is planning to strengthen its tech platform and invest in user acquisition.

Azah:

Gurugram-based female wellness startup Azah has raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A from Titan Capital, which is an investment firm led by Snapdeal cofounders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. “A good portion of the funding will go into research and development of these new products, while also helping us carry out further innovation in our current product line. We’ll also use the funding to expand our reach to newer demographics while exploring alternative channels to drive growth and acquisition,” said, Azah’s cofounder, Aqib Mohammed.

payAgri:

Tamilnadu-based agritech startup payAgri has raised $200K in the Pre-series A round from US based MFS Impact Fund and a couple of US-based angel Investors. The startup plans to use this fund to on-board key business, agritech resources and expand into new geographies.

Cub McPaws:

Mumbai-based augmented reality-enabled startup Cub McPaws has raised an undisclosed seed funding from Venture Catalysts. The investment from Venture Catalysts will help the startup to launch new product lines, scale our distribution capabilities and enhance our cutting-edge technology offering, customer acquisition and hiring of on-board senior professionals.

truMe:

Gururgram based B2B SaaS startup truMe has raised $145 K from Rajan Kaistha, a US-based angel investor. With this fundraise, truMe plans to deepen its footprint in Delhi-NCR and expand operations to Mumbai and Bangalore. Apart from the expansion plans, it will use the proceeds to invest in talent and technology.

WitBlox:

Mumbai-based edtech startup WitBlox has raised a funding of INR 1.3 Cr ($180K) from Mumbai Angels Network. With these funds, the startup plans to bring about significant changes in its strategy.

Open Secret:

Mumbai-based food and beverage startup Open Secret has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Matrix Partners India. Open Secret will utilise the freshly raised capital to scale up the capabilities in technology, strengthen the team and expand omnichannel distribution presence.

FlytBase:

Pune and Silicon Valley-based drone startup FlytBase raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from US-based, early-stage venture capitalists and angel investors. The company will be using the seed funds to mature their drone adoption from proof of concepts (PoCs) and pilots to fully autonomous, multi-site drone operations.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Southeast Asian fashion marketplace Zilingo has acquired Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company Ncinga in a $15.5 Mn cash and stock deal. The deal is being dubbed at the third-largest exits in Sri Lanka. “We have partnered with them [Ncinga] for a long time and their work has been crucial to our mission of creating a transparent, sustainable, economically viable and socially responsible apparel supply chain,” Zilingo cofounder and CEO, Ankiti Bose, said.
• US-based coding talent evaluation platform HackerRank has acquired a cloud-based platform for computer science courses, Mimir. According to HackerRank, the acquisition will help student developers to learn, improve and assess their skills to become career-ready.
• Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL) subsidiary Embibe has acquired 90.5% stake in Bengaluru-based edtech startup Funtoot for a cash consideration of INR 71.64 Cr. With this acquisition, Embibe said it wants to optimise its platform to improve the experience for students.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Bengaluru-based home design and decor service provider Livspace is in advanced talks to raise $100 Mn at a valuation of over $500 Mn. With the funds, the home decor company plans to expand its footprint beyond metro cities in India and tap customers in cities such as Chandigarh, Kanpur and Lucknow. Additionally, the company is planning to expand its operations globally with entering the Singapore market.
• Ride-hailing major Uber is planning to invest $100 Mn to $200 Mn in Gurugram-based food tech unicorn Zomato as it looks to offload UberEats’ India business amid losses.
• New Delhi-based online travel startup EaseMyTrip has started the process of being a publicly-listed company as it filed its draft papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The papers filed with SEBI showed that the company is looking to raise INR 510 Cr ($72.13 Mn) through its initial public offering (IPO).
• Bengaluru based Centre for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (CSDE), an impact steam of The/Nudge Foundation, a Bengaluru based non-profit, has received a CSR grant of INR 4.6 Cr ($650 K) from Mphasis, besides a three-year partnership with the IT company. The fund will help CSDE to run a programme to enable learning English language, digital literacy and life skills for women from government and low-income private colleges and helping them prepare for jobs in customer service, retail sales, and BPO.

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