Top 10 Startup Funding Last Week [21-26 August]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Hero FinCorp in Talks to Raise Rs 1,000 Cr at $1B Valuation

Hero FinCorp Ltd, the financial services arm of India’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp Ltd, is looking to raise up to Rs1,000 crore at a valuation of $1 billion at its next funding round, two people familiar with the matter said.

The size of the stake sale has not been finalized and will depend on what the final valuation is in the forthcoming round, they said.

“The company expects to be valued around $1 billion,” said one of the two people cited above. In the last funding round, Hero FinCorp was valued at close to Rs4,000 crore, this person said. “Since then, the book size has grown significantly.”

Ali Cloud Investments Fuels $100M in E-distributor Just Buy Live

Just Buy Live, the World’s first e-distributor from India has raised a Series B round of $100 million from Ali Cloud Investments. The funds raised will largely be used for expansion into international markets that have high SME density and fragmented distribution as well as consolidating and growing the existing Indian operations.

Just Buy Live utilizes a cutting-edge mobile application with intuitive interfaces and user-friendly features to democratize product access for its customer base consisting of retailers and SMEs.

The company’s robust technology platform potentially makes almost every unit of physical stock from all listed brands, available to every shop in every zip code directly in real time.

Cloud Data Management Startup Druva Raises $80M Led by Riverwood Capital

Druva, the global leader in cloud data protection and management, today announced $80 million of growth equity funding, bringing the total raised to approximately $200 million. The latest funding investment was led by Riverwood Capital, with strong participation from Sequoia Capital India, Nexus Venture Partners, Tenaya Capital, and most other existing venture investors. Druva will leverage this late-stage investment to dramatically accelerate research and development, expand go-to-market efforts worldwide, and lead the industry in redefining how enterprises protect, manage, and use their data.

Fintech Startup Capital Float Raises Rs 300 Cr Led by Ribbit Capital

Capital Float, a digital lending startup is reportedly is in advanced talks to raise around Rs 300 crore in a new funding round.

According to the media reports, Ribbit Capital, the US-based finance technology focused venture capital is in talks to lead the fresh round of funding. It is believed that existing investors SAIF Capital and Sequoia Capital will also participate in the latest round so that their stake in the company is maintained. The company plans to utilise the fresh funds for expanding its lending portfolio to consumer financing and for financing kirana stores as well. After this round, the company is expected to be valued at around Rs 1,300 crore.

Retail App Maker Tulip Raises $40M from Kleiner Perkins & Others

Tulip Retail, which makes an app for retailers, has raised $40 million in Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The funding round, which saw participation from existing investors such as Jump Capital, gives Kleiner Perkins' general partner, Mood Rowghani, a seat on the startup's five-member board. The Toronto-based company, which was founded in 2013, helps retailers tailor in-store experiences by giving store employees faster access to realtime inventory and price comparison data among other things.

Payments Firm Ezetap Raises $16M Led by Jonathan Soros Owned JS Capital

Ezetap, the universal mobile payments provider leading the fintech revolution in India, today announced it has secured $16 million in new funding. The largest investors of this round of funding is JS Capital Management, the investment fund of Jonathan Soros. Existing investors Social Capital and Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures not only participated, but increased their stake in the company as part of this round. As part of this round, Salil Seshadri, CIO at JS Capital Management, will join the Board. Ezetap will use the financing to continue innovating and expanding its payments platform – first of its kind that lets any business accept any form of payment – as well as grow its sales and operations across India and abroad.

Tiger Global Plans to Lead $15M Funding in Inshorts

New York-based investment firm Tiger Global Management is in advanced talks to lead a $10-15-million round of funding in its portfolio company, news media startup Inshorts, according to two people familiar with the development.

If the deal goes through, it will be the first new round to be led by one of the most prolific investors in the startup ecosystem after over a 20-month hiatus. The move comes as Tiger Global is expected to get a partial exit from its largest investment, Flipkart.

Bombay Shaving Company Gets $2.3M in Pre-Series A Round Led by Fireside Venture Fund

Bombay Shaving Company, a brand known for its men’s consumer care products, has announced that it has raised $2.3 million in a pre-series A round led by Fireside Venture Fund. The round has seen participation from 9 existing investors including S Ramadorai, former CEO at TCS, Pankaj Gupta, Supply Director at USL Diageo and some senior partners at McKinsey & Co who wished to not be named. The company plans to use the capital to fuel branding efforts, new product development and expansion into offline sales channels like salons and supermarket chains.

Myntra Co-founder’s Health-tech Venture Mfine to Raise $1M

Mfine, a yet-to-be-launched online doctor consultation platform floated by Myntra co-founder Ashutosh Lawania, is set to raise Rs 6.81 crore (around $1 million) in its first round of external funding. Bengaluru-based Mfine, which is operated by Novocura Tech Health Services Pvt. Ltd, will use the funds for product development and to meet working capital requirements.

Software Development Talent Platform Indiez Raises $500K Seed Funding From Haresh Chawla

Software development talent platform Indiez has raised $500K in Seed funding from veteran investor Haresh Chawla. The platform, owned by the Futureofwork Inc., brings together companies looking for software developers and freelancers looking for projects, plans to invest the newly raised funds towards technology and expanding into the US market.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Smart Software Testing Solutions invests in online crowd testing platform, Crowd4Test.com

Milkbasket.com, Indian daily micro-delivery grocery startup has raised pre-series A round from prominent investors Blume Ventures and Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG). EVC Ventures and certain angel investors, who initially invested in Milkbasket, are reported to have exited in this round.

EasyGov, Cloud Services for Government Programmes, has raised Angel round for an undisclosed amount from Tata trust initiative (Lead Investor), Rajan Anandan, Rajeev Ahuja (Navayuga Group), Kshitij Arora and other investors on LetsVenture.

Rootefy International Pvt. Ltd, which runs building material megastore Rootefy.com, has raised seed funding from Abhinav Gupta, director at Gurgaon-based real estate firm BNB Group

Vadodara-based ed-tech stratup Cerebroz EduTree LLP, which manufactures a device with customised educational content, has raised Rs 4.7 crore (about $734,000) in seed funding from Dubai-based high networth individuals.

Uniphore Software Systems Pvt. Ltd, a Chennai-based speech recognition startup, has raised a Series B round to further business expansion.

Mumbai-based instant messaging platform Flochat has raised an undisclosed amount of investment from iSquare Global, the venture capital arm of Apex Advisors

Image Source: ShutterStock

Top 10 Startup Funding Last Week [21-26 August]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Hero FinCorp in Talks to Raise Rs 1,000 Cr at $1B Valuation

Hero FinCorp Ltd, the financial services arm of India’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp Ltd, is looking to raise up to Rs1,000 crore at a valuation of $1 billion at its next funding round, two people familiar with the matter said.

The size of the stake sale has not been finalized and will depend on what the final valuation is in the forthcoming round, they said.

“The company expects to be valued around $1 billion,” said one of the two people cited above. In the last funding round, Hero FinCorp was valued at close to Rs4,000 crore, this person said. “Since then, the book size has grown significantly.”

Ali Cloud Investments Fuels $100M in E-distributor Just Buy Live

Just Buy Live, the World’s first e-distributor from India has raised a Series B round of $100 million from Ali Cloud Investments. The funds raised will largely be used for expansion into international markets that have high SME density and fragmented distribution as well as consolidating and growing the existing Indian operations.

Just Buy Live utilizes a cutting-edge mobile application with intuitive interfaces and user-friendly features to democratize product access for its customer base consisting of retailers and SMEs.

The company’s robust technology platform potentially makes almost every unit of physical stock from all listed brands, available to every shop in every zip code directly in real time.

Cloud Data Management Startup Druva Raises $80M Led by Riverwood Capital

Druva, the global leader in cloud data protection and management, today announced $80 million of growth equity funding, bringing the total raised to approximately $200 million. The latest funding investment was led by Riverwood Capital, with strong participation from Sequoia Capital India, Nexus Venture Partners, Tenaya Capital, and most other existing venture investors. Druva will leverage this late-stage investment to dramatically accelerate research and development, expand go-to-market efforts worldwide, and lead the industry in redefining how enterprises protect, manage, and use their data.

Fintech Startup Capital Float Raises Rs 300 Cr Led by Ribbit Capital

Capital Float, a digital lending startup is reportedly is in advanced talks to raise around Rs 300 crore in a new funding round.

According to the media reports, Ribbit Capital, the US-based finance technology focused venture capital is in talks to lead the fresh round of funding. It is believed that existing investors SAIF Capital and Sequoia Capital will also participate in the latest round so that their stake in the company is maintained. The company plans to utilise the fresh funds for expanding its lending portfolio to consumer financing and for financing kirana stores as well. After this round, the company is expected to be valued at around Rs 1,300 crore.

Retail App Maker Tulip Raises $40M from Kleiner Perkins & Others

Tulip Retail, which makes an app for retailers, has raised $40 million in Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The funding round, which saw participation from existing investors such as Jump Capital, gives Kleiner Perkins' general partner, Mood Rowghani, a seat on the startup's five-member board. The Toronto-based company, which was founded in 2013, helps retailers tailor in-store experiences by giving store employees faster access to realtime inventory and price comparison data among other things.

Payments Firm Ezetap Raises $16M Led by Jonathan Soros Owned JS Capital

Ezetap, the universal mobile payments provider leading the fintech revolution in India, today announced it has secured $16 million in new funding. The largest investors of this round of funding is JS Capital Management, the investment fund of Jonathan Soros. Existing investors Social Capital and Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures not only participated, but increased their stake in the company as part of this round. As part of this round, Salil Seshadri, CIO at JS Capital Management, will join the Board. Ezetap will use the financing to continue innovating and expanding its payments platform – first of its kind that lets any business accept any form of payment – as well as grow its sales and operations across India and abroad.

Tiger Global Plans to Lead $15M Funding in Inshorts

New York-based investment firm Tiger Global Management is in advanced talks to lead a $10-15-million round of funding in its portfolio company, news media startup Inshorts, according to two people familiar with the development.

If the deal goes through, it will be the first new round to be led by one of the most prolific investors in the startup ecosystem after over a 20-month hiatus. The move comes as Tiger Global is expected to get a partial exit from its largest investment, Flipkart.

Bombay Shaving Company Gets $2.3M in Pre-Series A Round Led by Fireside Venture Fund

Bombay Shaving Company, a brand known for its men’s consumer care products, has announced that it has raised $2.3 million in a pre-series A round led by Fireside Venture Fund. The round has seen participation from 9 existing investors including S Ramadorai, former CEO at TCS, Pankaj Gupta, Supply Director at USL Diageo and some senior partners at McKinsey & Co who wished to not be named. The company plans to use the capital to fuel branding efforts, new product development and expansion into offline sales channels like salons and supermarket chains.

Myntra Co-founder’s Health-tech Venture Mfine to Raise $1M

Mfine, a yet-to-be-launched online doctor consultation platform floated by Myntra co-founder Ashutosh Lawania, is set to raise Rs 6.81 crore (around $1 million) in its first round of external funding. Bengaluru-based Mfine, which is operated by Novocura Tech Health Services Pvt. Ltd, will use the funds for product development and to meet working capital requirements.

Software Development Talent Platform Indiez Raises $500K Seed Funding From Haresh Chawla

Software development talent platform Indiez has raised $500K in Seed funding from veteran investor Haresh Chawla. The platform, owned by the Futureofwork Inc., brings together companies looking for software developers and freelancers looking for projects, plans to invest the newly raised funds towards technology and expanding into the US market.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Smart Software Testing Solutions invests in online crowd testing platform, Crowd4Test.com

Milkbasket.com, Indian daily micro-delivery grocery startup has raised pre-series A round from prominent investors Blume Ventures and Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG). EVC Ventures and certain angel investors, who initially invested in Milkbasket, are reported to have exited in this round.

EasyGov, Cloud Services for Government Programmes, has raised Angel round for an undisclosed amount from Tata trust initiative (Lead Investor), Rajan Anandan, Rajeev Ahuja (Navayuga Group), Kshitij Arora and other investors on LetsVenture.

Rootefy International Pvt. Ltd, which runs building material megastore Rootefy.com, has raised seed funding from Abhinav Gupta, director at Gurgaon-based real estate firm BNB Group

Vadodara-based ed-tech stratup Cerebroz EduTree LLP, which manufactures a device with customised educational content, has raised Rs 4.7 crore (about $734,000) in seed funding from Dubai-based high networth individuals.

Uniphore Software Systems Pvt. Ltd, a Chennai-based speech recognition startup, has raised a Series B round to further business expansion.

Mumbai-based instant messaging platform Flochat has raised an undisclosed amount of investment from iSquare Global, the venture capital arm of Apex Advisors

Image Source: ShutterStock

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [10 – 15 July]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

CleanMax Solar Raises $100M from Warburg Pincus

CleanMax Solar, India’s largest rooftop solar developer for the corporate sector, today announced that it has secured equity financing of up to $100 million from an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing. CleanMax Solar enjoys 24% market share in India’s booming rooftop solar market (Source: Bridge to India 2017 report) and has numerous marquee clients including the Tata group, the Mahindra group, the TVS group, Carlsberg India, Konecranes India, Carl Zeiss India, Manipal Education and Medical Group, SKF India Limited, Mindtree Limited and Alkem Laboratories Limited. CleanMax will use the funds to continue its rapid growth in the rooftop and open access solar power markets in India, while pursuing growth in select international markets (Middle East and South-East Asia), and growing the nascent, yet promising energy storage solutions business.

Innoviti Raises $18M in Series B Round to Grow its Payments and Lending Businesses

Leading payments company, Innoviti Payment Solutions today announced financing of Rs 120 Crores (~ USD 18 million) to further its vision of digitally organizing the flow of money for businesses across the retail supply chain. The current round was led by the SBI-FMO Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners and existing investor Catamaran. Masterkey Holdings, Bangalore were the exclusive investment bankers to the deal.

The current round of funding will be used to a) aggressively market the uniPAY Next experience to acquire customers looking for greater speed and reliability in their payment acceptance, b) rapid expansion of smelending.com platform to provide working capital loans to kirana stores and brand franchisees and c) expand the product to address payment and lending issues beyond just retail to more businesses across the supply chain.

Mitsui Invests Rs 20 Cr in Automotive Technology Startup Smart Auto Systems

Mitsui & Co, which is part of Japanese conglomerate Mitsui Group, has invested about Rs 20 crore in Hyderabad-based automotive technology startup Smart Auto Systems in a Series-A round, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (ROC).

Bootstrapped since its inception in 2015, this is the first infusion of external capital in the company, and will be used to further build out its technology platform, and expand its geographical presence.

GlamTech Startup Fabogo Secures $2.25 Mn From Dubai Based Dunamis Ventures

Aggregator of beauty аnd wellness industry, Fabogo has raised $ 2.25 million (Rs 14.5 crores) from Dubai based early-stage investors Dunamis Ventures. Prior to this, company had secured an angel funding of $500,000 in May, 2015 and $1 million in January, 2016 as angel investment from PE Investors in Dubai.

The company plans to utilize 40% of its funding to strengthen technology and another 40% to increase its user base, the remaining amount will be used for geographical expansion.

Bengaluru Based Fintech Startup Open Secures $250k From PayU India CEO and MD

Fintech startup Open has bagged $250k in a seed funding round led by PayU India CEO Amrish Rau and managing director Jitendra Gupta. The firm plans to utilise freshly infused funds for branding and expansion of the 12-member team.

Set to launch in August 2017, Open is co-founded by Anish Achuthan and his wife, Mabel Chacko in May 2017.Open is all set to offer digital banking, bookkeeping, invoicing and other services to micro-entrepreneurs. Earlier in 2015, Achuthan and Chacko had founded Zwitch, a payment startup which was acquired by Citrus Pay.Commenting on the development, Amrish Rau told ET, “Small businesses and entrepreneurs have started moving to app-based banking, and Open offers a whole range of services.

Chris Gayle Invests in Bengaluru-based Gaming Startup IONA Entertainment

Popular West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle has invested an undisclosed amount in IONA Entertainment, a Bangaluru-based gaming startup that brings one-stop entertainment to Indian sports fans, which includes state-of-the-art virtual gaming.

The startup, founded in 2016 by TS Subramanian and Preetha, had earlier raised an initial round of funding from Singapore-based Vestasia, and now West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle has also decided to invest in it.

Speaking to reporters here, Gayle said he is a family man and loved to be associated with IONA, which is a family-oriented firm with potential to grow into a big business.

Sourav Ganguly Invests in Mumbai Based Entertainment Company Flickstree

Indian cricketing legend and former captain Sourav Ganguly has made his very first foray in the startup world by investing in Mumbai based entertainment company, Flickstree.

Flickstree is a tech-entertainment company, started by Saurabh Singh, Rahul Jain and Nagender Sangra in 2014, officially launching their platform in August 2016.

Flickstree is India’s first Personal Video Magazine. It is a curated and personalized Video Platform, for free-to-watch videos. Flickstree compiles these free-to-watch online videos from social networks, media sites, and blogs and then creates a custom user video feed. The AI based on patent pending technology, allows Flickstree to effectively curate and personalize the experience for its users.

Realty Analytics Startup QwikSpec Raises Pre-Series A Funding

Bengaluru-based construction site operations and analytics platform QwikSpec, which is operated by Xlsys Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has raised $540,000 (Rs 3.5 crore) in a pre-Series A round led by Brigade Innovations LLP.

The funding round also saw the participation of marquee investors such as former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai, Asset Builders director Suhail Rahman, Bobby Reddy of Indus Group, and UAE based private investor M George Oommen.

The company will use the capital to ramp up its technology infrastructure, besides significantly adding to its business development and customer acquisition initiatives.

Delivery Services Expert, VDeliver Raises Pre Series A Funding Led by Corvus Ventures

VDeliver, the fast-growing intra-city logistics company, has raised an undisclosed Pre Series A investment from Hyderabad-based Corvus Ventures led by Mr. Mahesh Reddy and joined by Mumbai-based MAPE Advisory Group, Mr. R Ramaraj, co-founder—Sify, and Mr. Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft

Among the country’s early startups in the technology-driven logistics space, VDeliver currently fulfilsintra-city deliveries across segmentsincluding medicines, surgical items, gifting, packaged foods, detox juices, gifts,business documents, and last-mile logistics with a focus on speed and efficiency.

Lead investor, Mahesh Reddy of Corvus Ventures said that “for several businesses, getting deliveriesright is essential.We believe the strong understanding of business operations and technology that VDeliver brings will help it become an indispensable partner to companies looking to optimise their delivery function”.

Assisted Living Technology Startup Arcatron Bags Seed Funding From IAN

Arcatron Mobility, which manufactures next generation devices to make assisted living more dignified and safe, has raised an undisclosed funding led by Sudhir Mehta, Harish Mehta and Ketan Dalal from the Indian Angel Network.

Startup will use freshly infused funds for the production launch of Frido, a self driven shower and commode wheelchair which fits in a suitcase. In addition, funds will also be utilized to set up online and offline sales channels across major cities in India and filing of IP for future products like the Frido Lite.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Online interior design company, Design Cafe has raised a multi-million-dollar round of funding led by Fireside Ventures founded by Kanwaljit Singh, former managing director of Helion ventures.

Online fashion store Pernia's Pop-Up Shop is in advanced talks to raise $1-1.5 million in its first round of funding.

California-headquartered chatbot creation tool, Bottr has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from 500 Startups; Purvi Capital; Rajan Anandan, vice-president, Southeast Asia and India, Google; and Abhishek Gupta from TLabs.

Bangalore-based startup for drinks Foom has raised Rs 30 lakh (around $46,000) in seed funding from a Delhi-based investor, a company statement said.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [10 – 15 July]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

CleanMax Solar Raises $100M from Warburg Pincus

CleanMax Solar, India’s largest rooftop solar developer for the corporate sector, today announced that it has secured equity financing of up to $100 million from an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing. CleanMax Solar enjoys 24% market share in India’s booming rooftop solar market (Source: Bridge to India 2017 report) and has numerous marquee clients including the Tata group, the Mahindra group, the TVS group, Carlsberg India, Konecranes India, Carl Zeiss India, Manipal Education and Medical Group, SKF India Limited, Mindtree Limited and Alkem Laboratories Limited. CleanMax will use the funds to continue its rapid growth in the rooftop and open access solar power markets in India, while pursuing growth in select international markets (Middle East and South-East Asia), and growing the nascent, yet promising energy storage solutions business.

Innoviti Raises $18M in Series B Round to Grow its Payments and Lending Businesses

Leading payments company, Innoviti Payment Solutions today announced financing of Rs 120 Crores (~ USD 18 million) to further its vision of digitally organizing the flow of money for businesses across the retail supply chain. The current round was led by the SBI-FMO Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners and existing investor Catamaran. Masterkey Holdings, Bangalore were the exclusive investment bankers to the deal.

The current round of funding will be used to a) aggressively market the uniPAY Next experience to acquire customers looking for greater speed and reliability in their payment acceptance, b) rapid expansion of smelending.com platform to provide working capital loans to kirana stores and brand franchisees and c) expand the product to address payment and lending issues beyond just retail to more businesses across the supply chain.

Mitsui Invests Rs 20 Cr in Automotive Technology Startup Smart Auto Systems

Mitsui & Co, which is part of Japanese conglomerate Mitsui Group, has invested about Rs 20 crore in Hyderabad-based automotive technology startup Smart Auto Systems in a Series-A round, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (ROC).

Bootstrapped since its inception in 2015, this is the first infusion of external capital in the company, and will be used to further build out its technology platform, and expand its geographical presence.

GlamTech Startup Fabogo Secures $2.25 Mn From Dubai Based Dunamis Ventures

Aggregator of beauty аnd wellness industry, Fabogo has raised $ 2.25 million (Rs 14.5 crores) from Dubai based early-stage investors Dunamis Ventures. Prior to this, company had secured an angel funding of $500,000 in May, 2015 and $1 million in January, 2016 as angel investment from PE Investors in Dubai.

The company plans to utilize 40% of its funding to strengthen technology and another 40% to increase its user base, the remaining amount will be used for geographical expansion.

Bengaluru Based Fintech Startup Open Secures $250k From PayU India CEO and MD

Fintech startup Open has bagged $250k in a seed funding round led by PayU India CEO Amrish Rau and managing director Jitendra Gupta. The firm plans to utilise freshly infused funds for branding and expansion of the 12-member team.

Set to launch in August 2017, Open is co-founded by Anish Achuthan and his wife, Mabel Chacko in May 2017.Open is all set to offer digital banking, bookkeeping, invoicing and other services to micro-entrepreneurs. Earlier in 2015, Achuthan and Chacko had founded Zwitch, a payment startup which was acquired by Citrus Pay.Commenting on the development, Amrish Rau told ET, “Small businesses and entrepreneurs have started moving to app-based banking, and Open offers a whole range of services.

Chris Gayle Invests in Bengaluru-based Gaming Startup IONA Entertainment

Popular West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle has invested an undisclosed amount in IONA Entertainment, a Bangaluru-based gaming startup that brings one-stop entertainment to Indian sports fans, which includes state-of-the-art virtual gaming.

The startup, founded in 2016 by TS Subramanian and Preetha, had earlier raised an initial round of funding from Singapore-based Vestasia, and now West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle has also decided to invest in it.

Speaking to reporters here, Gayle said he is a family man and loved to be associated with IONA, which is a family-oriented firm with potential to grow into a big business.

Sourav Ganguly Invests in Mumbai Based Entertainment Company Flickstree

Indian cricketing legend and former captain Sourav Ganguly has made his very first foray in the startup world by investing in Mumbai based entertainment company, Flickstree.

Flickstree is a tech-entertainment company, started by Saurabh Singh, Rahul Jain and Nagender Sangra in 2014, officially launching their platform in August 2016.

Flickstree is India’s first Personal Video Magazine. It is a curated and personalized Video Platform, for free-to-watch videos. Flickstree compiles these free-to-watch online videos from social networks, media sites, and blogs and then creates a custom user video feed. The AI based on patent pending technology, allows Flickstree to effectively curate and personalize the experience for its users.

Realty Analytics Startup QwikSpec Raises Pre-Series A Funding

Bengaluru-based construction site operations and analytics platform QwikSpec, which is operated by Xlsys Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has raised $540,000 (Rs 3.5 crore) in a pre-Series A round led by Brigade Innovations LLP.

The funding round also saw the participation of marquee investors such as former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai, Asset Builders director Suhail Rahman, Bobby Reddy of Indus Group, and UAE based private investor M George Oommen.

The company will use the capital to ramp up its technology infrastructure, besides significantly adding to its business development and customer acquisition initiatives.

Delivery Services Expert, VDeliver Raises Pre Series A Funding Led by Corvus Ventures

VDeliver, the fast-growing intra-city logistics company, has raised an undisclosed Pre Series A investment from Hyderabad-based Corvus Ventures led by Mr. Mahesh Reddy and joined by Mumbai-based MAPE Advisory Group, Mr. R Ramaraj, co-founder—Sify, and Mr. Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft

Among the country’s early startups in the technology-driven logistics space, VDeliver currently fulfilsintra-city deliveries across segmentsincluding medicines, surgical items, gifting, packaged foods, detox juices, gifts,business documents, and last-mile logistics with a focus on speed and efficiency.

Lead investor, Mahesh Reddy of Corvus Ventures said that “for several businesses, getting deliveriesright is essential.We believe the strong understanding of business operations and technology that VDeliver brings will help it become an indispensable partner to companies looking to optimise their delivery function”.

Assisted Living Technology Startup Arcatron Bags Seed Funding From IAN

Arcatron Mobility, which manufactures next generation devices to make assisted living more dignified and safe, has raised an undisclosed funding led by Sudhir Mehta, Harish Mehta and Ketan Dalal from the Indian Angel Network.

Startup will use freshly infused funds for the production launch of Frido, a self driven shower and commode wheelchair which fits in a suitcase. In addition, funds will also be utilized to set up online and offline sales channels across major cities in India and filing of IP for future products like the Frido Lite.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Online interior design company, Design Cafe has raised a multi-million-dollar round of funding led by Fireside Ventures founded by Kanwaljit Singh, former managing director of Helion ventures.

Online fashion store Pernia's Pop-Up Shop is in advanced talks to raise $1-1.5 million in its first round of funding.

California-headquartered chatbot creation tool, Bottr has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from 500 Startups; Purvi Capital; Rajan Anandan, vice-president, Southeast Asia and India, Google; and Abhishek Gupta from TLabs.

Bangalore-based startup for drinks Foom has raised Rs 30 lakh (around $46,000) in seed funding from a Delhi-based investor, a company statement said.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [26 June – 01 July]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Flipkart Raises $71 Mn from Naspers for 16.5% Stake

Indian homegrown ecommerce giant Flipkart, which is currently facing a fierce battle from US-based ecommerce biggie Amazon has raised a whopping $71 million from South African technology investor Naspers. The investment takes Naspers stake in the company to 16.5 per cent.

The South African tech investor first invested its money in Flipkart five years ago in 2012 when the latter was raising its series D funding. At that time, Naspers emerged as the lead investor for the round. The company once again pumped in money in the company in 2014 when it teamed up with Tiger Global and led a $1 billion investment into the ecommerce company during the series G round.

Drive.ai Raises $50M in Series B Round to Accelerate the Self-Driving Reality

Drive.ai has announced a $50 million series B funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) with participation from GGV Capital and existing investors, including Northern Light Venture Capital, who led Drive.ai’s series A. This funding will bolster the company’s technology development, global reach, and scalability.

Drive.ai is advancing the self-driving reality through technology and advocacy. Drive.ai’s technology is grounded in deep learning, powering its self-driving system to learn driving routes and scenarios with unrivaled pace, scalability, efficiency and cost. Drive.ai’s business strategy is aimed at powering fleets of vehicles with retrofit kits, transforming traditional vehicles into self-driving models. The kits will soon be deployed on existing business fleets, with pilots starting later this year.

In-Video Discovery Platform Tagos Design Raises $5M in Series A Funding

Tagos Design Innovations Pvt. Ltd, an in-video discovery platform, has raised $5 million in a Series-A funding round from a venture capital firm and two global corporations. The company did not disclose the names of the investors.

Founded in 2014 by GBS Bindra, Sushant Panda, and Tripat Preet Singh, Tagos operates an in-video platform called Charmboard that makes videos interactive. For instance, a user can touch any object on a streaming video, be it a person, dress, a piece of furniture or an accessory, without interrupting the visual. That particular object is bookmarked and saved automatically and can be accessed by the consumer after watching the video to cull out more details about the object.

Online Lending Platform Stashfin Raises $5M in Pre-Series A Round

Digital lending platform Stashfin, operated by Delhi-based EQX Internet Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd, said on Tuesday it has raised $5 million (Rs 32.2 crore) in a pre-Series A round of funding.

The investors included Kirloskar Group’s venture capital arm, Snow Leopard Ventures, as well as Singapore-based Alto Partners and GrowX Ventures, the startup said in a statement.

Several individual investors such as Vibhav Dhawan and Praveen Malhotra, managing partners at executive search firm Positive Moves; Ranu Vohra, founder and managing director of financial services firm Avendus Capital; Raoul Bajaj, chief executive of commodities trading firm Trafigura; Pramod Kabra, partner at investment firm True North; and senior executives from KKR also participated in the round.

V Resorts Raises $4M in Its Third Round of Funding from Seedfund and RB International

V Resorts, an asset-light resort management company, recently raised $4 million in its third round of funding, with Seedfund and RB International. V Resorts currently manages over 70 resorts across 15 states in the country. The company operates on a business model of aggregating existing properties and managing the operations of those properties on a revenue share basis.

With this infusion of funds, V Resorts is all set to make a paradigm shift in the landscape of the leisure travel sector in India.

Fintech Startup Rubique Secures $3 Mn In A Bridge Round Of Funding

In yet another game-changing round of finance, Rubique, the fintech company empowering individuals and SMEs by providing easy and smooth access to finance and financial products has raised a bridge round of funding of $3 million. The money has been invested by existing investor Kalaari Capital and Udayan Goyal, managing partner at Apis Partners, a financial services-oriented private equity firm focused on Africa and South Asia.

The recent bridge round of funding came after the company’s announcement mid last year that it intends to raise $10-15 million in a Series-B round. The company had raised $3 million in Series A from Kalaari Capital, YourNest Angel Fund, Globevestor and Dexter Angel Circle in April last year.

Hyderabad Angels, Others Back Data Analytics Startup ZineOne

ZineOne Inc, an event-driven interactions platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI), has raised $2.5 million (around Rs 16 crore) led by New York-based Golden Seeds Angels and Hyderabad Angels with participation from a bunch of angel investors.

The company is looking to use the funds to enhance its offerings in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence for customer interactions across digital channels and devices, ZineOne said in a statement.

AI Startup Niki.ai Raises $2 Mn In Series A Funding From SAP.iO, Unilazer Ventures, Others

AI startup, Niki.ai has secured $2 million in Series A round of funding from San Francisco based fund SAP.iO and existing investor Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures. The funding also saw participation from other Indian investors including Haresh Chawla (Partner at True North) and Arihant Patni, along with some US and German investors.

The company plans to use freshly infused funds to strengthen their machine learning capabilities, building voice and multilingual functionalities and expanding their distribution network.

Abhinav Bindra’s Shooting Star Pumps In $1 Mn In FITPASS

The all-access pass to gyms and fitness studios, FITPASS has raised $1 million led by professional shooter, Abhinav Bindra and his business partner, Gaurav Marya, Chairman, Franchise India. The fresh funds invested through Bindra’s venture fund – Shooting Star and Franchise India Brands Ltd. will be used to expand the full-suite of FITPASS’ service offerings across 10 cities in the next 6 months.

Abhinav Bindra, is a fitness conscious athlete who is committed to making India fitter. To him fitness has a more holistic meaning and that’s what he says attracted him to FITPASS.

The Chennai Angels Invests in Automobiles Parts Marketplace SparesHub.com

The Chennai Angels (TCA) has announced an investment of Rs. 40 lakhs in Iradium Automobiles Private Limited. The investment was as part of the total investment round of Rs. 2 crores which also saw participation from Anthill Scale Ventures (Singapore), Esvee Technologies Inc. (USA), Inc95 Consulting and other HNIs. Iradium Automobiles Private Limited owns and manages SparesHub.com, an automobiles parts marketplace catering to the requirements of car parts of independent multi-brand workshops and car owners across India. The startup is based in Pune and has a total team size of 27 employees.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Mumbai-based food startup Authenticook has said that it got a grant of Rs 1.45 crore (200,000 euros) as a winning prize of a contest run by the world’s largest hotel aggregator Booking.com.

Time Of Sports, A Leading Sports Consultancy Startup, Raises Angel Round

Carbon Masters, a Bangalore based energy startup has raised an undisclosed amount from India’s first and World’s largest angel investor network; Indian Angel Network and Sangam Ventures a pure play clean tech venture fund.

Zeta, a fintech pioneer in digitised employee benefits solutions, has made a equity investment in Zinghr, a cloud services provider, for an undisclosed amount.

Goa-based Casino Pride Group has bought a 30% stake in OceanKing Software Solutions LLP, the Mumbai-based company that owns and operates online gaming startup Baadshah Gaming, for an undisclosed amount.

Data analytics startup, FORMCEPT Technologies and Solutions Pvt. Ltd has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from VC fund GVFL(Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd).

Data analytics startup Quantta Analytics has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its Pre-Series A round.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [26 June – 01 July]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Flipkart Raises $71 Mn from Naspers for 16.5% Stake

Indian homegrown ecommerce giant Flipkart, which is currently facing a fierce battle from US-based ecommerce biggie Amazon has raised a whopping $71 million from South African technology investor Naspers. The investment takes Naspers stake in the company to 16.5 per cent.

The South African tech investor first invested its money in Flipkart five years ago in 2012 when the latter was raising its series D funding. At that time, Naspers emerged as the lead investor for the round. The company once again pumped in money in the company in 2014 when it teamed up with Tiger Global and led a $1 billion investment into the ecommerce company during the series G round.

Drive.ai Raises $50M in Series B Round to Accelerate the Self-Driving Reality

Drive.ai has announced a $50 million series B funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) with participation from GGV Capital and existing investors, including Northern Light Venture Capital, who led Drive.ai’s series A. This funding will bolster the company’s technology development, global reach, and scalability.

Drive.ai is advancing the self-driving reality through technology and advocacy. Drive.ai’s technology is grounded in deep learning, powering its self-driving system to learn driving routes and scenarios with unrivaled pace, scalability, efficiency and cost. Drive.ai’s business strategy is aimed at powering fleets of vehicles with retrofit kits, transforming traditional vehicles into self-driving models. The kits will soon be deployed on existing business fleets, with pilots starting later this year.

In-Video Discovery Platform Tagos Design Raises $5M in Series A Funding

Tagos Design Innovations Pvt. Ltd, an in-video discovery platform, has raised $5 million in a Series-A funding round from a venture capital firm and two global corporations. The company did not disclose the names of the investors.

Founded in 2014 by GBS Bindra, Sushant Panda, and Tripat Preet Singh, Tagos operates an in-video platform called Charmboard that makes videos interactive. For instance, a user can touch any object on a streaming video, be it a person, dress, a piece of furniture or an accessory, without interrupting the visual. That particular object is bookmarked and saved automatically and can be accessed by the consumer after watching the video to cull out more details about the object.

Online Lending Platform Stashfin Raises $5M in Pre-Series A Round

Digital lending platform Stashfin, operated by Delhi-based EQX Internet Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd, said on Tuesday it has raised $5 million (Rs 32.2 crore) in a pre-Series A round of funding.

The investors included Kirloskar Group’s venture capital arm, Snow Leopard Ventures, as well as Singapore-based Alto Partners and GrowX Ventures, the startup said in a statement.

Several individual investors such as Vibhav Dhawan and Praveen Malhotra, managing partners at executive search firm Positive Moves; Ranu Vohra, founder and managing director of financial services firm Avendus Capital; Raoul Bajaj, chief executive of commodities trading firm Trafigura; Pramod Kabra, partner at investment firm True North; and senior executives from KKR also participated in the round.

V Resorts Raises $4M in Its Third Round of Funding from Seedfund and RB International

V Resorts, an asset-light resort management company, recently raised $4 million in its third round of funding, with Seedfund and RB International. V Resorts currently manages over 70 resorts across 15 states in the country. The company operates on a business model of aggregating existing properties and managing the operations of those properties on a revenue share basis.

With this infusion of funds, V Resorts is all set to make a paradigm shift in the landscape of the leisure travel sector in India.

Fintech Startup Rubique Secures $3 Mn In A Bridge Round Of Funding

In yet another game-changing round of finance, Rubique, the fintech company empowering individuals and SMEs by providing easy and smooth access to finance and financial products has raised a bridge round of funding of $3 million. The money has been invested by existing investor Kalaari Capital and Udayan Goyal, managing partner at Apis Partners, a financial services-oriented private equity firm focused on Africa and South Asia.

The recent bridge round of funding came after the company’s announcement mid last year that it intends to raise $10-15 million in a Series-B round. The company had raised $3 million in Series A from Kalaari Capital, YourNest Angel Fund, Globevestor and Dexter Angel Circle in April last year.

Hyderabad Angels, Others Back Data Analytics Startup ZineOne

ZineOne Inc, an event-driven interactions platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI), has raised $2.5 million (around Rs 16 crore) led by New York-based Golden Seeds Angels and Hyderabad Angels with participation from a bunch of angel investors.

The company is looking to use the funds to enhance its offerings in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence for customer interactions across digital channels and devices, ZineOne said in a statement.

AI Startup Niki.ai Raises $2 Mn In Series A Funding From SAP.iO, Unilazer Ventures, Others

AI startup, Niki.ai has secured $2 million in Series A round of funding from San Francisco based fund SAP.iO and existing investor Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures. The funding also saw participation from other Indian investors including Haresh Chawla (Partner at True North) and Arihant Patni, along with some US and German investors.

The company plans to use freshly infused funds to strengthen their machine learning capabilities, building voice and multilingual functionalities and expanding their distribution network.

Abhinav Bindra’s Shooting Star Pumps In $1 Mn In FITPASS

The all-access pass to gyms and fitness studios, FITPASS has raised $1 million led by professional shooter, Abhinav Bindra and his business partner, Gaurav Marya, Chairman, Franchise India. The fresh funds invested through Bindra’s venture fund – Shooting Star and Franchise India Brands Ltd. will be used to expand the full-suite of FITPASS’ service offerings across 10 cities in the next 6 months.

Abhinav Bindra, is a fitness conscious athlete who is committed to making India fitter. To him fitness has a more holistic meaning and that’s what he says attracted him to FITPASS.

The Chennai Angels Invests in Automobiles Parts Marketplace SparesHub.com

The Chennai Angels (TCA) has announced an investment of Rs. 40 lakhs in Iradium Automobiles Private Limited. The investment was as part of the total investment round of Rs. 2 crores which also saw participation from Anthill Scale Ventures (Singapore), Esvee Technologies Inc. (USA), Inc95 Consulting and other HNIs. Iradium Automobiles Private Limited owns and manages SparesHub.com, an automobiles parts marketplace catering to the requirements of car parts of independent multi-brand workshops and car owners across India. The startup is based in Pune and has a total team size of 27 employees.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Mumbai-based food startup Authenticook has said that it got a grant of Rs 1.45 crore (200,000 euros) as a winning prize of a contest run by the world’s largest hotel aggregator Booking.com.

Time Of Sports, A Leading Sports Consultancy Startup, Raises Angel Round

Carbon Masters, a Bangalore based energy startup has raised an undisclosed amount from India’s first and World’s largest angel investor network; Indian Angel Network and Sangam Ventures a pure play clean tech venture fund.

Zeta, a fintech pioneer in digitised employee benefits solutions, has made a equity investment in Zinghr, a cloud services provider, for an undisclosed amount.

Goa-based Casino Pride Group has bought a 30% stake in OceanKing Software Solutions LLP, the Mumbai-based company that owns and operates online gaming startup Baadshah Gaming, for an undisclosed amount.

Data analytics startup, FORMCEPT Technologies and Solutions Pvt. Ltd has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from VC fund GVFL(Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd).

Data analytics startup Quantta Analytics has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its Pre-Series A round.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [05 – 10 June]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Pinterest Raises $150M at $12.3B Valuation

Pinterest, which develops visual search technology and allows users to save images on its website, has raised $150 million from existing investors in its latest round of funding at a valuation of $12.3 billion. Pinterest, which was founded in 2010, introduced a new search tool in early February called Lens to boost its advertising revenue. The additional capital will be used for further investments in visual technology and global expansion.

Online Learning Startup Coursera Raises $64M in Series D Round at $800M Valuation

Online learning startup Coursera announced that it has closed $64 million in a Series D funding round, taking the company’s total capital raised to date to $210.3 million. Coursera will use the latest round to fund efforts in its fast-growing enterprise business (Coursera for Business), to expand its master’s degree portfolio, and to accelerate product innovations that take advantage of the platform’s unmatched scale with over 26 million registered learners globally.

In strong support for the company’s direction, the majority of the funding for this round came from existing investors—GSV Asset Management, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB) and Learn Capital. The Lampert Foundation also participated as a new investor.

PE Firm Emerging India Invests $50 Mn In Travel Startup Goomo

Mumbai-based omnichannel travel tech startup, Goomo has secured $50 million to enter the OTA market in India. The investment comes from Emerging India, a Mauritius-based fund manager with over $1.5 billion under management.
The company plans to utilise freshly infuse funds to build an online platform, products, marketing and establishing its off-line partner network.

Chinese Electronics Major iVOOMi Plans to Invest 250 Cr in India for R&D Centre and Product Development

After launching its first series of Smartphones, a Chinese electronics OEM / ODM major, iVOOMi announces its investment of Rs. 250 crore in order to further strengthen its niche in the Entry level Smartphones segment in the Indian market. The company focuses on strengthening its foothold in the market through strategic alliances with technology and retail giants.

The investment will be planned in two phases. In its foremost phase, the company will be investing in futuristic technologies to bring advanced products at an affordable price & will also focus on setting up its manufacturing capacity in India. The company also plans to invest in order to propel its online retail penetration across Tier – 2, 3, 4 towns in India through a series of strategic association with retail partners.

Amazon India Invests $32M in Its Logistics Arm

Amazon has further invested $32 million (Rs 207 Cr) in Amazon Transportation Services, the logistics arm of Amazon India. The company had earlier infused $10 million (Rs 67 Cr) in the logistics platform, in September 2016.
The logistics vertical has received the funding from Amazon Corporate Holdings Singapore and Amazon Malaysia, as per documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Kleiner Perkins Invests $30M in Online Retailer UNTUCKit

UNTUCKit, a retailer focused on men's casual shirts that are designed to be worn untucked, said on Sunday that venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers had invested $30 million in the company's first major round of fundraising. The funding will help UNTUCKit open 15 new U.S. stores and expand into women's and children's apparel. Founded in New York in 2011 as an internet retailer, it started opening physical stores in 2015 as part of a "clicks-to-bricks" strategy.

TheBagTalk Raises Funding from Chinese Investors

Online marketplace for bags, TheBagTalk has raised Rs 50 lakhs from an unnamed Chinese high networth individual investor in its first round of institutional funding. Through this capital raise, the company will be setting up operations in China with offices in Guangzhou and Yiwu. The fund raise is a strategic exercise with the move opening up the Chinese as well as European markets for the company through an export channel via the investors.

Multi Stage Investment Firm Norwest Invest In Two Health Startups

A global, multi-stage investment firm, Norwest Venture Partners has invested $1.5 million each in two early-stage healthcare-focused startups, Multiplier Solutions, and ABI Health. This is the first institutional round of funding raised by both the companies.

According to a media report, Norwest has initiated this investment with the intent of merging both B2B Ventures which is expected to take place over the next 12-18 months. The report further adds, Norwest, who has not yet announced the investment had closed this round in the second quarter of the last fiscal.

BHIVE Workspace Raises $1.2M from Blume Ventures and Others

Leading co-working and shared office space provider BHIVE Workspace has raised $1.2 million in a fresh round of funding, to fuel its pan-India and international expansion of premium co-working spaces. The latest round is led by Blume Ventures, along with marquee investors like Actor-Director Ramesh Aravind, Mr. Meera Reddy, MD of SKCL and other high net-worth individuals.

In an earlier funding round in 2015, BHIVE raised around $1 million from Blume Ventures and high profile investors like Raghunandan G, Founder, TaxiForSure; Rajesh Rai, Venture Capitalist; Arihant Patni, Managing Director, Hive Technologies; Sanjay Mirchandani, Owner, Mirchandani Group; Arun Narayan, Director, UK India Business Council; among others.

Spinny Secures Seed Funding From Blume Ventures, Indian Angel Network And Others

Gurgaon-based online retailer, Spinny has secured $1 million in seed funding from Blume Ventures and Indian Angel Network. FreeCharge co-founder’s Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon also participated in this round. The startup plans to utilise freshly infused funds primarily for strengthening their technology and expansion of hubs.
Commenting on the investment, Arpit Agarwal, Principal, Blume Ventures said “We did extensive research into the pains consumer go through the buying and selling of used cars in India. Despite the presence of vertical-focused classifieds, the needs of the market are largely unfulfilled as the issue of trust still remains. We found Spinny to be the only company willing to get their hands dirty in solving the problem from the ground up. On top of it, the credentials of founders make them easily the best early-stage team playing in this market.”

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

WayForward Health Pvt. Ltd, which offers mental healthcare solutions through its mobile platform wayForward, has raised close to $1 million in angel funding from three individual investors.

Hyderabad-based ambulance aggregator and medical taxi provider ESahai.in, operated by MyInd Medtech Innovations Pvt. Ltd, has added $250,000 (Rs 1.6 crore) to its seed funding round, taking the total to $500,000.

Bengaluru-based Stockal Software Pvt. Ltd, which runs an app-based investment advisory service, has raised $350K in its second round of angel funding from a clutch of investors.

Guiddoo, India’s Growing In-Destination App, Raises $300K in Pre-Series A Funding

Biotech Startup CleanLife Raises undisclosed Amount of Funding in Pre-Series A Round at ₹200M Valuation

Online lending platform ZipLoan, which is operated by Delhi-based Blue Jay Finlease Ltd, has raised $650,000 (around Rs 4.2 crore) in its pre-Series A funding round led by Waterbridge Ventures.

Mumbai-based health and fitness discovery platform Growfitter has raised $600K in a Pre-Series A round of funding from San Francisco-based VC SQue Capital.

Mumbai-based mobile payments platform for micro merchants, ftcash, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its Pre-Series A round, from 500 Startups. Existing investors IvyCap Ventures also participated in the round.

Gurugram-based Hungry Foal, a for-profit social venture has raised an undisclosed amount of debt from SBI under the StandUp India Scheme.

Mumbai based fintech startup, Market Pulse Technologies has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Lead Angels Network and Chatur Ideas platform.

London- and India-based Heathwalk Advisors Pvt. Ltd, which runs financial technology platform Maxmywealth, has raised an undisclosed amount from two UK-based firms, it said in a statement.

GyanDhan, an online marketplace for education loans operated by Delhi-based Senbonzakura Consultancy Pvt. Ltd, has secured an undisclosed amount from Sundaram Finance Holdings, a subsidiary of Chennai-based Sundaram Finance Ltd, it said in a statement.

Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd, the entertainment arm of Alibaba Group, has picked up a majority stake in online ticketing platform Ticket New, a press statement said.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [05 – 10 June]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Pinterest Raises $150M at $12.3B Valuation

Pinterest, which develops visual search technology and allows users to save images on its website, has raised $150 million from existing investors in its latest round of funding at a valuation of $12.3 billion. Pinterest, which was founded in 2010, introduced a new search tool in early February called Lens to boost its advertising revenue. The additional capital will be used for further investments in visual technology and global expansion.

Online Learning Startup Coursera Raises $64M in Series D Round at $800M Valuation

Online learning startup Coursera announced that it has closed $64 million in a Series D funding round, taking the company’s total capital raised to date to $210.3 million. Coursera will use the latest round to fund efforts in its fast-growing enterprise business (Coursera for Business), to expand its master’s degree portfolio, and to accelerate product innovations that take advantage of the platform’s unmatched scale with over 26 million registered learners globally.

In strong support for the company’s direction, the majority of the funding for this round came from existing investors—GSV Asset Management, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB) and Learn Capital. The Lampert Foundation also participated as a new investor.

PE Firm Emerging India Invests $50 Mn In Travel Startup Goomo

Mumbai-based omnichannel travel tech startup, Goomo has secured $50 million to enter the OTA market in India. The investment comes from Emerging India, a Mauritius-based fund manager with over $1.5 billion under management.
The company plans to utilise freshly infuse funds to build an online platform, products, marketing and establishing its off-line partner network.

Chinese Electronics Major iVOOMi Plans to Invest 250 Cr in India for R&D Centre and Product Development

After launching its first series of Smartphones, a Chinese electronics OEM / ODM major, iVOOMi announces its investment of Rs. 250 crore in order to further strengthen its niche in the Entry level Smartphones segment in the Indian market. The company focuses on strengthening its foothold in the market through strategic alliances with technology and retail giants.

The investment will be planned in two phases. In its foremost phase, the company will be investing in futuristic technologies to bring advanced products at an affordable price & will also focus on setting up its manufacturing capacity in India. The company also plans to invest in order to propel its online retail penetration across Tier – 2, 3, 4 towns in India through a series of strategic association with retail partners.

Amazon India Invests $32M in Its Logistics Arm

Amazon has further invested $32 million (Rs 207 Cr) in Amazon Transportation Services, the logistics arm of Amazon India. The company had earlier infused $10 million (Rs 67 Cr) in the logistics platform, in September 2016.
The logistics vertical has received the funding from Amazon Corporate Holdings Singapore and Amazon Malaysia, as per documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Kleiner Perkins Invests $30M in Online Retailer UNTUCKit

UNTUCKit, a retailer focused on men's casual shirts that are designed to be worn untucked, said on Sunday that venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers had invested $30 million in the company's first major round of fundraising. The funding will help UNTUCKit open 15 new U.S. stores and expand into women's and children's apparel. Founded in New York in 2011 as an internet retailer, it started opening physical stores in 2015 as part of a "clicks-to-bricks" strategy.

TheBagTalk Raises Funding from Chinese Investors

Online marketplace for bags, TheBagTalk has raised Rs 50 lakhs from an unnamed Chinese high networth individual investor in its first round of institutional funding. Through this capital raise, the company will be setting up operations in China with offices in Guangzhou and Yiwu. The fund raise is a strategic exercise with the move opening up the Chinese as well as European markets for the company through an export channel via the investors.

Multi Stage Investment Firm Norwest Invest In Two Health Startups

A global, multi-stage investment firm, Norwest Venture Partners has invested $1.5 million each in two early-stage healthcare-focused startups, Multiplier Solutions, and ABI Health. This is the first institutional round of funding raised by both the companies.

According to a media report, Norwest has initiated this investment with the intent of merging both B2B Ventures which is expected to take place over the next 12-18 months. The report further adds, Norwest, who has not yet announced the investment had closed this round in the second quarter of the last fiscal.

BHIVE Workspace Raises $1.2M from Blume Ventures and Others

Leading co-working and shared office space provider BHIVE Workspace has raised $1.2 million in a fresh round of funding, to fuel its pan-India and international expansion of premium co-working spaces. The latest round is led by Blume Ventures, along with marquee investors like Actor-Director Ramesh Aravind, Mr. Meera Reddy, MD of SKCL and other high net-worth individuals.

In an earlier funding round in 2015, BHIVE raised around $1 million from Blume Ventures and high profile investors like Raghunandan G, Founder, TaxiForSure; Rajesh Rai, Venture Capitalist; Arihant Patni, Managing Director, Hive Technologies; Sanjay Mirchandani, Owner, Mirchandani Group; Arun Narayan, Director, UK India Business Council; among others.

Spinny Secures Seed Funding From Blume Ventures, Indian Angel Network And Others

Gurgaon-based online retailer, Spinny has secured $1 million in seed funding from Blume Ventures and Indian Angel Network. FreeCharge co-founder’s Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon also participated in this round. The startup plans to utilise freshly infused funds primarily for strengthening their technology and expansion of hubs.
Commenting on the investment, Arpit Agarwal, Principal, Blume Ventures said “We did extensive research into the pains consumer go through the buying and selling of used cars in India. Despite the presence of vertical-focused classifieds, the needs of the market are largely unfulfilled as the issue of trust still remains. We found Spinny to be the only company willing to get their hands dirty in solving the problem from the ground up. On top of it, the credentials of founders make them easily the best early-stage team playing in this market.”

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

WayForward Health Pvt. Ltd, which offers mental healthcare solutions through its mobile platform wayForward, has raised close to $1 million in angel funding from three individual investors.

Hyderabad-based ambulance aggregator and medical taxi provider ESahai.in, operated by MyInd Medtech Innovations Pvt. Ltd, has added $250,000 (Rs 1.6 crore) to its seed funding round, taking the total to $500,000.

Bengaluru-based Stockal Software Pvt. Ltd, which runs an app-based investment advisory service, has raised $350K in its second round of angel funding from a clutch of investors.

Guiddoo, India’s Growing In-Destination App, Raises $300K in Pre-Series A Funding

Biotech Startup CleanLife Raises undisclosed Amount of Funding in Pre-Series A Round at ₹200M Valuation

Online lending platform ZipLoan, which is operated by Delhi-based Blue Jay Finlease Ltd, has raised $650,000 (around Rs 4.2 crore) in its pre-Series A funding round led by Waterbridge Ventures.

Mumbai-based health and fitness discovery platform Growfitter has raised $600K in a Pre-Series A round of funding from San Francisco-based VC SQue Capital.

Mumbai-based mobile payments platform for micro merchants, ftcash, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its Pre-Series A round, from 500 Startups. Existing investors IvyCap Ventures also participated in the round.

Gurugram-based Hungry Foal, a for-profit social venture has raised an undisclosed amount of debt from SBI under the StandUp India Scheme.

Mumbai based fintech startup, Market Pulse Technologies has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Lead Angels Network and Chatur Ideas platform.

London- and India-based Heathwalk Advisors Pvt. Ltd, which runs financial technology platform Maxmywealth, has raised an undisclosed amount from two UK-based firms, it said in a statement.

GyanDhan, an online marketplace for education loans operated by Delhi-based Senbonzakura Consultancy Pvt. Ltd, has secured an undisclosed amount from Sundaram Finance Holdings, a subsidiary of Chennai-based Sundaram Finance Ltd, it said in a statement.

Alibaba Pictures Group Ltd, the entertainment arm of Alibaba Group, has picked up a majority stake in online ticketing platform Ticket New, a press statement said.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [29 May – 03 June]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Swiggy Raises $80M in Series E Funding Led by Naspers

Swiggy, Indian food ordering and delivery platform, announced today that it has raised $80 million in series-E funding. The deal was led by Naspers, a global internet and entertainment group, and one of the world’s largest technology investors, with earlier investors Accel India, SAIF Partners India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners and Norwest Venture Partners participating. Ashutosh Sharma, head of investments in India for Naspers will join the Swiggy board.

The new funds will propel the next phase of Swiggy’s growth by introducing a suite of new product and service offerings to enhance its superlative customer experience. Swiggy also announced plans to double its technology headcount and increase investments across core engineering, automation, data sciences, machine learning and personalisation.

Snapdeal Gets Rs.113 Crore from Nexus and Founders

In a surprise twist to troubled e-commerce firm Snapdeal, the company has received Rs.113 crore in an emergency funding round from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners and the company’s founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in lieu of its 2015 acquisition of Unicommerce eSolutions.

As per documents filed by Snapdeal with the Registrar of Documents, and accessed by corporate research and mentoring platform Tofler, Nexus Venture Partners was issued 14,810 preference shares, valued at Rs 96.26 crore while the founders — Bahl and Bansal, were each allotted 1,300 Series J1 preference shares, which have a cumulative value of Rs 16.90 crore (Rs8.45 crore each) making a total of Rs 113 crores.

Hyperlocal Discovery Startup MagicPin Raises $7 Mn In Series B Funding

Hyperlocal discovery startup MagicPin has secured $7 million in Series B round from existing investor Lightspeed India Partners and Waterbridge Ventures.

Current round also saw the participation of $15 million venture fund floated by private equity veteran Manish Kheterpal and two global family offices, Srivatsan Rajan, Chairman of Bain and Co India, and Sahil Barua, CEO of logistics company Delhivery. Earlier, Startup had raised $3 million in Series A from Lightspeed India Partners.

Japan Based Rohto Invests $5M In Online Pharmacy SastaSundar

Japan-based pharmaceutical company Rohto Pharmaceutical has invested $5 Mn (INR 33.4 Cr) in online pharmacy SastaSundar.com Healthbuddy Limited. With this funding, Rohto will assist SastaSundar in scaling its operations pan-India. Founded in 2013, Kolkata-based SastaSundar.com is a digital network for managing healthcare, pharma, and wellness product supply chain.

Carpediem Capital Invests $3.5M in Collateral Medical

Collateral Medical, a pan-India online distributor of Medical Devices, raised $3.5 million in a Series A investment from Carpediem Capital. The funds will be used towards strengthening the company’s distribution capabilities, expanding the service network and strengthening the IT infrastructure. Intellecap’s Investment Banking Group exclusively advised Collateral Medical on closing the deal with Carpediem Capital.

Collateral Medical, one of the leading medical device marketing and distribution companies, focusses on supplying medical devices for doctors, clinics, and small & medium hospitals present in Tier II and III cities in the country.

Grocery Startup Supr Daily Raises $1.5M from Silicon Valley Investors

Subscription-based micro delivery startup SuprDaily has raised about $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr) from a clutch of Silicon Valley investors – including Y Combinator partners Paul Buchheit and Jared Friedman. Y Combinator is a US-based startup accelerator while RedMart is a Singapore-based online grocery. Supr Daily, operated by Supr Techlabs Pvt. Ltd, was founded by IIT-Bombay alumni Kumar and Shreyas Nagdawane in 2015.

Online Insurance Broker Coverfox Raises Series C Round

Mumbai-based online insurance broking firm Coverfox has raised its Series C funding round from a bunch of new and existing investors, a person familiar with the development said.

Silicon Valley Based Tech Entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal Invests In Leadsquared

Jyoti Bansal, a Silicon Valley-based tech entrepreneur has invested an undisclosed amount in Leadsquared, a sales execution and marketing automation platform.

Not only this, he is also in process of closing a second investment in FundsTiger, a SME lending fintech player. Company plans to utilise funds towards sales and marketing on the product.

Commenting on the development, Nilesh Patel, co-founder, Leadsquared said, “The funds raised will be deployed towards sales and marketing, as well as on the innovation front for our product. As of now 80% of our business is in India and 1520% of our business is outside India, having Jyoti’s expert advice on board it will be easier to go deeper into the North American market too.”

Rentomojo Raises Venture Debt from Intellegrow

Bengaluru-based home appliances and furniture rental firm RentoMojo, run by Edunetwork Pvt. Ltd, has received funds in the form of venture debt from IntelleGrow. In July last year, RentoMojo had raised $5 million in its first strategic round Series A funding from existing investors IDG Ventures and Accel Partners. Prior to this, in November 2015, RentoMojo raised around $2 million in funding from IDG Ventures India and Accel Partners India. This time around the company has raised around Rs 5 crore ($775,000) in debt from IntelleGrow.

LoadShare Raises Pre Series A Funding from Matrix Partners India

Bengaluru-based logistics startup LoadShare has raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding from Matrix Partners India. Loadshare will utilise the current round of capital for hiring talent in engineering and operations team.

The company, incorporated in January 2017, provides small transporters and logistics providers with I software and coverage in 2000 pin codes to connect with new clients.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Nivesh.com, a Noida-based mass market mutual funds investment platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from PV Sahad, founder of VCCircle; former head of investor relations at Infosys Sandeep Shroff and Right Global Infosolutions CEO Rahul Gupta.

Bangalore-based Shorebird Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates travel enterprise resource planning platform Tripeur, has secured an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by Grace Grace Techno Ventures LLP.

Adesaa Wellness Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based wellness startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from angel investors, the company said in a statement today.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [29 May – 03 June]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Swiggy Raises $80M in Series E Funding Led by Naspers

Swiggy, Indian food ordering and delivery platform, announced today that it has raised $80 million in series-E funding. The deal was led by Naspers, a global internet and entertainment group, and one of the world’s largest technology investors, with earlier investors Accel India, SAIF Partners India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners and Norwest Venture Partners participating. Ashutosh Sharma, head of investments in India for Naspers will join the Swiggy board.

The new funds will propel the next phase of Swiggy’s growth by introducing a suite of new product and service offerings to enhance its superlative customer experience. Swiggy also announced plans to double its technology headcount and increase investments across core engineering, automation, data sciences, machine learning and personalisation.

Snapdeal Gets Rs.113 Crore from Nexus and Founders

In a surprise twist to troubled e-commerce firm Snapdeal, the company has received Rs.113 crore in an emergency funding round from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners and the company’s founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in lieu of its 2015 acquisition of Unicommerce eSolutions.

As per documents filed by Snapdeal with the Registrar of Documents, and accessed by corporate research and mentoring platform Tofler, Nexus Venture Partners was issued 14,810 preference shares, valued at Rs 96.26 crore while the founders — Bahl and Bansal, were each allotted 1,300 Series J1 preference shares, which have a cumulative value of Rs 16.90 crore (Rs8.45 crore each) making a total of Rs 113 crores.

Hyperlocal Discovery Startup MagicPin Raises $7 Mn In Series B Funding

Hyperlocal discovery startup MagicPin has secured $7 million in Series B round from existing investor Lightspeed India Partners and Waterbridge Ventures.

Current round also saw the participation of $15 million venture fund floated by private equity veteran Manish Kheterpal and two global family offices, Srivatsan Rajan, Chairman of Bain and Co India, and Sahil Barua, CEO of logistics company Delhivery. Earlier, Startup had raised $3 million in Series A from Lightspeed India Partners.

Japan Based Rohto Invests $5M In Online Pharmacy SastaSundar

Japan-based pharmaceutical company Rohto Pharmaceutical has invested $5 Mn (INR 33.4 Cr) in online pharmacy SastaSundar.com Healthbuddy Limited. With this funding, Rohto will assist SastaSundar in scaling its operations pan-India. Founded in 2013, Kolkata-based SastaSundar.com is a digital network for managing healthcare, pharma, and wellness product supply chain.

Carpediem Capital Invests $3.5M in Collateral Medical

Collateral Medical, a pan-India online distributor of Medical Devices, raised $3.5 million in a Series A investment from Carpediem Capital. The funds will be used towards strengthening the company’s distribution capabilities, expanding the service network and strengthening the IT infrastructure. Intellecap’s Investment Banking Group exclusively advised Collateral Medical on closing the deal with Carpediem Capital.

Collateral Medical, one of the leading medical device marketing and distribution companies, focusses on supplying medical devices for doctors, clinics, and small & medium hospitals present in Tier II and III cities in the country.

Grocery Startup Supr Daily Raises $1.5M from Silicon Valley Investors

Subscription-based micro delivery startup SuprDaily has raised about $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr) from a clutch of Silicon Valley investors – including Y Combinator partners Paul Buchheit and Jared Friedman. Y Combinator is a US-based startup accelerator while RedMart is a Singapore-based online grocery. Supr Daily, operated by Supr Techlabs Pvt. Ltd, was founded by IIT-Bombay alumni Kumar and Shreyas Nagdawane in 2015.

Online Insurance Broker Coverfox Raises Series C Round

Mumbai-based online insurance broking firm Coverfox has raised its Series C funding round from a bunch of new and existing investors, a person familiar with the development said.

Silicon Valley Based Tech Entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal Invests In Leadsquared

Jyoti Bansal, a Silicon Valley-based tech entrepreneur has invested an undisclosed amount in Leadsquared, a sales execution and marketing automation platform.

Not only this, he is also in process of closing a second investment in FundsTiger, a SME lending fintech player. Company plans to utilise funds towards sales and marketing on the product.

Commenting on the development, Nilesh Patel, co-founder, Leadsquared said, “The funds raised will be deployed towards sales and marketing, as well as on the innovation front for our product. As of now 80% of our business is in India and 1520% of our business is outside India, having Jyoti’s expert advice on board it will be easier to go deeper into the North American market too.”

Rentomojo Raises Venture Debt from Intellegrow

Bengaluru-based home appliances and furniture rental firm RentoMojo, run by Edunetwork Pvt. Ltd, has received funds in the form of venture debt from IntelleGrow. In July last year, RentoMojo had raised $5 million in its first strategic round Series A funding from existing investors IDG Ventures and Accel Partners. Prior to this, in November 2015, RentoMojo raised around $2 million in funding from IDG Ventures India and Accel Partners India. This time around the company has raised around Rs 5 crore ($775,000) in debt from IntelleGrow.

LoadShare Raises Pre Series A Funding from Matrix Partners India

Bengaluru-based logistics startup LoadShare has raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding from Matrix Partners India. Loadshare will utilise the current round of capital for hiring talent in engineering and operations team.

The company, incorporated in January 2017, provides small transporters and logistics providers with I software and coverage in 2000 pin codes to connect with new clients.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Nivesh.com, a Noida-based mass market mutual funds investment platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from PV Sahad, founder of VCCircle; former head of investor relations at Infosys Sandeep Shroff and Right Global Infosolutions CEO Rahul Gupta.

Bangalore-based Shorebird Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates travel enterprise resource planning platform Tripeur, has secured an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by Grace Grace Techno Ventures LLP.

Adesaa Wellness Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based wellness startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from angel investors, the company said in a statement today.