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.

Hyderabad-based Multiplier Solutions was founded in 2013 by IIM Calcutta and SP Jain alumna, Vikram Kumar and Saumya Prakash. The startup works with leading hospitals diagnostics chains, clinics, and offers a product platform that integrates artificial intelligence and machine learning. It claims to provide improved diagnostics as well as predicting clinical outcomes to its users.

Generating revenue through a subscription-based model, Multiplier has its presence in all top metros of India.

Talking about ABI Health, this four-year-old startup works with consumer devices manufacturers and a telecom operator that have healthcare services on the cloud, as part of their data rollout. It is a health exchange and image management cloud software provider which has its own imaging suite, called Spectra, which connects all stakeholders - doctors, hospitals, and patients.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, startups also operates in the US and Peru.

Norwest has an extensive healthcare portfolio in India which includes, Thyrocare, Nationwide Primary Care, paediatric and neonatal care hospital chain Ovum, Perfint and cloud-based healthcare information technology company Attune.

Flipkart, Snapdeal To Reportedly Merge Together As Joint Entity

Just a few days ago, Flipkart reportedly raised $1 billion, and was even rumored to take over ebay's India business. Now, according to reports there are strong hints that Flipkart and Snapdeal will enter into a merger deal, allowing a joint entity to tackle the cut throat competition from giant like Amazon and PayTM with with its newly launched online marketplace -- PayTM Mall.

An ET report claims that Japanese giant SoftBank is facilitating a merger between Snapdeal and Flipkart, and is likely to invest $1.5 billion into a joint entity with a roughly 15 percent stake. It is worth noting that SoftBank has more than 30 percent stake, and is one of the biggest investors in Snapdeal, which drew valuation at $6.5 billion in 2016.

According to the report, the merger deal will likely to see sell out of another $1 billion share from Tiger Global, which is believed to be the biggest investor in Flipkart. Tiger is expected to recover its investment by selling 10% of its approximately 30% stake in Flipkart.

"SoftBank and Flipkart have agreed on the broad contours of the deal. If these terms stay on track, it's likely that the talks will culminate into a definitive transaction by late April," said the report.

While Flipkart appears to have sustain the intense competition, the smaller players, especially Snapdeal, have faced the major turbulence as the company had reportedly layed off around 600 employees. According to a Hindu report, Snapdeal is left with cash that will last for the next 10-12 months at most.

Digital Platforms Firm Intelli Reboot Digital Ties Up with underDOGS Gaming to Build Games

The gaming industry has seen growth in leaps & boundaries and more and more channels are coming with their own gaming sectors. According to a recent NASSCOM­IGDA study, revenue from casual gaming in India will quadruple by 2016 to $250+ million. Last year, about 25 prominent games were released across platforms. The Indian gaming industry is close to $890 million and there are about 100-­odd game developing firms in the country.

Intelli Reboot Digital Pvt. Ltd. has acquired stakes in Mumbai­-based underDOGS Gaming Pvt. Ltd. for an undisclosed amount. "Reboot and underDOGS gaming are believers and understand that there is a wide opportunity available for the growth of mobile gaming in India. UnderDOGS brings to Reboot a strong team that understands the complexities of delivering world class commercially successful products," Vaibhav Chavan, Founder of underDOGS, said in a press statement. He also highlights some of his other deals by saying “We are dealing with Samsung to bring all the games from studio to the Tizen Platform”. “We are also publishing all our created games on Baidu’s store – MoboJoy” quotes Vaibhav Chavan. “We have also ventured with Worldoo for a year for creating original content which is going to be published not only on Worldoo platform but also on Android and iOS platforms”. In respect to expansion of UnderDOGS he quotes “Over the years we will also be seen joining hands with a leading Content House to generate some games for various brands and movies”.

Together the alliance has bagged several path­breaking deals for the coming season. Right at the onset is one of the major players, Disney whose market for mobile gaming sector is fresh and fluid starting with one movie game this year. UnderDOGS, is going to generate IP Based games catering to consumers as well as corporates.

In the past the 5 year­-old underDOGS Gaming has developed leading gaming titles such as Skatelander, Parking Evolution 3D, Smash Rider etc.

On the other hand, Intelli Reboot Digital was established earlier this year looking at strategic digital investments. UnderDOGS Gaming also have been a backend to Zapak, Games2win, Hungama, Disney Indiagames, Idealabs, Zee TV, and 9XM with products such as Jodha Akbar, Silly Chicken, and BCL etc.

"Through this acquisition, Reboot will strengthen its already robust digital portfolio, to become a prominent player in the gaming space focused on building gaming experiences for the global market including corporate & celebrity games and enabling games to monetize effectively”, Sameer Mahuli, Founder of Intelli Reboot Digital Pvt. Ltd. said.

Spinny Merges With HopCar to Strengthen Its Consumer Products and Technology Development

Spinny, a Delhi based startup in the used car industry, has recently completed the merger of HopCar.in, another startup in the same industry. The merger will allow Spinny to strengthen its consumer products as well as the development of its technology while at the same time streamlining operations to achieve greater efficiency.

HopCar was established in August, 2015 to provide consumers with a one stop solution to buy and sell used cars. The online vertical focused on giving consumers value, trust, and convenience and targeted the information asymmetry of the used car market. In a similar vein, Spinny was established with the prime directive of improving the consumer experience and their interaction with the used car market. HopCar had been working to provide customers all the relevant information they required, whether they were buying or selling, so as to ensure information asymmetry didn’t take place at any point in the transaction.

HopCar’s founding team includes Arijit Biswas, Rahul Thakur, Anish Karan and Rahul Anand, and between them they are bringing a wealth of experience and innovation to Spinny.  The approach and the experience of the HopCar fit well with Spinny, which was the prime motive behind the merger.

On the occasion, CEO and Co-founder of Spinny, Niraj Singh said, “The used car market is a very fragmented segment with many different players tackling the same issues in their own ways. HopCar was one such player who were working on very similar lines to our own at Spinny. The technology they were developing, their work philosophy, and their approach to the market made the merger with HopCar a natural choice”. The merger brings immediate benefits for Spinny as it will allow Spinny to further strengthen its position in the Delhi-NCR region and bring greater efficiency to our operations in Bangalore as well.

Adding to this, Co-founder of HopCar and now a core team member at Spinny, Arijit Biswas said,” Our experience in the used car market has shown us that the issues in the market were too great to solve alone. However, finding a partner to tackle these issues wasn’t so straightforward either. Spinny’s vision synced naturally with our own and we look forward to working with Spinny and their team to deliver a satisfactory consumer experience.

Both companies were working on their own Price and Rating Engines. Through this merger, the engines will be combined, improving the accuracy and depth of the engines. This will help Spinny roll out fully featured and developed Algorithmic Engines that will help the consumer to understand the reasoning behind the pricing and certification provided by Spinny.

HopCar’s merger places Spinny in an advantageous position in the Delhi-NCR pre-owned car market. The company is currently streamlining its operations in Bangalore and looks to expand into Tier I and Tier II cities by the end of 2016. The introduction of the Price Engine and Rating Engine in the coming months will allow Spinny to better cater to consumer needs while at the same also further improve the overall consumer experience for people looking for a reliable, data-driven, and transaprent platform to buy or sell pre-owned cars.

Image Source: ShutterStock

ZAPLUK to Merge Its On-Demand Beauty Business With Pamperazi

Zapluk, a leading provider of on-demand beauty & Wellness services, has announced that it will merge its business with another complementing startup, Pamperazi in the home salon service space in Chennai

The on-demand beauty and wellness service industry has seen exponential growth in the last six months for service opportunities and has become a fertile ground for professional startups. An aggressive and already well established venture in this space is the Hyderabad based company Zapforce Technologies Pvt. Ltd. which runs an on-demand beauty, wellness and fitness service through its’ app “ZAPLUK”. They initially received angel funding from a group of investors including Alok Sharma, former CEO of Apple India.

Zapluk allows customers to order beauty services at home based on their individual preferences and customer satisfaction ratings of each beautician. The company is constantly engaged in improving standards, services, products and business practices based on customer review and feedback.

The company announces the recent merger of 2 brands – Zapluk and another complementing startup Pamperazi, a Chennai based company in the similar home salon service space in an equity + cash deal.

Zapforce Technologies Pvt. Ltd. will now be driven by the vision of the 3 enthusiastic co-founders Manan Maheshwari (an MBA from Duke University and BITS Pilani), Lavanya Hariharan (an M.Litt in International Business from the University of St. Andrews) and Mahesh Gogineni (an MBA from Stanford and BITS Pilani)

This merger now will offer its customers a gamut of services in Chennai and Hyderabad at extremely affordable prices and is currently doing over 1500 services per month.

Future round of funding for which negotiations are at an advanced stage will allow Zapforce Technologies Pvt. Ltd. to expand into 4 cities immediately. The team has a clear vision for going national. The clarity with which Zapforce has built its robust, flexible and innovative technology will allow them for a seamless launch nationally. Further, the team is also looking at innovative partnerships to scale their operations.

Image Source: ShutterStock

2016-17 to be the year of acquisitions in startup industry

 



The financial year of 2016-17 seems to be the one where several startup entrepreneurs who have been longing to become the fodder for bigger companies, might see their wishes finally being granted.

According to data collected by Venture Intelligence for last fiscal year, 2015-16, the number of technology startups acquisitions and mergers more than doubled from just 69 in the year 2014-15 to 146 transactions in 2015-16.

Based on this last year's data, data analysts are predicting an even more jubilant time for the acquisition activity in the Indian startup industry in the year 2016-17. According to experts, this surge in numbers is mainly because of the trend that companies such as Snapdeal and Flipkart, which are better-funded and have been able to establish a dominance of sorts in the market, are looking to invest their money in some well-planned purchases.

The data collected also revealed that on- demand delivery startups have been a favourite among the investors in the first half of last year before facing a sad collapse in the latter part of 2015. But, according to industry experts, 2016 would be the year of the financial technology sector. The space could witness becoming a hotbed for companies scouting to grab their hands on a startup with a payments bank licence or an already well-renowned digital wallet.

Current industry trends predicts that some of the biggest internet companies in the country are currently waiting in line to take some young startups under their shrine.

Flipkart, India's most successful startup till date, recently bought PhonePe, a company currently in the midst of developing a product that will allow users to make payments using a mobile number, a concept which is almost based on the government-backed and currently launched Unified Payments Interface.

According to recent statements made by Binny Bansal, Flipkart's chief executive, this year the company will be scouting for investments and acquisitions in advertisement, payment, commerce and supply chain centric firms. Similar views were echoed by Kunal Bahl, Snapdeal's CEO regarding Snapdeal's acquisition plans for this year.

Experts believe that majority of acquisitions in this financial year, 2016-17, will be headed by investors who will be looking forward to extracting some marginal returns on their investment cycles near their ends, or as they start shrinking their portfolios. In fact, Entrepreneurs are also looking into exploring newer options in their effort to survive in a landscape that has been suffering through a bad phase of liquidity crunch the past ten months.

Muses Marketing Merges With AdOnStream Services to Disrupt Startup and SME Marketing Space

[caption id="attachment_104917" align="alignnone" width="700"] AdOnStream's Founders[/caption]

Muses Marketing Private Limited has signed a definitive document to acquire cum merge with AdOnStream Services LLP, an online branding agency founded by three IIT-R Alumni (Anand Kumar, Vyom Garg and Divij Goyal). The merger will enable Muses to offer a complete marketing, branding and consulting solution package to brands and startups focusing majorly on providing growth hacking solutions to them.

Muses Marketing has been providing branding services via BTL (below the line) activities since late 2013. The agreement combines the strength of both the companies by leveraging Muses's expertise with BTL activations service and AdOnStream's expertise with online branding solutions.

Snapfitness, Bluestone, Doormint, Peppertap, Revv, AskMeGrocery are some of the clients of the Muses Marketing.

On the other hand, AdOnStream has been providing online branding (SMM, SEM, Adwords etc) and told that they have focused mainly on selecting the Target Audience to be reached to brand a company/product. "Creating need of a product/service is important for any new business. We need to find the right individual to reach, they might or might not be direct customers but it should result in getting one" Vyom Garg (Co-founder, AdOnStream) said.

Together the merged entity is planning to focus on leveraging technology to help startup in creating and implementing marketing strategies in the most efficient manner. Both the startups have been bootstrapped till now and has been able to build expertise in creating growth hacking strategies for Startups and SMEs.

Ronak Singh Ahuja, Muses Marketing's Founder said, "We are in talks with various investors for funding, which will be used for geographical expansion to Bangalore and Mumbai and launch of a new product. The product will act as a B2B portal and bridge for connecting marketing agencies and marketing departments of a brand in a way never seen before." The merged entity is estimated to be valued at $2 million. We are already in touch with a few VC firms and this merger is the first step in closing the round of anything close to $1 million with in few months.

Muses Marketing Merges With AdOnStream Services to Disrupt Startup and SME Marketing Space

[caption id="attachment_104917" align="alignnone" width="700"] AdOnStream's Founders[/caption]

Muses Marketing Private Limited has signed a definitive document to acquire cum merge with AdOnStream Services LLP, an online branding agency founded by three IIT-R Alumni (Anand Kumar, Vyom Garg and Divij Goyal). The merger will enable Muses to offer a complete marketing, branding and consulting solution package to brands and startups focusing majorly on providing growth hacking solutions to them.

Muses Marketing has been providing branding services via BTL (below the line) activities since late 2013. The agreement combines the strength of both the companies by leveraging Muses's expertise with BTL activations service and AdOnStream's expertise with online branding solutions.

Snapfitness, Bluestone, Doormint, Peppertap, Revv, AskMeGrocery are some of the clients of the Muses Marketing.

On the other hand, AdOnStream has been providing online branding (SMM, SEM, Adwords etc) and told that they have focused mainly on selecting the Target Audience to be reached to brand a company/product. "Creating need of a product/service is important for any new business. We need to find the right individual to reach, they might or might not be direct customers but it should result in getting one" Vyom Garg (Co-founder, AdOnStream) said.

Together the merged entity is planning to focus on leveraging technology to help startup in creating and implementing marketing strategies in the most efficient manner. Both the startups have been bootstrapped till now and has been able to build expertise in creating growth hacking strategies for Startups and SMEs.

Ronak Singh Ahuja, Muses Marketing's Founder said, "We are in talks with various investors for funding, which will be used for geographical expansion to Bangalore and Mumbai and launch of a new product. The product will act as a B2B portal and bridge for connecting marketing agencies and marketing departments of a brand in a way never seen before." The merged entity is estimated to be valued at $2 million. We are already in touch with a few VC firms and this merger is the first step in closing the round of anything close to $1 million with in few months.