ClimateTech Startup Climes Raises $1.2 Mn in Its 1st Round of Funding Led by Sequoia Capital India and Kalaari Capital

Climes Founders

Climes is addressing the gargantuan climate finance problem which has been a huge obstacle in the fight against climate change

Partnered with brands such as MakeMyTrip, zingbus and TEDx

Climes, a ClimateTech company, announces its first round of funding of USD 1.2 million. The company is building an engine that accelerates the flow of fresh capital towards climate solutions by making it convenient for brands and individuals to take meaningful climate action.

Founded by Anirudh Gupta (ex-Airbus) and Siddhanth Jayaram (ex-Kalaari Capital), Climes unlocks an untapped source of capital, amidst an urgent need to finance climate action. While total commitments for climate finance have steadily increased over the last decade, the actual ‘flow’ of capital to meet internationally agreed climate objectives significantly lags required levels. This is as per the 2021 edition of the Global Landscape of Climate Finance. It goes on to say that an increase of at least 590% in annual climate finance is required to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change. This is the problem that Climes takes head on.

The first round saw participation from Sequoia Capital India, Kalaari Capital, Nithin Kamath (Zerodha, Rainmatter), and Avaana Capital. Other notable participants in the round include Satyen Kothari (Cube Wealth) and Anshuman Bapna (Terra.do) from Stanford Angels, Keshav Reddy (Reddy Futures), and climate-tech founders Arjun Gupta (Smart Joules) & Akshay Singhal (Log9 Materials) among others.

On the announcement, Co-Founders, Anirudh & Siddhanth said “Finance is the single biggest lever to solve climate change. Fantastic projects and solutions for carbon mitigation exist all around us. However, the finance needed to scale these projects is simply not flowing fast enough. With this capital raise, Climes is i) building the necessary digital infrastructure to enable a big chunk of this money to flow transparently and ii) designing the right incentives for all market players to benefit. The delta of each rupee/dollar/euro that flows through Climes will have an outsized multiplier impact on global carbon mitigation.”

The Climes’ engine, at a macro-level, allows for a transparent flow of finance from where it is to where it needs to be. At a micro-level, it acts as the gateway for individuals and brands to take their first step towards climate action.

Climes’ mission is to reverse the effects of climate change by letting individuals take “climate action in a single click”. It is a first-of-its-kind climate start-up whose technology allows consumer-facing brands to go climate-positive in just a matter of hours. The tech-stack built by Climes integrates seamlessly into the checkout pages of everyday consumer brands.

With this, customers can neutralise emissions specific to their purchase or order. The emission calculations are based on accurate mathematical models, in line with global standards of carbon accounting. Next, they choose from a list of independently-certified (Verra, Gold Standard etc.) or rigorously verified climate solutions based in India. These solutions either remove atmospheric carbon by restoring green cover in degraded lands, or avoid additional emissions by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources.

This individual-led climate action is enabled by consumer brands. Partnering with Climes is the quickest way for brands to become climate-positive and kickstart their sustainability agenda with minimal effort. Some of the brands associated with Climes so far include TEDx, MakeMyTrip, Wedding Brigade and Zingbus. There are at least a dozen more in the pipeline.

Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital said “The rising awareness of the need for carbon neutral lifestyle and climate costs require urgent new solutions. Entrepreneurs offering solutions with climate-sensitiveness can create key differentiating propositions. Sid and Ani have lofty goals to bring climate awareness and action. Climes’ solution makes it possible for brands to embark on that transition by allowing customers to carbon-neutralise every transaction”

Adding to this, Nithin Kamath, Founder & CEO, Zerodha & Rainmatter said “The ideal solution towards climate change problems is to reduce consumption which may not be possible at all times. Making people aware of their carbon footprint and then making it available to offset maybe a good mid-way path. We are excited to be a part of their journey and learn ourselves along the way.”

The company intends to use the capital on two fronts. One, deploy more integrations with brands in fashion, food, travel, beauty & personal care, and enable a pathway for brands to become climate leaders within their categories. And two, expand their tech-stack to swiftly onboard high-quality climate solutions within India, as well as to measure and report impact transparently.

According to the founders of Climes, any climate plan should follow a simple formula, devoid of current complexities - ‘Cut what you can, neutralise what you can’t.’ In other words, reduce avoidable emissions through climate-friendly operations, and neutralise unavoidable emissions, through platforms like Climes.

Mamaearth Raises 130 Crore Round Led by Sequoia India

The round also saw investment from existing investors — Fireside Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners and Sharp Ventures

Mamaearth, one of the fastest-growing FMCG brands to reach a 100 crore run-rate, has raised a round of funding led by Sequoia India with participation from existing investors, Fireside Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners and Sharp Ventures. 

Founded in 2016 by husband-wife duo Varun and Ghazal Alagh, MamaEarth is Asia’s first Made-safe certified brand that offers 100% toxin-free & natural skincare, hair care & baby care products. The company is building a new range of direct to consumer brands that use the internet-first approach to reach the target audience.

According to Varun Alagh, Founder and CEO of Mamaearth -

We have a long way to go at Honasa (Mamaearth’s parent company). Our vision is to create the FMCG conglomerate of the future by building brands that connect strongly with millennials and Gen Z customers using the combined power of digital marketing and e-Commerce at large scale. Sequoia India’s investment at this stage of our journey validates this vision of building a global brand of the future.

Across India, millennial consumers are becoming increasingly conscious and are looking for safe natural alternatives to replace the existing cosmetic products being offered by large multinationals. This strong demand has been reflected in Mamaearth’s meteoric growth. Today, their range includes 80+ natural, toxin-free products, with a whopping 1.5 million+ consumers in over 500 cities across India. 

Speaking on the investment, Ishaan Mittal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP says

Out of India’s $15B+ personal care market, online channels contribute to only 3-5%. With 15-20% of Indian shoppers influenced digitally and expected to double in next 7-8 years, digital first brands have the potential to redefine the architecture of tomorrow’s FMCG companies. Varun’s vision is to ride these market tailwinds to create a multi-brand, cross geo FMCG company over the next decade. The team at Sequoia India is excited about being partners in this phenomenal journey.

MamaEarth is driven by innovation and uses the best of science and ayurveda to stand out in the personal care space. The brand combines in-depth research and customer feedback to create best-in-class products for the young, aspirational and increasingly conscious Indian consumer.

“From day one we have ensured we listen to our consumers and provided products which they were looking for. This led us to develop & launch over 80 products in under three years. Last year, for instance, our we noticed that our consumers were using onion juice as the ultimate household remedy for hair loss. That's when we launched our onion range of hair care products and saw phenomenal results. This has now become a part of our DNA & in the coming years we will continue to launch new products, enter new categories & use the right ingredients based on our listening tools”, says co-founder, Ghazal Alagh, who is also Chief Mama for the Brand. 

The current round of INR 130 crores raised by Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd parent company of Mamaearth is the biggest round size for any internet-first consumer company in India. The round has also been particularly noteworthy because it's seen as a phenomenal exit for seed investors. Some early angels have exited the company in this round with a return of over 20X on their initial investment. For a D2C FMCG brand, such an exit is almost unprecedented.  

The company plans to use the freshly acquired funds over the next 3 years to continue its exponential growth — building it into a 500 crore brand by acquiring 5 million new consumers. The funds will also be used to launch more brands under the Honasa umbrella— all of which will be internet-first and focused on the needs of the new-age, millennial consumers. Apart from this, the company plans to utilize the funds to hire best-in-class talent as the organization scales rapidly. There are also plans to expand into key markets in Southeast Asia, where the presence of a similar millennial audience lends it strong market potential. 

MamaEarth claims to be Asia’s first Madesafe certified brand that offers 100% toxin-free & natural baby care, skincare, and hair care products. MamaEarth is part of Internet-first brands company Honasa Consumer Pvt Limited, that is creating the FMCG conglomerate of the future. Honasa caters to the needs of millennial consumers through innovative products, evolved propositions, digital marketing channels, and e-commerce fulfillment.

Their goal is to build a global billion-dollar FMCG conglomerate in the next 5 years — spread across the globe but connected through digital centres of excellence. MamaEarth is a brand driven by innovation and uses the best of science and Ayurveda to meet all personal care needs of young, aspirational and increasingly conscious Indian consumers. It also brings a spirit of constant innovation and in-depth research and customer feedback into every single product. 

In the short span of 3 years, MamaEarth has launched a range of 80+ natural products, has reached over 1.5 million customers in 500 Indian cities, and is the fastest-growing FMCG startups to hit 100 Cr run rate in India. Mamearth products are available across major eCommerce platforms like Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart, etc and its own platform www.mamaearth.in. The brand is now expanding its footprint to offline channels, establishing a presence in over 2000 stores in the country.

About The Founders

Varun Alagh, Co-Founder, CEO, Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd

The idea of a 100% toxin-free baby products brand MamaEarth came to Varun and his partner & Co-Founder Ghazal when they became parents and had a difficult time finding chemical-free products for their son.

Varun Alagh comes with over 10+ years of leadership experience in sales and marketing roles with world-renowned FMCG brands. Varun started his career with Hindustan Unilever and has, twice been listed amongst the top managers in HUL. He then went on to become the Senior Brand Manager at Diageo. As a part of this assignment, Varun managed the ATL, BTL, Digital & Trade activations for Smirnoff across India. Varun has also completed a four-year stint with Coca-Cola as the Senior Brand Manager and has been instrumental in launching Coke Zero in India. During his corporate stint, he has won multiple recognitions including Business Unit Presidents Award, Above and Beyond Award and I am Diageo Award. Varun leverages his understanding of the FMCG market to develop, distribute and market MamaEarth's 100% toxin-free products. 

He holds a Masters in Finance and Marketing from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and Bachelors in Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering (DCE),

Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founder, Chief Mama, Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd 

A corporate trainer turned artist-cum-entrepreneur Ghazal Alagh co-founded MamaEarth, driven by the passion for making early parenting stress-free. As the Co-Founder and Chief Mama at MamaEarth Ghazal is responsible for product development and community management. She works closely with a large number of consumers to develop product lines that address problems that they face on a daily basis. 

Ghazal’s overarching vision is to make this world a better and safer place with toxin-free, MadeSafe-certified products for everyone. With a Bachelors in Information Technology and Intensive Courses in Modern Art, Design and Applied Arts from New York Academy of Arts, she started her career with NIIT as a Corporate Trainer. As a part of her role, she trained managers and engineers from various IT companies in SQL, J2ME, and Oracle. Ghazal has also been recognized amongst top 10 women artists in India, nationally and internationally.  Having straddled three different roles —a corporate trainer, an artist, and a mother— Ghazal has a diverse skill set that helps her build the MamaEarth brand in such a unique way. 

Seekify Raises $1.5 Mn Seed Funding from Sequoia Capital India's rapid scale-up program Surge

Customer Experience SaaS platform Seekify has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up program Surge with participation from angel investors, Nishant Rao (Founding Partner at Avatar Venture Partners), Gaurav Agarwal (1mg) and Sameer Maheshwari (HealthKart).

Seekify, which has made significant progress since its launch, is now available in Beta for enterprises - and the company has started multiple pilots with customers across the world. With the fundraise, Seekify will invest in building world-class technology and hiring new talent across functions.   

[caption id="attachment_139625" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Seekify Co-founders[/caption]

Seekify can be easily integrated with different softwares of businesses, allowing them to aggregate all the data that drives their Customer Experience (CX). The platform helps teams to set clear goals and KPIs, providing data-driven insights using AI and ML. Finally, it automates the workflows needed to improve the customer experience - hence closing the loop. Overall, the goal is to simplify the complexities of CX and deliver great customer experience through innovative technology.

Nishant Rao, Founding Partner at Avatar Venture Partners said, “I know Ajeet and Arihant from when Freshworks acquired their startup. I’ve worked with them personally and have seen them achieve great things during their time at Freshworks. They’re an incredible team - you don’t often see such a strong combination of product engineering and sales prowess in founding teams. It is impressive to see what they have accomplished in a short time with Seekify. Their understanding of CX space, ability to build global SaaS products and strong international GTM experience make them do very well globally.”

Commenting on the announcement, Arihant Jain, co-founder and CEO of Seekify said, “We're super excited to be a part of the Surge Program. We have a lot of respect for the Sequoia team, and the business value they bring on the table apart from funds. We couldn't have found a better partner for Seekify. Now the greater responsibility is to build a superstar team of people who believe in the vision of Seekify. We believe in People over Product over Profits - great people will build a great product and profit will follow.”

He further added, “In today’s personalised economy, customers simply expect more - they expect you to know everything about them and tailor their experience accordingly. For any business, Customer Experience is the only true differentiator today. We are solving the problem of delivering the right Customer Experience.”

Software as a Service (SaaS) has become an essential part of how modern businesses operate. According to a report, the SaaS market is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.2% during the forecast period 2018-2023. In fact, 2018 was a poster year for SaaS organizations as a whole because it saw several high-growth SaaS companies going public. 

Global spending on customer experience (CX) technology is forecast to increase from around 500 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 to over 640 billion by 2022 as per the report. The global Customer Experience Management Market is projected to grow from USD 7.8 billion in 2019 to USD 14.5 billion by 2024, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.3% during the forecast period.

About Seekify:

Seekify was founded in June 2019 by two serial entrepreneurs Arihant Jain and Ajeet Kushwaha. The duo were the founding members in the launch of 1mg and HealthKart and built ‘Joe Hukum’, a global pioneering chatbot SaaS platform in 2015 that was acquired by Freshworks in 2017.

Seekify can be easily integrated with different softwares of businesses, allowing them to aggregate all the data that drives their Customer Experience (CX). The platform helps teams to set clear goals and KPIs, providing data-driven insights using AI and ML. Finally, it automates the workflows needed to improve the customer experience - hence closing the loop. Overall, the goal is to simplify the complexities of CX and deliver a great customer experience through innovative technology.

Fintech Firm Drip Capital Raises $25 Mn from Accel, Sequoia India and others

Accel Partners, Sequoia India and others have pumped US$25 million into the fintech-based trade financier Drip Capital in series B funding.

With this, the Palo Alto-and Mumbai-based company has raised U$45 million in equity and $55 million in debt, taking the total funding to $100 million.

The other investors who joined the latest round of funding include Wing VC and Y Combinator, along with Sequoia which are all existing investors, Drip Capital said in a statement Wednesday.

The current round of funding also has two other new investors--GC1 Ventures and institutional investor platform Trusted Insight, it added.

"The new fund will be used for global expansion over the next 12-18 months. Apart from India, we are already present in Mexico and the UAE and now we are looking to enter Southeast Asia as well," Drip Capital co-founder and co-chief executive Pushkar Mukewar said.

The company will use a part of the fresh capital in technology and expand its sales and marketing team, he said,
adding globally, it employs 120.

Mukewar said the company has already funded over USD 500 million worth of trade to 400 exporters its entry into the country in 2016.

"By FY20, we aim to fund USD 1 billion of trade originating from the country," he said. It offers exporters a credit line ranging from USD 0.1 million to USD 2.5 million through both unsecured and unsecured route.

Drip Capital uses technology to provide working capital to small companies and entrepreneurs who account for 50 percent of merchandise exports from the country and employ tens of millions.

Globally, he claimed there is a trade finance gap of USD1.5 trillion globally, the majority of which is among small business exporters in emerging markets, which means so much of trade potential is foregone for lack of funding.

The company focuses on 10 industry segments such as agro commodities, readymades and industrial goods, and stay away from gems & jewellery and perishables (fruits and vegetables), Mukewar.

Trade finance is a paper-based industry dominated by banks that primarily focus on large, established corporate customers. As against this, it uses electronic data and technology to underwrite and finance cross-border B2B deals.

Drip Capital has strategic partnerships with many key export promotion organizations, including the Federation of Indian Export Organizations and the Engineering Export Promotion Council. PTI HV

Sequoia India leads $35 Mn Funding of Biofourmis, An AI-Enabled HealthTech Platform

Singapore-based Biofourmis, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) -enabled monitoring and decision support platform has raised $35 million in Series B round of funding led by Sequoia India and MassMutual Ventures with contributions from Singapore government's EDBI, Jianke and existing investors Openspace Ventures, Aviva Ventures and SGInnovate.

With this funding, Biofourmis also announced to move its headquarters from Singapore to Boston, Massachusetts.

With fresh funding, Biofourmis has raised a total of about $41 Mn in funding over six rounds including this one. Prior to this round, the startup had raised $5 Mn from Aviva Ventures and Openspace Ventures in December 2017.

Founded by IIT Madras alumnus Kuldeep Singh Rajput, Biofourmis is a fast-growing digital health startup that has built Biovitals, a highly sophisticated personalized AI-powered health analytics platform that predicts clinical exacerbation days in advance before a critical event.

Between 2014-15, Kuldeep was Researcher at Media Lab of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and holds Ph.D from National University of Singapore (NUS), where he built bio-electronic implants, which aim to control biological processes and treat diseases by modulating electric impulses.

Last month, the US Food and Drug Association (FDA) granted Biofourmis a 510(k) clearance for its RhythmAnalytics, which aids healthcare professionals in detecting cardiac arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeart. RhythmAnalytics has been cleared by the FDA to detect over 15 types of cardiac arrhythmias. The software uses deep learning to analyse and interpret data collected from FDA-approved electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring devices from patients with a history of cardiac arrhythmia.

Speaking on investment, Anjana Sasidharan, Principal at Sequoia Capital, said in a LinkedIn post, "Biofourmis products can make a real difference to the quality of healthcare delivery globally. We’re incredibly excited to join Kuldeep and his team on their journey to design the future of personalized healthcare"

Chu Swee Yeok, CEO and president of EDBI, said in a media statement"We have long recognized the impact of digitization to the healthcare industry and have been investing in the sector. Biofourmis’ innovative digital platform, which leverages data analytics, exemplifies the opportunities in digital therapeutics to enhance conventional treatment for patients. EDBI looks forward to supporting this homegrown company's growth and product development."

Biofourmis is planning to offer RhythmAnalytics as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to cardiac monitoring organisations to improve accuracy and scalability of their ECG analysis, in turn improving throughput and efficiencies in cardiac monitoring centres.

CleverTap Raises $26 Mn from Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global and Others

Silicon Valley-based Wizrocket, which owns and operate CleverTap, a marketing automation and analytics platform, has raised $26 million (about Rs 180 crore) in Series B round of financing led by Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global Management at a valuation of more than $150 million, reported Venturebeat.

Besides Tiger Global being new investor to CleverTap, the company's existing investor Accel Partners also contributed to the round.

CleverTap will use the fresh capital raised in itsproduct innovation, global expansion of its operations as well as its team.

With this funding, CleverTap has now raised a total of $41.6 million since it launch in 2013.

The company last raised funding in January last year when it raised about $6 million from Japanese diversified consumer and business services provider Recruit Holdings.

Founded by ex-Network18 executives -- Anand Jain, Sunil Thomas and Suresh Kondamudi, CleverTap helps consumer brands retain their users through it mobile marketing solution that brings together user data from online and offline channels on one centralized platform. CleverTap uses machine learning models to create differentiated customer engagement strategies that help marketers drive omnichannel growth.

CleverTap counts leading brands among its clientele including Vodafone, Star, Sony, Domino’s Pizza, GO-JEK and BookMyShow. The company operates out of San Francisco, New York, London, Singapore, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

Prior to launching CleverTap, its co-founder Anand Jain was founding CTO of burrp.com, a local reviews and recommendations platform based out of Mumbai, which was acquired by Infomedia 18 Ltd (now merged with Network 18) in 2009. Prior to burrp.com, Anand was based out of the US (Seattle and San Francisco) where he has worked with with Motorola, AT&T and a mobile startup - Brience.

InsureTech Startup Turtlemint Raises $25 Mn from Sequoia India

Mumbai-headquartered online insurance distribution platform Turtlemint has closed a $25 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital India along with contribution from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.

This startup will use the latest funds to further scale up their digital network across India.

So far, Turtlemint has raised a total of $31 million in funding over three rounds, according to the data by Crunchbase.

Founded in 2015, by Kunal Shah, Anand Prabhudesai and Dhirendra Mahyavanshi, Turtlemint provides recommendations to customers based on proprietary algorithms and data analytics. It caters to about 25,000 licensed insurance experts (PoSP’s), across 700 cities, to help customers select and complete their insurance purchase using their proprietary MintPro app.

“A lot of customers, while depending on online research to learn more about the available policies, ultimately prefer to buy their insurance from an intermediary they can personally interact with. We developed MintPro to bridge this online-offline gap," said Dhirendra Mahyavanshi, one of the Co-founders of Turtlemint.

"This model has helped Turtlemint to provide insurance for customers and has widened career opportunities for insurance agents across Tier II cities in India," he said.

Anand Prabhudesai, Co-founder, Turtlemint, said that the app helps PoSP’s sell multiple insurance policies from different companies to their clients — ranging from life to health to motor insurance — through a simple online process that requires no paperwork. “It’s all done on their smartphones,” he said.

Commenting on the funding, Harshjit Sethi, Principal, Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said: “Turtlemint has pioneered a new model that is not only bringing new agents into the insurance domain but is also helping them become more productive and effective with their customers by making them digitally savvy. Sequoia India is excited to partner with them from the early stages — the company is growing at a very fast clip and is well on its way to transforming insurance distribution in the country.”

Anup Gupta, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, said that the digitization of the insurance value-chain is a huge opportunity and benefits all the participants — customers by providing access to the right products, agents through significant business growth and productivity and insurers through improved transparency. “We have been impressed by Dhirendra’s and Anand’s vision and execution of transforming the insurance ecosystem by working in close collaboration with agents and insurers; and are privileged to have partnered with them from the concept stage,” he said.

Turtlemint competes with MintWise, Coverfox Insurance, and BankBazaar.com. However, other players such as PayTM amd flipkart are also entering online insurance market.

Paytm, which began operations in 2010 as a digital wallet service, has now diversified into financial services, and is looking strongly to cash in on insurance premiums. In February 2017, Paytm registered two insurance entities, Paytm Life Insurance Ltd and Paytm General Insurance Ltd with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

In May last year, Acko Technologies, an Insur-tech startup based out of Mumbai, had raised $12 million in a funding round led by Amazon Inc.

In the same month, Gurgaon-based digital-only insurance platform Toffee Insurance had raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Kalaari Capital, Omidyar Network and Accion Venture Lab.

Source - Business Line

CarDekho Raises $110 Mn from Sequoia, Hillhouse and CapitalG

Jaipur headquartered automobile classified portal CarDekho.com has raised $110 million in Series C round of funding from Sequoia India, Hillhouse, CapitalG , the investment arm of Google's parent Alphabet, and Axis Bank.

Cardekho intends to utilize the raised funds in the used-car business, insurance and finance verticals. With latest fundraise, the comany's total funding currently stands at $185 million.

The startup works directly with more than eight car and motorcycle manufacturers that make up for 15-30% of their combined annual sales. CarDekho works with 5,000 dealerships across India. In addition, it works in collaboration with over 10 financial institutions across the country to facilitate used car financing.

“Our used-cars engine has scaled up tremendously and has also enabled us to incubate allied businesses like insurance and finance as they are one of the largest opportunities ahead of us,” Jain said.

The opportunity lies in extending formal credit and insurance coverage to the new-to-formal economy population and will continue to be a focus area for the company, he added.

Launched in 2008 by Amit Jain and Anurag Jain Cardelho also has a presence in countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia under the brand names of ZigWheels and OTO (in Indonesia). The company is reportedly valued close to $500 million however exact value couldn’t be ascertained.

CarDekho raised funding from Tata Group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata in 2015. Along with its other group sites like ZigWheels, Gaadi, PowerDrift and BikdeDekho, CarDekho competes with companies including Droom, Cars24, CarTrade, OLX and Quikr.

In 2015, Carekho become a pioneer in introducing specialised portals like TyreDekho.com and TrucksDekho.com and CollegeDekho.com.

Cardekho has also made quite a few acquisitions including acquisition of Gaadi.com in 2014 and Zigwheels in 2015. In August last year, Cardekho's parent Girnarsoft acquired PowerDrift, an India’s largest YouTube channel for automotive content.

Girnar Software has also acquired Buying IQ (shopping engine), Drishya360s (virtual reality), Volob Technologies (AR-VR focused visual communications), Connecto (SaaS start-up), Help on Wheels, road side assistance startup.

According to market research firm Mordor Intelligence, the market for used car in India might hit $75-billion mark by 2023, with a CAGR of 15.2% during the forecast period of 2018-2023.

Source - Financial Express

Student Co-living Startup Stanza Living Raises $10 Mn in Funding led by Sequoia India

Delhi headquartered Stanza Living, a tech-enabled co-living concept startup which is re-imagining student housing in India, has raised a total of Rs 73 crore (USD 10 million) in an investment round led by Sequoia India. This is in addition to Rs 13 crores (USD 2 million) that the company had raised in its first round of institutional funding from Matrix and Accel Partners in November 2017.

With the funding in place, Stanza Living will focus on strengthening its three key business pillars of technology, people and network of operations. The startup is also aiming to strengthen its position as one of India’s largest student co-living companies.

Technology is at the centre of Stanza Living’s business and is one of its core differentiators. The fresh funding will be channelled to bolster the company’s tech engine that drives effectiveness in project management, efficiency in business operations and enables personalised service delivery. Stanza Living will further leverage the funding to expand to multiple markets and strengthen its core leadership team while onboarding specialised talent across functions.

Commenting on the funding, Anindya Dutta, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Stanza Living, said, “The student housing segment in India offers immense potential but remains largely unorganised. We are determined to transform this segment by offering a professionally-managed co-living experience that mirror international standards. We currently operate 15+ residences in Delhi NCR with a total capacity of 2000 beds. The funding will enable us to unlock multiple opportunities that we’ve identified across important educational hubs and exponentially grow the Stanza community across the country.”

“Marquee global players investing in Stanza Living underlines the confidence the investor community has in our business model,” said Sandeep Dalmia, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Stanza Living.

“We understand that a student’s lifestyle is extremely distinct. Our industry-first, full-stack business model fundamentally enables us to design our co-living spaces and tailor our services to cater to their specific needs and desires. It allows us to set up and manage end-to-end operations which we believe is absolutely critical to ensure an unmatched experience for our residents,” he added.

“Stanza’s team and their execution is impressive, and Sequoia India is delighted to partner with them in their vision to provide quality housing to students in India. Student housing is an established asset class in the west and we believe Stanza, with its scalable business model and strong economics, can create the asset class in India”, said Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India Advisors.

Gourav Bhattacharya, Director, Matrix India, commented “We are very excited about the progress the Stanza team has made over the last 12 months, and think they have a unique opportunity to create a large company by organizing the student housing space. Their approach is a win-win for students and parents through better experience, as well as supply owners through better economics. We are delighted to continue supporting Anindya and Sandeep on their journey."

Abhinav Chaturvedi, Principal at Accel added, "We are delighted to continue our partnership with Stanza Living. In a short period of time, Stanza has become the go-to place for student accommodation in Delhi/NCR. The new money will help expand the Stanza brand to other parts of the Indian market."

Stanza Living is challenging the status quo when it comes to student community living through dedicated programmes like ‘Stanza Springboard’, which focuses on providing career enhancement opportunities, and ‘Stanza Social’, centred around year-long community engagement events as well as exclusive discounted access to a curated list of restaurants, brands and experiences.

In July this year, StayAbode, an another co-living spaces startup, had raised funding for an undisclosed amount from Anupam Mittal (CEO, People Group) and Vineet Sekhsaria (Head, Real Estate investing, Morgan Stanley) and Japanese gaming company Akatsuki Inc.

Last November, Stanza Living had raised ₹13 Crore in its first round of institutional funding via Matrix Partners and Accel Partners.

Stanza Living was co-founded by Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta in 2017. Dalmia is an alumnus of Delhi College of Engineering and IIM Ahmedabad. Prior to Stanza, he was a Principal at Boston Consulting Group. Dutta was previously a Real Estate investor with Oaktree Capital and prior to that, he worked at Goldman Sachs In London. He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad.

Stanza Living is a tech-enabled co-living concept which is re-imagining student housing in India by transforming it into an experience product, in-line with evolved hospitality sectors like hotels and serviced apartments. From smart-space planning in residences to gamifying delivery of food for operational effectiveness, from exclusive community engagement programmes to delivering reliable and standardized services through technology integration, Stanza Living operates with a full-stack business model that puts students at the heart of its product and service design, development and execution. The company currently operates in Delhi-NCR and plans to expand its presence across multiple student markets in the country in the coming months.

In India, Stanza Living competes with Delhi-based Placio, StayAbode, StudentAcco and also Zolo, which caters to PG segment. Placio had raised $2 million in pre-series-A funding from Prestellar Ventures, a Singapore-based private equity, while Zolo had raised $5 million from Nexus Venture Partners, in January 2017.

[Top Image - (L-R) Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta, Co-Founders, Stanza Living]

Student Co-living Startup Stanza Living Raises $10 Mn in Funding led by Sequoia India

Delhi headquartered Stanza Living, a tech-enabled co-living concept startup which is re-imagining student housing in India, has raised a total of Rs 73 crore (USD 10 million) in an investment round led by Sequoia India. This is in addition to Rs 13 crores (USD 2 million) that the company had raised in its first round of institutional funding from Matrix and Accel Partners in November 2017.

With the funding in place, Stanza Living will focus on strengthening its three key business pillars of technology, people and network of operations. The startup is also aiming to strengthen its position as one of India’s largest student co-living companies.

Technology is at the centre of Stanza Living’s business and is one of its core differentiators. The fresh funding will be channelled to bolster the company’s tech engine that drives effectiveness in project management, efficiency in business operations and enables personalised service delivery. Stanza Living will further leverage the funding to expand to multiple markets and strengthen its core leadership team while onboarding specialised talent across functions.

Commenting on the funding, Anindya Dutta, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Stanza Living, said, “The student housing segment in India offers immense potential but remains largely unorganised. We are determined to transform this segment by offering a professionally-managed co-living experience that mirror international standards. We currently operate 15+ residences in Delhi NCR with a total capacity of 2000 beds. The funding will enable us to unlock multiple opportunities that we’ve identified across important educational hubs and exponentially grow the Stanza community across the country.”

“Marquee global players investing in Stanza Living underlines the confidence the investor community has in our business model,” said Sandeep Dalmia, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Stanza Living.

“We understand that a student’s lifestyle is extremely distinct. Our industry-first, full-stack business model fundamentally enables us to design our co-living spaces and tailor our services to cater to their specific needs and desires. It allows us to set up and manage end-to-end operations which we believe is absolutely critical to ensure an unmatched experience for our residents,” he added.

“Stanza’s team and their execution is impressive, and Sequoia India is delighted to partner with them in their vision to provide quality housing to students in India. Student housing is an established asset class in the west and we believe Stanza, with its scalable business model and strong economics, can create the asset class in India”, said Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India Advisors.

Gourav Bhattacharya, Director, Matrix India, commented “We are very excited about the progress the Stanza team has made over the last 12 months, and think they have a unique opportunity to create a large company by organizing the student housing space. Their approach is a win-win for students and parents through better experience, as well as supply owners through better economics. We are delighted to continue supporting Anindya and Sandeep on their journey."

Abhinav Chaturvedi, Principal at Accel added, "We are delighted to continue our partnership with Stanza Living. In a short period of time, Stanza has become the go-to place for student accommodation in Delhi/NCR. The new money will help expand the Stanza brand to other parts of the Indian market."

Stanza Living is challenging the status quo when it comes to student community living through dedicated programmes like ‘Stanza Springboard’, which focuses on providing career enhancement opportunities, and ‘Stanza Social’, centred around year-long community engagement events as well as exclusive discounted access to a curated list of restaurants, brands and experiences.

In July this year, StayAbode, an another co-living spaces startup, had raised funding for an undisclosed amount from Anupam Mittal (CEO, People Group) and Vineet Sekhsaria (Head, Real Estate investing, Morgan Stanley) and Japanese gaming company Akatsuki Inc.

Last November, Stanza Living had raised ₹13 Crore in its first round of institutional funding via Matrix Partners and Accel Partners.

Stanza Living was co-founded by Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta in 2017. Dalmia is an alumnus of Delhi College of Engineering and IIM Ahmedabad. Prior to Stanza, he was a Principal at Boston Consulting Group. Dutta was previously a Real Estate investor with Oaktree Capital and prior to that, he worked at Goldman Sachs In London. He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad.

Stanza Living is a tech-enabled co-living concept which is re-imagining student housing in India by transforming it into an experience product, in-line with evolved hospitality sectors like hotels and serviced apartments. From smart-space planning in residences to gamifying delivery of food for operational effectiveness, from exclusive community engagement programmes to delivering reliable and standardized services through technology integration, Stanza Living operates with a full-stack business model that puts students at the heart of its product and service design, development and execution. The company currently operates in Delhi-NCR and plans to expand its presence across multiple student markets in the country in the coming months.

In India, Stanza Living competes with Delhi-based Placio, StayAbode, StudentAcco and also Zolo, which caters to PG segment. Placio had raised $2 million in pre-series-A funding from Prestellar Ventures, a Singapore-based private equity, while Zolo had raised $5 million from Nexus Venture Partners, in January 2017.

[Top Image - (L-R) Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta, Co-Founders, Stanza Living]

Sequoia India Closes its Fund-VI at $695 Million, To Look Beyond India, SE Asia

Sequoia Capital India (Sequoia India), the India unit of Silicon Valley's top venture capital fund Sequoia Capital, has announced later today that it has recently closed its sixth fund at US$695 million.

Sequoia Capital India, which has made over 200 investments so far in companies across India and Southeast Asia (SE-Asia), will use the fund to double down on investments in both early and growth stage companies in the technology, consumer and healthcare sectors across India and SE-Asia.

The Fund-VI comes two years after it last raised $930 million for its previous India-focused fund and will take its total assets under management to $3.9 billion.

Besides this, Sequoia India also announced the departure of Abhay Pandey, who led some investments such as B9 Beverages, Awfis, Vini Cosmetics and others.

A very tough decision to say “farewell” after 11 terrific years is made somewhat easier as @Sequoia_India is in the best shape I have seen it in. Time to pursue my passion outside. Sincere gratitude to the founders I have had the privilege to work with, the team and my partners pic.twitter.com/8J0AKwHdHa

— Abhay Pandey (@Abhay__Pandey) August 21, 2018

"Abhay had wanted to create a dedicated consumer fund," said the firm in a blog post.

Abheek Anand who joined the firm from Facebook and led the investments in Appier, Grofers, Cuemath, and MoneyTap has been promoted to Managing Director. He will focus on investments in SE-Asia.

Also Read - Axilor Ventures Launches New ₹200 crore Tech-focused Fund for Early Age Startups

Last month, Sequoia India's two former managing directors - VT Bharadwaj and Gautam Mago, teamed up to launch a new $290 million investment firm, which will back early- to growth-stage private companies

Future Plan

Sequoia India is now looking at investment opportunities in sectors including (but not limited to) -- mobile internet, online brands, enterprise SaaS, Artificial Intelligence, cryptocurrency, deep technology, healthcare, new age consumer brands. Moreover this time, the firm hinted, it likes to invest beyond India and SE-Asia unlike to its earlier approach of sticking to just India and SE-Asia.

[Top image - Sequoia India Group | Via - Sequoiacap.com]

Bike Rental Startup Metro Bikes Raises $12.2 Mn from Sequoia, Accel, TaxiForSure Co-Founder

Bangalore-based Wicked Ride Adventure Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates online rental service for scooters and motorcycles via app Metro Bikes and brand name 'Bounce', has raised $12.2 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, Accel Partners, Raghunandan G, co-founder of TaxiForSure, and a consortium of other investors have also participated this round.

The startup intends to utilize the funds in further scaling its network across Bengaluru, invest in a delivery model through innovations in technology and develop a pan-India presence by expanding to all major cities across India by 2020.

The startup, which recently changed its brand name to Bounce to avoid the confusion of being operational only in metro cities, has earlier raised $790,000 as seed fund in July 2015 followed by $1.5 Mn funding from Chandrasekhar Gopalan, chairman of Sutures India Pvt. Ltd, in February this year, according to data by Crunchbase.

Founded in May 2014 by Anil G, Varun Agni and Vivekananda Hallekere, Metro Bikes aka Bounce offers a dockless scooter sharing service allowing users to pick up the scooter from anywhere, ride to their destination and drop it off at any location.

The startup claims to be India's first smart urban mobility solution offering premium bikes including Harley Davidson, Triumph and Royal Enfield motorcycles. It charges on average ₹6 per kilometre from a rider.

Beside scooters and motorcycles, Bounce has also ventured into bicycles, electric pedalled bicycles and kick scooters.

In one of its future plans, the startup plans to eventually convert its entire fleet into electric vehicles and is in talks with partners in China and Taiwan to source such products.

H R Vivekananda, co-founder, Bounce, said that there is tremendous potential for innovation in the shared mobility segment given the major gap in last mile connectivity in intra-city travel. Market opportunity is around $4.5 billion.

Speaking about the funding, Shailesh Lakhani, managing director, Sequoia Capital India, said, "There has been a lot of attention on four-wheel shared mobility across the world. While it makes sense in other markets, a service like Bounce has immense potential in India, where limitations of space and cost has always made two-wheelers more popular."

"The network has the potential to be a category creator - being the first to offer an extremely cost-effective, personalised, motorised transport that fills a critical need gap in the Indian market — and Sequoia India is looking forward to being a part of this journey,” added Lakhani.

Last December, Y-Combinator backed Wheelstreet, touted as one of India’s largest motorbike rental platform, had launched a Dockless Commute platform for their users, which at that time was India's first. Prior to this, Mumbai-based self-drive bike rental platform ONN Bikes raised INR 4.5 crore from Venture Catalysts, Z Nation Lab and other angels.

Source - Business Standard

[Top Image ~ YourStory.com]

Bike Rental Startup Metro Bikes Raises $12.2 Mn from Sequoia, Accel, TaxiForSure Co-Founder

Bangalore-based Wicked Ride Adventure Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates online rental service for scooters and motorcycles via app Metro Bikes and brand name 'Bounce', has raised $12.2 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, Accel Partners, Raghunandan G, co-founder of TaxiForSure, and a consortium of other investors have also participated this round.

The startup intends to utilize the funds in further scaling its network across Bengaluru, invest in a delivery model through innovations in technology and develop a pan-India presence by expanding to all major cities across India by 2020.

The startup, which recently changed its brand name to Bounce to avoid the confusion of being operational only in metro cities, has earlier raised $790,000 as seed fund in July 2015 followed by $1.5 Mn funding from Chandrasekhar Gopalan, chairman of Sutures India Pvt. Ltd, in February this year, according to data by Crunchbase.

Founded in May 2014 by Anil G, Varun Agni and Vivekananda Hallekere, Metro Bikes aka Bounce offers a dockless scooter sharing service allowing users to pick up the scooter from anywhere, ride to their destination and drop it off at any location.

The startup claims to be India's first smart urban mobility solution offering premium bikes including Harley Davidson, Triumph and Royal Enfield motorcycles. It charges on average ₹6 per kilometre from a rider.

Beside scooters and motorcycles, Bounce has also ventured into bicycles, electric pedalled bicycles and kick scooters.

In one of its future plans, the startup plans to eventually convert its entire fleet into electric vehicles and is in talks with partners in China and Taiwan to source such products.

H R Vivekananda, co-founder, Bounce, said that there is tremendous potential for innovation in the shared mobility segment given the major gap in last mile connectivity in intra-city travel. Market opportunity is around $4.5 billion.

Speaking about the funding, Shailesh Lakhani, managing director, Sequoia Capital India, said, "There has been a lot of attention on four-wheel shared mobility across the world. While it makes sense in other markets, a service like Bounce has immense potential in India, where limitations of space and cost has always made two-wheelers more popular."

"The network has the potential to be a category creator - being the first to offer an extremely cost-effective, personalised, motorised transport that fills a critical need gap in the Indian market — and Sequoia India is looking forward to being a part of this journey,” added Lakhani.

Last December, Y-Combinator backed Wheelstreet, touted as one of India’s largest motorbike rental platform, had launched a Dockless Commute platform for their users, which at that time was India's first. Prior to this, Mumbai-based self-drive bike rental platform ONN Bikes raised INR 4.5 crore from Venture Catalysts, Z Nation Lab and other angels.

Source - Business Standard

[Top Image ~ YourStory.com]

Former Sequoia Capital India's MDs To Launch ₹2000 Crore Investment Firm

VT Bharadwaj and Gautam Mago, two former managing directors of India unit of Silicon Valley's top venture capital fund Sequoia Capital, have teamed up to launch a new Rs 2,000 crore (~ $290 million) investment firm, which will back early- to growth-stage private companies, reported Times of India citing people privy to the development.

According to the report, the new investment firm called as 'A91 Partners' will invest in emerging start-up ventures across consumer, healthcare, financial services and technology sectors. The upcoming firm aim to start making investments by early 2019 with ticket size of $10-30 million, typically at the series-B stage.

Bharadwaj, who had worked for over decade at Sequoia Capital India, quit the firm in April this year, hinting that he is about to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations. Prior to this, Gautam Mago had already resigned from the VC firm.

Confirming the report, Bharadwaj said to TOI, “Gautam and I believe this is the right time for us to be embarking on an entrepreneurial journey in the investment business. We want to be active meaningful long-term partners in the best emerging small- and mid-sized private companies in India.”

An IIM-Ahmedabad alumni, Bharadwaj had previously worked with McKinsey & Company as an engagement manager for six years till 2007. He currently serves on the board of 14 companies including Genesis Colours, Indigo Paints, Hector Beverages, RAW Pressery, Urban Ladder, Healthkart, among others.

In 2011, a similar intance took place when four founding MDs of the Sequoia Capital India unit -- Sumir Chadha, K P Balaraj, Sandeep Singhal and S K Jain -- relaunched WestBridge Capital, a public markets fund which focuses on investments in India. Later in March this year, it was reported that while KP Balaraj retired, SK Jain is planning to start his own family office to back new-age entrepreneurs.

In 2016, three senior executives from Helion Venture Partners — Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal and Rahul Chowdhri — came together to start Stellaris Venture Partners, a technology-focused fund. Others like Rishi Navani, co-founder & MD at Matrix Partners, quit to launch Epiq Capital. Helion Venture Partners’ founding partner Kanwaljit Singh formed Fireside Ventures. SAIF Partners also saw two of its fund managers, Mukul Singhal and Rohit Jain, leave to launch Pravega Ventures in 2016.

Earlier this month, Sashi Parvatha Reddi, a veteran entrepreneur and angel investor, launched of $100 Mn early-stage venture capital fund - SRI Capital Fund-I, his first technology-focused fund.

In this same month, Ganesh Ventures, set up by Jessica Wong (former founding partner, Cyber Carrier, a Hong Kong based VC) announce $250 million fund for investing in Indian Startups. The Fund aims to invest this amount in Indian startups across sectors like TMT, consumer products, fintech and health-tech over the next 3-5 years. The first close has been at $30 million

Former Sequoia Capital India's MDs To Launch ₹2000 Crore Investment Firm

VT Bharadwaj and Gautam Mago, two former managing directors of India unit of Silicon Valley's top venture capital fund Sequoia Capital, have teamed up to launch a new Rs 2,000 crore (~ $290 million) investment firm, which will back early- to growth-stage private companies, reported Times of India citing people privy to the development.

According to the report, the new investment firm called as 'A91 Partners' will invest in emerging start-up ventures across consumer, healthcare, financial services and technology sectors. The upcoming firm aim to start making investments by early 2019 with ticket size of $10-30 million, typically at the series-B stage.

Bharadwaj, who had worked for over decade at Sequoia Capital India, quit the firm in April this year, hinting that he is about to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations. Prior to this, Gautam Mago had already resigned from the VC firm.

Confirming the report, Bharadwaj said to TOI, “Gautam and I believe this is the right time for us to be embarking on an entrepreneurial journey in the investment business. We want to be active meaningful long-term partners in the best emerging small- and mid-sized private companies in India.”

An IIM-Ahmedabad alumni, Bharadwaj had previously worked with McKinsey & Company as an engagement manager for six years till 2007. He currently serves on the board of 14 companies including Genesis Colours, Indigo Paints, Hector Beverages, RAW Pressery, Urban Ladder, Healthkart, among others.

In 2011, a similar intance took place when four founding MDs of the Sequoia Capital India unit -- Sumir Chadha, K P Balaraj, Sandeep Singhal and S K Jain -- relaunched WestBridge Capital, a public markets fund which focuses on investments in India. Later in March this year, it was reported that while KP Balaraj retired, SK Jain is planning to start his own family office to back new-age entrepreneurs.

In 2016, three senior executives from Helion Venture Partners — Ritesh Banglani, Alok Goyal and Rahul Chowdhri — came together to start Stellaris Venture Partners, a technology-focused fund. Others like Rishi Navani, co-founder & MD at Matrix Partners, quit to launch Epiq Capital. Helion Venture Partners’ founding partner Kanwaljit Singh formed Fireside Ventures. SAIF Partners also saw two of its fund managers, Mukul Singhal and Rohit Jain, leave to launch Pravega Ventures in 2016.

Earlier this month, Sashi Parvatha Reddi, a veteran entrepreneur and angel investor, launched of $100 Mn early-stage venture capital fund - SRI Capital Fund-I, his first technology-focused fund.

In this same month, Ganesh Ventures, set up by Jessica Wong (former founding partner, Cyber Carrier, a Hong Kong based VC) announce $250 million fund for investing in Indian Startups. The Fund aims to invest this amount in Indian startups across sectors like TMT, consumer products, fintech and health-tech over the next 3-5 years. The first close has been at $30 million

In Sequoia Capital's Alleged Money Laundering Involvement, India Begins Probe

One of the most active venture capital firm within Indian startup ecosystem, Sequoia capital is now going through troubled circumstances as result of political game of throne running in full force in India because of upmcoming general election.

American firm Sequoia is finding itself estranged and one of pawns of Indian politics after India has alleged that it has possible role in money laundering activities in the country. Moreover, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which looks at financial crimes, has already started probing the alleged role of American firm, Sequoia Capital.

In a latest development in this case, ED is looking in to the reason behind the Sequoia’s acquisition of shares of Vasan Healthcare, a health care startup, at a premium from a company allegedly controlled by former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram, said a report by Bloomberg.

In April 2016, India's central government's dictated activities has already created an atmosphere of scare and worries in the international financial community active in India when ED raided Sequoia Capital office in Bangalore. In that spooky incidence, ED grilled the Sequoia executives barring their communications with the outside world as well as temporarily seized Sequoia's office documents, laptops and hard drives, and looked into all, shocking the whole VC and private equity community in the country.

Sequoia, which had invested in Vasan in 2009, has made one of the largest bets on India. In December 2015, it raised $900 million for its India-focused fund. ED had raided the Bengaluru office of WestBridge Capital as well.

Investment funds associated with Sequoia Capital India hold a minority interest in Vasan Healthcare. VT Bharadwaj, a Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India Advisors Private Limited, served as Sequoia Capital India’s designee on the Vasan Healthcare Board of Directors. During his tenure on the Board, he demanded that management of Vasan Healthcare conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations, which was unearthed in 2015.

According to a report by Indian daily, there are two transactions where Sequoia paid Rs. 32.9 crores for shares that just two years before were worth only RS.3 crores. The windfall gain on the shares of Vasan Health Care was made by a company in 2010 - that was indirectly owned by Karti Chidambaram.

Founded by A. M. Arun, who was ranked as 244th richest Indian with ₹2,314 crore fortune in its 2015 list, Vasan Healthcare Group is a health care group based out of Trichy & Chennai.

Via - Bloomberg | Economic Times | LiveMint

Social Commerce Platform Meesho Raises $11.5 Mn in Series B Funding Led by Sequoia India

Bangalore-based Meesho, a social commerce platform that helps both resellers and emerging brands build businesses using social media, has raised an $11.5 million Series B funding round led by Sequoia India.

Existing investors SAIF Partners, Y Combinator and Venture Highway also participated in the round.

Earlier in October 2017, Meesho had raised $3.1 million from investors led by SAIF Partners. Prior to that, the startup had raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from investor Rajul Garg, besides other investors. Meeso has raised $15M in total so far.

Founded by IIT Delhi alumni Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015, Meesho provides an online platform, as well as sourcing, logistics and payments tools, to help “social sellers” launch, build and promote online businesses using WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media channels. The company was founded in Bangalore in 2015 by IIT-Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal.

A typical Meesho social seller, which includes small retailers, housewives, students and even retirees, earns between INR 20,000-25,000 per month by selling products across fashion, lifestyle and many other categories.

To date, Meesho has enabled over 800,000 social sellers in over 500 towns across India to start and grow their businesses with zero capital cost. Together, the small businesses on Meesho’s platform currently reach over four million consumers.

Meesho will utilize this fresh raise to accelerate hiring and product development, while expanding the categories on the platform.

“Lakhs of aspiring Indians are finally realising their dreams of starting their own business online with Meesho,” said Aatrey. “We have grown 20X since our Series A last year, and we continue to be the biggest cheerleader for the social reselling model that we have built from scratch over the last two years. With the new investment, we plan to double down on our mission to create 20M entrepreneurs over the next two years by expanding our suite of tools.”

“Social commerce is the future of e-commerce in India. People buy from people they trust, and that’s what Meesho enables. Entrepreneurs, many of them women, use the Meesho platform to recommend, customize and sell to their family and friends,” said Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors. “Social selling is a huge trend and Sequoia India is excited to partner with Meesho, which is the early leader in this space.”

For Sequoia, Meesho is second investment within a week as earlier FreeCharge co-founder Kunal Shah, for his upcoming venture, had reportedly raised $30 million in a funding round led by Sequoia .

“Vidit and team have executed amazingly well since Series A, and have demonstrated that Meesho can become a massive alternate distribution channel.” said Mukul Arora, Managing Director, SAIF Partners. “We are really excited to continue backing them, and welcome Sequoia India to this partnership.”

South Asia’s Largest Collaborative Coworking Space Network Raises $20 Mn from Sequoia India

Awfis Space Solutions Pvt. Ltd., South Asia’s largest network of collaborative co-working spaces, has received an investment of USD 20 million from Sequoia India. The funds will be used to grow its network of centers, launch new and innovative products/services and further enhance the existing technology platform.

Working towards achieving its target of having an Awfis centre within a 10 minutes driving radius in each of the key metros, the company plans to establish 100+ centres with 35,000+ seats across Mumbai, NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Pune in the next 24 months. Maple Capital Advisors acted as the financial advisor for the transaction.

Commenting on the investment from Sequoia India, Amit Ramani – Founder & CEO, Awfis said, “We have seen a huge demand in the market for co-working spaces and have created a shared economy platform that leverages technology. Awfis is transforming under-utilised real estate assets and providing an affordable and exciting new age work environment for today’s entrepreneur. We believe that this will facilitate a change in preference of the conventional office user from traditional offices to new age co-working spaces. We are thrilled with the market response and are confident that this funding will further enable our goal to have an ‘Awfis’ available anytime/anywhere in all major cities”

Awfis was jointly incubated by Amit Ramani and The Three Sisters: Institutional Office (‘TTS:IO’) with a total capital investment of USD 11 million in April 2015. Led by the three daughters of Mr. Rana Kapoor (Radha, Raakhe and Roshini), TTS:IO is an institutionally organized family office founded with the stated objective of incubating ‘new-age’ creative businesses.

Radha Kapoor Khanna - Sponsor, TTS:IO and Board Member, Awfis commented on the occasion saying, “India’s start-up and MSME community are extremely important for the growth, innovation and transformation of the Indian economy. An integral component for accelerating this eco-system is the creation of collaborative and high energy work spaces for the entrepreneurial community. We believe that Awfis, through its new age workspace designs and best in class technology is well positioned to bring in benefits of shared economy to start-ups, MSMEs and corporates. We are delighted with the induction of xxx into Awfis as we attempt to build scale and retain our No. 1 position in the market.”

Abhay Pandey, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said, “Awfis is playing on two significant global trends - sharing economy and communities. This being delivered through a superior user experience at a lower total cost makes it more exciting. We are delighted to partner with Amit and team and TTS:IO in this journey.”
In a short span of two years, Awfis has shown remarkable growth and has achieved:

• A network of over 7,500+ seats across 21 centres in 8 cities across India


• Strong demand from an eclectic community of entrepreneurs, SMEs, freelancers and business corporates who have helped create a thriving community of over 5,000+ Awfis members



• An average 90%+ occupancy across its established centres



• A unique, ‘Just-in-Time’ booking facility through its customised mobile app and website

Apart from its own proprietary centers, Awfis also has a unique, asset light ‘managed aggregation’ model - partnering with space owners who have unused commercial space and transforming them into suitable places to work for the Awfis community.

The company has a successful shared economy business model that not just provides a network of ready to use workspaces across India, but also offers value driven services that can be booked ‘just-in-time’ through its website and mobile app. The Awfis Rewards program provides its members access to exclusive offers from 100+ renowned partners (including Amazon Web Services, Oyo Rooms, Hard Rock Café, SRL Diagnostics, etc).

The member base at Awfis includes a growing network of 500+ companies ranging from India’s leading startups/MSMEs to Fortune 500 companies, forming the largest co-working community in India.

Founded in April 2015 by Amit Ramani (MD & CEO of Nelson India and alumnus of Cornell University and SPA, New Delhi) with strategic backing from TTS:IO. Awfis is currently the largest player in co-working spaces in South-Asia and the second largest player in India when compared specifically with business centres. Awfis has created proprietary Grade-A, highly energetic and inspirational community work spaces across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune and operates 21 Pro-WorkingTM centres currently. It currently serves over 5000+ members providing them with opportunities to network and grow through curated events and programs. Awfis Rewards Program is a recently launched initiative bringing over 100+ exclusive partnerships curated just for its members. The company has a competent team of 130+ professionals with strong experience and pedigreed background.

Digital Entertainment Startup Pocket Aces Raises $3M Led by Sequoia Capital India

Pocket Aces, one of the biggest original digital content creators in India, has raised $3 million from a group of global investors led by Sequoia Capital India, including North Base Media, T.V. Mohandas Pai led Aarin Capital, 3one4 Capital, Axilor Ventures, and FreeCharge founders, Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, among others. Pocket Aces was founded in 2014 by Ashwin Suresh and Anirudh Pandita, both engineers, former investment bankers and private equity professionals, who moved to India with a mission to create high quality local content for millennials.

Suresh, who previously worked with Citigroup and set up Times' Junglee Pictures said, “ With increasing mobile internet penetration, attention minutes have moved to social media and messaging platforms. The emergence of these platforms has ushered in a new media ecosystem globally. As a team of first-principles thinkers who believe in iterative, data-led experimentation, Pocket Aces aims to be a leader in this new ecosystem. We are laying the foundation for the nascent digital entertainment industry in India and look up to companies like Pixar as benchmarks for creative innovation.”

In only 15 months since the release of their first piece of content, Pocket Aces is reaching an audience of over 20 million people on a weekly basis. The company’s brands - FilterCopy, Dice Media, and Gobble have completed over 180 million organic video views on the back of heavy social sharing and high retention rates. The website filtercopy.com is clocking over 3 million page views each month. The company has created multiple digital stars including Mithila Palkar and Dhruv Sehgal, who star in the company’s smash hit web series Little Things.

T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman at Aarin Capital Partners said, “ The Pocket Aces team has shown a grounded empathy for their audience's consumption behavior and tastes, and that reflects in the continuous feedback loops they've built to rigorously improve their production and narrative quality. We are tremendously excited to be working with them to help push for the evolution of content consumption online, and we're looking forward to the many more creative ideas to b e released by the team.”

Marcus Brauchli, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at North Base Media, previously Managing Editor at The Wall Street Journal, added, “ Media designed for distribution over social platforms is immensely powerful, especially for new audiences who are accessing the content via mobile and often sharing content for the first time. Pocket Aces' work has an authenticity and virality to it, that only a few companies around the world can match.”

Pandita, an alumnus of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Goldman Sachs, shared, “The capital raised will be used to create exceptional content, bolster our technology base, and add world-class talent to our team. The plan is to create over 500 short-form live-action and food videos and at least 6 long-form properties over the next year. We will push boundaries by experimenting with unique content-based commerce models as well as new distribution mediums like live streaming and messaging.”
Pocket Aces' revenue model is currently centered around native advertising by brands, and the company has delivered excellent results for its clients, including the likes of Penguin Random House, Marico’s Saffola, Godrej’s Cinthol, FreeCharge, Tinder, Swiggy, VelvetCase.com, Little App, etc.

"Our content brands have high affinity among the 18-35 demographic and we will continue to partner with advertisers to create memorable content for this audience. We measure success based not only on number of views, but also on retention rates, engagement rates, and conversations generated for advertisers. We will also allow advertisers to use our tech platform to monitor campaigns in real-time, optimize distribution spends, and understand ROIs transparently. Additionally, we are syndicating our content and have already inked deals with NDTV and Dainik Bhaskar” concluded co-founder Aditi Shrivastava, a Princeton and Goldman Sachs alumnus, who previously founded the Intellecap Impact Investment Network.

Freshdesk Secures $55M from Sequoia Capital India and Accel Partners

Freshdesk, the leading provider of cloud-based customer engagement software, has announced a $55 Million Series F funding round led by new investor, Sequoia Capital India with the return of existing investor, Accel.

"We have been backing Freshdesk since our seed investment. We are excited about Freshdesk becoming one of the global iconic SaaS companies in the future." said Sameer Gandhi, Partner at Accel.

“We met Freshdesk four years back when it was getting started and have been tracking their progress closely ever since”, said Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India. “They have a world-class product vision and Sequoia is delighted to partner with Girish and lead this growth capital round to help scale India's leading SaaS company.”

“We are excited to have Sequoia Capital India as a new investor, the expertise and the excitement they bring will round out our already world-class team,” said Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO of Freshdesk.

Since the last round of funding in April 2015, the company doubled its customer base to over 80,000, opened a new office in Europe and added two new products, Hotline.io, an in-app support and engagement platform for mobile-first businesses; and Freshsales, a CRM solution and sales system for high-velocity sales teams. Freshdesk also debuted in Gartner’s May 2016 Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center1 and was included in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions For Midsize Teams for the first time.

Freshdesk’s products empower companies to deliver an exceptional customer experience at every touchpoint. With the addition of Hotline.io and Freshsales to the product portfolio, the new offerings expand the potential reach to mobile-first companies and sales teams. The latest round of funding will be used to accelerate the growth of these products and scaling Freshdesk and Freshservice, as well as the expansion of regional teams across the globe.

Earlier this year, Freshdesk opened its fifth global office in Berlin, Germany and named Arun Mani as Managing Director for Freshdesk Continental Europe. Other than its headquarters in San Bruno, Freshdesk has global offices in London, Sydney and Chennai and will focus on expanding the regional teams to better service its global customer base.

Image : Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO of Freshdesk