Vivriti Capital Raises Rs 350 Cr from LGT Lightstone Aspada

Chennai-based non-banking lender and debt arranger Vivriti Capital has raised Rs 350 crore in series B funding from private equity firm LGT Lightstone Aspada, taking the overall investment in the three-year-old company to Rs 700 crore.

Vivriti Capital, which has a loan book of around Rs 1,500 crore and runs online enterprise debt platform CredAvenue, will use the funds to scale up balance sheet of its credit business and invest in technology upgrade for debt arranging platform, the company's co-founder Gaurav Kumar told PTI over phone from Chennai.

The company will be launching an alternative investment fund next month, having got commitment from institutional investors for Rs 250 crore, Kumar said, adding he hopes to increase the company's balance sheet to Rs 2,000 crore in the next fiscal.

CredAvenue, the proprietary enterprise debt deal and value discovery online platform, has grossed volume of Rs 25,000 crore since its launch, and Kumar expects it to reach Rs 30,000 core by the end of March and Rs 50,000 crore by the end of next financial year (2020-21).

The platform connects high quality debt issuers and investors, offers credit underwriting solutions, analytical models, cutting edge structuring solutions and automated execution workflows. It has over 2,000 corporate/enterprise users, he said.

CredAvenue has facilitated debt deal of over Rs 25,000 crore for banks, NBFCs, small finance banks, mutual funds, financial institutions and family offices.

On the credit business, Kumar claimed that the company has zero bad loans and prices it debt at 11-15 per cent.

He said the company primarily focuses on small pharma, healthcare players and smaller non-banks.

The city-based investment bank Avendus Capital was the sole financial advisor for the fund raising round, Kumar said.

LGT Lightstone Aspada is an India-focused fund from LGT Lightstone, a global impact investment firm that invests in companies to build scale by leveraging.

LGT Lightstone is part of the Liechtenstein-based LGT Group, a private banking and asset management group owned by the royals of Liechtenstein. PTI BEN

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [18-23 Sept]

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

Slack Raises $250M Led by SoftBank at $5.1B Valuation

Workplace messaging app Slack has raised $250 million from SoftBank Group and other investors in its latest funding round, boosting the company's valuation to $5.1 billion. The latest fundraising, led by SoftBank through its giant Vision Fund and joined by Accel and other investors, has lifted Slack's total funds raised to $841 million.

Power2SME Raises $36M in Series E Round to Fuel Growth and Innovation

Power2SME has secured an additional $36 million in capital for its Series E Financing round, in order to continue its meteoric growth and dominance as a B2B Digital Ecosystem platform for SMEs. The latest round, representing the largest deal size for Power2SME, is a co-investment by its existing investors Inventus Capital Partners, Accel, Kalaari Capital and Nandan Nilekani with participation from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group.

Securonix Raises $29M in Series A Funding

Securonix, the market leader in big data security analytics, announced that it raised $29M in Series A funding to fuel its accelerating growth and leadership in the user behavior analytics, next-gen security information and event management (SIEM), and log management market spaces. The company will use the funding to extend its investment in technology innovation, and expansion in domestic and global markets.

The funding round was led by Volition Capital. Roger Hurwitz of Volition Capital will be joining the Securonix Board of Directors. Eight Roads Ventures also participated in the round.

91springboard Raises $20M from Sandway, Pearl Brook, AMA Holdings, Silo Holdings & Al Nour

91springboard, India’s first and most established coworking space provider, has announced the completion of a funding round from Sandway Investment Ltd, Pearl Brook Holdings, AMA Holdings, Silo Holdings and Al Nour. This takes the total funding raised by the company to $20 million+. 91springboard is a leader in the coworking space in India, with 2000+ companies working out of 91springboard’s hubs. The list includes, apart from startups, investors like 500startups, pi Ventures, Mumbai Angels; large international companies like Tokopedia and CBRE; and well-funded companies like Rivigo.

Minio Raises $20M in Series A Funding Led by Nexus Venture, Dell Technologies Capital & General Catalyst Partners

Minio, a provider of open source object storage for cloud-native and containerized applications, today announced $20M in Series A funding jointly led by Dell Technologies Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Nexus Venture Partners, with participation by Intel Capital, AME Cloud and Steve Singh. Funding will be allocated to accelerating product development, company growth and keeping pace with rapidly growing industry demand. The company also announced today its multi-cloud object storage offering, bringing Amazon S3 compatible object APIs to all cloud-native environments.

InnoVen Capital Invests Rs 100 Cr ($15.4M) in Online Travel Company Yatra.com

InnoVen Capital, Asia’s leading venture debt firm, recently closed a cross-border funding deal of Rs.100 crores ($15.4 million) with Yatra. Yatra.com is India’s leading online travel Company and provides a full range of travel-related services such as domestic and international air ticketing, hotel booking, homestays, holiday packages, bus ticketing, rail ticketing, activities, attractions and ancillary services. Yatra recently announced the acquisition of Air Travel Bureau Ltd., which is India’s largest independent corporate travel services provider, making the combination the largest corporate travel services platform in India. This financing round by InnoVen Capital is the largest venture debt funding provided to any Indian business and also the largest venture debt deal funded by any venture debt firm in India.

Save Solutions Raises $6M in Series A Funding from Incofin

Gaya-based rural financial services provider Save Solutions Pvt. Ltd (SAVE) on Tuesday said it has raised $6 million in a series A round of funding from international impact investor Incofin Investment Management.

Incofin, which has almost $850 million of assets under management, has invested in SAVE through its latest fund, AGRIF, which focuses on agricultural and financial services businesses.

Bangalore-based Startup, Homergize Raises Rs 6.5 Cr in Pre-series A Funding

Bangalore-based start-up, Homergize, a technology- based sourcing and services company, that caters to all construction and remodeling needs of customers and businesses, has raised INR 6.5 crore in pre-series A round of funding.

LG Chandraskhar – investor, social entrepreneur and Founder of Sutures India, a medical device company has invested in Homergize. The company fosters an E-marketplace and eco-system that promotes efficiency and enhances value in construction, interior design and home-improvement domains.

Fireside Ventures Leads the $1M Funding Round in Babycare Startup Mamaearth

Fireside Ventures, the Lead Investor in Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd ‘s brand Mamaearth have lead the second round of funding in the company. Mamaearth has raised $1 million to fund the brand’s innovation pipeline for entering into more categories with safer & healthier products for babies & mother starting with the launch of ‘Traditional Recipes’ by Mamaearth a range of wellness solutions for mothers including herb teas & supplements.

Bengaluru’s Self-Funded Startup Wins $1 Mn from Elon Musk’s Platform

Bengaluru-based Chimple Learning, a two-year-old self-funded startup has just won a $1 million ‘milestone prize’ for becoming one of five finalists in the Global learning XPRIZE, which was provided $15 million by none other than Elon Musk.

Chimple is part of Zoolore Learning Foundation, a non-profit organization in India dedicated to radically improve children’s learning. Chimple was selected to be one of the five finalists, from an initial pool of 198 entries across the world.

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

Amishi Consumer Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs pregnancy and baby care products firm The Moms Co., has raised $1 million (Rs 6.5 crore) in a Series A round of funding co-led by DSG Consumer Partners and Saama-Capital.

One year old HR tech startup Shortlist has raised a seed investment of $1 million (around Rs 6.4 crore).

Omni-channel web commerce solutions provider, Ace Turtle Services Pvt Ltd, has raised funding from InnoVen Capital.

eSports Gaming Company GamingMonk has Raised Funding from advantEdge

Enterprise communication platform Noticeboard has picked up funding from two angel investors, Aprameya Radhakrishna, co-founder of TaxiForSure and Shamik Sharma, former CTO of Myntra.

Scalable technology solutions provider iauro systems pvt ltd has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from micro venture capital firm Speciale Invest.

Image Source: ShutterStock

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [18-23 Sept]

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

Slack Raises $250M Led by SoftBank at $5.1B Valuation

Workplace messaging app Slack has raised $250 million from SoftBank Group and other investors in its latest funding round, boosting the company's valuation to $5.1 billion. The latest fundraising, led by SoftBank through its giant Vision Fund and joined by Accel and other investors, has lifted Slack's total funds raised to $841 million.

Power2SME Raises $36M in Series E Round to Fuel Growth and Innovation

Power2SME has secured an additional $36 million in capital for its Series E Financing round, in order to continue its meteoric growth and dominance as a B2B Digital Ecosystem platform for SMEs. The latest round, representing the largest deal size for Power2SME, is a co-investment by its existing investors Inventus Capital Partners, Accel, Kalaari Capital and Nandan Nilekani with participation from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group.

Securonix Raises $29M in Series A Funding

Securonix, the market leader in big data security analytics, announced that it raised $29M in Series A funding to fuel its accelerating growth and leadership in the user behavior analytics, next-gen security information and event management (SIEM), and log management market spaces. The company will use the funding to extend its investment in technology innovation, and expansion in domestic and global markets.

The funding round was led by Volition Capital. Roger Hurwitz of Volition Capital will be joining the Securonix Board of Directors. Eight Roads Ventures also participated in the round.

91springboard Raises $20M from Sandway, Pearl Brook, AMA Holdings, Silo Holdings & Al Nour

91springboard, India’s first and most established coworking space provider, has announced the completion of a funding round from Sandway Investment Ltd, Pearl Brook Holdings, AMA Holdings, Silo Holdings and Al Nour. This takes the total funding raised by the company to $20 million+. 91springboard is a leader in the coworking space in India, with 2000+ companies working out of 91springboard’s hubs. The list includes, apart from startups, investors like 500startups, pi Ventures, Mumbai Angels; large international companies like Tokopedia and CBRE; and well-funded companies like Rivigo.

Minio Raises $20M in Series A Funding Led by Nexus Venture, Dell Technologies Capital & General Catalyst Partners

Minio, a provider of open source object storage for cloud-native and containerized applications, today announced $20M in Series A funding jointly led by Dell Technologies Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Nexus Venture Partners, with participation by Intel Capital, AME Cloud and Steve Singh. Funding will be allocated to accelerating product development, company growth and keeping pace with rapidly growing industry demand. The company also announced today its multi-cloud object storage offering, bringing Amazon S3 compatible object APIs to all cloud-native environments.

InnoVen Capital Invests Rs 100 Cr ($15.4M) in Online Travel Company Yatra.com

InnoVen Capital, Asia’s leading venture debt firm, recently closed a cross-border funding deal of Rs.100 crores ($15.4 million) with Yatra. Yatra.com is India’s leading online travel Company and provides a full range of travel-related services such as domestic and international air ticketing, hotel booking, homestays, holiday packages, bus ticketing, rail ticketing, activities, attractions and ancillary services. Yatra recently announced the acquisition of Air Travel Bureau Ltd., which is India’s largest independent corporate travel services provider, making the combination the largest corporate travel services platform in India. This financing round by InnoVen Capital is the largest venture debt funding provided to any Indian business and also the largest venture debt deal funded by any venture debt firm in India.

Save Solutions Raises $6M in Series A Funding from Incofin

Gaya-based rural financial services provider Save Solutions Pvt. Ltd (SAVE) on Tuesday said it has raised $6 million in a series A round of funding from international impact investor Incofin Investment Management.

Incofin, which has almost $850 million of assets under management, has invested in SAVE through its latest fund, AGRIF, which focuses on agricultural and financial services businesses.

Bangalore-based Startup, Homergize Raises Rs 6.5 Cr in Pre-series A Funding

Bangalore-based start-up, Homergize, a technology- based sourcing and services company, that caters to all construction and remodeling needs of customers and businesses, has raised INR 6.5 crore in pre-series A round of funding.

LG Chandraskhar – investor, social entrepreneur and Founder of Sutures India, a medical device company has invested in Homergize. The company fosters an E-marketplace and eco-system that promotes efficiency and enhances value in construction, interior design and home-improvement domains.

Fireside Ventures Leads the $1M Funding Round in Babycare Startup Mamaearth

Fireside Ventures, the Lead Investor in Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd ‘s brand Mamaearth have lead the second round of funding in the company. Mamaearth has raised $1 million to fund the brand’s innovation pipeline for entering into more categories with safer & healthier products for babies & mother starting with the launch of ‘Traditional Recipes’ by Mamaearth a range of wellness solutions for mothers including herb teas & supplements.

Bengaluru’s Self-Funded Startup Wins $1 Mn from Elon Musk’s Platform

Bengaluru-based Chimple Learning, a two-year-old self-funded startup has just won a $1 million ‘milestone prize’ for becoming one of five finalists in the Global learning XPRIZE, which was provided $15 million by none other than Elon Musk.

Chimple is part of Zoolore Learning Foundation, a non-profit organization in India dedicated to radically improve children’s learning. Chimple was selected to be one of the five finalists, from an initial pool of 198 entries across the world.

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

Amishi Consumer Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs pregnancy and baby care products firm The Moms Co., has raised $1 million (Rs 6.5 crore) in a Series A round of funding co-led by DSG Consumer Partners and Saama-Capital.

One year old HR tech startup Shortlist has raised a seed investment of $1 million (around Rs 6.4 crore).

Omni-channel web commerce solutions provider, Ace Turtle Services Pvt Ltd, has raised funding from InnoVen Capital.

eSports Gaming Company GamingMonk has Raised Funding from advantEdge

Enterprise communication platform Noticeboard has picked up funding from two angel investors, Aprameya Radhakrishna, co-founder of TaxiForSure and Shamik Sharma, former CTO of Myntra.

Scalable technology solutions provider iauro systems pvt ltd has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from micro venture capital firm Speciale Invest.

Image Source: ShutterStock

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [08 – 13 May]

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

Policybazaar Looks to Raise Rs 400 Cr from Its Existing Investors

PolicyBazaar, an online and digital platform to sell insurance policies, is looking to raise around Rs 400 crore, largely from existing investors such as PremjiInvest, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital and Temasek. The company expects to complete the process in six weeks. "We are looking to raise 400 crore, mostly from existing investors," said Yahish Dahiya, co-founder at Policybazaar. "We are looking to close the fund-raising in the next six weeks. The company would be valued at 2,600 crore."

PayU Infuses $119 Mn In German Fintech Startup Kredtitech

Hamburg-based technology group for digital consumer credit Kreditech has secured $119 million (Euro 110 Mn) from global online payment service provider PayU. With this move, PayU has acquired a significant minority stake in Kreditech, joining existing prominent fintech investors including JC Flowers, Varde, Blumberg Capital, HPE, Peter Thiel, Rakuten, and the World Bank’s IFC. Additional transaction parameters remain disclosed.

ShopClues Raises Rs 50 Cr in Debt from InnoVen Capital

Online marketplace ShopClues has raised Rs 50 crore in venture debt from InnoVen Capital, in a rare instance of a home-grown unicorn opting for venture debt. The fresh capital infusion comes over 15 months after ShopClues, owned by Clues Network Inc, entered the so-called unicorn league by raising $100-140 million in January 2016. That money was raised from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, and existing investors Tiger Global Management and Nexus Venture Partners, at a valuation of over $1.1 billion.

Delhi Based Startup LegalRaasta Raises $5M in Series A Round for Providing GST Solutions

The Delhi-based startup, LegalRaasta, which provides finance & taxation services to SMEs has raised around $5 million in Series A funding from Impanix Capital. LegalRaasta plans to use these funds in building GST compliance software for SMEs, CAs & enterprises. They will offer both a standalone GST Software and an API interface to connect ERP (such as SAP, Oracle & Tally) with GST systems. LegalRaasta has already applied as a GSP (GST Suvidha Provider) with government.

Agri Startup Utkal Tubers Raises $4.6M in Funding

Agri startup Utkal Tubers has raised $4.6 million (Rs 30 Cr) from CapAleph Indian Millennium SME Fund and Zephyr Peacock India Fund. The early-stage startup, a potato seeds company, completed a year of operation in March 2017, producing 1,000 tonnes of potato seeds last year. This year it is targeting 5,000 tonnes.
The startup proposes to scale up the availability of local varieties through facilities that it has set up in Karnataka. It is also in the process of setting up facilities in Odisha, Gujarat, and Punjab.

Integrated Healthcare Platform cure.fit Bags $3M in Fresh Funding

Aimed at empowering Indians to lead a healthy lifestyle, a first of its kind platform, cure.fit launched its app today. An integrated healthcare platform, cure.fit app currently entails three verticals enabling good health; cult.fit focused on physical fitness, eat.fit for healthy & nutritive food and mind.fit for mental wellness offerings.

The startup has also secured $3 million (Rs 19.2 crore) in a fresh round of funding from UC-RNT Fund, a joint venture between Ratan Tata’s RNT Associates and the University of California. Other investors who participated in the round include Gokul Rajaram, product engineering lead at US-based mobile point of sale provider Square; Aditya Agarwal and Ruchi Sanghvi, vice presidents of engineering and operations, respectively, at file sharing application firm Dropbox; and Shishir Mehrotra, former vice president of product, engineering and UX at YouTube.

Video Intelligence Startup, Vidooly Raises $1.4M from Gujarat Venture Finance and Times Internet

Vidooly, Indian video intelligence startup, with a large global customer base has raised a series A round of $1.4 million (Rs 8.9 crores) from GVFL, a pioneer in the Indian VC industry, and India’s largest media & entertainment group, Times Internet. Vidooly will utilize the funds towards product engineering, marketing, and enhancing sales & distribution channels. Vidooly will also look to further expand into the domestic market and reinforce its presence in the international markets of US, Europe & Asia.

Retail eCommerce Platform Aequm Bags $1M in Seed Funding

Aequm Pte Pvt. Ltd, a Singapore- and Bangalore-based firm that offers a cloud e-commerce platform for the unorganised retail sector, has secured $1 million (Rs 6.4 crore) in seed funding from undisclosed investors. The company will use the funds to expand its operations, Joydeep Dutt, chief operating officer of Aequm said.

Juice Startup MyGreens Secures Angel Funding Via LetsVenture

Delhi-NCR-based cold pressed juice startup, MyGreens has secured upto $1 Mn in its angel round of funding via LetsVenture The round was led by Ajay Relan, Founder and Chairman, CX Partners. Other investors in the round included Sundeep Bhandari, Director & CEO, Petrodil, and other undisclosed investors as well.

The startup will deploy the raised funds towards expansion and launching new products targeting the Indian market. As per an official statement, the company will be looking to raise their next round in the coming 6-12 months.

GOQii Raises Rs 4.7 Cr through Its Karma Programme

Health and wellness company GOQii said it has raised Rs 4.7 crore through its karma programme that encourages users of the company's fitness wearable devices to earn points, which they can convert into money and donate for a charitable cause. For instance, GOQii 'players' earn one karma point for every 390 steps taken. A total of 19,497,588 karma points were converted into Rs 4.7 crore towards supporting 25 causes, including Oxfam India, Greensole and Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust. The company said Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune emerged as the most generous cities.

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

Global ecommerce solutions provider, Infibeam Incorporation Limited, along with its joint entity, CCAvenue announced that it will invest $466K (around INR 3 Cr) in digital money transfer platform, Avenues Payments India Private Limited, the parent company of Remitguru.

One Mobikwik Systems Pvt. Ltd, an Indian digital payments service provider, is set to raise funds from investors including BlackRock Inc. valuing the company at about $1 billion, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Bengaluru-based omnichannel platform Ace Turtle Services Pvt Ltd has raised Series A funding from Singapore based Vertex Ventures and C31 Ventures, the corporate venture arm of CapitaLand.

Pune-based restaurant automation firm Devourin has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Deepak Nathani, founder and chief executive of technology company Relfor Labs Pvt Ltd, Sivanandan Chettiyar.

Kolkata-based healthtech startup Tiyo has raised undisclosed amount of funding from its existing investors.

Delhi-based NightStay, a mobile-based marketplace for last-minute hotel bookings, has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A round led by Indian Angel Network and LetsVenture.

Bengaluru and Delhi based Nanotechnology startup Log 9 Materials, has secured an undisclosed amount in its Pre-Series A round of funding from Delhi-based micro VC firm, GEMs.

Technology startup iON Energy has raised an angel round of funding from Sushil Jiwarajka, Chairman of OMC Power and Founder of Nippo Batteries; Aakrit Vaish & Swapan Rajdev, Founders of Haptik and executives from Times Internet, Dentsu Aegis, Salesforce and Credit Suisse.

UAE-based fintech startup Invoice Bazaar, has raised an undisclosed amount of investment from Shirish Apte, former CEO and Chairman Asia Pacific of Citigroup.

San Francisco and Bengaluru-based Chymera VR has raised an undisclosed round of angel funding from a clutch of investors including Anupam Mittal, CEO of People Group, Varsha Rao (Airbnb, LivingSocial), Surojit Chatterjee (Google), Nirav Choksi (HHC Holdings) and others.

Cyber Security Firm Lucideus Tech Raises Funding From Rajan Anandan, Sunil Kalra, And others.

Bengaluru based startup Fourth Ambit has raised about $600K (INR 4 Cr) from crowdfunding platform 1Crowd and its investor community.

Singapore and India-based ecommerce enabler and logistics startup, Anchanto has received funding from Luxasia Group and Transcosmos Inc. (TCI) in its latest funding round.

Mumbai-based cyber security startup, Sequretek has raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A round of funding from GVFL and White Unicorn Ventures.