Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [20 April – 25 April]
By Akanksha Pahwa
This week, Infosys announced that it has kept aside half of $500 Mn Innovation fund to focus exclusively on new Indian startup through newly formed fund called ‘Innovate in India Fund’. With this, the company has launched a startup incubator and also announced that it has invested $2 Mn in Airviz, a personal air quality monitoring startup from the Carnegie Mellon University and acquired mcommerce enabler Kallidus Inc for $120 Mn in an all cash deal.
This week, 17 startups raised about $125Mn funding altogether. (Calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts.)
Lets have a look at the startups that raised funding this week:
Vyomo: Delhi-based mobile marketplace for Beauty and Wellness raised investment from Cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s recently launched investment fund YouWeCan Ventures. INR 10-25 lakh would have been invested. Vyomo plans to list about 5,000 spas and salons in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Dubai, and plans to bring more than one million stylists on the platform by 2017.
1MG: Gurgaon-based, health products startup, earlier known as Healthkartplus.com has a new identity now 1MG. The rebranded entity has raised over $6 Mn from its existing investors and few new investors including Deep Kalra of MakeMyTrip.
FreshDesk: Cloud-based customer service startup raised $50 Mn in Series E round of funding. The round was led by Tiger Global, along with Accel Partners and Google Capital. The infused funds are planned to be utilized to accelerate its products and scale to meet the growing market demand.
Sulekha.com: Chennai-based local services classifieds company raised $28 Mn in Series C round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. The funding amount is planned to be used in expansion of its platform as well as investment in technology and branding. Besides, the company plans to expand further into tier I and tier II cities.
FindYahan: Delhi-based hyper local services marketplace raised its Pre Series A of funding from The Phoenix Fund. The funds raised will be used to further grow the team and strengthen operations and technology for enhancing customer service & experience.
Eat.Shop.Love (ESL): Bangalore-based fashion ecommerce startup raised $3.5 Mn in angel funding from a London-based investor. The funds are to be used for hiring a dedicated design team and setting up manufacturing units. Also, the firm plans to expand its brand in Delhi and Mumbai.
Simplilearn: Bangalore-based online professional certification platform secured $15 Mn Series C round of funding led by Mayfield Fund. The startup offers over 200 courses through its network of over 2,000 qualified trainers and training about 20,000 new users every month of which 60% are from US.
Jugnoo: Chandigarh-based hyperlocal marketplace that provides everything on-demand using auto rickshaws as a logistics engine has raised $1 Mn. The funds raised in this round will be utilized mainly for expansion across cities and growing our tech team for better product.
Happay: Bangalore-based payments services startup secured INR 3 Cr fromAngelPrime. The funds will be utilized for product development, marketing and to expand technical and sales team.
Craftsvilla: Mumbai-based marketplace for products like Handmade, Vintage, Ethnic, Organic and Natural products from India, raised INR 110 Cr. funding led by Sequoia Capital, and existing investors. The funds raised will help the company to capture India’s rich diversity on one single platform.
Headout: On demand mobile marketplace raised INR 11.3 Cr ($1.8 Mn) seed funding from Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, WhatsApp vice president Neeraj Arora and Facebook adviser Rick Marini. The infused funds will be used in expanding its operations, technology, product and sales to various cities across US by the end of this year.
EazyDiner: Founded by Vir Sanghvi and other top hoteliers’ restaurant table reservation platform secured an undisclosed amount of funding from DSG Consumer Partners, Gulpreet Kohli, former managing director with private equity firm ChrysCapital, and others.
Stitchwood: Stitchwood is a Custom made online furniture platform has recently raised $100k is now close to $750K in funding from angel investors.
Avanti: Delhi-based test prep startup Avanti Learning Centres raised INR 9.6 Cr in second and its Series A round of funding led by Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. The company plans to utilize the funds to increase its presence in tier II and tier III towns across India.
Phone Warrior: Delhi-based startup that offers a spam control app secured a pre-Series A round of funding from existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners. The funds will be used for technology development, marketing and to scale up the team.
Bodhi Health Education: Gurgaon-based health education startup secured seed investment of INR 75 lakhs from Chennai-based domain focused technology company, TAKE Solutions.
Sagoon: Sagoon Inc raised INR 3 Cr seed funding lead by several Angels’ Investors. It is a ten-month-old Internet company developing a global web and mobile platform that allows users to connect, share and earn. The funds will used for product development, engineering and team expansion in India to support future web and mobile applications.
The other startups that are planning to raise funds are a provider of solutions and services for the retail sector, Software Paradigms International that plans to raise up to $150 Mn in private equity (PE) funding and Ahmedabad-based online marketplace, Infibeam, which is eyeing at a valuation of $1 Bn (INR 6,000 Cr) in its proposed Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Along with the various findings this week a few acquisitions also took place. Lets have a look at the acquisitions that took place this week:
India’s Online Travel Leader, MakeMyTrip acquired Bangalore-based travel planning website Mygola. This was MMT’s seventh acquisition through company’s Innovation Fund that was formed to invest in early-stage startups in the travel technology space.
Doctor search engine, Practo acquired a digital fitness solution, FitHo Wellness this week making the founders Dhruv Gupta the Product Head for Preventive, and Prachi Gupta the GM – Operations, New Segments. The acquisition is intended to help Practo, be a one stop health app, rapidly expanding its offerings and moving into the preventive healthcare space.
Cloud solutions company 8K Miles Software Solutions acquired user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design and development services company, Cintel Sytems Inc. The deal was finalized at $3.75 Mn with a combination of cash and stock.
Zomato has acquired US-based online table reservation platform NexTable. With the acquisition, NexTable will soon be renamed to Zomato Book, Zomato also said that it will launch Table Booking service in July this year, starting with India, UAE and Australia.
The other development that took place this week was the launch of Native Angels Network at Trichy. The network consists of a group of industrialists aiming at nurturing budding entrepreneurs in tier II and tier III cities. The network has identified 12 potential investors, who have made an investment of Rs 50 lakh till now.
