Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [31 August -5 September]

To expand into more geographies across the globe, Zomato is in plans to raise new round of funding worth $60 Mn to $80 Mn. According to reports, Temasek Holdings along with existing investors will be participating in the round. The company also made a strategic investments in Gurgaon-based hyperlocal delivery startup Pickingo and Mumbai-based Grab, to strengthen its food ordering and delivery business.

With the highest amount of funding coming from enterprise startup, this week 13 startups raised over $90 Mn funding.  (The funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts)

Zivame: Online lingerie retailer, Zivame, raised $38 Mn (INR250 Cr) in Series C round of funding from Zodius Technology Fund and Khazanah Nasional Berhad. Its existing investors Unilazer, IDG Ventures and Kalaari Capital also participated in the round. The company plans to use the funds to maintain its dominant position, develop supply chain and facilitate world class lingerie shopping experience to Indian women.

Luxury Hues: A marketing consultancy and shopping venture for luxury goods, Luxury Hues, raised about $1 Mn (INR 6 Cr.) from Reliance Capital and investment banker Ravi Viswanathan. With an aim to bring more high-street international fashion brands in the country, the startup plans to infuse the funds in retailing five to ten luxury brands in the country.

 Capillary Technologies: Software maker , Capillary Technologies, raised over $45 Mn (INR 300 Cr.) funding led by Warburg Pincus. Its existing investors Sequoia Capital and Norwest Ventures also participated in the round. The funds were utilized to acquire machine learning startups Martjack and Ruaha Labs. Besides, Capillary also picked up minority stake in a customer satisfaction management firm Cloudcherry.

Holachef: Chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata, invested an undisclosed amount in Holachef, which is an online marketplace for chefs. This investment was a part of the series A round funding, which was raised in June from Kalaari Capital and India Quotient.

Infinite Analytics: Ratan Tata invested in a data analytics firm, Infinite Analytics, which is a US-based predictive marketing and analysis company. The company will use the funds to expand its predictive analytics technology to different verticals beyond retail and ecommerce and also build a robust team.

DropKaffe: An online on-demand coffee shop, DropKaffe, raised $300K in funding led by Manish Singhal and P39 Capital. Angels from the U.S., India and Singapore also participated in this round of funding. The raised funds will help the startup to launch its native android app and work on IoT enabled ordering solutions.

StyleCracker: Online fashion styling platform that offers personalised fashion experience, StyleCracker, secured $1 Mn (about INR 6 Cr.) in the first round of funding from four HNIs. The raised capital will be used for developing technology and expanding to global markets.

Reverie Technologies: A cloud-based startup that has Language-as-a-Service platform, Reverie, raised $4 Mn in Series A funding led by Aspada Investment Company. Its existing investor Qualcomm Ventures also participated in the round. The funds raised will be used to grow company’s language-as-a-service platform, consolidate market share, create fully automated solutions and expand globally.

Jobspire: Job search platform, Jobspire raised $262K in a seed round of funding led by Purvi Capital. Besides, Willfly Ventures, Nikunj Jain, Krishna Jha, Sanjay Bakshi and Kapil Nayyar also participated in the round. The startup plans to scale its team, focus on building new concept and build their referral-only premium recruiting tool with the newly raised capital.

IamWire: Growthword Digital Private Limited, the holding company of iamwire grabbed an undisclosed amount of funding led by investors Li Tao, Li Jian, Nitin Garg, Saurabh Jain and Mohit Agarwal. The funds will be utilised in scaling technology for startup founders, impart knowledge, provide fundraising support and offer product / services selection tools.

ClapsnSlaps: SBB Ventures Pvt Ltd owned crowdsourced movie review and online entertainment site Clapsnslaps raised $150K (INR 1 Cr) in its second round of angel investment from a production house R M Picture Company Pvt. Ltd. The company plans to use the capital to upgrade its technological infrastructure, to boost its operations and hire talent.

Besides, Foxconn Technology Group is reportedly investing over $65 -$70 Mn in Delhi-based refurbished goods retailer GreenDust. However, nothing has been finalized yet.

Aso, M-indicator, mobile app for public transportation, is planning to raise over $9 Mn (INR 60 Cr) from VC firms like Helion Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Saif Partners to expand to metros and big cities

The private equity and venture capital arm of TVS Group, TVS Capital Funds Ltd is said to acquire a minority stake in online beauty products retailer Nykaa.

Also, celebrity investor Ashton Kutcher has invested an undisclosed amount in Microsoft GM Rahul Sood‘s gaming startup, Unikrn. This funding is a part of company’s Series A fundraise which was announced earlier this year.

Acquisitions That Took Place This Week

Along with the funding that took place this week, there were three acquisitions made from ecommerce startups. Following are the acquisitions made:

• Snapdeal acquired US-based advertising platform, Reduce Data for an undisclosed amount to help deliver ROI for advertising campaigns.The acquisition will drive the roadmap for Snapdeal to build world class discovery platform and associated tools for brand, said Snapdeal.
• Flipkart acquired payment services startup FX Mart Pvt. Ltd for about $6.8 Mn (INR 45.5 Cr.). The acquisition will enable Flipkart offer a digital wallet on its app and cut the need to pay to the external wallet providers, as FX Mart holds a prepaid wallet license issued by RBI.
• Table reservation platform, Dineout acquired inResto, an open platform for restaurants for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will enable Dineout to provide an end-to-end solution in restaurant management; making it the only open platform for restaurant’s to connect with various services across the food-tech ecosystem.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Jindal Group launched a venture fund JSW Venture with corpus of $15 Mn to invest in early stage startups. The fund will be primarily focusing on tech-oriented ecommerce and B2B services startups. The fund will be managed by the Jindal heir, Parth Jindal, and will invest $450K to $750K in each startup.
• Unitus Seed Fund has launched its second edition of StartHealth Competition for health-tech startups in India. This edition will shortlist 30 startups for the semi-final round involving a pitch to the program partners followed by one-on-one mentoring session.
• Venture capital firm Parampara Capital and Management Consultants LLP launched Parampara Early Stage Opportunities Fund. The fund is SEBI registered Category IAIF with a corpus of $15 Mn, operating out of Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The fund will be invested in early and growth stage startups leveraging technology and innovation in sectors like consumer, financial, healthcare, industrial and others, with an average ticket size of $450K to $1.5 Mn.
• Business World’s accelerator program, BW Accelerate is now inviting applications for the second batch from Delhi NCR-based startups. The accelerator program aims to create comprehensive offering for early stage startups to encourage innovation, speeding business growth and accelerating entrepreneurial aspiration in the country.
• IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) will organise IBM Smartcamp 2015 to help startups build innovations, scale and accelerate via IBM’s global network of enterprise clients, consultants and innovation centres. The program aims to provide comprehensive and strong network resources to drive collaborative cloud innovation for startups.
• French accelerator Numa is eyeing 10 startups for first batch in Bangalore. Numa will have six month accelerator programme in India. The sector agnostic accelerator has an ambitious plan of opening 15 worldwide centres in three years.
• The Kerala Startup Mission has launched Business and Technology Accelerator programme for startups to overcome the constraints faced by young entrepreneurs in their business procedures. The programme will also help entrepreneurs to network with industry captains and investors.
• 500 Startups, an early-stage seed fund and accelerator program raised $85 Mn for its third global fund. The firm is aiming to invest in about 350 to 400 startups this year.