We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week.
In one of the biggest developments for the week, Ibibo founder Ashish Kashyap marked his entry back into the Indian startup ecosystem with his new venture INDwealth, a full-stack wealth management and advisory company. In the stealth mode, the company secured $30 Mn in seed capital from Steadview Capital to launch its application in January 2019.
Apart from these, this week, 13 startups raised around $39.3 Mn in funding and three startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem altogether. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.)
Indian Startup funding Of The Week
Lucideus: New Delhi-based cybersecurity startup Lucideus raised $5 Mn in a funding round led by the former Chairman of US-based technology conglomerate Cisco, John Chambers. The company plans to use fresh funds to expand its presence in the US as well as its existing markets such as India.
Sukkhi: Mumbai-based fashion jewellery brand Sukkhi raised $7 Mn in funding from Carpediem Capital and Duane Park. The funding will largely be used to grow “Sukkhi” as an omnichannel brand in order to reach last mile customers across India and globally.
Eupheus Learning: Delhi-based edtech startup Eupheus Learning raised an undisclosed amount from Mumbai-based venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures. The startup is also aiming to expand over 4000 schools across India by March 2019.
Invenmi: Bengaluru-based ready-to-drink tea maker Invenmi raised $150K in a seed funding round from Texas-based venture capital firm Austin Seed Ventures. Invenmi plans to use the seed capital to expand to Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. It also plans to build a supply chain and expand distribution in existing/new cities besides making sales and marketing hires.
Captain Zack: Mumbai-based pet grooming startup Captain Zack secured $1.5 Mn in Pre-Series A funding led by industrialists Kushal Desai and Chaitanya Desai through their family office along with Japan Vyas, co-founder of Sixth Sense Ventures, who had been an angel investor in the company. The company plans to use the fresh funds for marketing and brand awareness.
HoloSuit: Singapore-based virtual reality startup HoloSuit raised an undisclosed amount of funding from YWC sports which is a separate vertical under YWC ecommerce portal launched Yuvraj Singh as YouWeCan initiative to help cancer patients. As a part of this deal, Singh will also join the startup’s board as the Brand Ambassador for the sports wing at HoloSuit.
Sentieo: San Francisco and Delhi-based financial research platform Sentieo raised Series A funding of $19 Mn (INR 140 Cr) in a round led by growth equity firm Centana Growth Partners. The company’s existing investors including Clocktower Ventures and Long Focus Capital also participated in the Series A financing round. Sentieo plans to use the fresh funds towards global expansion and product development.
NIRA: Bengaluru-based fintech startup NIRA raised $1 Mn seed funding round from angel investors based in India and UK. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its core team, develop its technology and boost the growth of the startup.
GoDESi: Bengaluru-based packaged confectionery startup GoDESi raised $137.9K (INR 1 Cr) in seed funding led by Lead Angels Network with participation from other Angel Investors. The company plans to use the funding to aggressively expand its sales and distribution into other metro cities as well as strengthen the back-end supply chain.
Mobycy: Gurugram-based bike sharing platform Mobycy raised an undisclosed amount of fresh funding from Venture Catalysts. The startup plans to use the funding to further amplify this growth to pivot into e-scooters and e-bikes in a big way and capturing the high-growth market along with expansion in current cities.
GamingMonk: Delhi-based gaming and esports platform GamingMonk raised $551.2K (INR 4 Cr) in fresh funding from Japan-based Incubate Fund; Rajan Anandan, VP, Google India & South East Asia and a clutch of other investors including Stellaris Ventures, Smile Group, AdvantEdge and Samir Khurana. The funding will help GamingMonk achieve its vision of providing a smooth, transparent and credible gaming platform for all the players.
Turms: Bengaluru-based intelligent apparel brand Turns raised $868K (INR 6.3 Cr) in fresh funding led by Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham, former Reliance Retail Lifestyle President Bijou Kurien, Pepperfry founder Ambareesh Murty, OneAssist founder Subrat Pani, and former Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari along with angels from LetsVenture and AngelList India. Turms will use these funds to expand its product categories and range, hire tech talent, launch experience centres in top cities, and further invest in research and development.
Medikabazaar: Mumbai-based online aggregator for medical equipment and medical supplies Medikabazaar raised $5Mn in Series A round of funding led by Delhi-based healthcare-focused venture capital fund HealthQuad. Existing investors along with Elan Corporation, Sasaki Foods, CBCCo. Ltd, Kois Invest, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital also participated in the round. With this new funding, the startup is looking to strengthen its technology and increase the team size including senior leadership.
Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week
- Mumbai-based edtech startup UpGrad acquired Gurugram-headquartered job skilling platform Acadview for an undisclosed amount. Post acquisition, Acadview will join the UpGrad team and continue working on building, job skilling products for graduate students across colleges in India.
- Bengaluru-based mobility startup ZipGo acquired 100% stake in Pune-based bus operator, Supreme Trans Concepts in a cash and stock deal for an undisclosed amount. Post acquisition, Prashant Mohite will continue to serve as the CEO of Supreme Trans Concepts. As a part of this deal, Mohite will also take on the position of Executive Vice President at ZipGo.
- Chandigarh-based Viithiisys Technologies, a boutique IT consulting and Services Company, acquired on-demand application development startup Actiwate in an undisclosed amount. Post the acquisition, Amanjot Malhotra founder of Actiwate, will exit the company and act as the advisor.
Other Developments Of The Week
- Bengaluru-based ride-hailing platform Ola is finalising $100 Mn investment from existing investor Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital. The expected round of funding may boost Ola’s valuation to $5.5-6.5 Bn.
- Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal may invest $50-100 Mn in Bengaluru-based electric vehicle maker Ather Energy. According to reports, Sachin is considering investing about $100 Mn in several startups after he received around $1 Bn from his 5.5% stake sale in Flipkart to Walmart.
- Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, launched an acceleration programme called Companies to Action (C2A), to help startups tap into global growth opportunities. Frost & Sullivan thought leaders will take up advisory roles in selected startups, actively engaging with the start-up in the three linked spheres of ‘Vision and Strategy’, ‘Brand and Demand’, and ‘Technology and IP’.
- The India FinTech Awards (IFTA) selected 20 Fintech Startups from USA, UK, Israel, Japan, Switzerland, Russia and India to demo their product at the biggest fintech demo day event in India on November 30, 2018, at the BSE International Convention Hall in Mumbai. The fintech startups shortlisted to demo their product at India FinTech Awards 2018 are: Hydrogen, Streak, iProov, FlexiLoans, Ezetap, Everledger, Doreming, Cube Wealth, CASHe, CreditVidya, HelloTax, I Know First, Notifyvisitors, Ocrolus, Smallcase, Oz Forensics, Appnomic Systems, James Finance, Ariadne, and Avail Finance.
- Gurugram-based software selling, consulting and discovery platform, Techjockey.com announced its partnership with Microsoft that will allow businesses to purchase software products on a runtime basis. As the part of the partnership, the company has integrated Microsoft’s API onto its platform. Under the Techjockey-Microsoft tie-up, the products will be available for both existing and new business customers.
- Next 10 Ventures, a global venture group focused on the Creator economy launched its global EduCreator Incubator, which aims to support emerging video creators who produce education and learning content, with seed investments ranging from $25,000 to $75,000, programmatic support and mentorship. This year, 25 to 40 applicants will be selected to join the 2019 EduCreator Incubator cohort.
- Gurugram-based online grocery startup Grofers may soon raise $140 Mn-$150 Mn (INR 1027 Cr- INR 1100 Cr) in a fresh funding round led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank’s Vision Group, with participation from German retail group Metro AG.
- The US-based investment firm Tiger Global Management is reportedly in advanced talks to invest about $5Mn – $6 Mn each in two Indian software platforms named Fyle and Facilio. The VC firm will invest from its new $3.75 Bn fund dubbed as Tiger Global Private Investment Partners XI.
- National investment promotion and facilitation agency, Invest India, has partnered with WhatsApp to promote India’s startup ecosystem and generate job opportunities in India. Together, they will organise the WhatsApp Startup Challenge, wherein the top five winners will receive $250K in seed funding from the Facebook-owned messaging platform.
- Bengaluru-based edtech unicorn BYJU’S may be valued at $3.5 Bn after it closes the ongoing round of funding worth $200-300 Mn. The funding will be received both as primary and secondary capital from global private equity firm General Atlantic. Further, under this deal, some of the existing investors including Sequoia Capital may make partial or full exits.
- Mumbai-based venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures has closed its $67.7 Mn (INR 500 Cr) second fund which was launched 10 months back. The Ministry of Commerce is the anchor investor of the second fund of the firm with an investment of $6.7 Mn (INR 50 Cr). It has also raised capital from others including marquee consumer companies, Indian pharma companies, family offices, and individual investors. The firm is planning to focus in areas such as education, consumer contracting and contract manufacturing.
- Bengaluru-based online grocery platform BigBasket is reportedly in talks to raise as much as $300 Mn- $400 Mn which will boost its valuation to $1.5-2 Bn. The expected round of funding may be raised from at least one new investor and existing investors. The latest funding may be used to expand its presence across the major metros in India.
Stay tuned for the next week edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!