Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [21-26 Jan]
By Bhumika Khatri
We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!
In one of the biggest Indian startup fundings this week, Pune-based online kid clothes retailer Firstcry received commitments of $396 Mn (INR 2,824 Cr) in a Series E round from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. Out of this, SoftBank has already invested $149.2 Mn (INR 1,064.9 Cr) and is expected to transfer the remaining $246.49 Mn (INR 1,759.2 Cr) as and when called for in the next two years. The company has now been valued at about $849 Mn.
In all, this week 24 startups raised $202.5 Mn and two startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem altogether. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)
Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week
Clovia: Delhi-based lingerie startup Clovia raised $10 Mn (INR 70.8 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by AT Capital. Existing investors Ivy Cap Ventures and some private investors also joined the round. The funds will primarily be used for its product and technology development, scaling up the brand portfolio, expanding to newer geographies, increasing operational efficiencies and strengthening the team.
Rooter: Delhi-based sports engagement company Rooter raised $141K (INR 1 Cr) from Anthill Ventures. The startup will use the funds to focus on its growth in India and expand its footprint to Europe with partners in that region. Rooter will also use the funds to expand its client base to B2B customers and focus on growing its social feed.
M1xchange: Mumbai-based TReDS (Trade Receivables Discounting System) platform M1xchange raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding from Mayfield India and SIDBI Ventures. With the funds, M1xchange will further invest in technologies such as blockchain, enhance its network and boost business growth for the company. Vikram Godse, managing partner, Mayfield will join the board of directors of M1xchange.
Kapiva Ayurveda: Mumbai-based ayurvedic healthcare and wellness startup, Kapiva Ayurveda, received funding commitments of $2.3 Mn (INR 17 Cr) from a group of investors, including early-stage investment firms, Fireside Ventures and Mohandas Pai’s family office. Kapiva’s existing investors including Maninder Gulati, chief strategy officer at OYO Hotels and Homes, and Madhusudan Kela, chief strategist at Reliance Capital, among others, have also participated in the latest round of funding. The company plans to use the fresh funds to strengthen its presence in existing markets across major retail formats, while also adding to its product portfolio through the launch of teas and juices, among others.
Rapido: Bengaluru-based bike taxi app Rapido raised $10 Mn (INR 70.08 Cr) in a fresh round of funding led by Hong Kong’s multi-strategy private investment office, Integrated Capital. Existing investors Skycatchr, AdvantEdge and Astrac Ventures also participated in this round of funding. Rapido will use these funds to expand across all major cities in India, aiming to reach 25 cities by the end of this year.
FreshMenu: Bengaluru-based foodtech startup Foodvista India Private Limited, which runs FreshMenu, raised $1.64 Mn (INR 11.7 Cr) in a Series B1 funding round from US-based venture capital firm Lightspeed Ventures and its Indian unit Lightspeed India Partners. The shares have been issued at a nominal value of INR 100, with a premium of INR 2,490.86 per share.
Groww: Bengaluru-based Data science-backed mutual fund investment platform Groww raised $6.2 Mn (INR 43.7 Cr) in a Series A round of funding led by Sequoia Capital. Y Combinator, Propel Venture Partners and Kauffman Fellows also participated in the round. The funds will be used to build technology to scale and introduce new investment options such as stocks.
Truebil: Mumbai-based ecommerce platform for buying and selling used cars, Truebil, raised $14 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in a mix of equity and debt Series B funding round led by Japanese investor Joe Hirao, as the company plans to foray across five other Indian cities and strengthen its technology-based stack. Kalaari Capital, Inventus Capital, Kae, Shunwei Capital, and Tekton had also participated, in the round.
Bounce: Bengaluru-based bike and scooter rental platform Bounce raised over $7 Mn in a Series B round. Chiratae Ventures, Accel India, Sequoia India and On Mauritius participated in the Series B round.
REVOS: Bengaluru-based smart mobility startup REVOS raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai-based early-stage investment firm ITI Growth Opportunities Fund. SUN Mobility backed by Chetan Maini also participated in the round. Mohit Gulati, managing partner and chief investment officer at ITI GO, will join the board of REVOS as part of the funding.
AgNext: Chandigarh-based AgNext raised an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding from venture capital fund Kalaari Capital as the agritech startup seeks to further expand its product portfolio. AgNext is currently focused on horticultural, floricultural, and plantation crops, as well as select row crops, with an initial customer base across India and strong inbound interest from other geographies.
Liquiloans: Mumbai-based peer-to-peer lending startup Liquiloans raised $1.68 Mn (INR 12 Cr) in a Pre-Series A round led by Matrix Partners, with the participation of investors like Freecharge founder Kunal Shah, Renaissance Group chairman Abhishek Dalmia and Jitendra Panjabi. The company plans to use the fresh funds to establish itself as a trusted brand and build credibility in the market as a new P2P player.
5C Network: Bengaluru healthtech startup 5C Network raised an undisclosed amount of seed-stage funding from Unitus Ventures, Axilor, and Ahmedabad Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), as it aims to expand its service across cities and integrate more innovative solutions into the platform.
LegitDoc: Bengaluru-based blockchain startup LegitDoc raised $206K (INR 1.47 Cr) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. Using LegitDoc, any authority such as universities can issue documents (ex. marks cards), whose authenticity can be verified publicly within 10 seconds, free of cost from anywhere around the world by a simple drag and drop mechanism.
rePurpose: Mumbai-based social enterprise rePurpose Global raised $142K (INR 1.01 Cr) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. rePurpose is a social enterprise dedicated to creating a global movement of conscious consumers and brands who go plastic neutral by financially empowering waste worker cooperatives and waste management social enterprises in South & Southeast Asia.
Giscle Systems: Bengaluru-based computer vision startup Giscle Systems raised $88.5K (INR 63 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. Giscle uses the cutting-edge technology of computer vision and data mining to provide 3 core vision services (Detection, Recognition, and Analysis).
Minocular: Raipur-based Minocular (BlueBanyan Technologies) raised $15,466 (INR 11 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. BlueBanyan is an industrial technology company delivering real-time machine intelligence to the resources sector enabling clients to make educated quick decisions to increase productivity, reduce costs and minimize risk.
Veratech: Gurugram-based data intelligence startup Veratech raised $7,030 (INR 5 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. It is a data-driven intelligence company that provides businesses with relevant information obtained on a real-time basis with actionable insights that help them decide better and faster.
Shunya O/S: Pune-based operating system Shunya O/S raised $1,406 (INR 1 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. It is an AI integrated OS for microprocessor-based embedded devices. It has almost all features needed to run an IoT device. Features like Fota, secure boot, MAC etc which are offered by other companies as premium are included in this OS by default.
TravelShelf: Bengaluru-based SaaS startup TravelShelf raised $1,406 (INR 1 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. It is an AI-assisted SaaS platform for travel brands to conduct influencer and content marketing.
Symphony: Mumbai-based music social networking app Symphony raised $1,406 (INR 1 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. Symphony is a music social networking app. It is like an Instagram and Quora for Music where users can share 30-second music stories out of 45 Mn songs with their friends and ask/answer music questions.
iKeva: Hyderabad-based coworking space provider iKeva raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Meenakshi Group’s startup fund to fund its aggressive expansion plans across Major Metros in India. It plans to use the funds to expand and set up 15 new centres in the next 12 months and strengthen its robust back-end processes and technology.
This week two other startups have reportedly raised the funds:
Gurugram-based automobile repair and service solution startup GoMechanic reportedly raised $4 Mn – $4.9 Mn (INR 30-35 Cr) in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital. It may use fresh funds to expand to new cities and bulk up hiring at leadership positions along with expenses on brand-building.
Gurugram-based fresh milk startup Country Delight reportedly raised $7-10 Mn in a Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Matrix Partners.
Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week
Delhi-based women community startup SHEROES announced the acquisition of Bengaluru-based women health tracker Maya for an undisclosed amount. SHEROES is looking to strengthen its health product offering with the acquisition of Maya. John Paul, founder of Maya, will join the SHEROES team to enhance its product leadership.
Ahmedabad-headquartered ecommerce major Infibeam has sold its subsidiary Infinium India Ltd (IIL) to Ingenius E-commerce Pvt Ltd, which runs Tradohub, a B2B aggregator for industrial goods, in a deal worth $8.4 Mn (INR 60 Cr). With the acquisition of IIL, Tradohub expects to strengthen its technology capabilities and expand the existing merchant base and distribution across other product segments including but not limited to IT products, appliances, software, consumables and services.
Other Developments Of The Week
Tamil Nadu launched its Startup and Innovation policy 2018-2023 with a mission of providing an enabling ecosystem for startups registered in the state and to make Tamil Nadu a global innovation hub for startups’ by 2023. The new policy includes setting up of a startup fund, to be called Tamil Nadu Startup Fund of Funds, with a corpus of INR 250 Cr ($21 Mn) for investments in startups.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched the Assam Startup initiative, including state-level hub for entrepreneurship development, The Nest. The state-owned incubator seeks to augment the business environment by promoting idea generation to startup companies and help them establish and accelerate their growth and success.
Maruti Suzuki announced the launch of its Mobility & Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) as part of a program to promote innovation in India for automobile and mobility space. It is an initiative by Maruti Suzuki to identify innovative and cutting edge solutions through startups, which are futuristic and customer oriented.
Hyderabad-headquartered IT park developers Meenakshi Group launched its venture fund, Meenakshi Multiples Startup Fund to invest $10 Mn (INR 71.39 Cr) in promising startups. Going forward, the dedicated investment team of the group, comprising finance and legal professionals along with analysts, will lead more investments. The group has already made investments in a few startups.
Delhi-based early-stage consumer technology venture capital fund AdvantEdge Founders announced its second fund, AdvantEdge Founders Fund II with a target of raising a corpus of $42 Mn (INR 300 Cr) with a focus on mobility. The mobility first Transformation Fund will focus on investing in early-stage startups across the shared mobility, smart cars, digital auto and logistics domain.
Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India launched its startup accelerator and incubation programme called Surge. The Surge will pick up 10–20 early stage startups twice a year and invest $1.5 Mn (INR 10.6 Cr) in each of them at the start or very early stage of the programme. The startups will also have access to an advanced management programme (AMP) by Sequoia’s US unit.
Espark-Viridian is back with the fifth edition of #AccessXcceleration, inviting early-stage startups across all sectors to participate. The acceleration programme will roll out two modules providing participating startups with a dedicated mentor who would provide them with business insights, problem-solving strategies, individual mentoring sessions, besides guiding each business idea based on their specific needs.
Mumbai-based POWERED accelerator has announced nine women entrepreneurs participating in its second cohort to develop their businesses and deliver access to energy solutions across India. This includes Dr. Vanita Prasad, founder and director, REVY Environmental Solutions; Monika Jha, founder and CEO, Cydee Technologies Pvt. Ltd and more
Gastrotope, the agrifood startup accelerator founded by Taizo Son’s Mistletoe, Rajesh Sawhney, and Infobridge, has picked five startups for its first cohort. The five selected startups are Brown Foods, Credible, Fasal, Occipital Tech and Triton Foodworks.
Stay tuned for the next week edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!
