Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Nov 18-23]
By Aman Rawat
We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!
In one of the biggest funding round this week, Bengaluru-based fintech firm Perfios has raised $50 Mn in Series B funding round led by Warburg Pincus and its existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners.
The recent funding of Perfios has also given an exit to a few of its angel investors from the fintech company. The company plans to utilise the funds in its three core areas — continued technology innovation, developing new offerings, and international expansion.
Overall, this week 19 startups raised around $122.56 Mn funding totally and one startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount).
Gurugram-based food and beverage maker Wingreens has raised $17 Mn (INR 125 Cr) in Series B from venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and responsAbility to expand its presence to general retail stores. With the funds, the company plans to expand its distribution, with a special focus on general trade to scale up revenue and sales.
Telluris:
Telangana-based early-stage life sciences startup Telluris Biotech India Private Limited has raised $4 Mn funding led by Innovation in Food and Agriculture Fund. With the recent fundings, the company plans to expand in newer markets. Founded by Venu Polineni, Telluris’ research has established proof of concept for four different products.
myHQ:
Delhi-NCR headquartered coworking space provider, myHQ has raised $1.5 Mn in Pre-Series A funding round led by India Quotient, Singapore-based family office RB Investments, Ashish Goenka from Suashish, angels from the online platform LetsVenture and existing investors including Anupam Mittal and Nitish Mittersian also invested in the round. myHQ plans to utilise the funds to expand its operations.
GiveIndia:
Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation, GiveIndia has received a combined grant of INR 23.4 Cr ($3.26 Mn) from A.T.E. Chandra Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Omidyar Network India and philanthropist Vikrant Bhargava, towards its mission of scaling up every day giving in India. With the new funds, the nonprofit organisation plans to scale up its donor base from 1.7 Lakhs to 20 Lakhs over the next five years.
Furtados School of Music:
Mumbai-based Furtados School of Music (FSM) has raised a fund worth INR 20 Cr ($2.8 Mn) from IAN Fund and DSG Consumer Partners. The company has said that it will be utilising the funds for expanding its presence across major cities in the country, enhance its service offerings, and scale its technology infrastructure (app and online platforms).
EasyRewardz:
Gurugram-headquartered customer engagement and rewards platform EasyRewardz has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from Walmart-owned ecommerce player Flipkart. The company said that the fresh funds will be used to drive new product development and accelerate global expansion.
Digital Mall of Asia:
Delhi NCR-based Digital Mall of Asia (DMA), a virtual ecommerce platform, has raised INR 22 Cr ($3.1 Mn) in a funding round led by real estate investor Satish Jain through his privately held infrastructure development company Amour Infrastructure. The company plans to utilise the funds to scale up product development and branding, to create awareness about its key offerings and how it’s differentiated from traditional ecommerce models.
Stanza Living:
Delhi-based student housing startup Stanza Living has raised undisclosed funding from Equity International, a real estate-focused investment company founded by US-based billionaire investor and philanthropist Sam Zell. The recent investments have come as a part of the $50 Mn Series C funding round of the student housing startup.
Kaarva:
Bengaluru-based fintech startup Kaarva has raised undisclosed seed funds from angels such as InMobi founders Naveen Tewari and Piyush Shah; Yulu CEO Amit Gupta, Vokal founders Aprameya Ramakrishnan and Mayank Bidawatka, NuWare founder Venk Krishnan, Melissa Frakman of Emphasis Ventures (EMVC), Citrus Pay’s Satyen Kothari, Bhagchandka Family Office Fund and Gemba Capital among others. The company said it used the funds to build its product and is now taking it to market as it looks to increase the reach among the addressable base.
Multibhashi:
Bengaluru-based edtech startup, Multibhashi, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from RareJob and other investors. This is the first time that a Japan-based English tutorial company has made such an investment in an Indian edtech startup. Multibhashi plans to utilise the funds towards the development of technology, enhancement of product, hiring of team and acquisition of new users in the country.
Quikkloan:
Delhi-based fintech startup, Quikkloan has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by angel investors including Arun Diaz, advisor of Aavishkaar, Aasif Ahsan Khan, managing director and CEO Of Fab Technologies and startup mentor Sanjay Budhwar. The fintech company has said that it will utilise the recently raised funds to improve the products technological, data science capabilities, hiring the team, ramp up marketing, sales and customer service teams to expand in more cities.
TravelTriangle:
Haryana-based curated travel platform TravelTriangle has raised $13 Mn (INR 91 Cr) in Series D from South Korea-based KB Global Platform fund and Nandan Nilekani-led The Fundamentum Partnership Fund I. Founded in 2011 by Sankalp Agarwal, Sanchit Garg, and Prabhat Gupta, TravelTriangle is primarily a holiday designing platform that helps travel designers build great holidays for travellers.
Healthians:
Yuvraj Singh-backed Healthtech startup Healthians has raised INR 85 Cr ($12 Mn) in Series B round led by Japan-based DG Incubation and DG Daiwa Ventures. Other investors included Kotak PE, Trifecta, Tokio Marine and Singapore-based fund Mistletoe. Healthians is planning to use the funds to expand its geographical presence and penetrate deeper into the cities it already operates in. In addition, it plans to enhance its technological capabilities and introduce new products for the users.
Medikabazaar:
Mumbai-based B2B healthtech marketplace Medikabazaar has raised INR 112 Cr ($15 Mn) as part of Series B round led by HealthQuad, Ackermans & van Haaren, Rebright Partners and Toppan Printing company. Medikabazaar plans to use this funding to enhance its technological abilities, supply chain infrastructure and expanding its team.
Food n i:
Hyderabad-based B2B Enterprise FoodTech Marketplace, Food n i, has raised an undisclosed seed round from a group of HNIs and angels like founder and CEO of Go North Ventures, Sanjay Jesrani, CEO Acko, Varun Dua, Premanshu Singh, CEO Coverfox, among others.
Do Your Thng:
Gurugram-based tech startup, Do Your Thng, has raised $150K ($0.2 Mn) from angel investors including Puneet Chandra, founder and joint managing director at Skootr Global Private Limited, Sorabh Agarwal, ex-MD – Copal Partners, among others. The raised amount will be utilized for expanding the team, getting more creators on-board and do tie-ups with brands and other organisations to increase their revenues.
OneLife:
Mumbai-based consumer healthcare brand OneLife has raised pre-Series A funding of INR 5 Cr ($0.7 Mn) from a group of HNIs from pharma, healthcare and chemicals industry. The funds raised will help the company to strengthen its product range, expand geographies, increase online and offline presence, invest in marketing and brand building, and hire talent.
EVI Technologies:
Delhi-based electric vehicle focused startup EVI Technologies Pvt Ltd (EVIT), has raised an undisclosed funding from Tessellate Tech Ventures, investing arm of Napino Auto & Electronics Ltd, Gurgaon. Founded in 2017 by Rupesh Kumar, Vikrant K. Aggarwal and Aditya Raj Verma, EVI plans to utilise the funds to install a network of 2K EV chargers besides 50 Battery swapping stations in Delhi and NCR over the next 6 to 8 months.
Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week
Online-offline edtech startup Azent Overseas Education has acquired Bengaluru-based admission assistance platform Admission Table. The acquisition is in line with Azent’s investment and growth strategy, which involves INR 250 Cr investment in new technologies and innovative products over the next three years.
Other Developments Of The Week
India’s leading automobile manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, has been doing its share to support India’s startup ecosystem through its Mobility and Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) programme and now it has announced the launch of the third cohort for its MAIL programme.
After making the first close of its third fund in April 2018 with $30 Mn, Venture capital firm India Quotient has made the final close of its $60 Mn fund. India Quotient is also planning to raise an additional $40 Mn opportunities fund to invest in its existing top-performing startups. With a total $100 Mn in the bank, the venture capital company plans to deploy it over the next two years.
Early-stage venture capital firm, Fireside Ventures has announced its first investment from its Fund II. The VC firm will be investing in a women’s wellness brand Gynoveda that makes ayurvedic products for menstrual health.
A year after the Global Cooling Prize (GCP) was launched, the competition has moved into the final phase with startups from India still having the chance to win up to $1 Mn in funding as an award. The competition was launched in collaboration with the department of science and technology, global research body the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and Mission Innovation — a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Union (EU). Eight participant startups have been selected for the final round.
After their exit from the IT consultancy firm Mindtree, following the takeover by Larsen and Toubro, the three founders — Krishnakumar Natarajan, NS Parthasarathy and Rostow Ravanan — have decided to start their own $120 Mn fund to invest in tech startups.
With an aim to boost the startup ecosystem in universities, CL Educate Limited (CL), an edtech company, has announced a fund of INR 30 Cr for early-stage startups based out of university campuses.
Founder of startup advisory services venture, Startup Buddy, Amit Singal has launched an INR 80 Cr sector-agnostic micro venture capital fund, Fluid Ventures, to promote the startup ecosystem in India.
Game developer and publisher, Nazara, has earmarked $20 Mn to invest in around 20 startups across emerging markets by 2020. The ticket size of these investments is expected to be around $600K – $1 Mn.
Stay tuned for the next week edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!
