Tue. Mar 19th, 2024

The third week of August was in a good shape for the Indian startup ecosystem. Whether it was a massive funding report or a big acquisition deal, the week showed above the average performance.

Overall, from 19 August to 24 August, the ecosystem was able to gather $70 million (approx ₹502 crore) funding from 16 startups, along with three acquisition deals.

Note: Total funding amount in this report is excluded of startups that did not disclose the amount.

Before we get onto the funding details, we can have a look to some ‘over the top’ activities in this week.

Amazon: The global leader in the e-commerce universe Amazon launched its biggest facility so far, in Hyderabad. Not only this, the giant startup also expressed and stated that it will continue to invests in India even when the country’s economic wealth is in a deteriorating phase.

For more details on Amazon: [Amazon launches its largest global facility in Hyderabad]

[Despite economic slowdown, Amazon plans to continue investing in India]

Y Combinator: The famed Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator has selected four Indian startups for its Summer 2019 batch. The startups, selected are BinksLokalMyPetrolPump and Vahan.

For details: Y Combinator picks four Indian startups for Summer 2019 batch

JLL India: In order to build a realty-driven accelerator programme, JLL India, the renowned real estate company, has join hands with Invest IndiaAccelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations (AGNIi) and Startup India.

For details: Realty giant JLL India join hands with Invest India, AGNIi, Startup India to start new accelerator programme

Startup Funding of the Week (19- 24 August 2019): 

AdmitKard: A Noida-based, study abroad admissions startup AdmitKard, has secured $1 million (approx ₹71 crore) in pre-Series A round.

Piyush Bhartiya, co-founder at AdmitKard, said, “We will use the capital to enhance our product, strengthen our AI-driven counselling algorithms, and blockchain managed partner contracts. We also plan to rapidly expand our presence across 100+ cities in India through our already thriving partner network.”

Infra.Market: A B2B e-commerce platform Infra.Market, for construction materials has been able to raise $3.5 million (approx ₹25 crore) in seed funding round from Accel Partners.

The company will utilize the infused capital to expand the company’s product lines and to grow its revenue up to $10 million (approx ₹71 crore) monthly against its present revenue of $2.5 million (approx ₹17 crore).

Instoried: Startup, driven by artificial intelligence, and deep tech content Instoried, has raised $500,000 (approx ₹3.5 crore) in seed round from Venture Catalysts. Based out of Bengaluru, the platform helps brands predict the emotional impact of their content upon their customers’ minds.

Aviom: This is a Delhi-based housing finance company. Aviom has raised ₹60 crore in its Series B funding round from Gojo & companyInc JAPAN and Capital 4 Development Asia Fund Netherlands.

With this funding, the company plans of venturing into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttaranchal, and Delhi NCR. The company intends to provide loans to families that are otherwise rejected by big insurance companies.

Mishry: Kitchen products review startup Mishry has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Vir Sanghvi, a journalist and a food-tech entrepreneur.

The platform said that the infused funds will be used to increase content in the next few months.

ShopKirana: Itis an Indore-based B2B supply chain startup. ShopKirana has bagged $10 million (approx ₹711 crore) in a Series B funding round from Info EdgeIncubate FundAkatsuki AET FundNPTK Emerging Asia Fund and Better Capital.

The platform will use the funds to expand its presence in major Tier 2 cities.

INDwealth: New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global, has invested $15 million (approx ₹107 crore) in INDwealth. The Gurugram-headquartered fintech platform will use the fresh funds to execute and scale its platform.

It also plans to ramp up development on its technology platform including artificial intelligence, research and development and the advisory team as well as invest towards innovative customer acquisition and marketing campaigns.

For details: Tiger Global invests ₹107 crores ($15 Million) in fintech startup INDwealth

SILA: A real estate consultant to businesses with small and medium enterprises SILA, has secured ₹56 crore from growth equity firm Norwest Venture Partners.

“SILA has built strong leadership and very positive client recall in the industry. Through the use of technology and SOPs, SILA is executing with a differentiated approach to capture the very large services market opportunity in India,” Shiv Chaudhary, managing director, Norwest Venture Partners, said.

Zendrive: The platform, which is based out of San Francisco and Bengaluru, has raised $37 million in series B funding, led by XL Innovate. While, other participants in the round include Hearst VenturesACME CapitalBMW iVenturesNYCASignalFire, and others.

With this funding, Zendrive will continue to build out its mobile driving safety solution and grow its team across five continents to deepen its focus on the global insurance market.

For details: Road safety platform Zendrive raises $37 million in series B funding from XL Innovate, Hearst Ventures, BMW iVentures, others

Zenoti: Steadview Capital has infused $20 million (approx ₹143 crore) in Zenoti Software, a Hyderabad and Seattle-based spa, salon software startup. The funding from Steadview comes in less than three months after Zenoti closes a series C round.

The company said the funding would help it accelerate the pace of innovation and expand into both existing and new geographies. It will also look to continue hiring more talent to back its expansion plans.

For details: Steadview Capital invests ₹143 cr in spa-salon SaaS startup Zenoti

Furthermore, a Mumbai-based AI-driven startup vPhrase Analytics raised $2 million (approx ₹143 crore) in a series A funding round from Falcon Edge Capital and Bharat Innovation Fund.

The funds will be used for global expansion, strengthen the vPhrase team and launch a new product for an insight-driven collaboration within the enterprise teams.

Bengaluru-based food catering startup Hungerbox raised ₹15.99 crore in Series C funding round from Paytm parent company One 97 Communications and Sabre Partners Trust.

Another Mumbai-based audio streaming platform DoseFM secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from AngelList syndicate led by Utsav Somani and other angel investors.

The funds will help the company focus on growth, after investing heavily in developing the tools for audio content creators, as well as the platform where this content is shared.

In the gaming domain, Global eSports, an online gaming company, has bagged an undisclosed amount of funding from Venture Catalysts.

This deal will help the company explore its potential and opportunities with guidance from venture capitalists and industry experts.

While, a new member in the Indian startup ecosystem is listed, Bolo Indya, a short form video-based knowledge-sharing platform in local Indian languages, has secured an undisclosed amount of pre-series A investment through ah! Ventures angel platform.

The platform plans to use the raised funds to expand to multiple languages, introduce new forms of short video creation, develop language communities and scale up the user base.

The funding came to an end with Resonance, a smart enterprise data space, which raised an undisclosed angel funding round from IP Ventures.

It intends to use the funds raised in the hiring of more engineers and the expansion of its sales footprint in international markets.

The acquisition deals of the week are a follows:

Rapido, a Bengaluru-based bike taxi service provider has taken control of Vahanalytics, a Mumbai-based analytics startup.

Rapido has allotted 55 equity shares for around ₹49 lakhs to Vahanalytics and another 38 Series A3 CCPS for around ₹34 lakhs to CBP Quilvest Trust, which is a Singapore-based investment group.

For details: Rapido acqui-hires Mumbai-based analytics startup Vahanalytics

Nazara Technologies, a gaming platform, based out of Mumbai, has infused ₹44 crore for a 67 per cent stake in a sports-driven media platform Sportskeeda.

With this acquisition, Nazara claims to reach a total of 100 Mn monthly active users through Sportskeeda’s network.

Adding on, the week for the startup universe came to a stop with: Amazon, a global leader in the e-commerce space, is in process to obtain 49 per cent stake in Kishore Biyani‘s Future Coupons.

Future Coupons, the promoter entity of India’s second-largest retail chain Future Retail, owned 7.3 per cent shares in the latter. While, the financial details of the deal were kept confidential. The sources claimed that the deal could hold between ₹1500 crore and ₹2000 crore.

For details: Amazon to acquire 49% stake in Kishore Biyani’s Future Coupons: Reports

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