Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [18-23 Dec]

We bring to you the latest edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week. This week 19 Indian startups raised about $41 in funding altogether in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Besides a large number of startups securing funding, four major acquisitions also took place in the Indian startup ecosystem this week. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts)

In one of the biggest deals of the week, cab aggregator Ola acquired Foodpanda India from Germany based Delivery Hero Group to venture into food delivery business once again. Ola has also committed $200 Mn in Foodpanda India. Sources have pegged the stock-based acquisition at under $50 Mn. This deal includes the transfer of Foodpanda India business to Ola in an acquisition deal in exchange for Ola stock.

While, in terms of startup funding, Sachin Tendulkar-backed virtual reality gaming and entertainment startup Smaaash raised $14.05 Mn (INR 90 Cr) funding from HNI clients of Avendus Wealth Management Pvt. Ltd, the wealth management arm of financial services firm Avendus Capital. The Mumbai-based startup aims to provide world class sports and immersive experiences to India’s fast-growing gaming population, and the newly raised financing will help in its growth plans.

Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week

Skymet Weather Services: Noida-based agritech startup Skyment raised an undisclosed amount in Series C round of funding from the German government’s InsuResilience Investment Fund. With the newly raised funds, the startup aims to expand its Automated Weather Stations (AWS) network and secure new business in weather data, crop measurement, climate analytics, and disaster management, thereby extending its outreach to de-risk vulnerable Indian farmers from climate change.

Peel-Works: The consumer focussed SaaS and big data analytics startup raised an undisclosed amount in Series B funding led by Mumbai-based Unilever Ventures and Amazon Internet Services. The round also saw the participation of existing investors Inventus Capital Partners and IDG Ventures India. The funding will enable Peel-Works to bolster its product and technology offerings, while also expanding its geographical reach and hiring more members for its team.

Refreshed Car Care: The Mumbai-based on-demand car servicing platform received financial backing from USA-based Spiffy, a car care services company. India is one of the fastest growing ecommerce markets and on-demand car servicing needs will massively increase in the future, hence Spiffy plans to collaborate with Refreshed in order to further leverage technology and link their products.

TapTap Meals Pvt. Ltd.: Delhi-based TapTap Meals, which operates the delivery app NOW, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from the promoters of Hero Electric and other investors from Bengaluru. As a part of this agreement, the startup will continue to use Hero’s eco-friendly ebikes to deliver products and will further boost its unit economics.

The Bohri Kitchen: Mumbai-based specialised cuisine startup The Bohri Kitchen raised an undisclosed amount of seed capital from integrated incubation platform Venture Catalysts. The funding was led by Anuj Puri, Abhishek Agarwal, Nikunj Pachisia, Anirudh Damani and Vishal Brahmbhatt. The startup funding round also saw participation from food and beverages doyenne Riyaaz Amlani, as well as several leading HNIs such as Romil Ratra, Chef Rahul Akerkar and others. The raised fund will be used to upgrade our current infrastructure, which will involve moving into a bigger central kitchen and hiring skilled workers who can help my mother in standardising recipes.

Baby Destination: Delhi-based Baby Destination, a one-stop digital parenting community providing opportunities to learn and share parenting experiences and recommendations, raised an investment worth $313K (INR 2 Cr) from GEMs Partners (a micro-VC fund based in Delhi and led by Mr. Aditya Gupta) and Tariq Khan (angel investor from New York) in a fresh funding round. With the newly raised funds, the startup plans to focus on product development and consolidation in order to increase the scale of users, provide a personalised user experience.

Find the complete list of all the startups that got funded last week and more insights from the Indian startup world →