Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [29 Jan-03 Feb 2018]

We bring to you the latest edition Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week.

This week 19 Indian startups raised about $636 Mn in funding altogether and three acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.).

Two of the biggest Indian startup funding round of the week was led by Alibaba Group. The Chinese ecommerce giant was seen participating in a $300 Mn Series E funding round of BigBasket. The round also saw the participation of Abraaj Capital, Sands Capital, and IFC. BigBasket will utilise the funds raised towards bettering its technological, analytical, and infrastructural prowess.

The second big ticket round was led by Alibaba’s subsidiary Ant Financial, which infused $200 Mn in foodtech startup Zomato. The deal, which is a mix of primary and secondary share transactions, will see Alipay investing $150 Mn as primary capital in Zomato, while the existing investor Info Edge will dilute its 6.6% holding worth $50 Mn in the online food discovery and delivery company. The deal will get complete on or before April 2018 and will value Zomato at $1.1 Bn reportedly.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

MoneyOnMobile: Mumbai-based fintech startup MoneyOnMobile raised $7.6 Mn in a Series F round of funding through preference shares. The company plans to use these funds to execute its business plan and drive growth across its product lines.

BrowserStack: Web testing platform BrowserStack raised $50 Mn Series A funding from Accel Partners valuation of about $400 Mn-$500 Mn. The investment will fuel BrowserStack’s continued commitment to being the testing infrastructure for the Internet and allows the company to expand its world-class team and raise global brand awareness.

XpressBees: Alibaba invested $35 Mn (INR 224 Cr) in Pune-based logistics company XpressBees. Xpressbees has issued 70, 653 series D preference shares to Alibaba as part of the investment. Owned by Busybees Logistics Solutions, Xpressbees aims to fulfill comprehensive supply-demand needs of India’s online industry through best in class solutions and domain expertise.

CureFit: Bengaluru-based fitness startup CureFit raised $10 Mn in debt financing from HDFC Bank and Axis Bank. The latest fundraise is part of an earlier round, wherein it secured $3.2 Mn (INR 20.55 Cr) debt funding from Trifecta Capital and Kris Gopalakrishnan-founded Prathithi Investment Trust in August 2017. Reportedly, the company is looking to raise additional funding to meet its capital expenditure (capex).

The Wedding Brigade: Mumbai-based online wedding startup, raised $1 Mn in its Pre-Series A round of funding led by Blume Ventures. The also saw participation of Czar Capital, Mountain Pine Capital, Lets Venture investors and the Keiretsu Forum. The company plans to use this funding to expand the team and business verticals, strengthen its community, and introduce an array of new products and services to the market.

eKincare: Hyderabad-based healthcare startup eKincare secured $1.5 Mn in Series A funding from a clutch of investors, including Ventureast, Endiya Partners, Eight Roads, Touchstone Equities and former NASSCOM Chairman B.V.R. Mohan Reddy. The fresh funding will be utilised to grow and expand the startup’s core technology platform as well as its sales team.

PeeSafe: O2O global brand for toilet hygiene PeeSafe raised $1 Mn (INR 6.3 Cr) in a fresh round of funding by issuing compulsorily convertible debentures (CCD) to its existing and new investors. The funds will be used to accelerate its growth by expanding into international markets of the US and South Africa. With this round, the company onboard an array of new investors and existing investors including Alfa Universal Ventures, Green Shoot Capital, Venture Catalysts among others also participated in this funding round.

iNurture: Bengaluru-based edtech company iNurture raised $4.3 Mn in its Series C funding round. The round was led by Ventureast along with existing investors Bertelsmann India Investments and Ascent Capital. iNurture plans to use these funds to expand its unique e-Learning platform for Skill Centers and Distance Learning, and to expand its managed campuses business.

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