Cyanogen raises $80 million from PremjiInvest and other investors
Azim Premji’s PremjiInvest led a Series C funding round of $80 million in Android OS maker Cyanogen, reported ET Tech. Twitter Ventures, Qualcomm, Telefonica Ventures, Rupert Murdoch and Andreessen Horowitz were among some of the other investors who participated in this round along with existing investors. The funding will go towards hiring and development of Cyanogen’s open OS platform.
Cyanogen’s total investment comes to $110 million with this round. Started as a project called CyanogenMod, the company signed a deal with Qualcomm earlier this month to develop software features for Qualcomm Reference Design based products.
Also read: Why Micromax ditched Android One for Cyanogen
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Accel Partners raises $305 million for fund
VC firm Accel Partners has raised $305 million for its new fund Accel India IV, reports VCCircle. Accel will continue to focus on seed and early stage venture funding with a possibility of pursuing growth equity deals like it’s previous growth equity investment in BookMyShow. The firm will focus on consumer, enterprise software, healthcare and mobile businesses. Accel Partners had previously raised a $155 million (USD) in November 2011 through Accel India III and $60 million in 2008 through Accel India Venture Fund II.
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Harness Handitouch raises undisclosed Series A funding
Education technology startup Harness Handitouch has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Luxembourg based Armat Group with the angel investors exiting profitably post the funding, reports VCCircle. The funds will go towards product development, expansion in Europe and marketing. ah! Ventures claimed that the angel investors had exited profitably within two years of their investment.
The company had previously raised Rs 1 crore from angel network ah! Angels. Founded by Subramanian Viswanathan and Kuljit Chadha in July 2011, Harness develops products for tablet and mobile-enabled education through blended learning targeted at schools, universities, corporate training and distance learning. The company was incubated by Microsoft Ventures in 2013 and claims to have clients and partners in Arabian Gulf University, Flipik, Swaas Systems, University of Dubai, cK12, VIT and Samsung among others.
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Artoo has raised Rs 1.3 crore from Accion Venture Lab and Artha Initiative
Financial sector CRM startup Artoo has raised Rs 1.3 crore in a Series A funding from Accion Venture Lab and Artha Initiative. The funding will go towards expansion in South East Asia, development of the platform and increase the team size from 16 to 40. The 5 year old Bangalore based Artoo claims to have 5 large enterprise clients and is present in 24 states, disbursing Rs 18 crore through its monthly. The mobile and cloud platform offers services like loan origination, credit underwriting and lead management.
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Teabox raises $6 million from JAFCO Asia, Accel Partners and other investors
Siliguri based Teabox has raised $6 million Series A funding led by JAFCO Asia and participation from Accel Partners, Keystone Group LP and Dragoneer Investment Group, reports TechCrunch. It had previously raised seed funding of $1 million from Accel and Horizon Ventures. Founded by Kaushal Dugar in 2012, Teabox is looking to set up shop in the US, scaling and target new markets globally with the funding.
The online store sells tea across 75 countries and works with over 200 tea plantations in India and Nepal handling distribution, storage, supply and logistics by itself in order to speed up the delivery process. The company claims that their delivery time is less than a week and that they have shipped 40,000 kgs of tea to date.
Image Credit: Flickr users Cyril Gauthier and Steve Bowbrick
