Fundings, funds and acquisitions in January 2019
Company Name: Manch
Amount raised: Rs 5 crore
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Indic language social platform
Date announced: January 3
Investors: Stellaris Venture Partners
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Zolostays
Amount raised: $30 million
Type: Series B
Sector: Co-living and rentals
Date announced: January 7
Investors: Nexus Venture Partners and IDFC Alternatives
What they will use the funding for: Expand into other metros
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Abita
Amount raised: Undisclosed
Type: Seed funding
Sector: Health
Date announced: January 4
Investors: Sky7Ventures, Vignesh Ramanujam, Balasubramanian Sankaranarayanan, Navy Ramavat, and Swapnil Mehta.
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: Inc42
**
Company Name: Flipspaces
Amount raised: $3.5 million
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Interior design
Date announced: January 7
Investors: Carpediem Capital
What they will use the funding for: Improve technology and expand presence
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Grexter
Amount raised: $1.5 million
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Co-living
Date announced: January 11
Investors: Venture Catalysts
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: Inc42
**
Company Name: Paisadukaan
Amount raised: Rs 1.6 crore
Type: Seed funding
Sector: P2P lending
Date announced: January 14
Investors: Unnamed investor
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: InnerChef
Amount raised: $6.5 million
Type: Pre-series B
Sector: Food delivery
Date announced: January 8
Investors: Mistletoe, Das Capital, Saha Capital, M&S Partners and Brand Capital
What they will use the funding for: To strengthen its Healthie brand, and enter the packaged foods business
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Flipkart
Amount raised: $200.8 million
Type: Unspecified
Sector: E-commerce
Date announced: January 16
Investors: Singapore parent Flipkart Pvt Ltd.
What they will use the funding for: To expand to 10 more cities including Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Jaipur
Source: Inc42
**
Company Name: Ola
Amount raised: $21 million
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Cab hailing
Date announced: January 25
Investors: Sachin Bansal
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Zoomtail Technologies
Amount raised: Undisclosed
Type: Seed funding
Sector: Omnichannel e-commerce
Date announced: January 16
Investors: Matrix Partners
What they will use the funding for: To expand the team and build a technology platform for retailers
Source: Inc42
**
Company Name: ITILITE
Amount raised: Rs 30 crore
Type: Series A
Sector: SaaS travel desk solution
Date announced: January 17
Investors: Matrix Partners
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Turtlemint
Amount raised: $25 million
Type: Series B
Sector: Insurance distribution
Date announced: January 16
Investors: Sequoia India, Blume Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners
What they will use the funding for: Scale operations, increase the number of field agents
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Crio.Do
Amount raised: $1 million
Type: Seed funding
Sector: Software developers learning platform
Date announced: January 30
Investors: Led by Binny Bansal, participation from Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta, Sujeet Kumar, Mekin Maheshwari, Ravi Garikipati
What they will use the funding for: Build product and expand team
Source: Inc42
**
Company Name: Kruzr
Amount raised: $1.3 million
Type: Seed funding
Sector: Motor Insurance provider
Date announced: January 31
Investors: Saama Capital and Better Capital
What they will use the funding for: To expand the technology team, scale product, and expand to the UK and Europe
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: MoneyOnClick
Amount raised: $2.15 million
Type: Seed funding
Sector: Lending
Date announced: January 30
Investors: Orios Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, and 3one4 Capital
What they will use the funding for: To improve its technology and for hiring
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Streamsource
Amount raised: $1 million
Type: Seed funding
Sector: Blockchain marketplace for unsecured personal loans
Date announced: January 30
Investors: Accel India
What they will use the funding for: To develop product, expand sales team in the US, and hire local resources in Australia and the UK
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: The Better India
Amount raised: $3.5 million
Type: Series A
Sector: Impact company & now e-commerce
Date announced: January 30
Investors: Elevar Equity
What they will use the funding for: To scale e-commerce vertical
Source: Inc42
**
Company Name: NutriTap
Amount raised: Rs 2 crore
Type: Seed funding
Sector: Health / food
Date announced: January 28
Investors: Apoorva Patni, Sameer Khetarpal and other unnamed investors
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: Inc42
**
Company Name: CreditVidya
Amount raised: $3 million
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Data analytics
Date announced: January 29
Investors: Bharat Innovation Fund, partners at Falcon Edge Capital
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: SimYog Technologies
Amount raised: Rs 6.3 crore
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Deep technology
Date announced: January 29
Investors: Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI)
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: ZunRoof
Amount raised: Undisclosed
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Clean energy
Date announced: January 24
Investors: Ramakant Sharma, Arun Diaz, Gaurav Gupta, Vismay Sharma, and other unnamed individuals
What they will use the funding for: To scale technology and hiring
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Kapiva Ayurveda
Amount raised: $2.3 million
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Ayurvedic healthcare
Date announced: January 24
Investors: A group of investors, including Fireside Ventures and Mohandas Pai’s family office
What they will use the funding for: To increase presence
Source: Inc42
**
Company Name: FirstCry
Amount raised: $150 million
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Ecommerce
Date announced: January 22
Investors: Softbank
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: TechCircle
**
Company Name: LiquiLoans
Amount raised: Undisclosed
Type: Unspecified
Sector: P2P lending
Date announced: January 22
Investors: Matrix Partners India, Kunal Shah and Ashutosh Taparia
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: VCCircle
**
Company Name: LoanTap
Amount raised: $8 million
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Lending
Date announced: January 18
Investors: 3one4 Capital
What they will use the funding for: Unspecified
Source: The Economic Times
**
Company Name: Samunnati Financial Intermediation and Services
Amount raised: $5 million
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Agriculture NBFC
Date announced: January 3
Investors: FMO, the Dutch Development Bank
What they will use the funding for: To support small-holder farmer organisations and finance working capital requirements of agri-enterprises
Source: Company statement
**
Company Name: In-Med Prognostics
Amount raised: Grant of Rs 50 lakhs for 18 months
Type: Unspecified
Sector: Health
Date announced: January 8
Investors: Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)
What they will use the funding for: To develop a cloud-based software platform that will label, visualize, and quantify the volumes of brain structures using 3D MRI images.
Source: Company statement
Funds
Fund: Spring Marketing Capital
Founded by: Raja Ganapathy, former marketing head at Sequioa India, Vineet Gupta, ex-group chief executive of DDB Mudra and Arun Iyer, ex-chairman of Lowe Lintas
Amount raised: $30 million
What they will invest in: Branding and marketing strategy for startups
Portfolio: 7 existing assignments including Byju’s and HealthKart
Source: The Economic Times
**
Fund: Matrix Partners India
Amount raised: $300 million
What they will invest in: Early stage startups, 12-14 deals this year with bias to seed rounds
Portfolio: Has backed 60 startups including Ola, Practo, DailyHunt, Quikr
Source: TechCrunch
**
Fund: Co-Impact
Founders/ investors: Olivia Leland, Bill and Melinda Gates, Jeff Skoll, and Rohini and Nandan Nilekani.
Amount raised: $80 million
What they will invest in: 5 impact projects over the next 5 years
Source: The Economic Times
Acquisitions
OroWealth acquires wealth management app WealhTrust
Fintech startup OroWealth has acquired Mumbai-based wealth management app WealthTrust for an undisclosed amount, after it initially invested $1.6 million in the company in May 2018. This was reported by Inc42. Some of WealthTrust’s employees will join the OroWealth, and its app will remain active till March 2019. OroWealth was founded in 2016, and offers zero-commission products and financial advice.
Byju’s acquires US-based AR games startup Osmo
Byju’s has acquired US-based learning platform Osmo for $120 million to expand internationally, reports the Economic Times. Osmo produces AR games on iOS devices for children. Osmo’s Silicon Valley team will continue to operate independently. Byju’s had indicated at international expansion within six months when it raised $540 million from Naspers and CPPIB in December.
Byju’s claims to have registered 30 million users, and 2 million annual paid subscriptions in India.
