Category: Startup Newsletter

VP Weekly | 14 Jul '19

July 14, 2019

Edtech Unicorn BYJU’S Raises $150 Mn Funding
Bengaluru-based edtech unicorn BYJU’S has raised $150 Mn from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). This round also includes the participation from Owl Ventures.
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Hyundai Kona Launch: Automaker Commits $200 Mn To Develop EV Ecosystem In India
South Korean automobile company Hyundai has now committed to invest $200 Mn (INR 1,400 Cr) to develop affordable electric vehicles for the Indian market over the next three years.
Read More

Startup News Snippets

 

M&A News

Editor’s Weekly Pick

Every modern business leader talks data, but all the software, data and the Internet ultimately resides in massive data centers. Data localization laws are likely to trigger massive demand of data centers in India. What would they look like?..  here’s an insider’s view into one of world’s largest data centers at Google USA.

–Abhishek

Market Pulse

  • Noida-based B2B online marketplace IndiaMART has launched its bids to investors with an initial public offering (IPO) to raise up to $68.35 Mn
  • Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is reportedly looking to invest around $2 Bn to $3 Bn in Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio
  • Pune-based agritech startup, AgroStar has raised $27 Mn Series C funding led by Bertelsmann India, Accel Partners, Chirate Ventures and Aavishkar Bharat
  • Chicago-based freight tracking logistics startup FourKites has announced that it will utilize a part of its $50 Mn Series C funding in doubling the employee headcount of its engineering arm in Chennai
  • Foodtech unicorn Swiggy is reportedly raising $200Mn funding from Carlyle Group, an American private equity fund who had also invested in the logistics startup Delhivery
  • Indian regional language social platform ShareChat may raise $100 Mn from the microblogging site, Twitter and Hong Kong-based investment management firm, Hillhouse Capital
  • Bengaluru-based social commerce startup Meesho has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from social media company Facebook

VP Weekly | 7 Jul ’19

July 7, 2019

Droom Ready To Raise $250 Mn Ahead Of IPO in 2021
Automobile marketplace Droom has said it’s in the market to raise $250 Mn in a pre-IPO round. The company said it’s in talks with multiple institutional and strategic investors, as well as existing investors.
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Alternative Energy Firm ReNew Power Raises $300 Mn Via Rights Issue
Clean energy firm ReNew Power announced on Sunday that it has raised $300 Mn (approximately INR 2,050 Cr) through a rights issue.
Read More 

 

Startup News Snippets

M&A News

Market Pulse

  • The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Tata Trust collaborated to set up the India Agritech Incubation Network (IAIN). With this, they are also launching ‘Social Alpha Quest for Agritech Innovations’ contest.
  • Former CEO of Kerala-based IT firm UST Global, Sajan Pillai shared plans to launch a $75 Mn venturecapital fund to boost the growth of Kerala startups.
  • Social e-commerce startup Shopmatic is looking to raise a $30 Mn Series B funding to expand its business and enable the online success of aspiring entrepreneurs, hobbyists, craftsperson, and small merchants.
  • Paytm and Chinese conglomerate Tencent are reportedly in talks to invest $100 Mn in Times Internet-owned OTT platform MX Player.
  • Sequoia Capital India reportedly launched a new seed fund. The VC firm is said to have registered its seed fund in Mauritius under the name of Sequoia Capital India Seed Fund I Ltd.
  • To fund its expansion plan, Alphalogic Techsys, Software Solutions Company, is coming up with an IPO and planning to get listed on the BSE Startup platform.
  • SoftBank Vision Fund, one of the world’s largest tech funds, plans to invest $2-4 Bn in India over the next two years as it bets heavily on sectors such as financial services.

VP Weekly | 16 Jun ’19

June 16, 2019

WeWork may shell out $1.9 bn to take control of Embassy-backed Indian affiliate
WeWork is in talks to buy around 70% of WeWork India at a valuation of about $2.75 billion, said the report.
 Read More
OYO in tallks to raise $1 Bn at doubled valuation of $10 Bn
OYO Rooms is in talks with existing and new investors to raise another $1 billion. But what is more important here, is that it is scouting to double its valuation for the round to $10 billion. Read More

Startup News Snippets

M&A News

Market Pulse

  • Japanese VC Akatsuki Entertainment Technology Fund is reportedly planning to make an average of $500K investments in five early-stage regional language startups in India.
  • Agri-focused accelerator and investor Pioneering Ventures launched its Rural India Impact Fund, with a targeted corpus of $70 Mn.
  • Artha Venture Fund announced the second close of its first fund which now brings the total amount raised to over $14 Mn against the expected $29 Mn target for the fund overall.
  • Gurugram-headquartered hyperlocal delivery startup Milkbasket has announced that it is investing $2 Mn to scale its fresh fruits and vegetable category.
  • Gurugram-based GroMo has raised $577K seed funding by Ramakant Sharma, co-founder, Livspace and Utsav Somani of AngelList India as well as other prominent angel investors.
  • Car and bike rental startup Drivezy and self-drive car rental company Zoomcar are in initial talks for an equal merger, with a share swap deal.
  • An interactive platform to connect with avid readers in real time Vowelor has raised $143K in a pre-series A round led by angel investor Dr. Sanjeev Juneja.

VP Weekly | 5 May ’19

May 5, 2019

Ola Plans To Raise An Additional $300 Mn As Part Of Series J Round
Cab hailing giant Ola’s parent company, ANI Technologies, has proposed to increase its authorised capital to include an additional number of Series-J shares. This move indicates the company’s intentions to raise an additional $300 Mn as a part of its ongoing funding round. Read More
Mumbai-based digital lending startup InCred closed its Series A Funding at $86 Mn
The funding round was led by Dutch development finance institution FMO. The funds will help the company boost its balance sheet lending.
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Startup News Snippets

M&A News

Editor’s Weekly Pics

Despite the rise of Edtech startups and attention from investors & government, the Indian education system is still suffering from some serious lacunae.


–Abhishek

Market Pulse

  • Jungle Ventures made the first close of its third fund at about $175 Mn. The early stage investment fund’s Indian portfolio includes LivSpace, PaySense, and Engineer.ai.
  • Auto portal CarDekho announced that it will buy back shares worth $2.5 Mn from its employees, under the Girnar group ESOP repurchase plan, 2019
  • Hyderabad-based healthcare technology firm Suvarna Technosoft is acquiring a controlling stake in Mumbai-based laboratory information management systems (LIMS) solutions provider MedPrecinct Solutions.
  • Walmart-owned Flipkart is looking to expand the offline reach, as well as boost its grocery delivery business.
  • Gurugram-headquartered online travel company MakeMyTrip acquired a majority stake in Mumbai-based corporate travel management startup Quest2Travel for an undisclosed amount.
  • Gurugram-based hospitality chain OYO committed to acquire Amsterdam-based vacation rental company @Leisure Group.
  • D’Cal’s cost-effective pocket-friendly device turns hard water into soft water with zero wastage. D’Cal is currently bootstrapped, recorded more than INR 1 Cr in sales last quarter

VP Weekly | 28 Apr ’19

April 28, 2019

Softbank may invest $2-3 Billion in Reliance Jio
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is reportedly looking to invest around $2 Bn to $3 Bn in Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio through the $100 Bn Vision Fund.
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Piramal plans to merge three Shriram entities; mulls exit
Piramal Group plans to merge all three entities of Shriram group and financial services – Shriram Capital, Shriram Transport and City Union.
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Startup News Snippets

M&A News

Editor’s Weekly Pics

Large enterprises are becoming better at driving innovation and make strategic investments by setting up in-house incubation centers. Here is a good summary of corporate incubators from Forbes.

–Abhishek

Market Pulse

  • Indian sweets and snacks brand Haldiram has entered the Indian startup ecosystem with an undisclosed investment in Mumbai-based integrated incubator Venture Catalysts (Vcats).
  • South African Internet conglomerate Naspers has sold its stake in online travel company MakeMyTrip (MMT) to Chinese travel agency Ctrip.
  • Online classifieds marketplace Quikr acquired Bengaluru-based used goods marketplace Zefo, for INR 200 Cr ($28.51 Mn). With Zefo, Quikr is looking to further scale its pre-owned goods and services vertical.
  • Ministry of Commerce and Industry has proposed setting up ‘India Startup Fund’ with a corpus of INR 1,000 Cr to support high technology startups.
  • Tata Trusts and Social Alpha announced the launch of Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 (SAEC 2.0) to find disruptive, innovative and impactful technology blueprints and prototypes across the energy value chain.
  • Mumbai-headquartered impact venture fund Omnivore announced the final close of its second fund, Omnivore Partners India Fund 2, at $97 Mn.
  • M3 India, the Indian subsidiary of Japanese Healthtech company M3, picked up a majority stake in Bengaluru-based edtech startup Neuroglia Health Private Limited (NHPL).

VP Weekly | 21 Apr ’19

April 21, 2019

Despite TikTok Scrutiny, ByteDance To Invest $1 Bn In India
ByteDance’s TikTok app was removed from Google Play Store and Apple App Store in India, but ByteDance remains bullish on the Indian market. The Chinese social networking company is now planning to invest $1 Bn in its India operations.
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Cred Raising $100 Mn From Hillhouse Capital, Existing Investors
Bengaluru-based credit card bill payment startup Cred is reportedly looking to raise $100 Mn from China-based venture capital firm Hillhouse Capital and its existing investors which include Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Apoletto Asia among others.
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Startup News Snippets

 M&A News

Editor’s Weekly Pics

One of world’s best known VCs – Sequoia Capital started a program called Surge for early-stage startups. Here is the first cohort of 17 that recently graduated, with some ‘incredible’ business models.


–Abhishek


Market Pulse

  • The Government of Maharashtra last year introduced Mumbai FinTech Hub to enable financial empowerment and technological advancement by nurturing start-ups with the potential to scale 
  • Eight Indian Startups have made it in the first cohort of 17 startups selected under Sequoia Capital’s startup accelerator and incubation programme Surge
  • Railways-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation and Indian Railway Finance Corporation are planning INR 1500 Cr through initial public offerings by September this year
  • TalentSprint announced Women Engineers Program supported by Google, to nurture 600 women software engineers from India over the coming three years 
  • Bengaluru based online footwear startup Rapawalk raised $350K in a seed funding round from angel investors including Raveen Sastry, Sanjay Ramakrishna, Ravi Garikipati and Ajith Pai
  • Bengaluru-based Business Services provider Quess Corp acquired Hyderabad based business process solutions provider Allsec Technologies
  • Mumbai-based AI-centric edtech startup WhiteHat Jr raised $1.3 Mn in a seed funding round from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India

VP Weekly | 14 Apr ’19

April 14, 2019

PayU acquires Accel-backed digital payments firm Wibmo for $70 mn
Online payment company PayU, a subsidiary of South African media and e-commerce group Naspers, has acquired digital payments firm Wibmo Inc. for $70 Mn.
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IFC plans to arrange $103 mn loans for Visakha Container Terminal
International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private-sector investment arm, plans to arrange a loan worth $103 million (Rs 710.7 crore at current exchange rate) for Visakha Container Terminal Pvt. Ltd. Read More

Startup News Snippets

 M&A News

Editor’s Weekly Pics

Every modern business leader talks data, but all the software, data and the Internet ultimately resides in massive data centers. Data localization laws are likely to trigger massive demand of data centers in India. What would they look like?..  here’s an insider’s view into one of world’s largest data centers at Google USA.

–Abhishek

Market Pulse

  • Sachin Bansal is looking to acquire as much as 75% stake in Bengaluru-based Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services which runs a microfinance institution, Chaitanya India Fin Credit worth $29 Mn
  • Naspers-owned fintech company PayU acquired Bengaluru and Cupertino-based Wibmo specialised in processing online payments worth $70 Mn
  • Premium organic wellness startup for women, Azah, raised seed funding of $200K in the seed-round funding from a group of angel investors
  • The leAD Sports Accelerator launched its third cohort to search for the most promising sports tech startups
  • Mumbai-based fintech lending startup Eduvanz Financing raised $2 Mn (about INR 13 Cr) from Unitus Ventures and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation
  • Bhopal-based startup Thekabadiwala raised $433K of equity funding from early-stage investors
  • Info Edge India invested around $1 Mn in ShoeKonnect, a B2B marketplace for the footwear industry. Post this deal, Naukri.com will hold 30% in ShoeKonnect and is now valued at $11.5 Mn

VP Weekly | 7 Apr ’19

April 7, 2019

Xiaomi and Shunwei are investing $7 Mn in bus tracking app Chalo
The investment arm of Xiaomi, Shunwei Capital had raised a $1.21 Bn fund in November last year, promising a significant chunk, approx $1 Bn to be invested in India. The first startup to get a piece of this cake is Chalo.com.
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Logistics Unicorn BlackBuck Raises $ 79.9 Mn In Series D Round
Bengaluru-headquartered logistics startup BlackBuck has raised $79.9 Mn in a Series D round from Accel Partners US, Goldman Sachs and B-Capital issuing 28,571 compulsorily convertible preference shares.
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                                       Startup News Snippets

                                                     M&A News

Editor’s Weekly Pick

2018 has been a landmark year for startup exits – what does this mean for investments in startups over the next 5-7 years? what sectors still have potential opportunities? Here are some good insights from Matrix Partners.

–Abhishek

Market Pulse

  • Indonesia-based ride-hailing company, GoJek, is to close two investment deals with Mumbai-based cloud kitchen player Rebel Foods which runs Faasos and Bengaluru-based esports startup Mobile Premier League.
  • Bengaluru-based self-drive car rental platform, Zoomcar, to raise around $500 Mn in a funding round led by automaker Mahindra & Mahindra.
  • Watch and personal accessories maker Titan has invested $14 Mn into Chennai-based online jewellery store CaratLane. CaratLane allocated 30,48,780 shares to Titan.
  • Amazon has invested approximately $35 Mn into its food ecommerce arm Amazon Retail India.
  • US-based curated closed marketplace for startups and investors AngelList has launched an India focused fund – The Collective. The Collective will invest about $0.14 Mn each in 60-80 startups annually.
  • Early-stage venture capital firm, DSG Consumer Partners has announced the launch of its third investment fund, which made its first close at $30 Mn.
  • WittyFeed has announced the launch of CatchUp, a social infotainment startup that will give users the opportunity to stay on top of trends online via audio-visual format.

VP Weekly | 31 Mar ’19

March 31, 2019

With 45 Mn MAUs, Google Pay hit $81 Bn annualised transaction run rate in March
Google’s UPI-based payment app Google Pay has seen remarkable growth since its 18 months of launch in India. Escalating on the back of UPI growth, Google Pay has hit $81 billion annualised transaction run-rate in March. Read More

Paytm Valuation To Hit $18 Bn With Top Up From SoftBank, Ant Financial
Digital payment company Paytm is reportedly in the middle of raising around $1.5 Bn – $2 Bn from its existing investors SoftBank Vision Fund and Alibaba’s Ant Financial.
Read More

                                       Startup News Snippets

M&A News

Editor’s Weekly Pick

Putting consumers ‘first’… everyone talks, but Apple seems to be trying an interesting way of doing it in consumer finance. The opinion on ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in customer service seemed ironical 🙂 Read More

–Abhishek

Market Pulse

  • RBI is looking to issue guidelines for setting up a regulatory sandbox or innovation hub for the fintech startups to help the companies build innovative products at a lower cost.
  • Bus shuttle service startup Shuttl is set to close its Series B funding round with $7.23 Mn from Sequoia, Lightspeed and Times Internet.
  • International health-focused innovation platform Well Tech collaborated with Venture Catalysts to initiate a healthtech-oriented acceleration programme ‘HealthCare Catalysts’. 
  • SoftBank may lead a $7-100 Mn funding in cloud kitchen startup Faasos. Goldman Sachs, Tencent & Temasek are also expected to participate in the round.
  • Chennai-based pharmaceutical ecommerce portal Netmeds.com has acquired of another healthtech startup KiViHealth in a cash and stock dealfor $10 Mn to integrate and grow KiVIHealth  business segment.
  • Dubai-based wholly owned subsidiary of Infibeam Global, EMEA FZ-LLC has signed MoU with Middle East’s investment firm UniPropitia FZCO to expand its web service platform in the Arab League countries.
  • UniPropitia will acquire a 51% stake in the Dubai subsidiary for a total consideration not exceeding $

VP Weekly | 24 Mar ’19

March 24, 2019

Ahead Of IPL, Flipkart’s PhonePe Receives $107.6 Mn Cash Infusion
Flipkart owned online payment company PhonePe has raised $107.6 Mn from its Singapore-based parent entity PhonePe Pvt Ltd, formerly known as Flipkart Payments.
 Read More

Xiaomi Bets Big On India Play With Latest Infusion Of $507 Mn
This week one of the biggest fundings came to Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi’s India unit which raised $507 Mn from its Singapore parent company. The company will reportedly utilize the funds to enter the white goods sector as well as to expand its company-owned Mi Home retail stores to sustain the leadership in the Indian smartphone market. Read More

Startup News Snippets

M&A News

Editor’s Weekly Pick

It is common to read about the questionable nexus between business, politics and banking in India. But, beyond homeland, here is a fascinating read about how the world’s most powerful man kept raising funds from one of world’s biggest banks despite many disputes and bankruptcies. This will surely make it to Hollywood one day 🙂

–Abhishek

Market Pulse

  • Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council hosted her START programme where 35 ideas were selected for pre-incubation support.
  • US-based Airbnb is in discussions to invest in Indian hotel management startup OYO. If completed, the investment would likely be in the $100 Mn to $200 Mn range. 
  • The global social media giant Facebook is in early talks with several content startups, including PopXo for potential investments.
  • Beauty e-tailer Nykaa acquired women styling platform 20Dresses.com for an undisclosed amount to expand its fashion business.
  • Bengaluru based edtech unicorn BYJU’S raised $25 Mn from General Atlantic in Series G funding round and $6 Mn from Tencent in its Series F funding round.
  • California and Bengaluru-based AI assistance provider to small businesses, FrontdeskAI raised $2 Mn pre-Series A funding round from pi Ventures.
  • Mobile-based online fantasy gaming platform HalaPlay raised $5.8 Mn in Series A funding led by Nazara Technologies and Delta Corp.
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