Last week in startups - India
This week, 15 startups raised $117.74 Mn.
This week, one of the biggest funding was raised by Bengaluru-based electric two-wheelers maker Ather Energy. The investment of $51 Mn was led by Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal’s who poured in $32 Mn. For this round, Hero MotoCorp has converted its convertible debt of $19 Mn and InnoVen Capital has extended an $8 Mn venture debt.
The company plans to use the funds to enter an expansion phase and has already lined up Chennai as its next city of operations. It plans to eventually expand it to 30 cities by the end of 2023.
Bengaluru-based social commerce startup GlowRoad raised $11.5 Mn in a Series B+ funding round from South Korea-based Korea Investment Partners (KIP) and Singapore-based Vertex Ventures. The company is now looking to ramp up hiring across technology and customer care operations.
Bengaluru-based online marketplace for perishable goods FreshToHome raised $11 Mn in Series A funding round led by CE Ventures. The funds will be used to expand its operations in all Tier 1 cities of India and strengthen the sourcing supply chain.
Gurugram-based travel commerce startup Airblack raised $1.5 Mn in a seed funding round from Asia-focussed venture capital firm, SAIF Partners. The funds will be used to launch its consumer product, which is currently available on an invite-only basis. The company is also looking to ramp up its traveller and influencer community features and recruitment for its core team.
Delhi-based HRTech startup Hyperhire raised $200K seed funding from Seoul based early-stage venture capital firm Springcamp and supported by Korean government. The funds will be used to launch its job platform JOBKET in the country.
Moving on to acquisitions:
Patna-based agritech startup, DeHaat acquired Noida-based VezaMart, a platform which builds farm management solutions for farmers for an undisclosed amount.
Bengaluru-based printing retail startup Printo acquired custom online printing marketplace Inkmonk for an undisclosed amount. Post-acquisition, Chennai-based Inkmonk’s founders Isaac Wesley and Surya Sankar will join the Printo management. Inkmonk will continue to grow as an independent brand.
What else caught our eyes?
Alibaba has reportedly invested $100Mn in a short-video sharing app VMate to increase its foothold in the Indian market. VMate was launched in India in 2016 by Alibaba subsidiary UC Web. VMate has 30Mn global users and will use the funding to scale its business in India.
Gurugram-based eyewear startup Lenskart may raise $350 Mn from SoftBank Vision Fund. The funding is expected to hike the company’s valuation by 162%, reaching a valuation of $1.3 Bn from $495.5 Mn at the last round.
Gurugram and New York-headquartered online travel company MakeMyTrip has announced its performance for the quarter and the year ending March 31, 2019. In its last quarter, MakeMyTrip raked in $120.17 Mn in revenue taking the yearly revenue to $486.01 Mn.
The company’s unaudited financial results show that the losses for Q4 increased 39% to $40.39 Mn, as against $29 Mn in Q3. The loss for the year was reported at $167.88 Mn overall. On a Y-o-Y basis, the FY19 losses have improved considerably by 23.7% as against $220.24 Mn in the previous year.
