Deal Street: Indian Startups Raised $84 Million Last Week
Startups based in Delhi beat Bengaluru in raising funds last week
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Funding street was abuzz last week for the startup ecosystem. 14 startups have garnered $84 million in angel/seed and venture capital funding, versus the $33 million raised the week before by 12 startups. The Delhi-NCR region also pipped Bengaluru to lead all the funding activity.
The big ticket-deal were cracked by Media-tech firm Amagi, followed by Cloud infrastructure provider, Pi Data Center.
Media-tech firm Amagi raises $35 M
Emerald Media Advisors Pte Ltd, a pan-Asian media and entertainment investment platform, led the investment of $35 million (around Rs 232.8 crore) in series D round of funding in targeted television advertising and cloud-based television broadcast platform, Amagi.
Existing investor PremjiInvest, the investment arm promoted by Wipro Ltd.’s chairman Azim Premji also participated in the round.
With the help of Emerald, we will be able to expand our services in U.S. and Asia much faster, Baskar Subramanian, Co-Founder, Amagi Media Labs told BloombergQuint in an email response.
We will use the growth capital from this round of funding to expand our targeted advertising platforms globally, enter new international markets for its cloud-based managed broadcast services and introduce a host of products to cater to the various needs of television broadcasters and OTT (over-the-top) networks.”Baskar Subramanian, Co-Founder, Amagi Media.
Amagi Media enables television networks to create a complete broadcast workflow on the cloud and deliver content over satellite, cable, IPTV or OTT (Over-The-Top) platforms.
Cloud infrastructure provider, Pi Datacenters raises $23 million
Data center and cloud services firm, Pi Datacenters raised Rs 154 crore ($23 million) in Series A round of funding led by Epsilon Venture Partners and an Australian private equity group, the company said.
The name of the Australian PE group wasn’t disclosed.
The funds will be utilised to roll out company’s first few data centers across India, Pi founder and CEO Kalyan Muppaneni said in a statement.
As more users go digital in India, lower latency is paramount for better user experience, which is possible only if the digital infrastructure is located within the country,”Kalyan Muppaneni, Founder, Pi Datacentres.
Founded in 2014, Pi is based in Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, where it has a data centre spread across 10 acres.
Zodius Capital backs B2B marketplace, OfBusiness
Online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace OfBusiness has raised $11.1 million (around Rs 75 crore) in its Series B round of funding, led by Zodius Technology Opportunities Fund, and existing investor Matrix Partners, the company said in a statement.
Angel investors Apoorva Patni, Bhavish Aggarwal, Pranay Chulet, Prashant Malik, Rohit M A and Sumesh Menon also participated the round.
OfBusiness said it plans to expand its footprint to cover over 30 clusters focusing on the manufacturing and construction sectors. It is currently present in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, National Capital Region, Maharashtra and Odisha.
Lending startup Indifi raises $10 million in Series B funding
Gurgaon-based fintech startup Indifi Technologies Pvt Ltd, raised $10 million (Rs 66.5 crore) in a Series B funding round led by Omidyar Network, an investment firm founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, the firm told BloombergQuint.
Existing investors Accel Partners and Elevar Equity, also participated in the round.
The amount raised will be used in improving company’s offerings in areas like travel, e-commerce, retail, and hotel segments. A part of investment will also go in expanding the product lineup and enhancing customer experience.
Founded in 2015 by Alok Mittal, Siddharth Mahanot, and Sundeep Sahi, Indifi is an online platform connecting small businesses with formal lending institutions. It has tied up with Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd., India Infoline Finance Ltd. and Capital First, to provide credit financing to micro, small and medium enterprises.
Indifi’s unique platform combines smart data analytics and strategic partnerships with supply and distribution chain aggregators in a one-stop solution, revolutionizing the way lenders reach and underwrite credit to MSMEs, while helping them grow and thrive.”Smita Aggarwal, Director, Investments, Omidyar Network,
Sequoia Capital backs digital entertainment startup Pocket Aces
Online video start-up Pocket Aces raised $3 million (Rs 20 crore) in A round of funding led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India, the company announced.
Other investors included North Base Media, TV Mohandas Pai-led Aarin Capital, 3one4 Capital, Axilor Ventures, and FreeCharge founders, Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon.
The company conceptualises, creates and distributes youth-focused written and video content including web series through its social media and online channels – Dice Media, FilterCopy and Gobble.
The company said it will use the proceeds to invest in content creation, expand its team across creative and business profiles and explore new ways to monetise its content
Fitness-tech startup Fitpass startup raises $1 million
Online fitness marketplace, Fitpass, raised $1 million (Rs 6.7 crore) in seed funding from Mumbai Angels and a clutch of angel investors from Delhi and Bengaluru, co-founder, Akshay Verma told BloombergQuint.
The startup aims to use the funds to upgrade the app’s technology.
“We will be coming up with a lot of personalised fitness management tools on the app, based on individual usage pattern. We will also help partners go digital in order to manage their business on the app itself,” Verma said.
The startup has tied up with more than 1,250 gyms and fitness studios in the Delhi-NCR region. It gives users options to choose daily workouts, from Pilates and Zumba to kickboxing, karate and aerobics. It also provides users with diet plans and workout guides.
Facebook’s Anand Chandrasekaran backs user engagement platform MoEngage
User analytics and engagement platform MoEngage raised an undisclosed investment from Facebook executive, Anand Chandrasekaran, the company said.
Chandrasekaran, former chief product officer of e-commerce firm Snapdeal, is currently head of platform and product partnerships at Facebook Messenger.
The startup helps internet companies deliver personalised interactions via push notifications, in-app recommendations, email, web-push and other communication channels, driving engagement.
It counts Bharti Airtel Ltd., Times Internet, Interactive One, Snapdeal, GrowthHackers and Matahari Mall as its clients.
Delhi-based FitMeIn raised an undisclosed amount in pre-series A round of funding from Japanese digital healthcare company, FiNC. FitMeIn is an online platform that offers multi-studio membership to premium fitness workout destinations in New Delhi and Mumbai.
Other deals
Online stock broking startup TradingBells, has raised $294,000 (Rs 2 crore) from Mumbai-based stock broking firm Swastika Investmart Ltd.
Comet, an online marketplace for international freight services, raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding round led by early stage investment firm India Quotient.
Fintech startup SERV’D, which provides financial services for the unorganised workforce, has received investment of $100,000 (Rs 67 lakh) from Digital Financial Service Lab (DFS Lab), a fintech incubator fully-backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Bengaluru-based medical wearable device startup ten3T raised an undisclosed amount of angel round of funding led by Pi Ventures.
Gurugram-based travel-tech startup Qacco raised $150K in an angel funding led by Lead Angels Network (LAN). LAN is an alumni-focused pan India angel network.
Infosys Ltd. has made a strategic investment in Navi Mumbai-based drone maker, ideaForge Technology Pvt. Ltd. The investment has been made via Infosys’ innovation fund, which it uses to invest in fledgling enterprises with the potential to add to its core business.