Deal Street: UrbanClap Raises $21 Million, Abhinav Bindra Backs Fitness Startup
Your weekly dose of startups deals.
Eight startups together raised $45 million in angel, seed or venture capital funding last week. This was 25 percent lower than the amount raised in the prior week.
Delhi-based startups bagged the bulk of investor money and on-demand home services company UrbanClap topped the list.
Urban Clap Bags $21 Million
Home services startup UrbanClap raised $21 million (around Rs 140 crore) in Series C funding led by internet investment fund Vy Capital, two people familiar with the development told BloombergQuint.
Early investors SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Series B investor Bessemer Venture Partners also participated in the round, the first person said requesting anonymity. The investment will be used to fuel expansion plans and strengthen technology, the person said. The development was first reported by VCCircle.
An email sent to UrbanClap seeking confirmation remained unanswered.
The startup provides on-demand home services including plumbing, carpentry, pest control, deep cleaning, sofa and carpet cleaning, and has more than 65,000 service professionals registered on the platform servicing 3,00,000 bookings each month.
UrbanClap in May raised Rs 20 crore in debt funding from Trifecta Capital.
Online Lending Platform Stashfin Raises $5 Million
Delhi-based digital lending platform Stashfin raised $5 million (Rs 32.2 crore) in a pre-Series A funding from Kirloskar Group’s venture capital arm, Snow Leopard Ventures, and Singapore-based Alto Partners and GrowX Ventures, the startup said in a statement.
Individual investors Vibhav Dhawan and Praveen Malhotra, managing partners at executive search firm Positive Moves; Ranu Vohra, founder and managing director of financial services firm Avendus Capital; Raoul Bajaj, chief executive of commodities trading firm Trafigura; Pramod Kabra, partner at investment firm True North; and senior executives from KKR also participated in the round.
Launched in September 2016, Stashfin is a machine learning-driven digital lending venture that provides virtual credit facility to consumers. Users can avail loans ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2,00,000 with a minimum repayment period of two months and a maximum tenure of 18 months. It charges annual interest rates ranging from 11.99 percent to 59.99 percent.
V Resorts Raises $4 Million
Noida-based resort management company, V Resorts, raised $4 million (Rs 25.7 crore) in its third round of funding by existing investors RB International and Seedfund, it said in a media statement.
V Resorts will use the new capital to expand operations. The company is also looking to double its inventory and and grow three-fold by the end of this year, the statement added.
The company, which aggregates existing properties and manages their operations on a revenue-share basis, currently covers more than 70 resorts across 15 states.
Last year, V Resorts raised around Rs 13 crore from RB International.
Abhinav Bindra Backs Fitness Marketplace Fitpass
Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra led an investment round of $1 million (around Rs 6.5 crore) in online fitness marketplace Fitpass, the startup’s co-Founder Akshay Verma told BloombergQuint over phone. The investment was made through Bindra’s venture fund Shooting Star launched in March last year.
Franchise India Brands Ltd. also participated in this round.
The money will be used to expand services in 10 cities over the next six months, Verma said.
Founded in 2015, Fitpass has tied up with more than 1,500 gyms and fitness studios in the Delhi-NCR region. The firm has around 12,000 monthly active users on the platform. The next step is to launch an artificial intelligence-led coaching plans for users, Verma said.
The firm had last raised $1 million in December last year.
Other Deals
In-video discovery platform Tagos Design raised $ 5 million in Series A funding from a venture capital firm and two global corporations, the company said in a statement, without disclosing the names of the investors. The funds will be deployed to enhance the product, increase user base and hire more people.
Indian smartwatch maker HUG Innovation raised $5 million in its Series A funding from NRI Startup India at TiE-Hyderabad Guardian Angel’s live instant funding event. The startup will use the funds to build four different application areas – fitness, virtual reality, industrial automation and drones.
Data analytics startup ZineOne raised $2.5 million (about Rs 16 crore) in a round led by Hyderabad Angels with participation from New York-based Golden Seeds Angels and a few high net-worth individuals (HNIs), according to a company statement. The company will use the fresh funds to strengthen its offering in streaming analytics and machine-learning models.
Automobile parts and services marketplace SparesHub.com raised $300,000 (Rs 2 crore) from Anthill Scale Ventures, Esvee Technologies, Chennai Angels and other high net-worth individuals (HNIs), the company said. The funds will be used for expansion and strengthening its technology platform.