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Deal Street: Blackbuck, True Balance Led Startup Fund Raising Last Week

Deal street: Indian startups raised $36 million last week.

(Source: BloombergQuint)
(Source: BloombergQuint)

Indian startups saw muted fund raising activity in the week gone by, as six companies managed to raised $36 million from angel investors and venture capitalists. The week prior had seen 11 companies raise $55.2 million.

One of the biggest deals was bagged by Bengaluru-based freight aggregator, Blackbuck.

Blackbuck Raises Rs 125 Crore From Accel Partners, Flipkart, Others

Source:  Blackbuck. 
Source:  Blackbuck. 

Bengaluru-based online freight aggregator, Blackbuck received nearly $18 million (Rs 125 crore) from existing investors including Accel Partners, Flipkart, and angel investor, Sanjiv Rangrass who also happens to be a senior official at ITC Ltd., according to documents filled with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The biggest investment, however, in this round came from a new investor, Sands Capital which put in Rs 67.4 crore.

Among existing investors, Accel Partners has made the biggest investment in this round, pumping in Rs 37 crore, while Flipkart has put in another Rs 20 crore. Rangrass has made a relatively smaller investment of Rs 20 lakh.

Blackbuck had raised $25 million from Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Apoletto and Flipkart in 2015.

Founded in April 2015, the startup is an online business-to-business marketplace for long-haul trucking – connecting truck owners and freight operators for long-distance transportation.

True Balance Raises $15 Million From SoftBank, Others

(Source: True Balance)
(Source: True Balance)

Gurgaon-based True Balance, an app that keeps users updated about their mobile accounts, raised $15 million (Rs 100 crore) in a Series B round led by existing investor SoftBank Ventures Korea, part of the Japanese Internet conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp, and IMM Investment Group, the company said in a media statement.

Other South Korean investors such as Mega Investment, Korea Development Bank and Capston Partners also participated in this round, the statement added.

The additional funding will help us spur our business growth even further. True Balance has been growing exponentially, passing the 30 million download mark and targeting 100 million by the end of this year. 
Cheol-won Lee, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, True Balance In The Statement

True Balance, operated by Balance Hero Co Ltd., was launched in 2014. It allows prepaid Android users to check their mobile and data balance without an internet connection. It also offers recharge services.

Get My Parking Secures $1.1 Million

Cloud-based mobile parking startup Get My Parking secured $1.1 million (Rs 7.35 crore) in a pre-series A round of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN), BEENEXT, The Chennai Angels (TCA), and Sunil Munjal, chairman of Hero Corporate Service Pvt. Ltd, the company said in a media statement.

The startup will use the proceeds from this round to deploy its integrated smart parking platform, the statement added.

Founded in June 2015, it provides real-time parking information to commuters, enterprises and public administration firms through an app. In January 2016, the startup had raised $375,000 (Rs 2.5 crore) from The Chennai Angels.

Last month, Get My Parking was among the 10 winners chosen by the U.K.’s Department for International Trade in India for its Tech Rocketship Awards.

Reap Chemist Raises Seed Funding From FreeCharge Founders, Others

Mumbai-based business-to-business app for pharmacies, Reap Chemist raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from FreeCharge founders Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, Chaayos Co-Founder and CEO Nitin Saluja and Thinklabs Founders Gagan Goyal, the startup’s co-founder Siddharth Gadia told BloombergQuint in a telephonic interview.

The company aims to use the funds for product development and expansion in existing geographies.

Founded in 2015, the startup aims to build a community of pharmacists and bring them on a single platform. “Our vision is to get all 6 lakh pharmacies in India engaged and hooked to one platform which will open up extreme opportunities of Marketing, Analytics and Trade in future,” Agarwal added.

The app has so far tied up with 9,000 pharmacy stores in 10 cities including Jaipur, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Nashik, among others.

Other Deals

Noida-based mobile advertising startup Oglas raised angel funding from investment banker and NYU Stern alumnus Pankaj Rungta and serial entrepreneur Yogesh Agarwal, TechCircle reported.

Mumbai-based igrenEnergi Inc, a U.S.-based solar energy startup incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Japan’s BroadBand Tower Inc and GiTV, The Economic Times reported .