Deal Street: Dalmia Cement Arm, Pawan Munjal Bet On Startup That Makes Freight Transport Smart
Your weekly dose of startup deals.
Five Indian startups raised nearly Rs 1,700 crore in seed and venture capital funding last week across sectors such as logistics, insurance and health.
Bengaluru-based startups led the funding pack.
Digital Insurance Platform Gets Booster Shot Of $18.8 Million
RenewBuy raised $18.85 million (Rs 130 crore) in growth funding led by impact venture capital firm Lok Capital and IIFL Asset Management Ltd.
Existing investor Amicus Capital also participated in the round, the digital insurance platform said in a statement. It said the funds will be used to expand in 1,000 cities, augment its product portfolio and insure 10 million customers by 2022.
Founded in 2015, RenewBuy, which started with motor insurance, now offers health insurance, personal accident insurance, among others. It has so far signed up 25,000 point-of-sale partners and insured over one million customers in 450 cities.
Logistics Startup Freight Tiger Raises $8 Million
Logistics technology startup Freight Tiger raised $8 million (around Rs 55 crore) in a funding round led by existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Alsthom Industries Ltd., a cement grinding unit of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd., and the Pawan Munjal Family Trust participated in the round, Freight Tiger said in a statement.
The company aims to use the capital to add more customers and strengthen its artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to expand its products and offerings.
“The current fundraising round and investors’ confidence strengthens our vision to build an operating system that powers the entire logistics and freight ecosystem,” Swapnil Shah, founder and chief executive officer of Freight Tiger, said.
Founded in 2014, the platform focuses on end-to-end supply chain, and work with logistics service companies, transporters and consigners. It counts Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA, JSW Steel Ltd., DHL, among others, as clients.
The startup had raised $2 million from Lightspeed in 2017.
Healthtech Startup mfine Raises Debt Funding
Bengaluru-based health technology startup mfine raised $4.5 million (Rs 31 crore) in debt funding from venture debt firm Alteria Capital.
The startup said it will use the funds to triple its investments in artificial intelligence, mobile engineering and hardware integration. .
The startup uses its artificial intelligence-powered platform to connect patients with doctors for virtual consultations. It claims to have a network of 160 hospitals in five cities. A team of over 80 in-house doctors work with its AI engine and offer diagnosis and care. Its AI engine, as per the company, can diagnose and prescribe treatment procedures for over 1,200 common illnesses and diseases.
“We’re able to bring high-quality healthcare to users’ mobile—be it doctor consultations, medicine orders, diagnostics tests or digital tools,” Prasad Kompalli, co-founder and CEO of mfine, said.
Others
- Softbank Vision Fund picked up 26 percent stake in Ola Electric Mobility, the electric arm of India’s largest ride-hailing company, as it invested nearly $250 million (Rs 1,725 crore), according to filings with Registrar of Companies.
- Bengaluru-based Propelld, a student education financing platform, raised about $2.2 million (Rs 15 crore) from early-stage investors Stellaris Venture Partners and India Quotient, among others, the startup said in a statement. Existing investors, including Indian Angel Network Fund, participated in the funding.