By Simar SinghE-grocery start-up Satyacart has raised Rs 12 crore in its second round of angel funding from a group of high net worth individuals. The Gurgaon-based grocery delivery start-up. which deploys a system of data analytics to differentiate itself in a booming hyperlocal delivery space, says that it plans to use these funds over the next 12 months to concretise their technological backend and expand their management team. The company has also set itself on the path of raising a Series A Round of funding and has already initiated talks with several Private Equity firms and Venture Capitalists. Aiming to raise $10 million (around Rs 66 crore), Satyacart plans on syphoning these funds to expand into more locations and make individual geographies profitable. Speaking about the same, Satyacart’s founder and CEO, Rahul Hari, said, “The fund raised in quick successions highlights the confidence that investors have posed in our business model. We plan to use this Angel funding for strengthening our technology backbone and expanding our management team. Whereas, the Series A funding, to be raised shortly, will be used for geographical expansion. We are on track with our business mantra - Controlled expansion with an eye on profitability through operational excellence resulting in high customer satisfaction." The company which currently operates only in Gurgaon boasts of more than a 200 per cent growth in order volumes in the last two quarters. It soon plans to expand its presence to the rest of Delhi-NCR.
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"A friend had committed suicide in IIT Guhawati hostel. The reason was anxiety. She anticipated she’ll not get a good job during the on-campus placement," says Richa Singh, co-founder of Bangalore-based mental wellness startup YourDOST.
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Forefront Capital has raised over $100 million from domestic and global investors within 15 months of acquisition by Edelweiss Group.Forefront is the fastest growing player in the listed alternatives space in India, a category which has gained significant interest since SEBI issued the Alternative Investment Fund Regulations in 2013. Forefront Capital is the Multi-Strategy Funds business of Edelweiss’s Global Asset Management, a $ 4.5 Bn asset management business.Forefront Capital’s flagship fund, Forefront Alternative Equity Scheme has completed a year of performance and is a market leader in the Category III AIF space. The main differentiating factor about this fund has been its risk adjusted performance. It has delivered positive returns during volatile market conditions as the Nifty has fallen from 9000 to 7700 in the last six months.Radhika Gupta, Business Head, Forefront Capital, said, “Our risk adjusted performance has been extremely strong and this alternative approach to equities has been much appreciated by clients. We have continued to take our offerings to domestic private banks and are now expanding our reach to global private banks. In the next 2 years we look forward to becoming India’s most dominant player in the listed alternatives space with a continued focus on superior risk adjusted returns, catering towards both domestic and global investors.”(BW Online Bureau)
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By CH Unnikrishnan Drug discovery and development company NovaLead Pharma is in talks with a bunch of private equity funds including its existing investors to raise another round of funding to the tune of at least $35 million (Rs 210 crore) by the next quarter, mainly to fund the human trials of its novel diabetic foot ulcer drug Galnobax. The Pune-based drug researcher had earlier received funding from a couple of private equity companies including Tata Capital Healthcare Fund and Boxmoor, which remained invested in the company. One of its earlier investors Kotak Mahindra Private Equity had a successful exit a few years ago. “The new round of PE investment is one of our large tranches of funding, which is likely to be closed by March next year,” said Supreet Deshpande, managing director, NovaLead, in an interview with BW Businessworld on Tuesday (03 November). The company had on Tuesday said its new research lead, which is a novel indication of an existing drug for the treatment of diabetic ulcer, has successfully completed preclinical studies. The company will be further developing this drug through registration trial preferably along with a partner and will launch the drug in 2018. “A potential breakthrough in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), a frequent complication of uncontrolled diabetes over a period of time, has been successfully proved with the conclusion of the global Phase I and II clinical trial of the company’s repositioned investigational drug—Galnobax,” the company said. This novel drug has successfully met both primary and secondary end points for efficacy and safety in the pre-clinical studies and it will be moving to the human trials shortly in several countries including the Us and India. “Galnobax has demonstrated significant benefit over placebo in terms of ability to close hard to heal DFUs in much shorter time, making it potentially the first small molecule drug for DFU,” the company said on Tuesday. This innovation is significant since Galnobax is a generic drug originally indicated for a cardiac condition, repositioned by NovaLead for DFU in a gel form for topical use. It had also been recognised as the best innovation in healthcare in 2015 by the Department of Biotechnology, government of India. “DFU is a global unmet medical need, with 85% of non-traumatic lower limb amputations happening due to hard to heal DFU. In spite of several therapeutic options being available, a lower limb is amputated every 20 seconds,” said Deshpande. By repositioning a generic drug previously used for a heart condition, NovaLead has established that the existing generic drug base can be a potential source for novel therapeutics for hard to treat diseases like DFU, he added. NovaLead is also working on two other potential innovative drugs for the treatment of psoriasis and certain cancers at present. According to Dr P.K. S Sarma, head technical - Discovery and Product Development, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, NovaLead’s latest innovation is very noteworthy because diabetic foot ulcers is a major unmet medical need in our country. The business model of NovaLead is to out-license its discoveries or co-develop them with credible partners further after receiving human proof of concept in Phase I or II clinical studies. The company is also in talks with potential partners, including some large Indian drug makers, to co-develop and commercialize the DFU drug, said Deshpande.
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Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani is in talks to invest in an early stage logistics venture Fortigo, signalling a strong vote of confidence in the new breed of new breed of India's entrepreneurs. This is the fourth venture that the former UIDAI chairman has backed in the current calendar year alone. Nilekani was recently in news for investing in mobile payments startup Mubble and mobile publishing startup Juggernaut. At a time when startups have become the buzzword for risk capital investors such as private equity and venture capital firms, it is also becoming increasingly common for high networth individuals to take exposure in the country’s startup ecosystem and allocating some of their investible surplus to foster early stage ventures. While for startups, the availability of capital is absolutely crucial, roping in successful corporate honchos also makes it easier for them to attract venture funding later giving them more credibility. Take for instance, Fortigo itself, the firm promoted by technology industry executives Vivek Malhotra and Anjani Mandal that aims to solve the logistics and transportation problems for small and medium businesses. The firm is also in talks with other venture firms including Accel Partners. Mubble too raised capital from Accel after raising its first round of seed capital from Nilekani. So far, 2015 seems to be the year of startups with young entrepreneurs increasingly churning out winning ideas and attracting huge dollars in funding. In fact, investing in emerging businesses has opened up new entrepreneurial avenues for India Inc's head honchos as well who are now parking their personal wealth in startups. In the first half of the current calendar year, as many as 363 venture capital deals were sealed, three times more than the number of private equity deals, which stood at 99, as per data available with Grant Thornton. Fortigo is currently creating a fleet management service for truck owners in order to help them manage their inventory and thereby save logistics costs. In fact, logistics and warehousing are increasingly evincing investor interest with a host of companies raising capital in the sector. Sohanlal Commodity Management recently rasied Rs 100 ccrore rom Creation Investments, a US fund and its existing investor Everstone. Other firms that raised money in the sector include Star Agriwarehousing and Collateral Management and Gati Kausar.
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By Neeraj Jain Working in a hyperlocal start-up is not at all easy, your work frame is totally different and the interaction with the public is totally different. Not just the customers participation we want on our platform but a huge retail oriented platform is what we are offering to many local retailers who are in tough competition with other traditional e-commerce players. Looking forward to what one can learn and earn from the same can include many points. And if we see we all learn and earn from business. For Learning from Hyperlocal startups points to kept in consideration 1. One has to build tech solutions for merchants who are not very tech savvy. It is very different from building solutions for consumers or tech savvy audience. 2. Scalability: Scalability issues are very different in hyperlocal startups. One has to think very innovatively to make the business very large. For Earnings from Hyperlocal startups points to be kept in consideration 1. Charge commission to retailers/service providers to drive business 2. Charge a fix subscription or listing (discovery) fee 3. A Combination of both can help with the Earnings. (The author, Neeraj Jain, is CEO & Co-founder, Zoppar)
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LabGo is the first-ever online directory for searching laboratories across India, providing e-commerce platform for testing and calibration services in the Indian market. The idea behind this venture is to bring laboratories and its potential customers closer by providing them a platform for convenient communication. Rahul Gupta, founder and CEO, LabGo, takes pride in providing B2B solutions to over 1400 NABL and ACCAB accredited labs across India. He talked to BW|Businessworld's Haildar Ali Khan on his plans for the Indian market ExcerptsTell us about LabGo and its inception?LabGo.in is a search and discover portal for testing and calibration laboratories in India. It includes details about parameters, products for which testing facility is available, accreditation status and validity, contact information of the laboratory. It was launched in Sept 2015. The idea behind this venture is to bring laboratories and its potential customers closer by providing them a platform for convenient communication. How do you operate?We provides a very simplified user search experience by providing product based and parameter based search directly from search bar on home page. It further provides filters to further narrow down the search results as per location. This online directory will answer the requirements of purchase managers, research analysts, directors, quality professionals etc. As a part of the company's first stage of operations, we take pride in launching 12 categories in the space of testing. Some of these popular categories include water-testing, food, textile, metal, construction, pharmaceuticals (medicines), automobile, petroleum, automobile, forensic laboratories, calibration laboratories etc. The amount you have invested in and the current size of LabGo?The LabGo team comprises an IT Team supported by content writers and digital marketing professionals. As most of the development and other IT functions have been taken up in-house, project investment is reasonably low at Rs 25 Lakh. The testing in calibration market is around Rs 10,000-crore-strong and LabGo is all set to create a niche in this vertical of operation. What are the challenges you face?As this is the first of its kind of portal, we faced a few challenges in understanding the user’s mindset while searching for services and bringing them closer to the services provided by laboratories. My bent of mind enabled me to venture into commercial testing and calibration laboratory setup. From 2009, I acted as a consultant for setting up of calibration and testing laboratories in Sigma Test and Research Centre. I also founded the Instrumentation Division of SGM Labs Solutions which deals in laboratories equipment’s and labs setups. Having that experience in mind, I understood the industries lacking point to target the end consumers, getting them under one platform and the LabGo journey began. Tell us about your revenue model (Sharing)?LabGo is free for its users and the revenue model would focus more on the B2B market. The company takes pride is associating with over 1400 NABL and ACCAB accredited labs across India. We will charge from these testing labs across India while listing them in our search engine and will be offering premium services to the listed laboratories like call connect, star listings and sponsorship banners to generate revenue. What are the plans for the future? Do you have any plans in the pipeline?In future, we intend to provide online sample booking facility through LabGo, where customer can make online test requests to various laboratories. We are looking forward to grow in online marketing field as e-commerce is booming these days keeping in mind the convenience it will provide to the users. What do you have for the general public?It’s a free search platform for general public, providing e-commerce platform for testing and calibration services in Indian market. Though the portal is primarily B2B, it will cater to the need of masses for basic testing requirements like drinking water testing, food adulteration tests or construction material testing.
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By Simar SinghMoglix, an India-Singapore based marketplace with a focus on business and industrial supplies announced a pre-Series A round of funding from Accel Partners and Singapore-based Jungle Ventures. The B2B marketplace says that it hopes to play a big role in simplifying and boosting global trade from Asia, via the internet, which is pegged at $1 trillion. The funds will be channeled to enhance the technology platform, build a deep merchant base across Asia and global marketing efforts to rope in consumers. Founded by Google alumnus Rahul Garg, Moglix functions as a sales and marketing engine for Asian brands to permeate globally. With a focus on engineering goods, the company did a soft launch on August 15 this year and has roped in over two hundred brands since. Companies that currently sell their products via Moglix include Havell’s, Larsen and Toubro, C&S Electric, Anchor, Bajaj, Unbrako, Caparo, Ambika and Taparia. Talking about the same, Garg said, “The industrial products market from Asia is growing at a rapid pace. Engineering goods contribute 24 per cent of the Indian exports worth over $300 billion. Hence, this market has also been a strong focus area for Make In India initiatives. A large part of this trade remains offline and happens via traditional B2B channels while the buyers are increasingly moving online. We believe we can play a significant role in bringing them together online.” Accel has been an active investor in the e-commerce space in India with a portfolio that includes Flipkart, Myntra, real estate portal CommonFloor and Swiggy.
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