HeyBiz, a shopping assistant app, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from ShopClues. The investment from ShopClues will be used towards enhancing the product further along with expanding its market base in cities across India
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So far, as many as 12 startups have raised over $100 million this year, putting certain mid-sized firms behind in terms of raising a large corpus
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Ola, India's biggest ride-hailing service, said on Wednesday (18 November) it had raised $500 million from investors including Japan's SoftBank Group, Baillie Gifford, Falcon Edge, Tiger Global and DST Global.
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Online discovery platform Smytten has raised $200,000 in seed funding led by Rimpal Chawla, ex-MD of Credit Suisse Asset Management India and Anuj Srivastava, CEO of Livspace and a prolific angel investor.
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Auto-rickshaws network app Jugnoo has raised $3 million in series ‘B’ funding from Paytm to further accelerate the company’s growth and customer success.
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Fashion and lifestyle startup Styletag.com has raised Rs 50 crore angel funding from Jitu Virwani, Chairman & Managing Director, Embassy Group, property developers firm.
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CashKaro.com, cashback & coupons site, has raised Rs 25 crore in Series A funding from Kalaari Capital, Indian venture capital firm.Swati & Rohan Bhargava, Co-founders, CashKaro.com said, "With infusion of these funds, we plan to take CashKaro to new markets and pursue an aggressive customer acquisition strategy while focusing on extending our mobile initiatives including launching the CashKaro mobile app.""We expect to cross Rs 1000 crores in GMV and credit more than Rs 35 crores as Cashback in the next few months", they added.CashKaro works on an affiliate model and was founded by entrepreneur couple Swati & Rohan Bhargava in mid-2013. The company had earlier raised $750,000 in the year 2013 in angel funding from a group of investors based in London who belong to companies like Paypal, Investec, Goldman Sachs etc, some of whom have also participated in this round.CashKaro offers Cashback & Coupons across 1000+ partner websites including Amazon.in, Snapdeal, Paytm, Shopclues etc. Users can get upto 50% extra Cashback when they visit their favorite sites via CashKaro and shop. CashKaro receives a commission from the retailers from which it pays Cashback. This cashback is in the form of real cash which is paid over and above all other Coupons & Discounts. Recently CashKaro also forayed into Product Discovery and Price Comparison, becoming the one stop shop for all online savings. Till date CashKaro has credited over Rs 20 Crores as cashback and driven over Rs 500 Crores in GMV and is growing at over 30 per cent month on month.(BW Online Bureau)
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We are a country where three to four startups are being born every day. The question is - what keeps this bull flying? To put some perspective in place, India is the third largest start-up ecosystem. With more than 4,200 start-ups under its shining belt, the capital inflow is close to $100 million a week. The track looks promising and the funding is expected to grow to a whopping $6.5 billion. That’s almost 0.3 per cent of India’s GDP for the year 2014-15. Trade pundits claim that the Indian startup bull is earmarked to top the list of Global Startup ecosystems. As of now, US stands at the top with around 48,000 startups, UK with over 4,500 startups followed by Israel and China. As a result, they contribute significantly to the economy by bringing some balance to the employment rate also. Indian startups today employ 85,000 or more people. Further down the pipeline, as many as 2.5 lakh future jobs will be out in technology startups over the next five years. Today, the thriving Indian startup ecosystem has reconstructed and modernized every possible rung of the Indian economy ladder. From food to governance to facilitating better infrastructural and access for general public. A major contributing factor has been the innovative “everyday-problem-solving” approach of the startup businesses. This also helps create significant growth opportunities for every stakeholder in turn. According to reports -there is 100 per cent growth in number of private equity, venture capitalists & angel investors. Add to that a 125 per cent growth in funding over the last year, and the Indian startup bull has risen to the occasion and stood up to the global expectations quite well. The recent positive interventions by the government have made “starting up” easy in India. Recommendations from actuator bodies like NASSCOM, have seen positive attitude and significant changes. The rules and regulations for business registrations and funding are quite easier now. There have been further simplifications in the compliance procedures by minimizing licenses/permits/approvals/tax for startups. If we look at the investment landscape, just the responsiveness and nimbleness - both on the executive’s and legislation’s side - has brought about phenomenal transformations. Where is the Bull Heading? One cannot discount the fact that for its nascent stage, Indian startup sector has developed an affinity for service sector. This impacts the field of product innovation and adds fuel to the widely spread concern of investors. Many amongst the titular trade gurus agree that a very few startups are focussing on product development. Pointing out the fact that it is important to look beyond service oriented or aggregation services. The real need of the hour isto innovate the business model altogether. Thankfully with all the critique,speculations and watch the Indian startup bull is taking every hit and blow in its stride. And it's making its way into the much-admired list of global economies. Economies which claim to be on the threshold of cutting edge technological revolution. What's Red Bull for this Bull? India is the world's youngest start-up nation with 72% founders less than 35 years. But apart from young ideas, what else keeps this vigorous bull running (read almost flying..)? 1. Rise of the actuators and facilitators: Nearly 110 Incubators and accelerators have come up in India. That is a record growth of 40 per cent since 2014. 2. Exponentially growing VC investments and sentiments: Total investments flowing into the Indian startups this year amounts to approximately $5 billion. An exceptional growth of around 125 per cent from last year. Further there are now 156 PE and VC firms placing bets on the bull. These numbers are growing at an astonishing rate of 100 per cent, over the last year. 3. Effective Labor: The young and aspiring workforce, working round the clock, behind this grand stage has an average age of 28 years. Not afraid of taking risks and are absolutely not shy of disrupting any aspect of consumer’s life. They are there with you from the moment you wake up till the time you are back to bed. No Bulls*** In closing, going back to our question, it looks like the startup bull is flying with all the power there is. The new entrepreneur era is redefining business and world as we know it. Either you are riding this bull or you are not - the choice is yours. But just remember, it’s never too late to be what you could have been! The author, Rajat Tandon, is vice president, Nasscom 10 K startup programme
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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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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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