What Did You Miss about the Indian Start-up Ecosystem During the Week? With India getting another unicorn to a range of acquisitions happening, this week can be comfortably called an action-packed week for the Indian start-up ecosystem
By Bhavya Kaushal •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
The Indian start-up ecosystem saw a lot of action With India getting another unicorn to a range of acquisitions happening, this week can be comfortably called an action-packed week for the Indian start-up ecosystem. Here's all you need to know.
Mergers, Acquisitions and Partnerships
Mergers, acquisitions and partnerships give great opportunities to start-ups to expand and grow. This week saw some interesting partnerships come into play in the Indian start-up ecosystem.
The Gurgaon-based milktech startup, Moofarm, is developing a machine learning (ML) platform with Microsoft that could help Indian dairy farmers solve the problem of Mastitis, an udder disease, leads to a $500 million loss per year.
The pharmacy sector has not seen much action for some time now. However, recently, epharmacy startup Medlife acquired medicine delivery startup Myra Medicines for an undisclosed amount. Both start-ups are based out of Bengaluru. This acquisition will help Medlife to expand its business verticals with an entrance into the delivery space that the acquisition brings along.
Mobile Premier League is definitely on a roll. The e-sports startup was recently in news for raisings $35.5 million in its Series A funding round, led by Sequoia India. And now it is on the Indian start-up bulletin board again for acquiring product engineering consultancy firm Crevise Technologies. The deal is a combination of cash and equity. Shubham Malhotra, Co-founder and COO of Mobile Premier League, said that the deal will bring rich end-to-end product engineering capabilities to the table.
Funding Report
Numerous start-ups raised funding this week. From technology to fitness, all sectors spaced comfortably in the investment space. Some of the notable fundings were raised by the following start-ups.
Indian gaming company Nazara Technologies is all set to go public. Ahead of a much-anticipated IPO, the startup has invested an undisclosed amount in vernacular social contesting women-centric platform BakBuck.
Another start-up was added to the unicorn kitty of India. BigBasket entered the billion-dollar club with series F funding of $150 million dollars, talks for which have been on since March. The unicorn race and club only get exciting from here.
The logistics space remains as evergreen as ever. Logistics optimization startup Locus secured $20 Mn in a funding round led by New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge, VC firm Tiger Global and its existing investors.
The fitness industry is seeing a boom in the investment space. After Sarva last week, Fitness startups Cure.fit raised secured $75 million from Piramal Group's Anand Piramal, Accel Growth, Kalaari Capital, IDG Ventures India and Fitternity raised $4 million from Sixth Sense Ventures.
Start-ups always have had the back of big business magnates and Ratan Tata is one of them. He recently invested in Ola Electric Mobility an undisclosed amount as part of the Series A round of funding.
Bengaluru-based digital lending company Kinara Capital raised $14.2 million from private equity and impact investors, Gaja Capital, GAWA Capital, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Patamar Capital.
Gurugram-based edtech startup CollegeDekho raised $8 million in Series B funding round from its existing investors GirnarSoft and Man Capital.
Popular lifestyle brand Chumbak raised $10.02 million in Series D round of funding led by private equity fund Gaja Capital with participation from venture capital funds Matrix Partners and Seedfund.
