What Did You Miss in the Indian Start-up Ecosystem Last Week? The otherwise robust Indian start-up ecosystem saw a silent week
By Bhavya Kaushal •
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Indian start-up ecosystem saw a quiet week this time. Not much happened in this otherwise robust and forever active ecosystem of India.
Here's a look at all the news that made headlines this week:
Mergers and Acquisitions
Mattress-maker Kurl-on acquired U.S-based brand Spring Air that specializes in orthopedic beds. According to Sudhakar Pai, Chairman and Managing Director of Kurl-on, the acquisition will help the mattress brand to cross the INR 2000 crore revenue mark in the next two years. It will also strengthen the mattress maker's position in the bedding and hospitality sector apart from expanding its retail presence. Kurl-on will be taking over Spring Air's operations in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
This Week's Funding Report
The funding this week saw a dip with maximum funding bagged being $4.5 million by Bengaluru-based wealth management start-up Kuvera in Series A funding from UK-based venture capital company Eight Roads and lowest closed at a million. Other than Kuvera, the following start-ups were seen raising funding.
Pre-Series A Funding
Fleet service and transport automation software provider, Routematic, raised USD 2.5 Million in a Pre-Series A round of funding from its existing investor VAMM ventures.
The Mumbai-based startup, Picture Time Digplex, raised $3.6 million in Pre-Series A funding from Zenrock Comtrade.
Series A Funding
INCREF raised $3 million in Series A from Binny Bansal and 021 Capital. INCREF which intersects fashion, retail and technology in its offering also received a seed funding from Sequoia Capital in 2016.
Healthtech startups caught the eyes of the investor. Gurugram-based Digital healthcare platform MyHealthcare raised $3 million as part of its ongoing Series A round from Sixth Sense Ventures.
Others
WhiteHat Jr, edutech platform founded and structured by an ex-Discovery CEO, raised $1.3 million in a seed funding round from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India.
Civic tech start-up CivilCops and Chennai-based energy-tech start-up, Swadha Energies, were in news for raising an undisclosed amount of funding.
Analyzing Strategies and the Next Move of Start-ups
As one delves deeper into the Indian start-up ecosystem, one realizes that strategies are becoming a way of the start-up world. Mumbai-based online bookings platform BookMyShow announced a strategic investment in the Pune-based payments company AtomX to unify the forces of online and offline payments.
Apart from this funding and investments, reports were rife that Bengaluru-based credit card bill payment startup Cred is reportedly looking to raise $100 Mn from venture capital firm Hillhouse Capital and its existing investors. Founder of Cred, Kunal Shah is also the founder of FreeCharge. Clearly, when Indian start-ups are not raising funds, they are looking to raise some.
