What Did You Miss about the Indian Start-up Community Last Week? From having lots to offer even in the M&A space, this week turned out to be interesting for the Indian start-up community
By Bhavya Kaushal •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Another interesting week for start-ups has come to a close. Here is all that you could have missed from India's small business ecosystem that has almost become a part of everyone's daily vocabulary.
Mergers and Acquisitions
In mergers and acquisitions this week, Indian start-ups were seen catching the fancy of everyone from the Japanese to even the Danish. A Coimbatore-based cybersecurity firm, Lashya was acquired by Denmark-based Zacco in an all-cash deal.
The start-up space also saw the coupling of hospitality and edtech sectors. In a recent strategic move aimed at expansion, Oyo has partnered with edtech start-up PlanetSpark. This partnership will increase and monetize its new-age tuition spaces and give a new dimension to the education sector in India. Quikr Acquired Used Goods Marketplace Zefo For INR 200 crore. The acquisition is aimed at scaling the pre-goods business, Quickr Assured.
Praxis Global Alliance acquires the boutique consulting firm Unbound
Praxis Global Alliance, the technology-led management consulting, analytics and market research firm, announced the acquisition of Unbound, a boutique consulting outfit focused on coupling business and sustainability. As part of the acquisition, Unbound's founder Aakriti Gupta will join Praxis Global Alliance as Vice President, supporting Praxis' Consulting team to build its offerings around organizational complexities, using Systems Thinking.
Haldirams Now Backing Indian Start-ups?
Indian start-ups will now have the backing of this major Indian food and sweets brand. Haldirams has recently has made an undisclosed investment in Mumbai-based Venture Catalysts (Vcats) to work with startups in the CPG sector.
A Tax that is Not Anymore
Angel Tax exemption reaches a new high. According to the government officials, as many as 342 start-ups have been exempted from the tax since February. Will the road for budding entrepreneurs get smoother? Well, only time will tell!
Funding Fever This Week
Indian start-ups are back! After slow action in the previous week, this week saw a total of 12 start-ups bagging funding. Here is a summary of the funding report. The largest funding this week was raised by Indian agritech startup, Ninjacart, that connects farmers to retailers, has raised $89.5 million. from New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global.
Pre-Series A
Edtech startup DoubtNut raised $3.3 million in a Pre-Series A round of funding led by Sequoia's startup accelerator and incubation programme Surge. The surge was recently in news as former Google employee and one of India's most sought-after investor Rajan Anandan is supposed to mentor it. Existing investors WaterBridge Ventures and Omidyar Network India also participated in the round.
Series A
Fintech startup Enkash raised $3 million in Series A funding from Mayfield India and Axilor Ventures.
With mobile gaming being the norm of the time, another start-up, Mobile Premier League, raised $35.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia India, Times Internet, and GoVentures along with existing investors including RTP Global, BEENEXT, Base Ventures, and Venture Highway.
Series B
Artificial Intelligence start-up Mad Street Den raised $17 million in a Series B funding in a round led by Falcon Edge Capital, along with existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Global Brain.
Quick Ride, a rental start-up raised $14.4 million in Series B round of funding from its existing investors Sequoia, Naspers and Venture Highway.
Digital healthcare startup mFine raised $17.2 million in a Series B funding round from SBI Investment, SBI Ven Capital and BEENEXT along with the participation of some existing investors as well.
Bus aggregator platform Shuttl raised $5.87 Mn from a clutch of investors led by Proof.VC in Series B round of funding.
Others
Bengaluru-based digital lending startup ZestMoney raised $20 million in a fresh funding round led by Quona Capital. Australian fintech investor Reinventure and existing investors Ribbit Capital, Omidyar Network and PayU also participated in the round.
Bengaluru-based two-wheeler rental startup Bounce $3 million in debt funding from InnoVen Capital.
