Tuesday, November 19

Tag: funding

Singapore-based AnyMind Raises $13.4 Million for Expansion
FUNDING

Singapore-based AnyMind Raises $13.4 Million for Expansion

A Singapore-based AI company AnyMind Group has secured funds amounting to $13.4 million in a funding round. This round was led by Line, the Japanese messaging app firm, and Mirai Creation Fund, which is backed by Toyota among others. The company that uses AI in online advertising, HR and marketing is planning to use these funds for its growth in Japan and other Asian markets. Other backers such as JAFCO and Dream Incubator also took part in this round. AnyMind uses AI to offer ad solutions to publishers and advertisers and also to its newer businesses TalentMind (HR) and CastingAsia, influencer marketing. Founded in April 2016 by Kosuke Sogo and Otohiko Kozutsumi the company claims to be profitable since early 2017. It said total revenue for 2017 was $26 million, up from $12.9 millio...
Top 5 Funding of The Week (22nd Oct – 27th Oct)
FUNDING

Top 5 Funding of The Week (22nd Oct – 27th Oct)

Funding activities have been growing a lot for a long time and with more and more startups coming in operation, the investors are also getting a boost. The last week saw a good number as well as the amount of fundraising activities in which various important companies took part. The company that raised the maximum amount of funds this week was Epic Games, the company that created video game sensation “Fortnite”. It raised $1.25 billion in funding from investors including KKR & Co, Iconiq Capital and Smash Ventures. This funding round has been one of the highest valued ones in a long time. Let us now have a look on the top five funding activities of the week.       1) VideoKen   Artificial intelligence-powered video-learning platform VideoKen ...
Gaming Company Epic Games Secures $1.25Bn from KKR, others
FUNDING

Gaming Company Epic Games Secures $1.25Bn from KKR, others

Epic Games, the company that created video game sensation "Fortnite" has secured funds amounting to $1.25 billion in funding from investors, including KKR & Co, Iconiq Capital and Smash Ventures. "Fortnite," a sort of hybrid of "The Hunger Games" and "Minecraft," drops 100 people onto an island to fight each other for survival. It is a tactical tournament game, whose first version was released in 2017. The game has been called an industry "game-changer" by analysts as it signed up tens of millions of users for its last-player-standing "Battle Royale" format. According to the reports of the Wall Street Journal, Epic Games has been valued at almost $15 billion after the new investment round. The company counts Tencent, Walt Disney and Endeavor among its minority shareholders, was esti...
Indiabulls Ventures Secures $210 Million From Foreign Funds
FUNDING

Indiabulls Ventures Secures $210 Million From Foreign Funds

Indiabulls Ventures Ltd, a financial services company has secured an amount of Rs 1,539.20 crore ($210 million) in a funding round. The particular round was led by four foreign institutional investors, including a private equity firm. The basic purpose of the funding round is to infuse long-term capital into two of its subsidiaries. Indiabulls Ventures will make a preferential allotment of compulsorily convertible debentures to Tamarind Capital Pte, Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital, US-based venture capital fund ABG Capital and DF International Partners. The company is planning to use these funds to capitalize on lending arm Indiabulls Consumer Finance Ltd and Indiabulls Asset Reconstruction Co Ltd. The debentures have been allotted at a 35% premium to the company's share...
Mobile Banking Startup Neat Secures $3 Million in Fresh Funding
FUNDING

Mobile Banking Startup Neat Secures $3 Million in Fresh Funding

A Hong Kong-based startup Neat that offers startups and SMEs access to credit cards and banking services has secured funds amounting to $3 million in a fresh funding round. The particular round was led by China-based VC Linear Capital. The round also saw participation from Hong Kong’s Sagamore investments and existing backers Dymon Asia Ventures and Portag3 Ventures. Prior to this, the company raised $2 million seed round earlier this year. The company basically provides quick access to prepaid Mastercard-based cards and basic banking services. Cards are charged at around $7.50 per month, with varying prices on incoming, outgoing and international payments. Along with this, there is also a consumer option, which is much like European startups Monzo, Starling and Revolut, but Neat ...
ClearTax Raises $50 Million from Hong Kong based Investor
FUNDING

ClearTax Raises $50 Million from Hong Kong based Investor

Online tax return-filing and investment platform ClearTax has raised funds amounting to $50 million in a fresh financing round. The round was led by Composite Capital which is based in Hong Kong. This deal has come at a time when the financial tech sector, commonly referred to as fintech, has clocked rapid growth and managed to attract aggressive funding. The investor basically invests in early- to mid-stage companies across consumer goods, retail, transportation and technology in Asia. It was founded by a former partner at one of the leading Chinese investment firms called Hillhouse Capital. Talking about the total funding of ClearTax, the company has raised $65 million since inception. It counts popular Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel, whose Founders Fund and Max Levc...
New Jersey-based Video Learning Platform Secures $930,000
FUNDING

New Jersey-based Video Learning Platform Secures $930,000

Artificial intelligence-powered video-learning platform VideoKen Inc. has reportedly raised funds amounting to $930,000 (Rs 6.83 crore). The funding round was led by SRI Capital and Touchstone Equities. Along with this, Hyderabad Angels also participated in the round with existing backer LG Chandrasekhar of Sutures India including angel investors like Flipkart and former Yahoo executives. This marks as the second round of seed funding by the New Jersey- and Bengaluru-based startup. The company plans to use these funds for the expansion of its operations in North America. Prior to this, VideoKen had raised $1 million from a clutch of angel investors. The company was founded in 2017 by Manish Gupta and Ashish Vikram. The company makes use of AI and machine learning to summarise vide...
SaaS Startup Hiver Raises $4 Million in Fresh Funding Round
FUNDING

SaaS Startup Hiver Raises $4 Million in Fresh Funding Round

Bengaluru and San Jose-based SaaS-focused startup Hiver has raised an amount of $4 million (Rs 30 crore) in a new round of funding. This particular funding round was led by venture capital firms Kalaari Capital and Kae Capital.  Prior to this, the company raised $130,000 in seed funding from the Citrix Startup Accelerator and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2012. The company was earlier known as Grexlt. It later rebranded as Hiver last year. The funds from this round will be utilized by the company for product development, as well as expanding its global customer base. “With this investment, we will fuel our efforts to realise our vision of making Gmail a powerful collaboration platform that businesses can use for sales, support and their internal functions,” Niraj Ranjan Rout...
California-based Oh My Green Raised $20 million
FUNDING

California-based Oh My Green Raised $20 million

In a fresh funding round, California-based B2B company Oh My Green has raised $20 million. This particular funding round was led by Initialized Capital, Powerplant Ventures, Backed VC, ZhenFund, Talis Capital and the Stanford StartX Fund. With this investment, the company plans to expand throughout the U.S. and gradually launch overseas. The basic motive behind this step is to bring healthier foods to offices around the U.S. The startup offers Nashville nutritional snacks and meals to businesses in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Austin, Denver, Boston, New York City and Nashville. The company stocks office snack pantries which is a staple at technology startups and caters events, manages cafes and provides wellness programming. Founded in 2014 by Michael Heinrich...
Grocery Delivery Startup Instacart Secures $600 million
FUNDING

Grocery Delivery Startup Instacart Secures $600 million

A startup that delivers grocery called Instacart has reportedly raised funds amounting to $600 million in its latest funding round. The funds have been basically raised to fight against its rivals as it competes against players like Amazon and valuing the company at $7.6 billion.  The company is based in San-Francisco-based and has been steadily growing in the last few years, helped by partnerships more than 300 retailers including Walmart, Aldi and Kroger. This latest financing round was led by investment firm D1 Capital Partners which raised Instacart's funding till date to more than $1.6 billion. The company has plans to use these funds to further expand in North America and also invest in marketing and hiring. The company said it now has about $1.2 billion in cash to spend on ...
myGate Secures $8.8 million in Series A Funding Round
FUNDING

myGate Secures $8.8 million in Series A Funding Round

Mobile-based security management solution for gated premises called myGate has secured funds amounting to Rs 65 crore (around $8.8 million) in Series A funding round. This round was led by existing investor Prime Venture Partners. The company is planning to utilize these funds to grow rapidly across 10 cities including Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi-NCR. It has not been mentioned whether any other backer took part in the funding round or not. myGate is owned and operated by Bengaluru-based Vivish Technologies Pvt. Ltd and was founded in 2016 by Vijay Arisetty, Abhishek Kumar, Vivaik Bhardwaj and Shreyans Daga. “Technology is pervasive and it was only a matter of time for the security at gated communities to be transformed using smart and intelligent solutions… We will expand the myGate t...
AI Firm Worxogo Raises Funds from Inventus Capital & Ideaspring Capital
FUNDING

AI Firm Worxogo Raises Funds from Inventus Capital & Ideaspring Capital

Artificial Intelligence (AI) company Worxogo that offers a cognitive AI engine as a software-as-a-service or SaaS application has secured an amount of Rs 16.5 crore in its first funding round, which was led by Inventus Capital and Ideaspring Capital. The company plans to use these funds for the purpose of entering the US market, where it has also applied for a patent for its AI engine, called Mia. “The engine is based on behavioural science, neuroeconomics and AI, which, when integrated to the enterprise system, can serve as a cognitive digital assistant to nudge employees to improve productivity,” said CEO Ramesh Srinivas. The Worxogo app sends “nudge” notifications to employees on a daily basis to improve performance, based on the individuals’ behavioural patterns. The backers state...