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Online Insurance Startup Acko raises $12 Mn from Amazon

28May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

FUNDING

Online Insurance Startup Acko raises $12 Mn from Amazon

Acko Technology, an online insurance startup raised $12 million in a fresh round led by e-commerce giant Amazon India as informed by the company on Sunday. The funding round witnessed participation from new investor Ashish Dhawan and existing investor Catamaran Ventures (Owned by Narayana Murthy). The new infusion has taken Acko's total equity funding to about $42 million with its valuation at about $100 million. The round led by Amazon marks company debut in the financial sector where it will now co-create products with the insurance tech startup - besides being its distributor. Acko-headquartered in Mumbai came to inception in 2016 as an independent entity post a restructuring at online insurance aggregator Coverfox, which witnessed its co-founded Varun Dua step down to kicks...

26May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Funding News of the Last Week (May 21st – 26th 2018)

This week witness a lot of funding rounds, 14 to be precise for a total amount of around $130 Million. HDM Global was the company which received most funding with $100 Mn, while Bonphul Air Product and Rocketium raised the least funds with $300K funding. Below is a recap of all the funding news that happened this week : LifeSight LifeSight, an artificial intelligence-powered location intelligence platform based in Singapore, recently raised $2 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by shareholders of Provident Capital Partners, an investment firm based in Indonesia. The funds raised will be used to grow its engineering and data science abilities at its Bengaluru development centre as well as expand operations in other Asian markets in the next couple of yea...

25May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

SoftBank Urges OYO to Seek New Investors For $500-700 Mn Funding Round

Softbank, the Japanese conglomerate owned by Masayoshi Son, recently agreed to sell its stakes in Flipkart for $4 bn following an investment of $2.5 Bn in mid-2017 for its 20% stakes in the e-commerce company. However, the company is very well focused and determined to bet on other companies that will remain profitable and growing. Therefore urging Indian hospitality service, OYO to get new investors on board, following which the Japanese giant will participate in a funding round reported to be worth $500-700 Mn. A report from MoneyControl claimed that “many Chinese investors are interested in hospitality as a sector.” The report also stated that the valuation of OYO will be subject to appreciation from the new investors. However, a new funding round is most likely to mark the entry ...

23May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

FUNDING

HMD Global Bags “Unicorn Status” Post $100 Mn Funding

HMD Globals, the Finnish company that manufactures Nokia smartphones and feature phones has been successful in raising $100 million from investors to scale up its business operations and fund its growth. The latest funding has put HMD grab the "unicorn status" with a current market valuation of exceeding $1 billion. The round of investment was led by Geneva-based Ginko Ventures via Alpha Ginko Ltd. with participation from DMJ Asia Investment Opportunity and Wonderful Stars which is a subsidiary of FIH Mobile Ltd. Florian Seiche, CEO, HMD Global, said in a statement on Monday, We are thrilled to have these investors join us in our journey to script the next chapter of Nokia phones. It is our ambition to deliver great smartphones that delight our fans while staying true to o...

23May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Blue-Collar Workforce Focused Startup Raises Series A Funding

BetterPlace, an HRtech startup for the blue-collar workforce, recently raised $3 Mn in Series A funding led by 3one4 Capital. This round of funding also saw the participation of Venture Highway and Unitus Ventures. “We are focused on addressing the $12 Bn blue-collar ecosystem in the country. A significant part of the funds will be utilized to strengthen the existing ecosystem using frictionless solutions powered by AI and machine learning,” said Pravin Agarwala, co-founder and CEO of Betterplace. The funds used will serve to add new solutions and expand the business in different verticals, for example, skilling, compliance and fintech services as well, in a bid to fortify its position as a single platform for the semi-formal workforce of India. This is the third time that BetterP...

IIM Ahmedabad Launches its Own $25 Million Startup Fund

14May By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

IIM Ahmedabad Launches its Own $25 Million Startup Fund

India's top management institute IIM-Ahmedabad has launched USD 25 million fund for startups working in the areas of financial inclusion, livelihood, education, and health over the next three to four years. The initiative is known as the Bharat Inclusion Initiative, which aims to invest in startups in fintech, education etc with the help of CIIE. The Center for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE) planning to channelise approximately USD 25 million over the next 3-4 years towards backing game-changing startups leveraging the ongoing digital transformation in India, it said in a release. With seed support from Tata Trusts, CIIE has received an initial commitment of USD 12.5 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and ...

13May By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

FUNDING

Agri-Tech Startup Earth Food Raises Rs. 64 Cr Seed Funding

An Agriculture based startup headquartered in Pune, Earth Food has successfully raised Rs. 6.4 crore in a seed funding round from city-based Rairah Corporation. First reported by VC circle, the agri-startup deals in growing grows residue-free fruits and vegetables and sells them both online and offline will use the funding to expand its market outreach. Earth Food founder, Nilesh Palresha said, We plan to use this funding to strengthen our position in the market and invest in building differentiated offerings for our customers. Residue-free farming involves the use of organically derived biocides and biofertilizers that aim to protect the crops and augment their growth. According to the cited sources, the company is also planning to utilize the fresh capital for its lo...

BigBasket Seeks $500 Mn Funding to Battle American Giants

8May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

News

BigBasket Seeks $500 Mn Funding to Battle American Giants

BigBasket, India’s leading startup in the online grocery market segment is holding talks with its existing investors to raise capital worth $500 million to compete with e-commerce market leaders Amazon and Flipkart (post-Walmart acquisition). BigBasket already raised a colossal $300 million funding led Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and others in February and are now beginning negotiations to raise between $300 to $500 million from the Chinese conglomerate and new investors, according to three anonymous sources close to the company. Although BigBasket is also holding talks with new investors, the sources believe that most of funds will be raised entirely from existing investors and majorly Alibaba. BigBasket is not in need of any additional funds right now, but it wants to be prepared ...

Reliance Industries to Inject Rs 60,000 Crore Capital in Jio

7May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

BUSINESS

Reliance Industries to Inject Rs 60,000 Crore Capital in Jio

Reliance Industries is set to pour Rs 60,000 crore capital in its telecom business, Jio, this fiscal year as the company wishes to roll out its broadband services and expand its wireless network faster, according to two people close to the company. Additionally, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd might also borrow the astronomical sum of Rs 1 trillion, according to those sources who wished to remain anonymous. “This is being done as Jio wants to fast-track its plan to scale up its capacity and coverage which would require further infusion of funds,” said one of the sources. Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy and planning at Jio did reveal in an interview on 27 April that the company would keep investing on laying fiber even though it already had the largest optical fiber network in India. ...

2May By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

College Event Ticketing Startup Raises $250,000 funding

TheCollegeFever (TCF), a college event ticket booking startup raised a seed funding worth $250,000 (Rs 1.7 crore) from Mumbai-based investment firm 11.2 Advisors. It is the first time that TheCollegeFever is raising funds from external resources and intends on using the capital for customer acquisition and improving technology, its founder Kushal Aralihalli said. The Bengaluru-based company, which is run by Culturo Technology Pvt. Ltd, works in partnership with 2,000 colleges and has sold over 4 lakhs tickets in over 6,000 events amounting to Rs 10 crore, its Aralihalli added. Kushal Aralihalli founded the event ticket startup in 2016 and managed to double its growth since last year. TheCollegeFever operates in a market segment that makes it compete directly with giants BookMyS...

1May By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Mumbai based Fintech Startup Raises Funding

Mumbai based fintech Startup Rubique Technologies raises an undisclosed amount of funding led by Japan's Recruit Group and Russian venture capital management company, Emery Capital. The funding will enable Rubique to further strengthen its technology and analytics capabilities. Established in the year 2014, the company has registered 200k customers and facilitated loan disbursement worth approximately Rs. 2,670 crores and over 82,000 credit card setups through its platform. The company generated revenue of around $7.2 million. Rubique aims to break even in 2019 and achieve Rs. 100 crores revenue by 2021. "We have managed to successfully stand out in the FinTech space as an innovator par excellence and one of the genuine success stories of the domain through our unique asset-light...

26Apr By Sheldan RungasamyNo Comments

FUNDING

Online Travel Marketplace Raises 1.6 Crore Funding

Tripshelf, an online travel marketplace announced on Wednesday that it raised a funding round worth Rs 1.6 crore from a group of investors which includes GEMS advisory, Alok Mittal of Indifi, Sachin Bhatia the co-founder of MakeMyTrip and TrulyMadly, and more. The funds raised will be used to consolidate its business operations and establish a long term asset vs. hyper growth capital. Tripshelf is currently enjoying a positive period after achieving several targets such as an annual Gross Transaction Value (GTV) of Rs 36 crore and an annual revenue run rate of Rs 1.5 crore. After this funding round, the startup is now setting its eyes on achieving a run rate of Rs 3 crore annually, and a GTV of around Rs 50 crore. This time, with the fresh capital, we look forward to on-boarding mor...