Thursday, December 19

Tag: Sequoia capital

HomeLane raises $8 Million in funding
FUNDING

HomeLane raises $8 Million in funding

Home interiors company Homelane raises USD 8 million in a bridge funding round from Stride Ventures and existing investors. Bridge funding is a form of intermediate funding intended to cover a business short-term expenses until long-term funding is secured. Stride Ventures led this round, participating through debt funding of $3 million in the company, a statement said. Existing investors Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, Evolvence India, and JSW Ventures also participated, infusing another $5 million in equity, it added. With this round, HomeLane''s total fund-raising has crossed USD 54 million (Rs 370 crore) in the last six years. "Our mission is to make home interiors easy for the world, and this hasn't changed during the pandemic. Virtual meetings, powered by our 3D desig...
Fitness startup Fittr raises USD 2 mn from Surge
FUNDING

Fitness startup Fittr raises USD 2 mn from Surge

Fitness startup Fittr has raised USD 2 million from Sequoia Capital India's Surge programme. The company will deploy the pre-series A funds for hiring, technology, and overseas expansion, Fittr Co-founder Jitendra Chouksey said. Surge is the rapid scale-up programme for early-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia. Founded in January 2016, Fittr (formerly SQUATS Fitness) provides free access to diet and training tools, live fitness sessions with experts, Q&A with coaches, and connects users to a community of fitness experts and enthusiasts. With over 8.5 lakh members, the company said it been profitable since inception, achieving a cumulative revenue of USD 13 million. Fittr is focussing on markets like North America, Indonesia, India, and Singapore, Chouksey said. "...
Bird Raises $275 Million Series D Funding from CDPQ and Sequoia Capital
FUNDING

Bird Raises $275 Million Series D Funding from CDPQ and Sequoia Capital

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 5, 2019-- Bird, the leader in micro-mobility, today announced its Series D funding round. CDPQ and Sequoia Capital led the $275 million round as a result of Bird's shift from rapid and expensive growth to creating industry leading positive unit economics and building a sustainable business. The capital will help Bird continue on its path to profitability and ongoing vehicle research and development. Bird's custom designed and engineered vehicles play a pivotal role in its unit economics. Less than a year after announcing Bird Zero, which has a lifespan of over 12 months, the company unveiled Bird One, a next generation e-scooter built for the shared micro-mobility market. Shortly following Bird One came Bird Two, which is available in Los Angeles,...
Razorpay raises $75M funding led by Sequoia Capital
FUNDING

Razorpay raises $75M funding led by Sequoia Capital

Razorpay raises $75 million series C round of equity funding from fintech Venture capital firm Ribbit Capital & Sequoia Capital. Tiger Global Management and Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund also participated in this round. Bengaluru based b2b payment solutions platform will use this funding to expand its operation and hire more people. Till date, Razorpay has raised about $107 million from Matrix Partners, MasterCard, and other angel investors. It had last raised equity capital in a round led by Tiger Global in early 2018. Founded by Harshil Mathur & Shashank Kumar in 2013, Razorpay is a payments company that provides payment solutions to online merchants in India. The company plans to use this fund to support its neo-banking platform Razorpay X and it...
VC Firm Sequoia Capital Invests Rs 65 Crore in Wakefit
BUSINESS

VC Firm Sequoia Capital Invests Rs 65 Crore in Wakefit

Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has invested Rs 65 crore in Wakefit which manufactures mattresses, at a post-money valuation of Rs 210 crore. Through this round, Sequoia Capital has picked up 31.9% stake in the previously bootstrapped startup.The startup will leverage 10-15% of the acquired funds primarily to strengthen its manufacturing arm by introducing automation and boosting its production capacity from 250 mattresses per day to 700 mattresses per day and also plans to invest in innovation and launch newer product ranges,including bed sheets fabricated with wood pulp fibers, comforters, pillows, and sleepwear.“Wakefit has been at the forefront of high quality sleep solutions since 2015, democratizing great sleep and changing the way India sleeps. We are very keen to initiate the ...
Sequoia Capital Backs Indian Student Housing Startup Stanza Living
FUNDING

Sequoia Capital Backs Indian Student Housing Startup Stanza Living

Student housing startup Stanza Living has reportedly raised funds amounting to Rs 73 crore (over $10 million) in a funding round led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India. This funding round also saw participation by existing investors Matrix Partners and Accel. With this fundraising, the total capital raised by Stanza Living has reached Rs 86 crore as of now. With these funds, the startup is planning to strengthen its technology engine, beef up its core leadership team as also establish its network of operations across multiple markets. “With 2000 beds across the Delhi-NCR region itself, we are positioning this business for scale. We are in advanced conversations to expand to educational hubs such as Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and a few more cities by the end of this ongo...
US-based RPA Firm Raises $225 million from CapitalG and Sequoia Capital
FUNDING

US-based RPA Firm Raises $225 million from CapitalG and Sequoia Capital

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company UiPath has secured funds amounting to $225 million in Series C funding. The round was co-led by existing investor CapitalG and new investor Sequoia Capital. Another investor that participated in the funding round included existing investor Accel Partners. This particular fundraise has valued the company at $3 billion, a three-fold increase from $1 billion valuation in March. The RPA firm plans to use these funds to gear up its India operations and for product development. Also, the company plans to increase its India workforce from 250 to 1,200 by end of 2019. Along with this, a part of funds will also be used to expand its presence to eight cities including Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata, while ramping up workforce across all f...
Rental Platform Flyrobe Raises $3.71 million in a Fresh Funding Round
FUNDING

Rental Platform Flyrobe Raises $3.71 million in a Fresh Funding Round

Online fashion rental marketplace Flyrobe that is based in Mumbai has reportedly raised around $3.71 million (Rs 26.06 crore) in a fresh funding round. The investors who led the funding round were IDG Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Another existing investor that participated in the round included Tokyo-based GREE Ventures. Following this deal, the valuation of the company has reached roughly around Rs 155 crore ($21.6 million). However, it has not been mentioned that whether this is the firm’s Series B round of funding or if this capital raise was part of a larger investment round. Flyrobe is an online rental platform for apparels which is operated by Omapal Technologies. It was founded three years ago in 2015 by Shreya Mishra, Pranay Surana and Tushar Saxena. The last time that th...
TPG May Acquire Large Stake in Big Data Firm Mu Sigma
ACQUISITION

TPG May Acquire Large Stake in Big Data Firm Mu Sigma

The big data analytics company Mu Sigma is in talks with the private equity player TPG Capital to sell a large stake sale in the firm. According to the sources, this acquisition of stake may result in a potential sale of the venture and this will value the company at around $1.2 billion.  However, there has been no formal agreement regarding the same, the sources say the ongoing talks may not lead to a definitive deal and a complete exit for present shareholders is not being ruled out. “TPG and Mu Sigma are trying to explore if a deal is workable. The discussions have been substantial but contours of the transaction are yet to evolve,” stated a source familiar to the matter. He also told that the two companies have not involved any investment banks yet. The data analytics company ...
Co-working Space Provider Awfis Space Secured $20 Million in Series C Funding
FUNDING

Co-working Space Provider Awfis Space Secured $20 Million in Series C Funding

India’s largest co-working space provider Awfis Space Solutions has secured funds amounting to $20 million in Series C funding round. The round was led by company’s existing investors global venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, The Three Sisters: Institutional Office led by Radha Kapoor and Temasek Group company InnoVen Capital. The funds raised through the latest funding round will be utilized for the expansion plans and the company will follow a managed-aggregation model approach to ensure better capital efficiency. Awfis Space has now increased up to 25,000 seats across 55 centres compared to 5,800 desks across 20 centres in July last year. “The goal is to reach 40,000 seats across 90 centres from current 25,000 desks over the next one year. Deeper penetration into existing markets...
Online Firm Cars24 raises $50 Million For the Purpose of Expansion
FUNDING

Online Firm Cars24 raises $50 Million For the Purpose of Expansion

Online marketplace for the sale and purchase of second-hand cars ‘Cars24’ has raised funds amounting to $50 million (Rs 340 crore). The latest funding round was led by Sequoia Capital. The other existing investors that participated in the funding round were Cayman Islands-based Kingsway FCI Fund and Toronto-based KCK Global. After this round, the market valuation of the company is expected to reach around $250 million. The Gurugram based firm is planning to use these funds for the purpose of boosting up its expansion plans. Cars24 is based on an asset-heavy customer-to-business (C2B) model, in which it purchases used cars from individuals and dealers and sells them to other dealerships. Since its establishment in 2015, the company has sold around 1,00,000 cars. The founders of th...
Bike Rental Platform WickedRide raises $9.1 Mn Funding
FUNDING

Bike Rental Platform WickedRide raises $9.1 Mn Funding

Online Bike and Scooter Rental Platform Wickedride Adventures Services Pvt Ltd have raised Rs. 62.13 crore ( $9.1 million) in a funding round led by Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital. With the latest round in place, company's valuation has roughly reached Rs. 130-132 crore. As per Bengaluru based filings with Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Raghunandan Gangappa- co-founder of TaxiForSure that later got acquired by Ola also participated in the round. Founded in 2014 by Vivekanand Hallekere along with Varun Agni and Anil G, WickedRide has two different entities for its online scooter and bike rental ventures. It focuses in on bringing the best of motorcycling on one platform and make it easily accessible. The platform currently offers services in 10 cities including Bengaluru, Ja...