19 Indian Startups Making News This Week (04 March- 11 March 2018)

Consumer Internet Industry

1) MagicPin founded by Anshoo Sharma and Brij Bhushan: Hyperlocal discovery platform MagicPin secured $1 million in venture debt from Trifecta Capital.

2) HireXP founder Vikas Kakkar: Gurugram-based HR solutions startup HireXP secured an undisclosed amount of funding from the CEO of Knowlarity, Ambarish Gupta along with a British entrepreneur, Marina Zoltoverkh. The startup plans to deploy the capital to assemble a new product line, CamXP – Campus hiring and Inject AI in the existing platform.

E-commerce Industry

3) Pepperfry founded by Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah: Online furniture retailer Pepperfry secured $38.5 million in its fifth round of funding from State Street Global Advisors, the asset management business of State Street Corporation. The raised funding will be used to expand Pepperfry’s Experience Centers in Tier II Towns, invest behind developing AR/VR technology for virtual touch and feel, and boost the Private Brand franchise in preparation for its next financial milestone of an IPO.

4) InnerSense founded by Neerja Lakhani and Abhishek Lodha: Organic antimicrobial lingerie brand InnerSense raised $384.5K from Venture Catalysts in Pre-Series A round.

Technology Industry

5) AUS founded by Nikhil Upadhye, Suhas Banshiwala, Vipul Singh and Yeshwanth Reddy: Bengaluru-based drone startup Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS) secured an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A funding round led by GrowX Ventures, 500 Startups, and BellWether Advisors. The funding from the round will be used for expanding the company’s reach and furthering R&D activities.

6) Hotelogix founded by Aditya Sanghi and Prabhash Bhatnagar: Cloud-based hotel property management system (PMS), Hotelogix raised $5 million in a funding round from Vertex Ventures, with the participation of Accel Partners and Saama Capital. The company plans to deploy the funds for product innovation and market expansion. The startup is also gearing up to expand its operations in Thailand, and make it the hub for Southeast Asia.

7) Ultraviolette founded by Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan: Bengaluru-based electric bike startup raised $430K from Kumar Vembu’s Gofrugal Technologies.

8) Anaek founded by Kanav Abrol and Ujjwal Grover: Delhi-based SaaS startup Anaek raised $1 million in a Seed funding round led by Matrix Partners India. The startup funds will be utilized for marketing and promotion activities. Anaek will also hire across functions such as engineering, accounting, sales, and advertising.

Fintech Industry

9) Finova Capital founded by Sunita Sahney: Jaipur-based NBFC Finova Capital, raised $6 million from Sequoia India. The startup will use the funds raised for expanding operations, investment in technology and talent acquisition.

10) Kuvera founded by Gaurav Rastogi, Mayank Sharma and Neelabh Sanyal: New Delhi-based online platform for mutual fund investments, Kuvera raised $250K from angel investors for product expansion and growth. Investors in the round include Baskar Subramanian, co-founder of Amagi Media Labs, Saket Kumar, managing director at Swank Capital, Gaurav Suri, managing director at Livermore Capital, and Ankit Kesarwani from New Vernon Investment Management.

Healthcare Industry

11) MedGenome founded by Sam Santhosh: Bengaluru-based genomics research and diagnostics company MedGenome secured an additional $10 million in funding from HDFC Ltd., HDFC Life and HDFC Asset Management to complete its Series C round of  $40 million.

12) CureFit founded by Ankit Nagori and Mukesh Bansal: Bengaluru-based fitness startup CureFit raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy. The startup also newly raised $10 million in debt financing from HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.

13) LiveHealth founded by Abhimanyu Bhosale, Mukund Malani and Sanket Savla: Healthtech startup LiveHealth, working on digitizing diagnostic lab workflows, raised a Seed round of $1.1 million from Nexus Venture Partners. The funding will further enhance its focus on addressing the tech gap in healthcare and allow all-in-one interaction among all stakeholders.

14) Wellthy Therapeutics founded by Abhishek Shah, Maaz Shaikh and Prayat Shah: Mumbai-based digital therapeutics healthtech, Wellthy Therapeutics raised $2.1 million in Seed funding from Dr. Ranjan Pai’s family office MEMG (Manipal Education and Medical Group), along with Beenext Ventures, GrowX Ventures, Currae Healthcare and other strategic HNIs like Ashutosh Taparia and Karan Bhagat. This funding will help the startup continue to pioneer a new category of medicine that aims to revolutionize chronic disease care across Asia.

Entertainment Industry

15) PictureTime founded by Sushil Chaudhary: Mobile movie theatre PictureTime raised $3.85 million in a Pre Series A funding round from a group of high net-worth individuals (HNIs). The round of funding was led by Ajay Relan, Founder and Chairman of CX Partners. The company will deploy the funding to expand its mobile theatres to 100 operational units, from its current 10 units, by March 2019.

Real Estate Industry

16) NestAway founded by Amarendra Sahu, Deepak Dhar, Jitendra Jagadev and Smruti Parida: Bengaluru-based home rental startup NestAway raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy. Nestaway freshly received $51 million from Goldman Sachs and a joint venture firm of former Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata.

Agritech Industry

17) Ninjacart founded by Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran K K, Sachin Jose, Sharath Loganathan and Thirukumaran Nagarajan: Bengaluru-based B2B agri-marketing platform Ninjacart secured $1 million in venture debt funding round from Trifecta Capital. Ninjacart will deploy the funding to invest in capital expenditure and strengthen the supply chain infrastructure of the company.

18) Gramophone founded by Nishant Vats, Harshit Gupta and Tauseef Khan: Indore-based Agstack Technologies, which owns and operates agritech startup Gramophone secured $1 million Pre-Series A funding from Info Edge. Post the investment, the aggregate shareholding of Info Edge in Gramophone would be 25% on fully converted and diluted basis.

Travel Industry

19) Tripeur founded by Sajit Chacko and Thiagarajan Rajagopalan: Shorebird Technologies, the makers of the third generation, end-to-end corporate travel management platform Tripeur secured $600K in Pre-Series A funding led by Japan-based Incubate Fund and a few angel investors including existing investor Rajul Garg. The startup will deploy the funding for deploying latest innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning and personalization in various aspects of corporate travel space.