14 Indian Startups Making News This Week (01 May -06 May 2018)

Consumer Internet Industry

1) SAMCO founded by Jimeet Modi: Mumbai-based discount broking firm SAMCO raised $7.5 million in a Series B funding round led by existing promoters and London-based investment management firm Bay Capital Investment Partners. The startup plans to deploy the funding towards building its mutual fund distribution, lending capability, research and advisory businesses.

2) Excess2Sell founded by Rajan Sharma: Mumbai-based B2B startup excess2sell raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Angel Investors including Aashish Pitale and Harinder Singh. The startup plans to utilize the funding to improve technology solutions on the platform, expand footprint and customer base, and widen the reach of its offerings across the country.

E-commerce Industry

3) Bizongo founded by Aniket Deb, Ankit Tomar and Sachin Agrawal: Mumbai-based B2B online marketplace Bizongo (Business On-The-Go) secured $22 million Series B funding round led by B Capital along with International Finance Corporation (IFC), in participation with the existing investors, Accel Partners and IDG Ventures. The startup plans to use the funding to focus on advancing its technology platform and design functions, as well as reinforce its teams across cities.

4) boAt founded by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta: Delhi-based consumer tech lifestyle start-up boAt raised $897.85K led by Fireside Ventures. The startup aims to sail new-age consumers toward an era where they are always connected over high-quality audio with smart, efficient, stylish and durable ‘hearables’.

Technology Industry

5) Eruvaka founded by Sreeram Raavi: Vijayawada-based Internet of Things aquatech startup Eruvaka raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from Nutreco, a global leader in animal nutrition and aqua feed, and existing investor Omnivore. With the finance, Nutreco takes a 25% stake in Eruvaka, thus entering into a commercial partnership to help scale Eruvaka globally.

Fintech Industry

6) Capital Float founded by Sashank Rishyasringa: Bengaluru-based online SME lending platform Capital Float raised its first international debt investment of $7.2 million from the Netherlands-based Triodos Investment Management, taking total debt raise to $130 million so far. The startup plans to use the funds for onward lending, with major focus on expanding its MSME borrower segments.

7) MyLoanCare founded by Gaurav Gupta and Deepak Gupta: Gurugram-based B2C online loans marketplace MyLoanCare secured $977.7K equity Series A funding from Ncubate Capital Partners, a private investment arm of SAR Group family office. The startup plans to deploy the funding for branding, technology augmentation and growth.

8) Rubique founded by Manavjeet Singh: Mumbai-headquartered online lending marketplace Rubique secured seed funding from Japan’s Recruit Group and Russian venture capital management company Emery Capital. The startup plans to utilize the funds to hire more data scientists and enhance technology.

9) OYE! Loans founded by Pradeep Rathnam: Noida-headquartered consumer-focussed lending startup OYE! Loans raised $2.25 million seed funding from its parent company, GAIN Credit. The startup plans to deploy the fresh funding to reinforce its underwriting models aimed at new-to-credit consumers, scale-up operations, and boost its footprint to cover multiple cities.

10) OpenTap founded by Harish Devarajan, Senthil Natarajan and Suresh Venkataramani: Chennai-based fintech startup OpenTap secured $450K in funding from a group of high net-worth individuals. The startup plans to deploy the funding to develop its team, to strengthen its technology infrastructure, for marketing, and to expand the reach of its financial services network across the country.

Healthcare Industry

11) Suki founded by Punit Soni: AI enabled healthtech startup Suki (formerly called Robin) raised $20 million led by Venrock, First Round, Social Capital, as well as individual Googlers and other angels including Nat Turner of Flatiron Health, and Marc Benioff (CEO of Salesforce).

Automobile Industry

12) Uniti founded by Lewis Horne: Anthill Ventures made an undisclosed investment in Uniti, a Swedish urban mobility electric car startup looking to drive its electric cars on the Indian roads.  Anthill Ventures will be offering Uniti a platform to discover market opportunities in India and South East Asia.

Gaming Industry

13) Cricnwin founded by Vipul Agrawal: Gurugram-based social gaming platform Cricnwin secured an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round from Chinese accelerator and venture fund ZDream Ventures. The startup plans to deploy the funding for product and market development.

Logistics Industry

14) FreightBro founded by Raghavendran Viswanathan and Mohammed Zakkiria. A: Mumbai-based, logistics technology startup, FreightBro secured a seed round with Suresh Kumar, former Global CIO of Bank of New York Mellon. The startup plans to use the funding to expand across all major and slight port cities of India by the end of 2018.