1. Digital Media publishing platform, iamWire has raised an undisclosed amount from Li Tao, Li Jian, Draphant Consultants, Nitin Garg, Saurabh Jain and Mohit Agarwal. Started in 2011 as an e-commerce focused platform with a 15-member team, iamWire has written about 2,500 startups over the last four years. The company plans to use the raised capital in building scalable technology, helpful for startup founders; a part of the funds will also be utilized to innovate content to further grow the community.
2. Bengaluru-based hyper-local startup DropKaffe is trying to change this by ensuring that their customers are served freshly brewed coffee right at their tables. The company has raised $300K in seed funding round led by angel investor Manish Singhal and Silicon Valley-based fund P39 Capital along with participation from other angel investors based in the US, India and Singapore. The company will use the funding to hire more talent and expand across Bangalore to have 10 DropKaffe fulfillment centres by the end of October.
3. A Bangalore based local language technologies provider Reverie has raised $4 million in series Around from Aspada Investment Company and Qualcomm Ventures.The funding will be used to boost its sales and marketing and strategies across geographical areas in the Middle East and South East Asia and also aims to expand its language platform to over 10,000 local language app developers over the next 12 to 18 months.
4. Infinite Analytics, a Mumbai and Boston-based data analytics firm, has raised an undisclosed bridge round of funding from Ratan Tata to expand its predictive analytics technology to segments beyond retail and ecommerce.Existing investors including Nikhil Vora of Sixth Sense Ventures and new investors from Silicon Valley and India participated in this funding round.
5. Mumbai-based investment advisory and incubation platform for financial technology TOFlo, has raised seed funding of $100K from Tania JohnyPalathinkal, a business partner in another venture of Peter. The money raised will be used by TOFlo to launch incubation and funding programme for startups in the financial technology space.
6. India’s largest e-commerce venture Flipkart has acquired majority stake in payment services startup FX Mart Pvt Ltd, which deals in electronic payments, remittance, foreign exchange and travel related businesses. Headquartered in Chandigarh, FX Mart has eight offices and an agent network covering more than 1,000 locations across the country. Incorporated in 2012, the firm obtained RBI license on semi closed prepaid instruments one year ago and had previously received green signal for fully fledged money changing (FFMC) in May 2013.The deal is being seen as a move by Flipkart to offer its own digital wallet as a payment option.
7. StyleCracker, a Mumbai-based fashion styling platform offering personalized fashion experience to users, has raised $1 million from four high net worth individuals in its first round of funding. The two-year-old venture will use the funding on tech development and for taking the platform to global markets.
8. Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Capital Ltd has invested $903K in Luxuryhues.com, a Gurgaon-based marketing consultancy and shopping platform for luxury goods.The Luxury Hues group owns other entities such as HighStreetLabels, Quintessentially, and operates the India arm of trade group Luxury Marketing Council.
9. Launched in September 2014 by Saurabh Saxena and Anil Gelra, Holachef has witnessed a personal investment of undisclosed amount by Ratan Tata. The company offers a web platform and an app, where users can browse through dishes, place online orders for home delivery. Food deliveries are made at a time slot pre-selected by the customer. Holachef is available in Mumbai and Pune, and works on Cash on Delivery.
10. Online lingerie retailer Zivame has raised $40 million from Zodius Technology Fund, KhazanahNasionalBerhad and other existing investors. The Series C round also saw participation from existing investors Unilazer, IDG Ventures and Kalaari Capital. Founded in late 2011, Zivame has so far raised about $8 million in series A and B funding. The funds will be used to raise awareness about the category and company, ramping up the technology platform, enhancing consumer experience on mobile phones as well as setting up fitting stores across the country.
11. Bengaluru-based software firm Capillary Technologies has raised $45 million led by New York-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus. The company has used a significant portion of the funding to acquire Hyderabad-based digital e-commerce solution provider MartJack and machine learning startup Ruaha Labs, other than a minority stake in Chennai-based CloudCherry, a customer satisfaction management firm.
12. Jobspire, a Bangalore based job search platform, has raised about $262 K in seed round led by Chicago-based investment firm, Purvi Capital. The round also saw the participation from Willfly Ventures, Nikunj Jain (co-founder, Frankly.me), Krishna Jha (co-founder, Telnet Ventures), Sanjay Bakshi (co-founder, Impulse Marketing), Kapil Nayyar (partner, International Business Advisors) and Artieca Trust. The proceeds will be used in hiring new talents and enhancing technological offerings on the portal.
13. Mumbai-based mobile startup mHealth Ventures India Pvt Ltd, which runs an app under MeraDoctor that allows patients to consult doctors over text chats, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from IndiaQuotient along with a few leading angel investors. MeraDoctor will use the funds to get patients on its platform and improve the user experience.
14. A crowd-sourced movie review and online entertainment analytics platform Clapsnslaps.com, has raised $150K in its second round of angel investment from a Mumbai-based production house R M Picture Company Pvt. Ltd. The company will use the money to upgrade its technological infrastructure and boost its operations. A part of the money will also be spent for hiring.
15. Bangalore based MSME-focused financial services provider Vistaar Finance has raised $40 million in an internal round of funding. The Series D funding was led by existing investor WestBridge Capital along with Elevar Equity and Omidyar Network. Saama Capital and Lok Capital are the other existing investors in the company.The proceeds will be used to increase its portfolio in the next three years.
16. HiJinny, a Mumbai based market place for home based beauty and wellness services, has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from CMYK Health Boutique Pvt Ltd., founders of Four Fountains Spa and Jazz Up Salon.The company is also looking to raise about $2 million in Series A round in coming months. With the latest funding, currently active in Pune and headquartered in Bengaluru, the company is planning to expand its footprint to new geographical regions soon.
17. Mumbai-based e-tailing platform Blubox has raised $100K in angel funding led by Ashish Jhalani, promoter of Etailiningindia.com and founder of Indian School of eBusiness.The company will use the money to fuel its expansion plans and upgrade its technological infrastructure.Others who participated in the round are Amit Jhalani, CEO of MySolitaire.com and Supreet Singh, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Altor.co.in.
18. RoomCentral, a Bangalore based hotel-tech startup which provides cloud based hotel booking engine, has raised a funding of $2 million in angel round from angel investor Karanpal Singh, MD of Nameh chain of hotels in Delhi, Goa, and Odisha.Founded by AtulPrabhu and RupamMazumdar in 2011, RoomCentral is a booking engine and a cloud-based property management system (PMS) that offers property owners tools and solutions for seamless reservation and property management. Pretty much like a CRM for hotel industry.
