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Consumer Internet Industry

1) Stayzilla founded by Yogendra Vasupal, Sachit Singhi and Rupal Yogendra: This online aggregator of budget hotels and homestays, has raised $13million in a Series C round of funding from existing investors Matrix Partners and Nexus Ventures. The funding round was split into three tranches of $8.8 million, $1.9 million and $2.4 million, between November 2015 and March 2016.

2) BedBathMore founded by Amit Dalmia: Home Craft Online, which owns Mumbai-based home furnishing startup BedBathMore has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Swedish bank AB Kinnevik Group, Rocket Internet and some backers of FabFurnish. The company founded in 2012 is an online store offering the a wide range of bed, bath and home products. The company had earlier raised funding from Blume Ventures and other angel investors.

3) Murgency founded by Shaffi Mather: This San Francisco-based startup that is an emergency response mobile app has raised an undisclosed amount from Ratan Tata, chairman of emeritus of Tata Sons. The company will use the funds to augment technology and scale operations. In April, MUrgency had raised funding from Kris Gopalakrishnan and S. D. Shibulal led early-stage venture fund Axilo Ventures.

4) Crownit founded by Sameer Grover: Gurgaon-based customer rewards management platform Crownit has raised a Series B round of funding from a Silicon Valley-based investor and a Mumbai-based investor. Existing investors, Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners have also participated in the funding round. The company plans to use the funds to expand to four more cities—Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai.

5) TheSmartQ founded by Wage and Abhishek Ashok: Bangalore-based food ordering app SmartQ has raised $250K in pre-Series A funding  led by YourNest Angel Fund. Vijay Jumani, former CEO of BabyOye.com, also participated in the funding round. The company plans to use the funds to expand into verticals such as amusement parks and retail. The company has also tied up mobile wallets like PayUMoney and Paytm to enable cashless transactions for its users.

6) PurpleHealth founded by Vikram Nair, Mini Balaraman and Prakash Sathyapalan: Online health-on-demand platform PurpleHealth has raised $100K from Mumbai-based Katabole Technology Venture, as it aims to enhance its product offerings. The funding will be used for strengthening PurpleHealth’s team and enhancing its products.

7) ParentLane founded by Vijay Anand and Neeraj Kumar Gupta: Social networking mobile app for baby-care and parenting ParentLane has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from a clutch of investors led by Sujeet Kumar, former president (operations), Flipkart, Aprameya Radhakrishna (founder of TaxiForSure), Sumit Jain (co-founder and CEO of CommonFloor.com), and others. The company will primarily use the funding for product development and mobile technology to enhance user experience and engagement rate on the platform.

8) Appie founded by Sanghavi: Location-based offline retail discovery platform Appie has raised a bridge round of funding worth around $1 million from a Mumbai-based angel investor and two European investors. The fresh capital will be used for product launch, customer acquisition and business development. Founded in 2014, the company aims to help physical retailers get online and connect with customers. It allows users to discover local fashion, home decor, electronic and mom and pop shops. The firm has so far tied up with 1,200 retailers in Mumbai.

9) VEQTA founded by Vikram Tanwar: This startup is India’s first over-the-top (OTT) digital broadcast network dedicated to sports. It has raised $500K in seed round funding from early stage venture capital firm Chatsworth Management and ITW, India’s leading sports management company. The company will be launching its flagship OTT service in the next few weeks to engage sports fans across India.

10) i2ifunding founded by Vaibhav Kumar Pandey: Online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform i2ifunding has raised $300K from a group of angel investors. Two angel investors from Mumbai and one Indian investor based in Japan have participated in this round. The funds will be used for towards technology expansion and also towards increasing its presence geographically. i2ifunding is an online marketplace that connects verified borrowers looking for unsecured personal loans with lenders looking for high-return investment options. It mainly focuses on salaried borrowers. The firm claims to have more than 1200 registered users on the platform.

Technology Industry

11) Niki.ai founded by Sachin Jaiswal, Keshav Prawasi, Nitin Babel and Shishir Modi: Bangalore-based artificial intelligence startup Niki.ai has raised an undisclosed amount of investment from Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons. Existing investor Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures also participated in this funding round. Niki.ai has partnered with 25 brands. Currently, Niki chatbot offers bill payments, cab booking, recharge, food ordering, home services, cricket scores among other services to its users. It has a user base of 40,000 spread across India.

E-Commerce Industry

12) Smartivity founded by Ashwini Kumar, Apoorva Gupta, Tushar Amin and Rajat Jain: This augmented reality-based education technology startup, has raised $1 million in a pre-Series-A round of funding led by publishing firm S Chand and early-stage investment firm AdvantEdge Partners. Other investors in the round were Singapore-based fund CFG Offshore Holdings, Silicon Valley-based fund Tandem Capital and a clutch of angel investors. The company will use the funds to expand its portfolio in STEM and augmented reality products to provide interactive learning to kids and also develop IoT -enabled toys and robot-led learning for kids.

13) Blinge founded by Shashwat Gopal, Pooja Dubey and Khanna: Mumbai-based online fashion rental platform Blinge has raised an undisclosed amount in its first round of funding led by Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of People Group. Blinge is a rental platform that provides designer wear, branded outfits and accessories on rent. It follows a marketplace model and has a community of over 20 designers on its platform. The startup claims to be catering to over 1,000 customers.

Logistics Industry

14) Wow Express founded by Padoshi, Jayesh Kamat and Mazhar Faruqi: This Mumbai-based e-commerce logistics solutions firm has raised around $2.2 million in pre-Series A funding led by unnamed US-based investors as it tries to scale up operations. Existing investor Tamarind Family Private Trust, the investment trust of the Mansukhani Family which is a co-promoter of consumer electronics maker Onida, also participated in the round. The firm will use the funds for geographical expansion and technology enhancement.

Education Industry

15) Fundamentor founded by Vohra, Bhargavi AR, Amol Patkar and Amit Vashisht: Bangalore-based ed-tech startup Fundamentor has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a seed round from entrepreneur and former venture capitalist Subramanya SV, as it aims to enhance marketing initiatives. The company plans to use the funds to ramp up hiring. Fundamentor is a mobile- and web-based platform that helps students between eight and 15 years of age develop cognitive, quantitative, verbal and creative thinking skills through gamified programmes. It claims to have 3,000 paid subscribers.

16) EduPristine founded by Atul Kumar, Paramdeep Singh, Pawan Prabhat and Sarita Chand: Mumbai-based EduPristine which offers online and classroom-based certification courses, has raised $10 million from private equity fund Kaizen Management Advisors and US-based education company DeVry Inc. Founded in 2008, the company is looking to use the funds to increase its course offerings, grow to 15 cities in India and improve technology.

Reality Industry

17) BHIVE Workspace founded by Shesh Paplikar: Blume Ventures has led a $1 million funding round in co-working space BHIVE Workspace. The new capital will be used for expansion to six more cities, hiring talent, building technology and enhancing customer experience. BHIVE Workspace Pvt. Ltd currently operates in four locations in Bangalore and claims to have more than 150 ventures on board.

DSIM Team
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