We’re in the midst of our Techsparks campaign with 3 rountables done in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. We're also exactly in the middle of the year 2012 which contrary to what many might have predicted at the start of the year, hasn't turned out to be very good for the Indian economy. But even in these times of a downturn and mild gloom, the energy is electrifying in the startup circuit and many are calling it the best time to startup. The investors have also been kept busy with numerous startups emerging out of different cities and have been knocking on the VC doors. Reflecting these sentiments, here we provide a compendium of all the funding activity that has taken place in the past half year.
Also, to keep a tab on the startup scene, we’re doing multiple surveys and events out of which two are at the top of our minds: The VC Perception Survey and The Fail Summit. Please help us with your feedback on the VCs and also, do keep in touch with the Fail Summit, we’ll be celebrating failure in a grand fashion! Not to deviate, here’s the list followed by a visualization:
JANUARY
Freecharge.in, an online mobile recharge portal raised $ 4 million from Sequoia Capital
Accel Partners and serial entrepreneur Meena Ganesh, CEO & MD of Pearson Education Services invested $ 5 million in Jewellery eCommerce, Bluestone
Seedfund invested an undisclosed sum in HandsPick.com, a fashion apparel and accessories e-commerce brand (Now donebynone.com)
Gurgaon-based start-up Bright Lifecare Pvt Ltd, which runs the online health store Healthkart.com, raised $5.4 million in second round of funding from existing investor Sequoia Capital and another new investor Omidyar
Bangalore based Education Technology Startup eDreams Software raised $ 1 million from Mumbai Angels
Hyderabad based ScanCorner which is into professional photo digitization and restoration raised $ 0.15 million from Prof. Rama Velamuri and two other angels
Knowlarity, a cloud based telephony Solutions company raised $ 7 million from Sequoia Capital
FEBRUARY
Bangalore based Zansaar, online retailer of home decor products raised USD 6 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global.
BrizzTV, a media technology company raised a series A funding of $1.5 million from Ojas Ventures
Sequoia Capital invested $7.5 million in online training startup, Edusys
Bakers Circle, a maker of frozen bakery and confectionery products secured $ 3 million from GEM India Advisors and Haystack
Manthan Systems, the provider of Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics solutions for the retail and consumer goods industries raised $ 1 million from Norwest Venture Partners
Green India Building Systems and Services that offers operational, maintenance, and energy solutions to reduce the overall building life-cycle expense raised $ 0.4 million from Hyderabad Angels.
Education Technology Startup, CarveNiche secured $ 0.2 million from Mumbai Angels.
Delhi based Chhotu.in, an eCommerce logistics company raised $ 0.5 million from Global Super Angels of India
Mohandas Pai invested in India’s first Proxy Advisory Firm, Ingovern
Anudip, a foundation with an aim is to provide opportunities of livelihood for impoverished youth in rural and semi-urban areas of India raised $ 0.65 million from Omidyar Network
Mumbai based startup SM Windsol which provides renewable energy solutions, raised $ 0.1 million from FirstLight
Healthcare Online Portal DialUrDoctor raised $ 0.4 million in angel funding from Akasam Consulting
MARCH
Exotel, a Bangalore based startup that offers business phone systems on the cloud to SMEs, raised $ 0.5 million Series A Funding from Mumbai Angels & Blume Ventures
Nirvana Venture Advisors bought 10% In Games2win, one of the top 20 online games company; Nexus, ICICI Venture Part-exit
Zivame, India’s online lingerie-only store, raised Series A Funding From IDG & Indo-US Venture Partners
Traffic Tracker, Birds Eye Systems secured funding from CIIE
YourNest Angel Fund invested in Proof of Performance Data Services. Proof of Performance offers insights to decision makers based on Video Analytics from the archives of the real world videos, available on its cloud based platform, christened Earthive.
Hotelogix, which offers enterprise SaaS for hoteliers across the world, to help them manage their IT and business operations smoothly, secured $1.2 M funding led by Accel Partners
Wedding Service Portal, MyShaadi Raised first round of funding from Indian Angel Network
Drivers Training Program, ‘Pawan ko kahin dekha kya’ secured angel investment from Deep Kalra, Alok Mittal and others
APRIL
IFC Invested USD 6.5 Million in Bangalore Startup Snowman Logistics, a cold chain logistics solutions provider.
Helion Backed Vienova Education, a Delhi-based affordable education provider, raised Rs.157 million from Bamboo Finance.
Car Rental Startup Olacabs Secured INR 40 Crores Funding From Tiger Global
Ojas Ventures & Blume Ventures Invested in Information Sharing Network Insieve, which aims at solving the problem of information overload, and allows for intelligent sharing of information.
Mobile Query Startup Innoz Raised Series A Funding From Seedfund
IDG Ventures, Accel Invested $5M in Forus Health, a Bangalore-based affordable medical technology and solutions company.
Freshdesk, the online help desk software solution, raised $5M in Second Round of Funding Led By Tiger Global and Accel Partners.
Unmetric, Internet’s first social media benchmarking company, raised $3.2M in Series A Round Led By Nexus Ventures
Unitus Seed Fund and Others Invested in Villgro Innovation, an innovative rural distribution company
United Mobile Apps secured $ 1 million Series A funding from Mumbai Angels
Savaari Car Rentals, India’s largest online chauffeur driven car rental company, raised $1 million from Inventus Capital Partners
TalentSprint, a pioneer in creating high performance professionals for the IT and BFSI industry, raised Series A $ 4 million Funding from Nexus Venture Partners
MAY
iDubba raised angel round from Rajan Anandan (Google India MD), Srikant Sastri (Vivaki India head) and Abhishek Rungta/Pallav Nadhani (seeders.in).
Chennai based Cbazaar, an Indian ethnic wear and accessories eCommerce outfit, has raised Series A funding of $ 3.5 million from Inventus Capital Partners a US-India venture capital and Ojas Venture Partners, an early-stage technology based investing firm.
Drawbridge, a cross-device mobile advertising solution, raised $ 6.5 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins.
OrangeScape, a Chennai-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS),that helps create business solutions, raised $ 1 million from Indian Angel Network.
Quikr, the hugely popular internet and mobile based classifieds service attracted an investment of US$32 million led by Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing.
Serendipity Infolabs Pvt. Ltd., which runs the online taxi booking site TaxiForSure.com raised venture capital funding from Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.
Gaming Startup Rolocule Games secured Funding from Mumbai Angels & Blume Ventures.
Hippocampus Learning Centres, a Bangalore-based education services provider raised $ 1.3 million from Lok Capital and Acumen Fund as part of a Series A round of funding
Bangalore based Limberlink Technologies, an engineering education start-up raised funds from Accel Partners, and the size of funding is expected to be around $2 Mn
JustRechargeIt, which provides mobile, Data Card and DTH recharges through Internet and Mobile channels raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Ladderup Finance Limited.
Ecommerce startup Unamia, which deals with kidswear, raised undisclosed amount in angel funding from AngelPrime
Zovi.com a private label e-tailer dealing in apparel and accessories for men and women disclosed that it raised $10 million in series B round of funding from Tiger Global along with existing investor SAIF Partners.
JUNE
Pune based Pubmatic, the digital media platform for publishers, raised $ 45 million in funding from Mezannine Financing.
IncuCapital, a Pune based VC firm, invested 40 lakh INR in STEAMMO, a food and beverage chain, which is operated by J&R Hospitality Management Pvt. Ltd.
Sequoia Capital invested in Mumbai based - Citrus Payment Solutions, which offers payment solutions.
Hyderabad-based Kindle Experiential Learning, an education startup for schools under the brand Creya Learning, raised between $4.5 million and $5 million from two undisclosed Indian individual investors.
Reviews42, a community based product reviews platform raised funds from Blume Ventures and VentureEast Partners. The amount is not disclosed.
Bangalore-headquartered microfinance firm Grameen Financial Services (GFSPL) raised $ 5 million in debt funding through an issue of secured, redeemable, non-convertible debentures (NCDs).
YourNest Angel Fund announced that they have made an investment in Gurgaon based startup, MyCity4Kids, a comprehensive marketplace for all kids related local services.
Bangalore-based Jeeves Consumer Services Pvt Ltd, an electronics products and appliance service provider to individual households, raised an undisclosed initial round of funding from Seedfund.
Educomp Solutions Ltd, India’s largest listed education company raised $155 million in financing through a mix of private equity, external commercial borrowings (ECBs) and foreign currency convertible bonds.
Mumbai-based online ad network Komli Media India raised $39 million, led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners.
Mauka, a college-corporate bridge, raised funding from North Alley Group of companies.
Poshvine, the online destination to discover, reserve and enjoy dining and culinary experiences raised funding from MyFirstCheque.
Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners invested an undisclosed amount in OneAssist, a consumer assistance company.
Here is a sector wise summation of the investments made in the different sectors. 22 investments have been made in the “Others” sector which hasn’t been included. The "others" section include F&B startups, finance, legal, cab rentals, online mobile recharge players, etc.
The investments only include Series A, B and below. The investments in the chart is devoid of outliers like a157 million dollar investment in Vienova or a 45 million dollar investment in Pubmatic. Also, for the currency conversion, a scale of 1 USD = 50 INR has been used. To have an idea of the number of investments that were made every month in the different sectors, have a look at this chart:
Here's a list of all the funding news from 2011 and its visualization.