The 2012 Indian Startup Funding Digest- Venture Capital and Angel investment in 2012
The Indian startup scene has arrived and whoever said there's a dearth of capital to startup, needs to do some rethinking. Yes, India is still nowhere close to the Silicon Valley but there's no arguing the fact that excitement about Indian startups is picking up globally. The world is starting to take a note and we've seen some encouraging success stories arise. Funding doesn't have a direct co-relation with success in a startups growth curve but surely is an indicator. Here, we look at all the funding activity that happened over the year (do point out in the comments if we missed out any):
December 2012
Bangalore based ZipDial received an undisclosed investment from 500Startups in the second round of seed funding.
Plivo, a cloud telephony startup (also a Morpheus gang company) raised $1.75M from Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Qualcomm Incorporated and SV Angel.
WhistleTalk, a Bangalore based start up aiming to make recruitment easier, raised $400K from Hyderabad Angels.
Mast Kalandar, a food chain, raised US $6 Million from Helion Venture Partners and Footprint Ventures in third round of funding.
CipherGraph Networks a cloud start up from Bangalore received an undisclosed investment from Chamath Palihapitiya of The Social+Capital Partnership.
Gaming startup MadRat games received investment of $500K from Blume Ventures and First Light Ventures.
Maximojo Software Pvt Ltd another cloud start up from Mumbai received an undisclosed investment from Mumbai Angels.
Utthishta Management Advisors LLP from Hyderabad raised $9.2 million from Utthishta Yekum Fund.
iCreate Software raised $10 million from Sequoia Capital, IDG Ventures India and the Series A investors in Series B round of funding.
Miraistore. com an e-commerce from Bangalore obtained undisclosed investment from Prem Kumar M, Chairman and MD Uniworld Logistics.
ChargeBee in service sector from Chennai raised $350 K from Private Angel Investors.
Sharedcab received angel investment of $1 million from Anupam Mittal, Sasha Mirchandani (Kae Capital), Blume Ventures and few others.
Simplibuy Technologies Pvt Ltd from Pune received an undisclosed investment from Ecosystem Ventures.
Attune Technologies Pvt Ltd a start up in the Healthcare sector hailing from Chennai raised $6 million from Norwest Venture Partners.
Vdopia raised $3.4 million of a desired $7.4 million as part of a series B round funding.
Examify raised angel round from IndiaGames founder, Vishal Gondal.
Times Internet made a 7 figure investment in New York based e-commerce company Fab.com
Unilazer invested an undisclosed amount in MeraCareerGuide.com.
Local deals search firm Squeakee raised funding from Kae Capital and Mumbai Angels fund.
Sports and fitness firms, SportsNest and Playground came together and raised a fresh round of investment from Blume Ventures.
One97 Communications Ltd acquired Delhi based Mobile/Apps sector company, Mobivite.
November 2012
Suburban Diagnostics a healthcare start up raised $8 million from Sequoia Capital.
A Mobile/Apps sector firm, Ezetap Mobile Solutions Pvt Ltd from Bangalore raised Series A funding of $3.5 million from Chamath Palihapitiya’s Social+Capital Partnership, Peter Thiel, Nicolas Berggruen and David Sacksas along with AngelPrime.
A Delhi based enterprise and e-commerce store Happily Unmarried raised $1 million from Info Edge (India) Ltd.
Harness Handitouch Pvt Ltd, an Education start up from Chennai raised $0.2 million as angel investment from CLUB ah!, a growing angel investment network and a part of ah! Ventures India.
Brandis Manufacturing and Marketing Private Limited, a Bangalore enterprise raised $14 million from Peepul Capital Fund III LLC.
Shubham Housing Development Finance Company Pvt Ltd based in Gurgaon raised $7.8 million (43.2 crore) from Elevar Equity Advisors, Helion Advisors, ACCION and Saama Capital.
In Series D funding, Vuclip raised $13 million from SingTel Innov8, a new strategic investor, and existing investors NEA and Jafco Ventures.
Loylty Rewardz Management Pvt Ltd, a firm in services sector based in Mumbai raised a funding round of $1.1 million from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
SmartOwner, a consumer web firm of Bangalore received an undisclosed investment from AngelPrime.
Kiora, formerly Bluebox Media Technologies procured investment from Intertrust Technologies Corporation.
MobiSwipe Technologies Pvt Ltd a start up in Mobile/Apps sector obtained an undisclosed investment from One97 Mobility Fund.
A healthcare start up from Mumbai, Navigene received an undisclosed amount of investment from Incubation and early-stage venture capital investment firm IncuCapital, a group company of the BSE-listed private equity player IndiaCo Ventures Ltd.
In Series A funding, AdNear raised $7 million from Sequoia Capital and Canaan Partners.
HotelTravel another company from travel sector was acquired for US$ 25 million by MakeMyTrip.
An e-commerce company based in Pune, True Sparrow Systems was acquired and merged to Fab.com for an undisclosed amount.
SherSingh (previously exclusively.in), an e-commerce company in a Cash cum Equity Deal invested by Myntra.
October 2012
Helpshift a company working in Mobile / Apps and Service sector raised $3.2M True Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners.
In Series B round of funding Vizury Interactive, a marketing service sector company raised close to $ 9 Million from Nokia Growth Partners (NGP).
Dhingana, a Music Service sector company raised $7 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners in another Series B round of funding.
Voylla.com an e-commerce company from Bangalore procured 7 figure investments (INR) from an individual investor.
In Series A funding, LimeRoad a Consumer Web company raised $ 5 million from Matrix Partners.
The third Series B round of funding in the month was procured by Commonfloor.com a consumer web sector company from Accel India and Tiger Global Management.
BloomReach a big data/ analytics firm raised $25 million from US Venture Capital Partnership New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in Series C funding round.
Unamia an e-commerce start up from Bangalore raised seed fund of $1.2million from Blume Ventures and Angel Prime.
A travel start up from Gurgaon, Oravel procured a seed funding from VentureNursery.
A buying club for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), Power2sme raised $2 million from Inventus Capital Partners.
Bangalore based e-commerce start up Alma Mater raised funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN).
Electronic Payment and Services Private Limited (EPS), based in Mumbai raised US$ 4 million from Aavishkaar.
Hungama.com, a service and entertainment sector based company from India raised $40 million from Intel Capital along with 9 others companies around the world.
FrontalRain Technologies an agri-tech startup from Bangalore raised $1 million from Omnivore Capital, an early stage venture capital fund backed by Godrej Agrovet Ltd.
September 2012
Zomato.com a leading restaurant rating website under consumer web sector raised $3 Million in second round of funding from Info Edge (India) Ltd, one of India’s largest internet companies.
i7 Networks working in cloud sector from Bangalore raised $250K angel funding from Sharad Sharma, Rao Remala and Murali Venkat Rao.
A healthcare start up from Bangalore, NationWide - Primary Healthcare Services Pvt. Ltd raised $4.5 million from Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), one of the largest venture capital funding in primary healthcare space.
Delhi based Aurus Network working in education sector received an undisclosed investment from Indian Angel Network.
A rural BPO service provider, DesiCrew Solution Pvt Ltd raised $1.12 million in Series B round from responsAbility Ventures I, and Ventureast Tenet Fund II, the fund managed by Ventureast.
99 Labels an e-commerce firm from Delhi raised $1 million from Info Edge (India) Ltd which had previously invested $3.5 million and now the total investment is at $6 million.
Vyome Biosciences a healthcare start up from Delhi raised in a Series A financing round, $4 million from IndoUS Venture Partners (IUVP), with Aarin Capital and Navam Capital as co- investors.
SONATA Finance Pvt. Ltd., from Allahabad in a Series D equity raise of $7 million by Creation Investments, The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Swaminathan Aiyar, two existing investors in the company and Anup Kumar Singh, the promoter, also invested in this round.
An education start up, Simplilearn from Bangalore raised investment from IndoUS Venture Partners (IUVP).
Poncho, a start up from Mumbai raised a funding round from Indian Angel Network.
In Series C round of funding, Norwest Venture Partners invested $5 million in Bangalore based software firm Appnomic Systems Pvt Ltd.
In the same month, Zomato.com again raised an additional $2.3 Million from the same investor Info Edge (India) Ltd in the third round of investment.
Datagres Technologies Inc an Enterprise set up in Bangalore raised $ 2 million from Nexus Venture Partners.
Travelmob travel sector start up from Singapore procured $1 million in seed funding from Jungle Ventures, with participation from other prominent, private investors in the region.
Capillary Technologies a cloud based start up in raised a series A round worth $15.5 million from Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners (NVP).
Unbxd an e-commerce sector company received an investment from Indian Angel Network.
Covacsis, a software firm based in Mumbai raised $0.5 million in an early-stage VC fund from Blume Ventures.
Avani Bio Energy, part of the non-profit organization AVANI based in Pittoragarh, Uttarakhand raised $250K debt-equity investment from Acumen Fund.
August 2012
Bangalore based Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain Ammi’s Biryani raised $ 8 million from SAIF Partners.
UrbanLadder, an online furniture store raised funding from IndoUs Venture Partners.
India Innovation Fund has invested in IIT Bombay research spin-off, iKen Solutions. iKen Solutions is an IIT Bombay research spin-off specializing in Artificial Intelligence based Consumer Analytics that enables extremely personalized user experiences.
Accel Partners invested $0.5 million in Mind Edutainment, a Delhi based education startup.
Mumbai based RedQuanta raised funding round led by India Quotient, Blume Ventures and India Venture Partners. RedQuanta is in the business of building customer intelligence through its tech-enabled crowdsourcing based mystery shopping platform.
Natural Mantra, a lifestyle destination for eco-conscious shoppers, raised a seed amount from Freemont Partners.
Indian Angel Network and India Innovation Fund invested in healthcare startup, Consure
Accel Partners invested $20 million in BookMyShow.com
In an acquisition deal, FashionAndYou acquired UrbanTouch (previously funded by Accel) for $30 Million.
Bangalore Based online photography company Canvera raised $6.5M in Series B from Info Edge.
July 2012
Indore start up Twist Mobile secured undisclosed investment from Matrix Partners in series A funding.
CHERISHmaternity an e-commerce start up from Bangalore raised a round of angle investment from Marquee Angel Investors Rehan Yar Khan, Blume Ventures, Rajan Anandan, Sunil Kalra, Farooq Oomerbhoy and others.
Accel Partners & Helion Venture Partners invested $0.4 million in a Hyderabad based consumer web start up MySmartPrice.
Nevis Networks (India) Pvt. Ltd a LAN security and Network access control firm of Pune had minority stake brought by Ncubate Capital Partners in its debut transaction.
International Oncology Services Pvt Ltd (IOSPL) a super specialty cancer care and research centre in Delhi raised $3.7 million from Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund.
Nirvana Holdings invested $1.8 million in Hyderabad firms Heritage Finlease, a micro credit firm and Asvas Healthcare, a rural healthcare chain.
Big Shoe Bazaar - the brand owner of Yebhi.com raised $20 million from Fidelity Growth Partners India and Qualcomm Incorporated in series C round.
TranServ, a Mumbai start up received an investment from Nirvana Venture Advisors.
Cloud startup Mobikon Asia Pte Ltd raised $1.7 million from Jungle Ventures.
Shareaholic, a services based start up from Delhi procured investment of $3 million in Series A funding from Kepha Partners.
BookMyCab, a start up by LiveMinds Solutions Pvt Ltd from Mumbai got angel investment from YourNest Angel Fund.
HashCube, a gaming start up from Bangalore secured investment from the Indian Angel Network.
In a Series C funding round, cloud start up Aryaka from Bangalore received $25 million from InterWest Partners.
Shantani Proteome Analytics Pvt. Ltd, a Healthcare firm Pune, procured undisclosed investment from India Innovation Fund.
TicketGoose.com an e-commerce firm based in Chennai received investment of $0.6 million from angel investors based out of US.
Swipe Telecom a company based out of Mobile/Apps sector in Pune raised Series A funding of $10 million from Mantra Ventures.
Practo, a healthcare services based start up raised $5 million from Sequoia Capital.
Edubridge Learning Pvt Ltd working in education sector based in Mumbai raised $3 million from Acumen Fund.
Accel Partners invested $5 million in Universal Collectabillia Pvt Ltd (UCPL) an e-commerce firm.
June 2012
Pune based Pubmatic, the digital media platform for publishers, raised $ 45 million in funding fromMezannine 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 brandCreya 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 experiencesraised funding from MyFirstCheque.
Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners invested an undisclosed amount in OneAssist, a consumer assistance company.
May 2012
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.
April 2012
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
March 2012
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.
February 2012
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
January 2012
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 Servicesinvested $ 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.
Stay tuned for analysis of these funding activity. Till then checkout our research reports and the 25 most popular stories from YourStory in 2012.