Funding roundup: More than $50 million invested via 12 deals last week
Funding roundup Feb 8 -14 2014
The new-gen recruitment platform myNoticePeriod.com has raised a follow-up Series A round of INR 18 crore from IDG Ventures. Earlier in September 2014, the company had raised over INR 2 crore from individual angel investors and IDG Ventures. The startup was founded by two ex-Yahoo! employees, Manjunath Talwar and Abhijit Khasnis. myNoticePeriod facilitates real-time communication between recruiters and candidates using messaging platforms like WhatsApp, SMS and schedulers.
Bangalore-based growth-stage startup Practo raised USD 30 million from Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners. Practo is a web-based clinic management platform that serves primary clinics. This institutional round of funding was led by Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners participating as a new investors. It is one of the largest Series B rounds of funding for an Indian tech startup, where the average Series B is pegged at USD 10 million.
This week, Mr Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in CarDekho.com’s parent company Girnar Software Pvt Ltd. The company, which acquired Gaadi.com last year, had already raised INR 307 crore from Chinese investment management firm Hillhouse Capital and Hong Kong-based hedge fund Tybourne Capital. Existing investor Sequoia Capital also participated in its USD 15 million Series A round. CarDekho.com was founded by siblings Amit and Anurag Jainarlier.
Bangalore-based Eventifier has been acquired by India’s largest entertainment e-ticketing platform BookMyShow. Eventifier was backed by Kae Capital, Accel Partners & The Startup Centre. All investors have exited the company with a deal that valued Eventifier at USD 2 million. Accel is common investor in both Eventifier and BookMyShow.
NCR-based online marketplace FindYahan has raised an angel round led by Karan Bajwa (MD, Microsoft India) along with Parvesh Bareja (Director, HeliosPacks), Sunjay Kapur (MD, Sona Koyo Steering) and Amanpreet Bajaj (ex-Co-founder, Letsbuy.com). The funds are said to be geared towards bettering technology, team-building and scaling up. However, the amount of funding has not been disclosed.
Pune-based event ticketing platform Townscript.com has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from multiple investors that include Carlyle Group’s MD Mahesh Parasuraman; MindTickle’s co-founder Mohit Garg; and Nipam Shah, founder, NRS Advisors.
Auto-classifieds portal CarTrade.com has raised an undisclosed amount in investment from ex- AutoTrader CEO Chip Perry. Auto Trader is an online classified firm based in the USA. CarTrade had earlier secured USD 30 million in a funding round led by Warburg Pinacus.
Digital finance company Capital Float has raised USD 13 million in Series A financing to support its rapid growth. The round was led by SAIF Partners and Sequoia Capital, with participation from existing investor Aspada. Capital Float provides working capital loans to under-served small businesses in India through technology-led loan origination and credit underwriting platforms.
20Dresses.com has raised USD 1 million in angel funding from several investors. The company is an online personalised styling platform for women founded by Sumant Kasliwal. The startup will purportedly use the fund to invest in technology, infrastructure and talent acquisition.
Fintech startup CimplyFive recently raised investment from Wipro’s outgoing chief financial officer (CFO) Suresh Senapaty and former Infosys CFO-turned-private investor TV Mohandas Pai. CimplyFive leverages digital technology to make compliance simple, easy and fool proof for good corporate governance. It provides cost-effective, secure web-based, menu driven, subscription service that provides curated resolutions, timely alerts and informative dashboards to free management bandwidth for pursing business goals.
Sports e-commerce startup Sports365 raised USD 1 million in bridge funding from US-based venture capital firm Zolon Ventures and existing investor Powerhouse Ventures.
Payment company MineralTree Inc. has raised USD 11.1 million in a Series B round of funding from First Data, existing investors Fidelity Growth Partners and 406 Ventures. MineralTree provides easy-to-use Accounts Payable (AP) and Payment Automation solutions for finance professionals at growing organisations.