Pre-Series A deals dominate in the first week of December

The year is drawing to a close and deals typically taper off in December. The first week of the month (December 1 to 6) saw 16 deals getting announced.

The deal value for the week, which only includes deal amounts that were disclosed, stood at $3.6 million. The last week of November saw 31 deals getting announced, and the deal value stood at $231 million. Again, the deal value reflects the deals where the amounts were disclosed.

In other news that would be of interest to Indian startups, Tiger Global Management raised a global fund of $2.5 billion.

An interesting mix of companies announced their fund raise during the week. Mobile-only last-minute hotels booking app RoomsTonite raised $1.5 million in angel funding. CollegeDekho, an online platform to connect colleges and students, raised $1 million.

Dominance of pre-Series A

All 16 were pre-Series A deals. Early stage deals have always exceeded other rounds in terms of number of deals. Considering smaller amounts are invested—typically under $1 million—and the investee companies are untested, early-stage investors put in money in a number of companies. Not all of them scale as expected and so only a fraction of the companies that raise early stage funding go on to raise Series B and growth stage capital. The month of November had 77 pre-Series A deals.

M&A

Two acquisitions and a strategic investment were announced. Times Internet, a part of the Times Group that publishes newspapers like ‘Times of India’ and ‘The Economic Times’, acquired GetMeAShop, a do-it-yourself SaaS provider. GetMeAShop was incubated at TLabs, also a part of the Times Group. In yet another deal in the on-demand space, B2C delivery startup MagicTiger bought out Instano. In July, MagicTiger had acquired another rival, Godeliver. Flipkart continues its investment spree and has taken a strategic minority stake in MapMyIndia.

M&A/Strategic Investment