Funding roundup: Delhivery, Acko lead with biggest deals this week

This week, the startup ecosystem saw a total of 10 funding investments across sectors, including travel, foodtech, logistics, e-commerce, education, and fintech. In the biggest deal, logistic startup Delhivery and Gurgaon-based NBFCAcko General Insurance raised $30 million each.

Here is the list of how the funding developments for the week look like:

Aye Finance raises $8 million from Blue Orchard and others

Gurgaon-based new-age finance company Aye Finance has raised $8 million from Blue Orchard. The company has raised funds twice this month. Last time, it has raised $3 million from SBI. In November 2016, Aye Finance had received equity funding worth $10 million (Rs 70 crore) in a Series B round led by LGT IV, SAIF Partners, and Accion.

Founded in 2014 by Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley, Aye Finance provides business loans to the small and micro enterprises across India. Spreading its services across 33 branches with over 450 employees, Aye Finance provides mortgage, hypothecation, and term loan services.

Genext Students raises $580,000 in pre-Series A round of funding

Mumbai-based hybrid tutoring platform which connects parents with the best home tutors for their children, has raised $580,000 in its pre-Series A funding round from undisclosed investors. Genext Students plans to use the funds to elevate its team, strengthen tech background, and expand the services to new cities such as Bengaluru, Lucknow, Jaipur, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

Launched in February 2013, Genext Students has completed more than 20,000 tutoring sessions in the last year across Pune and Mumbai with more than 4,000 tutorpreneurs.

Acko General Insurance raises $30 million

An independent general insurance company, Acko General Insurance has raised $30 million. Founded by Varun Dua (previously founder of Coverfox), the company received R1 license and filed for R2 license with the insurance authority.

Acko is backed by Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, Venk Krishnan and SubbaRao of NuVentures, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder of Infosys, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock, Atul Nishar – Founder and Chairman of Hexaware Technologies, Rajeev Gupta, veteran investment banker and Founder of Arpwood Capital, Accel and SAIF Partners.

Acko will operate as an independent general insurance company and it said that it will create products and deliver opportunities in areas of gaps such as personalised insurance products based on user consumption behaviours.

Hyderabad-based Travelspice raises seed fund

Hyderabad-based travel e-commerce startup Travelspice has raised an undisclosed seed fund from Bengaluru-based early-stage investor Eagle10 Ventures. Founded in 2007 by Ankit Manglik, Prashant Mitta and Ramu Kallepalli, Travelspice enables hotels to increase occupancy up to 10 percent by providing fully paid, non-paid, non-cancellable, and non-refundable customers.

Box8 raises $1 million from IAN, Mayfield Fund, and more

Mumbai-based full stack online food delivery startup, Box8 has raised $1 million from Trifecta Capital. Last October, the company raised $7.5 million in its Series B round from IIFL Seed Ventures Fund and Mayfield. Started by two IIT graduates Amit Raj and Anshul Gupta in 2011, Box8 (earlier known as Poncho) today has its presence in Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru.

Ummeed Housing Finance raises $5.6 million in Series B funding

Delhi-based affordable housing finance company, Ummeed Housing Finance has raised $5.6 million in Series B funding from existing investors Lok Capital Growth Fund (Lok’s third fund) and Duane Park.

The company plans to use the fresh round of funds to fuel its expansion plans to new locations in North and Central India, make investments in SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, and cloud) technologies, and grow assets under management by six times in the next year.

Delhivery raises $30 million in funding

Gurgaon-based logistic startup Delhivery has raised $30 million in funding from Chinese conglomerate Fosun International with the participation of The Carlyle Group. As reported by Economic Times, the latest tranche was a part of the larger round raised by the company this year which is estimated at between $100 and $130 million. Founded by Suraj Saharan, Sahil Barua, Kapil Bharati, Mohit Tandon, and Bhavesh Manglani, Delhivery helps merchants and brands create online businesses through modular E-commerce services and core logistics.

ZIPGRID raises $500k in pre-Series A round

Community services platform ZIPGRID raised $500k in pre-Series A round from JLL India Real Estate Technology Ventures and 1Crowd. Last August, the company raised $200,000 fund in equity financing from 1Crowd.

Co-founded by Jaydip Popat (formerly with Firstsource Solutions) and Kunal Gupta (formerly with Mapletree Investments), ZIPGRID has its footprint in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. It provides services like accounting and finance, compliance, and control management solutions.

Yepme raises an undisclosed amount of fund from Gokaldas Exports Ltd

Gurgaon-based fashion e-tailer Yepme raised an undisclosed amount of fund from garment exporter Gokaldas Export Ltd. Early this year, Yepme raised $700,000. Last year, it raised $75 million in Series B round. Yepme services over 1,000 cities monthly and delivers close to 500,000 units to its customers every month. One of the early adopters of the omni-channel retailing model, Yepme last year announced the launch of its flagship store in one of the biggest shopping destinations – DLF Mall of India, Noida.

EzCred raises $1 million seed fund

Bengaluru-based consumer credit marketplace EzCred has raised $1 million seed fund from a group of investors. The company is backed by Ratikant Sahu (Executive Director – Group Technology and Operations, United Overseas Bank Limited), Akash Garg (Director of Engineering at Uber), Rajesh Yohannan (Chief Executive Officer at AxiCorp Financial Services), Dheeraj Pandey (Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Nutanix), and more.

Founded by Amiya Pathak and Sachin Maheshwari, EzCred provides AADHAAR based loan origination process at the point of sale, real time credit approval, and increases borrower spectrum coverage.

With a handful of funding activities, the week went off well witnessing the positive attitude of investors towards backing aspiring entrepreneurs. The ticket size of funding also seemed to be decent, however, a couple of them refused to disclose the amount.