Byju's gets adventurous with Math, Flipkart bids adieu to Ebay and LifCare gets $11 M lease of life
Edtech unicorn Byju’s announced it had acquired Bengaluru-based Math Adventures, a math learning startup. The acquisition is aimed at enhancing and strengthening the product offering for the upcoming lower grade (K-3) learning programmes. Math Adventures blends hands-on activity with technology that is designed to bring fun into learning. It helps children learn through an innovative combination of friendly, short videos and an activity-based approach using interactive methods.
Ecommerce market leader Flipkart is entering the refurbished goods market, estimated to be worth $15 billion in India, with a new yet-to-be-launched platform. This marks the shutdown of the India arm of Ebay, which Flipkart bought last year. US-based pre-owned goods marketplace Ebay had invested over $500 million for a stake in Flipkart, and had sold its India business to the latter in mid-2017.
Club Mahindra-backed Xoxoday announced it has acquihired Blue Bulb, a localised tours, experiences and activities startup based in Mumbai. Xoxoday provides experiential rewards, loyalty and engagement solutions to enterprises for its employees, customers and channel partners. Blue Bulb, on the other hand, has been selling unique local experiences primarily to locals in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Goa for the last eight years.
Edtech startup Kidovators raised a seed funding of $180,000 from Impact Investor, and US-based Gray Matters Capital’s edLABS initiative. M Chandrasekaran, board member at Sylvant Advisors and former corporate advisor to Manipal Group, also participated in the round. The Bengaluru-based skill learning platform for children aged between 8 and 15 will utilise the capital in taking the Kidovators programmes to over 100,000 students and 600+ partner schools in 2018.
Corner Store Technologies, which operates healthcare startup LifCare, raised $11 million in a Series B round from SAIF Partners, Nexus Ventures and IL&FS. The company said the funds will be used to expand LifCare’s geographical presence and boost investment in technology. LifCare is a subscription pharmacy firm targeting patients with chronic illnesses.
After raising $35 million earlier this year, online beauty retailer Nykaa has been widely expanding its offerings. The six-year-old company has launched NykaaNetwork, an interactive beauty forum where subscribers can chat with each other. NykaaNetwork enables subscribers to join groups to discover content of their interests, upload photos and chat with like-minded people. They can also get video advice from India’s leading makeup, skin, hair and wellness experts. Nykaa claims that the content generated on the Network is completely authentic and brand agnostic.
Digital payments processor PayU announced the launch of its new platform, PayUnow, to bring small and medium businesses (SMBs) online. The new platform will enable offline businesses to create an online identity with their own business page, where they can accept digital payments directly into their bank account, PayU said in a press release. PayU said it plans to invest close to Rs 50 crore in the product development and marketing of PayUnow over the next two years
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