Bengaluru boys ace LinkedIn's 'Top Startups' list; Ola's kitty grows by $50M

LinkedIn announced its inaugural Top Startups List for India based on “the billions of actions taken by more than 50+ million professionals on LinkedIn in India”. The top three spots went to hospitality startup OYO, health and wellness startup Cure.Fit and on-demand local delivery service Dunzo. The time frame for the list was July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018.

Bengaluru-based ride-hailing platform Ola raised $50 million funding led by two Chinese investors at a valuation of $4.3 billion. The fund raising is believed to be led by China-Eurasian Economic Cooperation and Hong Kong-based Sailing Capital. According to media reports, this fund raising will be part of Ola’s move to raise fresh funds of at least $1 billion. In other news, the company announced its foray into New Zealand. The cab services will be available in Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington, it said.

Flipkart will soon see new faces at its campus. Four global executives from Walmart will join Flipkart operations in India to run the show along with CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy. Walmart will bring in its audit and compliance processes to Flipkart so that the working DNA of Flipkart and Walmart merge to ensure smooth functioning. Head of M&A at Walmart, Emily McNeal, will be SVP and Chief Financial Officer of the group. Daniel De La Garza, will join as vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer. Grant Coad will take over the position of general counsel, and Dawn Ptak will be the group controller and VP.

Backed by its network of angel investors and industry experts, LetsVenture has set up the LetsGrow platform to help startups identify the right metrics that they would need to target when they raise growth capital of $1 million to $5 million. LetsGrow will aim to help startups go from Seed to Series A/B stage, and assist them in finding the right metrics that could attract a VC for their follow-on rounds.

The BSE Institute, in association with AIC-Mahamana Foundation of the Banaras Hindu University and government think-tank Niti Aayog, has launched ‘Atal Incubation Center’ at the BHU in Varanasi. The incubator aims to help identify new startups, accelerate them, provide mentorship, connect them with investors and scale up. The total project outlay for the incubation center is about Rs 20 crore for a period of five years.

Ecommerce Goliaths Flipkart and Amazon may be battling it out for the Indian online shopper’s attention, but smaller ecommerce players like Chumbak and Happily Unmarried are looking at whimsy ways to grab eyeballs. Today, there are several online stores and marketplaces that focus on the quirk, and unique products like bobbleheads, charms, cauldron mugs and other memorabilia. 

Now get the Daily Capsule in your inbox. Subscribe to our newsletter today!