Bengaluru aces the numbers game; GoBOLT raises 40 cr from Aavishkaar

The battle for the Indian retail space is between Walmart, Amazon and Alibaba, or is it Reliance Industries and Future Group? The Indian retail space is an interesting play between Indian and foreign retailers, and is turning out to be one of those unexpected marriages. Those who were once rivals are now bedfellows as each one eyes the Indian retail pie that, according to global consulting firm E&Y, is valued at $650 billion, and is growing close to 10 percent each year.

In Part 1 of the YourStory Q3 2018 Startup Funding Report, we focus on the top deals of the quarter, the growing Chinese interest in India, and the rising number of M&As in the startup space. September ended with a bang with 15 announcements made in the last week alone, signalling that the euphoria, though somewhat cautious, is back. Even though the funding quantum in July-September was a shade lower than the comparable quarter in 2017, some interesting trends showed up which, investors believe, reflect the maturity of the ecosystem.

Bengaluru aces the numbers game, fintech stays in the spotlight and content shows its king. Technically speaking, Delhi-NCR beat Bengaluru in theSeptember quarter purely on the amount raised: $1.79 billion across 68 deals, while Bengaluru raised $1.30 billion across 73 deals. OYO’s $1 billion and Paytm’s $300 million heavily tipped the scales in favour of Delhi-NCR, where the remaining startups raised just $496 million across 44 deals with disclosed funding amounts.

The future of the workplace means different things to different people. To Vishal Jain, 33, it translates into an IoT solution that optimises energy, space, and productivity of people. That is what drives Synconext, an IoT platform that transforms real estate infrastructure to help businesses achieve better efficiencies.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced a Rs 100 crore startup fund to promote entrepreneurial activity in the state. Speaking at the Future of MP: Startup Conclave on Saturday, which saw stakeholders from the ecosystem, including VCs, startups and entrepreneurs coming together, he discussed ways to boost startup activity in the state.

Mumbai-based GoBOLT, which provides smart logistics solutions to companies by harnessing data analytics and IoT, announced it had raised Rs 40 crore from Aavishkaar Venture Management Services. The company, which focuses on express cargo movement and caters to leading ecommerce, FMCG and consumer durables companies through its owned and hired fleet will use the funds to expand its presence across India, increase its fleet size, strengthen its team, further develop its technology, and foray into allied business segments.

The Barclays Hurun India Rich List 2018 – a compilation of the richest individuals in India having a net worth of Rs 1,000 crore or more saw the entry of 19 entrepreneurs from the Unicorn companies such as Paytm, Flipkart, Udaan, Oyo, Ola, and Byjus, among others. The Unicorn list is topped by Divyank Turakhia from Media.net with a total wealth of Rs 11,600 crore, followed by Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm at Rs 10,500 crore and Nithin Kamath and family from Zerodha at Rs 8,600 crore.

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