The Venture Intelligence Blog

Deal Alert: Singapore’s JFDI.Asia to incubate 3 Indian cos

2013-05-20T20:47:00.004-07:00

Singapore’s Joyful Frog Digital Incubator, commonly referred to as JFDI.Asia, is to incubate three Indian startups for its current batch. The companies include AskAbt, a community networking platform; healthcare services facilitator MyFitnessWallet and medical practice software maker DocTree. The chosen companies enter a 100-day program out of which 60% manage to secure follow-on funding.

Deal Alert: Mayfield invests in The Beer Cafe

2013-05-16T21:07:00.002-07:00

Gurgaon-based BTB Marketing Pvt. Ltd., which runs QSR chain cum beverage store The Beer Cafe, has raised funding from Mayfield India Fund, regulatory filings reveal. Vikram Godse of Mayfield has joined the BTB Marketing board. The five-year-old Beer Cafe currently operates four outlets in and around Delhi/NCR. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private

Deal Alert: 500 Startups adds Seat14A, School Admissions, Tushky to investee list

2013-05-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

500 Startups has released the list of companies for the next batch of companies for its startup accelerator program. Twenty-eight companies feature in this batch, of which 20 are international. It is the first time that 500 startups has invested in middle-eastern and African startups; 2 companies from Jordan and one from Ghana. Apart from this, five Indian startups have been selected as a part

Deal Alert: Poovayya, AZB partners invest in legal education venture Rainmaker

2013-05-16T21:03:00.001-07:00

Mumbai-based Rainmaker, which creates specialized learning material for law universities, has raised seed funding of $3 million (Rs.16.4 crore) across three rounds from a mix of family, friends and angel investors. The company’s backers include Sajan Poovayya, the additional advocate-general for Karnataka and managing partner of law firm Poovayya and Co, as well as Bahram Vakil, one of the

Deal Alert: Aditi acquires cloud computing focused IT Services firm Get Cloud Ready

2013-05-16T21:01:00.004-07:00

Bangalore-based Aditi Technologies has acquired Get Cloud Ready, a Hyderabad-based cloud operations consulting firm. The deal, Aditi’s second major cloud consulting acquisition since Cumulux in 2011, is aimed at bolstering Aditi’s offerings for migrating and managing complex, cross-platform deployments on cloud. Get Cloud Ready Consulting was founded by Janakiram MSV, a former Microsoft and

New Venture: Via.com co-founders to launch new travel startup

2013-05-16T21:00:00.002-07:00

The two founders of online travel website Via.com, Vinay Gupta and Amit Aggarwal, have moved out of active roles at the VC-backed company and will soon launch a travel related venture out of Singapore. Earlier this year, Via promoted COO V Swaminathan as CEO, and CEO Vinay Gupta was named chairman. Co-founder Amit Aggarwal, formerly CTO, was named board observer. Source: Mint Venture

Deal Alert: Mobile contacts mgmt firm SyncUsUp to be incubated at Frictionless Ventures

2013-05-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

Mobile contacts management app SyncUsUp, which was a finalist at the Harvard Business School-New Venture Contest held last month in Boston, is to become the first company to be incubated at Frictionless Ventures, an incubator set up by former Citrix executive Ravi Gururaj. Frictionless Ventures will invest $50,000-250,000 in ideas focused on sectors like cloud computing, mobility and big data.

Deal Alert: Alacrity Securities files for IPO

2013-05-15T20:52:00.002-07:00

Mumbai-based Alacrity Securities has filed the DRHP to issue 60,00,000 equity shares of Rs.10 each for a cash price of Rs.15 aggregating to Rs.9 crore, constituting 28.57% of the post issue paid up capital of the company. Guiness Corporate Advisors is the lead manager to the issue. The company will be listed on the BSE SME platform. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and

Deal Alert: 500 Startups leads fresh funding round in PriceBaba

2013-05-14T20:55:00.001-07:00

Mumbai-based PriceBaba, a location-based shopping intelligence engine, has raised funding from seed fund and accelerator 500 Startups and existing angels Karamveer Singh and Dinesh Tejwani. This follows an earlier seed round raised from a group of five angel investors this January. Following the 500 Startups investment, PriceBaba, founded by Annkur Agarwal and Tirthesh Ganatra, joins the firm’s

Deal Alert: Waste management firm Nepra in talks to raise $10-M

2013-05-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

Ahmedabad-based dry waste management firm Nepra Resource Management is looking to raise $9-10 million and is in talks with both impact investors and commercial VC funds. Every day, the startup, which operates under the Let’s Recycle brand, collects an assortment of discarded items such as plastic bottles, cans, tetra packs, bubble wrap and batteries and makes them recycle-worthy. It collects an

Deal Alert: Yoga Smoga raises Rs.5-Cr from Mumbai Angels, others

2013-05-09T21:49:00.001-07:00

Mumbai Angels, along with a group of unnamed US-based angels, has invested around Rs.5 crore in Yoga Smoga, a yoga-inspired athletic apparel and accessories company founded by US-based Indian-origin entrepreneur Rishi Bali. This is the fifth international investment for the angel group. Yoga Smoga was founded in 2010 as a designer and manufacturer of athletic clothing. It has developed a

Deal Alert: Mountain Apollo invests in lingerie e-tailer Cloe

2013-05-08T21:12:00.001-07:00

Mountain Apollo, a joint venture investment firm formed by the promoters of Delhi-based Apollo Tyres and Switzerland-based asset management firm Mountain Partners AG, has invested in Purple Panda Retail Pvt. Ltd, a Noida based firm retailing fashion lingerie, innerwear and nightwear online under the brandname of Cloe. Founded in 2012, Cloe Lingerie is led by its Founding Director & CEO Neha

Deal Alert: Former Disney India MD Samir Bangara invests in Qyuki

2013-05-08T21:10:00.005-07:00

AR Rahman & Shekhar Kapur’s media startup Qyuki has raised angel funding from former Disney India MD (Digital) Samir Bangara who will also join as company’s the new CEO replacing Poonacha Machaiah. Launched in December 2012, Qyuki aims to offer a platform for artists to share their content, connect to people with similar creative interests, view creations from various other artists, and

Deal Alert: Rocket Internet’s FoodPanda raises $20-M from AB Kinnevik, Phenomen Ventures

2013-05-08T21:02:00.004-07:00

FoodPanda, an online food delivery site promoted by European VC firm Rocket Internet, has secured more than $20 million funding from a group of investors including AB Kinnevik and Phenomen Ventures. The company focuses especially on emerging markets, operates together with its affiliated brand hellofood already in 27 countries on four continents and reaches about three billion people worldwide.

Fund Alert: Startup Village gets SEBI nod for $10-M angel fund

2013-05-07T21:08:00.003-07:00

Kochi-based Startup Village, the telecom sector focused start-up incubator promoted by the central government’s Department of Science and Technology, Technopark Trivandrum and MobME Wireless, has received market regulator SEBI’s approval for its $10 million angel fund, with a greenshoe option to increase the corpus to $20 million. It will invest between $20,000 and $250,000 per company. The

Deal Alert: Helical IT raises Rs.25 lakh in angel round

2013-05-07T21:04:00.003-07:00

Hyderabad-based Helical IT solutions, a data warehousing and business intelligence services firm, has raised Rs.25 lakh from a Singapore-based angel investor. The company, incorporated in October 2011 became operational in November 2012. It provides business intelligence, data warehousing, data visualization, data modelling and business intelligence using social media tools. The company was

Deal Alert: IAN backs photo storage portal Joognu.com

2013-05-07T21:03:00.003-07:00

Joognu.com, a photo storage portal that also allows customers to upload important documents or write diary thoughts, has received investment from Indian Angels Network (IAN). Joognu was started by Anirvan Dam who was formerly with Radio Mirchi. The venture made Rs.18 lakh revenue in the first year by selling membership at various price points. Joognu also has an Android app which allows users

Deal Alert: School lender Varthana raises funding from Accion's Venture La

2013-05-07T21:01:00.002-07:00

Global non-profit Accion, through its seed capital initiative Venture Lab, has invested in Varthana, which provides loans and support to affordable private schools in India, promoting access to and affordability of quality education for the poor. Bangalore-headquartered Varthana was founded by Steve Hardgrave and Brajesh Mishra. Source: Press Release Venture Intelligence is the leading

Deal Alert: Nexus-backed mobile productivity software firm Astrid acquired by Yahoo

2013-05-05T20:46:00.001-07:00

Yahoo has acquired the popular San Francisco-based mobile task management app firm Astrid. The app is set to continue as normal for the next 90 days but will no longer accept new premium subscriptions. Astrid has notched up around 4 million users since it was launched in 2008. The to-do list app has the ability to sync entries across platforms and allows users to share lists. Its iOS version

Deal Alert: E-tailer Bluegape.com raises seed round from Aniket Khera and Rahul Bhatia

2013-05-02T20:49:00.004-07:00

Bluegape, a fan merchandising store that allows users to create customized products, has raised a seed round from finance professionals Aniket Khera, Rahul Bhatia and an unnamed internet entrepreneur. Bluegape was a part of the TLabs accelerator where it had got a financing of Rs.10 lakh. The funding is in the form of convertible notes. The New Delhi-based company was started in August 2011

Deal Alert: Jewelry e-tailer Voylla raises Rs.2.5 Cr from Snow Leopard Tech Ventures

2013-05-01T21:18:00.003-07:00

Designer jewellery and accessories portal Voylla.com has raised Rs.2.5 crore from Pune-based Snow Leopard Technology Ventures. Chris Kolenaty, Partner, Snow Leopard Technology Ventures, will join on Board of Directors of Voylla. Voylla.com was founded in 2012 by two ex-amazonians Vishwas Shringi and Raj Uparkar. It offers a broad variety of jewellery, including gold-plated metal or pure

Deal Alert: Appcelerate-India launches to boost app development on Nokia, Microsoft platforms

2013-04-29T21:22:00.001-07:00

Nokia India, in collaboration with AppCampus (Finland) and members of Harvard Business School Alumni Angels (India Chapter), have launched an initiative called Appcelerate-India to boost mobile app development on Nokia Lumia and Microsoft Windows platform. AppCampus and Harvard Business School Alumni Angels India will invest over $500,000 in Appcelerate-India and provide a combination of

Deal Alert: Future Ventures invests in KFC Shoemaker

2013-04-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

Future Ventures India Ltd. (FVIL) is to invest in KFC Shoemaker Pvt. Ltd. Post completion of issue and allotment of equity shares, FVIL will hold 33.3% of the issued and paid up share capital of KFC Shoemaker, which is engaged in the business of sourcing footwear from domestic as well as foreign suppliers. The company also undertakes retail sale of leather shoes / footwear / bags under the

Deal Alert: Messaging app startup hike raises $7-M from Bharti SoftBank

2013-04-28T20:59:00.001-07:00

BSB, a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and SoftBank Corp., focused on the mobile Internet space, has invested $7 million in hike, a free messaging app startup. hike, which crossed the 5 million users mark in four months after its launch in December 2012, offers seamless integration between Instant Messaging and SMS. About 60% of hike’s user base comes from India and the rest global led

Deal Alert: Yebhi.com raises $12-M bridge round from existing investors

2013-04-28T20:57:00.004-07:00

Gurgaon-based e-commerce company Yebhi has raised $12 million from its existing investors Fidelity Growth Partners India, Qualcomm Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners and Catamaran. The round seems to be a bridge round as the company has been unable to raise follow on capital from new investors. With this round Yebhi has raised a total of around $39 million of investment in four rounds. It