What Did You Miss About the Indian Start-up Ecosystem This Week? From attracting celebrity investors to getting another soon-to-be-unicorn, here is all that you could have missed from the Indian start-up ecosystem
By Bhavya Kaushal •
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The Indian start-up ecosystem saw an interesting week in the last leg of the month, April before pushing into May. Here are some bytes from the Indian start-up ecosystem to summarize the eventful week.
Oyo Does It Again
Oyo has been aggressively expanding in the business ecosystem. Multiple acquisitions, high-profile hires and investment have already made Oyo a part of the Indian start-up ecosystem's everyday vocabulary. The latest development is an important and strategic move. Oyo announced that it has acquired Amsterdam-based rental company @Leisure Group from media company Axel Springer. This acquisition will help Oyo to further expand operations in Europe by leveraging the competencies and presence of the vacation rental group.
Indian Start-ups Get the Food Giants Invested
Food giants are showing great interested in the Indian start-up ecosystem. Last week, Entrepreneur India reported that Haldirams has partnered with Mumbai-based Venture Catalysts to invest in start-ups in the CPG sector. The latest to jump into the start-up league is German FMCG major Henkel which has launched Henkel X, a collaboration platform for industry peers according to ET Tech. It will not function as an incubator or accelerator rather a platform for start-ups where can be fostered to ultimately attract investments.
Flipart and Reliance Eye the Offline Space
Flipkart is now all set to give competition to Reliance. If reports are to be believed, the Walmart-owned e-commerce giant is resorting to convenience stores for business expansion.
The Credit Connection
Ola and Flipkart are looking to enter into the credit space. According to media reports, the Indian unicorns may launch credit cards in collaboration with SBI and Axis banks respectively.
Indian Start-ups Attract Celebrity Investors
Celebrities from across the globe and fields are showing keen interest in the Indian start-up ecosystem. After cricket commenter Harsha Bhogle invested an undisclosed amount in fintech startup Chqbook, international sensation, Jennifer Lopez and Indian diva, Malaika Arora Khan also came on board as investors in fitness startup Sarva and made an investment of $6-$8 million.
Funding Report
This week the start-up community managed to attract huge investments. The biggest funding was raised by Bangalore-based BlackBuk, a truck logistics start-up, which got closer to the billion-dollar valuation with the recent $150 million in Series D round funding. Apart from BlackBuk, start-ups that made news for raising enormous funding also included Mumbai-based digital lending startup InCred raised $85.89 million in Series A round and SaaS start-up Zenoti that raised $50 million.
Here is a list of start-ups that raised funding this week:
A total of 19 start-ups raised funding this week. Technology start-ups took the cake as maximum investment came from there including Internet of Things (IoT) company,Altizon which raised $7 Mn in Series A funding, AI-based personal mobile assistant app Mihup raised $1.7 Mn, Zunroof raised $1.2 million, edtech start-up Pesto raised $1 million, hyperlocal delivery startup Milkbasket raised $2.86 million from Sachin Bansal's BAC Acquisitions, technology start-up WorkIndia raised $3.47 million.
The fintech sector also saw some push from the investors. The biggest round was closed by HappyLoans which raised $20 million. Further, digital lending start-ups Ftcash raised $7.23 million in Series A round of funding, technology-driven fintech start-up Progcap raised $1 million.
