BookaTruck Looks to Raise About Rs 25 Cr, PharmEasy Gets $16M, Startup Buddy Bags Funding from YouWeCan & More

Here is a list of deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem today including funding, merger, acquisition, fund launch etc. Read a brief description about all of them:

1. Truck booking startup BookaTruck is looking to raise about Rs 25 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal to expand its presence across the country. BookaTruck is a technology-enabled logistics service provider and offers a one-stop solution for all truck transportation needs throughout India. The company launched the app-based service for booking of heavy commercial vehicles in February this year. "We aim to reduce transportation cost by making trucking efficient and simple," Khetawat said.

2. True North all set to Acquire 80% Stake in Health Insurance Arm Religare Enterprises Ltd. It has entered into a definitive agreement with the investors for the sale, which values the insurance firm at Rs1,300 crore. The deal will fetch Religare approximately Rs1,040 crore. Other investors in the consortium are Aditya Parekh and Sameer Shroff-led private equity firm Faering Capital, and Gaurav Dalmia.

3. Sanjeev Kapoor’s online store for kitchen products, Wonderchef has raised funding from French group Labruyere Eberlé for setting up a manufacturing unit in India. The startup will also be used for opening the brand’s exclusive retail outlets in India. Founded in 2009 by Ravi Saxena and celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Wonderchef is an ecommerce-based startup and deals in cookware, appliances, bakeware, and other culinary tools.

4. Mumbai-based pharma platform PharmEasy has raised $16 million in Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Orios Venture Partners. Founded in 2015 by Dharmil Sheth and Dr. Dhaval Shah, PharmEasy aims to expand its geographical presence in India and also seeks to penetrate further into its existing markets to bolster category-leadership position. It is a healthcare aggregator, which connects patients with local pharmacies.

5. Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount in a Gurugram-based company Startup Buddy that serves early-stage businesses. The cricketer, who launched his venture fund in 2015. Cofounded in 2015 by chartered accountants Manish Aggarwal and Amit Singhal, Startup Buddy provides services ranging from incorporation, accounting and taxation to project advisory, legal and intellectual property-related work to startups in India and abroad.

6. Emerging markets impact investment firm LeapFrog Investments Ltd has received a commitment of $25 million (Rs 161 crore) from International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private-sector investment arm, for its third fund. The fund, LeapFrog Emerging Consumer Fund III, aims to raise as much as $800 million to make mid-market growth capital investments in financial services and healthcare companies that target Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The fund will make equity and quasi-equity investments averaging $25-30 million, with one-third of the fund focused on the healthcare segment and two-thirds on financial services investments.

7. Healthcare platform Practo Technologies has laid off close to 150 people after its annual appraisal process. The company which has about 1,500 employees, had received $55 million in a Series D funding led by Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent, in January.

8. Clean energy company ReNew Power Ventures Pvt Ltd is planning an initial public offering (IPO) for raising up to $600 million. It is expected to launch within a year. The company might raise $200 million ahead of the IPO for expansion and is taking the help of HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India), Kotak Mahindra Capital Co and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, among others to manage the planned share sale.

9. Apax Partners is willing to invest at least a billion dollars in India over the next four years. As India remains to be one of the fastest-expanding economy and is considered one of the top investment destinations for the European private equity major. The team on the ground, led by Partner Shashank Singh, believes there is now far more optimism across India Inc despite the bad-loans overhang in the economy.

10. MakeMyTrip owned Goibibo is launching its alternative accommodation segment within the next 30 days. Goibibo will have about 3,000 listings at the time of launch, which is anticipated to be in May later this year. The company, which will continue to operate as a separate brand, has also launched its brand new marketing campaign, with Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone, as its brand ambassador.

11. Hyderabad-based Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates digital payments, cashback and analytics company Zaggle, has bought coupons company Pennyful in a cash and stock deal. Post the acquisition, the 20-member Pennyful team will join Zaggle’s digital marketing, product and technology teams.

12. Bengaluru-based online lending platform for SME’s Capital Float has raised $2.3 million (INR 15 Cr) from Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services, against the allotment of non-convertible debentures (NCDs). Co-founder Sashank Rishyasringa told ET, “The deal has brought the total capital raised through the route in 2016-17 to $9.2 Mn (INR 60 Cr). The NCD raise was meant for strengthening Capital Float’s lending books and the company saw NCDs as a good alternative for fundraising, in addition to raising capital via term loans from banks and other financial institutions.”

14. Sanjay Bhattacharya, an investment banker who was previously a venture capital and private equity investor, has rolled out the SportsUID app that helps connect sports fans with players. “We came up with a unique idea of creating a single-window platform to the universe of sports, where sports is neither limited to a state of mind, nor to any space or boundary it had in the past,” said Bhattacharya.

15. IBM has appointed a chief digital officer (CDO) for India, to transform the way IBM engages and partners with startups, developers, investors, academia and businesses. Over the past two years, as the VP for strategy / growth initiatives, he led IBM's transformational strategy across several areas in Asia & India.

16. Mahindra Electric expects its electric vehicle sales to jump three-fold this financial year as it focuses on offering mobility solutions, especially through a partnership with Zoomcar, a self-driven car-rental firm, to promote shared mobility of electric cars in India. Individuals can purchase e2oPlus on Zoomcar's self-drive platform, list the vehicle on a dynamic basis whenever idle and get bookings from Zoomcar's customer base and earn cash.

17. Chennai-based early-to-growth stage investment firm Ventureast Advisors Pvt Ltd has appointed IT veteran Srikanth Sundararajan as partner, who will oversee investments made from the VC firm’s recently launched $150 million tech fund—Ventureast Proactive Fund II (VPFII). Besides, Sundararajan will also be entrusted with scaling up the firm’s operations for its other portfolio companies.