Indian Angel Network is Raising an Early Stage Fund of Around Rs.150 CrIndian Angel Network (IAN) is raising an early-stage fund of around Rs.150 crore ($22.4M) to co-invest along with its angel network, as reported by DealStreetAsia. An angel network is a group of angel investors—high-net-worth individuals—who invest collectively in early-stage businesses.
The fund will be raised from within their own network of angel investors to invest in follow-on rounds in good companies.
According to data from Venture Intelligence, IAN has made 17 investments so far in 2016, compared to 16 and 11 investments in 2015 and 2014, respectively.
Community Services Platform Zipgrid Gets $200k Through CrowdfundingCommunity services platform Zipgrid, has raised $200,000 in equity financing through crowdfunding platform 1Crowd, to expand its footprint, team and invest in strengthening their technology and operations. Based in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, Zipgrid was founded in August 2013, provides technology-driven services to housing and commercial communities. The company claims to provide its services to over 70 housing communities and their range of services includes accounting & finance, compliance & control management solutions.
NDTV’s eCommerce Marketplace for Art Discovery, Mojarto.com Raises $445KNDTV’s e-commerce marketplace for art discovery Mojarto.com has raised Rs 3 crore ($445,000) in its first round of funding. The investors’ names are still undisclosed by the company. As per VCCircle report, the funding came through NDTV’s subsidiary OnArt Quest Ltd.
Founded in December 2015 by Manisha Lath Gupta and Tara Roy, Mojarto is an art discovery and buying platform that curates a collection of proprietary artwork and collectibles from galleries, artists, brands, stores and designers. The startup has partnered with more than 55 galleries, around 35 brands and over 1,500 independent artists, and features a collection of more than 10,000 original and 5,000 digital works on its platform.
Naspers Set to Acquire Sequoia-backed Citrus Pay for Around $180M in an All-Cash TransactionSouth African media and internet conglomerate Naspers is set to acquire Citrus Pay for around $150-180 million, in an all-cash transaction, reported TOI. With the combined entity, Naspers, which runs PayU and the Ibibo group in India, is expected to emerge as the leader in the online commerce space in terms of market share. Both Citrus and PayU focus on providing payment solutions to a growing tribe of merchants who operate online, and are largely business-facing in nature.
OnlineTyari Plans to Raise $5M from US-based FundTest preparation platform OnlineTyari is close to raising $5 million in a Series A round from US-based funds by the end of August. “We are in talks with an international fund in the education domain, which can give us better access to knowledge and other investors in our sector,” Vipin Agarwal, co-founder, OnlineTyari, told DealStreetAsia. The company had raised $0.75 million (about Rs 5 crore) in September from investors like venture capital firm 500 startups, Mohandas Pai, Tandem Capital, Vikram Chachra of Eight Capital and Aloke Bajpai, co-founder and chief executive of IxIgo. OnlineTyari, through its multilingual app and website, allows people to prepare for job-oriented tests including civil services, banking services, UPSC, GATE and state government jobs.
Bengaluru Based Microfinance Lender Chaitanya Rural Gets $7M in Series C RoundBengaluru-based Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services Pvt Ltd, has raised Rs. 47 crore ($7million) from Equator Capital‘s fund ShoreCap II and a few high networth individuals. The existing individual investors and promoters of the company also participated in the micro-finance lender’s Series C round of funding. Unitus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Chaitanya for this transaction. The company plans to use the latest round of funding to increase its branch network and operations in the existing states as well as for expansion into the northern states of India, reported DealStreetAsia.
Mumbai Based Indoor skydiving firm Wefly Bags $40k from Swastika Company Mumbai-based indoor skydiving company Wefly Indoor Skydiving LLC has raised $40,000 in seed round of funding from Hong Kong-based investment firm Swastika Company Ltd. “The funds shall be spent on infrastructure development that includes engineering and assembly of Mobile Hybrid Vertical Wind Tunnel, in addition to creating a roust technology and R&D backbone,” Amit Patel, Founder and Managing Partner, Wefly told DEALSTREETASIA. The company plans to raise another $300,000 in the next few months to expand its presence in India and overseas.
Kerala Based VST Travels Raises $27k from Promatus GroupKerala-based travel startup VST Travels, has raised around $27,000 funding from a Dubai-based Promatus Group. The startup plans to use the new funding to develop and market its application called VehicleST. The funds will also aide the company’s expansion operation in Kerala after tying up with Akshaya Kendras, an initiative funded by the government of Kerala.
US Based Startup 8TV Gets $500K Funding, Plans To Enter India8TV, a San Francisco based startup, has raised $500K (Rs 3.34 Cr) in an investment from RedCliffe Capital Managing Partner Dheeraj Jain,Google executive Tidhar Carmeli, and AngelPad’s Thomas Korte.
Amazon has also invested about $100K (Rs 66 lakh) worth of AWS services credit in the company, according to an official statement.
The investments will be used to strengthen the platform and enter into new Asian markets, including India. 8TV will begin operations in India with The Man Company, a Gurgaon-based digital platform offering grooming products for men. The latter secured funding from angel investors in September 2015.
RBI Launches Online Portal ‘Sachet’ To Curb Illegal and Unauthorised Pooling of FundsTo curb illegal and unauthorised pooling of funds by unscrupulous firms, Reserve Bank has launched a website, which will help people obtain information about entities allowed to collect deposits.
Launching the portal -- sachet.rbi.org.in -- RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said that initiating quick follow up and taking cases to logical conclusion by punishing the guilty is paramount to deter entities in future from carrying out unlawful activity.
As per ET report, the portal will facilitate filing, tracking of complaints, besides providing information about whether any particular entity is registered with any regulator or is permitted to accept deposits.
