Softbank-Backed OYO Rooms Looks To Raise $61M Via Rights IssueBudget hotels platform OYO Rooms, operated by Oravel Stays Pvt Ltd, is in the process of raising a fresh round of funding of Rs 413 crore ($61 million) through a proposed rights issue of shares to existing shareholders, as reported by Economic Times.
The Gurgaon-based company was looking to raise $100 million from existing investors. The new round of funding will peg the post-money valuation of the company at Rs 3,129 crore or about $460 million, as per the filing.
In August 2015, OYO Rooms raised $100 million funding led by SoftBank Corp and Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital India and Greenoaks Capital and DSG Consumer Partners, who are expected to participate in the latest funding round.
OYO plans to use the fresh funds to expand its leasing initiative called “Flagship”, where it controls 100 per cent of the inventory of the hotel under this category to provide a more premium experience to customers.The company entered this category a few months ago. It is also working with state governments for categories like home stays and bed and breakfast.
IIM -A Incubator Plans To Raise $150M Bharat Innovations FundsIIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) is poised to move forward with a new $150 million Bharat Innovations Fund which will focus on sectors like healthcare, agriculture and energy.
The Infuse fund that CIIE launched in 2013 with a corpus of over $15 million, was only focussed on the clean energy and green-tech space as reported by DealStreetAsia.
CIIE is the fund manager for the entrepreneurship centre at Ahmedabad. It will shortly start raising the Bharat Fund.
Infuse has invested in firms like Internet of Things startup Altizon Systems Pvt. Ltd (in which Wipro Ventures Ltd recently invested), energy management startup Ecolibrium Energy Pvt. Ltd, and recycling firm Karma Recycling Pvt. Ltd. “Infuse has made 14 investments so far, including one company that has shut down.
Alibaba Launches A Driverless Internet-Connected CarThe futuristic car is here- courtesy Chinese tech giant Alibaba. The OS’Car RX5 by Alibaba is both high on looks and features. Being powered by Alibaba’s YunOS and having the capability of connecting to the Internet, the rugged-looking SUV car provides its passengers with an opportunity to enjoy a number of out-of-the box futuristic features as reported by IndianWeb2.
The OS’Car RX5 comes power packed with an intelligent map that offers the passenger services such as location tracking and directions without the need of them having an active Wi-Fi or GPS service.
Further, the car’s cabin has been designed in such a way so that it can be easily operated through voice commands.
In addition to all these super-cool features, Alibaba’s internet-connected car has three integrated screens for the dashboard and the rearview mirror, and four action cameras. The camera have been installed so as to help the passengers in shooting their 360-degree selfies inside the vehicle and also capture the various joyful moments of their journeys.
Uber Raises $1.15 Bil Leveraged LoanUber has secured a $1.15 billion leveraged loan. Turning to the leveraged loan market, which was previously exclusive to more established companies, allows Uber to take advantage of historically low interest rates while keeping venture capital backers happy by not further diluting their equity.
In leveraged loans, investment banks arrange and syndicate among institutional investors a loan to a company with significant existing debt.
The leveraged loan market saw volume of $783.3 billion in 2015, according to Thomson Reuters data, more than 13 times venture capital investments last year.
The money will be used to support Uber's global expansion and operations and invest in research and development and engineering, as quoted by ET.
Reuters reported last month that Uber had hired four banks to arrange a leveraged loan of at least $1 billion.
Startup Village Phase 2 Gets Govt. Approval To Launch Digital IncubatorStartup Village, a Kerala based startup incubator, is all set to begin phase 2 of its journey with launch of its digital avatar – SV.CO. The incubator now aims at national scale up with the Central Government’s Department of Science and Technology approval.
The phase 2 is based on a theme of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), an industry domain where quick and nimble startups can create a great product without a lot of resources. There are plans to select a maximum of 100 startup teams for batch 3, but the number can vary depending upon the performance of the batch.
Any student founder can apply whether engineer or non-engineer, however, the team must be able to complete the coding and video task as well as clear the personal interview round to get selected.
The Digital Incubator was built over the last 12 months, has already received more than 1,000 applications from students from across Kerala and towns like Vadodara in Gujarat and Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in its beta stage.
Food-tech Startup Holachef Raises Fresh Funding Mumbai-based startup Holachef has raised fresh funding from two of its existing venture capital investors even as food technology as a domain is going through consolidation. The food-tech startup run by Holachef Hospitality Pvt. Ltd that also counts Tata Sons’ chairman emeritus Ratan Tata as an investor, bagged Rs 13 crore ($1.95 million) from Kalaari Capital and India Quotient.
Kalaari led the round with $1.5 million investment, according to VCCircle.
It could not be immediately ascertained if the firm marked this as its Series B round of funding. Last year, the company had secured Rs 20 crore (about $3.1 million then) in a Series A round of funding led by Kalaari. Tata and other investors had also participated in that round.
Neither Holachef nor two of the investors responded to email queries seeking details of the transaction.
In the latest round that was completed in April but not yet disclosed publicly, shares were issued at a 33% premium to the Series A round.
Revv Launches its Self-drive Car Rental Service Operations in Chandigarh with 25 CarsAfter creating a tremendous impact on the roads of southern Indian cities and parts of North India, Revv, the Delhi-NCR based self-drive car rental company has launched its operations in Chandigarh with a fleet of 25 cars across models (hatchback, sedan, SUVs). Following a unique hub-and-spoke operating model, the car rental company ensures delivery and pick up for every single booking right from the customer’s doorstep. The Chandigarh launch is a part of Revv’s geographical expansion in the North Indian market.
Running successfully with a fleet of around 350 cars since July 2015, Revv has introduced first-of-its-kind innovations through its platform in the form of “pure-play doorstep delivery of cars”, unlimited kilometre pricing even for hourly rentals & Driver Behaviour Monitoring (DBM). To make this viable, they equip their delivery executives with a foldable electric scooter that fits in the boot of every car, and becomes a cost-effective, quick and environment-friendly way of getting back to the parking hubs.
Through its aggressive expansion, Revv aims to popularize the notion of self-drive car rentals in India, and to make the market take-off through a product that mimics the privacy and convenience of one’s own car, while being the most affordable across all mobility options.
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This is Chitrakshi Suneja currently pursuing graduation and diploma in journalism and mass communication. She is crazy about Writing stuff on Startups, Entrepreneurs and reading as well.
