Perfios Raises $6.1M; Waycool Gets $2.7M; Whatfix Bags Series A Funding & 10 More Updates

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. Bengaluru-based fintech firm Perfios has raised $6.1 million (Rs 40 Cr) in Series A funding round from Bessemer Venture Partners. The company aims to utilise the raised funding for team strengthening, international expansion to the UAE & Southeast Asia and potential acquisitions. The Bengaluru-based firm, founded in 2009 by V R Govindarajan and Debasish Chakraborty, Perfios is a product technology company which operates in the B2B and B2C segment and enables financial institutions in real-time decisioning, analysis and credit underwriting.

2. Chennai-based fresh-produce distribution startup WayCool has raised $2.7 million from early-stage venture capital firm Aspada Investments for building technological upgradations to reduce inefficiencies in the supply chain and augment the existing infrastructure. The company is also planning to expand to Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Founded in July 2015 by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari, WayCool aims to fix the disorganised perishable supply chain.

3. Urban Ladder, one of the leading players in the online furniture marketplace segment, is now facing executive exits. The company has parted ways with at least four key executives in the past one month. Rushabh Sanghavi, Vice President of category and sourcing; and Nikhil Ramprakash, Vice President of sales and online marketing, have quit. Both of whom joined Urban Ladder in 2012 in the early days. In March, Parag Shah, Vice President, fit outs, urban interiors and alliances, and chief marketing officer Sanjay Gupta also resigned. Urban Ladder is also struggling with a slowdown in business, which is said to be the reason to enter the offline market. However, these aren’t the only top-level exits from the company. Last year, chief technology officer Apurva Dalal, Kartikeya Misra, Vice President and head, product and design and Prithvi Raj Tejavath, Vice President, category management and growth, had quit the company.

4. Bengaluru-based Quicko Technosoft which helps companies create interactive text bubbles and ‘how-to’ guides on websites and apps through its product Whatfix, has raised Rs. 24 crore in series A funding led by Stellaris Venture Partners. Existing investors Helion Venture Partners and Powerhouse Ventures, along with independent investors Gokul Rajaram, Girish Mathrubootham, Aneesh Reddy and Vispi Daver, also participated in the round. Alok Goyal, a partner at Stellaris Venture, has joined the board of directors of Quicko Technosoft. The company plans to use the funds for R&D, marketing the product overseas, especially the US, which constitutes 60% of its client base.

5. Twitter’s Asia Pacific business head, Aliza Knox, has announced the end of her near-five year tenure with the company. Her exit comes on the back of the loss of a number of high-profile Asia-based executives last year. Those departures included China head Kathy Chen, head of India and Southeast Asia Parminder Singh, India lead Rishi Jaitly, and Australia country boss Karen Stocks. Other changes for Twitter’s Asia business included the elimination of around 20 jobs from its Bangalore office in September, and a number of roles were “transitioned” from its Hong Kong office to the regional headquarters in Singapore.

6. Ola, run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd has been in talks to raise a $100 million funding round led by RNT Capital Advisors, a $300 Mn venture fund set up by Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, that is investing around $60 million in this round. The remaining amount will be infused by existing investor, Falcon Edge Capital. The Bengaluru-based cab aggregator was valued at around $3.5 billion during its $350 million fundraise in February 2017. In 2015, the company was valued at $5 billion after raising a $500 million round from Baillie Gifford, Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global, SoftBank Group, DST Global, and Didi Chuxing.

7. Edtech startup Eruditus Executive Education has raised about $8.16 million (Rs 53 Cr) in a Series B round led by Bertelsmann India Investments. The raised funding will be used to add new programmes, university partners and to expand geographical presence to China, Latin America, and Europe.

8. Online grocer BigBasket has started preliminary discussions for raising its next round of funding of over $100 million that would be for growth, more specifically for enhancing the company’s marketing and investing in analytics. The fundraise would double BigBasket’s valuation to as much as $1 billion, the media reports added.



10. Spandana Sphoorty Financial Ltd. which provides unsecured income-generation loans, micro-enterprise loans, farm loans and loans against gold to low-income segments in rural and semi-urban India, has raised over $100 million (about Rs 650 crore) in equity capital. The funding came from a consortium of investors led by Kedaara Capital and including Canadian pension fund Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. It also raised $170 million (about Rs 1,100 crore) in debt capital from IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank and ICICI Bank.

11. Pune-based Ntex Transportation Services Pvt Ltd. which runs and operates transportation technology startup ElasticRun, has raised $7 million (Rs 45.5 crore) as part of a Series A round from Kalaari Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd and Norwest Venture Partners. The company will use the raised funding to upgrade its tech infrastructure, on-board talent and expand operations.

12. WhatsApp, the instant messaging app owned by Facebook Inc. plans to start digital payments business in India. It has decided to foray into digital payment services in India, which its biggest market that is home to 200 million of its billion plus global users, would replicate similar moves by messaging apps like Tencent Holdings Ltd’s WeChat in China. WhatsApp is working to launch person-to-person payments in India in the next six months.