#TodayDeals: Bitcoin Growth Fund Raises $2M, Brinton Pharmaceuticals Gets $4M, Dodla Dairy Bags $50M & 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. Dubai-based Blockchain startup fund Bitcoin Growth Fund (BGF) which caters to the venture capital industry, has raised more than $2 million as part of its first initial coin offering (ICO), held in Bangkok last week. BGF which was founded in October last year, claims to have raised around $1.6 million through the ICO in 24 hours. The funds collected are then invested in mining of various crypto currencies like DASH, Ethereum, Monero, Litecoin, Z-cash, Bitcoin & others, reported ET.
2. To enter into newer areas such as paediatrics & gynaecology and expand its international operations, Brinton Pharmaceuticals, which provides healthcare products and services for various therapeutic segments, has raised $4 million from Tata Capital Healthcare Fund. Also, the firm will be adding 200 people for its paediatric section, said Rahul Darda, managing director of Brinton Pharma.
3. TPG Growth, the growth equity and middle market buyout fund of global alternative asset firm TPG, with stakes in Uber and Airbnb, has invested $50 million in Dodla Dairy through the Rise Fund, its global social impact fund. Founded in 1998, Hyderabad-based Dodla Dairy processes and sells milk and milk products across 66 regions in south India and Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and West Bengal. The company was founded by Sunil Reddy of the Dodla family of Nellore. It sells about 900,000 litres of milk and six tonnes of milk products every day through more than 50,000 outlets.
4. New Delhi-based online renting platform for designer wear, STAGE 3 is in advanced stages of discussions to raise Pre-series A round of funding from a few venture capital firms. The funding will primarily be used to increase its footprint across the country, besides launching new product categories, reported VCCircle.
5. Orbital Insight Inc., which give investors a more accurate and timely view of the global economy using big-data analysis, has raised $50 million from US and Japanese investors. Including this round, the company has secured a total funding of $78.7 million.
The Series C funding was led by Sequoia Capital, Geodesic Capital and Japan’s Itochu Corp. and will be used to expand its partnerships, increase its analytics products, and build bigger international sales operations in Europe and Asia.
6. Sachin Tendulkar backed technology firm Smartron is raising up to Rs 250 crore from investors in the US and the Middle East as it looks to expand its bouquet of products, including smartphones and an electric scooter. The firm has previously raised about Rs 150 crore from investors in the US and the Middle East. The newly raised funding will be utilised in building an ecosystem of Internet-connected devices that would include smartphones, smart bands, home security products and an electric two-wheeler.
7. YouWeCan Ventures backed diagnostics startup Healthians, has raised an undisclosed amount from Japanese investor Asuka Holdings along with other existing investors. The company is now in advanced talks to raise Series-B funds, reported ET. “We plan to achieve complete profitability in the next 12-18 months, for which we have a clear roadmap and plans in place,“ said Healthians founder Deepak Sahni, without disclosing details of the latest fundraising.
8. Bengaluru-based on-demand driver aggregator DriveU which is backed by Unitus Seed Fund, has acquired its competitor DriversKart in an all-equity deal. As part of the deal, the two startups merging their business models to focus on both end customers as well as businesses across major cities.
9. American technology giant Cisco is acquiring a networking start-up, Viptela for an amount of $610 million in cash to expand its portfolio. Viptela, a privately held software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) company based in San Jose, was founded in 2012 by former Cisco engineers, some of them hailing from the Indian sub-continent. The acquisition is expected to be close in the second half of 2017 after the completion of the customary closing conditions and regulatory review.
10. WeWork India, a joint venture between US-based co-working space provider WeWork and Bengaluru-based property developer Embassy Group, is in talks to raise $100 million in funding from marquee global investors such as KKR, TPG, and Goldman Sachs. The company have plans to invest $100 million over the next three to four years to open centres in major cities, reported BusinessStandard.
11. Amsterdam-based workspace solution provider Spaces has entered the Indian market with its first coworking space in Gurugram. The company plans to expand to at least 50 locations over the next couple of months. The company plans to set up its next facility in Chennai. Spaces has its presence in four continents —Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia. The Gurugram workspace is the 25th facility globally for Spaces.
12. Kerala-based health startup Good Methods Global Inc. (GMG) with its global operation in the US has raised a series A round of funding led by Accel Partners. With this latest round, the company has secured a total funding of $9 million. The funds will be used to expand its sales, product adoption and engineering and for talent acquisition.
13. The Flipkart-owned fashion e-tailer is looking to make fresh acquisitions in clothing, technology and supply chain to strengthen its presence across verticals, reported BloombergQuint. “With our new funding round (in Flipkart), we are in a good position to make some strategic investments,” Ananth Narayanan, chief executive officer of Myntra and Jabong said. He declined to comment on the size of investments Myntra is looking to make or the number of firms it may acquire.
14. Consumer electronic brand BPL has ended its three-year partnership with ecommerce retailer Flipkart. The duration of the agreement was till 2018. BPL has now inked a deal with Amazon India to sell TVs, air-conditioners, washing machines and other large appliances. “We terminated the agreement (with Flipkart) because we felt that the brand needed more in terms of exposure, wider range of products, etc. After terminating the agreement, there’s usually a notice period—all that is done and we’ve moved on,” said Manmohan Ganesh, head of corporate strategy at BPL.
15. L&T Technology Services Ltd, the technology services arm of engineering and construction company Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T), will acquire US-based design services provider Esencia Technologies Inc for $27 million (around Rs 173.4 crore) in an all-cash deal. The acquisition, which also includes Esencia’s Indian subsidiary Esencia Technologies India Pvt. Ltd, will help L&T Technology deepen its offerings to global customers, the firm said in a stock exchange disclosure, reported VCCircle.
16. An alumnus of Durham University (the UK), Ajay Joseph, who resigned from Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (L&S) as partner in March this year, has started boutique law firm Veyrah Law, along with independent legal services professional Sandhya Sondhi. Joseph will advise clients on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and transactions while Sondhi will take care of real estate and litigation practices.
17. Madison World, the largest independent media company in the country, has acquired a controlling stake in Bengaluru-based brand consulting and public relations firm Integrated Brand-comm Pvt. Ltd which operates in six cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Madison declined to divulge the percentage of the stake acquired or the size of the deal, reported LiveMint.
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