#TodayDeals: Flipkart-Walmart Deal Done, Thoughtspot Raises $145M in Series D & More
Below is a list of deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem today. Read a brief description about all of them:
1. Palo Alto-based company, Thoughtspot that provides search and AI-driven analytics for enterprises, has raised $145 million in Series D funding at a valuation of over $1 billion. The round saw participation from existing investors Lightspeed Ventures, Future Fund, Khosla Ventures, and General Catalyst and new investors like Sapphire Ventures, and other global investors. With this round, ThoughtSpot has raised a total $306 million since its inception in 2012. The company last raised $60 million funding round in August 2017. The newly raised funding will be used to improve its next-generation analytics platform, grow its R&D centers in Bengaluru, Palo Alto, Seattle and Dallas and strengthen its business expansion plans across the world including EMEA and APAC regions. ThoughtSpot had forayed into India in July last year by opening an engineering center in Bengaluru, its first center in the Asia Pacific region. It has invested $10 million in the region so far.
2. Ronnie Screwvala-led Unilazer Ventures has increased its stake in online insurance aggregator, EasyPolicy to 70%, by investing an additional Rs 45-50 crore in the Noida-based company. Other Indian players who are operating in this segment are CoverFox & PolicyBazaar. In April, CoverFox raised its Series-C round of funding at $22 million led by International Finance Corp (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, and Transamerica. PolicyBazaar has also been in discussions with Japanese technology-to-telecom investor SoftBank, to raise a funding round of $200-$500 million.
3. Amazon India has raised a fresh funding of Rs 2,600 crore from its parent company for its marketplace business. This brings Amazon’s total investment in Amazon Seller Services, its main marketplace business in India, to more than Rs 20,000 crore. Amazon India in January received Rs 1,950 crore from its parent company, and in November, it got its largest capital infusion of Rs 2,900 crore.
4. California-based AI startup Avaamo has raised $14.2 mn Series A funding led by Intel Capital with participation from Ericsson Ventures, Mahindra Partners, Wipro Ventures and WI Harper. Intel Capital’s Director Arun Chettywho led the investment for Intel Capital and he will join Avaamo’s board. Avaamo will use the latest round of funding to expand its sales and marketing channels to meet the demand in the enterprise for conversational AI solutions in the growing global market.
The US-based company, which was founded by Indian-origin entrepreneurs and has an office in Bengaluru, has raised a total funding of around $23 mn. Indian startups that offer AI solutions are Niki.ai, Flutura, Uncanny Vision, Netradyne, Innefu Labs, Active.ai, staqu & Formcept.
5. Bengaluru-based Live-video debate app, Wishfie has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from angel investor Abhishek Singh, CEO of Staffopedia, and Tusker Invests, a New York-based angel network. The raised funding will be used to build vernacular content as well as its online community. Later this year, the company also plans to raise pre-series A round. VC firm 500 Startups is also looking for startups that support vernacular content as well as in Indian brands across categories.
6. Dubai-based investor Relam Investment LLC which launched its India operations on Tuesday, plans to pump in $250 million in real estate and technology including blockchain, app-based and big data startups. “We are going to be a pure play investment firm, picking up minority and substantial minority stakes in the firms we invest. We do not intend to get into the operational side of the businesses at any point of time,” said Sultan Ali Rashed Lootah, chairman and managing director at Relam Investment.
7. Swiggy has received board approval for its first employee stock repurchase programme. Existing employees looking to participate in the buyback offer will be able to tender up to 50% of their vested options by June 1 for a repurchase, reports ET. The share buyback or ESOPs is estimated at over $4 mn (Rs 27 Cr).
8. Walmart has acquired 77% stake in Flipkart for $16 bn, Walmart announced it officially. The remainder of the business will be held by some of Flipkart’s existing shareholders, including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Tencent Holdings Limited, Tiger Global Management LLC and Microsoft Corp.
9. Unitus Ventures has led a $1 million (Rs 6.75 crore) in healthcare and life insurance-focused artificial intelligence startup i3systems, with participation from company's existing list of high net-worth backers - Behram Vakil, founding partner of AZB Partners, one of India’s top law firms, and Jerxis Vandrevala, founder of Sanchez Computers. The company will use the raised funding to partner with the country’s top 20 life and health insurance companies, and process 1 million policies through its digital platform.
10. On-demand hyperlocal home services marketplace UrbanClap has been formally launched in Dubai, the startup’s co-founder Abhiraj Bhal announced on social media on Wednesday. The startup plans to begin its Dubai operations with about 100 service people by offering five services: laundry, home cleaning, handymen, packers and movers, and home painting.
11. Pune-based electric bike startup, Tork Motorcycles, has raised Rs 1.25 Cr from the Ola founders and Kapil Shelke, founder of Tork. In April 2016, the startup had raised angel funding from a host of marquee investors including Ola founders Bhavish Agarwal, Ankit Bhati and a group of angels led by Harpreet Grover, the chief executive and co-founder of CoCubes.
