#TodayDeals: VC Firm 500 Startups to Invest in Vernacular Content Startups & More
Below is a list of deals that happened in Indian as well as Global startup ecosystem. Read a brief description about all of them:
#IndianStartupEcosystem: 1. Indian language social platform ShareChat is in talks to raise $100M in a new round of funding from over half a dozen top global financial and strategic investors, at a valuation of $400 million. Read More...
2. Online eyewear firm Lenskart is planning to invest about $2-3 million in tech or product companies who are working on eyecare solutions. The company has invested $500,000 (about Rs 3.3 crore) in US-based ThinOptics as part of this strategy. Read More...
3. Chennai-based Disprz, which runs a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that helps companies deliver educational and training content, has raised a Series-A round of $2.5 million (about Rs 16.5 crore) from IL&FS Private Equity and existing investor Kae Capital.
4. VC firm 500 Startups is actively looking for startups that support vernacular content as well as in Indian brands across categories.
5. Delhivery is looking to go public and they have initiated a process to appoint investment bankers to advise it on the public offering, reported LiveMint.
6. Singapore government-owned sovereign fund Temasek Holdings Pvt. Ltd plans to acquire a significant minority stake in digital payments platform Pine Labs for $350-400 million, reported LiveMint.
7. PaisaDukan.com, a P2P Lending marketplace owned by Mumbai based FinTech start-up BigWin Infotech today announced second round of seed funding and secured $225K through angel investment. Read More...
8. Infibeam has acquired 100 per cent stake in Snapdeal-owned SaaS-based warehouse management platform Unicommerce eSolutions.
9. MTR Foods Pvt. Ltd. has made its first investment from its Rs 50 crore seed fund in early stage start-up FirmRoots Pvt. Ltd. which owns children-packaged foodbrand Timios.
10. Info Edge (India) Ltd has invested an additional $513,588 (Rs 3.43 crore) in Rare Media Company Pvt. Ltd, which owns workforce tracking platform Blue Dolphin.
#GlobalStartupEcoystem: 1. Southeast Asian e-commerce aggregation service iPrice announced raising a new round of funding led by LINE Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Japan’s LINE Corporation, with participation from existing investors Cento Ventures and Venturra.
2. Golden Ventures has a new pot of new capital — $57 million — to invest largely in Canada
3. Beenext-backed Indonesian P2P lender Amartha targets to raise Series B round by June
4. Venture capital firm GGV Capital, an early Alibaba backer, has raised 1.5 billion RMB (nearly $236 million) for its first RNM-denominated fund to invest in early- and growth-stage startups in internet services, advanced technologies, smart hardware, enterprise services and digital services.
5. Shenzhen-based intelligent humanoid robots maker UBTECH Robotics has announced the closing of a Series C investment of an $820-million round led by Tencent Holdings.
6. Seraphine - International Fashion Maternity Wear Plans To Enter India
7. Japan-based Terra Motors, an electric vehicle start-up company has secured $10 million from foreign investors to expand in Asian market. Read More...
8. Android Things, Google IoT platform for developers who want to build connected devices, is now out of beta.
9. Nokia has acquired SpaceTime Insight, a California-based IoT startup that provides predictive analytics based on machine learning algorithms.
10. Mesosphere, a company that created an operating system of sorts for the modern datacenter, has raised $125 million for their Series D round led by T. Rowe Price Associates and Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT).
11. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that the company is launching a $25 million initiative to use artificial intelligence to build better technology for people with disabilities.
