#TodayDeals: Walmart Looks for Tech Acquisitions in India, Inventus Capital Makes First Close of Its 3rd Fund at Rs 200 Cr & More

Below is a list of deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem today. Read a brief description about all of them:

1. Chinese VC Ganesh Ventures partners with Alibaba's Jack Ma to invest $250M in Indian startups

2. After Flipkart, Walmart is now looking for tech acquisition to strengthen its technology unit, Walmart Labs in India.

3. Gurugram-based sales professionals aggregator platform, Avenue Growth has raised Rs 3 crore in its Pre-Series A funding to accelerate its strategic growth and expansion plans.

4. Venture Catalysts invests Pre-Series A funding in medical devices technology company, iNICU

5. Early-stage venture capital firm Inventus Capital India has made the first close of its third fund at Rs 200 crore to invest in B2B and B2C startups.

6. In a move to encourage startups to work in the field of Electronics Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM), Deshpande Foundation has set up Sandbox Startups ESDM Clusterin Hubballi in North Karnataka. 

7. UPI app — BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) has increased its transactions from 14.2 Mn in May to 16.3 Mn in the month of June, a 15% rise.

8. Angel Investor Rajesh Dembla has invested an undisclosed amount in Bengaluru-based customer experience management (CEM) company Survaider for a minority stake.

9. After ‘Treat’ and ‘Gold’, Zomato is rolling out yet another subscription-based loyalty programme – Zomato Piggybank.

10. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance is planning to invest heavily in building a robust supply chain for its hybrid online-to-offline venture.

11. Small business lender Kinara Capital has raised debt funding of Rs 32 crore (about $5 million) in non-convertible debentures from Zurich-based responsAbility Investments.

12. The Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) on Friday tweeted that it has committed Rs 200 crore under the Fund of Funds Scheme (FFS) to four alternative investment funds (AIFs) namely Omnivore Partners India Fund 2, TVS Shriram Growth Fund 3, IQ Alpha III, and Capaleph Indian Millennium SME Fund.

13. Dibz, an online food delivery startup which also serves as an online-to-offline (O2O) platform for discovering restaurant deals, has raised an undisclosed amount in a bridge round of funding from Stellaris Venture Partners and existing investor Benori Ventures, reported VCCircle.

14. Bengaluru-based BigBasket is aiming to touch a $1 billion (₹6,865 crore) gross sales run rate by March 2019, as it prepares for an intense battle against Walmart and Amazon.

15. Genext Students, India’s first AI powered O2O education solutions platform, closes funding round worth $250,000

16. Placio, Noida-based Student Housing Startup has acquired a subscription based food Startup Paco Meals- a subscription based food delivery system and raises $50,000 seed funding for the new venture of food business. 

17. Tata Motors picks up 26% stake in freight aggregator TruckEasy

18. Google has now announced Launchpad Accelerator India, a new comprehensive mentorship programme tailored exclusively for Indian startups that are using machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to build solutions for the pressing problems in the country. 

19. Hospitality company OYO has acquired Mumbai-based IoT (Internet of Things) technology company AblePlus.

20. First Meridian, an HR investment platform of private equity firm Samara Capital, Goldman Sachs and Janchor Partners, has made its first acquisitions of staffing firms Innovsource and V5 Global Services for Rs 350 crore ($50.8 million), reported ET.

21. Dutch impact investor DOEN has invested in energy venture SELCO India

22. Facebook-owned instant messenger service WhatsApp is looking tap national newspapers and local dailies to create awareness amongst citizens. 

23. Google is expanding its recently launched Google News Initiative (GNI) to support the future of news in online video, and improve the news experience on YouTube. The Mountain View-California headquartered company is committing $25 million towards a "YouTube-specific investment".

24. Gurugram based student entrepreneurship focussed iB Hubs Startup School has completed its second year with its Lucknow batch graduating the 16 startups.

25. Online Ayurveda platform NirogStreet has acquihired Brahm Ayurved, one of the largest social and professional community of ayurvedic doctors.

26. Gurgaon-based Boodmo, an online marketplace for automobile spare parts, has raised its share capital with an additional Rs 5 crores worth of investment through FDI from an undisclosed investor.