#1. Consumer Lending Startup IndiaLends Raises $10 Mn  – To Launch A New Product Line. The investment was led by ACPI Investment Managers and India-focused venture capital firm Ganesh Ventures. Amex ventures, along with the other existing investors in the company, such as DSG Consumer Partners and AdvantEdge Partners, have also participated in the latest funding round. 

#2. Global VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners has closed its second India fund with a corpus of $175 Mn.The Silicon Valley-based firm is now looking to invest in another batch of early-stage startups. With the close of second India fund, the total capital under management in the country now comes to $310 Mn.  Bejul Somania, managing director at Lightspeed India.

#3. Inventus Capital Marks First Close Of Its Third Fund At $29 Mn to invest incapital-efficient startups within the business-to-business and business-to-consumer spaces. The Indian team — comprising Rutvik Doshi, Samir Kumar and Parag Dhol — decided to raise its own fund, along with setting up an independent investment committee (IC) as well last year.

#4. Alibaba To Work With Ganesh Ventures To Scale Up Investments In India. Ganesh Ventures seeks to build a strong network of Indian entrepreneurs and Chinese investors and entrepreneurs. For this, the VC firm has made its first close of a $30 Mn fund backed by Alibaba Founder Jack Ma’s ambitious eWTP Ecosystem Fund and Hong Kong-based Landmark Capital.

#5. Y Combinator-Backed Groww Raises $1.6 Mn Pre-Series A Funding – from Insignia Ventures Partners, Lightbridge Partners, Kairos, and others, with participation from existing investors Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori.

#6. The venture capital firm SRI Capital’s Sashi Reddi has launched a $100 Mn technology-focused early stage venture fund. SRI Capital Fund-I, a Delaware-registered investment vehicle, will look to invest in enterprise software ventures in the US and India, with a particular focus on startups working in the emerging areas of deep tech.

#7. Education Startup Magic Crate Raises Funding From Fireside Ventures –amount of funding is undisclosed. Magic Crate was founded by IIT-IIM alumnus Viswanathan Ramakrishnan and ex-McKinsey consultant Karthik Lakshman. The startup provides an inquiry- and play-based programme for early childhood learning at home.

#8. Ideaspring Capital and the Fabric have invested in an early stage startup- Spanugo. The investment round included some strategic angel investors as well. The funding will be used for product development, go to market and expanding the tech team in India. Spanugo is co-founded by Doss Karan in April 2017 and offers enterprises an easy way to assure their IT security without giving up on agility in adopting digitisation across the enterprise.

#9. InnoVen Capital India, a venture debt and speciality-lending firm has closed the first half of 2018 with commitments of funding worth $60.9 Mn (INR 418 Cr) to be invested in early and growth-stage startups. So far, the Temasek-backed firm has disbursed $43.7 Mn (INR 300 Cr) of the total fund committed. Itis expected to invest the remaining capital within the next two months.

#10. Incubate Fund Leads Pre-Series A Funding In Chennai’s E-procurement Startup Kobster. CAN, ANME, and LetsVenture also participated in this funding round. Kobster Elite, a cloud based e-procurement tool, is the new bet. Kobster is further looking to expand to Tier 2 cities.

#11. Digital Insurance Startup McXtra Raises $1.3 Mn In Funding. Plans to target one lakh users in partnership with 30 corporate entities. McXtra is essentially an insurtech platform which helps the user create a policy vault of all his insurance policies. Launched in April 2014 by A S Narayanan and Nimish Airon, the startup claims to provide 24/7 emergency services to the family of its users.

 

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