Raise funds to rise up!
Opportunity India Desk
Sep 29, 2017 -
4 min read
Scrutinising the Merisis report, some of the large funding deals this year include Ola's $400 million in April, Snapdeal's $500 million by Alibaba and others and Practo raising $90 million in August. Commenting on the idea of funding, Rashi Choudhary, Co-founder, LocalBanya.com says: “For any emerging e-commerce company, one of the greatest challenges is to acquire investment to fuel expansion in a market that is growing rapidly. Localbanya was initially bootstrapped, but we have managed to garner funding in three rounds from BCCL’s Springboard Fund, Karmvir Avant Infotech and Shrem Strategies. Currently, we are in talks with couple of investors to raise an undisclosed amount that will help us grow at a faster rate as we scale up our operations, technology and marketing.”
Recently it was heard that Indian online fashion retailer Yepme has raised $75 million from investors led by Malaysian state fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad as per Reuters. Following the same, Everstone Capital Partners III, the private equity fund of Everstone Group, has also raised $730 million for its third fund. The fundraising comprised $700 million of capital committed by limited partners, which include institutional investors, and an additional $30 million commitment from Everstone and its affiliates. The private equity firm had invested in companies including fashion house Ritu Kumar, VLCC Healthcare Ltd and many more.
To design its product, and to build the initial team, operational since 2014, PepperTap raised a seed fund from Sequoia Capital in December 2014. Post which it had raised Series B fund of $10 million from SAIF Partners and Sequoia capital. Navneet Singh, Co-Founder of PepperTap says: “As such we don't need to raise new funds immediately. However, there is significant inbound interest from various global investors; and we'll raise funds from the right partner at the right time. There are many challenges faced by startups too. A startup doesn’t just need to raise huge amounts of capital rather they have to come up with fresh ideas to gain popularity and win trust.”
What else can startups take care of?
From food to taxi’s to sports
If we talk of the food and drinks sector, Hector Beverages Pvt. Ltd that owns Paper Boat brand has also raised close to $30 million from investors Advent Management and Hillhouse Capital Group, valuing the maker of the Paper Boat brand of traditional Indian drinks at more than $100 million. In April, this year, app-based taxi aggregator Ola had raised $400 million (about Rs 2,500 crore) from a clutch of investors led by DST Global as it eyed expansion into smaller cities across India. After this round, the firm had also raised close to $800 million. Mahesh Bhupathi backed, Sports365.in is also in talks to raise up to $8 million (about Rs 53 crore) from investors including its existing backer, United States-based Powerhouse Ventures.
Biggies taking the lead to support startups
Tata Sons Chairman emeritus Ratan Tata has made yet another investment in India’s online lingerie store Zivame. So far, Tata has invested in more than a dozen of startups in India and abroad. Aditya Birla Bizlabs, Aditya Birla Groups new initiative is also a new hope for startups in India.
Its mandate is to collaborate with innovative startups and provide them with the opportunity to scale up in a large operating business environment. “Our objective at Aditya Birla Bizlabs is to enable the combination of technology and ingenuity of the startup ecosystem with the power and reach of the Group’s businesses, to create a platform to foster growth and rapidly scale up businesses. We are excited with the prospect of working with startups on a collaborative platform,” said Dev Bhattacharya, Group Executive President, Aditya Birla Group.
Aditya Birla Bizlabs will be looking at startups which offer innovative solutions in the areas of Retail, Financial Services or Mobility.
