Healthcare platform Practo has raised ₹375 crore ($55 million) in a Series D round led by Tencent. Three new investors – ru-Net, RSI Fund and Thrive Capital – joined Practo, with existing investors Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Capital G (formerly Google Capital), Altimeter Capital and Sofina, participating in this round. Practo will use the money to build an integrated platform, accelerate R&D into artificial intelligence and machine learning to build smarter products and invest more in its international operations.

Merger of PropTiger, Housing.com

Online real estate service providers PropTiger.com and Housing.com have merged. As part of the transaction, REA Group Ltd will invest about ₹340 crore ($50 million) in the joint entity with an affiliate of SoftBank Group Corp investing about ₹35 crore ($5 million). The merged entity will offer the full range of online and offline services in the real estate space, including personalised search, virtual viewing, site visits, legal and financial diligence, negotiations, property registrations, home loans and post-sales service.

Fino Paytech receives ₹400 cr

FinoPaytech, a payments technology firm, has raised ₹400 crore, in the process complying with RBI’s guidelines on having majority domestic ownership. In July 2016, Fino Paytech, which will soon launch a payments bank, had sold a 21 per cent stake to Bharat Petroleum Corporation for ₹251 crore. It has now raised ₹149 crore from a group of strategic investors. Fino had raised ₹150 crore from Blackstone in 2011. The company provides a range of financial and large scale enrolment services such as door step banking, biometric banking solutions, remittances, lending, insurance and UID enrolments.

₹68-cr funding for Square Yards

Square Yards, an online-to-offline real estate transaction player, has raised about ₹68 crore ($10 million) from multiple individual investors based outside India. It has raised the money through convertible notes issued for a fixed term at a pre-determined coupon rate and with an option to convert into equity. The company will use the money to expand into new international markets and strengthen distribution network in 10 countries. With this, the company has so far raised $33 million.

Unacademy raises ₹30 cr

Unacademy, an online learning platform, has raised ₹30 crore ($4.5 million) in a Series A round led by Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. Girish Mathrubootham, CEO, Freshdesk, and Ananth Narayanan, CEO, Myntra, and Stanford Angels have also participated in this round. Unacademy will use the money for expanding content portfolio, getting on board educators, hiring talent and improving user experience. It also plans to launch its Android app by the end of February.

Nexus Venture invests in Zolo

Bengaluru-based managed accommodation start-up Zolo has raised about ₹35 crore in a Series A round led by existing investor Nexus Venture Partners. This round also included debt from venture debt firm Innoven Capital. It will used the money to reach over 12,000 locked-in beds from around 5,000 now and expand to Chennai and NCR by the end of this year. Zolo, which operates through an integrated app-based technology platform, aims to redefine the paying guest industry.

Curiositi raises Series A funding

Bengaluru-headquartered education start-up Curiositi Learning Solutions, which provides mathematics and science programmes for classes 1 to 10, has raised an undisclosed Series A round from Menterra Social Impact Fund and existing investor Unitus Seed Fund. Unitus had made a seed investment in December 2014. It will use the money to improve product features and strengthen its sales and marketing functions. Curiositi has a mix of activity-based learning kits and personalised software that can be downloaded on laptops or mobile phones.

It has over 20,000 users in about 100 schools in Karnataka and Maharashtra and plans to increase it to about a lakh students in 500 schools over the next two years. Our Bureau

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