SoftBank Internet and Media will lead a $90-million (about ₹570 crore) investment in Mumbai-headquartered real estate portal Housing.com. Falcon Edge and other investors participated in this funding round. Housing. com will use the money to map over 40 million houses across 300 cities and provide on-off buttons to home owners and agents. Housing. com has raised over $120 million in two years.

Livspace raises $4.6 million

Livspace, a marketplace for personalised home design and décor solutions, has raised about ₹28 crore ($4.6 million) in a Series A round from Helion Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Jungle Ventures from Singapore. Livspace will use the money to develop new products and innovate technology, generate demand for its products and strengthen its management team.

Baring exits Integra Software

Baring Private Equity Fund has sold its majority stake in Integra Software Services Pvt Ltd to a consortium of private investors led by the promoters and friends and associates, through a competitive bid process. Baring had acquired the stake in 2006. Integra’s promoters Sriram Subramanya and Anuradha Sriram continue to be at the helm of the company and shape its growth going forward.

Unitus’ focus on start-ups

Unitus Seed Fund has completed investments in the seed fund stage in two education start-ups that promise to improve the quality of English, Mathematics and science in schools and after-school learning programmes. The companies are CueLearn, which provides after-school learning programmes in Mathematics and English, and Curiositi, which partners with schools to transform science curriculum into an activity-based learning experience. It plans to invest in four more education start-ups in the next 12-18 months.

News Corp buys BigDecisions.com

News Corp has acquired Indian web start-up BigDecisions.com which helps consumers make informed financial decisions. Started in early 2013 by Manish Shan and Gaurav Roy, and operating till recently as bigdecisions.in, the BigDecisions.com platform has about 40,000 users. Both co-founders will help oversee a significant expansion of the Mumbai-based company and its consumer offerings. This is News Corp’s second acquisition in the last two months in India; in November, it bought a 25 per cent stake in PropTiger.com, a residential real estate platform.

Ethos gets funds from Sixth Sense

Sixth Sense Ventures, a consumer centric domestic venture fund, has made its first investment in Ethos, a leading retail chain for luxury watches. Ethos Watches is a chain of luxury watch boutiques with 44 stores across the country. It is an authorised retailer for around 50 global luxury watch brands.

CDC invests in two MFIs

CDC, the UK’s development financial institution, has invested in two micro-finance institutions – Utkarsh and Equitas. It has invested $11 million in Uttar Pradesh-based Utkarsh, which will use it as growth capital. CDC had originally invested $16 million in Equitas in 2013 and has executed pre-emptive rights to maintain its stake and fund the growth of the micro-finance and vehicle finance businesses.

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