TRACKING DEALS

Amazon has teamed up with private equity firm Samara Alternative Investment Fund to buy retail chain More from the Aditya Birla group, in a deal pegged at about ₹4,500 crore. Samara will hold a 51 per cent stake and Amazon the balance.

Home interior and renovation platform Livspace has raised about ₹510 crore ($70 million) in a Series C round led by TPG Growth and Goldman Sachs. Existing investors Jungle Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Helion Ventures participated in this round. Livspace will use the money to expand to six more cities by 2019 and penetrate deeper into the existing markets.

Bengaluru-based Cyclops Medtech, which is building clinical and wearable diagnostic and rehabilitation products for neuro vestibular disorders using eye tracking technology, has raised about ₹7.2 crore ($1 million) from impact investor Unitus Venture and others. The company will use the money to scale its operations and plans to expand to 1,500 installations over the next five years.

pi Ventures, an early-stage venture fund that invests in applied artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT sectors, has achieved the final close at ₹225 crore of its first fund. CDC Group of the UK invested ₹40 crore in the fund recently. The other investors are Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Enterprise; International Finance Corporation; Electronic Development Fund; SIDBI; leading family offices in the US, Canada, Singapore and India. The fund is co-sponsored by Color Capital of Canada. pi Ventures plans to invest in 18-20 deep tech start-ups in India in the next 3-4 years.

Stanza Living, a tech-enabled co-living concept that caters to student accommodation, has raised ₹73 crore ($10 million) in a round led by Sequoia India with participation from existing investors Matrix Partners India and Accel Partners. The company will use the money to strengthen technology and network of operations. Stanza Living had raised ₹13 crore ($2 million) in its first round of institutional funding from Matrix and Accel in November 2017.

Licious in Series C round

Licious, a meat and seafood brand, has raised about ₹180 crore ($25 million) in a Series C round led by Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures and UCLA. Existing investors Mayfield India, Sistema Asia Fund, 3one4 Capital and Innoven Capital also participated in this round. Licious will use the money to expand to new cities and to strengthen the supply chain.

Flipkart Internet gets ₹3,460 cr from parent

Ahead of the festival season sales, Flipkart Internet, the online marketplace of the Walmart-backed company, has got ₹3,460 crore from Flipkart Marketplace, Singapore.

PharmEasy raises ₹570 cr in Series C round

PharmEasy, which connects patients to local pharmacies and diagnostic centres through an integrated online platform, has raised ₹570 crore in a Series C round led by Eight Roads Ventures India, F-Prime Capital, Fundamentum and Think Investments. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Orios Venture Partners also participated in this round. The company will use the money to improve technology and grow the business.

Matrix Partners India invests in DailyNinja

Matrix Partners India has invested an undisclosed amount in milk and grocery delivery start-up DailyNinja. Existing investors Sequoia India and Saama Capital also participated in the round. DailyNinja will use the money to expand beyond Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. Founded in 2015, the company delivers milk, bread, eggs, vegetables, curd and other groceries through a subscription model, fulfilling about 30,000 orders daily.

NewsBytes raises pre-Series A funding

NewsBytes, a news portal, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from Mumbai Angels Network, MM Inno GmbH of Germany, Powerhouse Ventures of the US and other investors. The Delhi-based start-up generates content using artificial intelligence from its proprietary AI engine called Yantra, and machine learning algorithms through a question-answer system. It recently launched a natural language generation based engine that can convert raw numerical data into text-based articles.

Iba Halal Care raises ₹15 cr

Ecotrail Personal Care Pvt Ltd, which sells personal care and cosmetics products under the Iba Halal Care brand, has raised about ₹15 crore in a Series A round from Addvantis Enterprises LLP. The company had raised ₹6 crore in a Series A round from GVFL Ltd in August 2017. Launched in 2014 by women entrepreneurs Mauli teli and Grishma Teli, the company will use the fresh funds to scale the brand nationally and export its products. Iba is a Halal-certified and Vegan brand of personal care and cosmetics products in skin care, hair care, make-up and fragrances categories.

Federal Bank is anchor LP for Unicorn India Ventures' venture debt fund

Federal Bank will be the anchor investor for a ₹600-crore venture debt fund of Mumbai-based venture capital firm Unicorn India Ventures. Unicorn India Ventures expects to announce the first close of its venture debt fund this quarter. It launched its maiden venture debt fund in November. The venture debt fund will look to invest in up to 12 start-ups a year, with investments likely to begin in the third quarter of the financial year.

Qbera raises ₹21 cr in round led by E-City Ventures

Qbera, a Bengaluru-based digital lending platform, has raised about ₹21 crore ($3 million) in a round led by E-City Ventures, part of the diversified Essel Group. Qbera will use the money to strengthen its technology and analytics capabilities, expand the team across functions and grow geographically in the country. Qbera has processed more than two lakh applications and disbursed more than ₹50 crore worth of loans.

IIFL buys Bengaluru-based fintech start-up

IIFL Wealth Management Ltd has bought out Bengaluru-based fintech company Altiore Advisors Pvt Ltd, which has a proprietary software that integrates and runs deep analytics on the networth of clients across all their stakeholders.

OBOPAY acquires consumer tech firm Mubble

OBOPAY, a financial technology company that provides enterprise solutions for telecom companies, banks and financial service companies and those with a dominant supply chain focus, has bought consumer technology firm Mubble, which is backed by Accel Partners and Nandan Nilekani.

Start-up studio T9L gets funding from Japanese investors

Japanese venture fund Spiral Ventures and MyNavi Corporation have invested an undisclosed amount in T9L, a start-up studio. The company will use the money to build infrastructure and hire manpower. T9L supports entrepreneurs by offering pooled resources. It has so far helped launch 19 companies.

Mumbai Angels invests in Docturnal

Hyderabad-based Docturnal, which is focussed on non-invasive screening solutions for tuberculosis, has rasied an undisclosed amount from the Mumbai Angel Network. It will use the money to build the team, technology and deploy the product for clinical trials in hospitals across the country.

Sequretek raises Rs 27 cr in a bridge round

Sequretek, a cyber security company, has raised Rs 27 crore in a bridge round led by Unicorn India Ventures. GVFL and Sharad Sanghi, MD and CEO, Netmagic, also co-invested in the round, which saw participation from Indian and international investors. It will use the money for new product launch, entering the global market and international product benchmarking.

Goals101 raisesRs 25 cr in pre-Series A round fromNexus Partners

Goals101, a fintech and big data analytics company, has raised about Rs 25 crore ($3.5 million) in a pre-Series A round from Nexus Venture Partners. It will use the money on technology and strengthen its data sciences capabilities and to expand internationally, to Malaysia, UAE, Qatar, South Africa and Kenya. Our Bureau

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