Tracking deals

Lighthouse India Fund III, an affiliate of Lighthouse Advisors, has invested over ₹250 crore to pick up a minority stake in Aqualite Industries, a leading footwear company. The company will use the money for marketing, capacity expansion and to grow the business. Aqualite offers more than 6,500 SKUs in hawai, non-hawai and shoe product categories. The company operates through its manufacturing units in Haryana and Rajasthan and has over 35,000 retailers across the country, with significant presence in North and East India.

Facilio, an Atlanta- and Chennai-based facilities management tech start-up, has raised about ₹45 crore ($6.4 million) in a Series A round led by Tiger Global Management and existing investor Accel. The company will use the money for global expansion and strengthen its research and development capability. Part of the funds raised will be used to have local sales and marketing presence in West Asia and the US, after which the company will look at other markets such as Europe. Founded in 2017, Facilio raised about ₹6.5 crore ($1 million) as seed funding from Accel almost as soon as it started operations. Facilio offers real-time facilities management to commercial real estate owners, using Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence to optimise operations.

CloudSEK, an AI-based cyber security risk management start-up, has raised ₹14 crore in a pre-Series A round led by Exfinity Venture Partners and StartupXseed. The company will use the money to evolve its flagship product XVigil, a unified risk management platform. Founded in 2015, CloudSEK is headquartered in Singapore with an operational centre in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru-based vehicle sharing marketplace Drivezy has raised about ₹140 crore ($20 million) in a Series B round led by existing investor Das Capital. The other investors in the round were Yamaha Motor, Axan Partners and IT-Farm. Drivezy will use the money to expand its marketplace and roll out advanced services. With this round, the company has raised in all $31 million.

Kogta Financial raises ₹154 cr from Morgan Stanley managed fund

Kogta Financial (India) Ltd, a retail-focussed NBFC that specialises in secured retail vehicle and MSME financing, has raised ₹154 crore in a funding round led by a fund managed by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia and existing investor IIFL Seed Ventures. Kogta Financial will use the money to expand its business and increase penetration across chosen geographies.

Steadview and Vy Capital lead ₹350 cr Series D round in UrbanClap

UrbanClap, a managed marketplace for home services, has raised about ₹350 crore ($50 million) in a Series D round led by Steadview Capital and existing investor Vy Capital. The company is also facilitating a secondary sale of ESOPs and stocks worth about ₹28 crore ($4 million) for its employees and early angel investors. UrbanClap will use this funding round to speed up getting on board customers and services partners, in building the team, especially on the product and technology fronts, and improve its supply chain of consumables. It also plans to launch services in Tier 2 cities, starting with Chandigarh.

Travel technology start-up Guiddoo raises ₹6 cr pre-Series A round

Guiddoo, a travel technology start-up that offers a one-stop shop for in-destination experiences, has raised about ₹6 crore ($800,000) in a pre-Series A funding round from global investors, including Rennie Ratadia (Singapore), Stephen Dmello (Dubai) and Angshuman Sarkar (India). The company will use the money to expand operations, increase destination reach, strengthen product portfolio by adding new destinations and to develop its technology platform.

Matrix Partners India leads $9 m Series B round in MoEngage

MoEngage Inc., a California-based intelligent marketing cloud platform, has raised $ 9 million in a Series B funding round led by Matrix Partners India and VenturEast. Existing investors Helion Venture Partners and Exfinity Ventures also participated in this round. Founded by Raviteja Dodda and Yashwanth Kumar, MoEngage will use the money to expand its global presence, strengthen its data science capabilities and roll out its integrated marketing technology stack for enterprise clients with user engagement, analytics and personalisation products.

Reliance Industries, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd, has invested in New Emerging World of Journalism Pvt Ltd, an early-stage technology start-up incorporated in January. Reliance has subscribed to 30,000 equity shares and 125 compulsory convertible debentures for total cash of ₹1.03 crore.

Consequently, New Emerging World of Journalism (NEWJ) becomes Reliance’s subsidiary. NEWJ focusses on producing and curating content for the emerging social and digital media ecosystem. It will also data-enabled technology products that allow for integrated models of reporting and distribution. Reliance’s investment in this start-up has synergies with its digital services and communication initiatives.

TCS buys US management consulting firm

Tata Consultancy Services has acquired BridgePoint Group, a US management consulting firm catering to the financial services industry and specialising in retirement services. Through this buy, TCS expects to strengthen its financial services and insurance domain knowledge, particularly in the area of US retirement services. BridgePoint provides insights and advisory services around growth, business agility, customer experience and technical transformation. Our Bureau

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