Delivery bike specialist Baaz raises Rs 15 cr VC capital

ElecTorq Technologies, which makes delivery-oriented Baaz electric bikes, said it raised $2 mn from investors such as Kalaari Capital, AdvantEdge, 9Unicorns and Sumant Sinha to fund its expansion plans. The company focuses on delivery workers with its bikes and automatic battery swapping network. “We are getting bombarded with requests from gig workers to join our […]

V-Guard founder to enter venture debt, set up NBFC

Kochouseph Chittilappilly, the founder of V-Guard industries, said he has set up a company called K Chittilappilly Capital Pvt Ltd with the purpose of providing venture funding to entrepreneurs. In a letter to V-Guard industries, Chittalappilly — who founded V-Guard Industries as a voltage stabilizer maker four decades ago — said the new NBFC is […]

Yes Bank lends Rs 750 cr to Mahindra Group for Rewa solar plant

Yes Bank said it will lend Rs 750 cr to Mahindra Renewables Pvt. Ltd., part of the Mahindra Group, for constructing a 250 megawatt solar farm in the solar park at Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. The project has raised another Rs 200 cr from other financial institutions and achieved financial closure, the bank added. The […]

TeamLease buys 40% of education technology start-up Schoolguru

TeamLease Services, one of India’s largest staffing companies, said it has agreed to acquire 40% of Schoolguru Eduserve Private Limited, an Online Learning company that works with 18 Universities. Established in 2012, Schoolguru provides services to Indian Universities to help them deliver online courses for their students. It targets open universities or those that have […]

India sees record-breaking Private Equity inflows in 2017 – Study

The amount of money invested or committed by private equity firms in India reached an all time high in the first nine months of this year, said Venture Intelligence, a research firm tracking unlisted company financials, transactions and valuations. PE firms invested about $17.6 billion in Indian companies as of September, overtaking the previous record […]

DIPP writes to 250 corporates to partner on start-up incubators

Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion has written to over 250 corporate houses in India, inviting them join it in setting up 70 start-up incubators across the country. Half of the centers will be set up in existing institutions — such as the IITs — while the other half will be set up as independent […]

Venture Capital firms seek validation for Modi’s policies in UP election

Private equity and venture capital firms are largely bullish on India in the context of big economic reforms, but are awaiting the results of the ongoing Uttar Pradesh elections to assess the level of popular support that such policies enjoy, according to a survey by VCCircle. VCCircle, which tracks private investment activity in India, said […]

Housing.com says demonetization to hit Real Estate sales: re-enters rentals

Anticipating a slow down in home sales in the coming months in the wake of the crackdown on ‘black money’, housing.com will restart its rental classifieds business soon. The portal, which had seen an ugly spat between founder Rahul Yadav and investors two years ago, had shut its rental listing last year to focus on the […]

Venture Factory invites managers to join them and start their entrepreneurial journey

Venture Factory, a Bangalore based venture builder platform, said it has introduced a entrepreneurial program which is aimed at middle and senior management level executives who will work under the company’s payroll to setup their entrepreneurial venture. The program, christened Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, has started inviting applications from middle and senior management level executives with strong domain […]

Google’s Rajan Anandan, Mohandas Pai’s son invest in NDTV food website

NDTV has closed funding for a new platform that will sell healthy foods and personal care products from across the country through its subsidiary- Smartcooky Internet Limited. Smartcooky.com is based on NDTV’s current food site — food.ndtv.com which has “almost 3 million unique visitors a month.” SmartCooky Internet Limited, has raised funds at a valuation […]

NDTV Gadgets valued at Rs 325 cr; investors include Paytm

NDTV has finally announced that it has raised an unspecified amount of money by selling stake in its NDTV Gadgets portal. The investments have been made after valuing the unit at $50 mln (around Rs 325 cr). Interestingly, that amount is close to almost half of the value of the parent firm’s shares — which […]

Bangalore tops start-up funding; Average valuation rises to 9 cr

Bangalore has overtaken Mumbai as the home to the biggest start-up investment scene, attracting about 30% of angel funding in India, said a report on ‘Angel Investing’ brought out by InnoVen Capital India and Association of Indian Angel Groups (AIAG). India Angel Report 2015 also found that the median angel funding round grew to Rs […]

Magicbricks launches map search for apartment seekers

Magicbricks, one of the players fighting it out in the highly competitive online real estate classifieds business, said it had implemented a full-fledged map search feature on its website. Map search, in which users can visually search for apartment complexes and photo-view are the two features that helped disruptive start-up housing.com to corner a large […]

NDTV to enter e-commerce sector

NDTV, one of India’s biggest TV groups, has signed term sheets with unnamed investors under which they would explore the possibility of supporting NDTV’s entry into the ecommerce sector, the company said. “The Company and NDTV Convergence Limited, a subsidiary of the Company, have signed preliminary, non-binding term sheets with certain potential investors for e-commerce […]

Bain Capital’s $245 mln exit of Hero MotoCorp largest in Q2

The exit by US fund Bain Capital from Indian motorcycle maker Hero MotoCorp was the biggest in the second quarter of 2014, a report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers said. Bain Capital sold Hero MotoCorp shares worth $245 mln (close to Rs 1,450 cr), making it one of the biggest private equity exits of the year, according […]

Piramal, APG tie-up to bridge Infra funding gap

Piramal Enterprises Limited (PEL) and APG Asset Management, the Dutch pension fund asset manager, formed a strategic alliance for investing in rupee denominated “mezzanine” instruments issued by infrastructure companies in India with a target investment of US$ 1 billion over the next 3 years, the companies said. PEL and APG have each initially committed US$375 […]

Flipkart raises Rs 1,250 cr funding from DST Global, others

Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce platform, said it has raised $210 million (Rs 1,250 crore) from a consortium of investors led by DST Global – one of the leading global investment groups focused on Internet. Existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers, and Iconiq Capital also participated in the financing round, it said. The fund raising comes days […]