The 2011 Indian Startup Funding Digest - Venture Capital &Angel Investment in 2011

2011 has been an interesting year for startups and entrepreneurs in India, with the space being witness to growth, funding, acquisitions, controversies and the incessant buzz of a valuation-bubble. The year undoubtedly belonged to Indian e-commerce players, with many joining the fray and some dropping out. But other sectors have seen a lot of action as well and in this funding digest of venture capital and angel investment activity in 2011, we at YourStory.in attempt to provide a snapshot of the major deals in the startup space this year.

Database infrastructure software maker ScaleArc raised $5.3 million in its second round of institutional funding, from Nexus Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures.

Fetise, a luxury male fashion e-commerce startup, raised $5 million Series A funding from Seedfund.

Trivone Digital, a Bangalore-based digital media and content company, raised a Series A round from Accel Partners.

FreeCultr, a lifestyle apparel and accessories e-commerce label, received a $4 million investment from Sequoia Capital India.

Techsparks 2010 winner SportingMindz-driven e-commerce venture SportsNest raised seed funding from Blume Ventures.

PepperFry, an e-commerce startup selling lifestyle products, raised $5 million in Series A funding from Norwest Venture Partners.

Affordable potable water solution provider Waterlife received a $4.2 million investment from Matrix Partners India.

IT helpdesk startup eTechies received institutional funding in the range of $3 million to $5 million, after an angel investment from Rajan Anandan, MD of Google India, in November 2010.

Bollywood actor Karisma Kapoor invested in BabyOye, a leading e-commerce player in the baby products space.

SaaS-based customer support startup FreshDesk received $1 million in funding from Accel Partners.

Do-it-yourself stationery design and print solutions provider Print Bindaas received approximately $48000 in seed funding from Manoj Kumar Swain, MD of Morgan Stanley India.

InnovizeTech Software, the company behind the enterprise productivity platform Sapience, closed a Series A investment of approximately $1 million from Seed Enterprises, a new fund.

Ashok Soota-led Happiest Mind Technologies secured $45 million in Series A investment from Canaan Partners and Intel Capital. Mobile solutions company TELiBrahma also received investment from Intel Capital at around the same time.

Enterprise mobility firm Deltecs Infotech, a TechSparks 2010 finalist, raised its first round of funding from Kutchi Angel Network, which is promoted by established businesses houses like Anchor Group, Navneet Group and Gala Group.

Cochin-based mobile app development startup Dexetra, a TechSparks 2011 finalist, raised its first round of funding from Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s One97 Mobility Fund.

Social media marketing and analytics firm Salorix announced a Series A investment of $3.5 million from Inventus Capital Partners and Nexus Venture Partners.

Grexit, which allows for knowledge repository creation from email accounts, raised its first round of investment from Citrix Startup Accelerator Program and Vijay Shekhar Sharma of One97 Mobility.

Private sales site for luxury and designer goods Fashionandyou.com raised $40 million (second round of funding) from Norwest Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Sequoia Capital and Nokia Growth Partners.

Customer engagement product tech startup WebEngage raised its first round of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN).

Service commerce company Suvidhaa Infoserve received $12 million in its round of investment, from Japanese firm Mitsui & Co.

OfferGrid, which connects deals and coupons suppliers with resellers and publishers, received seed investment from seed fund My First Cheque.

Local search startup Seva Search raised a Series A investment of $1.3 million from angels and serial entrepreneurs from USA, South America, Asia and Europe.

Interactive video advertising tech company Jivox raised $8.2 million from Fortisure Ventures, Opus Capital and Helion Advisors.

Barefoot Power, a global, social for-profit enterprise manufacturing and distributing lighting products, received investment from The Sustainable Enterprise Fund, an impact venture fund managed by Ennovent.

Coimbatore-based meat processing firm VKS Farms received Rs.25 crores as investment from Ventureast.

Daily deals site Dealsandyou.com announced that it had closed an investment of $17 million, in second round funding, from Mayfield Fund, Norwest Venture Partners, Nokia Growth Partners and Intel Capital.

IndiaCollegeSearch.com, a site helping engineering students pick the best colleges, raised Rs.58 lakhs in its first round of funding from Delhi-based VAS Capital.

Gurgaon-based Aspiring Minds, an employability assessment firm, raised Series A investment from Omidyar Network and former Ranbaxy Labs CEO DS Brar.

Seedfund invested in Jaipur-based rural sales and marketing distribution company Frontier Markets

Carlyle Group acquired 9% Stake in India Infoline, one of the leading players in the Indian financial services platform market.

Cloud publishing platform GENWI raised $4 million in a Series A round from Nexus Ventures

An online website for teaching, Udemy, raised $3 million in a Series A funding from Lightbank, a venture capital started by the co-founders of Groupon.

Corporate gifts and promotional products company Capricorn Gifting Solutions received seed funding from Seeders Venture Capital.

App player for windows BlueStacks closed a $6.4 million strategic investment round with AMD and CITRIX.

Red Gate acquired Udaipur-based Cerebrata, a Microsoft BizSpark startup.

hoopos.com, an e-commerce platform specializing in mother care received funding from Helion Advisors.

WebEngage, a Mumbai-based tech startup offering customer engagement tools for web businesses, raised its first round of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN).

Sequoia Capital invested close to $22 million in Moolchand Medcity, a Delhi-based healthcare company.

Online car selling and buying platform CarSingh.com raised its first round of funding from Seeders Venture Capital.

SETU Software secured funding from ex-Microsoft MD, Mr. Srini Koppolu.

Education startup Sparsha Learning Technologies raised angel investment from Blume Ventures and Tempus Capital, for their activity-based e-learning platform.

Online social learning platform Eduora.com received seed funding from Seeders Venture Capital

Helion Advisors invested $3.5 million in Delhi-based private education provider Vienova Education.

India’s leading travel search engine, iXiGO raised $18.5 million from SAIF Partners and MakeMyTrip

Pune based internet product start-up, YourNextLeap raised Series A investment from Nirvana Venture Advisors

Online travel booking portal, Yatra.com acquires Bangalore based hotel aggregation startup Magic Rooms

Venky Ganesan led talent and skill ranking portal, Gild.com secures $2.4 million funding from Globespan Capital Partners

Druva, a pioneer in enterprise laptop backup and recovery received $12 million in Series B funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital.

Online holiday comparison portal Polama raised Rs.1.5 crores funding from Blume Ventures and Rehan Yar Khan

Bangalore based TechSparks 2011 startup CropEx Technology received Rs.2 million from Seeders

Bangalore based, technology driven media solution startup Surewaves.com secured Rs.10 crores from India Innovation Fund and Accel Partners.

India’s largest group messaging provider, SMS GupShup  raised $10 million in funding from Tenaya Capital

MotorExchange - India’s leading used vehicle online marketplace received $13 million in Series C funding from Tiger Global and Canaan Partners

InOpen Technologies, an education startup incubated by IIT Bombay raised $0.5 million seed funding from Ventureast

Mumbai based mobile application and distribution startup Onward Mobility secured Rs.18 crores from IndoUS Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures

Bangalore based maternity and infant care startup Kids Clinic raised Rs.45 Crores in its first round of institutional funding from Matrix Partners.

South Asia’s largest online wholesaler of shoes Yebhi.com (Big Shoe Bazaar) secures Rs.40 crores investment from Catamaran Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners in its second round of funding.

Zovi - an exclusive e-commerce store for premium apparels raised $5.5 million from SAIF Partners

BeStylish.com, an Online Shoe Store Raised Investment from leading European early-stage venture capital firm Mangrove Capital

Indian Angel Network invests about $1 million in a real estate group buying startup, Groffr

Bangalore based embedded software startup - Vayavya Labs raised $1 million from Indian Angel Network

Singapore-based JAFCO Investment invests $4 million in Bangalore based technology product startup CustomerXPs Software

Indiaplaza.com (Fabmall.com) one of the early players in Indian e-commerce space secures $5 million from IndoUS Ventures

Mumbai based, Mobile advertising startup Vserv.mobi raised $3 million from IDG Ventures

Daily deals site, Snapdeal received $40 million in Series B funding from Bessemer, Nexus & IndoUS Venture Partners

Guruswami Sridharan led Orca Systems - a fabless semiconductor and intellectual property licensing startup received Series B funding of over $5 million from Ventureast

VidTeq, a video map-based web solutions startup, received its first round of funding from KITVEN.

mKay, a technology startup providing solutions in the education space, received funding from MyFirstCheque.

Moneysights, a consumer internet startup in the financial services domain, received $270,000 in funding from Blume Ventures and Naveen Tewari, founder of InMobi.

E-commerce platform Flipkart.com received Series C funding of $20 million from Tiger Global.

Jeevanti Healthcare, a startup that aims to provide quality healthcare in under-served areas, received $2.2 million in funding from Seedfund.

Online bus ticketing portal redBus received $6.5 million in Series C funding from Helion Venture Partners.

Greywater Technologies (Jaldhaara), a water recycling and waste water treatment solutions company, received Rs.9 crores in funding from Nexus Venture Partners.

Intel Capital invests $18 million in - Mobile media company July Systems, online travel company Yatra.com, open-source application development software company WSO2, leading online insurance comparison site PolicyBazaar and Sudhir Srivastava Robotic Surgery Centre (SSARSC), a provider of advanced robotic surgery procedures.

Olacabs.com, an e-commerce venture in the cab rental space, received angel investment from Rehan Yar Khan, Anupam Mittal and a few other angels.

Wallop Media, an online and mobile interactive ad company, received seed funding from Raj Bhatia-led UCP Direct.

Nevales Networks, an Indian startup company offering cloud based network security services to SMEs, received funding from Seedfund.

TeamLease Services, a composite staffing and education company, received a Es.100 crores investment from ICICI Venture and Gaja Capital Partners.

Mojostreet, a Hyderabad-based startup offering location-based mobile games, secured $350K from Srini Koppolu, former MD of Microsoft India R&D and J A Chowdary, former MD of Nvidia (India).

Mydala.com, a social commerce/group buying portal, received Rs.90 million funding from Info Edge.

Vindhya e-Infomedia, a Bangalore based BPO, received funding from ACCION International and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

Privi Organics, India’s leading aroma chemical manufacturer and exporter, received Rs.850 million funding from Standard Chartered Private Equity.

Sohanlal Commodity Management, an agricultural logistics solutions provider, received funding from Mayfield India and Nexus Venture Partners.

MotorExchange, an online platform for transacting used vehicles, received Series B investment from Epiphany Ventures.

Jigsee, a provider of adaptive video streaming technology for wireless devices, received Series A funding from Indian Angel Network.

Kaltura, an open source online video platform, received $20 million in funding from Nexus Venture Partners.

Grameen Financial Services Private Limited, popularly known as Grameen Koota, raised Rs.35 crores from DWM (Cyprus) Limited.

iLevel Solutions, a provider of private equity software and reporting solutions, received $6 million funding from Swift River Investments, Egis Capital and Epiphany Ventures.

Ujjivan Financial Services, a leading microfinance institution with pan-India presence, received Rs.40 crores investment from DMW (Cyprus) Limited.

Apalya Technologies, a distribution platform for mobile video, received $7.5 million in funding from IndoUS Venture Partners.

Digital media network Komli Media received $15 million in funding from Norwest Venture Partners.

Just Eat, UK’s largest online takeaway ordering service, acquired a majority stake in Hungry Zone for a sum in the range of $5-10 million.

Letsbuy.com, an online retailer of consumer electronics, received $6 million VC funding from Helion Venture Partners, Accel Partners & Tiger Global.

If you’re aware of a VC or angel deal that occurred last year and hasn’t been chronicled here, please do leave a comment or write to [email protected]. We’ll verify the facts and update this digest accordingly.

Here’s hoping that 2012 spawns some great startups and business ideas and that funding activity only get heightened.

- Team YS