Udaan, the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform, has kick-started the new year with a fund-raise of $280 million, largely from its existing investors including China’s internet giant Tencent. Venture funds Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital and Altimeter Capital are existing investors who have also contributed to this round. There are two new investors — … Read more
The cratering economy at the start of the pandemic led to a dropoff in funding rounds for seed-stage companies, according to deals databases PitchBook, Crunchbase, and CBInsights. But anecdotally, early-stage investors say they can barely keep up with their deal flow. One reason for the discrepancy is that startups are calling their seed rounds by … Read more
Remote fundraising has become common for startups as the coronavirus pandemic continues to restrict the ability to travel and take meetings in person. Usually, founders and executives pitch prospective investors for funding at swanky city offices before an investment committee makes a decision. Subsequently, there is a lengthy due diligence process, technical and market questions, … Read more
Choosing Singapore as its regional headquarter for the market, this news comes just months after the venture capital firm announced raising over $4 billion across four different global funds to support early and growth stage startups. Lightspeed said that it is deploying capital in the Southeast Asian market, from these global funds. In India, Lightspeed … Read more
China’s tech giant Alibaba Group is unlikely to sign fresh deals in Indian companies in the coming months amid higher scrutiny on Chinese investments amid tension between the two nations, said a person familiar with the development. Alibaba is among other Chinese investors who have pulled the brakes on new investments in Indian startups after … Read more
The ongoing covid-19 crisis has deeply impacted the Indian startup ecosystem with close to 12% startups stating shutdowns, according to a survey jointly conducted by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Indian Angel Network (IAN). The nationwide survey on the ‘Impact of covid-19 on Indian start-ups’, conducted across 250 startups, said … Read more
Healthcare startup Qure.ai has raised $16 million in an equity funding round led by Sequoia India, with participation from MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia, it said Thursday. MassMutual Ventures is the investment arm of US-based MassMutual Life Insurance Company. Founded in 2016 by Prashant Warier and Pooja Rao, Qure.ai provides interpretations of radiology scans within seconds, … Read more
Private equity firm ICICI Venture Funds-backed patisserie Theobroma Foods Pvt. Ltd has set out on an aggressive expansion plan as it looks to multiply its sales fourfold over the next three to four years, two senior executives of the company said in an interview. “We plan to grow our sales to ₹500 crore, the number … Read more