Over $850M+ was invested since 2010 in Indian SaaS product companies, with $449M invested in 2015 alone in 61 funding rounds. While the number of funding rounds remained almost the same in 2014 and 2015, the total funding has seen an almost 3X increase. $45M has been invested in the first four months of 2016, over 15 rounds, with the biggest investments going to KartRocket, Boomerang Commerce, and SnapBizz.

Late stage deals were secured by mature startups with products catering to business intelligence, healthcare and pharma, customer service and engagement, travel and hospitality, cloud and data center management, and ecommerce. The most active funds in Indian SaaS startups are Accel Partners, 500 Startups, Helion VC, Google Capital, and Sequoia Capital.

2015 saw a number of mature companies such as Freshdesk, Capillary Tech, HackerRank, MindTickle and Indix going on to raise funds in their Series A – Series E rounds. SMB SaaS (RateGain, Mobikon, Zenoti, Hotelogix), ecommerce enablers (Indix, Boomerang Commerce, Kartrocket), HR tech (Hackerrank, ZingHR, Aspiring Minds, Mettl), and marketing (CleverTap, BetaOut, Zarget, Wigzo) saw the highest number of funding rounds over the last two years.

Over 50 startups have been founded in India every year since 2012, emerging sectors in SaaS products are marketing automation, social media and mobile marketing, customer engagement, retention and analytics, ecommerce enablers, and developer tools for collaboration and productivity enhancement.

Tracxn’s report on India’s SaaS landscape covers over 350 B2B Indian companies offering SaaS products to a global consumer base. Preview the Global SaaS -India Report below.

Over $7.4B has been invested in online travel in 2015 and around $1.3B in 2016 YTD. There have been six funding rounds above $100 M in the last year, which went to China-based travel app developer Huoli and travel portal Lvmama, US-based WheelsUp, which provides private jets based on membership and rentals marketplace Airbnb, and India-based Oyo Rooms. Our research counts 640 rounds of funding in the last five years, and over 334 rounds of funding between Jan 2015 to Apr 2016, a sign of increased funding activity in the online travel sector.

500 Startups, Y Combinator, and Techstars are the most prolific investors at the early stage, while Battery Ventures and General Capital are among the most active investors at the Series A and B stage. Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners are active at all funding stages, while Tiger Global, and Norwest Venture Partners have made four late stage investments each.

Horizontal and Accommodation are the top two funded sectors. Horizontal segment includes online travel agencies which enable booking of flights, hotels and tours and activities. Accommodation segment includes companies that enable discovery and booking of hotels and vacation rentals.

The number of seed stage rounds has decreased YoY from 2013 to 2015, indicating market consolidation with fewer seed rounds in 2014 and 2015.

Tracxn’s report on the online travel sector covers online platforms that help book or plan their travel including transportation, accommodation, tours and activities related to travel. The report tracks funding activity to reveal prevalent business models and upcoming sectors, such as travel planning, flights marketplaces, chat based travel agents, and asset light hotels. The report also looks at new business models, IPO and M&A activity, along with startups active in the enterprise space.

Preview the Online Travel Landscape Report below.

While there have been multiple speculations about venture funding hitting a slowdown globally, there continues to be a lot of M&A buzz, with 600+ deals in the last 4 months. Here is a closer look at the funds who managed an exit within their own portfolio. Sequoia & Accel top the list for investors with most number of such M&A deal.

A list of investors with most number of exits in their own portfolio

A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally

INTERESTING STARTUPS

PickQuick (2015, Bangalore) DIY mobile app development suite. Founders are from Google, Disney, Gaana, Freecharge, Preburn, GE, Coal India and alumni of IIT KGP. Local comparables include Instappy (2015, Delhi) and Mobapper (2013, Bangalore). Global comparables includeDwnld (2014, NYC, $14M) and AppMachine (2011, Heerenveen, $15M).

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

ClearTax (2010, Delhi) Income tax preparation and e-filing platform raises $2M from FF Angel and Sequoia Capital Link

Arcatron Mobility (2012, Pune) Patient friendly wheelchair provider raises $100K in funding led by Vaibhav Kulkarni and Sudhir Mehta Link

Roast (2016, Ahmedabad) App based social network for short humorous and witty content raises $37K from Indian Angel Network Link

Consure Medical (2011, Delhi) Medical device for fecal incontinence raises an undisclosed amount in series B round of funding from Accel Partners and others Link

EdCast (2013, Mountain View) Platform for creating own branded live courses acquires Sales University (2011, Indore) Online sales training platform provider Link

Exotel (2011, Bangalore) Cloud telephony startup for small and medium enterprises appoints Ananda Kumar as chief finance & strategy officer and Rashmme Eshwar as Head of people operations Link

Aha Taxis (2015, Kanpur) Online taxi aggregator for one way outstation travel appoints two senior professionals Shailly Tyagi as Head of Customer Experience and Ghanendra Singh as Head of Driver-Partner Engagement Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Viptela (2012, San Jose) Software defined WAN company raises $75M in series C round of funding led by Redline Capital,  Northgate Capital and Sequoia Capital Link

eero (2014, SF) Mesh networked WiFi system provider inside a house raises $50M in funding led by Menlo Ventures, Index Ventures, First Round Capital and others Link

Seismic (2011, San Diego) Content management system for enterprises raises $40M in series C round of funding led by General Atlantic Link

TransferWise (2010, London) International money transmitter based on currency swaps raises $26M from Baillie Gifford and others Link

Dashlane (2009, NYC) Password manager and digital wallet closes $22.5M in series C round of funding led by TransUnion, Rho Ventures, FirstMark Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners Link

Stem (2009, Millbrae) Cloud based energy solutions provider raises $15M in funding led by Mithril Capital Management Link

Affectiva (2011, Waltham) Provider of emotion recognition software raises $14M in funding led by Fenox Venture Capital CAC Holdings, Bandai Namco and Sega Sammy Holdings Link

Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan’s automobile manufacturer makes strategic investment in Uber (2009, SF) Mobile app that connects passengers with vehicle drivers for hire Link

Post Oak Energy Capital, Houston based private equity firm closes Third Fund, at $600M Link

A compilation of the most interesting videos highlighting news and tech innovations from around the world.

Rise of the robots: China’s struggling electronic hub turns to artificial intelligence

Bangalore startup Lumos develops Aster backpack for cyclists

A backpack that saves lives: Aster improves visibility, reduces accidents and saves lives! Aster’s rear and profile lights make you visible to motorists from all sides, front lights signal your presence in rear-view mirrors and automatic brake lights help you avoid getting rear-ended.

Tiny robots climb walls, carrying more than 100 times their weight

Inventors at Stanford University have created a handful of tiny robots that can carry objects many times their weight, like robotic ants. One bot carries a kilogram (2.2 pound) weight, over 100 times heavier than itself, as it inches up a wall.

HP Enterprise CEO on deal with CSC 

HP Enterprises CEO Meg Whiteman discusses how the planned spin-off sharpens their strategy. Whitman called the deal with CSC a move that “unlocks a lot of value for our shareholders and our employees.”

Meet the Winner of Fortune’s Cool Companies Competition

Forture went hunting for the coolest startup trying to turn sustainability into a business. They’ve picked Grove as the winner, a company which helps people grow their own healthy food.

Every week, we at Tracxn curate some of the most interesting blogs and articles from the VC community. Here is a compilation of them that you can add to your reading list.

Contestable Markets in the Age of Network Effects
by Albert Wenger

“Existing network effects are susceptible to increased contestability should standards emerge. That’s why work on standards for messaging, transportation, payments, etc. is so important and new blockchain based protocols are worth exploring.”

Albert Wenger, partner at New York-based early stage VC firm Union Square Ventures (USV) talks about the importance of network effects in providing startups a sustainable competitive network advantage. He describes the three characteristics for perfectly contestable markets – and posits that most digital sectors become contestable, once standards emerge.

Read Wenger’s blog on network effects and contestability here.

The Elephant in the Room: Hedge Funds and Mutual Funds
by Hans Swildens and Kathleen Collins
“Overall, it seems clear that those who invest in private markets accept that valuations are higher than for publicly-listed peers. Historically, the reverse has been true, reflecting an illiquidity discount. In fact, we can’t remember a time that private market valuations have been so disconnected from comparable public measures for so long.”

Hans Swildens and Kathleen Collins of Industry Ventures, a dedicated liquidity provider to the venture capital market discuss the role of hedge fund and mutual funds in late stage funding and unicorn creation. The blog shares findings based on inputs from 40 mutual and hedge fund managers. 

Read the blog penned by Industry Ventures here.

Extremely rapid early growth opens the path to venture capital
by Nic Brisbourne
“If a company does $1m revenues and then grows at 100% per year for six years straight then it might sell for circa $400m and generate a 10x for investors.”

Nic Brisbourne, Managing Partner at Forward Partners does the math on growth metrics that are used as benchmarks by investors, explaining how fast they need to be growing to achieve a 1 million run rate in 12 months, and the subsequent required rate of growth they need in order to generate a 10x return for investors. 

Read the blog which has a table here.

The Next Evolution: AI-Powered Marketplaces
by Fabrice Grinda
“An ANI tool might decrease the time needed by a lawyer to check if your idea/product qualifies for patent protection. If such tools yield a 3x productivity in time for a lawyer then the marketplace can charge less per hour, yet earn more for lawyers, while having a bigger take rate.”

French entrepreneur and angel investor Fabrice Grinda explains how automation of small AI-powered tasks can have a transformative effect in decreasing the operational cost and improving the productivity of product-based marketplaces and knowledge-based service marketplaces.  

Read Fabrice Grinda’s blog on AI-powered marketplaces here.

Our Experience With First-Time Biotech CEOs: Five Behaviors That Matter
by Bruce Brooth
“Successful first-time CEOs throw themselves into their new role with a vengeance, absorbing and integrating as many CEO lessons as they can into their approach.”

Bruce Brooth, partner at early stage VC Atlas Venture makes a case for hiring first time CEOs based on data crunched from the firm’s Biotech portfolio, and highlights five traits of successful first-time CEOs. 

Read Brooth’s post on the characteristics of successful first-time CEOs here.

Grab all of Tracxn’s weekly reads as an .epub, or send these links to an iPhone, Kindle or iPad through our Readlist.

Here is a list of 10 Twitter accounts all founders must follow, along with some of their golden tweets.

Fred Wilson
Twitter Handle: @fredwilson

Fred Wilson is the founder of Union Square Ventures, a NYC based Venture Capital firm well known for its investments in companies such as Twitter, Zynga, Foursquare.

Snapchat’s best feature is that it’s UI is so difficult for anyone over the age of 25 to figure out

— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) 4 December 2015

I start every day with Twitter. there is no better way to figure out what is going on. #LoveTwitter

— Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) 21 March 2016

Marc Andreessen
Twitter Handle: @pmarca

Marc Andreessen is a well known entrepreneur and an investor. Marc Andreessen is the co-founder and general partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Interestingly, he sits on the board of Facebook & eBay among others.

Best observation on financial markets that anyone has ever made or will ever make: pic.twitter.com/fvCHP4dI6x

— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) 16 December 2014

It seems likely we are witnessing the birth of four major new American automakers: Google, Apple, Tesla, and Uber. Who would have guessed! 😮

— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) 8 August 2015

Bill Gurley
Twitter Handle: @bgurley

Bill Gurley is a general partner at Benchmark and is listed consistently on Forbes Midas  List. Considered to be one of technology’s top dealmakers. Holds board seats on Uber, Grubhub to name a few.

Today is the day Unicorn CEOs begin to learn what a PE ratio is. And the cold reality that a 30-40 PE is a high valuation.

— Bill Gurley (@bgurley) 5 February 2016

More Startups Die of Indigestion Than Starvation. Focus Wins. Doing too many things fails.

— Bill Gurley (@bgurley) 2 May 2012

Peter Fenton
Twitter Handle: @peterfenton

A Silicon Valley venture capitalist at Benchmark, who has steadily worked his way up on the Forbes Midas List, starting at 94 in 2007, then rising to number in 2011 and was at number 2 in 2015. Twitter accounts for his most notable investment.

must read for anyone in a subscription business model: the 3 defining metrics, http://t.co/CwlLV9Af @Zuora @tientzuo

— Peter Fenton (@peterfenton) 21 May 2012

If you read one thing about the venture-capital, technology investing landscape this year, this would be my reco https://t.co/0bjFuPh5um

— Peter Fenton (@peterfenton) 21 April 2016

Ben Horowitz
Twitter Handle: @bhorowitz

Ben Horowitz is an american businessman, investor & an author. He too is the co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz along with Marc Andreessen. The author of Hard Thing About Hard Things. Well known for his investment in Twitter.

This is the most common mistake that I see CEOs make as they scale http://t.co/NxTn4FTIzG

— Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) 22 July 2014

My Columbia commencement speech: http://t.co/pljq55SLJM

— Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) 28 May 2015

Brad Feld
Twitter Handle: @bfeld

A venture capitalist at the Foundry Group who started his investment career as an angel investor and later moved on to become an institutional investor. Known for his early bets in Zynga, Makerbot & Fitbit.

One of the best blog posts about VC that I’ve read from anyone in a while – Losing Money by @fredwilson – https://t.co/zLTglllv1f

— Brad Feld (@bfeld) 7 April 2016

Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups https://t.co/ub8llUrh39

— Brad Feld (@bfeld) 17 March 2016

Joshua Kopelman
Twitter Handle: @joshk

Kopelman, an american venture capitalist and philanthropist is best known as the founder of Half.com, a marketplace for connecting buyers and sellers used books. He is currently the managing director of First Round Capital.

FACT: Founders who sit during @Firstround partner meetings do better than those who stand & present. It is a conversation not a presentation

— Josh Kopelman (@joshk) 8 March 2016

Good story by @AlexKonrad on current VC mkt. I’m quoted but thought it might help to share my entire email to Alex. pic.twitter.com/CIv1Olb270

— Josh Kopelman (@joshk) 19 January 2016

Aydin Senkut
Twitter Handle: @asenkut

Aydin is the Founder and Managing Director of Felicis Ventures. Aydin is well-known as an early backer of a number of iconic companies including Shopify, Fitbit , Adyen, Diffbot, Greenhouse, Credit Karma, Rovio and Vicarious.

Cool chart of 3 Chinese giants’ (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) investments in Silicon Valley via @Forbes pic.twitter.com/jvKgzmuCeJ

— Aydin Senkut (@asenkut) 2 June 2015

One of the best pieces I’ve read on deep learning: interview of Facebook AI Director @ylecun http://t.co/3bDXoXNpFV via @speechu

— Aydin Senkut (@asenkut) 22 February 2015

George Zachary
Twitter Handle: @georgezachary

George Zachary heads CRV’s seed investing program and has had a couple of stellar finds in that role.  Zachary is known to be the first investor in Yammer’s Series A, which was  later acquired by Microsoft for $1.2 billion.

A company should only be spoken of as a unicorn at the time of an IPO or M&A. Not at the time of a funding round.

— George Zachary (@georgezachary) 3 April 2015

I’ve concluded that all statements made by Goldman Sachs make sense if you append on the phrase “so just give us your money”

— George Zachary (@georgezachary) 2 December 2010

Matt Cohler
Twitter Handle: @mattcohler

Matt Cohler worked as Vice President of Product Management for Facebook until June 2008 and is currently a general partner at Benchmark. Made it to the 2012 Forbes Midas List of top technology investors. Featured in Forbes ‘America’s 40 Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40’ list in 2015.

My answer to How did Benchmark Capital justify a $49M valuation for Uber? http://t.co/kfI3FhyG25

— Matt Cohler (@mattcohler) 6 June 2014

And finally congrats to my awe-inspiring partner at @benchmark@peterfenton for two IPOs on one day!! $HDP$NEWR

— Matt Cohler (@mattcohler) 12 December 2014

Get a pulse of the VC ecosystem by following our curated list of over 60 VCs who are active on Twitter.

In the world of relentless technological advancement, acquisitions have become increasingly important for major technology firms around the globe – not only to broaden their businesses, but also to keep their innovation engine thriving.

GOOGLE (or rather ‘ALPHABET’, We’re still getting used to the name!), even before it was a household name, made this strategy their modus operandi and has grown tremendously because of it. Larry Page wrote about it in the founder’s letter 12 years ago :

“Expect us to make smaller bets in areas that might seem very speculative or even strange when compared to our current businesses.”

Many of the most used products of Google have come from its acquisitions – YouTube, Android and Google Blogger, to name a few.

Not only it has allowed Google to get access to talented workforce, but also has helped immensely in launching new products at a breakneck pace. Google has acquired nearly 200 companies in the past 15 years or so, with no sign of slowing down.

Google uses a ‘toothbrush test’ – where Larry Page insists that new products must be important enough that people will use them at least twice a day.

Google made its first acquisition back in 2001 – their largest acquisition so far has been ‘Motorola Mobility’, for $12.5 billion in 2011, which the company eventually sold to Chinese technology firm Lenovo in Jan 2014 for $2.91 billion. Google has spent an estimated $30 billion on acquisitions. Google acquired more than 40 companies in 2014, most by them in a single year, and 36 companies in 2010 and 33 in 2011.

With a market cap of nearly $500 billion, Google has seemingly bought everything from AI, VR, AR, Cloud Computing, Robotics, IOT, music streaming , to child-friendly apps and many others. Google went on shopping spree during Christmas of 2013 (Dec-Jan) and made 12 acquisitions in two months including 8 robotic technology companies. CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai made this strategy even clearer, in a letter to shareholders recently, wherein he wrote :

“We will move from mobile first to an AI [Artificial Intelligence] first world”

Let’s take a look at major acquisitions Google has made so far –

No. of acquisitions done under each major team

Every merger or acquisition needs a well thought out deal thesis and how it adds value to the overall strategy of the company.  Google, here again, seems to have cracked the formula and have made acquisitions based on the evolution of new technologies in the field of their existing internal teams and can also act as a catalyst to their ever-growing product lines. Here is the list of number of acquisitions Google has done under each of its major teams –

Disinvestments made by Google

Google not only makes acquisitions but it revisits and sees which acquisitions are working for them and which are not. Following are the five business units which Google has divested from –

Y Combinator and SV Angel have had the most exits from Google’s acquisitions

Investors make their bets on startups and we have seen a lot of investment firms making their exits owing to the acquisitions made by Google. According to Tracxn data, more than 200 firms have had exits because of the acquisitions made by Google. Here’s a list of investment firms who have benefited the most.

Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report is one of the most widely anticipated presentations from the tech community. Disseminated every year on the Kleiner Perkins website, the presentation sheds light on global and country-specific internet trends, drawing insights and data from a variety of sources, including public and private companies, market research firms and government agencies, apart from non-public sources.

While it’s best if you take some time to leaf through all the pages, here are some highlights from the 2016 report that you should know.

1)There are 3 billion Internet users in the world, but the growth is flat, at 9% year-on-year, except for India. India’s internet user growth is accelerating – currently at 277M users, which comes to 22 percent internet penetration. India is the second biggest global user market after China.
(Also see: How Internet penetration has changed the way people travel in India)

2) Global smartphone shipment units are slowing down, after five years of high growth, it’s now slowed down to 10% YoY. The Asia Pacific region is the largest market for smartphones. Apple’s iOS unit shipments are in decline, while Android’s marketshare has grown. An average Android phone is priced at $208.

Smartphone Cost in Many Developing Markets = Material % of Per Capita Income #InternetTrends https://t.co/wTgfOi2MTf pic.twitter.com/TqwFeTJFfu

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

3) With high mobile penetration in more developed countries, new users in less developed countries are harder to garner. Countries like Tanzania, Pakistan, Nigeria have an less than 20 percent of its population online, and huge barriers to internet penetration – low literacy rates, poor infrastructure, low income and affordability. In India, an average smartphone costs $158, which works out to 10 percent of a person’s per capita income.

.@Google + @Facebook = 76% (& Rising) Share of Internet Advertising Growth, USA #InternetTrends pic.twitter.com/easFiFoh1z

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

4) Internet advertising growth continues to peak, at 20% YoY growth in the US, with mobile advertising growing at 66 percent. Facebook and Google account for 76% of advertising growth in the US, yet advertisers remain over-indexed to old media like print. Mobile accounted for 12% of adspend in US, and over 25% of their time by media use, this gap represents an additional $22B opportunity in the US.

Call-to-Arms to Create Better Ads, per @Pagefair #InternetTrends #codecon https://t.co/wTgfOi2MTf pic.twitter.com/KbpPbkBwaf

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

5) Ad blockers represent a huge existential threat to this model – 220M desktop users use an adblocker, and 420M on mobile, at a 94% YoY growth rate. 

6) Snapchat’s 3V (Vertical/ Video/Viewing) advertising playbook is shown as the gold standard for effective online video advertising – it’s authentic, entertaining, in-context, brief.
(Also read: Early Stage Investors in Blockbuster Mobile Communication Apps)

.@stitchfix is using data to drive high customer satisfaction #InternetTrends #codecon https://t.co/wTgfOi2MTf pic.twitter.com/O2Vjq7m44R

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

7) Internet enabled brands and retailers are growing much faster than their offline peers. The presentation dwells into Stitch Fix, a subscription based apparel service that applies Netflix/Spotify content discovery to fashion, and provides a user experience driven by data collection, personalisation, curation and feedback.

8) Compared to Millennials, Generation Z prefers to communicate using images. Facebook’s properties account for 2 billion photos shared daily. Image based platforms like Pinterest are being used for shopping and discovery, and provide a higher level of engagement. OfferUp, an image-based peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace is showing a faster GMV rate than eBay.

Messaging Platforms = Conversational Commerce Ramping #InternetTrends #codecon https://t.co/wTgfOi2MTf pic.twitter.com/Dk5Ei5MQRd

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

9) Global messaging leaders are continuing to register rapid growth. Meanwhile, Asia’s messaging leaders like Wechat, Line, continue to expand uses beyond messaging, to areas like banking, payments, taxi hailing and video calls and chat. Conversational commerce is ramping up in countries like Thailand, where users browse on Instagram, and converse, pay and confirm the purchase on Line messenger.

Voice Word Accuracy Rates Improving Rapidly… +90% Accuracy for Major Platforms #InternetTrends pic.twitter.com/0saBSWVgF8

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

10) Voice-based Input continues to grow in popularity – with 65% of smartphone owners using it in the US. Voice word accuracy has grown from 70 to 90 percent for major platforms like Baidu and Google. The next frontier in voice recognition is human level recognition in heavy background noise. The game changer would be 99 percent accuracy at a low latency.

China Mobile Internet Usage Leaders… Tencent + Alibaba + Baidu = 71% of Mobile Time Spent. #InternetTrends pic.twitter.com/2BqRYy4RUb

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

11) Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu account for 71% of mobile time spent in China. E-commerce is increasingly social in China, with 31% of WeChat users purchasing goods on WeChat.
(Also see: Alibaba and its 19 Companies)

China Internet Emerging Momentum = On-Demand#InternetTrends https://t.co/wTgfOi2MTf pic.twitter.com/QdLbbdY57j

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

12) China is the global leader for on-demand transportation, accounting for 70 percent of global share of trips in Q1 2016. China’s cities have shown the highest rate of growth compared to the rest of the world.
(Also see:Top Companies Challenging Uber Across the World in One Infographic)

Current Generation of Internet Leaders = Growing Faster than Previous Gen. #InternetTrends https://t.co/wTgfOi2MTf pic.twitter.com/KHFh4nvuhY

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

13) Current internet leaders in marketplaces (Uber), commerce (JD.com), and enterprise (Slack) are growing at a faster rate than the previous generation.

Traditional Industry Incumbents = Active in Acquisitions / Investments. #InternetTrendshttps://t.co/wTgfOi2MTfpic.twitter.com/RYBWBEFCYr

— Kleiner Perkins (@kpcb) June 1, 2016

14) Non-tech incumbents are increasingly making tech acquisitions, spending $28 billion in 2015. Notable acquisitions include GM’s acquisition of Cruise Automation, and Ford’s acquisition of Livio.

(Also read: Corporates Making Cars Smarter Through Investments and Acquisitions)

15) The US is likely to become the leader of the auto industry, as it has many components of the ecosystem in place – systems and components makers, leadership in development of autonomous vehicles and ride sharing innovations, and a high level of innovation at the university level.

For more insights and analysis, leaf through the 200+ slide presentation below.

A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally

INTERESTING STARTUPS

Sendx (2016, Chennai) Email marketing automation platform. Founder is from IIIT Allahabad and has worked in Indix, Rovi and Snapstick. Local competitors are Nudgespot (2012, Bangalore, $650K) and PepiPost (2015, Mumbai). Global comparables are CampaignMonitor (2004, Sydney, $250M) and ReturnPath (1999, NYC, $97M)

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

Droom (2014, Gurgaon) Online marketplace to buy and sell automobiles raises $29.5M in series B round of funding led by BEENEXT, Digital Garage, LightBox Ventures and Beenos Link

Cremica (1978, Delhi) Producer of packaged and processed food including biscuits, ice creams and toppings, ready to cook packs raises $15M from Rabo Equity Advisors Link

Vyome Biosciences (2010, Delhi) Dermatology products producer raises $2M from Boston’s Romulus Capital in maiden India deal Link

Atomberg (2013, Mumbai) Technology products maker in data acquisition, vehicle tracking & industrial machine monitoring raises $1M from Parampara Capital Link

CoutLoot (2015, Mumbai) P2P marketplace to buy and sell pre-owned fashion raises an undisclosed amount from Venture Catalysts Link

BRIDGEi2i (2011, Bangalore) Big data analytics services provider raises an undisclosed amount in series A round of funding from Edelweiss Private Equity Link

Jugnoo (2014, Chandigarh) Mobile app for booking and hyperlocal delivery through autorickshaws acquires SabKuchFresh (2014, Chandigarh) Online store offering fruits and vegetables for an undisclosed amount Link

One Internet (2015, Delhi) Shared office space provider for startups and entrepreneurs launches accelerator centres in Gurgaon and Delhi Link

Flipkart (2007, Bangalore) Online retailer offers zero interest finance option for big size items Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Uber (2009, SF) Mobile app that connects passengers with vehicle drivers for hire raises $3.5B from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as a part of  $5B round Link

Spredfast (2008, Austin) Social media monitoring and customer relationship management platform raises $50M in funding led by Riverwood Capital, Austin Ventures, Interwest Partners, OpenView Venture Partners and Lead Edge Capital Link

Ionic Security (2010, Atlanta) Provider of a data protection and control platform raises $45M in funding led by Goldman Sachs, Hayman Capital, Google Ventures, Icon Ventures and others Link

uSens (2013, San Jose) Augmented reality and virtual reality developer of natural hand and head tracking technologies raises $20M in series A round of funding led by Fosun Kinzon Capital, Maison Capital, Great Capital and others Link

Docupace (2002, Los Angeles) Financial tech, digital compliance and cyber security company raises $16.5M in funding led by Palisades Growth Capital and TVC Capital Link

Verto Analytics (2013, Espoo) Digital media measurement company raises $16M in series B round of funding led by EQT Ventures, Conor Venture Partners, Open Ocean Capital and othersLink

Signals Group (2009, Netanya) Decision analytics company raises $10M in funding led by Qumra Capital, Sequoia Capital and TPY Capital Link

Tubular Labs (2012, Mountain View) Video management and analytics platform  raises $10M in funding led by Marker LLC and others Link

Clear Ventures, Palo Alto based VC firm closes first fund at, $120M Link

The solar industry experienced growing venture activity since 2012, both in terms of funding rounds and amount. Over $7.4B has been invested in about 302 companies since 2011, with around $3.3B invested in 2015 and 2016 YTD over 139 equity rounds. 16 companies had funding rounds of $100M, through debt, VC, or PE funding in the last year.

New Enterprise Associates and Draper Fisher Jurvetson are the most active investors in the Solar energy sector. The top funding rounds in 2016 went to Sunnova, a Solar-as-a-Service company which secured a $300M Investment in March 2016, and Solexel, a manufacturer of PV modules, which raised a $100M Series D round.

The highest number of companies were founded in 2014 when subsidies were offered by governments across the world. In 2015, the US federal government reduced the ITC (Investment Tax Credit) incentive, the UK government decided to cut residential rooftop PV subsidies by 65%. European countries like Germany and Italy have considerably cut down government aid and subsidies after 2014. The Indian government reduced the subsidy for rooftop solar from 30% to 15% and plans to reduce it further.

Solar-as-a-service, which features companies that offers solar services of installation and financing is a growing business model in this space, with 90 companies founded in 2014 and 2015, and a steady growth in funding rounds since 2012. Many companies (Off Grid Electric, M Copa, Angaza) in under-developed African countries are working on a ‘Pay-as-you-go’ model, which facilitate solar electrification at a very low cost.

Tracxn’s report on the solar energy landscape spans manufacturers, technology developers, solar products and software platforms. The report excludes solar consultancy companies and organizations and labs which are purely research oriented.

View the 296 page Solar Energy Landscape report below.

The medical devices sector has seen more than $6B invested since Jan 2015 in 672 funding rounds, with $1.9B invested in 2016. Four companies (Intarcia, Auris Surgical Robotics, CeQur, MindMaze) raised $100M rounds, and ten other companies raised rounds of over $50 million in the last year. Notable investments in 2016 include Acutus Medical, and Kala Pharmaceuticals, which raised rounds of over $50M.

Therapeutics, diagnostics, and platform technologies are are the top three business models in terms of funding activity. Therapeutics – which spans medical devices used in the treatment of a disease/ disorder across healthcare areas like cardiovascular, respiratory, neurology, etc, and includes robotics assisted surgical treatment, is the most invested segment in medical devices, with a dominant share of the funding pie.

With over 1600 medical device companies, the United States has more medical devices startups than all the other nations put together. New Enterprise Associates, Versant Ventures, and Delphi Ventures are the most active investors in this sector, with over 50 investments each in this space.

US has more medical device #startups than rest of world https://t.co/5Pw5NROwc9 pic.twitter.com/3B2U2YjiOs

— Tracxn (@Tracxn) June 2, 2016

New Enterprise Associates typically comes in at a Series B or Late Stage, notable investments made by the firm includes Boston-based Intarcia, which offers a drug delivery platform technology, Trivascular which makes cardiovascular implants, Neotract which develops surgical devices for urological disorders, Senseonics, which provides an implantable system for continuous glucose monitoring. Versant Ventures typically invests at a Series B or later stage, its notable investments include AcuFocus, an opthalmic device company, Benvenue, maker of implants for the spine, and Glaukos, which has developed a Micro-Invasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS) approach to treating glaucoma. Delphi Ventures has made over 30 investments at a Series B or later stage – its notable investments include Senseonics, Trivascular and Astute Medical, which provides solutions for diagnosing high risk medical conditions.

Tracxn’s 565-page report on the medical device landscape makes several key observations and trends – noting a decline in the number of companies founded every year, and growing consolidation in the sector. The report spans home and hospital equipment, surgical instruments, and diagnostic devices, platform technologies and clinical equipment and medication management solutions.

Preview the Medical Devices Landscape report below.

IoT infrastructure has seen considerable interest from both VC firms and technology giants like Amazon, Google, Cisco, Microsoft, and Samsung, who have plans to release IoT platforms and develop IoT applications. Over $2B has been invested in IoT infrastructure in 2015/16, out of which 1.1B was invested in IoT platforms. Intel Capital, Foundation Capital, Opus Capital and 500 Startups are the most active investors in the IoT space, which saw the highest ever funding activity in 2015.

The top investments over the last year include Greenwave Systems, which raised $45M in a Series C round in Jan 2016, and San Francisco-based Eero, which raised a $35M Series A in November 2015. Notable investments in May 2016 include Soracom’s $22M Series B, and Afero’s $20 Series A round.

The United States had 241 companies in the IoT space, India was in second place with 26 startups, UK came in third with 24. Platform oriented business models in the IoT space include device management platforms like Zonoff and Relayr, which provide a platform for managing devices connected to the cloud, application developer (PubNub, Axeda), analytics platforms (Spacecurve, Infobright), end to end platforms (Airbiquity, Aeris), network management platforms (Jasper, Hologram), and companies that provide platforms based on fog computing paradigm (Foghorn, Caligoo).

Tracxn’s report on IoT Infrastructure looks at emerging businesses around security at the device level and the other at the network level using sophisticated encryption and block chain technologies. Fog computing is growing in prominence by bringing some of the computational aspects down to the device/ gateway level, reducing latency as well as dependence on the cloud infrastructure.

Preview the IoT Infrastructure report below

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting startups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – DIAGNOSTICS

• Singulex, specialist in molecular diagnostics platforms, nabs $50M from Grifols to expand product offerings. Link
• Strata Oncology, which aims to sequence patient tumors and match them with clinical trials,raises $12M Series A from Arboretum Ventures and Baird Capital; signs ThermoFisher as sequencing partner . Link
• Pillar Biosciences, an oncology diagnostics firm that uses next generation sequencing, raises $18M from ORI Capital. Link
• Taiwanese ACT Genomics raises $12.5M Series B to expand genomics diagnostic test offerings in Asia. Link
• Myriad acquires Sividon Diagnostics, a predictive breast cancer Dx startup, for $39.1M upfront, with an additional $16.8M in milestone payments. Link
• Sinocare acquires US-based PTS Diagnostics for $290M. Link
• Siemens acquires Neo New Oncology, a German liquid biopsy startup. Link
• Foundation Medicine sues Guardant Health over liquid biopsy patents. . Link
• NIH funds Mayo Clinic Biobank with $142M as a part of the PMI, to conduct chemical and genetic testing on 100 million individuals. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Beamline Diagnostics (2015, London, $240K) – Point-of-care pre-screening technology for tumor biopsies using attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR). Backed by Deepbridge Capital.

LEADER BOARD – DIAGNOSTICS

Oncology
Foundation Medicine (2010, Cambridge, $139M, Acq.) – Develops clinical assays for comprehensive genetic profiling for solid tumors and hematological malignancies to tailor personalized treatment regimens for patients. Backed by Google Ventures, KPCB, Third Rock Ventures; Roche owns a majority stake.
Biocartis (2007, Lausanne, IPO) – Develops in vitro molecular diagnostic platforms for multiplexed detection of bio-analytes in tissue samples. Backed by Debiopharm, J&J Development Corporation, Philips, The Wellcome Trust. Went public in 2015. 
NantHealth (2007, Culver City, $890M) – Combines molecular medicine and bioinformatics with technology services to enable personalized therapies for cancer and other diseases. Part of billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks system. Backed by the Kuwait government, Blackberry, Celgene, AllScripts.
Adaptive Biotechnologies (2008, Seattle, $410M) – Develops high-throughput immunosequencing technologies, first application being for diagnosis of minimal residual disease in blood cancers. Backed by Viking Global, Illumina, Celgene, Lab Corp, Rock Spring Capital.
Guardant Health (2012, Redwood City, $190M) – Develops biopsy-free cancer detection and treatments using digital sequencing technology. Backed by Sequoia, Khosla Ventures, Orbimed, Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Cardiovascular Disease
Acutus Medical (2011, San Diego, $157M) – Develops medical imaging technologies for the electrophysiological market; first product gives an ultrasound-based reconstruction of the heart to diagnose arrhythmias. Backed by Advent Life Sciences, Orbimed, GE Ventures, Xeraya, Deerfield Capital.

Immune Disease
Exagen Diagnostics (2002, Vista, $76M) – Rheumatology specialty company that focuses on the diagnosis and prognosis of autoimmune connective tissue diseases. Backed by Epic venture capital, vSpring Capital, Sun Mountain Capital.

Infectious disease
Oxford Immunotec (2002, Abingdon, IPO) – Proprietary T-SPOT platform that measures immune cell responses at a single cell level to detect infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and CMV even at low pathogen loads. Backed by Dow, Clarus Ventures, New Leaf Venture Partners, Spark Ventures. Went public in 2013. 
Accelerate Dx (2004, Tuscon, IPO) – In vitro diagnostics for the diagnosis of drug resistant microbes and hospital acquired infections. Went public in 2013.
Atlas Genetics (2005, Bristol UK, $76M) – Develops the microfluidic-based multiplex point-of-caresystem io™ to detect bacterial STDs and hospital acquired infections. Backed by J&J Development Corporation, Novartis, BB Biotech, Consort Medical, Life Science Venture Partners.

Reproductive Health
Natera (2004, Redwood City, IPO) – Specializes in pre-implantation genetic testing, conception testing and non-invasive prenatal diagnostics. Backed by Claremont Creek Ventures, Sequoia, Orbimed Advisors, Sofinnova Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners. Went public in 2015.
Sera Prognostics (2008, Salt Lake City, $50M) – Develops a proteomics tests for assessing risk of pre-term birth in expectant mothers. Backed by Domain Associates, Catalyst Health Ventures, Interwest and Upstart Capital.

CNS
Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (2005, Philadelphia, Acq.) – Specializes in molecular imaging agents for diagnosis of chronic diseases. Backed by Bioadvance, RK Ventures, Lilly Ventures, Safeguard Scientific, Pfizer. Acquired by Eli Lilly in 2010 for $800M.

Platform
SuperSonic Imagine (2005, Aix-en-Provence, IPO) – Develops ultrasound imaging platforms, with applications in women health, vascular, hepatology, gastroenterology and general imaging. Backed by NBGI Private Equity, Rothschild, Auriga Partners, Omnes Capital, Alto Invest. Went public in 2014.
Singulex (2003, Alamedia, $87M) – Specializes in single molecule counting technology and biomarker research for diagnostics. Backed by GE Capital, Advantage Capital, Prolog Ventures, Orbimed, Jafco.
Personalis (2011, Menlo Park, $75M) – Use proprietary databases, human reference sequences, and sophisticated algorithms to analyze genome scale information for clinical diagnostics. Backed by Mohr Davidow Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Abingworth.

Suite
23andMe (2006, Mountain View, $232M) – Provides direct-to-consumer service of gene indexing w.r.t. ancestry, genealogy, and inherited traits. Backed by J&J Development Corporation, NEA, Google Ventures, Illumina, Fidelity Investments, Mohr Davidow, MPM Capital.
SomaLogic (1999, Boulder, $169M) – Develops proteomics tools with applications in clinical diagnostics and life science research. Backed by Novartis, Gates Foundation, Visium Healthcare.
Assurex Health (2006, Mason, $92M) – Develops pharmacogenomics platforms for neuropsychiatric disorders. Backed by Mayo Clinic, Claremont Creek, Allos Ventures, Sequoia, GE Capital, jVen Capital.
Pathway Genomics (2008, San Diego, $70M) – Develops genetic tests for cancer risk and drug responses. Backed by KCP Capital, Edelson Tech, Founders Fund, IBM.

Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.

For latest updates, visit the Diagnostics and Biotech feed.

To bootstrap or not to bootstrap? It’s a million dollar question that every entrepreneur mulls over. There are pros and cons to either side of the debate. While formal venture funding can open multiple doors for growth, bootstrapping lets you control your startup without ceding control to investors. Here are some of the most notable bootstrapped companies from US.

With Senior banking executives considering starting up, joining a FinTech firm or launching their own venture fund, there seems to be a definite trend. In the last 5 quarters we have already seen some of the biggest names from the banking industry making large career moves, which includes names like Anshu Jain, a former Co-CEO of Deutsche bank, who has now moved on to a FinTech startup SoFi as a board member. Here is a list of some of the most notable names.

Every week, we at Tracxn curate some of the most interesting blogs and articles from the VC community. Here is a compilation of them that you can add to your reading list.

Bitcoin and Anarchy
by Jeffrey Carter

“Most of the time, when anarchy prevails, the people that are rioting aren’t powerful enough, or rich enough to worry about currency.  Look at the total collapse of socialist countries in Central and South America.  Bitcoin hasn’t taken hold in Venezuela, Brazil, or Argentina.  But, merchants in those countries really want US dollars.”

Jeffrey Carter, an independent trader and angel investor debates against the commonly held view that Bitcoin adoption will lead to anarchy, and wonders what will trigger its adoption from niche to mainstream. He points out that Bitcoin hasn’t taken hold in South American countries which experienced an economic collapse, and concludes that even financial distress isn’t a clarion call for Bitcoin.

Read Jeffrey Carter’s blog on Bitcoin and Anarchy here.

Top 100 venture VC investments each year average $100-150m gain
by Nic Brisbourne

“One way of creating $100-150m is to invest early, take a lot of risk to get a meaningful stake and hope to get a massive multiple on a small investment.”

Nic Brisbourne at The Equity Kicker examines a chart from Cambridge Associates research report on the value created from top 100 investments, to conclude that the average top 100 investment created $100-150M in value. Examining what a great VC investment looks like, he says that early stage investors with healthy stakes can get into the top 100 with exits at half the level Series A investors require and around 10% of what very late stage investors require.

Read the post on the Top 100 VC investments here

We Need More Open Source in Gaming
by Saku Panditharatne

“Game engines are like the operating systems of VR, and without an open source foundation, there’s a danger that the software will be too buggy to do the hardware justice — like the personal computer during the era of Microsoft.”

Saku Panditharatne, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz wonders why open source culture hasn’t taken hold in gaming, and stresses the need for graphics programmers to adopt an open source model in order to let upcoming technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality flourish.

Read Panditharatne’s opinion here.

Does A Rate Rise Hurt Startup Financing?
by Jeffrey Carter

“We heard about the Series A crunch.  Then, the Series B crunch. If the Fed aggressively raises interest rates that puts them on a path toward a normal discount rate of 4%, we will start hearing about a Series D, E, F crunch.”

Jeffrey Carter connects the dots between interest rates, economic growth, startup financing, and the Series A crunch. He bets that corporates will be making aggressive acquisitions to buy innovation that they are unable to develop in-house.

Read Carter’s post on startup financing here

A Year of Reckoning for Angels and Seed Funds
by Josh Breinlinger

“The great companies that are breaking out will be fine in any market.They still have investors knocking on their door on a regular basis eager to put more money in. It’s the good companies that have yet to breakout that are affected most heavily.”

Josh Breinlinger, VC at Jackson Square Ventures ponders the fate of startups that have raised a seed fund from angels, and considers their options in an adverse funding climate.

Read Breinlinger’s blog on seed funds and angels here.

Grab all of Tracxn’s weekly reads as an .epub, or send these links to an iPhone, Kindle or iPad through our Readlist.

A compilation of the most interesting videos highlighting news and tech innovations from around the world. 

Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2016

Here is Mary Meeker presenting the Internet Trends Report 2016 & Code Conference. Have a look at some of the key highlights here.

Startup Sirin Launches Hi-tech luxury phones

Sirin Labs AG said on Monday it had raised $72 million in private funds to launch the device, which would be aimed at executives. The smartphone brings the most advanced technology available combining it with almost military-grade security,” said Sirin co-founder and president Moshe Hogeg.

Why this Billion Dollar startup is moving offline

Warby Parker, the eyeglass company that successfully sells retro-style glasses online through a Zappos-style model, recently opened its first physical retail store in New York City. In the last few months, pure play (online retailers) have started moving into offline shopping world.

GoDaddy Launches Flare App for Startup Feedback

GoDaddy launched Flare, an app that lets users create a business idea and ask other users questions that better help them understand if there is a market for their product or service.

Xiaomi Unveils the Mi Drone, an Affordable Quadcopter

Xiaomi lifted the veil off Mi Drone, an inexpensive quadcopter with a built-in camera capable of shooting up to 4K video. It’s the company’s first. 

With a large unbanked population and rising smartphone usage, FinTech startups in India are poised to carve a large mindshare and marketshare in the country. The government is doing its part to move the country to a cashless society – the Reserve Bank of India issued payments bank licences to 11 entities in August 2015, and in 2016, NPCI launched the Unified Payments Interface, which will enable users to transfer bank funds using just a unique ID and a PIN.

VC funding activity has been centred around a variety of business models, including mobile wallets, loan comparison, insurance aggregators, online lending, payment devices, payment gateway solutions, and personal finance management.  Of the top 50 funded FinTech startups, 23 are headquartered in Mumbai, the financial capital of the country. Alibaba-funded Paytm, the country’s leading mobile wallet in terms of users has ten times the funding of its competitor – MobiKwik.

Most Active FinTech Investors in Top 50 List

Based on the number of investments made, the most active FinTech investors in the top 50 list are Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, SAIF Partners and Tiger Global and IDG. 

Sequoia Capital – 9 (BankBazaar, ApnaPaisa, Fintellix, Cleartax, Chillr, MobiKwik, Prizm Payment Services, Citrus Pay)
Accel Partners – 6 (Coverfox, QwikCilver, MoneyView, Chargebee, JusPay, Scripbox)
SAIF Partners – 4 (Paytm, Coverfox, Tracxn, Capital Float)
Tiger Global – 4 (Chargebee, Coverfox, Razorpay, MoneyView)
IDG – 4 (Fintellix, CreditMantri, Agile Financial Technologies, Heckyl)

Top Business Models: Mobile Payments, Investment Tech, Alternative Lending 

Mobile Payments – 10 companies in the top 50 have mobile-focused business models – consisting of semi-closed wallets (Paytm, MobiKwik, MoneyOnMobile, PayMate, The Mobile Wallet) that can be used for bill payments and recharge. Other mobile business models include money transfer apps (Chillr), point of sale solutions (Ezetap, Mswipe, Paynear), payment gateway for e-commerce merchants (Juspay).

Investment Tech – Out of the nine investment tech companies, four are robo advisors for public market investing (FundsIndia, MyUniverse, Scripbox, 5nance). Heckyl and Cogencis provide analytics and market data respectively on public markets. Mumbai-based RKSV.in is an online retail brokerage firm, while BankerBay is a web-based deal origination tool for PE firms and investment banks. Tracxn finds a place in the top 50 too.

Alternative Lending – Eight alternative lending startups figure in the top 50 list – business models encompass direct lenders (Capital Float, Lendingkart) small business lending (NeoGrowth), consumer loans for e-commerce (OnEMI) loan comparison (BankBazaar, APNAPAISA, rubique) and P2P moneylending (faircent).

Banking Tech – The seven banking tech startups on the list include a loan management platform (Cloud Lending), a fraud and risk management solution (CustomerXPs) and fraud and risk analytics (Fintellix), loyalty relationship management (Loylty Rewardz), Regulatory compliance (ComplyGlobal), and banking correspondence (FINO PayTech, EKO).

Payments – Payments focused companies in the top 50 include prepaid cash card provider ItzCash, digital and electronic payment solutions (Transerv, Prizm Payment, and Suvidhaa) and  payment gateways (Citrus Pay and Razorpay), and QwikCilver, a multi-brand gift card store.

Insurance Tech – Five insurance tech startups in the top 50 consist of aggregators like Policybazaar, Coverfox, Easypolicy, and software solutions providers (Agile Financial Technologies, HealthHiway)

Consumer/Enterprise Finance – Consumer finance focused companies include CreditMantri, a credit score and analysis portal, MoneyView, a personal finance management app, and Cleartax, an income tax filing portal. Chargebee is an enterprise focused subscription billing service for SaaS companies.

Last week witnessed many prestigious Institutional Investment firms close fresh funding, with Parthenon Capital Partners fund raise coming off as the most notable deal, worth $1B. The San Francisco based Private Equity firm invests in middle market companies with Enterprise values of $35M to $500M. Here is a look at the other funds based out of countries like United Kingdom, Spain and Malaysia which successfully raised funding in the last week.