~$1B has been invested in the Consumer HealthTech space in 2016YTD

According to our Tracxn Report, funding in Consumer HealthTech increased by 53% in 2015, with startups in the space raising $2.9B during the year, marking the sector’s highest all-time funding volume. This marks an increase of ~550% in funding volume since 2013. Notable funding rounds in the year include Guahao $345M Series D raise. The year also witnessed Oscar Health’s $177.5M raise from a series B round and an unknown round, as well as Clover Health’s $100M in its Series A and B round.

Our Consumer HealthTech report covers consumer facing solutions (B2C) which help a person diagnose, treat and prevent medical conditions and manage their health pre and post treatment. According to the report, the companies have raised more than $7.3B in cumulative funding since 2010, with startups in the US leading the charge. Over the last two years, however, the sector has seen more contribution from emerging markets, in terms of funding. So far ~$1B has been invested in the space in 2016.

The sector has also seen a greater number of deals in 2015, increasing to 294 from the 248 deals in 2014. The number of funding rounds has increased at a rate of 29.1% between 2013 and 2014, indicating that the average funding per round has spiked.

This increase in funding activity is in line with the number of startups entering the space, with the number of companies founded seeing an average growth of 345%. Out of all the companies founded in 2015, more than 12% are Online Pharmacy stores, followed by Appointment Booking platforms.

Healthcare Delivery is the most funded Business Model

Currently, in terms of funding, the Consumer HealhTech space has been dominated by startups in Healthcare Delivery, which includes solutions that help a user to get healthcare services from third parties – stakeholders other than patients, in a patient’s journey. Startups in the segment have so far raised ~$6.1B, and the number of startups in the space has increased by 28% in the 2014-15 timeframe.

The sector’s other segment, ie, Personal Health management, has so far raised $1.9B in cumulative funding.

Roch Health, Health Box, Matrix Partners, and Y Combinator are the Most Active Investors

Roch Health was among the most active investors in Consumer HealhTech, having invested in CellScope, Coping Tutor, Ginger.io, Labdoor, Mango Health, Neumitra, Spire, Wildflower Health and others. Healthbox also features with investments in Abiogenix, Centrana Health, Corengi, DermLink, eTect, Gecko Health Innovation, HomeTouch. Matrix Partners and Y-Combinator are also part of the list.

Note: Solutions like listing, appointment booking portals, marketplaces, which help patients avail healthcare services have also been included in the report. The report primarily consists of digital solutions such as mobile apps, web solutions, connected and non-connected devices. However, companies offering fitness products and services are excluded. Further, it also excludes hospitals or their franchisees, and medical centers.

Preview the report here:

Disclaimer – This list excludes the investments made by venture capital arms of corporate firms

On April 28, 2016, RBI, the Indian Central Bank, issued a public consultation paper on P2P lending regulations in India. Though the paper only states the proposed rules and solicits feedback/comments, it does give an idea about the RBI’s stand towards P2P lending. The central bank, while drafting the regulations, seems to have taken cues from P2P lending regulations around the globe.

The proposed regulations clearly show that RBI wants to be gentle with P2P lending platforms while also ensuring that all the necessary checks are in place. It is quite evident from the paper which states that ‘If the sector is left unregulated altogether, there is the risk of unhealthy practices being adopted by one or more players, which may have deleterious consequences.

It has proposed to bring P2P lending platforms under its purview by defining P2P platforms as NBFCs under section 45I(f)(iii) of the RBI Act. Also, the portals will have to adopt company structure and cannot operate as individuals, proprietorship, partnership or Limited Liability Partnerships as those do not fall under the purview of RBI.

As per the Tracxn database, there are around 38 P2P lending platforms, at present, in India, of which 20 were founded in 2015.

Some of the prominent proposed regulations are:

1) Platform can only act as intermediary and not lend on its balance sheet

The platform could be registered only as an intermediary, i.e., the role of the platform would be limited to connecting borrowers with the lender, without the loans getting reflected on platform’s balance sheet.

2) Minimum capital requirement of INR 20 Million (USD $301k)

The RBI has mandated an INR 20 million capital requirement for the platforms, same as that for NBFCs. It has stated that it would prescribe a leverage ratio so that the platforms do not expand with indiscriminate leverage. It may also limit the exposure of an individual lender to a particular borrower/ segment.  

3) Direct transfer of funds from lender to borrower

The funds will have to necessarily move directly from the lender’s bank account to the borrower’s bank account to obviate the threat of money laundering. This is done to avoid the risk of leakage of money by the platforms. This rules out money pooling for transactions, as happens in the case of a majority of P2P lending platforms globally wherein the escrow mechanism is in place to facilitate money pooling and disbursal.

4) No promise of guaranteed returns to the lenders

The platforms will be allowed to give their opinion about the creditworthiness of the borrower but they cannot guarantee returns to the lenders. The situation arose in China where P2P lending platforms were alluring lenders by offering guaranteed returns.

5) P2P lender need to have a brick and mortar place of business in India

Having a physical presence will add to the sense of security as lenders will be more satisfied knowing the location of the business.

6) Reporting Requirement

The platforms will need to submit regular reports on their financial position, loans arranged each quarter, complaints etc. to the RBI. This will ensure accountability of the platforms and discourage them from facilitating risky loans. It will also help RBI monitor the activities of the platforms and take preemptive corrective actions.

The central bank also proposed that the recovery practices of P2P lending platforms be regulated as those of NBFCs.

One thing that the paper doesn’t mention is about the ceiling on the interest rates charged to borrowers and the commission charged by the platform.

These regulations clearly show that RBI is in favor of P2P lenders operating in the country. This would definitely increase source of financing for SMEs. Also, they might actually give competition to the existing NBFCs in future by offering lower interest rates owing to minimal physical presence.

The RBI has sought feedback from the public on its consultation paper by May 31. Once these rules are in place, it would be interesting to see how P2P lending space evolves in the country.

You can refer to the full Consultation Paper here – Link

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally 

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – ROBO ADVISORS

• Acorns, an automated micro-investment app, raised $30M funding led by Paypal. Link
• LPL Financial announced that it will use BlackRock Solution’s FutureAdvisor to offer its advisors a digital advice solution. Link
• Lending Robot, an automated investment service for marketplace lending, announced a mobile application to track portfolio performance in peer lending investments. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Pritle (2015, Amsterdam) – Algorithm based automated investment service.

LEADER BOARD – ROBO ADVISORS

Full Stack Platform – Automated Investing
Wealthfront (2008, Palo Alto, $129.5M) – Fully automated investment service. Backed by Spark Capital, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital and DAG Ventures.
Betterment (2008, NYC, $205M) – Fully automated investment service with a focus on goal based investment. Also offers a B2B service for RIAs. Backed by Francisco Partners, Menlo Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Northwestern Capital and Globespam Capital Partners.

Full Stack Platform – Micro Investing
Acorns (2012, Irvine, $32M) – Micro investment app for investing spare change into a portfolio of ETFs. Backed by Greycroft Partners, E.Ventures, JAM Equity Partners, Great Oaks Venture Capital and Steelpoint Capital Partners.

Full Stack Platform – Retirement Plan
Blooom (2013, Overland Park (Kansas), $4.7M) – Automated investment platform for managing 401(K) accounts. Backed by QED Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Commerce Ventures.
Rebalance IRA (2012, Palo Alto) – Automated investment service which specializes in managing retirement savings.

Full Stack Platform – P2P Lending
LendingRobot (2012, Bellevue, $3M) – Automation tools for strategy optimization and systematic execution of investments in P2P loans. Backed by Runa Capital.

Advisor Assisted Platform
PersonalCapital (2009, Redwood City, $104M) – Financial advice platform that provides human interaction as well as digital tool to clients. Backed by Corsair Capital, Crosslink Capital, Venrock Capital and Institutional Venture Partners.

Recommendation Platform
MyDepotCheque (2012, Zurich, $2.9M) –  Platform that offers independent investment advise to users to check their existing investments and compare offers from various providers.
FinancialGuard (2009, Salt Lake City, $2M) – Investment accounts aggregator that provides actionable advise on user’s investment portfolio. Backed by Cherokee & Walker.

Enablers – Technology for RIAs
Envestnet (1999, Chicago, IPO) – Offers robo-advisory tools to RIAs by acquiring Upside’s technology. Went public in 2010.
Jemstep (2008, Los Altos, $15M, Acq.) – White label investment management solution for advisors. Backed by Caleo Capital. Acquired by Invesco in January 2016.
Trizic (2011, SF, $5M) – White label Robo Advisory solution provider for brokerages, asset managers, banks and RIAs. Backed by Operative Capital.

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 Robo-Advisors feed.

A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally

RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – 3D PRINTING

• Desktop Metal, developing affordable desktop metal inkjet 3d printer, raises $33.8 Million Link
• MXD3D, which allows users to get 3D models for their gameplay and make 3D models 3D printable, raised $4.3M Link
• 3D Scan to 3D Print app Scandy raises $1m in seed funding Link
• Polar3d, a startup trying to embed 3D printing in education, acquired STEAMtrax which prepares curriculum that integrates engineering and 3D printing technology  from 3D Systems Link
• Nano Dimension patents new hybrid process for Electronic 3D Printing. Link

SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND

Gizmo 3D Printers (2014, Brisbane) – Gizmo 3D Printers manufactures and sells DLP 3D printers and 3D printer resin, parts and accessories. Their printers are low cost and high speed comparative to same class of printers in market.
Nexa3D (2015, Rome) – Developed Lubricant Sublayer Photocuring technology for 3D Printing which uses film that gradually releases a thin oil layer that allows the object to form independently suspended from the liquid. It prints 41x faster than the existing 3D printers in the market.

LEADER BOARD – 3D PRINTING

3D Printers – Horizontal
3D Systems (1986, Rockhill, IPO) – Inventor of SLA Printing and is a horizontal player in providing advanced solid imaging solutions. IPO in 2008.
Stratasys (1989, Minneapolis, IPO) – Inventor of FDM Printing and develops 3D Printers for rapid prototyping and production. IPO in 2008.
Makerbot (2009, Brooklyn, $10M, Acq.) – Personal, Professional and Industrial 3D Printers built on RepRap Project. Acquired by Stratasys in 2013.

3D Printers – Industrial
Xjet3D (2014, Rehovot, $91M) – Metal 3D printers with their patented NanoParticle Jetting  technology.
Backed by Autodesk, Landa Ventures, Gemini Israel Funds, catalyst Fund.

3D Printers – Professional
Carbon 3D (2013, Redwood City, $151M) – CLIP Technology for 25-100 times faster 3D Printing. Backed by Google Ventures, Sequoia, Northgate and Reinet.
Mcor Technologies (2005, Louth, $31M) – 3D Printers for Rapid Prototyping by just using A4 Paper. Backed by WHEB.  

3D Printers – Personal
New Matter (2014, Pasadena, $6.5M) – Affordable Desktop 3D printers. Backed by Dolby ventures,Firstround, alsop-louie and frogdesign  

3D Printers – Electronics
Nano Dimension (2014, Israel, IPO) – 3D Printers and nano-inks for electronics. IPO in 2015.
Voxeljet (1999, Munich, IPO) – Industrial 3D printers and on-demand custom parts services to industrial and commercial customers. IPO in 2013.

3D Printing Pens
Creopop (2013, Singapore, $2M) – 3D Printing pens manufacturer with cool inks, fast curing photosensitive resins.

3D Scanning
Matterport (2011, Mountainview, $56M) – Camera for creating 3D Models of interior spaces. Backed by Felicis Ventures, Lux Capital, Greylock Partners and Qualcomm.
Structure (2008, Boulder, $20M) – 3D mapping attachable devices for smartphones. Backed by Techstars, Intel Capital and Grishin Robotics.

3D Modeling Tools
GrabCAD (2009, Cambridge, $13.5M, Acq.) – SaaS Based CAD Collaboration tool. Backed by Astrec Baltic, Matrix Partners, Atlas, NextView and Charles River Ventures. Acquired by Stratasys in 2014.
SketchFab (2012, Paris, $9.5M) – Online platform to publish, share and embed interactive 3D content. Backed by Balderton Capital, Partech, Borealis Ventures, FirstMark and Techstars.

3D Printed Objects
Shapeways (2008, NYC, $78.5M) – Marketplace to buy, make and sell 3D Printed Objects. Backed by Lux Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
Sols (2013, NYC, $19M) – 3D Printed customized Insoles. Backed by Lux Capital, Terawatt ventures and RRE.

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 3D Printing feed.

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

INTERESTING STARTUPS

Upwardly (2016, Bangalore) Personalized wealth management & advisory platform. Founders from Myntra, Zovi, Indiabulls Securities, Citi Bank, GE Capital and alumni of IIM A, FMS Delhi, IIT BHU and IIT Bombay. Local comparables include FundsIndia (2009, Chennai) and ScripBox(2012, Bangalore). Global comparables are Betterment (2008, NYC) and Wealthfront (2008, Palo Alto)

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

MobiKwik (2009, Gurgaon) Online recharge and mobile wallet raises $50M in funding from Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway and Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company MediaTek Link

Shriram Land Development (2003, Bangalore) Real estate developer raises  $4.5M from Nisus Finance services Link

Agile Parking Solutions (2014, Ghaziabad) Parking space marketplace raises $376K from Chennai Angels Link

MyDentistChoice (2014, Hyderabad) B2B e-commerce portal for dental products raises $150K in seed round from US-based investor Link

Prescribez (2015, Pune) Healthcare app raises $145K in seed round from angel investor Ankush Mehta Link

Airwood (2013, Chennai) Agri-tech startup raises undisclosed amount of funding in seed round from StartupXseed Ventures LLP Link

DriveU (2015, Bangalore)  Mobile app to get on demand drivers for personal cars acquiresCallAtHome (2015, Gurgaon) Mobile app based chauffeur service Link

Swiss Re (1863, Zurich) Global re-insurer launches corporate accelerator ‘InsurTech’ to help startups develop business solutions for the insurance sector in India Link

JunoTele (2011, Singapore) Mobile payments platform appoints  Vikrant Khorana, former PayUMoney executive as chief business officer Link

Yumist (2014, Gurgaon) Comfort food on demand provider stops operations in Bangalore Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Oracle (1977, Redwood City) Global software company acquires Opower (2007, Arlington) Cloud-based energy software company for $532M Link

Graybug Vision (2011, Baltimore) Pharmaceutical company developing ophthalmology products raises $44.5M in Series B funding from  Deerfield management company Link

Homology Medicines (2016, Lexington) Genetic medicines company raises $43.5M in series A round led by Arthur Tzianabos, Sam Rasty and Albert Seymour Link

Varo Money (2015, SF) Mobile only neo-bank raises $27M in funding from Warburg Pincus and David Coulter Link

Exinda (2002, Toronto) WAN optimization with network orchestration platform raises $10M in Debt financing from Wellington financial Link

mynfo (2014, Florida) Media platform for marketers and consumers raises $6.8M series A funding led by Almaz capital Link

EclecticIQ (2014, Amsterdam) Threat intelligence management tool raises $6M in series A funding led by Inked capital and Kpn ventures Link

Chegg (2005, Santa Clara) Online tutoring platform acquires Imagine Easy Solutions (2001, NYC) Online bibliography and research tools Link

Vimeo (2004, NYC) Video upload and Sharing platform acquires VHX (2011, Brooklyn) Video distribution platform to boost its video-on-demand business Link

Heritage Group, Nashville-based venture capital firm raises healthcare venture capital fund of $220M Link

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

INTERESTING STARTUPS

Indiez (2016, Mumbai) On-demand marketplace of software professional freelancer. Founders from Ola, Housing, P&G Inductis and IIT Bombay alumnus. Local companies in the same space are Truelancer (2014, Delhi) and Spotwrks (2014, Gurgaon). Global comparables are Crew (2012, Montreal, $12.4M) and Gigster (2013, SF, $12.5M)

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

Vatsalya (Bangalore) Centre for oral health raises $1.65M in pre-series A round of funding from S-Squared Capital Investments Link

Zwayam (2015, Bangalore) Platform for companies to build career sites raises $250K in seed round from unknown angel investors Link

1mg (2012, Gurgaon) appoints former Zomato executive Tanmay Saksena as Chief operating officer Link

Kalaari Capital, Bangalore based VC firm invests $500K each in Active.AI, Indee (2010, SF) Cloud based, secure screeners technology for independent filmmakers and Affordplan (2016, Delhi) Saving plans for medical treatment Link

CarDekho (2008, Jaipur) Online auto portal for car research and buying/selling deals acquiresVolob Technologies (2010, Noida) Virtual reality startup Link

Prepathon (2012, Mumbai) Learning app for competitive exams raises undisclosed amount of funding in pre-series A round from Blume ventures Link

Zuver (2015, Mumbai) Mobile app providing chauffeur services raises $180K in seed round from Shruth & Smith Holdings and Hermes Group Link

iDreamCareer.com (2012, Delhi) Online career assessment platform raises undisclosed amount of funding in pre-series A round  from Brand Capital Link

Murmur App (2015, Gurgaon) Mobile first entertainment and news provider, previously named as Bluegape shuts down Link

Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Menlo Park based venture capital firm solds its entire India portfolio to New Quest Capital Partners, Hong Kong based private equity platform Link

Uber (2009, SF) App-based asset-light cab operator collaborates Paytm (2010, Noida) Mobile wallet, e-commerce platform and payment bank and Alipay (2004, Hangzhou) Online payment service provider to enable their users to book and pay for cab rides from respective apps globallyLink

Zapdel (2013, Vadodra) Food ordering marketplace raises undisclosed amount of funding in second round of angel funding Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Age of Learning (2007, Los Angeles) Gamified platform and content for kids of age 2-7 raises $150M at a $1B valuation from Iconiq Link

Ideaya Biosciences (2015, SF) Synthetic lethality medicines targeting DNA damage and repair to treat cancer raises $46M in series A funding from 5AM Ventures, Canaan Partners, Celgene, WuXi Healthcare Ventures, Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research and Alexandria Real EstateLink

Digital Reasoning (2000, Franklin) Developer of cognitive computing technology raises $40M in series D funding led by Lemhi Ventures and Nasdaq, Goldman Sachs and HCA Link

Maana (2012, Palo Alto) Search Engine for Big Data based Applications raises $26M in Series B funding led by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Shell Technology Ventures, GE Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Intel Capital and Frost Data Capital Link

Zooz (2010, Tel Aviv) Technology payment platform with smart routing facility raises $24M in funding led by Target Global Ventures, fang Fund, iAngels, Kreos Capital, Blumberg Capital, lool ventures, Rhodium, Claltech, XSeed Capital, CampOne Ventures and Eilon Tirosh Link

CloudHealth Technologies (2012, Boston) IT service management for the cloud raises $20M in series C funding  led by Sapphire ventures Link

Bench (2012, Vancouver) Virtual bookkeeping for SMBs raises $16M in series B funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, Altos Ventures and Contour Venture Partners Link

IPG (2004, Alpharetta) Developer of device benefit management solution raises $15M in Debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank Link

Envera Health (2015, Richmond) Engagement optimization platform for healthcare providers and patients raises $14M in funding from Harbert Venture Partners, Noro-Moseley Partners and New Richmond Ventures Link

Google (1998, Mountain View) acquires Synergyse (2013, Toronto) Interactive training for Google apps Link

Microsoft (1974, Redmond) acquires Solair (2011, Casalecchio di Reno) IoT service provider Link

In spite of seeing the least number of funding rounds in 2015, at 32 deals, the Smart Grid space witnessed its highest funding volume during the year with a total of $413M invested

According to our Tracxn Report, the Smart Grid sector witnessed its highest funding volume during 2015 with a total of $413M invested. The surge in funding has happened in spite of the sector witnessing a decrease in the number of deals, indicating that the sector is now seeing an increase in the average ticket size, largely due to the increasing amounts from late stage deals.

Notable deals during 2015 include Sigfox’s $115M raise from Telefónica, SK Telecom, DoCoMo, ENGIE, Air Liquide, Eutelsat, Elliott Management, and Bpifrance. The year also saw Younicos raise $50M from First Solar, Grupoecos, and Stem’s $45M raise from RWE Ventures, Mitsui & Co. Till date, 2016 has seen a total of $74M raised through 8 deals, with four Series A investments into GoElectric, Origami Energy, Powerhive, and mPrest.

Our Smart Grid  report covers companies providing smart and secure solutions for improving electricity grid. These companies include Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), T&D Management, utility services, data analytics and microgrid companies. According to the report, the companies have raised a total of $3.1B in funding across ~250 Companies with $1.37B invested since 2011. The sector has also seen a good amount of M&A activity with 35 acquisitions in last 10 years.

One of the major reasons for the interest in the sector is due to the advent of communications, networking technologies and Industrial IoT platforms, where grids have started getting connected with more information.

As mentioned above, funding in the sector, in terms of value, has been mostly dominated by late stage deals. 2015,  in particular, received most Series C funding amount mainly because of investments in Stem and First Fuel Software.

On the other hand, 2011 witnessed most of the Early Stage ( Series A&B) investments, due to an increase in smart grid activity. The later years, ie 2012 and 2013, received the most Series B funding with most of the companies getting funded, for further rounds, linked to the deployments of smart grid technologies across the globe by various countries.

Data Analytics is the most funded Business Model

Currently, in terms of funding, Data Analytics companies have seen the highest share of the investment in the smart grid space, with a cumulative investment of around $1B. This can be attributed to the advent of Industrial IoT and smart applications. Major investments have been in Energy Intelligence, Asset Intelligence, and Demand Response. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Horizontal companies follow, with AMI receiving 50% of funding in the past five years

In fact, Data Analytics, along with AMI companies have received highest funding in 2015. Microgrids, as an upcoming segment, witnessed its largest funding activity in 2015. Younicos is the biggest player in this sector with funding of $50M.

Siemens Venture Capital, Foundation Capital, and Intel Capital are the Most Active Investors

Siemens Venture Capital was among the most active investors in electric vehiclesSmart Grid, having invested in 5 companies, including the likes of Tendril, eMeter, SmartSynch, BPL Global, and Power Plus Communications. Also, part of the list are Foundation Capital and Intel Capital.

Note: The report also covers companies which include Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), T&D Management, utility services, data analytics and microgrid companies. Companies that enable demand management and utilization of generated electricity at residential and commercial spaces are also within the purview of this report. Data analytics companies covering demand response, customer engagement and forecasting are also included in this report. Power and distribution giants like General Electric, Schneider Electric, and Siemens are excluded from the scope of the report. However, large companies that have presence mainly into the smart grid like Eaton, Elster, Itron are included in the report.

Preview the report here:

Funding in the Online Gifting space witnessed an increase of 277% in 2015/16, vis-a-vis 2014, with a total $196M raised, with the Gift Cards and Florists segments contributing to a majority of the funding activity

Funding in the Online Gifting space witnessed an increase of 277% in 2015/16, vis-a-vis 2014, with a total $196M raised, with the Gift Cards and Florists segments contributing to a majority of the funding activity. In fact, the Gift Cards and Florists segments accounted for 33% and 28% of total funding respectively. The Florists segment, in particular, witnessed a 126% increase in funding over the previous year with notable rounds including Aishang Xianhua’s $16.1M Series C round, and Easy Flower’s $12M Series A round.

Notable deals in the gift cards segment include Raise raising 56M in series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Stockpile’s $15.0M funding led by Sequoia.

The Tracxn Report covers consumer-facing online platforms that enable users to buy products like gift cards, flowers, merchandise, etc. for end users without the expectation of payment from the end user. According to the report, the sector saw over $431M invested through 179 rounds. Funding in 2015 accounted for $181M of the total, which is more than the sector had raised in the last 4 years. So far, 2016 has witnessed a total raise of $15M.

The number of deals, as well, has increased to 38 in 2015/16 YTD from the 27 deals that took place in the previous year. The Average funding is the highest in 2015 with 34 rounds receiving funding amount of $181M. The major portion of the deals has been in the early stage, with the average value/round for early stage rounds standing at $2M.

Gift Cards is the highest funded segment followed by Florists

The gift cards segment has seen the most funding, with $181M invested in the space, out of which $87M was secured in 2015. Within the segment, Raise is the highest funded company having raised close to $76M, and a valuation close to $1B.

The Florist segment, which is fast growing, has also seen significant funding, raising $121M, The total funding in the segment in 2015 is $43M which is 50% of total funding in the segment during 2012-16. The space is also being driven by the fact that florist startups are now using tech-enabled platforms having mobile apps and online stores providing personalized bouquets and arrangements. Also, subscription based flower delivery companies have helped in reducing costs by reducing spoilage related to this industry, and thus, clones of this business model are being seen across multiple geographies including Europe, China, India and Southeast Asia.

Y-Combinator, Sequoia Capital, SV Angel and Founder Collective are the most active investors

Y-Combinator stands out as the sector’s most active investor, having funded five companies including Cardpool, Spark Gift, and BloomThat. Sequoia Capital follows having invested in a total of four companies, namely Karma, Stockpile, Basha, and Liwushuo. SV Angel and Founder Collective also feature in the list with a total of three investments a piece.

Note: This report does not cover horizontal online companies like Amazon, which also provides gifting products on its platform, SaaS platform enabling gifting and offline first companies. Major sectors covered in this report are platforms selling Gift Cards, Florists, Gift Registries, etc. 

Check out the report here:

Funding in the Customer Success Management space continues to see an upward trend, with $213M raised through 29 deals in 2015

According to our Tracxn Report, funding in Customer Success Management increased by 60% in 2015, with startups in the space raising ~$213M during the year, vis-a-vis the $133M raised in 2014. This continues an upward trend in funding volume for the sector since 2012. On the other side, the number of deals has decreased to 29 from the 36 rounds in the previous year, indicating an increase in the average funding ticket size per deal. So far, over $76M has been invested in 2016 across 5 rounds.

Gainsight, which had earlier contributed significantly to the sectors funding in 2013 and 2014, raising $23M and $25M respectively during those years, has once again played a major role in the funding volume of 2015, raising $50M through its Series D round from Insight Partners, Battery, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, Summit Partners.

According to the Tracxn Customer Success Management report, over $600M has been invested in the space, with 70% of the funding from 2014-2016 YTD. The report also finds that 90% of the companies were founded in last 5 years, with 2015 seeing the maximum number. The number of companies founded has been seeing an increasing trend since 2010 with a period of 2012-2014 seeing a constant number.

The sector has also witnessed a steep increase in the number of early-stage rounds during 2010 – 2014, with the number of seed rounds increasing from 2 in 2010 to 31 in 2014. Considering the sector is still an emerging discipline, with companies cropping up initially in 2009, the number of late stage deals still remains relatively low.

Customer Metrics is the top funded sector in Customer Success Management

Currently, in terms of funding, the Customer Success management space has been dominated by startups in the Customer Metrics segment, with Gainsight leading the charge. A total of $278M has been invested in the segment with 90% going to companies which are doing both prescriptive(rules based algorithms) and predictive algorithms to fight the problem of churn.

Salesforce and TechStars are the Most Active Investors

Salesforce and TechStars are the most active investor in the space having invested in 3 companies a piece. Salesforce ’s portfolio consists of Gainsight, Natero, and Pendo, while TechStars has invested in ClientSuccess, Kapta Systems, and Madkudu.

Other notable investors in the space include Social Capital, Bessemer Ventures, Karlin Venture, and Gemini Israel Ventures.

Preview the report here: 

The funding volume in the Sales Force Automation space during 2015 has doubled from the previous year, with a total of $1.7B raised through 125 deals.

According to the latest Tracxn report, the funding volume in the Sales Force Automation space during 2015 has doubled from the previous year, with a total of $1.7B raised through 125 deals. While this continues an upward trend in terms of funding volume since 2012, the funding in 2015 has skyrocketed along, owing to the fact that the sector’s investors are now taking larger and less risky bets on proven companies.

The Tracxn Sales Force Automation report covers all B2B software providers for sales teams to manage their sales process and optimize them effectively. According to the report, over $4.9B has been invested in last 10 years with more than half of the amount invested in last 2 years alone. Among the notable deals is Docusign raising $393M in multiple rounds from Brookeside Capital, Dell, NTT Finance, Mitsui & Co and Recruit Holdings and Intel Capital. The year also saw Conga raising $70M from Insight Partners

Due to the trend of investors investing more into proven startups, 2015 has witnessed a large number of late stage deals. In fact, $2.1B has been invested in late stage rounds since 2014, along with a surge in companies raising multiple follow-on late-stage rounds.

On the other hand, the number of early-stage rounds has dropped since 2014, with $422 coming from such deals.

M&A Activity in sector on a rise

The sector is also witnessing an increasing number of Mergers and Acquisitions, with the total number of acquisitions in the past 10 years rounding off at 44. 2015 seeing a total of 14 acquisitions, witnessed the most number of acquisitions and 2016 looks set to follow the trend, already seeing 3 acquisitions. The acquisition of Steelbrick by Salesforce in 2015 for an upwards of $300M is the largest for the year. Salesforce, in fact, stands out as being one of the most acquirers, along with CallidusCloud and Linkedin. Horizontal players like Microsoft and Oracle are also actively acquiring companies in the sector.

Lead Management is the highest funded subsector

With a total of $1.3B raised, the Lead Management segment is the sector’s most funded sector. The segment has also witnessed a high amount of M&A activity, with the number of acquisitions in the more than doubling in 2015/2016 YTD as compared to 2014. The Lead Scoring subsegment within Lead Management has seen the most success, in terms of funding and has also witnessed the highest number of acquisitions as horizontal players look to improve their offering. Predictive lead scoring, in particular, has seen much funding in 2015, backed by increasing confidence in predictive intelligence. Enterprises are also expected to adopt these solutions. However, integrations with existing CRM’s will be a major factor for the growth of this segment.

Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Battery Ventures are the Most Active Investors

We mentioned Salesforce earlier as being one of the most active acquirers in the space, and in terms of investments its investment arm, Salesforce Ventures features among the most active investors list, having invested in Docusign, InsideSales, Financial Force, and Apttus. Also featured in the list are Sequoia Capital, with investments in Everstring, Lattice Engines, Inkling, and Mintigo, and Battery Ventures, whose portfolio includes RelateIQ, 6Sense, Lattice Engines, and LeadSpace.

Preview the report here: 

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

INTERESTING STARTUPS

Arctos Networks (2016, Bangalore) APT and malware detection platform. Founder from Cyphort Inc, Rinix Mobile Security, Cyber Alpha Consulting, Symantec and alumni of Anna University. Local company in the same space is Paladion (2000, Bangalore, $10.5M). Global comparables include Vectra Networks (2011, San Jose, $77.8M) and Cyphort (2011, San Jose, $53.7M).   

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

Lenskart (2010, Delhi) Online and offline eyewear brand raises $60M from IFC, Ratan Tata and others Link

Comarete Technologies (2015, Pune) Technology and consulting company and SolarTown Energy Solution (2012, Chennai) Solar solutions and EPC services provider together raises $210K  from GREX Link

Easy Roads (2015, Mumbai)  Road trip planning app raises $200K in angel funding from Rohan Angrish, Hrishi Oberoi, Rahul Mehta, Kapil Hetamsaria,and Pranav Dedhia Link

Unbxd (2010, Bangalore) E-commerce product discovery software provider raises undisclosed amount of funding in series B round from Nirvana Venture Advisors, IDG Ventures, Inventus Capital and Indian Angel Network Link

ClassVerse (2015, Delhi) Monthly membership card to access multiple fitness centres shuts down Link

Ola (2011, Bangalore) App-based asset-light cab operator experiments with third party logistics service for B2B businesses Link

Flipkart (2007, Bangalore) India’s largest online retailer’s valuation is marked down by Valic Co and Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II Link

YouWeCan ventures, Yuvraj Singh promoted early stage fund ventures into fast-moving fashion casual wear space under YWC (YouWeCan) label Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Farfetch (2007, London) Curated fashion boutique marketplace raises $110M in series F funding led by IDG Capital Partners, Temasek Holdings, Eurazeo and Vitruvian Partners Link

VTS (2011, NYC) Real Estate management and leasing platform raises $55M in series C funding led by Insight Venture Partners, Openview Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures Link

ChargePoint (2007, Campbell) EV charging network operator raises $50M in funding led by Linse Capital, Braemar Energy Ventures, Constellation Energy, Statoil Energy Ventures, Envision Ventures, Jan Klatten, Michael Liebreich and Rick wagoner Link

Roli (2009, Dalston) Music technology company raises $27M in series B funding led by Foundry group, BGF Ventures, Founders Fund, Balderton Capital, Firstmark Capital, Index Ventures, Horizons Ventures, and Universal Music Group Link

ON24 (1998, SF) Webinar and webcasting software solutions provider raises $25M from Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing Link

Appboy (2011, NYC) User analytics and engagement platform for mobile apps raises $20M in series C funding led by Battery Ventures, Shasta Ventures and others Link

Winc (2011, LA) Wine retailer raises $17.5M in series B funding led by Xander Oxman, Geoff McFarlane, Shining Capital,  Bessemer Venture Partners Link

OutboundEngine (2012, Austin)  Marketing platform  for SMBs raises $16M in series C funding led by S3 Ventures, Silverton Partners, Noro-Moseley, Harmony Partners, Altos Ventures and Capital factory Link

Haven (2014, SF) Marketplace for ocean freight raises $11M in series A funding led by Spark capital, AITV, O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures, Data Collective and First Round Capital Link

Sirnaomics (2007, Gaithersburg) Biopharmaceutical company raises $10M in series B funding led by Value Measured Investment Limited Link

Non-Humans have Game of Thrones fan theories as well

Note: Let’s start by saying that this post has major spoilers ahead, so Game of Throne fans who are not up to date with Season 6, look away

With that out of the way – ‘Hodor’

So we are already into Season 6 of Game of Thrones, and fans are already celebrating the return (possibly) of a beloved character. The resurrection of this particular character was in fact predicted by many fans, and while fan theories are a dime a dozen, Season 6 also has had a number of ‘non-humans’ that have weighed in with their predictions. To be specific, there have been a few Artificial Intelligence platforms out there which have made predictions which we are still waiting to see pan out.

And being the GoT fans that we are, we decided to take a look at a few of them:

The TUM AI – No, Not Arya!

Students at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an AI algorithm, suitably called A Song of Ice and Data, that has predicted which of the show’s characters are likely to die in the new season. Basically, the AI crawls through data available online, and through the Song of Ice and Fire books, and, of course, the TV Show, to derive predictions on who would be most likely to kick the bucket next. Spoiler– They were right about Jon Snow

Here are the predictions –

 IBM Watson – Jon Snow may know nothing, but IBM Watson was right about him

IBM’s Watson has made some predictions for the fate of everyone’s favorite characters, wherein an IBM researcher, Vinith Misra, used a Watson Program called Personality Insights to analyze GoT characters have evolved in the first five books, and what to expect from Season/book six. Basically, the AI has made predictions pertaining to the fates of Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Sansa Stark, among others:

• As Daenerys Targaryen embraces her inner Khaleesi and queenship, she is slowly losing her openness and liberalism and is becoming simultaneously more worried, angry, assertive and dutiful
• Sansa Stark’s original extraversion and cheerfulness have been replaced by self-consciousness, an imaginative internal life, and dutifulness
• Her sister, Arya Stark, has become hardened throughout the books. She is now less vulnerable and less prone to worry
• Tyrion Lannister’s initially more trusting and disciplined persona has given way to a vulnerable and emotional alcoholic
• Jon Snow has changed from being the angry, vulnerable, adventure-seeking youth to a disciplined, intelligent, and cautious leader. – When we first read this a few weeks back, we honestly though IBM Watson was way off, all things considered. But turns out that they could probably have got this one right

Maluuba – The AI that knows who killed Jon Snow

Maluuba, a Canadian startup, had posted a YouTube video showcasing its artificial-intelligence software, by reading the synopsis for the fifth season of “Game of Thrones’” and immediately knowing all of the show’s plot lines. When asked, “Who stabbed Jon Snow?”, the AI software replies “Night’s Watch”.

This is technology that goes beyond voice assistant applications such as Siri, and should be considered as a major breakthrough in the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

So, need to get caught up on GoT, just ask Maluuba.

PredictWise – Queen Daenerys (FTW!)

Game of Throne’s is not all about death (really!), and PredictWise, a prediction market aggregator created by Microsoft Research’s David Rothschild, provides a possible outlook on who might actually win the Game of Thrones and  be the ruler of Westeros.

Daenerys looks to have the best chance of becoming more than the Queen of just Dragons and has a 28 percent chance of winning it all. The recently resurrected (possibly) Jon Snow is also right up there with a 19 percent chance. Not bad for someone who was dead.

The wine-loving Tyrion Lannister has a 9% chance and, as a long shot, Brienne of Tarth has been given a 1% score on PredictWise.

GoT at MIT – Jon Snow is not the most popular character, #justsaying

Turns out Jon Snow is not the most popular character on the Game of Thrones. That honor goes to the Queen of Dragons herself, Daenerys Targaryen, according to the researchers at MIT. Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have used a special algorithm to rank characters in Game of Thrones according to how memorable they are.

For this, CSAIL Ph.D. student Aditya Khosla and graduate student Akhil Raju, along with MIT professors Antonio Torralba and Aude Oliva, used deep learning techniques to get computers to find patterns on their own.

The list ranks Daenerys as the most memorable character and Natalie Dormer’s Margaery Tyrell follows.

Here are the rankings:

Flipkart is one of the most active unicorns with respect to acquiring companies. The acquisitions have been majorly driven by market and investor needs. Initial acquisitions were mainly focused on strengthening and launching new categories in order to create brand awareness and increase customer base. With the acquisitions of Letsbuy.com and Myntra, Flipkart was established as the market leader during their respective time periods. The recent acquisitions are mainly focused on enhancing the product offerings in order to provide a seamless user experience to its customers and value-add services for its merchants. Lately, Flipkart is aggressively making efforts to be on top of nascent and futuristic solutions through acquisitions.

weRead, Dec 2010

With the acquisition of weRead in Dec 2010, Flipkart integrated recommendation tool on its platform that helped users to make more informed purchase decisions. Flipkart instantly expanded its customer base by adding all weRead’s 3M customers and 600 titles. weRead’s widget was available on Facebook, Orkut, Yahoo, MySpace and Hi5. This acquisition allowed Flipkart to own the entire customer book reading experience starting from purchase to referrals.

Mime360, Oct 2011 & Chakpak’s Content Rights, Nov 2011

In the year 2011, Flipkart charted out its digital strategy by creating a roadmap for the launch of digital distribution of music, games and ebooks — Flyte. The decision for the acquisition of Mime360, Mumbai-based digital content platform, was both business and technology driven. With this acquisition, Flipkart gained Mime360’s team, technology coupled with a robust digital distribution platform. Mime360 had notable clientele such as  Saregama delivered music content to publishers like Gaana.com.

In the same year, Flipkart acquired Chakpak’s content. Chakpak was a content portal around films, covering Bollywood, Tamil and Telugu films, with movie timings, news, information, and reviews. Incidentally, Chakpak.com was backed by Accel Partners, an investor in Flipkart which is speculated to be the reason for the acquisition. With this acquisition of rights to content, Flipkart added 40,000 filmographies, 10,000 movies and close to 50,000 ratings into its kitty. The acquisition allowed Flipkart to offer editorial and user-generated content for a vast Indian movies catalog.

These two acquisitions gave a good head start to Flipkart’s digital roadmap until it shut down Flyte in 2013; it was primarily due to  bandwidth constraints and unavailability of micro-payment tools.

Letsbuy, Feb 2012

The year 2012 saw a consolidation in the Indian e-commerce market with Flipkart buying a two-and-a-half-year-old startup Letsbuy.com in a cash and equity deal valued around $20-25M. Letsbuy.com primarily sold consumer electronics, communications, and computer goods, though it expanded its product portfolio to include toys, sports, healthcare, watches, and stationery. Flipkart claims that this acquisition helped in building dominant shares in all categories. Speculations are that Letsbuy.com was not able to raise further rounds of funding and hence was bought out by Flipkart, that shares its investors Tiger Global and Accel Partners with Letsbuy.com.  

Myntra, May 2014

By 2014, Flipkart was selling products across all categories but the categories were mainly dominated by electronics, books, and low-cost apparel. Acquisition of Myntra with its higher margins from branded apparel made perfect sense to help bolster Flipkart’s defenses against Amazon entering India. The deal was valued at $370M. Bringing together India’s largest online retailer and the country’s hippest fashion portal not only made financial sense for the investors but also strategic sense as three of the investors owned shares in both the companies. The idea was to use the combined force to fight Amazon, which was ramping up its year-old India operations, and the narrowing gap between Flipkart’s sales and that of fast-growing rival Snapdeal.

AdIQuity, Mar 2015

The AdIQuity acquisition came as a part of Flipkart’s mobile-first strategy and helped Flipkart strengthen its mobile platform. AdIQuity helped Flipkart foray into mobile advertising space, by providing native and video ads on its app. It also helped provide marketing services to its merchants as well as brands, which could now use Flipkart’s data on consumer shopping behavior to target customers across platforms.  Reportedly, this acquisition was seen as an acquihire.

AppIterate, Apr 2015

Appiterate helped Flipkart in increasing conversion rate by targeting users based on their activity on the app. It also enabled Flipkart to deliver personalized push notifications and in-app messages to its users. This acquisition was also seen as an acquihire. Notably, Flipkart decided to make Myntra app-only in May 2015 and took Flipkart app -only for mobile users in September 2015, shortly after the AdIQquity and Appiterate acquisitions.

FxMart, Sep 2015

FX Mart’s acquisition was driven by the fact that the company owns a semi-closed prepaid wallet license issued by RBI. It marks Flipkart’s entry into the payments space. This move allows Flipkart to allow purchases from third-party merchants, making a push into the payments business. The number of mobile wallets in the country is 11.5 crore, since their launch in 2007 and are growing rapidly in terms of adoption. Flipkart had launched a closed wallet, PayZippy, in 2011. The company later pivoted from being a retailer to a marketplace model, and had to restrict its wallet to products sold by WS Retail. Flipkart applied for a wallet license but failed to secure one and eventually shut down PayZippy. Notably, Flipkart launched its e-wallet in March 2016.

PhonePe, Apr 2016

PhonePe is Flipkart’s second acquisition in the payments space. PhonePe hasn’t yet launched a product but is working on a payments solution around the UPI (Unified Payments Interface). Interestingly, the news of the acquisition came in a few days after UPI was launched by NPCI (National Payments Council of India) UPI is touted to be a revolutionary technology, which uses Aadhaar’s biometric data to authenticate transactions. Aadhaar enrollment crossed the 1 billion mark in April 2016. While promoting transparency through digitizing payments, the technology also aims to make the payments process seamless through simple methods of authentication.

On the occasion of Mother’s Day,  Tracxn looks at 20 of the Top Mom & Baby Care startups which lend a helping hand to new mothers

The companies covered in this infographic are Wzhouhui, Miya Baobei, Honest, Zulily, Lamabang, Beibei, Care.com, Windeln, Babytree, Giggle, FirstCry, 4moms, Aden  + Anais, Haiziwang, Gou.com, Munchkin, Sittercity, PlayKids, Peek, and Yaolan

We, at Tracxn, uncovered some of the most interesting blogs and articles in the VC world. Here is a compilation of them for your weekend read:

AVC – Trends by Fred Wilson

In his blog, Fred Wilson takes a look at some of the most interesting Google trends, and interestingly, Twitter and the smartphone market seem to have risen with a similar curve and are now in decline, with Twitter falling a bit faster than smartphones. The blog also looks at some of the sectors that entrepreneurs and VCs are betting on as the next big thing and, spoiler alert, VR is right up there.

Find this interesting? Read the full version here.

Sneakerhead VC – Call and Response UI/UX design (aka chat bot thought) by Phil Barnes

Chat bots have become a buzzword in the industry, and Phin Barnes of First Round gives his perspective on the chat bot trend in this blog. According to Phil, a bridge to AI might be command lines masquerading as AI driven natural language interfaces – like telling amazon to order more paper towels or texting Uber to, “Take me home” – where the system has specific knowledge about you and your preferences that can create a script that runs when you issue the command.

Read more here.

Life Sci VC- Riding Dancing Unicorns Down The Road To Recap by Bill Gurley

In his blog, Michael Gladstone, Principal at Atlas draws inspiration from Tech VC Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital post about the dangers of the unicorn financing market, and poses the question ‘is the music still playing in 2016 for our dancing unicorns’? Michael feels that it is a challenging and highly risky proposition to try to “time the market.” His solution for this is simple: Fund great teams to develop innovative therapies with milestone-gated investment, continually improving your cost-of-capital as capital intensity increases.

Check out the blog here.

AVC – Coin Center Keynote by Fred Wilson

AVC and Fred Wilson feature again on this list with his keynote presentation at Coin Center’s annual gala dinner. In his keynote, Fred Wilson talks about bitcoin and its resilience, when it comes to facing the challenges in its adoption. He believes that the technology is working, and breakthroughs are yet to come, but they might still be around the corner.

Read the entire keynote here.

The Equity Kicker – Two types of intelligence and the current state of AI by Nic Brisbourne

Nic Brisbourne, Managing partner at European early stage investor Forward Partners, looks at a set of paintings created by Pix18, a decommissioned factory robot trained to paint by picking up a paintbrush and painting on canvas. Nic takes the opportunity to describe to two types of Intelligence. One is Convergent intelligence and divergent intelligence and looks at how these two thoughts fit into the world of Artificial Intelligence

Read the full article here.

Artificial Intelligence has been garnering a lot of interest lately, and many investors have been investing in the trend, with over $3.6B invested in the space last year, through 161 deals. Data Collective Venture Capital and Khosla Ventures have been the most active investors in the space, with 16 investments a piece. AME Cloud Ventures and New Enterprise Associates follow, with both firms having invested in 15 companies.

Here is a list of top 10 Artificial Intelligence Investors with their portfolio. It includes the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Sequoia among others.

The shares price of the company synonymous with the online lending sector crashed by 35% yesterday, post the resignation of its CEO, Renaud Laplanche, following an internal review that revealed faulty loan practices. But the company’s journey up till here has been a rollercoaster ride.

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

INTERESTING STARTUPS

LifeInControl (2015, Gurgaon) Mobile based diabetes management application. Founders are from Microsoft, Vida Systems, EduComp and alumni of Stanford GSB and PSG College of Technology. Local comparable is Diabeto (2012, Mumbai, $65K). Global comparable is Livongo(2014, Chicago, $77.5M)

INDIA INTERESTING NEWS

Capital Float (2013, Bangalore) Online working capital lending platform for small businesses raises $25M in series B round of funding led by Creation Investments Capital Management, SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital and Aspada Ventures Link

Zenify (2012, Bangalore) Property management service company raises $900K in pre-series A round of funding from HNIs Link

Unacademy (2010, Mumbai) Free learning platform raises $500K in funding led by Blume Ventures, Rajan Anandan, Sumit Jain, Phanindra Sama and others Link

Life Circle (2012, Hyderabad) Home nursing and professional care service provider raises $150K from GROUPE SOS Link

Furlenco (2011, Bangalore) Online furniture rental platform ties up with NoBroker (2014, Bangalore) Online P2P broker-free flats & flatmates search platform Link

Freshdesk (2010, Chennai) Customer service support helpdesk enters Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for customer engagement Link

Applyifi (2014, Delhi) Platform for startups to raise funding and pitch deck preparation services provider launches its operations in the ASEAN region Link

IDG Ventures, Beijing based VC firm raises $150M called IDG Ventures India Fund III for Its India Fund Link

GLOBAL ROUNDUP

Bolt Threads (2009, Emeryville) Manufacturer of fibers for textile industry using artificial silk proteins raises $50M in series C funding round led by Formation 8, Nan Fung, Innovation Endeavors, Alafi Capital and others Link

Zephyr (2001, Fremont) Real time enterprise test management platform raises $31M in funding from Frontier Capital Link

Soracom (2014, Tokyo) IoT platform provider raises $22M in series B round of funding from World Innovation Lab, Infinity Venture Partners and others Link

Orderbird (2011, Berlin) Provider of PoS system for hospitality industry raises $20M in series C round of funding led by Metro Group and Concardis Link

Pillar Biosciences (2013, Natick) Developer of genomics based clinical oncology diagnostics raises $18M in funding from ORI Healthcare Fund Link

Brainly (2009, Krakow) Q&A platform for school students raises $15M in series B round of funding led by Naspers Link

Weaveworks (2014, London) Docker Container network raises $15M in series B round of funding led by Google Ventures and  Accel Partners Link

SolAero Technologies (1998, Albuquerque) Provider of satellite solar power and structural solutions acquires Vanguard Space Technologies (1994, San Diego) Provider of aerospace structural products and assemblies Link

Synechron (2001, NYC) Global consulting and technology innovator in the financial services industry acquires Hatstand (1999, London) Provider of global financial services consultancy and capital markets Link

Cherry Ventures, Berlin based VC firm closes $170M in its second fund Led by Filip Dames, Daniel P. Glasner, Christian Meermann and others Link

2015 witnessed 3 mega rounds of over $100M, with the largest being Guahao raising $395M

Deal activity in Healthcare IT continues to hit record highs with 2015 witnessing ~$3.8B invested, an increase of 23% in funding volumes over 2014. The deal count had just increased to 427 in 2015, just nine more deals than the previous year, meaning that average size of investment per deal has significantly increased.

In fact, both deals and dollars have been rising steadily since 2011.

Apart from the increase in funding, 2015 witnessed 3 mega rounds of over $100M, with the largest being Guahao raising $395M in its Series D from Tencent, Goldman Sachs, Hillhouse Capital, Fosun Venture Capital Investment, and China Development Bank Capital. The other deals being Imaging Advantage, which raised $250M from CRG and ZocDoc, which raised $130M from Atomico, Baillie Gifford, and Founders Fund. Due to these mega rounds, the average ticket size has increased from $7.6M in 2014 to $9M in 2015.

This trend has continued in 2016, where $938M has been raised through 102 deals, with an average ticket size of $9.2M. The year has already seen 2 huge rounds, with Flatiron raising $175M and MindMaze raising $118M.

Our Healthcare IT report covers startups primarily focused on developing enterprise facing solutions (B2B or B2B2C) which help healthcare professionals and organizations in all the processes involved in Preventive care, Health care delivery, and Healthcare financing.

Immense amount of Exits in the last year

The Healthcare IT space is witnessing a good amount of M&A Activity with the space seeing at least 30 acquisitions in the last 1 year alone. The period also saw IBM on an acquisition spree in the Healthcare IT sector, mainly to fuel its Watson Health unit. Its acquisitions include Phytel, Explorys, Merge Healthcare (for $1B) and Truven Health Analytics (for $2.6B). The year also witnessed Emdeon (Change Healthcare) acquiring Altegra Health for $910M and a merger between HealthPort and IOD.

The year saw Evolent Health and Inovalon going public by raising $195.5M and $600M respectively in their IPO.

Provider is the top funded segment in Healthcare IT

With a funding of over $6.1B, the Provider Segment stands out as the most funded segment within the Healthcare IT space. The segment includes software solutions delivered on-premise/online for healthcare providers, helping them in clinical and administrative operations like communication, data management, patient engagement, decision support, LIS, PACS, etc. Out of all the companies founded in 2015, more than 50% cater only to the Provider market.

Value based healthcare is a hot sector and the second highest funded segment with $4.3B invested through 746 deals so far. More than 60% of this money adding up to approximately $2.75B have been raised in the last 30 months. The average size of a deal in this period has jumped to $8.3M from $3.7M for the previous 3 years. The segment has emerged as a solution to address rising health care cost, duplication of services, clinical inefficiency and so that patients can get the care they need. This is a departure from the fee-for- service model in which doctors and hospitals were paid on the number of services that were provided like a number of test and procedures.

Rock Health, Dreamit Ventures, Y Combinator, Kae Capital, and Venrock Healthcare Capital are the most active investors

With a portfolio consisting of Amino, AgileMD, Amplify Health, Accountable, Lumity, Health Equity Labs, Sensentia, and others, Rock Health stands out as the sectors most active investors. Dreamit Ventures, Y Combinator, Kae Capital, and Venrock Healthcare Capital follow with investments in startups such as Protenus, Drchrono, and Awarepoint. 

Note: Companies offering consulting and services are excluded from this report. Furthermore, the report does not cover hospitals, medical centres or their franchisees.

Preview the report here: