A daily newsletter summarizing interesting Indian startups and recent activity both in India & globally.
INTERESTING STARTUPS
EZether (2017, Bangalore), platform to trade cryptocurrency. Founders are ex- Braingain, Farmalytics Labs, and are alumni of UC Berkeley. Local comparables are Unocoin (2013, Bangalore, $1.75M) and Coinsecure (2014, Delhi, $1.2M). Global comparable is HitBTC(2014, SF, $11M) and Localbitcoins (2012, Helsinki).
INDIA INTERESTING NEWS
Indiabulls Housing Finance (2005, Gurgaon), provider of home loan and loan against property, raises $154M in funding from Yes Bank. Link
MedPlus (2006, Hyderabad), pharmacy retail chain, raises $117.6M in Debt round of funding from Goldman Sachs. Link
Spice Digital (2000, Noida), mobile value added services and technology solutions provider, invests $3.8M in AnyTimeLoan (2016, Hyderabad), P2P lending platform for personal, education and business loans. Link
emotix (2014, Mumbai), personal social robot for interaction, launches next generation emotionally intelligent companion robot for children in the U.S. Market. Link
GLOBAL ROUNDUP
DNAnexus (2009, Mountain View), cloud-based genome informatics & data management platform, raises $58M in funding led by new investor Foresite Capital with strategic investment from Microsoft, GV, TPG Biotech, WuXi NextCODE, Claremont Creek Ventures, and MidCap Financial. Link
Muscle Food (2013, Nottingham), provider of a range lean meats, high-protein food and sports supplements, raises $13.2M in funding from BGF. Link
SuperMeat (2015, Tel Aviv), biotech company developing technology to produce lab cultured meat, raises $3M in Seed round of funding led by New Crop Capital and Stray Dog Capital. Link
Apple (1976, Cupertino), consumer electronics manufacturer, acquires Buddybuild (2015, Vancouver), mobile iteration platform, for an undisclosed amount. Link
Yeahmobi (2011, Xian), programmatic advertising and retargeting platform, partners with Forensiq (2010, NYC), online advertising fraud detection platform, to bolster ad fraud detection and purify web traffic. Link