Deal Street: Actress Alia Bhatt Turns Investor, Backs Fashion Startup
Your weekly dose of startup deals
Seven startups raised $27 million in angel, seed and venture capital funding across sectors including fashion, healthcare, lending, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and others last week.
Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt became the latest celebrity to don the hat of an investor by backing a Mumbai-based fashion technology startup, joining the likes of Hrithik Roshan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Gul Panag, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh.
Portea Medical Raises $26 Million Led By Two New Investors
Home healthcare startup Portea Medical raised $26 million in a round led by new investors Sabre Partners and MEMG CDC, a joint fund of Manipal Education and Medical Group and U.K.’s development financial institution CDC Group Plc.
Existing investors, including Accel partners, World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation, and Qualcomm Ventures also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.
The Bengaluru-based startup offers services like physiotherapy, doctor consultations, post-natal care, nutritional wellness, diabetic care, surgery discovery and tele-consultation, among others.
The company said it works with more than 50 leading hospital partners, 15 pharma majors and insurance companies in India. In less than five years, the firm has served more than 2.5 lakh customers across 16 cities in India, Meena Ganesh, managing director and chief executive officer, Portea Medical said in the media statement.
Paytm Backs Online Credit Startup CreditMate
One97 Communication Ltd, which runs mobile wallet firm Paytm, invested an undisclosed amount in Mumbai-based fintech startup CreditMate, as it looks to expand its presence in the lending business.
Founded in 2016, CreditMate helps two-wheeler dealers and financiers assess and approve vehicle loans to customers with no formal credit history, Paytm said in a statement. It has partnerships with banks and non-banking financial companies such as Optimus Finance Ltd. and KJMC Financial Services Ltd., as per the company website.
CreditMate evaluates credit worthiness using customer data collected through loan application and other credit verification documents of the customer and then provides these services to its lending partners through CreditMate.
Paytm declined to comment on the quantum of the stake it acquired or the amount it invested. It said, however, the CreditMate’s technology will help it offer loans to users with limited credit history.
Alia Bhatt Backs Fashion Technology Startup StyleCracker
Mumbai-based fashion technology startup, StyleCracker has raised an undisclosed sum from actor Alia Bhatt, the company said in a statement.
The four-year-old startup allows users to order celebrity-curated customised boxes containing apparel, accessories, cosmetics and footwear. A customer only has to fill in a form mentioning preferences, personal details such as body shape, size, and budget, and a fashion box is curated by celebrity stylist, according to information on the company’s website. Users have the option to keep what they like and replace what they don’t.
“What I liked about StyleCracker is that it’s bridging the gap between the individual and the expert,” Alia Bhatt said in a statement.
The customized boxes are priced at Rs 2,999, Rs 4,999 and Rs 6,999 and the company said it has shipped over 50,000 such boxes across 35 cities in the last four months.
The funds raised in this round will be deployed in expanding their business spread.
Others
Bengaluru-based Artificial Intelligence-driven mobile crowdsourcing platform, Playment, raised $1.6 million in Pre-Series A funding, Inc 42 reported. The report said the investment was led by YCombinator, Sparkland Capital and Silicon Valley based angel investors.
Bangalore-based TAO Automation, a machine learning startup, raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Mohandas Pai-backed early-stage venture capital firm 3one4 Capital and investor Arihant Patni, the company said in a statement.
RedBook, a software solution for retail pharmacy businesses raised $250,000 (Rs 1.6 crore) in seed funding led by venture capital firm Vida Ventures and angel investor Aniruddha Malpani, it said in a statement.
Bangalore-based online hotel reservations startup MiStay, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Axilor Ventures and a group of angels, a press statement said.
