Deal Street: FabHotels Raises $25 Million, Yuvraj Singh Backs Co-Working Startup 

The deal street was upbeat last week as eight startups managed to raise $88 million in angel, seed or venture capital funding. The funding activity was seen across sectors including, travel, education, health and beauty.

A Bengaluru-based startup led the funding pack...

Goldman Sachs Backs Hotel Aggregator FabHotels

Gurgaon-based budget hotel aggregator FabHotels raised $25 million (Rs 161 crore) in a Series B round led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. Existing investor Accel Partners also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

FabHotels said it will deploy the funds to expand. The aggregator works on an asset-light model, and uses the technology platform to promote its partner hotels with capacities of 20-40 rooms, and provides standardised services to budget travelers. It also operates a professional training academy for the hotel staff and quality control teams.

The company said it operates over 5,000 rooms across 225 franchise hotels in over 20 major Indian cities, including Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Bengaluru.

1mg Raises $15 Million

Online drug marketplace 1mg raised $15 million (Rs 96.7 crore) in a Series C round of funding from its existing investors. The investment was led by Switzerland-based HBM Healthcare Investments, Gurgaon-based 1mg said in a statement.

Other existing investors Maverick Capital Ventures, Sequoia India, Omidyar Network and Kae Capital also participated in the round, the statement said.

1mg operates a mobile app and a web platform that allow customers to order medicines and select healthcare professionals needs. It recently launched diagnostics service to help customers get lab tests done. It has over nine million downloads, 20 million monthly visits and 65 million monthly page views, the statement said.

RentoMojo Raises $10 Million From Bain Capital

Online rental marketplace for furniture, home appliances and bikes, RentoMojo, raised $10 million (Rs 64.3 crore) in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Ventures and Renaud Laplanche, a French-American entrepreneur, Geetansh Bamania, founder of the Bangalore-based startup, told BloombergQuint.

Existing investors Accel Partners and IDG Ventures also participated in the round. Bamania said the firm will use the funds to strengthen its product, ramp up its leadership team, and to expand into new categories and geographies.

The company had last raised $5 million in a Series A round in 2016 and $2 million in a pre-Series A round in 2015 from Accel Partners and IDG Ventures. The startup allows users to rent furniture, home furnishings and appliances, and bikes. The company now plans to introduce newer categories in the coming months. It currently offers its services in Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Chennai and Hyderabad and claims to have more than 25,000 subscribers on the platform.

Byjus’s Raises Funds From China’s Tencent Holdings

Bengaluru-based online coaching services provider Byju’s raised fresh funds from Chinese Internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings, the company said in a press statement.

The startup said it will use the capital to accelerate product development and acquisitions. Byju’s didn’t disclose the details of the transaction. However, people familiar with the development told BloombergQuint that Tencent has put in around $35 million (Rs 225 crore).

The funding comes merely four months after the country’s most-funded ed-tech startup raised an undisclosed amount from Belgian family office Verlinvest.

Yuvraj Singh Backs Co-Working Space Creator’s Gurukal

Co-working space provider Creator’s Gurukul raised an undisclosed amount from cricketer Yuvraj Singh.

Singh will also be the Delhi-based firm’s brand ambassador for the next four years, it said in a statement. Founded in December 2016, Creator’s Gurukul is launching its first centre with more than 500 seats in Gurugram. It plans to launch one centre each in Mangalore and Delhi by the end of this year.

The investment was made from Yuvraj Singh’s $10-million seed-stage fund called YouWeCan. The fund was launched in 2015 to back internet startups in the country. YouWeCan’s other portfolio companies include logistics startup Moovo, healthcare startup Healthians, online marketplace for chartered jets JetSetGo, business solution provider Startup Buddy, automotive service marketplace Cartisan and sports startup SportyBeans.

Others

Bengaluru-based staff communication platform Noticeboard raised $1.2 million (around Rs 8 crore) in a funding round led by Stellaris Venture Partners, BlackBuck founder Rajesh Yabaji, and Jayant Kadambi, co-founder of digital advertising company YuMe, the company said in a statement.

Beauty services marketplace BigStylist raised $1.2 million (around Rs 8 crore) in a fresh funding round led by Info Edge, according to a stock exchange filing. This is Info Edge’s third investment in Mumbai-based BigStylist.

Bengaluru-based assistive tech and education technology startup Thinkerbell Labs raised $202,000 (around Rs 1.3 crore) from Indian Angel Network’s Rajesh Navaneetham, Manjunath Nayak, and Anand Mahindra, Chairman and managing director at Mahindra Group, the company said in a statement. It will use the funds to run pilots in the UK and set up product, sales and content teams.