Deal Street: Flipkart Chief Is Getting Active In Backing Startups

Six Indian startups raised nearly $60 million in seed or venture capital funding last week across sectors such as medical technology, co-living and home services, among others. Here's what went on...

CleverTap Raises Fresh Funds At $150-Million Valuation

CleverTap, a mobile analytics and marketing startup, raised $26 million (around Rs 179 crore) in a growth funding round led by Sequoia India.

New investor Tiger Global Management and existing investor Accel Partners also participated in the fundraising, the company said in a statement, adding the investment values the startup at close to $150 million.

CleverTap said it will use the funds to improve product capabilities and meet the growing demand.

Founded in 2013, CleverTap helps businesses to improve their customer mobile app experience. The firm uses advertisement formats such as push notifications, targeted ads, web notifications, and a mix of other app marketing formats to drive user engagements.

“We largely work with consumer internet businesses by helping them segregate users on different categories. We use behavioral analytics to segment users based on their behaviour within the app,” Anand Jain, co-founder of CleverTap, said in the statement.

Trusted Insights Leads $16-Million Funding Round In SigTuple

Medical-technology startup SigTuple raised $16 million (Rs 111 crore) in a growth funding round led by Trusted Insight, a U.S.-based networking platform for institutional investors.

Existing investors such as Accel, Chiratae Ventures, Pi Ventures, Flipkart Co-Founder Binny Bansal and venture debt firm Trifecta Capital also participated in the fundraising, the company said in a statement.

Bansal will also join the board of SigTuple.

Founded in 2015, SigTuple is engaged in the development of medical solutions for high-volume screening tests that require manual analysis of visual medical data.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy Backs Unacademy And UrbanClap

Flipkart Chief Executive Officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy is slowly getting active in making strategic bets in India's startup ecosystem.

Krishnamurthy invested Rs 1.6 crore in UrbanClap, and put in Rs 2 crore in online education startup Unacademy last week, according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies. These investments come just a month after the Flipkart executive backed online business-to-business industrial goods marketplace Moglix.

Krishnamurthy, former director at Tiger Global, has invested across diverse sectors in the last one year. His other investments include Nestaway and wellness chain Cure.fit. To be sure, Krishnamurthy's investments are mostly into startups that are in the growth stage.

Others

• Real estate firm Salarpuria Sattva Group led a growth investment of $9.1 million (Rs 63 crore) in Colive. The startup offers co-living spaces across Bengaluru and Chennai and co-working spaces in Bengaluru.
  
• Bengaluru-based payment gateway startup Cashfree raised $5.5 million (Rs 38 crore) in a growth funding round led by South Korean venture capital firm Smilegate Investment, the company said in a statement. Existing investor Y Combinator and others such as George Osborne, former British finance minister, and Vellayan Subbiah, former managing director of Cholamandalam Investment, also put in money, it said.
  
• Delhi-based online travel community platform Tripoto raised $3.6 million (Rs 25 crore) in a fresh funding from Orchid India, Hornbill Orchid India Fund, Chiratae Ventures, 3one4 Capital and Lasmer NV, the company said in a statement.