Deal Street: Funds Raised By Indian Startups Hit Three-Month Low

Funds raised by Indian startups hit a three-month low, as four startups together managed to raise just around $10 million last week. That compares with $36 million raised by 10 startups the week before in angel, seed or venture capital funding.

Foyr Raises $3.8 Million From JLL India, Others

Interior designing startup Foyr.com raised $3.8 million (about Rs 24 crore) in a Series A funding round led by property consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle, JLL and from a clutch of individual and non-institutional investors.

The Hyderabad-based startup will use the funds to expand to new markets in India and abroad, enhance its technology and launch new products by next year, it said in a statement.

“Real estate is a high-value transaction and we empower real estate buyers to make informed decisions by providing advanced technology to builders, architects and developers for visualisation of their projects,” said Shailesh Goswami, founder and chief executive of Foyr.com.

Founded in 2014, the online interior designing startup and home decor startup uses technology, virtual reality and real-time market intelligence to provide interior design services to home owners.

Spice Mobility Backs P2P Lending Startup

Spice Digital Ltd., a subsidiary of Spice Mobility, picked up 30 percent stake in Luharia Technologies that runs the peer-to-peer lending platform AnyTimeLoan.in, the company said in a stock-exchange filing.

As part of the deal, Spice Mobility will invest up to $1.95 million (Rs 12.5 crore) in the lending platform. Spice Digital also have an option to make a follow-on funding of up to another Rs 12.5 crore.

Spice Mobility is making the investment through its subsidiary Spice Digital and will subscribe to compulsorily convertible preference shares of Luharia Technologies.

“This is another step in the direction of Spice Mobility transforming itself into a digital services company. As part of the digital strategy, fin-tech will be one of our core areas of growth,” said Dilip Modi, chairman of Spice Mobility.

“Anytimeloan.in has demonstrated good initial traction in this space, and we are excited to partner with them to accelerate our goal of financial inclusion,” he added.

Lendingkart Gets Debt Funding From SBI

Online lending firm Lendingkart Finance Ltd. raised around $3.7 million (Rs 25 crore) from the country's largest public sector bank State Bank of India to grow its loan books, the company said in a statement.

Lendingkart said the money has come in the form of cash credit facility, which essentially allows the company to draw the amount over separate tranches as and when it needs it.

“As the company expands its reach to over 950 cities across the country, these funds will come in handy to widen Lendingkart Finance's offerings to SMEs (small and medium enterprises) countrywide,” the company said in a statement.

Lendingkart said it has disbursed over 20,000 loans to more than 12,000 SMEs across 23 sectors.

The company works with SMEs across the country that currently do not have access to credit or are capital deficient. It provides them with credit for working capital and business needs.

Last year, Lendingkart also got two private sector banks—Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. and Yes Bank Ltd.—on board as lenders.

Others

Online auto services startup GarageOnRoad raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round of funding from Gaurav Gupta, senior vice president at Reinsurance Multinational Swiss Re, reported VCCircle.