5 rising startups in India – Feb 15

Photo credit: Dinesh Cyanam.

While Snapdeal’s latest round of funding may have taken the cake today, other investments in India show that investors are focused on diversifying the ecosystem and paying attention to different types of startups.

Snapdeal

Ecommerce site Snapdeal reportedly raised US$200 million in private equity funding today, with several media sites claiming that this latest round has driven its valuation to US$6.5 billion. The round was led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and included venture capital fund Iron Pillar, among others. This has raised its total funding to US$1.74 billion in 11 rounds. Its last round was in August 2015, when it raised US$500 million from Alibaba, Foxconn, and SoftBank.

Snapdeal has had ten acquisitions in the past six years, including mobile wallet Freecharge and ad platform Reduce Data. It has also had four investments, including logistics firm Gojavas and grocery delivery startup Peppertap.

Ecommerce made up nearly half of all the funding that went into India last year. While the year has started with opinions that the ecommerce dream in India is too good to be true and that they will never be profitable ideas, this latest funding shows that investors are still thinking otherwise.

Aasaanjobs

Online marketplace for entry-level and blue collar workers Aasanjobs raised US$5 million in a series A round from Aspada Ventures, IDG Ventures, and Inventus Capital. Last month, it announced a round of US$1.5 million from IDG Ventures and Inventus Capital.

The funding will be used to improve its technology and expand to new cities. The site operates in multiple languages and hopes to win over the underserved recruitment sector for unskilled workers.

There are other competitors in the sector, including Babajob which received US$10 million in a series B round of funding last year. The government also runs a similar site. Still, it feels like the market for blue collar jobs is large enough to fit many players.

Buddy

Photo by Richard Lee.

Buddy, a microlending startup for students to buy things off of ecommerce sites, raised US$500,000 in pre-series A funding today. The round included Blume Ventures and TracxnLabs.

Founded by Deepak Malhotra and Rajan Bajaj, Buddy lends small loans so students can buy educational resources like laptops and mobile phones. It maintains low interest rates based off of each students’ unique financial profile. It’s tied up with Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Amazon.

SnapBizz

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