5 startups scaling up in India

Photo Credit: hansbrinker

The merger of CommonFloor and Quikr hogged the startup headlines in India today. But several others that are making a difference to people’s lives and lifestyles – among them an edtech firm and a bike taxi service – also made news by bagging funding.

Here’s our startup list today.

CommonFloor and Quikr

Property portal CommonFloor will merge with classifieds site Quikr, the two companies announced today. Together they will put around two million properties on the market.

While no financial terms have been revealed, CommonFloor will co-exist alongside Quickr’s own property portal, QuikrHomes. The two companies will start working together from tomorrow, said Pranay Chulet and Sumit Jain, co-founders of Quikr and CommonFloor, at a press conference in Bangalore.

The combination will pose a giant challenge to other major tech players in this space like SoftBank-backed Housing and News Corp-backed PropTiger. “The combined two million property listings makes us clear leaders,” said Pranay, who co-founded Quikr, India’s answer to classifieds sites like Craigslist and OLX.

See: Quikr and CommonFloor merge to kill Housing

Myly

Jaipur-based EduCommerce Technologies, which runs edtech startup Myly, has secured US$100,000 in seed investment from Newbie Promoter, VCCircle reported today. The funds will go into customer acquisition.

Available since March 2015, Myly is a cloud-based app that enables financial transactions between schools and parents and also offers a learning platform to students. The app has partnered with mobile wallet Paytm.

It was started by Gaurav Mundra and Madhup Bansal in 2014. “This capital gives us additional resources to expand quickly and strategically into the education market in India, innovate rapidly, and deliver on our vision,” Gaurav said.

Infurnia

Infurnia Furnishings, a startup that helps customers visualize their furniture in 3D, has raised a seed round of USS$160,000 from venture capital firm Idein Ventures, VCCircle reported today.

The Bangalore-based firm was founded in September 2014 by IIT alumni Nikhil Kumar and Lovepreet Mann. Co-founder Parul Jain is an interior designer. The new funds will be used to expand the business and strengthen the marketing, sales, and technology teams.

“Our room virtualization tech will instantly create digital rooms in the same shape, size and colour as the actual room, allowing consumers to experiment with how different designs of furniture will look in their own room,” said Nikhil.

Bikxie

Madhatters Voyage, which runs the two-wheeler Bikxie taxis in Gurgaon, has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from an investment banker in the Middle East and a businessman based in southern India, VCCircle reported today.

Pitstop