A VC firm steals the startup limelight in India

Alibaba and Nexus Venture Partners dominate our startup news from India today, though the first is a Chinese giant and the second is a venture capital firm. Also on our list is a company that helps prepare for government jobs and two others that makes the world a prettier and safer place for women. Read on.

Nexus

Nexus Venture Partners has raised US$450 million for its fourth fund, it announced today. This makes it the first Indian venture capital firm to cross US$1 billion in assets.

Nexus, based in Bangalore, is known to back seed and early stage companies. It counts OLX, Snapdeal, and ShopClues among its partners. The fresh funds will focus on technology- and data-led businesses in consumer retail, financial services, healthcare, education, and enterprise technologies, the VC firm said in a statement.

Most of the capital for Nexus’ newest fund came from long-term investors. “We are thankful to our investors who continue to back us and believe in our investment philosophy,” said co-founder and managing director Naren Gupta.

See: Indian VC firm smashes it, raises US$450 million

MockBank

Bangalore-based MockBank, which provides online mock tests for government job aspirants, has announced the acquisition of Litoro, a custom web and mobile product development startup.

From stenographers to IT officers, it helps aspirants in a range of government jobs. Public sector, banking, and insurance jobs are part of the roster.

MockBank says it is looking at a market of 20 million to 40 million job aspirants a year. The most popular offerings are online mock tests for banking exams. MockBank had raised US$400,000 in seed funding from Blume Ventures in September this year.

Litoro is based in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. The entire Litoro team has moved to Bangalore to be absorbed in MockBank.

See: Millions still aspire for government jobs in India. MockBank just acquired tech muscle to help

Myntra

Myntra, the online fashion arm of Flipkart, has closed the second quarter of the financial year with annualized gross merchandize value (GMV) of around US$500 million and 66 percent growth.

“Our GMV is around US$500 million. Our plan is to get to US$1 billion next year,” Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan was quoted as saying. The latest GMV figure marks an increase of US$100 million since May.

Ananth attributed the improved financial performance to a decrease in discounting. “The scale has increased; so there is a lot more fixed cost absorption. We are now discounting less. Every e-commerce player has been on the drug of discounting. We are trying to slowly wean us off the drug,” he said.

Alibaba

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