Also in the news is former Myntra CTO Shamik Sharma’s new innings as a Venture Partner at early-stage VC firm pi Ventures
US-based co-working space WeWork enters India
America’s leading co-working space provider WeWork has forayed into India. Its first facility is opened in Bangalore, known as the Silicon Valley of India.
WeWork plans to open two more facilities in the city. In addition, it also looks to expand to other cities including Mumbai and Delhi.
India-based Jumbotail raises US$8.5 million in Series A
Jumbotail, an online marketplace for food and grocery in India, has raised US$8.5 million in Series A from Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. The startup, started in 2015, will use the funds for building cutting-edge technologies and enhance operational capabilities to deliver the best customer experience in the wholesale food and grocery sector.
The Bangalore startup has earlier raised US$2 million from Nexus Venture Partners.
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Jumbotail offers a wide selection of products including staples, spices, dry fruits, packaged foods, and FMCG products. Sellers (traders, manufacturers and brands) can list their food, grocery and FMCG products on the marketplace, which is accessible to customers through a mobile app available in four languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and English.
Jumbotail provides full stack services including storefront delivery and payments collection for its sellers, as well as working capital credit from third-party credit providers to its customers using rich transactional data and proprietary algorithms.
India-based Moglix raises US$12 million Series B
Moglix, a B2B e-commerce startup in India, has closed US$12 million in Series B round of funding from International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and Rocketship.vc., along with Moglix’s existing investors Accel Partners and Jungle Ventures. Shailesh Rao, former VP (Twitter and Google) and Venture Highway also co-invested.
The funds will be used to support the demand for Moglix’s technology solution in supply chain and manufacturing domain, infrastructure growth and geographical expansion plans.
Founded in August 2015, Moglix is a platform for industrial products catering to suppliers and buyers across the globe. Its solutions cater to more than 100,000 SMEs, and over 200-plus large manufacturing houses in India. Moglix currently has more than 200,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) listed on its platform and serves some of the largest auto, electrical and public sector undertakings (PSUs) in the country.
Moglix has previously raised pre-Series A and Series A funding of approximately US$6 million from Accel Partners, Jungle Ventures, SeedPlus and Venture Highway.
Myanmar’s White Merak raises US$140,000
White Merak, an animated comic app in Myanmar, has raised US$140,000 in funding for a return of 23 per cent equity from five local angel investors. The investors are Kyaw Tha, Managing Director of KTS Myanmar; Thar Htet, Managing Director at Zwenexsys; Htoo Myint Naung, CEO of Technomation; Kyaw Thu Aung Ba, VR & AR investor; and Mike Myat Min Han, Founder of Cars DB.
The investment will allow White Merak to expand services to comic book lovers living outside of Yangon, Mandalay, and Naypyitaw. They will grow their current user base of 17,000 to a 7-figure number by the end of 2018. This involves allocating investments into improving application technology as well as distribution and payment systems.
Former Myntra CTO Shamik Sharma joins pi Ventures as Venture Partner
Shamik Sharma, former Chief Product and Technology Officer at Myntra, has joined Indian early-stage VC firm pi Ventures as a Venture Partner.
At pi Ventures, Shamik will work with portfolio founders to help them get past critical hurdles, design their product roadmaps and hire specialised talent. His role will involve supporting pi Ventures in deep understanding of technology and IP via technology deep dives of prospective portfolio companies and support in bringing interesting start-ups aligned with pi Ventures’ investment theme to their deal pipeline.
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