Vanity Wagon, a clean beauty startup based in New Delhi, announced today that it has raised Rs 5.5 crore in a pre-Series A fundraising round headed by Inflection Point Ventures. Venture Catalysts, Lotus Herbals, and the existing investors – Agility Ventures (headed by Mr. Dhianu Das) and a consortium of HNIs – also participated in the investment round. Vanity Wagon was founded in September 2018 by Prateek Ruhail, Naina Ruhail, and Sahil Shrestha, promises to be India’s first true information-oriented clean beauty marketplace with an emphasis on non-toxic products and…
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Social commerce startup Meesho set to buy back ESOPs worth $5.5 Mn
Social commerce platform Meesho has launched a $5.5 million employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) liquidity programme for all qualifying current and past employees holding vested stock. The ESOP buyback scheme is scheduled to begin in November. According to two people familiar with the details of the liquidity strategy, Meesho employees who are currently on roll and have vested ESOPs as of November 30 would be eligible for the buyback, along with former employees. This is Meesho’s second ESOP buyback in less than a year, and its third since 2020. It…
Read MoreOnline cosmetic startup Purplle raised $75 million investment
Purplle, an online cosmetics and grooming marketplace for women, has raised $75 million in a Series E round headed by private equity company Kedaara Capital. This is the Mumbai-based startup’s second investment round in 2021, following a $45 million Series D deal in March. According to industry reports, Purplle has raised the new round at a valuation of $600 million. During the last round, the startup was valued at roughly $300 million. Purplle says the new capital will be used to fund the company’s development as well as investments in…
Read MoreBig basket opens its first offline store in Bengaluru
BigBasket finally started to sell offline. According to an internal corporate email, the online grocer established its first physical store in Bengaluru earlier this week under the brand name Fresho. The grocery startup has been using the brand ‘Fresho’ for its private label products in the online store. Surprisingly, the ‘Fresho’ brand has not always gone the discount path, frequently selling at a premium to established brands by using alternate avenues such as organic produce or premium ingredients. BigBasket co-founder VS Sudhakar told all company employees that the store in…
Read MoreAutomobile spares startup Koovers raises $1.5million
Koovers, a business-to-business auto spares startup, has raised $1.5 million in a round led by Inflection Point Ventures. JPIN-VCats and Venture Catalysts are among the other investors in the round. The funds will be used to grow the company’s product line and improve its technological infrastructure, according to the company. Vinayak, Sandeep Begur, and S Prem Kumar founded Koovers in 2016 to provide automobile workshops with doorstep delivery of genuine spares from all car manufacturers at low pricing. Even with Covid, the company has over 5,000 workshops in its network…
Read MoreCosmetics startup Nykaa expects to raise $500 million in its initial IPO
Indian cosmetics to fashion startup Nykaa got bids for 40 times the number of shares it expects to sell to anchor investors in its initial public offering (IPO), showing substantial interest in the sale. investment firm Blackrock Capital Group and asset manager Fidelity were among the top buyers in the $319.68 million sale of shares that FSN E-Commerce Ventures, the company that owns the Nykaa brand, offered to institutional investors. SN E-Commerce priced its IPO at Rs 1,085 to Rs 1,125 per share, valuing Nykaa at up to $7.11 billion….
Read MoreGoogle collaborates with MeitY Startup Hub
Google has partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s Startup Hub to develop Appscale Academy, a growth and development initiative that will teach early to mid-stage startups across India on how to build high-quality applications for the global market. The Appscale Academy, which will be launched in October 2021, will assist local businesses in developing and scaling a variety of world-class applications across sectors such as gaming, healthcare, financial technology, education technology, and social impact. “It is great to see start-ups and developers across India, especially those in Tier…
Read MoreIndian unicorn startups in “hiring spree”
India has roughly 70 unicorns’ startups valued at $1 billion or more — that are expected to produce 125,000-160,000 white-collar jobs over the next two-three quarters According to two different surveys performed by EMA Partners and CIEL HR Services. According to an EMA survey of the month September, unicorn startups have recruited about 150,000 Executives in the past three quarters. It predicts that an extra 125,000 executives will be hired in the following two quarters. A significant portion of the hiring, up to 70% will be for technology roles only,…
Read MoreMobility startups witness decrease in profit due to pandemic
FY21 was a nightmare for mobility startups and ride-hailing giants like Uber and Ola, as the pandemic affected their operations. While Ola has yet to file financial statistics for FY21 (or even FY20), Uber India saw a 47.3 percent reduction in operating profits during the fiscal year ended March 2021. Uber India’s operating revenue fell to Rs 370.5 crore in FY21, down from Rs 703.1 crore in FY20. During the previous fiscal year, around 81 percent of these revenues, or Rs 300 crore, were earned by Uber’s ride-hailing operation, with…
Read MoreLivspace to join unicorn club soon
Livspace, an omnichannel home interior and renovation platform, is in talks to raise new funding and it will most likely join the coveted club of unicorns soon. According to two people familiar with the details of the deal, the Bengaluru-based startup with operations in Singapore is in late-stage discussions to raise a large investment that could exceed $200 million. The additional funds arrive at a time when Livspace is betting on global expansion. It has been operating in Singapore since 2019, in addition to 13 Indian cities. Livspace had launched…
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