Shopify secures $100 mln Series C funding

The ecommerce platform provider, Shopify, has raised $100 million in Series C funding round. The funds have come in from OMERS Ventures and Insight Venture Partners along with existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Georgian Partners and Felicis Ventures.

The funding will be utilised to let the company work towards its plans to expand focus on offline retail world as well. Shopify is aiming to introduce a unique product that will fuse the offline world with the online world.

Keeping the offline retail world, the company earlier this year had launched a point-of-sale system and Square-style mobile card reader. These products were to synchronise the in-store and online inventory, process and accept credit cards, and generate sales reports.

Zivame raises $6 mln

India’s niche ecommerce player, Zivame, raises $6 million funding from Unilazer Ventures.

A Ronnie Screwvala‘s funding firm, Unilazer is investing most of the money along with other participating investors. The funds will be utilised to up the marketing and also upgrade the platform to make it more personalised for consumers.

Zivame is India’s leading name in online retail of lingerie and sleepwear for women. The e-retailer also recently ventured in fast fashion products.

JustEat raises third round of funding

JustEat.in, the Bangalore based food odering and table reservation venture, has raised third round funding. Though the company puts the amount as disclosed, but ensures it being the largest so far for them.

The funding led by JustEat Holdings, Forum Synergies and Axon Partners Group, will allow the venture to expand the team size, build a stronger network, accelerate growth and expand further in metros.

With the money raised, Forum Synergies and Axon Partners Group have bought a minority stake in the company, while the majority remain with UK-based Just Eat Holdings Ltd.

JustEat.in currently operates in Bangalore, Delhi (National Capital Region) and Mumbai, signed with 2,500 restaurants and 3 lakh registered users.

Related articles

• Funding Digest: Urban Ladder, JustEat, Ketto Raise Funds (trak.in)
• LittleBits raises US$11.1m in Series B round #makerbusiness (adafruit.com)
• Just.me’s Assets Are Up For Sale, And Founder Keith Teare Wants To Buy Them (techcrunch.com)

Zomato raises $37 million; launches local dialect listing in Indonesia, Turkey & Brazil

The India based restaurant listing company, Zomato, has raised $37 million funds from Sequoia Capital as it expands its presence across  Europe, South-East Asia, Australia and the America.

Zomato has been going places and now has launched websites in local dialects in areas including Jakarta (in Indonesian), Istanbul (in Turkish), and Sao Paolo (in Portuguese). Moreover, they have also opened operations in Durban, South Africa and Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland.

Zomato has till date raised $53.5 million funds.

TicketGoose raises $2.9 million to expand operations in India

The online bus ticketing site, TicketGoose, has raised $2.9 million (Rs 18 crores) to expand its business across the India territory.

Currently TicketGoose covers 700 bus operators across 10,000 routes that go to 4,500 destinations across southern India. The player has a strong presence across Tamil Nadu.

In 2012, the startup was doing 4,000 – 5,000 tickets a day which helped them earn $8.19 million in sales revenue in that year. And now, for 2013 the aim is to take that number to $20.5 million.

Related articles

• TicketGoose raises $2.9 million to expand bus ticketing across more of India (techinasia.com)
• Bus Ticketing Site TicketGoose Raises Rs 18 Cr From Indventure (medianama.com)
• Online Bus Ticketing Company Ticketgoose Secures Rs 18 cr from Indventure (nextbigwhat.com)

Investments pour in for Edabba; plans 1,000 Trust Points in next 6 months

When best of retail ingredients are put together, what emerges is as strong as Edabba. Founded in April 2011, the omni-retailer, has raised a funding of Rs 4.5 crore ($ 1 Million) from CCube Angles, a Singapore-based investor. The company will use the latest round of funding to expand its edabba trust points to over 1,000 in the next six months.

With this investment, CCube Angles will buy a majority stake in Edabba, a name which dimnishes the lines between brick n mortar retail and e-retail.

About Edabba:

Founded by the veterans from retail industry, Manoj Kumar, Saurabh B Chadha and Dinesh Paul, the model serves to uplift the neighbourhood retailers, who have been said to have a tough times with organised retail and e-retail capturing the Indian diaspora. With Edabba, nearly 400 brands have been taken to consumers by engaging their trusted neighbourhood retailer, Edabba appropriately calls them ‘Trust Points’. “Neither brick  nor click alone can service the aspiring customers of Bharat satisfactorily’, said Manoj Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO of Omnipresent Retail India Pvt Ltd.

Currently, Edabba has nearly 400 Trust Points across various cities beyond metros including Dehradun, Patna, Vizag, Jaipur, Goa, Ranchi, Ludhiana and Bikaner. To its accolade, within 22 months of operation,  Edabba has already touched approx 5 million potential customers in smaller towns who can ‘shop online’ with ‘complete trust’ through human interface without use of credit card and technology knowledge.

Related articles

• “Brick & Click” retailer edabba raises $1 mn From C Cube Angels (nextbigwhat.com)
• Home Retail Group boss to step down (bbc.co.uk)
• Sahara Q Shop revisits business model, stores and distribution (sunandchronicle.wordpress.com)

500 Startups & others invest funds in SquareKey

The editorially driven online retailer, SquareKey has raised an undisclosed amount of funds from 500Startups, Devaraj Southworth (Executive Vice President at Zipmark) and a group of angel investors.

SquareKey, which has offices in New York and Mumbai, strongly concentrates on lifestyle products of international brands for men, women and kids. It also offers curated services to consumers.

The USP of the online retailer: Brands are sold at the same price as in West unlike the premium tag these brands carry when sold in India otherwise. Also, consumers India can enjoy services like personal shopper in New York which let’s you choose products or shops for you, based on a small interview taken.  Under this service, consumer is charged $100 for two hours plus transportation or $500 all day inclusive of transportation in case the user wants to personally shop with the personal shopper.

DIY ecomm platform for SMEs, Kartrocket raises seed fund

The DIY ecommerce platform from the house of BigFoot Retail Solutions, KartRocket, has raised seed fund from Gaurav Kachru’s 5ideas Startup Superfuel, 500Startups and angel Jatin Aneja, reports iamwire.

Funds will be used to scale up the sales, service and technology of the platform dedicated to SMEs and retailers. The companies can utilise this platform to set up their  own online sales platform through wide range of storefront designs, integrate payments including a COD option. They can also try a shipping platform ShipRocket integrated with Indian and international logistics providers with a single shipping dashboard. It can also help sellers in shipping and managing orders across online marketplaces and offers mobile ready solution. There are over 100 apps on the platform.

Kartrocket

Season 3 of VentureNursery starts with 5 startups

India has been a country which has produced some of world’s greatest and successful entrepreneurs, is now seeing a new generation of startups. Five such startups will soon get their share of incubation, thus becoming a successful venture, as VentureNursery begins its third season.

India’s first angel-backed accelerator had received over 150 submissions from 29 cities.

Let’s know more about the – I shall call them ‘Furious Five’:

PowerStores raises $2 million

The Goa-based ecommerce platform offering web design solutions, PowerStores has raised $2 million from Hong Kong based investor reports TechCircle.in.

Founded by Cory York and Indrajit Chowdhury in 2011, the company allows web designers to build themes and sell them to their own customers. The website offers templates which dedsigners can further design for both web and mobile platforms.