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Photo credit: yuran-78 / 123RF.
Freshdesk makes its sixth acquisition in just over a year, while another acquisition goes down in the fintech world. A social discovery platform for new parents and a solar marketplace round out our list of funded startups for the day.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk has acquired Bangalore-based social chat startup Chatimity. The acquisition is Freshdesk’s sixth in just over a year.
The Chatimity team will join Freshdesk and upgrade the SaaS company’s AI chat capabilities.
Founded in May 2011 by former Google Music Search employees Tarkeshwar Thakur and Aravind Murthy, Chatimity’s software development kit can be downloaded and integrated with an app to add a chatbot service. Its chatbot Miti uses natural language processing, state machines, and AI markup language to have thousands of conversations in real time.
Chatimity was previously incubated at Global Incubation Services (GINSERV) and was a part of Google Startup Launchpad.
Freshdesk, founded in 2011, has also acquired 1Click, Frilp, Konotor (now called Hotline), Framebench, and Airwoot.
MakeMyTrip
Photo credit: Avionale.
Travel booking portals MakeMyTrip and Ibibo have merged in a stock transaction.
The amount of the deal remained undisclosed, though ET sources have pegged it at around US$1.8 billion to US$2 billion.
MakeMyTrip will retain its branding, as will Ibibo-operated bus booking site RedBus.
Post-transaction, MakeMyTrip will own all of Ibibo.
BabyChakra
Young parent social discovery platform BabyChakra has landed series A funding from RoundGlass, a Seattle-based digital health and wellness firm.
The startup will use the money for product development, hiring, and creating localized content.
Members of the BabyChakra online community – 500,000 parents and parents-to-be – can get information on conception, pregnancy, birth, and early childhood from each other and from parenting and childcare experts. It also provides reviews of over 25,000 maternity and childcare services (like daycare and nannies).
Photo credit: Barbara Durand.
“We created BabyChakra for two reasons: one because young couples are essentially raising children in nuclear families with no support system to fall back on. Parenting can be very isolating and many first-time parents need guidance and reassurance or immediate access to urgent questions. Secondly, this same community of young couples are also highly-active online consumers who use the internet to find homes, to seek guidance on technology purchases, and look for recommendations for restaurants and travel destinations,” said BabyChakra CEO and founder Naiyya Saggi in a statement.
Launched in February 2015, BabyChakra is available for Android.
MySun
Solar marketplace MySun has raised US$2.5 million in initial funding.
As part of the deal, General Catalyst Partners managing director Hemant Taneja has joined the startup’s board. General Catalyst Partners is an American venture capital firm that focuses on early stage and growth investments.
Founded in September last year by Gagan Vermani, Divyanshu Sachdev, and Gyan Prakash Tiwari, MySun zeroes in on the non-utility and rooftop solar sector in India. It concentrates on demand creation, technology, big data, analytics, and standardization.
LendingKart
Photo credit: Jon Collirt.
LendingKart Group has acqui-hired KountMoney, a lending marketplace for personal loans.
The move helps LendingKart up its technology and data analytics.
Founded in October last year by Deepak Modak, Gaurav Somani, Abhishek Periwal and Abhi Ranjan, KountMoney facilitates personal loans, home loans, education loans, and loans against property, among others.
LendingKart is led by Harshvardhan Lunia and Deepak Modak. It has offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and Mumbai, and serves people across India.
This post 5 rising startups in India – Oct. 19, 2016 appeared first on Tech in Asia.
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