A used car marketplace becomes the object of a maiden investment from Lei Jun’s VC, while a couple of acquisitions and some funding round out our list of startups in India that are movin’ on up.
Truebil
Pre-owned car marketplace Truebil has raised US$3 million from Shunwei Capital. Shunwei is Xiaomi founder Lei Jun’s VC fund.
The fund focuses on mobile internet and IoT, and primarily invests in early and growth stage startups.
Founded in March 2015, Mumbai-based Truebil is a marketplace for pre-owned vehicles. It has a full stack model called Truebil Direct that buys cars from sellers, gets them refurbished, and lists them on the site. The startup launched services in Bangalore last year in September.
Photo credit: Obino has acquired fitness tracking app Fitard for an undisclosed amount.
Founded by Pankaj Bora and Shubham Goyal, Fitard is a fitness rewards app that gives users Fitcoins for completing targets. Those can then be used as discount coupons.
Founded by former Bharti Airtel brand marketer Ritu Srivastava and Aircel IT worker Yogesh Sachdeva, Obino raised early stage funding in January last year. It launched in August 2014.
Packaged foods startup Sattviko has acquired online fashion curation site StylSpot, in a move to strengthen its tech platform. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.
StyleSpot was founded in 2015 by four IIT-Dhanbad grads – Sumeet Chilwal, Gaurav Goyal, Amit Verma, and Jalaj Dagar. Sumeet will join Sattviko’s core team.
Founded in 2013 by three IIT-Roorkee alums – Prasoon Gupta, Ankush Sharma, and Rahul Gupta – Sattviko’s on a bit of an acquisition spree. It acquired Delhi-based food maker Fyne Superfood last year and Jaipur-based Call a Meal in 2015.
Insignia, an art venture, has raised over US$520,000 from DSG Consumer Partners. It runs online marketplace BestCollegeArt, which also has an offline outlet in Delhi. Insignia also owns an art gallery, Art District XIII, as well as The Wall Art Magazine.
Co-founded by Nikhil Girdhar, Pooja Mishra, and Jyotsna Sharma, Insignia takes a cut of the sales made by artists on its platform.