Ideas|Products|Startups|VCs

FirstCry, a pune based online retailer for kids and babycare products has raised investments of $4M from SAIF Partners. The investments will be utilized in scaling up the operations, setting up the engineering team and warehouses for speedy delivery of products.

FirstCry is run by BrainBees Solutions Pvt Ltd and is founded by Sunil Maheshwari and Amitava Saha. Sunil is a serial entrepreneur and had earlier co-founded Brainvisa Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which was sold to Indecomm Global Services in 2007. Brainvisa had raised $5M from Sequoia Capital.

FirstCry has tied-up with over 100 brands like Mattel, Funskool, Hotwheels, Disney , Barbie, Zapak and offers a range of over 4,000 products including Pampers diapers, Johnson’s skincare range and cycle maker BSA’s prams and strollers. FirstCry aims to cover the complete gammut of parenting – from clothings for new mothers, babycare products and toys for little grown up kids.

Currently, it does 200 transactions a day. The portal has plans to expand to newer markets in Asia like Srilanka, Indonesia and Malaysia. As per Sunil the market size is very large – it is a $5 billion opportunity, and  growing very fast in  tier 2 and 3 cities. Around 35% of FirstCry orders come from towns and the demand is huge, considering the lack of options, access and range. It is a prime market for e-commerce firms.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

BabyOye, an e-commerce startup in babycare products has raised $2.5M from Accel partners and Tiger Global. Primarily investments will be utilized in hiring people, expand its supply chain, build warehouses and increase product range.

BabyOye started by husband-wife duo – Arunima Singhdeo and Sanjay Nadkarni, an ex Infoedge executive who understands Indian online space quite well. Babyoye has tied-up with over 80 brands and offers a range of over 4,000 products, including Pampers diapers, Chicco food, Johnson’s skincare range. BabyOye certainly wants to make a mark in this multi billion dollar market.

BabyOye also offers products for new moms, making it an shopping platform for both new born babies and new mom.

Its been barely 6months they started BabyOye and managed to raise handsome series A funding from reputed VCs is just unbelievable. One of the main competitor for BabyOye is Coimbatore based Hushbabies.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Groffr, the only group buying portal of high value items like real estate, cars, home loans etc is about to close a funding round. It is learnt that the group buying space seems to be only gaining momentum. We have learnt that Groffr is about to raise capital from a prominent Angel Network and another institutional fund. The details are not known but sources say it’s close to a million dollar. The funds are largely going to be used for expansion purposes. Since this is not from company sources we can’t confirm it with certainty.

In another development Groffr got an offer for one of the biggest internet company in India for a complete buy out which was in tune of $4-5M. Groffr founders Sandeep Reddy and Vikhyat Srivastava  declined this tempting offer, Certainly they want to play bigger game in this $1B real estate brokerage market.

Transactions over Groffr platform has been very healthy, around 115 crores transaction has been done and they have saved around 21Cr for their customers. Groffr monthly net revenue has been growing steadily.

Groffr is a a year old Mumbai based startup founded by Vikhyat Srivastav and Sandeep Reddy, both IIMK graduate and worked earlier with PE real estate funds. The group aggregates people interested in a particular property and negotiates with the developers for a discounted price for everyone. Groffr employs 20 people in three cities – Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Given the recent volatility in the sector, it makes sense for the real estate developers and car dealers also as they are able to sell a good chunk of their high value inventory in one shot. It’s a win-win situation for both the parties. Buyers get a good bargain while developers are able to sell a lot of flats in one go while saving on marketing cost.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

BigshoeBazaar pvt ltd which runs online shoe store Yebhi.com has raised $2.2M from Nexus Venture Partners. This investment was closed in late decemeber 2010. As per Nitin Agarwal, cofounder of BigshoeBazaar talks are at advanced stage for closing another round of funding. You can checkout Nitin’s interview as part of “Walk the Talk with an Entrepreneur” here.

BigshoeBazaar primarily runs a B2C portal Yebhi.com formerly known as Bigshoebazaar.com which sell footwear mainly and now it has added few more categories like Clothing, jewelery and accessories.

Bigshoebazaar runs a wholesale network across the country targeted at small retailers in Tier2 and Tier3 cities to source Global brands like Adidas, Nike etc. which in general don’t have access to such brands.

Bigshoebazaar has also started franchisee business, where it offers shoe retailers to use it brand and retailers source the footwear from the company. Funds will be primarily used to expand the wholesale network and franchisees.

Lets Look at the monthly traction of Yebhi.com –

Personally I have been a regular user of Yebhi.com and bought multiple footwear for my family. They very prompt in servicing the clients, products are of best quality, return policy is highly user friendly.

Certainly they have strike the right mantra to crack this space. If you have used Bigshoebazaar services do share your views.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Jasper Innovative Marketing Solutions, parent company of Snapdeal has raised $12M from Nexus Ventures Partners and Indo US Ventures in series B round. Jasper aims to become mini Groupon, its expanding agressively in different countries, it has already operations in 5 countries – Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Singapore and plans to acquire more players in APAC region. Primarily investment would be utilized in expanding the operations in different countries.

At present Snapdeal offers dicsount coupons across 10 cities in India and about 40 cities they offer special discount coupons from e-commerce companies like tradus.in

Snapdeal has earlier acquired Bangalore based Grabbon, one of the early players in group buying space.

Lets have a look at the monthly traction of Snapdeal -

Undoubtedly Snapdeal traction looks very impressive. Snapdeal claims to have 1M users actively buying its discount coupons.

Beside Snapdeal, Jasper also runs and operates babybox.in, moneysaver prime.

Babybox.in is a parent informative portal and it aims to become a platform for hospitals, baby care brands to interact with parents. Intent is clear to form a database of parents which can be leveraged. Babybox has tie up with companies like Hushbabies which sell baby care products online.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Inkfruit, an online apparel retailer has raised $3M in series A round from SAIF Partners. The amount raised will be used to expand its product offering and to expand its retail outlets.

Founded in 2007 by IITians- Kashyap Dalal and Navneet Rai, Inkfruit.com is an community-centered online apparel store which allows buyers to design their own T-shirts, mugs and posters with the help of artists.

At Inkfurit, t-shirt designs are submitted and voted for by a community. The design that receives most votes ‘wins’, gets printed and is put for sale. The member whose design is selected gets paid a winning amount.

Inkfruit essentially follows Threadless model in India which is understood to be a billion-dollar, Inkfruit directly competes with companies like iLogo, Scopial in India. After successful IPO of MakeMyTrip, SAIF partners is highly bullish on Internet ventures, though $3M is relatively small investment for them but they are supporting the vision of the company.

SAIF Partners has about $4 billion of assets under management has invested  $20 million in  Catmoss Retail Ltd,  $25 million in Network 18 Media &Investments Ltd,  $10 million in Amoha Education Pvt. Ltd, TV 18 Home shopping network Ltd and $115 million in National Stock Exchange of India among other investments.

Lets look at the monthly traction at Inkfruit-:

Komli Media, Asia Pacific’s leading digital media network, has raised $15 million in funding led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). Existing investors, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners, also participated in this round but DFJ hasn’t. The additional capital will be used to fuel aggressive expansion throughout India and across its key markets in Asia Pacific. The Company will further invest in its two core businesses – the Digital Media Network and the Audience Measurement unit – which are experiencing significant growth.

This is the company’s third round of financing – the first was in January 2008, when it raised $7 million, and the second in July 2010, when it raised $6 million.

Last year, Komli Media began its expansion across Asia Pacific by acquiring PostClick, Australia’s leading site representation firm. In October the Company further expanded to international ethnic markets with its acquisition of Indoor Media. With capabilities across brand solutions and performance marketing, Komli Media is Asia Pacific’s leading digital media network.

Amar Goel, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Komli Media, said, “We were drawn to NVP because it is a global, top tier investment firm with deep domain knowledge in the online advertising sector. Furthermore, NVP’s powerful network of relationships in India and abroad will be of great value to Komli Media as we expand our offerings and services to other markets. We look forward to closely partnering with NVP to take our company to the next level.”

Komli Media’s digital media network represents more than 2,000 websites today, including sites such as Facebook, Babycenter and Bloomberg, reaching more than 45 million unique users across a number of categories and regions. The company also owns and operates ViziSense, India’s first and leading online audience and ad measurement platform. ViziSense is now being launched in Australia to tap the growing needs for cutting edge audience measurement from digital marketers and publishers.

Niren Shah, Managing Director, NVP India, joins Komli Media’s board of directors as part of today’s announcement. He commented, “NVP is excited about the potential of early and late stage Internet investments in India, and Komli is the perfect addition to our robust global Internet portfolio. Komli Media’s highly experienced management team, significant level of technical expertise, and strong operational and financial performance made our decision to invest in the company an easy one. We look forward to working with Komli Media and supporting the team as it innovates in unique ways that will cement its position as a market leader in the rapidly evolving Indian and Asia Pacific digital market.”

Prashant Mehta, Chief Operating Officer of Komli Media added, “As Komli Media expands its core operations in the fast growing Asia Pacific markets with a digital market size of more than USD 3 billion, we plan to leverage this funding to double our investment in our key products and platforms as well as scale our organization across sales and marketing.” He further added, “As we make these investments, we look forward to thought leadership and strategic guidance from the NVP team.”

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Digital marketing firm Ybrant Digital has received $ 48 million through a fresh round of funding from investors, including Oak Investment and ICICI Bank.

Ybrant Digital, which has received the capital as combination of debt and equity, will use the funds to develop new technology, expand internationally and explore acquisitions opportunities.

The current round of funding has seen participation from Oak India Investments , an affiliate of Oak Investment Partners Asia Pacific Capital and ICICI Bank.

The company has received about $ 53 million in earlier rounds of funding. Ybrant Digital provides digital solutions to brands like SAP, Porsche , Ford , UPS, Swissair, Chevrolet, 3M , Jeep, US Army, LaSalle and Lufthansa. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in India, Ybrant Digital has offices in 20 countries, including US, Argentina, UK, Germany, Israel, China and Australia.

YBrant has made seven acquisitions in the last four years, the last one being Lycos Inc, a brand of search-based internet properties and services.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Letsbuy, a New Delhi based e-commerce company founded by Hitesh Dhingra and Amanpreet Bajaj  in mid 2009 has raised an investment of $6M in series A round from Helion Venture Partners, Accel Partners and Tiger Global.

LetsBuy.com is an online retailer of consumer electronics, telecommunication products, laptops and computers peripherals, they deliver goods through out India. Earlier Hitesh Dhingra was the co-founder and Business Head of online advertising firm Quasar Media Pvt Ltd and Tyroo Media.

“LetsBuy.com in on the fast-growth path and the VC funding from the leaders in the space will only spur us on. The funds would be deployed in strengthening customer service, technology and supply chain processes,” said Dhingra, Founder & CEO, LetsBuy.com.

“India has witnessed tremendous growth in e-commerce and Letsbuy has been part of that growth. The team has the vision to have identified a very compelling opportunity and the execution skills to deliver to it,” said Ashish Gupta, Managing Director, Helion Venture Partners.

“The LetsBuy.com team has the vision and the business acumen to identify opportunities and make them stepping stones towards growth. In the process they present the best offerings to their customers and meet the goals chalked out by the partner investors. The strategy and plans match those valued by the Accel Partners team,” said Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel Partners.

If you compare the online traction of Infibeam, Futurebazaar and Letsbuy, letsbuy is catching up with Futurebazaar

Interestingly Letsbuy compete with Flipkart (also a portfolio company of tiger global and Accel Partners) in category like ‘Mobiles’.

I am impressed with wide range of payment options available for users at Letsbuy for order fulfillment, except for payment through mobile they have covered everything -

e-commerce space in India is very big enough to sustain and grow multiple payers. Online retailer with superior customer service, competitive pricing and quick delivery time will be successful.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Understanding dilution is critically important for an entrepreneur who has cofounders or who plans on raising venture capital money to help grow their startup.

Dilution refers to a decrease in the ownership position of a company. Equity is a primary criteria in venture capital investment and is the heart of venture capital. The concept of dilution is a major factor to consider in deciding upon a financing strategy. By definition, bringing in an equity investor means that that the new party will be taking part ownership of the company.

Concept of dilution was the backbone of very popular movie “Social Network” which dealt with equity among founders, friends and VCs.

Lets try to understand the concept from the scratch –

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com