Startup Exits: FMCG firm Marico acquires Beardo; Venture Catalysts exits company

#acquisitions #startups #startupexits #mengrooming #ecommerce

Mumbai-based fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company Marico Limited has acquired Ahmedabad headquartered Zed Lifestyle-run grooming products platform BEARDO . While the former had picked up a 45% stake in the company in 2017, the current deal marks a complete acquisition.

Although the financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, early stage investor Venture Catalysts said it received a nearly eight-fold return on its original investment of $500,000 made in 2016 along with angel investors.

Men’s grooming market is currently valued at Rs 10,000 crore, a jump from Rs 3,200 crore in 2016. The Beardo buy will help Marico, which currently markets the Set Wet brand, boost its own product portfolio in the segment and expand beyond gels and deodorants.

Beardo, which was founded by Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah in 2015, sells men’s grooming products such as beard oils, beard waxes, soaps and other facial hair treatments. The company sells its products through online channels, which make up 75% of its revenues, and in physical stores and salons as well.

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FMCG firm Marico acquires Beardo; Venture Catalysts exits company

Mumbai-based fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company Marico has acquired Ahmedabad headquartered Zed Lifestyle-run grooming products platform Beardo. While the former had picked up a 45% stake in the company in 2017, the current deal marks a complete acquisition.

Startup Funding Alert: Returning investor Greenoaks Capital leads $21 mn funding round in Zetwerk

#marketplace #manufacturing #startups #fundingalert #startupfunding

Zetwerk Manufacturing Businesses, a B2B manufacturing services marketplace, has raised $21 million (Rs 160 crore) in a Series C funding round led by returning investor Greenoaks Capital.

Returning investors Accel, Kae Capital, Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital India also participated in the round, as per a statement.

Zetwerk CEO Amrit Acharya founded the company in 2018 with fellow Indian Institute of Technology, Madras alumnus Srinath Ramakkrushnan. The platform connects original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and engineering procurement construction (EPM) companies with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for on-demand manufacturing services. It helps customers with procurement of custom products, real-time tracking and project management services, and assists SMEs to utilise their manufacturing capacities.

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Returning investor Greenoaks Capital leads $21 mn funding round in Zetwerk

Zetwerk Manufacturing Businesses, a B2B manufacturing services marketplace, has raised $21 million (Rs 160 crore) in a Series C funding round led by returning investor Greenoaks Capital. Returning investors Accel, Kae Capital, Lightspeed and Sequoia India also participated in the round, as per a statement.

Startup Mergers & Acquisitions: Affle To Acquire 8 Stake In Indigenous App Store Indus OS For Rs 21 Cr

#startups #appstore #apps #vernacular #aatmanirbharbharat #selfreliantindia #mobileapps

Mobile advertising organization Affle on Thursday said it will procure an eight per cent stake in cell phone working framework firm Indus OS.

Indus OS works India's biggest free indigenous application store, with key speculation from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation. As indicated by an administrative recording, Affle will pay $2.86 million or about Rs 21 crore, to Indus OS for the stake.

Indus OS has'Indus App Bazaar', which contains more than four lakh applications open in English and 12 Indian dialects — Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Odia, Punjabi, Malayalam, Bengali, Assamese and Kannada.

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Affle To Acquire 8 Stake In Indigenous App Store Indus OS For Rs 21 Cr

Mobile advertising organization Affle on Thursday said it will procure an eight per cent stake in cell phone working framework firm Indus OS. "Affle (India), through its auxiliaries, declared the consenting to of an authoritative arrangement to procure eight per cent possession in OSLabs Pte Ltd, Singapore, (Indus OS).

Startup Funding Alert: Artha Venture Fund Announces New Investment Of Rs 3.50 Crore In Piggy Ride

#startups #startupfunding #fundingalert #kidsmobility #mobility #education #schools

Artha Venture Fund (AVF), India's first early-stage micro-VC fund, has invested Rs 3.50 crore in a Pre-Series A funding round in PiggyRide, an easy to use hassle-free service for the parents of kids between 2-18 years of age. PiggyRide, co-founded by Manish Tewari and Rohan Kaushal in 2019, leverages technology and AI/ML tool to provide mobility solutions for schools and children. It offers tuition fee financing, which allows parents to pay school fees through easy EMIs. They are also building a discovery platform for kids, developing after school activities and hobbies.

Apart from PiggyRide’s 16-point certification process, there are varied safety features in all the vehicles such as GPS trackers, cameras to provide live video surveillance to parents, panic buttons, and car immobilizers to alert the PiggyRide team, and much more. Each driver is assigned a "PiggyRide Score", which serves as a performance benchmark, and a deduction of 50 points on each policy violation. A driver is removed from the platform if the score falls below 600.

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Artha Venture Fund Announces New Investment Of Rs 3.50 Crore In Piggy Ride

Artha Venture Fund (AVF), India's first early-stage micro-VC fund, has invested Rs 3.50 crore in a Pre-Series A funding round in Piggy Ride, an easy to use hassle-free service for the parents of kids between 2-18 years of age. Piggy Ride leverages technology and AI/ML tool to provide mobility solutions for schools and children.