Funding wake-up call for startups rivals
On 21 April, services listing company Sulekha.com raised Rs.175 crore, its third round of funding, from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd and venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners.
In April, Urbanclap.com, a Delhi-based start-up that’s less than a year old and helps people connect with event planners or home decorators, among other service providers, raised $1.5 million from Saif Partners, Accel Partners and Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.
Investors are betting on both old and new companies. Funding wake-up call for startups rivals
“There is an opportunity now to create new user experience that is mobile-centric, which is being seen with the start-ups Meanwhile, the older companies have the brands, the operations and the capital,” explains Dev Khare, managing director, Lightspeed India, who has invested in Localoye and Toost, a local search engine.
To be sure, established companies are also tweaking their strategies, and expanding and entering new niches. . Funding wake-up call for startups rivals
The company had in 2013 said that it would take at least three to four years to launch the service. Funding wake-up call for startups rivals
In July 2014, the company launched Askmebazaar.com, its e-commerce portal for small- and medium-sized enterprises in India.
In March, the company co-sponsored Lakme Fashion Week, one of the key fashion events in the country.
AskMe’s visibility will increase in the coming months as the company’s new advertising agency-J. Walter Thompson, Delhi-plans one of its largest advertising campaigns to date. Funding wake-up call for startups rivals
“Just Dial’s e-commerce segment looks vulnerable to competition,” said Citi Research in a 16 March report, pointing out that the company has underperformed the market by 34% in the last three months.
The e-commerce space is extremely competitive and dominated by heavily funded companies such as Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon. Funding wake-up call for startups rivals
Till date, the AskMe app has already got over 10 million downloads and Askmebazaar.com has over 25,000 store fronts, processing 600,000 orders in March, said Sethi, claiming that this puts them among “The top five-six e-commerce companies in India”.
Net loss in fiscal 2013 stood at Rs.99.32 crore on revenue of Rs.26.74 crore, according to the latest filings with the Registrar of Companies. Funding wake-up call for startups rivals
(Credits to Sapna Agarwal)
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