Softbank Leads The Round As Oyo Rooms Raises $100M

Gurgaon: Oyo rooms has raised $100 million in a round led by Softbank. The round also saw participation from Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, DSG Consumer Partners and Venture Nursery. According to the sources, “The term sheet has been signed and the company is looking at expanding its operations domestically.”

Founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal, Oyo rooms is one of the largest aggregator in Hotel rooms in the country. The company has already raised a total of $125.65 million in four rounds. The company acquired Zo Rooms recently, which almost had a similar revenue.

Living Local Raises $200K From Rattan Chadha

Bangalore: Living Local, hyperlocal social discovery platform, has raised $200,000 in seed round from former CEO of Mexx clothing company, Rattan Chadha. Founded by Neeraj Vasudev and Anubhav Anand in 2014, startup focuses on connecting people to restaurants, street food vendors, nightlife events and other neighbourhood activities.

On the same, Neeraj quoted, “The proof of concept was figured out when we launched the hyperlocal magazine Living Local. Later, we launched the web portal and saw 600 people within suburban Mumbai were active on it. Now we are focusing on designing and launching the app.”

Villgro Invests in Ed-tech Startup Vahan

Chennai: Ed-tech startup, Vahan, has raised an undisclosed amount of funds from Chennai-based social business incubator, Villgro. Founded by Madhav Krishna in 2015, Vahan is a mobile education platform designed to complement instructor-led training for underprivileged communities. It helps adults from low-income groups to learn English to improve their employability.

Twiggle Secures $12.5M From Naspers

Tel Aviv: Search engines on eCommerce platforms often show too many results when looking for a thing. It’s effective if the user is just browsing but gets a little annoying when a user knows what to buy. Twiggle believes they have the solution and so Naspers. The Tel Aviv-based company has raised $12.5 million from Naspers. The round also saw participation from Yahoo Japan, State of Mind Ventures, and Sir Ronald Cohen.

Founded by Amir Konigsberg and Adi Avidor in 2014, the startup is using advanced data science and engineering to develop a new standard of Product Search & Discovery. Nasper’s investment in the company is aimed at launching Twiggle in its eCommerce portfolio companies like Flipkart, Argentina’s Avenida, and Filipino marketplace OLX.