Mumbai: Mint brings you your dose of the top deals news, reported from newsrooms across the country
Health tech startup mfine raises ₹ 31 crore venture debt from Alteria Capital
Bengaluru based NovoCura Tech Health Services Pvt Ltd, which owns the mfine healt-tech appraised ₹ 31 crore of venture debt from Alteria Capital, Mint reported . The AI-powered healthcare platform, which connects individuals to doctors online, plans to expand hospital network to Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai in the coming six months. Founded in 2017 by Ashutosh Lawania, Myntra co-founder and Prasad Kompalli, a former business head at Myntra, the startup has so far raised over $28 million and has 300 employees in Bengaluru & Hyderabad. The health tech firm, which had earlier raised equity funding to the tune of $ 17.2 million in its series B round from SBI Investment, SBI Ven Capital, Stellaris Venture Partners and Prime Venture Partners, plans to bring India's top 250 hospitals from 10 cities with more than 2500 doctors onto its virtual hospital platform in the next 12 months. The company said that it will be tripling its investments in artificial intelligence, mobile engineering and hardware integration.
Ola Electric gets $250-million cheque from SoftBank, becomes a unicorn
Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd has raised about $250 million in a Series B round from SoftBank Group Corp., thus becoming the second company founded by Bhavish Aggarwal to join the coveted unicorn club of startups valued at more than $1 billion, Mint reported citing company’s filings with the Registrar of Companies. The latest fund infusion is expected to help the firm reach its goal of introducing one million electric vehicles on Indian roads by 2021. The company is also running several pilots to test electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure for batteries. Incorporated in February 2017 as a wholly-owned unit of ANI Technologies, the company got its first ₹ 400 crore fundraise from Tiger Global and Matrix Partners India in April, followed by an undisclosed investment by Ratan Tata in May. Now, ANI Technologies holds a minority stake in the company. Ola Electric is led by Anand Shah, who had previously worked with the likes of Audi and BMW, and Ankit Jain, who headed Ola’s connected vehicle platform. With this round, Ola Electric joins the club of India’s fastest unicorns, after Udaan and Paytm Mall. B2B e-commerce firm Udaan reached unicorn status in September after raising $225 million, 26 months after its registration.
Freight Tiger raises $8 million from Lightspeed, others
Business-to-business logistics startup Freight Tiger raised $8 million in a funding round led by existing investor Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mint reported . Other investors who participated in the round include Alsthom Industries, the cement grinding unit of Dalmia Bharat Cements Ltd, and the Pawan Munjal Family Trust. The startup plans to use the funds to connect with more customers, expand its product and technology through artificial intelligence, as well as machine learning, and build industry-specific AI extensions on the platform, the company said in a statement. Founded in 2014 by Swapnil Shah, Freight Tiger operates a mobile app, which focuses on end-to-end supply chain, and work with logistics service companies, transporters and consigners. Its customers include glass-maker Saint Gobain, JSW Steel and Apollo Tyres. The startup had raised $2 million from Lightspeed in 2017.
AB InBev seeks $9.8 billion for unit in largest IPO this year
Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (AB InBev) is looking to raise up to $9.8 billion from a Hong Kong listing of its Asia-Pacific business, marking what would be the world’s largest initial public offering (IPO) this year, Mint reported citing a Reuters report . The IPO of the Asia arm of heavily-indebted AB InBev, which will raise between $8.3 billion and $9.8 billion, will give Budweiser Asia a market capitalization of up to $63.7 billion after the IPO. Even at the low end of the price range, the IPO will be the biggest globally this year, outstripping the $8.1 billion raised in New York by Uber, data from Refinitiv shows. The pricing of the IPO, at 16-18 times Budweiser Asia’s enterprise value (EV) to Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) ratio, compares with an EV-Ebitda value of 11 for AB InBev itself, 15 for China-focused Tsingtao and 10 for Japan’s Kirin, another Asia-centric brewing giant, as per Refinitiv data. Budweiser Brewing Company APAC, which includes a portfolio of more than 50 beer brands in the region, is selling 1.6 billion primary shares at between HK$40-47 ($5.13-$6.02) apiece, according to termsheets seen by Reuter s.
