The auto classifieds portal, Cardekho.com couldn’t have asked for more with the Chairman emeritus of the TATA group, Ratan Tata investing in their startup Cardekho.com. While amount of investment has not been disclosed, having Ratan Tata among list of investors is surely a dream come true for most of the startup concerns.
Amit Jain and Anurag Jain, the co-founders of GirnarSoft, the company behind CarDekho.com has been on a roll in recent times. They raised $50 million funding in series B just couple of weeks back, before which they had made acquisition of their competitor, Gaadi.com to become India’s leading auto portal!
With their competitors like CarTrade and Carwale have also raised huge chunk of capital from Tiger Capital and Warburg Pincus, having Ratan Tata in list of backers surely gives them the edge.
Ratan Tata being an auto-lover, this is his 4th investment in the e-commerce space and this investment was made in his personal capacity, just like 3 of his previous investments in online space.
Also the next most buzzing news is that Ratan Tata has now taken up an advisory role in the VC firm, Kalaari Capital. Mr Tata’s earlier investments include Snapdeal, Urban Ladder and Bluestone. The growth story of the Indian e-commerce sector has been unbeatable and the potential in it is indisputable. Many VC firms are now readily taking risks and backing startup companies without much hassle, a far cry from the situation that was just couple of years back..
Here we have listed some of the major VC funding firms and their major investments.
| Helion Venture Partners | YEPME, Makemytrip, TAXI for SURE, NetAmbit, Pubmatic |
| Accel Partners | Flipkart, BabyOye, Bookmyshow, Myntra, CommonFloor, Freshdesk, Zansaar, Probe |
| Sequoia Capital India | Cardekho, JustDial, Knowlarity |
| Nexus Ventures | Snapdeal, Housing, PubMatic, Komli |
| Inventus Capital Partners | PolicyBazaar.com, Farfaria, Savaari |
| IDG Ventures | Zivame.com, FirstCry, Yatra.com, Myntra, UNBXD |
| Steadview Capital | Ola Cabs, Flipkart, Saavn, Urban Ladder |
| Zodius Capital | BigBasket |
| Canaan Partners | Naaptol, Bharat Matrimony, CarTrade, mCarbon |
| Saif Partners | JustDial, Paytm, Network 18, Homeshop 18, Bookmyshow |
| Catamaran Investment Pvt Ltd (headed by N R Narayana Murthy) | Yebhi |
| Forum Synergies | Zomato, Ola, Quikr, TaxiforSure, CommonFloor, Freecharge, Housing |
Active Individual Angel Investors
It’s not only the VC firms that are accumulating investments for startups, even many industry top notch professionals are wagering on the potential of the new startups companies in their personal capacity and interest. Some of the most reliable angel investors are mentioned below:
| Ratan Tata | 1. Snapdeal
2. Cardekho 3. Urban Ladder 4. Bluestone |
| Sunil Kalra | 1. Instamojo
2. Sapience 3. Airwoot 4. Mobilewalla and 11 other startups |
| Sharad Sharma | 1. Mobilewalla
2. Frrole 3. UNBXD and 6 other startups |
| Rajan Anandan | 1. Culture Alley
2. Instamojo 3. Targeting Mantra and 9 other startups |
| Krishnan Ganesh | 1. Silver Push
2. Browntape and 6 other startups |
| Kunal Bahl | 1. Bewakoof
2. Olacabs and 4 other startups |
| Sachin Bansal | 1. Ather
2. Roposo 3. MadRatGames and 4 other startups |
| Ravi Gururaj | 1. PrettySecrets
2. Explara 3. SocialBlood and 7 other startups |
While these are just a handful of them, there are many other angel investors and VC firms that are opening up to new ideas and are funding generously. If you are a startup and have a great documented potential, all you need to do is knock their doors!
Suggested Reading: The Startup Funding & Investments of 2015
How do these people get investors so easily? I’m finding for a long, but never got one though my business idea is crazy :)
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