US-based General Catalyst may participate in Cred’s Series B round: report

General Catalyst Partners, a US-based venture capital firm focused on early stage and growth investments, is likely to take part in fin-tech startup Cred’s on-going $120 million (Rs 828 crore at current exchange rate) financing round, The Economic Times reported.

General Catalyst may become a minority investor in the Series B round, which is being led by the company’s existing investors including Sequoia Capital, California’s Ribbit Capital and Yuri Milner’s Apoletto Asia. 

Chinese investor Hillhouse Capital will also join the round, the report said.

The investment will value Cred at $400-$500 million ( Rs 2,760 crore -3,450 crore at current exchange rate)

Cred, launched by mobile wallet and bill payment company FreeCharge co-founder Kunal Shah in November 2018, has already raised $30 million from a clutch of investors including Sequoia Capital, RPT Global and China’s Morningside Ventures.

Cred, a members-only app, lets users pay credit card bills and rewards them in the form of credit coins, which can be redeemed across partner businesses including CureFit, Ixigo, BookMyShow, and FreshMenu. This also gives the app an insight into customer spend, which can be used for cross-selling and up-selling products.

Cred is also likely to launch an insurance product in the future.

PharmEasy in talks to raise up to $120mn from CDPQ, LGT

Online drug delivery platform PharmEasy is in the final stages of closing a $100-120 million (Rs 690 crore-Rs 828 crore at current exchange rate) funding round led by Canadian pension fund CDPQ and private bank and asset manager LGT, The Economic Times reported.

The deal will also see a bunch of new venture capital firms coming on board including Aspada and a Korean investment firm. The round will value PharmEasy at $500-600 million (Rs 3,450 crore-Rs 4,140 crore), the report said.

Owned and operated by Mumbai-based 91 Streets Media Pvt. Ltd, PharmEasy was founded in 2015 by Dharmil Sheth and Dhaval Shah. It connects patients with pharmacies using a tech-enabled lead-generation platform that helps customers get cheaper diagnostic tests. The company competes with the likes of 1mg and Netmeds.

In its most recent funding round, the company received a Series C funding of $50 million (Rs 363 crore) from investors led by Eight Roads Ventures.

The other backers include Ascent Health and Wellness Solutions, Bessemer Venture Partners and Orios Venture Partners.

In March 2017, PharmEasy had mopped up $16 million (Rs 105 crore at the time) in a Series B round.

Carlyle Group may invest in news platform Dailyhunt

Native-language content and news platform Dailyhunt is in advanced stages of negotiations with private equity firm Carlyle Group to raise about $45 million (Rs 310 crore at current exchange rate) to power up its vernacular content business, The Economic Times reported.

The deal will see the Bangalore-based startup’s valuation jump to $600 million (Rs 4,140 crore at current exchange rate) .

Japanese internet conglomerate SoftBank Group has also held discussions to invest $120-150 million (Rs 828 crore-Rs 1,035 crore at the current exchange rate) in the company.

TechCircle had reported in May that Dailyhunt had raised $22 million from Belgium-based Sofina as part of what is likely to be a larger funding round.

TechCircle had also reported that Dailyhunt was raising $173 million in a fresh round of funding from New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs’ hedge fund.

The company’s investors include Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network and ByteDance.

The company was launched as Newshunt by former Nokia executives Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni in 2009 and sold to Versé in 2012. It was rebranded as Dailyhunt in August 2015.

Dailyhunt counts on a proprietary algorithm to deliver personalised news content. The startup claims to have 80 million users who spend over six billion minutes on the platform each month.

Dailyhunt offers news articles licensed from thousands of content partners and contributors in 14 languages. It provides original video content in Hindi and Telugu and a free live television streaming service with more than 130 channels across nine languages through strategic partnerships with Vuclip and YuppTV as well as firms in the over-the-top (OTT) video content space.

Dailyhunt's latest offering is Newzly, a news excerpt mobile application that provides users customised trending headlines in nine languages.