Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori — two of Flipkart’s top executives who quit India’s largest e-commerce company last month, are raising $20 million in funding for their healthcare technology startup, at least three people directly familiar with the talks said last week.
In a year when investors and founders are preparing for “a funding winter”, $20 million in the first round of funding is clearly an exception. Already, both Angel deals and Series A funding rounds during first quarter of the year are down compared to the same period in 2015, according to VCCEdge.
Most of the startup’s $20 million in seed funding, around $5 million of which will be put by Bansal and Nagori themselves, is expected to come from investors who have backed Myntra in the early days. These investors include Accel Partners, Kalari Capital and IDG Ventures.
When contacted by FactorDaily last week, Bansal said he was “not ready to talk about funding for his new venture.” The three investors too, had not responded to messages sent by FactorDaily at the time of publishing the story.
“When you’re looking at an entrepreneur who has had a successful exit, then it’s not about the next big idea anymore–it’s more about the faith in that founder,” said an executive at one of the investors requesting anonymity because the round is yet to be closed.
While not much is known about their venture yet, people who have had discussions with Bansal and Nagori said the startup will be at the intersection of technology, health and sports. The duo are expected to close their $20 million round of funding by May.
In April, Bansal invested an undisclosed amount in Cult, a Bangalore-based company that offers fitness services without using any gym equipments.
Clearly, $20 million in the first funding round is a rarity. For Bansal, the experience of building Myntra and giving a successful exit to the investors by selling it to Flipkart, are among the top reasons for being able to raise such funding for his next startup.
Meanwhile, for many other first time entrepreneurs, early funding will get tougher to get, and for those looking to raise their Series A and B round of funding this year, the negotiations and the metrics will get even tougher, according to experts and the industry insiders.
Disclosure: FactorDaily is owned by SourceCode Media, which counts Accel Partners among its investors. None of FactorDaily’s investors have any influence on its reporting about India’s technology and startup ecosystem.
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