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Food Startup Fingerlix Secures Rs 8.5 Crore Funding From Alteria Capital Venture debt firm Alteria Capital made its first investment in ready-to-cook food brand Fingerlix in a quick succession after the first close of its maiden Rs 1,000 crore fund. The Mumbai-based startup, which is backed by Accel Partners and Zephyr Peacock, raised Rs 8.5 crore in its first debt financing exercise. With this funding, the total capital raised by Fingerlix reached Rs 71.5 crore, including equity and debt. Fingerlix will use the proceeds to build production capacity for its existing presence in the country’s top six cities. The firm, which has a kitchen in Mumbai, will build one in Delhi immediately and follow it up with another for the southern market. “The investment in Fingerlix represents the ideal type of transaction that we will seek out of a high-quality business with the potential to generate high returns, being driven by a great team and strong investor support," shares Ajay Hat

Flormar Ties up With Reliance Trends To Enter Indian Market Global cosmetics brand Flormar has partnered with Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Retail to set foot into the Indian Market. Reliance Trends Chief Executive Akhilesh Prasad said, "We are launching Flormar in select 30-40 Reliance Trends stores to understand the customer preference with respect to shades and product choices. We are doing this to get the right product range for the Indian market. Later, we will launch the brand across all our stores." Reliance Trends is the fashion and accessories arm of Reliance Retail. The products will be imported in India and sold through Reliance Trends outlets. Initially, Reliance Trends had planned to launch close to 300 stock keeping units (SKUs) out of the Flormar's over 700 SKUs. Flormar, headquartered in Turkey, has presence in over 100 countries across the world. When asked if Flormar is late in entering into the Indian market, Flormar CEO Cem Senbay said,

Flipkart, Walmart To Complete $7-Bn Deal, Valuation To Reach $20 Bn In a move to put other E-commerce players in competition US retailer Walmart Inc. is in talks to spend about $7bn to become top investor in India’s leading e-commerce company, a move that would put the US retailer in competition with Amazon.com Inc. in one of the most promising online retail markets. The deal would give Walmart a major stake in an emerging e-commerce market of 1.3 billion people if the conclusion stays positive. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant plans to buy a third of Flipkart Online Services, in part by purchasing stakes from Tiger Global Management and SoftBank Group Corp., said the people wishing anonymity. The deal may push the valuation of homegrown startup to about $20bn, up from about $12bn last year. Flipkart which itself is facing challenge from Amazon may gain sales after being backed from Walmart. Founder Jeff Bezos has already pledged to invest $5.5bn in India and in

Ed-Tech Startup Doubtnut Receives Funding From WaterBridge, Omidyar Led by WaterBridge Ventures Network and participated by Impact investment firm Omidyar, Gurgaon-based ed-tech startup Doubtnut has secured a pre-Series A round amounting to Rs.3.5 crore (USD 539,000). A statement issued by the company said, the company will use the capital to expand its platform, add more subjects, support more regional languages and accelerate the development of several new product features. With this funding, Sarbvir Singh, partner at WaterBridge Ventures, will join Doubtnut’s board of directors and Omidyar Network will appoint a director of their own, the statement added. Singh from WaterBridge in the statement said, “We believe that a student-first, multi-lingual approach is needed if educational initiatives are to work at scale in the country. Students need on-demand solutions to problems in a language that they can understand.” WaterBridge Ventures invests in early-sta