Chinese Internet giant Alibaba’s local services search engine platform, Koubei has teamed up with Chinese RMB fund Zhongshi Capital to invest in Meiweibuyongdeng, a mobile app that allows users to reduce their waiting times at restaurants.

Other investors also include China Television Media, a listed subsidiary of China’s state-owned central television CCTV, according to Xie Xinfa, the Chief Executive of Meiweibuyongdeng, which translates to no waiting for delicious food.

Although the financial details of the investment were not disclosed, it was reportedly said that the company’s series C+ round has increased the value of the startup to a substantial RMB 3 billion (approximately US$ 433 million).

Many restaurants in China have long queues during peak hours and Meiweibuyongdeng, which is founded in 2013, provides solutions to restaurants which helps better manage their booking and customer flow, allowing customers to automatically take a waiting number and to be away during their wait.

Meiweibuyongdeng, operates via mwee.cn and mobile apps, offers restaurants solutions to managing the four major problems often faced by catering businesses which are efficiency, customer flow, capital, and data traffic.

The company says to date it has occupied 90 percent of the market share, having served 60,000 popular restaurants in 200 cities, in addition to its 10 million mobile app users and 20 million followers on its Wechat account, where the company also offers similar services.

The transaction follows a RMB 500 million (US$72 million) strategic investment from Meituan Dianping and Baidu Inc. in October 2015. The company previously raised US$20 million from Tiantu Capital，a private equity and venture capital firm specialising in SMEs. The investment also includes several million U.S. dollars led by Matrix Partners China.

Meiweibuyongdeng says it plans to use the latest proceeds on product promotion and marketing. Besides, the capital will also be used for product development to improve features to meet various demand from consumers as well as an attempt to allow users to book tables in restaurants in a way similar to booking seats in a cinema.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

TempoGO, an Internet of Things (IoT) and SaaS solutions provider for commercial transportation has secured a Rs 5.6 crore (about US$825k) seed investment recently.

The round was led by Hong Kong-based K2 Capital Group along with the participation of a network of several high net worth individuals (HNI) Hong Kong-based investment bankers.

The latest capital will be mainly used to upgrade the technology as well as hiring more professionals to add to the existing 15 employees in the company.

Founded in 2015 and operated by Carryage Technologies Pvt Ltd, the Mumbai-based startup provides IoT and Saas solutions for the transportation industry using an integrated platform that connects vehicles, people, and trips, improving the productivity of a commercial vehicle fleet, either by passenger or freight.

“With the second-largest road network in the world, India has over 8 million commercial transportation vehicles that drive across the length of 4.7 million kilometers of roads. But unbelievably, nearly 75 percent of these do not yet leverage technology,” said Pranav Shirke, the co-founder, and COO of TempoGO.

TemporGO’s platform consist of two layers, one powered by Internet of Things (IoT) sensors on vehicles and another by software-as-a-service (SaaS).

The IoT layer comprises a GPS-based hardware unit, which includes a built-in vehicle immobiliser that tracks vehicle location and speed and a sensors-set., plus an OBD 2 adapter to automatically record and transmit engine data as well as vehicle behaviour including sudden acceleration or deceleration. Besides, it also monitors the ‘Door-open’ and temperature variation status of the load-bay,

On the other hand, the SaaS layer includes Trip Management and Fleet Management software and a dashboard for actionable business intelligence using data analytics.

Over the past 12 months, the TempoGo solution claims to have been proven on over 1,800 inter-city trips in India covering 650,000-plus kilometers, for 300 clients including Bisleri, Blue Dart, Oyo Rooms and Havells.

Aaditya Goyal, the Head of Technology at TempoGO says, “We are a unique combination of IoT sensors (GPS, temperature, door closing) on the vehicle plus a SaaS platform. This allows simple answers to key questions: Is my driver driving dangerously or at high speeds? Or pilfering fuel? Is he adhering to pre-decided routes? What state is my cargo in? Did the temperature inside my cold-chain container vary? When should I take them in for maintenance? How can I reduce vehicle insurance premiums?”

TempoGO’s has a range of clients from freight transport companies, cold-chain companies, logistics companies, distribution companies with their own vehicles, bus or taxi operators, corporate employee or school bus fleets.

TempoGo was incubated at Goa-based Prototyze, which has catalysed other funded companies, including a mobile fitness company – MobieFit, a Saas-based mobile platform for corporate training – HandyTrain, and Seynse, a financial technology company that operates a digital lending platform called Loan Singh.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

A digital payments and financial services startup, instantPay has announced that it has secured its pre-Series A funding round from Singapore-based investors – RB Investment and Kaleden Holdings.

“It is rare to find a small company that has remained cash positive in this industry,” Gurinder Singh, the managing director at Kaleden Holdings commented in regards to the investment.

The exact amount raised was not disclosed, but it was reportedly said to be in the range of Rs 20 crore to Rs 34 crore (about US$3 to US$5 million).

These latest proceedings will be used for talent acquisition, developing new products as well as the geographical expansion across India. Additionally, part of the New Delhi startup funding will also be used for brand-building and marketing.

Launched in 2012 by Sankalp Shangari, Shailendra Agarwal, and Mohammad Rehan, instantPay is a business unit of SMSdaak India Limited, which provides more than 100 products and services which facilitate digital payments at Kirana stores in tier-2 and 3 cities.

The products and services are distributed through over 400 corporate strategic alliances and through a nationwide network of micro-merchants, offering services which include electronic mobile recharges, DTH and utility bill payments, insurance premium payments, travel bookings, domestic remittance etc.

Additionally, their financial institutions and merchants can also provide a host of supplementary services to their consumers, thus up-selling and cross-selling their existing portfolios. The platform currently has over 62,000 merchants and targets to cross 120,000 merchants by March 2017.

“While we build this massive network, we are also enabling other products and services to be delivered via this distribution directly and efficiently,” said Sankalp Shangari, the cofounder of instantPay.

At the moment, instantPay claims to be processing around 10 million transactions per month and is looking to touch the 50 million mark by FY18.

Besides, the company has also been profitable, having closed FY16 “net positive in a few lakh”. For FY17, the startup is aiming at a 20% leap in growth with a four-fold jump in revenue for FY18.

“Companies should target to make unit economics sustainable before taking long bets in the market and aggressively aiming for market share,” said Rajesh Bothra, the Managing Director at RB investments.

The investors also add that the key challenge for companies in this space in the upcoming year would be to mitigate cyber security risks following a surge in business due to demonetisation.

At present, the company’s network comprises of more than 50,000 outlets across districts in India, for leading telcos and direct to home service providers.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media