India Funding Roundup: DogSpot, Careers360, Helpi, Hotify, Bulbul Apps

The first Monday of 2016 has ominous beginnings, where the largest acquisition easily outranks any disclosed funding amount made in recent times. Our latest funding roundup covers startups in education, pet care, home service providers, app development, and more.

DogSpot
Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has reportedly invested an undisclosed amount in his personal capacity in Gurgaon-based online pet shop DogSpot, along with Ronnie Screwvala, Ashok Mittal, Rishi Parti, Dheeraj Jain, and Abhijeet Pai. Founded in 2007, DogSpot claims to have over 3,000 products from over 170 brands on its website, and provides an app on Google Play, which has less than 5,000 downloads at the time of writing.

(Also read: You're an Early Adopter of Tech, Your Pets Should Be Too)

Careers360
Delhi-based Pathfinder Publishing Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates the Careers360 data and technology-driven portal for education products and services, has reportedly raised an undisclosed amount of investment from MeritTrac. The website claims to cover over 9,000 colleges and over 300 courses, and six million monthly users.

Helpi
Gurgaon-based Handy Online Solutions Pvt Ltd, which provides an app to book home service providers called Helpi has reportedly secured an undisclosed amount of angel investment from a group of IIT alumni US-based investment bankers. Helpi provides phone and app-based bookings for cleaning services, and has a 4.7-star rating on Google Play, with over 5,000 downloads.

(Also read: Roundup: 9 Indian Apps To Get Your House In Order)

Hotify
Bengaluru-based news aggregator app Hotify, has reportedly raised $150,000 (Rs. 1 crore) in seed funding. Founded in January 2015 by Abhinav Garg, Alok Gautam, Ankur Garg, and Li Jian, Hotify's app has less than 5,000 downloads on Google Play at the time of writing and a 4.7-star rating.

Bulbul Apps
Hyderabad-based Bulbul Apps has successfully raised its kickstarter goal of $2,000 (roughly 1.3 lakhs) for its interactive app for kids titled Tuk Tuk the Auto goes to Hyderabad. Bulbul apps will be producing apps for the iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.