CarDekho’s insurance unit InsuranceDekho has raised its first external investment round of Rs 300 crore ($36.5 million) led by West Street Global, the investment arm of the Goldman Sachs Group. 

According to the RoC filings with the Registrar of Companies, the Gurugram-headquartered company’s board has passed a special resolution to issue 1,49,16,506 equity shares at a price of Rs 201.12 each to raise Rs 300 crore.

West Sreet Global led the round with Rs 153.5 crore and holds a 14.71% stake in InsuranceDekho. While the TVS Capital Fund pumped in Rs 72.35 crore for a 6.95% stake.

Other investors, including Investcorp Private Equity, Avataar Ventures, Alstroemeria Investments, and individuals such as Vineet Dhingra, N Laxmi Narayan, Shridham Sons, and others, collectively participated, making an investment of Rs 74.15 crore. 

In 2019, CarDekho launched its insurance platform to help customers buy motor and health insurance. It has since expanded into life,

The first week of the year began on a firm footing for Indian startups, with the ecosystem raising a quarter of a billion dollars in venture capital.

Indian startups raised $252 million in the first week of January with the big boost coming from fintech startup KreditBee which garnered $100 million. In comparison, the previous week saw total funding of $124 million.

The expectations are modest for the year from a venture funding perspective as the investors are still in the wait-and-watch mode. The startups that raise funding in the present environment are the ones that are well-managed and have a clear growth path ahead.

Key transactions

Fintech startup KreditBee raised $100 million from Advent International and this funding is part of its $200 million Series D round.

SarvaGram, a fintech startup, raised $35 million from Elevar Equity, Elevation Capital, Temasek, and TVS Capital Funds.

Tech startup SirionLabs raised an

In an age of uncertainity, the curiosity to know what lies ahead beckons. Practices like astrology, palmistry, kundli reading and reiki have taken on a new form in the digital era. In the last two years alone, a slew of startups have popped up vying for a piece of this growing market, which by some estimates is at about $40 billion. 

One among them is AstroSage Varta, which was launched around 2020. It currently has over 10 lakh downloads and a 4.7 rating, according to the Google Playstore. 

Using AstroSage Varta 

Users are first greeted with a orange-white themed interface, which resembles a temple, followed by the app logo—a phone receiver that looks similar to Viber, an app which can be used to make free calls. There is an option to pick your language preference from the listed options that include English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi.

The sour