Every week there are at least five funding stories from India. Last week was no different. A niche sporting goods company was acquired, a online car rental service and a cloud-based hotel management software maker were funded.

Snapdeal acquires eSportsbuy

Snapdeal, which started as a group-buying site, has acquired Delhi-based SportsBuy.com. eSportsBuy is a niche eCom site which sells just sports gear. The financial details are not known but this is a major acquisition after Flipkart bought LetsBuy.com.

Looks like Snapdeal is slowly morphing into a eCommerce company. Or may be there is no such thing as eCommerce vs Group buying. It’s all just commerce.

Industry experts are calling this as consolidation. To me there is no such thing. It’s just the way things are.

Hotelogix secures US$ 1.2M funding

HMS Infotech Pvt. Ltd which offers a flagship product called Hotelogix has raised $1.2 mn funding from Accel Partners and others.

Hotelogix products provides cloud-based property management solution to hotels. The products connects front-desk operators, housekeeping and other services.

Savaari car rental secures funding

Online chauffeur driven car rental service, Savaari Car Rentals, has raised Rs. 5 crores (~US$ 1 million) funding from Inventus capital. Online car rental service is still nascent in India. I would put it in the neo-natal stage category.

We just saw ClearTrip providing last mile connectivity to its online air travel service. What Savaari provides doesn’t clash with what Cleartrip provides, these are sign of things to come. Whatever that can be done online, will be done online.

BookAdda

BookAdda, an online book store, has received funding from former Infosys director Mohandas Pai’s newly launched fund. Mohandas Pai’s funding in a segment which seems to be saturated is interesting.

India has a history of conglomeration and online space is no different. Flipkart has started as a online book store and got India into Flipkarting. It later ventured into mobile phones and other products. Same goes for all other eCom sites which aren’t either happy selling just one category or can’t sustain on selling just one category. Would BookAdda be different?

Mohandas Pai has also invested $8 million in US-based Inshightra along with two other startups.

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