Also, Chinese electric scooter Niu gearing up for IPO and Flipkart acquires Israeli analytics startup Upstream

SurveyMonkey raises US$180 Million in Initial Public Offering [Bloomberg]

The go-to polling platform SurveyMonkey successfully raised US$180 million in an upsized initial public offering, making the shares now above the marketed price range. In total, the company sold 15 million shares for $12 apiece after earlier offering 13.5 million of them for $9 to $11, according to a statement reported by Bloomberg.

The decades-old company also sold US$40 million in stock to Salesforce.com Inc.’s venture capital arm.

In its IPO filing, SurveyMonkey stated that only 3.8 percent of 16 million of its users were paying ones. The company expects to rely more on its existing users and do up-selling, as well as pay down debt and get working capital for acquisitions and tech investments.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Allen & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are leading the offering. The company is expected to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol SVMK.

Sequoia led US$10M investment for Indian student housing startup Stanza Living [Deal Street Asia]

Student housing startup based in Gurugram India Stanza Living announced that it has raised US$10 million in a Series A round led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, as reported by Deal Street Asia. The firm joined the company’s existing investors, Matrix Partners and Accel Partners, both also participated again in this round.

The funding is said to support the company’s plan to launch in cities like Pune, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Indore in the country, as well as to strengthen its leadership team, ramp up hiring, build technology, and expand its network of operations.

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The company was founded in 2017 by Anindya Dutta and Sandeep Dalmia and offers housing accommodation to students across Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). The startup operates a full-stack hospitality model, controlling inventory, management and food services with 2,000 beds across 16 properties in Delhi-NCR and occupancy rate of 90% across all its accommodations.

Speaking about the VC firm decision, Ashish Agrawal, the principal at Sequoia Capital India Advisors said: “Student housing is an established asset class in the West and Stanza, with its scalable business model and strong economics, can create the asset class in India.” The student housing industry itself is now at $15 billion valuation and is expected to grow three times in the next 10 years, according to industry experts.

China-based electric scooter startup Niu has filed US$150M public offering on Nasdaq [TechCrunch]

Niu Technologies, electric scooter startup in China, reportedly has filed for an initial public offering on Nasdaq to raise up to $150 million. Niu claimed in its filing statement that it is “the largest lithium-ion battery-powered e-scooters company in China”.

The Beijing-based company was founded in 2014 and is holding a 26 per cent market share in China on sales volume. Niu’s scooters connect with an app that gives drivers maintenance and performance data and also delivers firmware updates.

In the end of June this year, Niu claimed it had sold more than 431,500 smart electric scooters in China, Europe and other markets.

Online pharmacy Netmeds from India acquired JustDoc [Press Release]

India-based online pharmacy Netmeds announced that it has acquired the online doctor consultation platform JustDoc in a cash and stock transaction. This partnership cemented NetMeds’ reputation as an all-around online healthcare space with end-to-end consultancy for healthcare, lifestyle, and patient counselling.

“In addition to prescription medicine and OTC products, we also offer customers ‘The Vault’, our proprietary Electronic Health Records storage app. The acquisition of JustDoc brings an extensive and experienced physicians’ network, which will be the perfect addition to our present range of products and services at this stage in our growth plan,” said founder & CEO of Netmeds, Pradeep Dadha.

Netmeds will leverage the combined strengths of both companies by fully absorbing the JustDoc team.

Flipkart announces the acquisition of Israeli analytics startup Upstream [Deal Street Asia]

India’s online retailer Flipkart has acquired an Israel-based analytics startup called Upstream Commerce, to build resources for its seller base with services such as real-time pricing and product assortment information, as reported by Deal Street Asia. This makes the company’s second acquisition after acquiring Indian artificial intelligence startup Liv.ai in August.

With the buyout, Walmart-backed e-commerce now has an outpost in Israel.

“With Upstream acquisition, we will now have tech and talent presence across Asia, US, and Israel, all countries being some of the key global hubs for innovation,” said Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

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Currently, Upstream is building cloud-based and automated competitive pricing products and solutions, among other things. The team at Upstream will continue to work out of Israel and add capabilities to Flipkart.

Malaysia’s WeChat Pay welcomes newly joined merchants [Press Release]

WeChat Pay Malaysia welcomes brands like TeaLive, Llaollao, Gindaco, KK Mart, and Pusat Pakaian Hari-Hari to offer their products in online transaction by WeChat Pay.

WeChat Pay MY offers its users who spend a minimum of RM10 (US$2.5) can get RM5 (US$1.2) off their purchases from these five participating merchants across Malaysia. The offer applies from September 25 to October 24 and WeChat Pay MY users Each user can save a maximum of RM25 (US$6) during the promotional period.

Using WeChat Pay MY’s app, users are allowed to link local bank card to the account in the ‘Wallet’ section, add value by ‘topping up’ the wallet, select ‘Quick Pay’, and show the QR code to the cashier within the app.

In the country, WeChat Pay MY is already an electronic money issuer approved by Bank Negara Malaysia.

Japanese renewable energy retailer startup TRENDE closed US$6.5M Series A funding [Press Release]

TRENDE Inc., an online renewable energy retailer selling electricity to residential customers in Japan has received a total of JPY 730 million (US$6.5 million) Series A funding round led by TEPCO Ventures with strategic investments from Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. and Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA).

Being a spinout from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc., the company is led by serial entrepreneurs, Tadatoshi Senoo and Jeffrey Char and operating an environmentally responsible approach to provide consumers with clean and affordable energy. TRENDE plans to use the investment to grow its technical team and build upon its early success in the market.

“The Japanese energy industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation empowered by new technologies and business models. We are delighted to partner with these global energy companies to lead this digital transformation for the benefit of our customers in Japan,” said Tadatoshi Senoo, CEO of TRENDE.

TRENDE installs, operates, and maintains solar panels on homeowners’ rooftops and shares the cost savings with its customer. Manage to eliminate any upfront costs and provide its customers with a lower energy tariff, TRENDE then transfers ownership of the solar panels to the customer by the end of the contract.

The company aims to leverage blockchain technology to create a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace for producers and consumers of renewable energy.

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Image Credit: Stanza Living

The post Today top tech news, September 26: SurveyMonkey succeeds in IPO, Sequoia backed student housing startup Stanza Living appeared first on e27.

Source: E27