Oddup, Hong Kong-based rating tool which lets you find out whether a startup is likely to succeed or not, has acquired a fund of US$6 million in series A funding round. After this round, the total fund raised by it has come to US $ 7 million.
Who led the funding round
The round was driven by the Times Group which is India’s biggest media aggregate and a speculator of Flipkart and Snapdeal. Earlier speculators Click Ventures and 500 Startups including new financial specialists Silicon Valley’s Moneta Ventures and White Capital took an interest.
Intention behind funding
The Oddup team, comprising of members from Goldman Sachs, rates start-ups with score of 0 to 100 where 100 denotes least risk. The criteria for this are based upon products, competitors, location, potential growth, and team. Additionally it rates a startup in context of sell, buy, or hold along with analysis and reports or expected future valuation.
Company is to expand its financing services
As per Oddup, it serves investors including angels to venture speculators as well as private equity firms along with the data that is time consuming and difficult to get. The company is about to expand its financing services across Asia and specifically in India.
Oddup is a fast-growing firm
CEO of Brand Capital which is an investment subsidiary of Times Group, Sivakumar Sundaram said that, “Oddup is such a fast-growing global startup that we decided to back and lead their way into India. We look forward to working towards the success of Oddup in setting up an innovative startup rating system for India”.
How useful is this App for Investor
A question is very obvious to arise in everyone’s mind that how useful is this app for investors. Well while answering, Jenny Le who is a managing partner at GGV Capital said that, “They’re not using such tools since startups fail or succeed because of many factors which sometimes cannot be quantified or may not be public”.
She also said that, “Startups are also never static and will evolve over time in their environment, so a company rated low may become highly successful overnight because of a new supportive regulation or because the investor brings along the ‘x factor’ critical for success”.
Moreover Jenny said that they also consider ratings and reports too alongside their own data to avoid mistakes.
Vennie’s views on Oddup
Vennie Lauria, founding partner of Golden Gate Ventures said about the Oddup’s website that,“looks great but I don’t want one score to tell me if a startup is good or not; that was the problem with the Mattermark score”. He was pointing to Silicon Valley based information platform which also performs the same function i.e. raking startup with their potential for growth.
Stratup with high risk is more exciting
Dmitry Levit who is a general partner at Digital Media Partners is always ready to welcome and appreciate such things that bring transparency in startup ecosystem. He said that “A startup with a low risk and high score doesn’t excite me. I want high risk, which means the potential for zero outcomes is also high – but that’s okay.”
Dmitry needs some time to evaluate Oddup
Additionally he said that, “A tool that manages to apply solid methodology without allowing ‘beauty contest’ dynamics to develop is great for everyone involved”. Well he also said that he needed little more time to look into the Oddup and its services to give an opinion about it.
Oddup Score is changed on daily basis
Oddup says that the Oddup Score is updated daily to show a quick change if any and made a statement that, “The Oddup score acts as a barometer of the health of a startup at any given instance but it is also our in-depth analysis and reports which help investors find the next unicorn”. Oddup also had acquired US$1 million in its seed funding round in November of last year.