Daily deals portal DealsAndYou has raised a funding of $17 million (Rs 84 crore) from a group of investors, including Mayfield Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. Other investors included Nokia Growth Partners and Intel Capital. The company, which started its operations about 14 months ago, has been valued at $85 million.

Gaurav Kachru, co-founder and chief executive of DealsAndYou, said the company was planning to become a more aggressive player in the e-commerce space with the funding. “We will invest the amount in four strategic areas — technology, infrastructure, talent and branding,” Kachru said. DealsAndYou, which started operations in August 2010, had earlier received a funding of $1.5 million from Group Buying Global AG.

Navin Chaddha, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund, said, “The upwardly mobile Indian consumer has embraced the Internet, and DealsAndYou.com has the team, the scalable product and momentum with over 3M members to dominate both the local and national daily deals space. DealsAndYou.com has continuously led innovation in the daily deals market and is India’s fastest growing business in this segment.”

Harish Bahl, Founder and Chairman, Smile Group, said, “We at DealsAndYou.com are pleased with the venture community’s continued confidence in our team’s ability. Each of our investors is a great addition to our syndicate, and their backgrounds and experience will benefit our company as we enter our next phase of growth.”

Niren Shah, Managing Director, NVP India said, “Increased Internet penetration combined with a younger tech-savvy population with a higher propensity to consume is a tipping point for ecommerce in India. In particular, the online deals category is a large and rapidly growing model that has already proven to be highly attractive to merchants and consumers alike. As India trends to a more organized consumption market, we believe the merchant availability for online deal sites will only increase. With more than 10 new members joining every minute, and over 3 million members, DealsAndYou.com is well positioned to rapidly grow to meet the needs of the value conscious consumer."