Exclusive: Dot raises $23.4 Mn from PayU, Google and InfoEdge

Offline to online commerce and payments platform Dot has scooped up Rs 170.5 crore or $23.4 million in its Series B round led by the global payment gateway giant PayU.

Entrackr had exclusively reported in January that Dot was in advanced talks with Prosus-owned PayU to raise around $25 million in a fresh investment round.

The Gurugram-based startup has approved the allotment of 10 equity shares and 7,123 Series B preference shares at an issue price of Rs 2,38,976 per share to raise Rs 170.5 crore, regulatory filings show.

PayU Fintech Investments has invested Rs 72.55 crore in the fresh round followed by InfoEdge Ventures Fund with Rs 61.66 crore and Google International with Rs 36.25 crore.

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, Dot has reached a post-money valuation of Rs 610 crore or close to $84 million. This is more than a four-fold jump in Dot’s valuation in a matter of one year. During its $7.8 million Series A funding round in February 2020, Dot was valued at around $20 million.

Floated by PayU’s co-founder Shailaz Nag along with Gyanesh Sharma and Anurag Gupta, Dot provides digital transformation and commerce solutions to brick and mortar outlets. Nag left PayU in July 2019.

In September, Dot forayed into the e-commerce enablement space with a separate app called Digital Showroom (previously Digital Dukaan) to enable a digital storefront for small merchants. Recently, Digital Showroom had claimed that it registered 4.5 million merchants on its platform in four months.

In the e-commerce enablement space, Dot competes with the likes of Dukaan, Khatabook, OkCredit and Bikayi.

The fresh investment in Dot has also reduced the controlling stakes of the founders. Nag now holds 22.12% stake in the company, Sharma has 10.06% and Gupta holds 6.03% stake. During its Series A round, Nag’s stake was reduced to 30.8% from 56.1%.

PayU has emerged as the largest stakeholder in Dot among investors with 23.03% equity stake followed by InfoEdge, Fosun and Google with 15.55%, 10.69% and 5.98% stake respectively. Amrish Rau, who is the former CEO of PayU India and current CEO of PineLabs, holds 2% stake in the company.

Update: Dot has announced that it raised $27.5 million in this round.