Funding in Indian startups this week (16 Aug-21 Aug)

This week 41 Indian startups raised funding, of which 34 received a total of $1061 million or $1.06 billion. PhonePe raised the highest funding of about $350 million, followed by Postman which raised $225 million.

Meanwhile, the funding of seven of the total funded startups remained undisclosed.  

Below is the summary of deals closed this week

PhonePe: Digital payments major PhonePe has raised a $350 million tranche from Walmart, Tiger Global and Tencent.

Postman:  Bengaluru and San Francisco-based API development firm Postman has raised $225 million in its Series D round led by existing investor Insight Partners and joined by Coatue, Battery Ventures, BOND, CRV, and Nexus Venture Partners. 

Zetwerk: Zetwerk, a business-to-business marketplace for custom manufacturing, has raised $150 million in a new round led by D1 Capital Partners. This is the second fundraise for the company in 2021 including a $120 million Series D round in February. [Updated]

Rapido: Bike taxi platform Rapido has raised $52 million from Shell Ventures; Yamaha, CRED Founder Kunal Shah, along with participation from existing investors.

UpScalio: UpScalio, an e-commerce roll-up company, said it has scooped up $42.5 million in Series A funding, highlighting the new investor rush towards the Thrasio style-business model in India.  

Smallcase: Wealth management company Smallcase has raised $40 million in its Series C round led by Faering Capital with participation from new investors, Amazon and Premji Invest. 

Zupee: Skill-based gaming platform Zupee has raised $30 million in its Series B round led by Silicon Valley-based WestCap Group and Tomales Bay Capital. Existing backers Orios Venture Partners and Matrix Partners India have also participated in it.

BharatPe: Fintech company BharatPe has raised $27 million in a debt round from Northern Arc Capital.

AgNext: Agritech startup AgNext has raised a little over $21 million in a new round led by Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation. The Chandigarh-based startup had finished its pre-Series A round in January 2019.

Ultrahuman: Ultrahuman, the wearable healthtech glucose monitor, has raised $17.5 million in Series B funding. This brings the total funds raised so far to $25 million.  

Klub: Revenue-based financing platform Klub has raised $20 million in one of the largest seed rounds raised by a startup from India. The funding round saw participation from existing investors 9Unicorns, Sequoia’s Surge along with Alter Global and GMO VenturePartners.

Oyo: Hospitality firm Oyo has raised $5 million in a strategic deal from Microsoft.

Element5: California and Chennai-based Element5 raised $15 million led by Insight Partners, with participation from Maxwell Investment Partners.

Smart Express: Logistics startup Smart Express raised Rs 100 crore or $13.4 million from IIFL India Private Equity Fund and Smiti Holding.   

1K Kirana Bazaar: Hyperlocal omnichannel grocery chain 1K Kirana Bazaar has raised $7 million in its Series A round led by Info Edge Ventures and Partners of Falcon Edge. 

Hashnode: Developer blogging community Hashnode has raised $6.7 million in its Series A round led by Salesforce Ventures. Sierra Ventures, Sequoia Capital India’s Surge and Accel Partner and a clutch of angels such as Naval Ravikant, Des Traynor, Guillermo Rauch and others have also participated in the round. 

Yellow Class: Edtech startup Yellow Class raised $6 million from Elevation Capital, India Quotient, Titan Capital, and First Cheque.

Rage Coffee: Rage Coffee, an FMCG brand startup, raised $5 million led by Sixth Sense Ventures.

SleepyCat: D2C mattress brand SleepyCat has raised $3.8 million in a new round led by Saama Capital. Existing backers DSG Consumer Partners and Sharrp Ventures have also joined the new round.

Yojak: B2B wholesale platform for building materials, Yojak has raised $3.8 million in its pre-Series A round led by Info Edge Ventures.

RaRa Delivery: Instant delivery startup RaRa Delivery has raised $3.25 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge and Indonesia’s East Ventures. 500 startups, Angel Central, GK Plug and Play and angels such as Royston Tay and Yang Bin Kwok have also joined the round.

Hiration: HR tech startup Hiration raised Rs 21 crore or $2.8 million from Prime Venture Partners, Venture Highway, and Y Combinator. 

Expertons: Expertons, a career tech startup, raised $2.3 million from Venture Catalysts, Auxano Capital, Venture Garage, Yoga Capital, and others. 

BigSpoon: BigSpoon, the Ahmedabad-based cloud kitchen startup, has raised Rs 15 crore or $2 million in a pre-Series A round from NB VC (Dubai), CreedCap Asia, Zed Capital, and angel investors including Sanjiv Bajaj, Bhanu Chopra, and Jatin Aneja.   

goEgoNetwork: EV startup goEgoNetwork raised $2 million from Bagla Group Chairman Rishi Bagla and head of Global Innovation Labs and fintech at ING Bank. 

CreatorStack: CreatorStack, a market network for digital creators, has raised $2 million in its seed round led by Accel. On-Deck’s The Runway Fund, PointOne Capital, Wekan and Kumar Akash, SVP Growth, Hotstar and others have also participated. 

RACEnergy: Electric vehicle infrastructure startup RACEnergy has raised $1.3 million in its seed+ round led by Micelio Fund and growX ventures. Huddle, Prophetic Ventures, BITSian Angels and others have also participated in the round.

Navia Life Care: Healthtech startup Navia Life Care raised $1 million from Anicut Angel Fund, 9Unicorns, and other angel investors.    

Probus Smart Things: Smart grid-focused IoT communications and data analytics business, Probus Smart Things has raised $0.5 million in its bridge round led by Unicorn India Ventures. 

Xpresslane: Tech startup Xpresslane raised $0.4 million from Point One Capital, Yatra Angel Network (YAN), Opus Consulting, and Manipal Technologies.  

YPay: Noida-based fintech startup YPay has raised $0.4 million in its bridge round led by early-stage investment firm We Founder Circle. Marquee investors including Amit Tyagi, Gaurav Juneja, Ravi Gupta and Pragatii Bhargava have also participated in it.

Gyde: Tech startup Gyde raised $0.25 million from Better Capital and Ashish Achrekar, CEO of Rica Analytics Inc.

DrinkPrime: Water purification startup DrinkPrime has raised $1.7 million in a debt financing round by UC Inclusive Credit and Western Capital. 

LoanKuber: Digital mortgage platform LoanKuber has raised $1.25 million as part of its ongoing pre-Series A round from LetsVenture, AngelList India and Accolade.

Undisclosed deals this week

Snack Amor, Blowhorn, Kalam Labs, Parafit, CricHeroes, Zini.ai and BatteryPool did not disclose their financial details.

*Every week we track startups that have raised fresh investment. Stay tuned for next week roundup