Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [22 Nov- 27 Nov]

This week 51 Indian startups raised funding, of which 42 received a total of $1,664 million or $1.66 billion. Dream Sports alone raised $840 million, followed by Spinny and NoBroker which raised $248 million and $210 million respectively to make entry into the unicorn club of 2021.

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

Growth/late-stage startups [15 deals]

Dream Sports: Fantasy sports platform Dream11 [owned by Dream Sports] has scooped up $840 million in a new round led by Falcon Edge, DST Global, D1 Capital, Tiger Global and Redbird Capital. TPG and Footpath Ventures also participated in the round.

Spinny: Full-stack used car retailing platform Spinny has turned unicorn after raising around Rs 1,849 crore or $248 million in its Series E round from new and existing investors.  [Unicorn]

NoBroker: Online real estate rental startup NoBroker has scooped up $210 million in its Series E round led by General Atlantic, Tiger Global and Moore Strategic Ventures. [Unicorn]

Indifi: Indifi, which operates an online lending platform that offers third-party loans to micro, small and medium enterprises, has raised Rs 340 crore or close to $47 million in a mixed round of equity and debt led by CX Partners and OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I. 

Biryani By Kilo: D2C food-tech startup Biryani By Kilo [BBK] has raised $35 million in a Series B round led by Falcon Edge Capital with participation from SBI and existing investor IvyCap Ventures.

CoreStack: SAAS startup CoreStack has raised $30 million in Series B round led by Avatar Growth Capital along with Dallas Venture Capital, Iron Pillar and other angels.

True Balance:  True Balance, operated by Balancehero India Private Limited, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Balancehero Co Ltd Korea, on Tuesday announced a debt fundraise of $30 million from investors across India and Korea. The third round took the total debt raised to $55 million in FY2021.

Upstox: The online investment platform has raised $25 million from existing investor Tiger Global. The fresh funding appears to be a part of a larger round for the company. [Unicorn]

Park+: Car owners-focused app Park+ also pulled off a $25 million worth Series B round co-led by three existing backers: Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and Epiq Capital. AdvantEdge, Somani Investments and Motherson Lease also participated in the round.

Salesken: SAAS startup Salesken has raised $22 million in a Series B round of funding led by M12 and participated by existing investor Sequoia India.

Haber: Deeptech startup Haber has raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Ascent Capital along with Accel, Elevation Capital, BEENEXT and popular angels.

Rentmojo: Furniture rental firm Rentomojo said it has raised Rs 145 crore or $19.3 million as people start coming back to cities and offices open up.

Rebel Foods: Faasos parent Rebel Foods has topped up its Series F round with $14.5 million. The company had recently scooped up $175 million in this round at a $1.4 billion valuation to become the first full-stack foodtech brand to enter the coveted club of unicorns this year.

Euler Moto: EV manufacturing startup Euler Motors has raised $10 million as a part of a $60 million Series B round led by its existing investor QRG Holdings. The round also saw participation from ADB Ventures, Inventus Capital, and Blume Ventures. 

Pepperfry: Hybrid furniture marketplace Pepperfry has picked up another tranche of $10 million from eight investors in the form of compulsory convertible debentures (CCDs). This will be the second debt infusion in the Mumbai-based company in 2021.

Early-stage startups [36 deals]

Simple Energy: EV startup Simple Energy has announced the completion of a $21 million pre-series funding round led by existing investors Manish Bharti and Raghunath Subramanian. Sattva Group, Athiyas Group and HNIs also participated in the round.

GetSetUp: Social-learning platform for the elderly, GetSetUp has raised $10 million (approximately Rs 74 crore) in a new funding round through simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) warrants, led by Aileen Lee’s Cowboy Ventures and LightShed Ventures.

SAVE Solutions: SAVE Solutions Pvt Ltd, a rural financial inclusion services group, has raised Rs 60 crore or close to $8 million funding from existing investors, Incofinand Maj Invest in a follow-on round.

Altum Credo: Housing finance company AltumCredo has received a fresh equity investment of Rs 50 crore ($6.7 million) from Amicus Capital, a growth fund. Existing investors, Aavishkaar Capital and PS Pai and family, also participated with an investment of Rs 19 crore each ($2.5 million), taking the round size to Rs 88 crore ($12 million).

Sleepy Owl: D2C coffee brand Sleepy Owl has raised $6.5 million in a Series A funding round led by existing investors Rukam Capital and DSG Consumer Partners.

Medkart: Retail chain of generic medicines Medkart has raised $5.38 million as part of its Series A funding round co-led by Alkemi Venture Partners and Insitor Partners.

Fasal: Agritech startup Fasal has raised $4 million in a pre-Series A round led by 3one4 Capital along with exciting investors Omnivore and Wavemaker Partners. Genting Ventures, The Yield Lab Asia-Pacific, Antares Investments, and Sandeep Singhal of Nexus also participated in the round.

Ugaoo: D2C home gardening brand Ugaoo has raised $2 million in a pre-Series A round led by DSG Consumer Partners and RPG Ventures.

Xponents: Xponents, a platform that enables family-owned businesses to synergise with the startup ecosystem, has raised $1.56 million in a Seed funding round from a UAE-based venture capitalist, the company said in a statement on Thursday. 

Zvolv: Enterprise SAAS platform Zvolv has raised $1.5 million in a round led by JSW Ventures along with Riso Capital.

Early Steps Academy: Edtech startup Early Steps Academy has raised $1.2 million seed capital from BEENEXT, Whiteboard Capital and Taurus Ventures. Angels such as Suhail Sumeer, Akash Saxena, Varun Alagh and others also participated in the round.

The Barbeque Company: Casual dining chain The Barbeque Company has secured $1.5 million (around Rs 11.1 crore) in its pre-seed funding round from a group of angel investors led by Nitesh Agarwal.  

Pidge: Logistics platform Pidge has raised $1 million from Indian Angels Network (IAN). Prior to this round, the founders self-funded the company with $2 million.

Toppersnotes: Edtech Startup Toppersnotes has raised $1 million in a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures along with LetsVenture, PlanB Capital, Pulkit Agarwal, Ashish Sharma and other angels.

Adonia Hospitality: Food-tech startup Adonia Hospitality has raised $1 million in a seed round from Pepperfry founders Ambareesh Murthy and Ashish Shah. The funds will be deployed to set up 6 additional restaurants in the next 6 months.

OneCare: Bangalore based Diabetes care Startup OneCareon Monday raised ~$1 million in a pre-seed investment round led by Multiply Ventures and Better Capital.

Koparo: Koparo, a sustainable home and personal hygiene D2C brand, on Tuesday raised a seed funding of $759K or $0.75 million  from Saama Capital, Titan Capital, and DSG Consumer Partners. 

Settl: Settl, a technology-driven managed accommodation platform, has raised an investment worth $500,000 or $0.5 million in seed round. The funding round witnessed participation from an array of investors- We Founder Circle, ah! Ventures. 

Drona Pay: Mumbai-based SaaS tool Drona Pay has raised $500K or $0.5 million in a seed round from Varanium Capital, Credit Saison and from fintech veterans including Kunal Shah, Jitendra Gupta, Amrish Rau and a few others. 

Atmana: Atmana has raised $500,000 or $0.5 million as part of a seed round. Investors include Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital and angels like Dhruv Gupta, co-founder of Orange health, and Austen Allred, Founder of Lambda school. Atmana was part of the S21 batch of Y Combinator.

Sutradhar: Short story media platform Sutradhar has raised $500K or $0.5 million in a seed round led by Venture Catalysts and LetsVenture. Existing investor Titan Capital along with angels like Sahil Barua, Shashvat Nakrani, Kush Agarwal also participated in the round.

Recordent: Fintech firm Recordent has raised $400K or $0.4 million in angel funding from the Family Office of Kantamaneni, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park and other angels.

Canvaloop Fibre: Theia Ventures and Social Alpha have announced a pre-seed investment of $200K or $0.2 million in Gujarat-based CanvaLoop Fibre Private Limited, the company said in a statement. 

Homeversity: Student housing marketplace Homversity has raised $1,55,000  or $0.15 million to expand its operations.

Edvizo: Edvizo, an edtech startup that lets you search, compare and enroll in institutes for competitive exams, has raised $150,000 or $0.15 million in an angel funding round from ah! Ventures angel platform, a startup-focused growth catalyst firm.  

iCardin: iCardin(Nuclius Health Pvt Ltd) — a Pune-based brain stroke and neurology healthtech startup has raised $100,000 or $0.1 million from UK-based businessman Jitendra Patel, who operates the Grandbydaledrugstore business.

MentorKart: Mentorship platform MentorKart has scooped up $100K or $0.1 million in its extended round of funding from LetsVenture and actor Ashish Vidyarthi taking total funds raised to date to $250K.

Undisclosed rounds

Chakr Innovation, Globalise, Credit Fair, Healthyhey, Rey Naturals, Intellilens,Nothing,Almond Solutions andEzyschoolingdid not disclose their financial details.

ESOP buyback

Vedantu: Edtech startup Vedantu has initiated its first-ever employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) liquidity plan worth Rs 20 crore for its employees under the startup’s ESOP linked bonus pay-out scheme, according to an internal company email. 

iZooto: Audience marketing platform iZooto has announced its maiden ESOP buyback programme worth $1.35 million for all shareholders including current and former employees.

Acquisitions this week

eBikeGo hasacquired Velocipedofor an undisclosed amount.

In talks

Byjus is in talks to take overHello English andSuperset.