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, Incofin and Maj Invest in a follow-on round.

Altum Credo: Housing finance company Altum Credo 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 OneCare on 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 Grandbydale drugstore 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 and Ezyschooling did 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 has acquired Velocipedofor an undisclosed amount.

In talks

Byjus is in talks to take over Hello English and Superset.