Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [06 Dec- 11 Dec]

This week 51 Indian startups raised funding, of which 42 received a total of about $820 million. Ola raised the highest funding of about $139 million, followed by Shiprocket which raised $110 million. Pristyn Care became a unicorn by raising a $100 million round this week.

Meanwhile, the funding of 9 of the total funded startups remained undisclosed.

Below is the summary of the deals closed this week

Growth/late startups

Ola: Mobility major Ola continues to defy the normal laws of valuations by scoring $139 million in its ongoing Series J round led by Edelweiss. The new tranche also saw the participation of 20 other investors comprising financial corporations, family offices, individuals and strategic investors.

Shiprocket: Logistics aggregator platform Shiprocket has raised $185 million in a Series E round co-led by Zomato, Teamasek and Lightrock India. Existing investors InfoEdge Ventures and March Capital along with Moore Strategic Ventures and 9unicorns also participated in the round. As we have already covered Zomato’s $75 million investment in Shiprocket in the second week’s report in November, the remaining $110 million will be added this week.

Bizongo: E-commerce focused packaging company Bizongo has raised $110 million [Rs 825 crore] in its Series D round of financing led by Tiger Global. Existing investors such as B Capital and International Finance Corporation (IFC) and CDC have also participated in the fresh funding.

Pristyn Care: Gurugram-based healthcare startup Pristyn Care has raised around $100 million in a new round from Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global and others. The three-year-old company was reportedly in talks with these investors for a larger round.

AgroStar: Omnichannel agriculture advisory and commerce marketplace AgroStar has raised $70 million in its Series D funding round from Evolvence, Schroders Capital, Hero Enterprise, and CDC. Existing investors Aavishkaar Capital, Accel, Bertelsmann, Chiratae Ventures, and Rabo Frontier Ventures also participated in the round.

Suki.AI: Suki AI, founded by ex-Google and Flipkart product honcho Punit Soni, has raised Series C funding of $55 million, led by March Capital, with additional support from Philips Ventures, and all previous investors, including Venrock, Flare Capital, Breyer Capital, and inHealth Ventures.

Ola Electric: Ola Electric has raised more than Rs 398 crore or $53 million in a financing round led by Temasek which also saw participation from Edelweiss, IIFL, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s VSS Investco and others. 

MoEngage: Bengaluru-based insights-led customer engagement platform Moengage on Tuesday said that it has raised Series D funding of $30 million, at double the valuation from its earlier Series C1 investment of $32.5 million in July.

Otipy:  Otipy, a community group buying platform for fresh fruits and vegetables, has raised around $26 million in its ongoing Series B round from WestBridge, SAI Global and others.

Pocket FM: Pocket FM, an audio over-the-top (OTT) audio-focused app, has raised $22.4 Mn in a round led by Lightspeed. Times Group and Tanglin Ventures have also joined the new round.

Ultraviolette: Electric bike startup Ultraviolette has raised around $15 million in a new round from TVS Motor Company and Zoho Corporation. This is the part of Series C round for the company which last raised Rs 50 crore or $6.5 million from TVS and GoFurugal in October last year.

PlanetSpark: Edtech platform PlanetSpark has raised $13.5 million from Prime Venture Partners and angels including Binny Bansal, Deep Kalra, Ashish Gupta, Gokul Rajaram, and Shirish Nandkarni, in a Series-B round. PlanetSpark had previously raised $3.7 million in previous rounds from Prime Ventures, FIITJEE and several angel networks.

Early-stage startups 

Charge+Zone: EV-charging infra startup CHARGE+ZONE has raised $10 million as a bridge round led by Venture Catalysts and others, and will further raise Series A funding worth $50 million in 2022.

CometChat: Enterprise SaaS company CometChat has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Signal Peak Ventures, including participation from existing investors Matchstick Ventures, Range Ventures, Unbound VC among others. Previously, CometChat had raised $1.6 million in a Pre-Series A round.

LenDenClub: LenDenClub, a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, has raised $10 million in its Series A round co-led by a clutch of investors such as Tuscan Ventures, Ohm Stock Brokers, Artha Venture Fund, Kunal Shah and others.

Simplified: Simplified, AI-powered content creation and marketing platform, said it has raised $8.5 million in a seed funding round led by Craft Ventures with participation from Khosla Ventures and Wing Venture Capital.

Yulu: Bengaluru-based Yulu is yet to raise a large equity round in FY22, but the company has just scored $7 million in a debt round. Yulu has passed a special resolution to borrow the aforementioned sum from Magna International INC through non-convertible notes, regulatory filings with RoC show.

AuthBridge: Tech startup AuthBridge raised $7 million from Phi Capital and others.

Probus Insurance: Mumbai-based Insurtech firm Probus Insurance has raised $6.7 million from BlueOrchard Impact Investment Manager. The company shall be deploying the capital in technology and expanding its presence across geographies.

Trinkerr: Bengaluru-based social trading platform Trinkerr has raised Series A funding of $6.6 million led by Accel India. The total funding raised by the startup now is over $8 million.  

Exponent Energy: EV infra startup Exponent Energy has raised $5 million in funding led by YourNest VC, along with participation from 3one4 Capital, AdvantEdge VC and Motherson Group.

Bzaar: Bzaar, a global business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce marketplace, has raised $4 million (Rs 30 crore) in its seed funding round led by Canaan Partners.

Zorro: Zorro, a pseudonymous social network, has raised $3.2 million in a seed round from more than 16 unicorn founders including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Ritesh Agarwal, Kunal Shah, Ankiti Bose, Ashneer Grover, Lalit Keshre, Gaurav Gupta and multiple other angel investors.

Stage3: Social commerce brand Stage3 has raised Rs 20 crores or $2.6 million in a Pre-Series A round co-led by Inflection Point Ventures and LC Nueva Investment Partners LLP along with Let’s Venture, Stanford Angels along and existing investor Blume Ventures. Anges including Ananth Narayanan, Dinesh Aggarwal, and Sashwat Nakhrani also participated in the round.

Clensta: D2C brand Clensta has raised Rs 20 cr or $2.6 million in a Series A funding led by Venture Catalysts and Inflection Point Ventures. Hem Angels, N+1 Capital (RBF) and other investors also participated in the round.

Snazzy: Direct-to-consumer (D2C) orthodontic startup Snazzy has raised $2.2 million in its Seed funding round led by Y Combinator, Form Capital, Goodwater Capital, and ANIM Fund.

Samosa Party: QSR brand Samosa Party has raised $2 million in a pre-Series A round by Kalaari Capital.  

LoanKuber: Loan marketplace platform LoanKuber has raised a pre-Series A round of Rs 13 crores or $1.7 million led by Lets Venture which saw participation from Inflection Point Ventures among other investors.

Raaho: On-demand intercity trucking marketplace Raaho has raised Rs 12.5 crore ($1.65 million) as a part of its pre-Series A funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures and Nitish Mittersain, founder, Nazara Technologies Ltd.

Keka: Keka Technologies Pvt Ltd, a small and medium scale enterprise (SME) focussed human resource technology startup, on Thursday said it has raised $1.6 million (Rs 12 crore) through revenue-based financing route from Recur.club.

Fego.ai: Fintech platform Fego.ai has raised $1.5 million seed capital from 3one4 Capital, Saison Capital, Eximius Ventures, First Cheque, Speciale Invest.

Phyt.Health: Phyt.Health, a healthtech platform focussed on physiotherapy, has raised $1.5 million (Rs 11 crore) in a seed round of funding led by US-based private investment firm Lunsford Capital. 

WEGot: WEGoT Utility Solutions Pvt Ltd, an Internet of Things(IoT) based start-up focused on water management solutions, has raised $1.5 million (around Rs 11 crore) in strategic funding led by a bunch of investors including GRUHAS Proptech LLP, promoted by Abhijeet Pai of Puzzolana Group.

goSTOPS: Backpacker hostel brand goSTOPS has raised  an additional $1 million bridge round within 6 months of the last pre-series A round concluded earlier this year. 

Lernern: Lernern has raised $1 million (around Rs 7 crore) in a seed funding round from a clutch of investors including OOB Ventures Pte. Ltd, a Singapore-based company run by Ruchi Sihare.  

Foxtale: Direct-to-consumer (D2C) skincare brand Foxtale has raised Rs 5.5 crore ($0.73 million) in its seed funding round ahead of its entry into the market, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. 

WayFr: SaaS platform WayFr has raised 3 crore or $0.4 million in a seed round from 2am VC, Relentless Ventures and angels such as Dhruvil Sanghvi, Pravin Gandhi, Ambarish Jaipuria and Kishore Ganji.  

IThrive: IThrive, a Pune-based healthcare start-up has raised $0.35 milion in a pre-Series A round from Rajesh Ranavat, executive director at Fung Strategic Investments, and Neelesh Bhatnagar, managing director at NB Ventures.

OyChef: Private Chef Service OyChef has secured Rs 2.5 crores or $0.33 million in a seed round from GrowthStories and others. The company is also in talks with investors to raise another Rs 10 crores to fuel OyChef’s future growth plans.

Tenantcube: Proptech platform Tenantcube has raised $0.25 million in a pre-Seed round from angel investors including Archana Priyadharshini, Ashish Sharma and Rob K. Dawson. Girish Mathrubootham and Arvind Parthiban are the existing investors.

SpoofSense: AI-powered SAAS startup SpoofSense has raised $0.15 million led by JITO Angel Network along with other angel investors. The company had also raised 25 lakhs from 100X.VC a couple of months back.

Zoivane: Pet Suppliers platform Zoivane Pets has raised $0.1 million in seed round from We Founders Circle along with angels including Hitesh Dhawan, Dhrumil Patel, Joy Gnanamony and Abhishek Gupta.

Undisclosed deals

Naario, Rupifi, Netmonastery, Uravu Labs, WayCool, Learning Matters, KalaGato, Kreate and HealthySure did not disclose their financial details.

Acquisitions this week

Edtech giant upGrad has entered into an exclusive agreement to acquire online higher education company Talentedge.

Byju's on Wednesday said it has bought Austria-headquartered math learning platform GeoGebra, making it the Indian edtech giant's tenth acquisition this year.

Electric two-wheeler mobility platform eBikeGo has acquired the rights to manufacture ‘Muvi’ electric vehicles (EVs) of Spanish automotive company Torrot in India.

Brightcom Group Ltd, an ad-tech company, has acquired Vuchi Media Pvt Ltd, which operates MediaMint, a digital consulting and operations services firm for Rs 566 crore (around $75 million).

Thrasio-style house of brands player, Mensa Brands, has acquired Mumbai-based home décor and kitchenware brand Folkulture for an undisclosed amount in its 13th acquisition this year.