Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [29 Nov-04 Dec]

This week 36 Indian startups raised funding, of which 29 received a total of about $486.3 million. Slice has joined the unicorn list by raising the highest funding this week of about $220 million.

Meanwhile, the funding of the 7 of the total funded startups remained undisclosed.

Below is the summary closed this week

Growth/late-stage startups

Slice: Credit card platform Slice has raised $220 million in its Series B round co-led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners. Existing investors: Advent International’s Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Anfa, Gunosy, Blume Ventures and 8i also participated in the round.

Curefit: Fitness tech company Curefit has received around $145 million in a new financing round from foodtech major Zomato, Temasek, South Park, Accel and a few individuals including the company’s founder co-Mukesh Bansal. We have already covered Zomato’s $50 million investment in Curefit in the second week’s report. The remaining $95 million will be added this week.  

Box8: The year may be coming to an end soon, but Tiger Global’s investment spree in Indian startups doesn’t seem to halt. The investment firm has led a $40 million round in EatClub Brands, which operates cloud kitchen brands like BOX8 and MOJO Pizza.

Simpl: Fintech platform Simpl has raised $40 million in a Series B round led by Valar Ventures and IA Ventures with participation from LFH Ventures and other internal investors. This investment brings the total capital raised by the company to $83 million.

CollegeDekho: College admission and higher education services platform CollegeDekho has closed its $35 million round with the arrival of Disrupt ADQ and QIC. The round was led by Winter Capital, ETS Strategic Capital, Calega and existing investor Man Capital.

Adda247: Adda247, a Gurugram-based multilingual edtech platform providing online courses in nine languages, has raised Series B funding of approximately $20 million led by WestBridge Capital. The round also saw participation from existing investors, including Info Edge, Asha Impact and JM Financials.

Early-stage startups 

21K School: Online schooling platform 21k School has raised $5 million in pre-Series A round from Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder and chairman of upGrad.

LokSuvidha Finance: Private equity (PE) fund India SME Investments has expanded its financial services bouquet with around $5 million investment in LokSuvidha Finance.

PayGlocal: Fin-Tech platform PayGlocal has raised $4.9 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India with participation from BeeNext, Jitendra Gupta and Amrish Rau.

NxtWave: Edtech startup Nxtwave has raised $2.8 million in a pre-Series A funding round funding led by Orios Venture Partners and Better Capital along with popular angels including Ravi Bhushan, Ramakant Sharma, Vikram Kailas, Umang Kumar, Chakradhar Gade, Anupam Mittal, Vikas Malpani, Rajesh Shawney, Nandu Nandkishore and Shaji Devakar and Giridhar Malpani.

Immensitas: Data automation platform Immensitas Pvt Ltd has raised $2.3 million (Rs 17.25 crore) in a Pre-Series A1 round co-led by Growx Ventures, Artha Venture Fund and DSP Investment Managers Pvt Ltd.

Big Spoon: Grip Invest, a lease finance platform, has entered into a $2 million lease financing deal with cloud kitchen start-up Big Spoon, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

ABL Workspace: Co-working and working space provider ABL Workspaces has raised a sum of Rs 15 crore or $2 million from Canada-based Ethik Inc in a Series A funding round, the company said in a statement.

ZenOnco.io: Oncology Healthcare platform ZenOnco.io has raised $1.4 million in a seed round led by Enzia Ventures, with participation from Better Capital, Apollo Hospitals, Titan Capital, Dr Arvind Kumar and other angel investors.

Mossaic Wellness: Mosaic Wellness Pvt Ltd, a health and wellness startup, raised $1.25 million from Spring Marketing Capital.

BizzTm: E-commerce startup BizzTm has raised $1.2 million led by 2 am VC along with Axilor Ventures, Let’s Venture, IIMI Fund, Qua Capital, Incisive Ventures, and angel investors such as Anupam Mittal, Ramakant Sharma, Abhishek Nag, Ryan Valles and family offices like Patni, Supriyajith Family Trust, and Almoayed General.

Ytrika Life Sciences: Healthcare company Ytrika Life Sciences (YLS) has raised $1.2 million led by Venture Catalysts along with Indian Scientific Innovation Company Limited.

Parablu: Enterprise SaaS platform Parablu has raised more than $1 million in pre-Series A funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures. 

Kidvento: Kidvento.app, a Mysore-based skilling platform for children, said on Monday it has secured $1 million in pre-series A funding from strategic investors in the United Kingdom and the Middle East.

Jade Forest: D2C startup Jade Forest had raised $1 million of funding led by Mumbai Angels Network. The company had raised a seed round of $250k in November 2020.

Fello: Fello, which claims to be India’s first game-based investment startup, has raised $1 million in its Seed funding round led by global investor Entrepreneur First, the company said in a statement.

Nucros Science & Taste: Nucros Science & Taste, a subscription-based food-and-beverage provider, has raised $0.9 million (around Rs 6.76 crore) in a pre-Seed funding round led by Aavejak Advisers, ID8 Ventures, Innoscale Global Foundation and Delhi Angels Network.

DCGpac: B2B online aggregator platform DCGpac.com has raised Rs 5 crore or $0.66 million in a pre-Series A round led by Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns. 

Zippyhire: Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered recruitment startup Zappyhire has raised Rs 3.7 crore or $0.49 million in a Seed funding round co-led by Kerala Angel Network and Alex K Babu, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director, Hedge Finance Ltd.

InstaAstro: Astrology platform InstaAstro has raised Rs 3.2 crore or $0.42 million in a seed round led by Artha Venture Fund along with Ramakant Sharma’s LogX Ventures.   

BlueRickshaw: BlueRickshaw, a business-to-business (B2B) export platform operated by Blue Rickshaw Pvt Ltd, has raised $0.3 million in angel funding by US-based investor Jay Narang.

Premagic: Photography workflow management platform Premagic has raised Rs 2 crore or $0.26 million in pre-seed funding round from 300 ventures and angel investors which include Sujayath Ali, Sony Joy, Mohammed Hisamuddin, and Sharique Samsudheen.

Microfinance.ai: Uthaan Technologies Pvt Ltd, which operates Microfinance.ai, a fintech startup, has raised $0.2 million (Rs 1.5 crore) in a Pre-Seed funding round led by We Founder Circle (WFC), the company said in a statement on Thursday. 

Veg Route: Agritech startup Veg Route has raised $0.12 million in a pre-seed round of funding led by Mohan K, Jai Kumar, Prabhu R and Omar Bin Brek.

Undisclosed deals   

OneGreen, Digiboxx, Satvacart, Amaara Herbs, HealthySure, Agrix and Klub did not disclose their financial details.  

Acquisitions this week

10Club, a Thrasio-style e-commerce roll-up company, has acquired its third sports and fitness brand, Aurion for an undisclosed value.

Edtech unicorn upGrad is all set to acquire Australia-based edtech startup Global Study Partners (GSP).

Thrasio-style startup Powerhouse91 has acquired wellness firm Expertomind for an undisclosed amount.

Warburg Pincus backed Parksons Packaging Ltd has acquired folding carton manufacturer Manohar Packaging for an undisclosed amount.

CRED has confirmed the acquisition talks to Entrackr. Happay will be CRED’s second acquisition after HipBar — an alcohol delivery startup that it acquired in October. 

Tech Mahindra has acquired Activus Connect for $62 million.