Funding and acquisition in Indian startups this week [3 Jan- 8 Jan]

This week 40 Indian startups raised funding, of which 32 received a total of $1,225.84 million or $1.2 billion. Fractal became the second unicorn of 2022 by raising a $360 million round. Udaan and Dunzo have raised $250 million and $240 million respectively.

Meanwhile, the funding of the 8 of the total funded startups remained undisclosed.

Below is the summary of the deals closed this week

Growth/late startups

Fractal: Fractal, a provider of artificial intelligence and analytics solutions, has raised $360 million in a new round from TPG Capital Asia in a transaction that includes a combination of primary investment and secondary share purchase from Funds advised by Apax Partners.

Udaan: B2B e-commerce platform Udaan has raised another round of $250 million via convertible note and debt, according to an internal email shared by the company’s top executive that Entrackr has seen.

Dunzo: Quick commerce player Dunzo has raised $240 million in a new funding round led by Reliance Retail Ventures Limited. The round also saw participation from existing investors Lightbox, Lightrock, 3L Capital and Alteria Capital. 

Zupee: Online real-money gaming platform Zupee has raised $72 million from Mumbai-based Nepean Capital as part of a larger funding round.

ID Fresh Food: ID Fresh Food has raised Rs 507 crore or $68.2 million in a Series D funding round. The funding was led by private equity firm NewQuest Capital Partner along with the existing investor, Premji Invest.

Avataar.me: San Francisco and Bengaluru-based Avataar.me, an AI and Computer Vision platform focused on spatial visual discovery, on Friday announced a $45 million Series B funding round led by Tiger Global with co-participation from existing investor Sequoia Capital India. 

Exotel: Bengaluru-based full-stack customer engagement platform Exotel raised $40 million in its Series D round led by Steadview Capital.

Bombay Shaving Company:Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has raised Rs 160 crore or $21.5 million in a Series C round led by Malabar Investments, a hedge fund based in India.

Pine Labs: Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs on Tuesday said it has raised $20 million from the State Bank of India, India's largest commercial bank.

CASHe: Online lender CASHe on Tuesday said it raised Rs 140 crore or $18.8 million in funding from Singapore-based fintech firm TSLC, bringing its total balance sheet size to over Rs 800 crore.

Innoviti Payment: Innoviti Payment, an enterprise payments solution provider, has raised Rs 80 crore or $10.7 million — in a mix of debt and equity — in the first close of its ongoing Series D round. The round was carried out by Trifecta Debt Fund, Patni Advisors, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Early-stage startups 

Rupifi: Bengaluru-based finance platform for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), Rupifi has raised $25 million in Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Tiger Global Management.

Zuddl: Event platform Zuddl has raised $13.5 million in a Series A round led by Alpha Wave Incubation followed by existing investors GrowX and Waveform Ventures.

Living Food: Silicon Valley headquartered sustainability and climate focused venture capital fund Amasia has led a $7.5 million Series A round in Bengaluru based fresh food retailer, Living Food.

Geniemode: Geniemode, a B2B (business-to-business) cross-border e-commerce company, has raised $7 million in a Series A funding round led by Info Edge ventures.

Freecultr: D2C premium innerwear, loungewear, and activewear brand FREECULTR on Wednesday announced that it has raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Sixth Sense Ventures through their Sixth Sense India Opportunities Fund.

Groyyo: Groyyo, a B2B manufacturing and automation company, has raised $4.6 million in a seed round led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), which is backed by DisruptAD, ADQ’s venture platform, and managed by Falcon Edge Capital.  

STAGE: Delhi NCR based local language focused OTT platform STAGE has recently raised $2.5 million through its pre-series A round of funding led by Blume Ventures and Better Capital. 

Bolo Live: Social live-streaming platform Bolo Live raised $2.4 million in a pre-Series A round from Orios Venture Partners, it said on Wednesday, adding SOSV, Tremis Capital, LPA Ventures, and other HNIs also participated in the round.

Bambrew: Bambrew, a one-stop innovative solution provider of sustainable packaging as an alternative to single-use plastic, has raised a Pre-Series-A round of $2.35 million led by Blue Ashva Capital and Supack Industries.

LivFin: Delhi-based LivFin India Private Limited has raised $2 million in venture debt from BlackSoil, a leading NBFC and noteworthy player in the credit space. 

WEGot: WEGoT Utility Solutions, a maker of smart water meters, has raised $1.5 million in a funding round led by Gruhas Proptech, a company backed by Abhijeet Pai of Puzzolana Group and Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha.

91Squarefeet: Retail store development company 91Squarefeet (formerly Rolling Banners) has raised $1 million (around Rs 7.5 crore) in a pre-seed funding round from Omphalos Ventures India, Nikhil Vora of Sixth Sense Ventures, actor Rannvijay Singh Singha and VG-Angels, among others. 

RupeeRedee: RupeeRedee, a digital lending platform, has raised $1 million in debt funding from NBFC firm Eclear Leasing and Finance Pvt Ltd.

Wall.app: Web3 platform Wall.app has secured over $1 million (around Rs 7 crore) funding from Woodstockfund, Arcanum capital, Lancer capital, Lumos labs, as well as from Persistence founder Tushar Agarwal, Biconomy’s Aniket Jindal and Falcon X’s Prabhakar Reddy. 

One Impression: Influencer marketing platform One Impression has raised over $1 million in a strategic round from investors and celebrities including Karandeep Anand, Varun Alagh, Anupam Mittal, Rohit M.A, Ramakant Sharma, Neeraj Chopra, Zakir Khan, Kanan Gill, Masoom Minawala and a few others.

AarogyaAI Innovations: Healthtech startup AarogyaAI Innovations has raised $0.7 million (Rs 5.2 crore approx) as a part of its seed funding round from Info Edge (India)-backed Redstart Labs and Avaana Capital (Seed Program). 

Crater.Club: Crater.Club, an interactive live streaming and monetisation platform for creators and educators, has raised an additional $0.5 million from Lumikai.

Courseplay: Employee growth enablement platform Courseplay raises Rs 3 crore or $0.4 million in a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures.

Campus 365: Educational technology startup Campus 365 has raised Rs 21.5 million or $0.28 million in seed funding, led by angel investors based out of Bengaluru.

Great Manager Institute: People management coaching and certification company, Great Manager Institute, has raised $0.27 million from executive leaders — Sanjay Mehta of VCosmos, Ajay Kaul, former CEO of Jubilant Foodworks, and Dr Suresh Surana.

Thinkerbell Labs: Thinkerbell Labs, a Bengaluru-based startup that uses technology to help visually impaired kids self-learn their curriculum in Braille, has raised Rs 1.05 crore or $0.14 million from Lenskart founder Peyush Bansal, Emcure executive director Namita Thapar, and People Group founder Anupam Mittal.

Undisclosed deals

SaveIN, Trainman, Falcon Autotech, QNu Labs, One Impression, The Mainstreet Marketplace, Groww, and Skyber did not disclose their financial details.

Acquisitions this week 

B2B marketplace IndiaMart, via its wholly-owned subsidiary Tradezeal Online Private Limited, has made an investment of approximately Rs 13.3 crore to acquire a 26.01 percent stake in EasyEcom (Edgewise Technologies Private Limited).

The Good Glamm Group, which is on acquisition spree, has added influencer marketing platform Winkl and content and creator analytics startup Vidooly to its broader beauty and personal care portfolio.

Ecommerce shipping and enablement firm Shiprocket on Friday said it will acquire a 75% stake in customer data platform (CDP) Wigzo Tech for an undisclosed amount.  

Mensa Brands, which acquires stakes in direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, has announced acquisition of leather brand Estalon, for an undisclosed amount.