Funding and acquisition in Indian startups this week [31 Jan- 05 Feb]

This week 30 Indian startups raised funding, of which 22 received a total of about $467.49 million. Chargebee raised the highest funding of about $250 million, followed by Scaler and Loadshare, which raised $55 million and $40 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 

Chargebee: Chargebee, a subscription management and recurring billing platform, has raised $250 million in its Series H round at a valuation of $3.5 billion. The latest round was co-led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital, with participation from Insight Partners, Sapphire, and Steadview Capital.

Scaler: Tech upskilling startup Scaler (by Interviewbit) has scooped up $55 million in its Series B round led by new investor Lightrock India along with two existing investors, Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global at a valuation of $710 million.

Loadshare: Logistics platform Loadshare has raised $40 million (about Rs 300 crore) in a funding round led by Tiger Global. Filter Capital, 57 Stars, existing investors CDC Group and Matrix Partners India, and a few prominent family offices also participated in the round.

Headout: Travel experiences app Headout has raised $30 million in Series B round in addition to the $12 million raised in September last year, bringing the total round size to $42 million.

Bombay Shaving Company: New Delhi-based personal care and hair removal brand Bombay Shaving Company has raised Rs 50 crore or $6.69 million from Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), as a follow on to its Rs 160 crore Series C funding round led by Malabar. This takes the round size to Rs 210 crore.

Waterfield Advisors: Wealth advisory firm Waterfield Advisors raised $6 million from family offices, ultra-high net worth individuals, and existing investors

Early-stage startups 

Jar: Daily gold savings app Jar has raised $32 million in a Series A round led by Tiger Global and participated by Rocketship.vc, Third Prime, Stonks, Force Ventures and existing investors including Arkam Ventures and WEH.

Two Platforms: Jio Platforms Ltd has invested $15 million in Two Platforms Inc, a Silicon Valley based deeptech startup founded by Pranav Mistry, for a 25% equity stake on a fully diluted basis. 

SuperShare: Smartphone dialer and communication platform Quiph’s SuperShare has raised Rs 48.5 crore or $6.5 million in a Series A round from new and existing investors.

Nautius Mobile: South Korean gaming major Krafton has invested $5.4million in JetSynthesys-owned mobile game development studio Nautilus Mobile.

Scrut Automation: Scrut Automation, an information security compliance platform, has raised $3 million in its seed round from Lightspeed and Endiya Partners.

Pillow: Fintech startup Pillow has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Elevation Capital and a host of crypto angels, including Scott Lewis (Co-founder, DeFi Pulse), JD Kanani & Sandeep Nailwal (Co-founders, Polygon), Prabhakar Reddy (Co-founder, FalconX), and Aniket Jindal (Co-founder, Biconomy). 

OneTo11: OneTo11, a Noida-based blockchain gaming startup, recently raised $2.5 millionin its seed funding round. 

EekiFoods: Agritech startup EekiFoods has raised $2 million from Avaana Capital. Existing investor Spectrum Impact, Kunal Shah, founder CRED; Ramakant Sharma, founder Livspace; Abhishek Kejriwal, founder Kutumb; and, Harsh Shah, Fynd founder, O2 Angels Network and Gopinath K, Eeki have also participated in this round.

POPT: Proptech startup POPT on Thursday said it has raised $2 million mainly from Canada-based angel investors MRW Ventures and Riar Holdings. In the pre-seed round of funding, seven other Indian angel investors also participated.

Logibricks: Zomato Ltd-backed e-commerce shipping and enablement firm Shiprocket, operated by BigFoot Retail Solutions Pvt Ltd, has invested $1.5 million in Logibricks Technologies Pvt Ltd.

CyborgIntell: SaaS startup CyborgIntell has raised $1.19 million in pre-Series A round led by SenseAI and Pentathlon Ventures. Existing backers and Ghosal Ventures have also joined the round.

Kisanwala: Agritech solutions startup Kisanwalahas raised around $1 million in an angel round led by veterans from the tech and agri industry. 

Burgerama: Delivery-focused fast-food brand Burgeramahas raised $700,000 (Rs 5 crore) in pre-Series A round led by Anicut Angel Fund.

Life & Pursuits: Life & Pursuits, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) beauty brand focused on ayurveda, on Friday said it has secured $0.5 million (around Rs 3.75 crore) funding from a host of angel investors.  

ZFW: ZFW, a Dark Store platform for D2C, and food and beverage brands (F&B), has raised $415K or $0.41 million in pre-seed round from a clutch of marquee startup founders and angels.

Sortizy: Sortizy, a smart kitchen management platform, has raised $100K or $0.1 million in a funding round led by Campus Fund, a venture capital firm that backs student-led startups.

Undisclosed

PlantVita,Kaagaz,The Renal Project,ZERUND,Zama Organics,  LegalPay,Bibo, andTruphedid not disclose their financial details.

Acquisitions this week

Conversational messaging platform Gupshup hasacquired cloud communications firm Knowlarity Communications.