Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [14 Feb- 19 Feb]

Overview

This week 38 Indian startups raised funding, of which 32 received a total of about $797 million. Uniphore raised the highest funding of about $400 million, followed by Pine Labs which raised $150 million. Last week, 56 startups raised funds worth $1592.42 million or close to $1.6 billion. 

Meanwhile, the funding of 6 of the total funded startups remained undisclosed.

Growth/late-stage deals

This week eight growth and late-stage startups have scooped up funds which include Uniphore’s $400 million unicorn round and Pine Lab’s $150 million round.

The list also includes tech-enabled healthcare platform GOQii, grocery and essentials focused social commerce startup DealShare, education-focused fintech platform Propelld and Amazon’s founder investment in Jakarta and Bengaluru-based company Lummo.

Details of the 38 funding rounds can be found here.

Early-stage deals

In the early-stage deals, 30 startups have raised funds which also include 5 undisclosed rounds. Fintech startup RapiPay, healthtech startup Kenko Health, B2B platform for agri-inputs AGRIM, AI-based document workflow automation platform Nanonets are some of the top deals in the early stage.

Undisclosed deals

Bold Care,Tartan, Stellapps, Omnipresent, Habanero Foods and Lummo.

City and segment-wise fundings

Bengaluru was on top as the startups based out of the city received $545 million in total funding across 17 deals. During the week, Delhi-NCR based startups raised $178 million across 7 deals followed by Mumbai, Chennai. 

SaaS was the top segment in terms of the number of fundraising in the last week with 7 deals followed by fintech, healthtech and D2C brands.

Acquisitions this week

The week also saw five acquisitions. Health and wellness platform Cult.fit has picked up a majority stake in F2 Fun & Fitness India Pvt Ltd, thereby becoming the master franchise partner for Gold’s Gym in India. 

Other notable acquisitions this week include:

• Winter Capital-backed CollegeDekho has acquired GetMyUni in an all cash deal.
• SustainKart, an e-commerce marketplace for sustainable products, has acquired homecare brand FromVedas. 
• Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Mamaearth and The Derma Co, has bought BBlunt salons, operated by Bhabani Blunt Hair Dressing Pvt Ltd for Rs 134.
• Chennai-headquartered M2P Solutions, which owns payments infrastructure platform M2P Fintech, has acquired core banking solutions provider BSG ITSOFT, for an undisclosed sum. 

ESOP buybacks this week

Apart from fundraising and acquisitions, the week also saw four ESOP buyback announcements including Slice, TheMathCompany, Bizongo and LEAD.

• Fintech startup slice has announced the completion of its first ESOP buyback worth Rs 65 crore. 
• TheMathCompany has announced an ESOP buy-back program to reward its employees. The value of the total buyback program this year stands at Rs 93.2 crore where over 20% of the existing workforce currently holds ESOPs.
• E-commerce focused packaging company Bizongo has executed its first employee stock options (ESOP) buyback worth $3.7 million (around Rs 28 crore). 
• Edtech unicorn LEAD has announced an ESOP liquidation plan of close to $3 million for its employees.