Indian startups raised $251.8 million in equity funding in the second week of September. This week’s funding multiplied almost 3.25 times the last year funding of $75.7 million. Eleven early-stage ventures raised funding of $90.2 million while the remaining, $161 million, was raised through six deals.
Investment of the week
Gurugram based logistics unicorn Delhivery raised an investment of around $115 million from CPPIB or Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The funding was made through CPPIB’s Fundamental Equities Asia Group that performs fundamental research & invests in quality-driven corporates throughout the Asian continent.
Early-stage deals of the week
1. Bengaluru based fintech startup OkCredit has raised $67 million funding as a part of its Series B financing round from Lightspeed (US & India) and Tiger Global. The round takes OkCredits’s total fundraise over the period of last three months to $83 million.
2. Mumbai based ed-tech startup Whitehat Jr has raised $10 million in a Series A funding that was led by the existing investors Omidyar Network India and Nexus Venture Partners. The firm plans to utilize its new funds to strengthen its technology platform, expand its course curriculum, and increase consumer awareness.
3. Heads Up for Tails (HUFT), a Delhi based retailer of pet products, concluded a $10 million Pre-Series financing round. The round was led by a bunch of family offices, HNI’s and the existing promoters. The startup will be using its new funds to expand its business, offline, and online.
4. Pune based Nocca Robotics raised an investment worth $1.7 million for seed and early-stage fund led by The IAN Fund with participation from angel investors of Indian Angel Network. Founded in April 2017, the startup leverages technologies like AI, deep learning, machine learning, and robotics to provide automated, waterless and shareable solar panel cleaning solutions to utility-scale solar parks.
5. Delhi based fitness and sport’s platform Fitso has raised $1.5 million from investors, namely, SRI Capital, Zomato Co-founder Pankaj Chaddah, and Helion Ventures founder Ashish Gupta. The firm plans to use its freshly raised funds to increase its number of indoor all-weather swimming pools, invest in expansion, technology, and good talent to boost its operations.
6. Community-led platform Marsplay has raised funding for an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A round led by Venture Highway with participation from Alvin Tse from Xiaomi, and Jonathan Lau, Partner, Cadorna Ventures. Existing investors like the personal offices of Shailesh Rao, a partner with TPG Growth, and Nikhil Mohta, Director, ICICI Ventures also participated in the round.
7. Mumbai based startup Kawa Space raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its Pre-Series A round from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder of Paytm. Earlier, Bengaluru and Chennai-based SpecialE invested undisclosed funding in the startup.
8. Gurugram based healthy snacks manufacturer Hungry Foal has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in Pre-Series A round led by Singapore based Madison capital with participation from Singapore’s Das42 Ventures, Innerchef’s co-founder Rajesh Sawhney, Startup Buddy CEO Amit Singhal, and senior corporate executives.
9. Social media and commerce firm HappyShappy has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its seed funding round from investors, namely, Beerud Sheth, the founder of online freelance platform Upwork and smart messaging platform Gupshup, Samuel Choi, Shivashish Chatterjee, and Yuvraja C Singh.
10. EasyEcom, an omnichannel e-commerce enabling platform, has raised funding from US-based Amistad Ventures for an undisclosed amount. The firm, based in Bengaluru, will be using its fresh capital to strengthen its platform.
11. Acculi Labs, a Bengaluru based early-stage diagnostics company, has secured funding for an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding from a group of angel investors and Startup Basket, a consultancy and services firm. The firm will be utilizing its freshly secured capital to complete all the necessary steps needed to secure the IP and certification before mass commercialization of its product- Lyfas.
Other deals of the week
1. Mumbai based used car platform Truebil has raised $1million from the Japanese venture capital firm Spiral Ventures. The fresh funds will be used by the firm to strengthen its technology stack and marketing. The company was established in 2015 by IIT graduates Suraj Klawani, Ravi Chirania, Subha Bansal, Ritesh Pandey, Rakesh Raman, Himanshu Singhal, and Shanu Vivek.
2. The mobile-first content platform and InMobi group’s part Glance concluded $45 million investment from Mithril Capital. The Austin, Texas headquartered firm, Mithril Capital, with over $1.2 billion in its committed capital, is a growth stage investment company. It was co-founded by the Silicon valley investors Ajay Royan and Peter Thiel.
3. DNA Entertainment Networks Private Limited has invested Rs 4 crore in India’s first EV tourism startup B: Live. DNA believes that it has made a strategic investment in B: Live to assist in building unique travel experiences led by technology and innovation.
4. Bengaluru based e-sports gaming platform, SoStronk, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from IP Ventures. The 2016 launched company, founded by Prashant Prabhakar (CEO) and Karan Mishra (CTO), is a tech enabler in the e-sports sector, with its first product claiming to be a dominant ‘playing’ platform in the South East Asian and Indian markets.
5. The SiliconValley based venture capital arm of JLL, JLL Spark has invested for an undisclosed amount in the Gurugram based flex-space technology platform Qdesq. In a statement, the company said that through this investment, the proptech-focused fund had marked its first India focused investment.
Buyouts
1. Pune-based waste processing firm was acquired by Blue Planet Environmental Solutions Pte Limited, a waste management firm backed by private equity company Neev Fund based in Singapore.
2. Event Capital took over Indian Games Expo for an 80% stake. The live events intellectual property firm conducts exhibitions around the nation, focused on the gaming industry.
