The total funding secured this week in the Indian startup ecosystem stands at $88.8 million. The majority amount of around $49 million was raised through early-stage and other deals.
Investment of the week
Gurugram-based Ofbusiness has raised $35 million in a Series D funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors like Falcon Edge and Matrix Partners. The firm has partnered with Tata Capital and AU Small Finance Bank. The startup concentrates on lending to SMEs and provides a credit of up to Rs 2 crore to such businesses through NBFC Oxyzo Financial Services.
Early-stage deals of the week
1. Cancer-care aggregator Onco has raised a Series A funding of $7 million led by Accel Partners, Chiratae Ventures, and Dream Incubator. The organization plans to scale operations globally and expand its customer base with the fresh capital. The platform aims at being a one-stop-shop to cater to all the cancer-related needs of the patients and caregivers.
2. Cloud-based end-to-end HR management startup Darwinbox has raised $15 million in a Series B investment led by Sequoia India, Endiya Partners, Lightspeed India Partners, and 3one4 Capital. The freshly raised funds will be utilized to accelerate growth across Asia and focus on product innovation.
3. Digi-Prex, a health-tech startup has raised $5.5 million in its seed funding round from Khosla Ventures. The firm was founded by Samarth Sindhi, a mechanical engineering graduate from Brown University, in 2019.
4. WhistleDrive, a Hyderabad-based employee transportation startup, has raised $10 million from Chicago based Colosseum Group in a Series B round. The tech-platform, Whistle Tech, developed by the firm, allows corporates to automate their entire transportation process. Currently, the company has 32 clients contributing more than one lakh trips a month to transport over 15,000 employees to their workplaces.
5. Blu Smart, an electric vehicle mobility startup, has raised 43 million in an angel round from Deepika Padukone’s family office KA enterprises, JITO Angel Network, Kalpavriksh Trust, Survam Partners, amongst others.
6. Health-tech startup Pharmarack has raised $3 million in Series-A round from IvyCap Ventures, Unicorn India Ventures, and Currae Healthtech Fund. The Pune based firm plans to use the fundraise to expand its network for pharma manufacturers and retailers.
7. Fintech platform Advarisk has raised $700k in a seed round from Sprout Venture Partners, SEA Fund and angels, including industry veterans like Sharad Bhatia and Varadarajan Srinivasan. The Mumbai-based startup focusses on fraud prevention, detection, investigation, and recovery.
8. Chennai-based aquaculture startup Aquaconnect has raised $1.1 million in seed funding led by Omnivore and HATCH. The company plans to utilize the funds to accelerate its growth of the farmer network, launch the new SaaS tools for the aquaculture ecosystem, produce great technological improvements on its platform FarmMOJO, and push monetization on its omnichannel marketplace.
9. Cleantech startup Log 9 Spill containment has raised Rs 4 crore in its Pre-Series A round from angel investors Omkar Ghaisas and Renjit Shinto and will use the capital for product development and innovation, as well as for infrastructure development
10. Zesty Kitchen, a cloud kitchen setup has raised Rs 3 crore worth funding from a bunch of undisclosed angel investors.
11. Gurugram-based Ketofy has raised $250,000 as a part of its pre-Series A funding from Alok Mittal, ex-MD, Canaan Partners; Rohit Chanana, Founder at Sarcha Advisory; and Tejinderpal Miglani, Co-founder at Indiabulls, among others.
Late-stage funding of the week
Logistics firm Rivigo has raised a $4.97 million from the South Korean KB Global funding platform. The total valuation of the company is estimated to be $1.05 billion, entering into the unicorn club.
Other deals of the week
1. Health solutions provider Agatsa has raised $1 million in funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN) and the Technology Development Board (TDB), Department of Science and Technology and Government of India. Agatsa plans to scale up its operations and marketing along with expanding its global reach with the fundraising.
2. Mumbai based transaction service provider DIPL has raised Rs 5.75 crore from investment group IC1101 based in the US.
3. Experts networking platform SpeakIn has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from OYO South Asia CEO Aditya Ghosh-backed Homeage Ventures. The Delhi-based startup plans to launch its unique ‘expert platform’ to become the globe’s window to Asian expertise with the fresh funding.
Buyouts
1. Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has bought a stake in Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services and has invested Rs 739 crore in the non-banking financial firm.
2. Junglee Games has announced the conclusion of the Algorin TechLabs deal. The skill gaming platform stated that the strategic investment would strengthen its place in the skill gaming market and will provide a strong presence for the firm in Bengaluru.
3. Artificial Intelligence platform Haptik, a Reliance Industries subsidiary has announced its acquisition of Mumbai-based conversational commerce startup Buzzo.ai.
