From Rapido To BharatPe- Indian Startups Raised $222 Mn This Week

SUMMARY

Indian startups cumulatively raised $222.2 Mn via 25 deals, a 416% increase from $43.1 Mn raised via 12 deals in the week prior

Rapido emerged as India's 116th unicorn this week when it bagged $120 Mn at a post-money valuation of a little over $1 Bn

Seed funding revived in the week, with startup's raising $5.1 Mn as against nil in the last week

Funding momentum across the Indian startup ecosystem made a strong recovery in the final week of July after a significant slump during the budget week. Between July 29 and August 3, startups raised $222.2 Mn via 25 deals, a 416% increase from $43.1 Mn raised via 12 deals in the preceding week.

While the week saw a major uptick in the funding trends, it also saw the crowning of India’s 116th unicorn Rapido. Meanwhile, three entities from the startup ecosystem, Ola Electric, Unicommerce and FirstCry, finally reached the doorsteps of the public markets this week.

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Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [July 29 – Aug 3]

Date	Name	Sector	Subsector	Business Model	Funding Round Size	Funding Round Type	Investors	Lead Investor
29 Jul 2024	Rapido	Travel Tech	Transport Tech	B2C	$120 Mn	Series E	WestBridge Capital	WestBridge Capital
1 Aug 2024	Clix Capital	Fintech	Lending Tech	B2B	$26.3 Mn	–	Apollo Global Management, Pramod Bhasin, Anil Chawla	–
29 Jul 2024	Simple Energy	Cleantech	Electric Vehicle	B2C	$20 Mn	Series A	Balamurugan Arumugam, Haran family office, Dr. A Velumani family office, Vasavi family office, Desai family office	Balamurugan Arumugam
31 Jul 2024	BharatPe	Fintech	Payments	B2B-B2C	$10.1 Mn	Debt	Trifecta Venture, InnoVen Capital	–
30 Jul 2024	Meragi	Consumer Services	Hyperlocal Services	B2C	$9.1 Mn	Series A	Accel, Peak XV Partners, Venture Highway, Anupam Mittal	Accel
27 Jul 2024	Ather*	Cleantech	Electric Vehicle	B2C	$7.1 Mn	Debt	InnoVen Capital	InnoVen Capital
1 Aug 2024	GalaxEye	Deeptech	Spacetech	B2B	$6.5 Mn	Series A	Mela Ventures, Speciale Invest, ideaForge, Rainmatter Capital, Navam Capital, Faad Capital, Anicut Capital	Mela Ventures, Speciale Invest
30 Jul 2024	Gnani.AI	Enterprise Tech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$4 Mn	Series A	Info Edge	Info Edge
30 Jul 2024	WhizHack	Enterprise Tech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$3 Mn	pre-Series A	SAAA Capital	SAAA Capital
30 Jul 2024	ElectricPe	Cleantech	Electric Vehicle	B2C	$3 Mn	pre-Series A	Green Frontier Capital, Blume Ventures, Micelio Fund, NB Ventures	Green Frontier Capital
1 Aug 2024	Square Insurance	Fintech	Insurtech	B2C	$3 Mn	pre-Series A	BizDateUp and Negen Capital	BizDateUp and Negen Capital
29 Jul 2024	Moxie	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$2.1 Mn	Seed	Fireside Ventures, Samir Singh, Arjun Purkayastha, Sangeet Agrawal	Fireside Ventures
29 Jul 2024	KheloMore	Consumer Services	Hyperlocal Services	B2C	$2 Mn	pre-Series A	Rajdip Gupta, Ashwin Damera	Rajdip Gupta, Ashwin Damera
1 Aug 2024	Acculi Labs	Healthtech	Fitness & Wellness	B2C	$1.5 Mn	Seed	Sabi Holding India Ltd.	Sabi Holding India Ltd.
31 Jul 2024	Nected	Enterprise Tech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$1.5 Mn	Seed	Three State Ventures, Endurance Capital, Relentless VC, Climber Capital, Lykke Capital, Forward Slash Capital	Three State Ventures
29 Jul 2024	EMoMee	Edtech	Skill Development	B2C	$1 Mn	pre-Seed	Whiteboard Capital, Gruhas Collective Consumer Fund, DeVC	Whiteboard Capital, Gruhas Collective Consumer Fund, DeVC
2 Aug 2024	Bebe Burp	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$955K	pre-Series A	Gruhas Collective Consumer Fund	Gruhas Collective Consumer Fund
31 Jul 2024	Hippo Innovations	Enterprise Tech	Vertical SaaS	B2B	$394K	pre-Series A	Finvolve, India Accelerator	–
29 Jul 2024	Toystack.ai	Enterprise Tech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$325K	pre-Seed	D. Devaraj, Asit Shetty	–
29 Jul 2024	Upside Health	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$180K	pre-Seed	Rebalance Angel Community, Shashank ND, Kiran Moras, Rishabh Shah, Kunal Jadhav, Vinayak Satpute, Gireesh Puthumana, Yugesh Deshpande	–
1 Aug 2024	Bloq Quantum	Enterprise Tech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$155K	pre-Seed	Inflection Point Ventures
29 Jul 2024	Game Theory	Consumer Services	Hyperlocal Services	B2C	–	–	Pullela Gopichand, Saurav Ghosal, Sharath Kamal	–
1 Aug 2024	Cogniquest	Enterprise Tech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	–	Seed	Cedar-IBSi Capital, Dhiraj Sinha, Umashankar Malapaka, Visveswara Gupta, Rajesh Bhat, Anup Naik, Santosh Rao, Vimal Singh, Srinivas Majji	–
30 Jul 2024	Boldfit	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	–	–	KL Rahul	KL Rahul
29 Jul 2024	BeFriends	Media & Entertainment	Social Media & Chat	B2C	–	–	Ah! Ventures	Ah! Ventures
	Source: Inc42 *The funding round was announced on Saturday, last week. Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

Rapido’s unicorn minting round was the biggest fundraise this week. It bagged a funding of $120 Mn from existing investor WestBridge Capital at a post-money valuation of a little over $1 Bn.
Bolstered by Rapido’s funding round, travel tech emerged as the investor favourite at a sectoral level. Fintech trailed travel tech at a sectoral level, with three fintech startups bagging $39.4 Mn.
Enterprise tech saw the greatest number of deals this week, with startups raising $9.3 Mn via seven deals.
Seed funding revived in the week, with startup’s raising $5.1 Mn as against nil in the last week.

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

The initial public offering (IPO) of electric vehicle (EV) maker Ola Electric opened on August 2 and received 35% subscription on the first day of bidding on Friday. A day prior, the startup raised INR 2,763 Cr from anchor investors.
Kidswear brand FirstCry’s public offering is set to open on August 6 and conclude on August 8. It has fixed a price band of INR 440-465 per equity share for its IPO and is expected to raise INR 4,193 Cr at the upper price band via its IPO.
SaaS startup Unicommerce’s IPO will open on the same date as FirstCry. It has set a price band of INR 102-108 per equity share for its IPO, which will see the selling shareholders bag INR 276.57 Cr at the upper end of the price band.
Education focused non-banking financial company (NBFC) refiled its IPO papers on July 31 after addressing the issues flagged by the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) earlier. The public offering will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth INR 1,000 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) component of shares worth up to INR 2,500 Cr.
SaaS unicorn Fractal plans to file DRHP for a $500-$600 Mn IPO by the end of this month or early September. The enterprise tech startup is looking to list on the Indian bourses at a valuation of around $3 Bn.
B2B ecommerce platform Infra.Market is looking to initiate the process for a $300-$400 Mn IPO by appointing a syndicate of four to five investment banks.

Other Major Developments Of The Week

Venture capital firm Trifecta Capital launched its fourth fund with a total corpus size of INR 2,000 Cr (around $240 Mn), including a green shoe option of INR 500 Cr.
IIMA Ventures has launched an Venture Investing Accelerator programme for new investors and those interested in venture investing through family offices, micro VCs or corporate venture offices.
Stock broking platform Dhan’s parent Raise Financial Services is in early stage of discussions to raise around $100 Mn in a new funding round at a unicorn valuation.
Fintech SaveDesk has acquired a 90% stake in Fairexpay for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will enable SaveDesk to expand its footprint in the cross-border remittance and fund collection market.
Troubled startup Dunzo’s cofounder and former CTO Mukund Jha is in discussions to rake in $6-10 Mn from Together Fund for his new GenAI venture.
Micro VC firm Gemba Capital has floated its second fund with a target corpus of INR 250 Cr, including a green shoe option of INR 50 Cr. It is looking to back 30 early stage fintech, consumer tech and B2B startups via the fund.
IIFL Fintech Fund has invested an undisclosed amount of funding in Vitra.ai to pick up a 10% stake in the Gen AI startup.
Mumbai-based trade financing startup Vayana Network is raising $20 Mn in its Series D funding round led by new investor SMBC Asia Rising Fund