From Whatfix To HomeLane – Indian Startups Raised $432 Mn This Week

Funding momentum across the Indian startup ecosystem continued to remain strong throughout the ongoing month. Between September 23 and 28, startups cumulatively raised $432.2 Mn across 24 deals, marking a 3% drop from the $447.5 Mn raised via 22 deals in the preceding week.

This week, the uptick in investment activity was largely driven by two large-sized deals, which include enterprisetech startup Whatfix bagging $125 Mn and M2P Fintech securing $101 Mn, with both nearing the unicorn status.

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Sep 23 – Sep 28 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Buoyed by Whatfix’s mega funding round, enterprisetech emerged as the investor favourite sector of the week. Besides, the sector witnessed the highest nine deals materialise via which startups raised $188.4 Mn.
• Fintech was a distant second, seeing M2P Fintech raising $101 Mn only.
• Venture Capital firm Peak XV was the most active investor this week, backing two startups.
• Seed funding picked up dramatically this week. Startups at this stage raised $44.5 Mn as against the $2.3 Mn raised during the past week.

Startup Fund Launches Of This Week

• SaaS startup Kissflow’s founder and CEO Suresh Sambandam launched a new VC firm MudhalVC, which aims to invest around INR 125 Cr in 25 to 50 early stage startups, with average ticket size ranging between INR 25 Lakh and INR 1 Cr.
• VC firm Tribe Capital has partnered with investment firm Oister Global to launch ‘Oister Tribe Ace Fund 1’. With a target corpus of $500 Mn, the fund will serve as the  first alternative investment fund dedicated to secondary transactions.
• Bengaluru-based AIF Optimistic Capital rolled out a maiden fund INR 200 Cr (around $23.9 Mn) to invest in India’s microbrewery space.

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Fintech unicorn MobiKwik secured approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its INR 700 Cr initial public offering (IPO). The offer will entirely comprise a fresh issue of equity shares, with no offer for sale component.
• Foodtech major Swiggy filed updated IPO papers with the SEBI for an INR 3,750 Cr ($450 Mn) IPO. Swiggy’s public issue will comprise a fresh issuance of shares worth INR 3,750 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) component of 18.53 Cr equity shares.
• Online furniture rental startup RentoMojo’s founder and CEO Geetansh Bamania will be looking to file its IPO within the next 18 months.
• SaaS unicorn Fractal is considering filing papers for a $500 Mn IPO with SEBI in November. The IPO will value the startup at $3.5 Bn.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Seekho is eyeing to raise $8-10 Mn in its Series A round to be co-led by Lightspeed and Elevation Capital.
• Fintech SaaS startup Zaggle announced the acquisitions of two companies this week— Span Across IT Solutions and Mobileware Technologies. It bought 98.32% stake in Span Across IT Solutions and 26% in Mobileware.
• CCI approved Singapore-based TIGA Investments’ proposal to acquire a stake in real money gaming major Dream11’s parent Dream Sports Inc. The transaction is likely to see Tencent Holdings divest its entire stake in Dream Sports.
• Home interior solutions startup HomeLane acquired its smaller rival DesignCafe in a share-swap transaction this week.

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