Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [22-27 October]

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week.

This week online grocery company BigBasket completed three acquisitions in the micro-delivery segment. The company has acquired 100% stake in milk delivery startups RainCan and Morning Cart and a controlling stake in smart vending machines startup Kwik24.

Apart from these, this week eight startups raised around $67.33 Mn in funding and three startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem altogether. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup funding Of The Week

TabSquare: AI-Powered Smart In-Restaurant solutions provider TabSquare raised $10 Mn in Series B funding. The Series B round was led by Kakaku.com with the support of Coca-Cola Amatil, Resorts World Inc. Existing investor Walden International also participated in this round of funding. TabSquare plans to use the newly raised funds to address its threefold targets: to enhance their AI-powered tech solutions, grow its geographic presence across Asia Pacific including Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand; and increase manpower to aid these efforts.

VideoKen: Artificial Intelligence-based video product solutions company VideoKen raised close to $1 Mn (INR 6.8 Cr) in its second round of seed funding led by SRI Capital and Touchstone Equities, with Hyderabad Angels being the other major investor. The company plans to use the newly raised funds for further expansion in the North America region.

ClearTax: Y Combinator-backed fintech startup ClearTax secured $50 Mn in Series B round of funding led by Hong Kong-based investment firm Composite Capital. The company is looking to use the fresh capital to further accelerate its growth and expand the suite of products and services on its platform.

Cube Wealth: Mumbai-based automated wealth tech app Cube Wealth raised a $2 Mn equity funding round. International angel and seed investors from Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, Europe, Singapore, and India including Beenext participated in the latest round of funding. The startup will use the funding to add additional asset partners and develop a network of premium sales/marketing partners and IFAs across the country.

Hiver: Bengaluru-based SaaS platform Hiver (previously Grexit) raised $4 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in a new round of funding led by venture capital firms Kalaari Capital and Kae Capital. The startup will use the proceeds from the new round of funding for product development, as well as expanding its global customer base.

Clensta International: Delhi-based biotechnology startup Clensta International raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Indian Angel Network and its maiden venture capital (VC) fund, IAN Fund. Other angel investors participating in the funding round include Ajai Chowdhry, co-founder, HCL; Arvind Singal, founder and MD, Technopak Advisors; Bikky Khosla, CEO, Trade India and chairman, ASSOCHAM; Jaideep Mehta, CEO, VC Circle; Raman Roy, chairman, NASSCOM, and Anand Ladsariya, founder, Everest Flavours. The startup plans to use the funds to launch its products in the B2C space and develop newer products in the personal hygiene category.

LetsShave: Chandigarh-based men grooming company LetsShave raised an undisclosed amount of fresh funding from Korean razor manufacturer Dorco Ltd against a 10% stake. The company plans to use the newly raised funds towards its online business and expanding the product portfolio to cater to men’s and women’s grooming needs more efficiently.

GuruQ: Delhi-based edtech startup GuruQ has secured $330K (INR 2.5 Cr) round of funding from a group of HNIs. The company will use these funds for expansion and marketing of the company.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• EbixCash, the Indian subsidiary of Ebix In acquired 67% stake in a Delhi-based business-to-business truck logistics company, Routier, in an undisclosed amount.
• New York-based retail tech marketing company Bluecore acquired Noida-based marketing software startup Betaout for an undisclosed amount to establish Bluecore India, its new hub for innovation and best-in-class engineering.
• Bengaluru-based edtech startup Unacademy acquired Jaipur-based online education and career portal, WifiStudy, for an undisclosed amount in a cash and stock deal. With the acquisition, Unacademy plans to expand its presence in smaller Indian towns and cities where WiFiStudy has a stronghold.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Cyrus Pallonji Mistry along with his brother Shapoor Mistry formed a private equity venture firm, Mistry Ventures LLP, aimed at providing strategic insights, give advice to businesses, incubate new ventures. It will provide seed, early stage and growth capital to startups not only in India but also globally.
• Mumbai-based real estate developer Ajmera Group is expected to invest about $10 Mn in technology-based startups with focus on fintech and software-as-a-service (SaaS) sectors. The idea to focus on technology is its plans for expanding its growth beyond real estate.
• Chennai-based TVS Capital Funds–the venture capital arm of TVS Group– completed the first close of its third fund at $112.8 Mn (INR 832 Cr). The VC firm is aiming to close its final round at $162.6 Mn (INR 1200 Cr)
• Global investment firm Tiger Global raised $3.75 Bn for its latest venture capital fund, Tiger Global Private Investment Partners XI, surpassing its initial target of $3 Bn. The fund will focus towards investment on consumer Internet, cloud computing, Industry software as well as direct-to-consumer companies.
• Mumbai-based Rebel Foods, owner-operator of food delivery brand Faasos, may soon raise a little over $100 Mn (INR 735 Cr) with plans to enter overseas markets and expand both its product range and cloud kitchen presence nationally.
• Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is reportedly exploring a $200 Mn investment in Pune-based online baby products retailer FirstCry. The investment is expected to value FirstCry at nearly $800 Mn- $900 Mn, a nearly 100% increase from its current valuation of $350 Mn.
• The Financial Inclusion Lab, a part of IIMA-CIIE’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII), selected 11 fintech innovators for its first intake to the lab, where they will receive mentorship and guidance. The $9.5 Mn-worth initiative will support the selected startups for 12 months with capital, strategic guidance, and market access to help them build and test their products.
• Israel based South of Salame (SOSA), an open innovation platform, is in talks with at least three Indian states namely Maharashtra, Assam and Goa for setting up tech innovation hubs. These hubs will help in creating launch pads for Indian startups in Tel Aviv, Israel and New York, US, where SOSA is located. With this, startups based in these three states will get an access to SOSA’s global innovation network.
• Anthill Ventures, an investment and speed-scaling platform for early growth stage startups, today announced that it is collaborating with corporate giants like Accenture, ITC Infotech and PwC for the startups of its accelerator programme ‘Anthill Studio’. Anthill has designed the programme such that, each of the startups gets direct market access and live projects.

Stay tuned for the next week edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

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