Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [4-9 Mar]

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

This week the thrill of biggest funding came to newest unicorn on the block— Delhivery. Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank has finally invested $350 Mn in the Gurugram-based ecommerce logistics startup Delhivery taking its valuation to $1.6 Bn. The filings showed that SoftBank and Carlyle Group will now hold 23.41% and 12.39% respectively in the company.

In all this week, seven startups raised $397.9 Mn funding and six startup acquisition took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week

Aye Finance: Gurugram-based non-banking finance company Aye Finance raised $33.34 Mn (INR 233.62 Cr) in Series D equity round led by New York-based investment firm Falcon Edge Capital. Existing investors CapitalG, LGT and MAJ Invest also participated in the round. With this latest fund raise, Aye Finance will use the money to further grow its micro lending service and develop its financial technology that includes data mining.

SMECorner: Mumbai-based online lending startup SMECorner raised $12.7 Mn (INR 90 Cr) in a fresh funding round of debt and equity, led by Quona Capital. Of this, a tranche of INR 35 Cr ($4.9 Mn) equity capital was contributed by Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund managed by Quona Capital. The balance equity was infused by the existing investors including Accion Venture Lab. In addition, it has also raised debt from leading financial institutions.

Jai Kisan: Mumbai-based fintech startup Jai Kisan raised $1.5 Mn (INR 10.6 Cr) in its seed funding round led by Blume Ventures, Prophetic Ventures, Better Capital, Astarc Ventures, Harshbeena Zaveri, managing director of NRB Bearings, and Sanjaya Mariwala from OmniActive. Other strategic High Networth Investors (HNIs) and founders of other technology companies also participated in the round.

XYXX Innerwear: Mumbai-based innerwear XYXX Innerwear raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Sauce.vc. Govind Shrikhande, ex-MD of Shoppers Stop and advisory board member of Sauce.vc has joined XYXX as a senior advisor.

Donatekart: Bengaluru-based online donation platform raised $360K(INR 2.55 Cr) in seed funding from LetsVenture and other angel investors. Shanti Mohan, Founder of LetsVenture has joined the board of Donatekart as part of the round. Investors in this round include M S Unnikrishnan ( MD & CEO of Thermax ), Pravin Gandhi (Founding Partner of Seedfund), Arun Diaz (Advisor of Avishkaar), Pradeep Nair (Regional Director of Ford Foundation) and a few others. The fresh funds will be used to strengthen its technology, scale the team and launch new products like Recurring giving, Employee giving & Corporate CSR giving etc.

Gozo Cabs: Kolkata-based outstation taxi provider Gozo Cabs raised an undisclosed amount of funding from renowned Silicon Valley investors such as Prem Jain, Former Cisco SVP and Jayan Ramankutty who is also a serial entrepreneur. The fresh funds raised will be used to expand Gozo’s footprint across India, launch new products and strengthen the tech infrastructure.

Expected Fundings

• Bengaluru-based hyperlocal startup Dunzo is looking to close a $15 Mn-$20 Mn funding round. Google along with a new strategic investor may participate in the funding round.
• South-Korean automaker Hyundai Motors is reportedly in talks with Bengaluru-based cab hailing giant Ola to invest up to $200 Mn – $300 Mn (INR 1400 Cr- 2100 Cr) in its electric division. A report said that the talk about the investment deal has reached the second stage and may fructify in the next six weeks.
• Bengaluru-based vernacular social and content platform ShareChat is in initial talks to raise $200 Mn at a valuation of $600 Mn – $700 Mn in the round. It is being reported that ShareChat is looking for strategic investors with social media expertise. This may or may not include China’s Tencent, which has been a leading investor in companies like WeChat and other such platforms.
• Bengaluru-based digital payments and lending platform, Razorpay is reportedly in talks with Sequoia Capital and others, to raise about $75 Mn – $100 Mn. This new capital will reportedly be used to aid the expansion of company’s recently launched business arm, Razorpay 2.0. This expected round could value the five year-old startup at about $425 Mn – $450 Mn.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Hyderabad-based foodtech startup WayCool Foods announced the acquisition of  the physical distribution business of Bengaluru based B2B company Aalgro Foods Pvt. Ltd. in fruit retail packing and distribution space. With this acquisition, WayCool will now be able to distribute to an expanded customer base in Southern India, and support both online and offline modern retailers with a range of premium packaged fruits. The acquisition also brings forward integration capabilities to WayCool.
• Chennai-based SaaS startup, Zoho has acqui-hired an automated hiring product startup, ePoise Systems, for an undisclosed amount. The deal also included the acquisition of ePoise’s intellectual property rights. With the acquisition of ePoise Systems, Zoho would be adding higher automation capabilities to its human resource centric products.
• Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries said that its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited (‘RIIHL’) will acquire equity shares of Grab A Grub Services Private Limited (‘Grab’) in a cash deal worth $14.9 Mn (INR 106 Cr). At a later stage, the company will also invest up to $5.63 Mn (INR 40 Cr) to complete the acquisition deal by March 2021. The investment will support Reliance Group’s “digital commerce initiatives and strengthen its logistics services, catering to both B2B and B2C segments.”
•  Reliance Industries Ltd has acquired three more Indian startups including, a vernacular language-as-a-service platform, Reverie Language Technologies; Indian government schemes/services aggregator, EasyGov; and a multiphysics simulation service, SankhyaSutra Labs. According to BSE filings, the conglomerate has acquired 76% equity stake in EasyGov and more than 80% stake in SankhyaSutra and Reverie. It is further looking to invest around INR 327 Cr together in all the three startups by 2021.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Berlin-based food delivery player Delivery Hero has announced that it has acquired United Arab Emirates (UAE) business of Gurugram-based food delivery and restaurant discovery company, Zomato. In a statement, Delivery Hero said that the acquisition will add 1.2 Mn monthly orders and $2 Mn monthly revenue to Delivery Hero’s Middle East and North Africa region business and will strengthen its leadership position in the UAE.
• The Government of Telangana successfully hosted its annual flagship life-sciences and healthcare forum, BioAsia 2019, in Hyderabad. The event concluded with a startup stage where select 76 startups presented their products across the life sciences and healthcare sector. The top five startups are Caredose, Spectral Insights, Dozee, Ekistics Solutions and Azooka Life Sciences.
• K-Tech,  Department of IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka, in partnership with CWE (Catalyst for Women Entrepreneurship) announced that it will be accepting open call applications for women entrepreneurs for incubation. The women led startups will be chosen through a rigorous selection process and be given access to finance, markets along with enabling technology. In addition the entrepreneurs will have access to world class mentors, business skills and business networks.
• Venture Catalysts joined hands with Women entrepreneurship focused ecosystem facilitator Wopreneur to initiate an incubation programme dedicated to assist women entrepreneurs in their startup journey. The 12 week women entrepreneur exclusive incubation programme’s application process to attend the programme will begin from March 8 onwards and interested candidates can connect via the social media pages of VCats as well as Wopreneur.

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

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