Funding Galore: From PolicyBazaar To Cashify — $157 Mn Raised By Indian Startups [March 1-6]

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

This week, snacks and sauces maker Wingreens Farms has acquired organic juice startup Raw Pressery at a valuation of $13 Mn (INR 100 Cr). The deal is a huge discount from Raw Pressery’s post-money valuation of INR 500 Cr ($68 Mn, at current conversion rate) when it had raised INR 65 Cr($8.8 Mn, at current conversion rate) from Sequoia Capital, Saama Capital, DSG Consumer Partners and Alteria Capital.

Till date, Raw Pressery, operated by Rakyan Beverages Private Limited, has raised about $150 Mn to date from investors like InnoVen Capital and Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez, among others. The acquisition has provided a full exit to Raw Presserry’s investors as well as founder Anuj Rakyan.

Overall, five startups were acquired this week and $157 Mn was invested in Indian startups across 23 deals.

Note: This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts

Top Indian Startup Funding Deals This Week

Acquisitions In Indian Startup Ecosystem

• Ireland-based online learning company Olive Group has acquired Kerala-based edtech SaaS platform Ofabee for an undisclosed amount. As a part of the acquisition, the entire team of Ofabee will join Mykademy, while continuing to be based in Thiruvananthapuram.

• PokerStars’ parent company Flutter Entertainment has acquired a majority 50.1% stake in Indian online rummy operator Junglee Rummy for $66.2 Mn. Details of the acquisition were mentioned in Flutter Entertainment’s annual financial report for the fiscal year 2020.

• Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Limited (RSBVL) has acquired an additional equity stake in US-based skyTran Inc for $26.76 Mn. With this investment, Reliance owns 54.46% equity in skyTran.

• Low-code intelligent delivery management SaaS platform FarEye has aqui-hired logistics startup PY Technologies in a bid to scale customer implementations as well as incubate new ideas. PY Technologies’ founder Jignesh Vasani will be joining FarEye as vice president of professional services.

Other Developments Of The Week 

• Trifecta Capital announced the final close of its second fund, Trifecta Venture Debt Fund-II at roughly $150 Mn (INR 1,025 Cr). The fund was oversubscribed after being launched in March 2019 with a target of $136 Mn (INR 1,000 Cr) and a green-shoe option of $24 Mn (INR 250 Cr).

• The Action Covid-19 Team (ACT) plans to raise a $65 Mn (INR 500 Cr) philanthropic fund over the next two years to back solutions that generate social impact across education, healthcare, environment and women’s participation in the workforce. ACT had started off by setting up an $13 Mn (INR 100 Cr) fund to support innovators working on solutions to control the spread of Covid-19.

• Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has come on as an anchor limited partner (LP) in Kalaari Capital’s fourth fund, the venture capital firm’s founder and managing director Vani Kola informed startup founders and investors in an email. Kola also announced that Kalaari Capital has recently invested in SaaS startup Zluri and Simplicontract, music learning platform Muzigal and health and wellness company Chara.

• Early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures, in partnership with Avendus, has announced the close of its $48 Mn (INR 350 Cr) Fund 1X, to allow limited partners and investors from allied entities in its Fund I to hold their positions in top performers from the portfolio. Blume Ventures has bundled six companies from its Fund I portfolio into Fund 1X and the VC firm’s positions in these startups are being acquired by the new fund. These include robotics company GreyOrange, beauty products marketplace Purplle, online insurance startup Turtlemint, cloud telephony company Exotel, online fraud detection startup IDfy and B2C marketing automation hub WebEngage.

• Soon-to-be-launched investment fund Paradigm Shift Capital is looking to invest about $15 Mn to $20 Mn capital in early-stage startups in India and the US over the next 12-15 months.

• Zomato is expected to raise $750 Mn to $1 Bn through its planned initial public offering (IPO) this year, whereas IPO-bound Lenskart is looking to provide an exit to Tata Group’s Ratan Tata from its cap table.

• Beauty and fashion ecommerce platform Nykaa is reportedly in talks to raise $50 Mn to $150 Mn at a valuation of $2 Bn. The company is looking to raise this round with a secondary sale of shares in order to provide an exit to its existing investors — including Techpr Venture, TVS Capital, Lighthouse Ventures and Sharrp Ventures.

• Indian mid-market private equity fund OAKS Asset Management has launched its second fund, the OAKS India Consumer Fund, an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) – Category II, registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The fund will have an $65 Mn (INR 500 Cr) corpus, with an $25 Mn (INR 250 Cr) green-shoe option.

• Payments gateway major Razorpay announced that its existing investors Sequoia Capital and Singapore’s GIC are buying back shares worth $10 Mn (INR 73 Cr) from its workforce under the employee stock ownership programme (ESOP). About 750 former and current employees at the fintech unicorn are eligible to sell 33% of their allocated ESOP shares in this exercise.

• Ecommerce giant Flipkart is reportedly looking to purchase a controlling stake in online travel aggregator Cleartrip, a move that would pit the company against incumbents such as MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Ixigo, GoIbibo, Booking.com, EaseMyTrip and other aggregators in the travel and hospitality booking segment. In FY20, Cleartrip reported a 2.5% year-on-year drop in revenue at INR 318.8 Cr. The company’s operating income of INR 273.5 Cr fell by a drastic 10% in the fiscal, ahead of the lockdown which severely impacted the operations since April 2020.

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