Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [August 31- September 5]

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

This week, Bengaluru-headquartered edtech startup Unacademy became the latest entrant in India’s unicorn club after raising $150 Mn in Series E round at a whopping $1.45 Bn valuation. The round was led by Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank, and existing investors Facebook Inc, Sequoia Capital, Blume Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners had also participated in the round.

Unacademy cofounder and CEO Gaurav Munjal made the announcement of the funding on Twitter on Wednesday (September 2). “Our goal always has been to democratise knowledge and make it more affordable and accessible by getting the best experts in the world to help everyone achieve their goals,” Munjal wrote on the microblogging site.

Overall, $553.5 Mn was invested across 27 Indian startups this week, and there have been two acquisitions. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts).

Checkout Inc42 Plus’ Indian Startup Funding Tracker For Latest Funding Deals Info

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Unacademy: $150 Mn
2. Eruditus: $113 Mn
3. Livspace: $90 Mn
4. Zomato: $62 Mn
5. Gaana: $51 Mn
6. Dunzo: $28 Mn
7. WinZO: $18 Mn
8. Homelane: $8.1 Mn
9. Apna: $8 Mn
10. SenseHawk: $5.1 Mn
11. Ultraviolette Automotive: $4 Mn
12. BoAt: $3.4 Mn
13. Quintype: $3.4 Mn
14. Aibono: $2 Mn
15. Bikayi: $2 Mn
16. EM3 Agri: $1.3 Mn
17. TrulyMadly: $1.1 Mn
18. MyGlamm: $1.02 Mn
19. Railofy: $955K
20. Aviom: $682K
21. KIKO TV: $300K
22. Plum: $115K
23. Odwen: $54K
24. Fasal: $20K
25. Trukky: Undisclosed
26. Nirmata: Undisclosed
27. Virtual Forest: Undisclosed

 

• Eruditus: Mumbai-based edtech startup Eruditus has raised $113 Mn in a Series D funding round led by Leeds Illuminate and Prosus Ventures, which was formerly known as Naspers Ventures. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a non-profit organisation headed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, has also participated in the Series D round, along with existing investors Sequoia India and Ved Capital.The company plans to use this funding to increase its engagement with existing and new partner universities, deepen its operations in emerging markets and invest in creating career-ready courses to meet the skills required of the global workforce in a post-pandemic world.

 

• Livspace: Bengaluru-based home design and decor service provider Livspace has raised $90 Mn in Series D funding rebound led by Switzerland-based investment firm Kharis Capital and consumer space-focused Venturi Partners. FFP, Peugeot Group’s holding company and EDBI also participated in this round, along with existing investors Ingka Investments, TPG Growth, Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT and Bessemer Ventures. It will use this funding to expand its supply chain and presence across new markets, create fresh offerings and private labels in the Asia Pacific (APAC) regions.
  

 

• Zomato: Gurugram-based food aggregator business Zomato has raised $62 Mn (INR 456 Cr) funding from Singapore-based state investment arm Temasek through MacRitchie Investments. Several media houses have also reported that this investment may follow an investment from Tiger Global Management and Kora Capital, who are planning to infuse $100 Mn each in the company at the same valuation.

 

• Gaana: Homegrown audio streaming platform Gaana, which was started by Times Media, is raising nearly $51 Mn (INR 375 Cr) in debt from Tencent Cloud Europe and Times Internet Limited. The development comes a week after Gaana got stakeholders’ approval to take a $5 Mn loan for “principal business requirements”.
  

 

• Dunzo: Bengaluru-based delivery startup Dunzo has raised $28 Mn in a Series E funding round led by global tech giant Google and investment firm Lightstone. The company’s existing investors Lightbox, 3 L Capital, Moving Capital, Pivot Ventures and Bhoruka Finance Corporation have also participated in this round.

 

• WinZO: Online gaming platform WinZO is raising $18 Mn (INR 132.1 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by global interactive entertainment fund, Makers Fund based in Singapore, and New York-based Courtside Ventures. The company says that the funding would be used to expand the content pipeline, and become the go-to gaming app for mobile-first consumers.

 

• Homelane: Bengaluru-based home interior services startup HomeLane has raised over $8.1 Mn (INR 60 Cr) in a bridge round from new and existing investors. The round was led by Stride Ventures which participated through venture debt of INR 20 Cr (nearly $2.7 Mn). HomeLane’s existing investors Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, Evolvence India and JSW Ventures have also participated in this round.It would use the funds to enter new markets with a greater focus on non-metro expansion in India while strengthening the brand presence across existing markets. The company will also use this capital infusion to enhance its tech offering, particularly around user experience for Spacecraft, its proprietary 3D interior design product.
  

 

• Apna: Recruitment startup for grey and blue-collar workers Apna has raised $8 Mn in Series A funding round from Greenoaks Capital and Rocketship VC. Existing investors Lightspeed India and Sequoia Capital India also participated in the round.

 

• SenseHawk: San Francisco, Mumbai and Bengaluru-based cloud-based enterprise platform SenseHawk has raised $5.1 Mn in Series A1 funding round led by Falcon Edge Capital-managed $300 Mn venture fund Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), which is backed by Abu Dhabi-based ADQ. Existing investor SAIF Partners also participated in the round. With this, the company is looking to expand its presence in Abu Dhabi, and also build a team of data scientists, product managers and engineers in the region.

 

• Ultraviolette Automotive: Sustainable mobility startups Ultraviolette Automotive has raised $4 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in Series B from TVS Motor Company. The development comes after the EV startup unveiled its high-performance electric motorcycle F77 last December. The company now plans to roll out the electric two-wheeler next year with national availability planned in phases.
  

 

• BoAt: Consumer electronics startup boAt has raised $3.4 Mn (INR 25 Cr) in debt from  InnoVen Capital. InnoVen Capital had also invested around $2.1 Mn (INR 16 Cr) in boAt in July 2019. Before that, boAt had raised around $2.9 Mn (INR 20 Cr) in venture debt from Sachin Bansal’s BAC Acquisitions.

 

• Quintype: Bengaluru-based SaaS startup Quintype has raised nearly $3.4 Mn (INR 25 Cr) in a Series A funding round from IIFL AMC through its IIFL Seed Ventures Fund – Series 2 vehicle. It will use the investment to help media companies and content creators ramp up their digital-first strategy during the pandemic.

 

• Aibono: Homegrown end-to-end aggregator platform Aibono has raised $2 Mn led by Japanese venture capital firms Rebright Partners and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital. It will use this funding for expansion and growth across Bengaluru and markets around Nilgiri belt.
  

 

• Bikayi: B2B startup Bikayi has raised $2 Mn in seed funding from a clutch of international investors including Mantis Ventures, Pioneer Fund, angel investor Teachable’s Ankur Nagpal and Y Combinator. Bikayi will use this funding to hire talent to accelerate product development, ramp up the platform and onboard new merchants.

 

• EM3 Agri: Agritech startup Samadhan’s parent company EM3 Agri is raising $1.3 Mn (INR 9.9 Cr) from Aspada Inc and Global Innovation Fund. According to the regulatory filings, Aspada Inc will infuse $751K (INR 5.5 Cr) and Global Innovation Fund will infuse $600K (INR 4.4 Cr).
  

 

• TrulyMadly: Indian dating app TrulyMadly has raised pre-Series A funding worth $1.1 Mn (INR 8.1 Cr) from venture capital firms AngelList, Inflection Point Ventures, as well as angel investment group, The Chennai Angels. The funding round also saw participation from leading entrepreneurs and CXOs of other Indian startups, such as Unacademy cofounders Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Josh Talks cofounders Shobhit Banga and Supriya Paul, and Ritesh Malik, founder of Innov8 (acquired by OYO), among various others. The startup said that the funds would be used to scale up its team size and operations and also enhance its technology.

 

• MyGlamm: Mumbai-based beauty marketplace MyGlamm is raising $1.01 Mn (INR 7.47 Cr) in Series B from  Kalaari Capital Partners, Neoplux Market Frontier Secondary Fund, Chiratae Ventures, Vistra ITCL Limited on behalf of Pandara Trust Scheme I

 

More Funding From The Indian Startup Ecosystem 

 

• Travel protection startup Railofy has raised $955K (INR 7 Cr) in its seed round from Chiratae Ventures. The startup will use the funds to expand pan India using a technology-led business model.

 

• Housing finance lender Aviom has raised $682K (INR 5 Cr) in debt from Aviation Emerging Market Fund.

 

• AI-based ecommerce and entertainment platform KIKO TV has raised  $300K from 9point8, Sunil Kumar Singhvi and other well-known HNIs. The company is already planning simultaneous launches in Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines by early October.

 

• Thane-based skincare products startup Pureplay Skin Sciences, the parent company of  Plum, has raised $115K (INR 83.4 Lakh) from Trifecta Ventures.
  

 

• Odwen, which is an on-demand and pay-per-use booking platform for warehouse spaces, has raised  $54K (INR 40 Lakh) from Air Works Mro Services’ CEO Vivek Narayan Gour.

 

• Agritech startup Fasal is raising $20K (INR 14.73 Lakhs) from The Yield Lab asia Pacific Fund.

 

• Logistics service platform Trukky has raised an undisclosed amount from Mumbai Angels Network.

 

• Kubernetes management platform Nirmata has raised an undisclosed amount from Arka Venture Labs. It will use this funding to accelerate regional APAC expansion, across engineering, support, sales, and market.

 

• Virtual Forest has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding Napino. Under the arrangement, Napino will also be the manufacturing partner for the intelligent controllers for the household appliance industry designed by Virtual Forest.

Acquisitions This Week

• BSE listed fintech company Niyogin has acquired a 51% strategic and controlling stake in iServeU for $8 Mn (INR 59.2 Cr) in a cash plus stock. The acquisition provides Niyogin with deep market access to un/under banked India. Apart from market access for the firms, there are multiple product complementarities such as credit, digital wealth, and payments among others which the two companies can jointly access to create a strong full-stack fintech value proposition for our customers.

 

• Diagnostics chain Oncquest Laboratories acquired Indian facilities of Quest Diagnostics. Oncquest believes that the acquisition will provide it with a significant muscle power for aggressive growth trajectory.

Other Developments Of The Week 

 

• The social impact incubator Villgro has announced the launch of the fourth edition of its flagship event, iPitch. Through this platform, entrepreneurs working towards developing innovative and scalable solutions for the Bottom of the pyramid (BoP), will have a chance to receive seed funding and debt solutions upto INR 2 Cr each.

 

• India’s Minister of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Ravi Shankar Prasad launched CHUNAUTI (Challenge Hunt Under NGIS for Advanced Uninhibited Technology Intervention), calling on startups to develop products and solutions to address the challenges being faced amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

• Pune-based angel investor Akshay Bhansali has set up a microVC firm called SuprValue to fund seed stage startups. The microVC firm will invest and co-invest nearly $27K to $40K (INR 20 Lakh-INR 30 Lakh) in 40 early-stage startups across sectors in the next two years. So far, the microVC firm has invested in nearly three startups, including kids transportation company Piggy Ride, diagnostic network The Renal Project with 100x.vc’s Sanjay Mehta and an undisclosed spacetech startup.

 

• Zomato is reportedly in talks to acquire Gurugram-based Fitso, a platform that provides its members access to various sports facilities. The deal with Zomato is reported to have valued Fitso at $20 Mn.

 

• SAIF Partners-backed real estate investment platform Strata has raised $19 Mn (INR 140 Cr) from investors to jointly buy three pre leased warehouses, which collectively accounts for 700K Mn sq ft warehousing space. The latest asset listing of the firm witnessed participation from a diversified set of more than 500 investors across high networth individuals (HNIs), family offices, top management from large companies, retail and institutional among others.

 

• SoftBank Group is reportedly considering to buy TikTok’s India assets through local partners. According to a Bloomberg report, SoftBank has held talks with the heads of Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel for the same.

 

• Consulting and cloud service provider G7CR Technologies has launched its Cloud Accelerator Funding (CAF). The initiative will provide for startups and small businesses benefits of up to $5 Mn and will also focus on offering strategic support across key business areas — capital, building competency (technical and leadership), revenue and technology.

 

• T-Hub and global aerospace and defence company Raytheon Technologies has shortlisted three startups for its RTX Innovation Challenge. The three finalists are Awiros, Utvyakta Solutions and PRENAV.