Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [December 7-12]

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

Jaipur-based social commerce startup DealShare has raised $21 Mn in Series C funding round led by WestBridge Capital. Alpha Wave Incubation, Matrix Partners India and Omidyar Network India also participated in this round, along with independent investors.

DealShare will use this funding to expand its local sourcing network, strengthen its technology platform across business verticals and expand into new geographies. Beyond this, the company will also use this funding to penetrate deeper into current markets.

About $78.1 Mn was invested across 17 Indian startups this week, and three companies were acquired. Last week,  $984 Mn was invested across 33 deals. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts)

Top Indian Startup Funding Deals Of The Week

• DealShare: $21 Mn from WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation, Matrix Partners India and Omidyar Network India, along with independent investors

• Infra.Market: $20 Mn from Evolvence India Fund, Sistema Asia Fund, and Foundamental Capital GmbH, along with existing investors.

• Atomberg Technologies: $9.4 Mn from A91 Partners, Suman Kant Munjal’s family office Survam Partners and Trifecta Capital

• WayCool: $7.8 Mn from Samunnati, RBL Bank and InnoVen Capital

• Exotel: $5.4 Mn from A91 Partners

• RuralBasket: $5 Mn from Nativelead Foundation

• Clovia: $4 Mn from Golden Birch Investments and SheCapital Venture Fund

• Mihup: $1.5 Mn from Accel Partners, Ideaspring Capital, Netcore’s Rajesh Jain and YuMe’s Jayant Kadambi

• 5C Network: $1.2 Mn from existing investors Unitus Ventures and Axilor Ventures

• Bombay Play: $1 Mn from Lumikai

• Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS): $750K from a17z’s Balaji Srinivasan, Ethereum’s Kenneth Ng, and other angel investors

• Text Mercato: $678K from Windrose Capital and 1Crowd

• Bolo Indya: $400K from Inflection Point Ventures, along with existing investor

• smallcase: Undisclosed amount from HDFC Bank

• FreshToHome: Undisclosed amount from Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO)

• Richpanel: Undisclosed amount from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge

• SheerDrive: Undisclosed amount from Group Landmark

Acquisitions Of The Week

• Mumbai-based edtech startup Lead School has acquired student assessment startup QuizNext for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will allow Lead School to offer schools a gamified assessment and practice platform to students.

• Digital personal wealth management platform Scripbox has acquired a controlling stake in Mitraz Financial, which is an investment advisor providing personalised financial advisory services to high net-worth and ultra-high net worth individuals. The strategic investment will allow Scripbox and Mitraz to combine their experience and expertise to create a scalable tech-led wealth management model.

• Kolkata-based Stritmedia has acquired Fleapo for an undisclosed amount. The deal leads to the launch of a new brand called Sinofled Pvt Ltd. Along with the acquisition, Stritmedia would pump in around $100K towards expansion plans, team building and services sections.

Other Developments Of The Week

• The LetsVenture Angel Fund (Cat-1 AIF) has marked the first exit for accredited angel investors on the AIF. Investors who backed Nisarg Shah’s Syndicate to invest in cloud kitchen platform Big Spoon have seen a 5x return in 12 months by selling a partial stake to a prominent family office in India. Ahmedabad-based cloud kitchen startup Bigspoon Foods had raised $2 Mn Pre-Series A funding round, back in July, for product and brand development.

• Noida-based Indian online classifieds company Info Edge has expanded the target corpus of Info Edge Venture Fund (IEVF), its alternative investment fund (AIF) to INR 750 Cr. This follows a contribution of INR 375 Cr from MacRitchie Investments, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, a Singaporean holding company and prominent startup investor, filings with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) show.

• Bengaluru-based mental health startup Wysa is looking to raise funding from Google as a part of its Series A round, the company’s filings with the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) confirmed.

• Alteria Capital has announced its plans to raise its second venture debt fund targeting an INR 1K Cr corpus with an additional green-shoe of INR 750 Cr. The fund is promoted by venture debt veterans Ajay Hattangdi and Vinod Murali.

• US-based private equity firm TPG is looking to acquire a 7% stake in epharmacy startup PharmEasy and has sought antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) permission for the same.

• Tata Group is looking to shell out about $1.2 Bn in order to make a formal entry into the online grocery and medicine segment by acquiring a majority stake in BigBasket and 1mg. The enterprise is looking to invest about $940 Mn-$950 Mn in BigBasket for about 67% stake, and $250 Mn in 1mg for a majority stake as well.

• Logistics Startup Shadowfax Technologies and neo-banking startup NiYO Solutions have announced ESOP buyback plans for their employees.

• Walmart has reportedly brought in Goldman Sachs to raise around $10 Bn through an initial share sale of its Flipkart unit. This comes as Flipkart is planning to go public by next year at a valuation of $45 Bn to $50 Bn.

• Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF) has committed to invest $19 Mn (about INR 140 Cr) in four companies that are using technology and innovation to transform India’s waste management and recycling value chain. The four companies selected are Srichakra Polyplast, Rapidue Technologies (Recykal), Deeya Panel Products (Ricron) and Dalmia Polypro Industries.

• Tech accelerator India Accelerator (IA) is looking to start its sixteen-week long accelerator programme Pulse, which will consist of 5-7 innovative companies working in the Healthtech space.

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