Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [November 30- December 5]

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

Digital payments platform PhonePe raised $700 Mn in a financing round led by Walmart at a post-money valuation of $5.5 Bn. With this investment, Flipkart stake in the company has been reduced from 100% to 87%.

“This partial spin-off gives PhonePe access to dedicated long-term capital to pursue our vision of providing financial inclusion to a billion Indians,” said Sameer Nigam, founder and chief executive of PhonePe. Flipkart will remain PhonePe’s majority shareholder, and the “two businesses will retain their close collaboration,” the company added.

About $985 Mn was invested across 33Indian startups this week, and three companies were acquired. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts).

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. PhonePe: $700 Mn
2. Eightfold AI: $125 Mn
3. CRED: $80 Mn
4. Vistaar Finance: $30 Mn
5. Mobikwik: $7 Mn
6. Fisdom: $7 Mn
7. LambdaTest: $6 Mn
8. Infinite Uptime: $5.15 Mn
9. CoreStack: $4 Mn
10. Junio: $3 Mn
11. Signzy: $3 Mn
12. Kyt: $2.5 Mn
13. Loop Health: $2.3 Mn
14. Let’s Dive: $1.7 Mn
15. Bira 91: $1.5 Mn
16. Grameen estore: $1.3 Mn
17. Rashik: $1 Mn
18. TagMango: $750K
19. SAWO Labs: $750K
20. Habitat: $677K
21. HappyLocate: $596K
22. Codingal: $560K
23. The New Shop: $500K
24. Krikey: Undisclosed
25. The ePlane Company: Undisclosed
26. KopyKitab: Undisclosed
27. Prescinto: Undisclosed
28. NeoDocs: Undisclosed
29. CHUPPS: Undisclosed
30. Humus: Undisclosed
31. GoPik Connect: Undisclosed
32. Artivatic.ai: Undisclosed
33. Swipez: Undisclosed

• Eightfold AI: HR tech startup Eightfold AI has raised $125 Mn in a Series D funding round to hire talent in India. The round was led by General Catalyst and also includes investors from previous rounds, including Capital One Ventures, Foundation Capital, IVP and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
• CRED: Bengaluru-headquartered credit card bill payment app CRED has raised $80 Mn in a round led by existing investors Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global at a post money valuation of $800 Mn. The round also the participation of DST Global partners. In the past, DST Global founder Yuri Milner had invested in CRED.
• Vistaar Finance: Bengaluru-based financial services startup Vistaar Finance has raised $30 Mn from External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) from Dutch entreprneural development bank FMO.
• Mobikwik: Gurugram headquartered fintech company Mobikwik has raised $7 Mn (INR 52 Cr) funding led by Hindustan Media Ventures, the investment arm of HT Group and Infosys cofounder Kris Gopalakrishnan’s family office Pratithi. The company plans to utilise the fresh capital for growth in all key business segments of the firm – digital credit and cards; consumer payments and payment gateway.
• Fisdom: The wealth management platform Fisdom has raised $7 Mn in a fresh funding round led by payment gateway PayU. Quona Capital and Saama Capital also participated in this round. It plans to use the funding for product development and customer acquisition, along with other acquisition opportunities as well.
• LambdaTest: Cloud-based browser testing platform LambdaTest has raised $6 Mn in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge. Blume Ventures, Entrée Capital and Leo Capital also participated in the round, along with Gokul Rajaram and Ramakant Sharma.
• Infinite Uptime: Pune-based industrial Internet of Things (IoT) startup Infinite Uptime has raised $5.15 Mn (around INR 38 Cr) in Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Ventureast, along with Japan-based company THK that develops and manufactures mechanical components.
• CoreStack: CoreStack has raised $4 Mn in a funding round led by Iron Pillar through its Iron Pillar Fund II. It will use the funding for continued market expansion.
• Junio: Fintech startup Junio is raising $3 Mn for its seed funding round even before the launch of its financial planning product targetted at kids. The company said that the round would be led by marquee institutional investors, with participation from angel investors — however, it did not disclose the names of the investors.
• Signzy: Bengaluru-based AI-powered fintech company Signzy has raised $3 Mn in a funding round led by Vertex Ventures. Existing investors Kalaari Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners also participated in the current round. It plans to invest in strengthening its AI platform and expanding its global sales team.
• Kyt: India and Singapore headquartered edtech startup Kyt has raised $2.5 Mn led by Sequoia India’s scale-up programme Surge. It saw participation from Titan Capital, along with other angel investors including Kunal Shah, Amrish Rau, Jitender Gupta, Allen Penn and Martin Li. It plans to expand its online first, global academy for extracurricular learning.
• Loop Health: Pune-based technology-driven health insurance startup Loop Health has raised $2.3 Mn in seed funding led by US-based early-stage venture capital firm Sierra Ventures along with participation from Y Combinator and Soma Capital. Angel investors like former Google Ventures partner Daniel Burka, Twitch ex-CTO Kevin Lin, and former WeWork CTO Shiva Rajaraman among others also participated in the financing round.
• Let’s Dive: Remote employment engagement platform Let’s Dive had raised $1.7 Mn in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, along with Village Global and angels like Akhil Paul and Anand Chandrasekaran participated in this round.
• Bira91: Delhi-based craft beer maker B9 Beverages, the parent company of Bira 91, has raised over $1.5 Mn (INR 11.5 Cr) in Series C funding from about 18 investors including Reddevanga Ventures LLP,  Oriental Carbon and Chemicals Ltd and Vikramaditya Mohan Thapar Family Trust.
• Grameen estore: Tata Digital, India’s oldest conglomerate Tata Group’s foray into the tech sector has reportedly invested $1.3 Mn in the government’s rural ecommerce venture Grameen estore.
• Raskik: Fusion beverages startup Raskik raised $1 Mn in a pre-Series A funding round led by Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns. The round also saw participation from key angels and corporate investors.

More Funding From The Indian Startup Ecosystem 

• Mumbai-based creator monetisation startup TagMango has raised $750K (INR 5.5 Cr) in a seed funding round led by Y Combinator, along with Twitch’s Kevin Lin, XRM Media, Pioneer Fund and angel investors from the USA and the UAE.
• Mumbai-based SaaS-powered one-tap authentication service SAWO Labs has raised $750K (INR 5.5 Cr) from StartupXseed at a valuation of $3.7 Mn (INR 28 Cr). SAWO Labs was one of the nine pre-seed stage startups that 100x.VC invested in September 2020.
• Edtech platform Habitat has raised $677K (INR 5 Cr) in a seed funding round from Unitus Ventures and Whiteboard Capital. The funding will be used for tech development and team strengthening.
• Bengaluru-based relocation platform HappyLocate has raised $596K (INR 4.4 Cr) in a Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) with participation from VM Ventures. It plans to use the funding for scaling up their operations, technology upgradation, better market penetration and service expansion.
• Bengaluru-based online coding platform Codingal has raised $560K in a seed round from Rebright Partners, Java Capital, and GSF Accelerator.
• Omni-channel retail brand The New Shop has raised $500K in a seed round backed by Huddle Accelerator. Anthill Ventures, AngelList India, Lets Venture and angel investors like Rohit Chanana of Sarcha Advisors, among others.
• Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio made a foray into AI and gaming leading the Series A funding of mobile gaming company Krikey. The total funding raised by the San Francisco-based startup now stands at $22 Mn.
• IIT-Madras incubated startup The ePlane Company raised seed funding from Speciale Invest to be used to augment building critical infrastructure, including flying taxis. The investment was led by VC Speciale Invest and FirstCheque, JavaCapital and Sharechat’s cofounder Farid Ahsan.
• Bengaluru-based Awign Enterprises has raised funds worth an undisclosed amount from existing investors Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Unitus Ventures and Eagle10 Ventures. The new funds will be used to finance the company’s expansion to more cities and introduce new services.
• Bengaluru-based edtech startup KopyKitab has raised an undisclosed amount from Singapore-based Pacatolus, Paula Mariwala-led Stanford Angels, and other angel investors such as Praveen Gandhi, Jeenendra Bhandari, Mohit Dubey, and Manoj Mehta.
• Prescinto has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Venture Catalysts. The funding round saw participation from other prominent investors like Rohit Chanana.
• Healthtech startup NeoDocs has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by 9Unicorns. The funding round also saw participation from investors such as Dr. Rohit Srivastava (Head of Department, Dept. of Biosciences & Biomedical Engg., IIT Bombay) and Hemanshu Jain, (CEO Khyaal, Ex Co-Founder Diabeto).
• Consumer footwear brand CHUPPS has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round led by Venture Catalysts. The funding round also saw participation from several eminent investors such as Gunavanth Vaid (Founder– 4G Capital), Aniket Gore (Director– Ceramet Group), Amit Mehta (Equities Head– Sunidhi Securities) and partners of prominent VC Funds.
• Agritech startup Humus raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round from Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns and WeFounders Circle.
• GoPik Connect raised seed round funding of an undisclosed amount from private investors. The seed round funding will support the company’s growth ambitions, ability to ever expand the engagement network and further develop the existing network at the grass-roots level.
• Insurtech and healthtech Artivatic.ai raised bridge funding led by Scale Ventures and existing investor IAN. The funding proceeds will be used for research and development by investing in cutting-edge technology solutions, especially aimed at scaling sales and delivery.
• SaaS startup Swipez has raised an undisclosed amount of equity funding from 9Unicorns Accelerator Fund. The round was led by Anicut Angel Fund through Venkatesh Ramarathinam, CEO of Vuram Technology Solutions and it also saw participation from angel investors like Sanjiv Bajaj, Ashvin Chadha and Harsh Khanna.

Acquisitions Of The Week

• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of Gurugram-based logistics startup Rivigo by Spring Canter Investment Ltd (SCIL) through the subscription of compulsorily convertible preference shares. SCIL is an investment holding company incorporated under the laws of Mauritius and does not have any physical presence in India.
• The Mumbai-based fashion house of designers and stylists Purple Style Labs has acquired Wendell Rodricks to scale the resort wear label to leverage ecommerce and its flagship stores.
• Indian two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motors announced that it has acquired 100% stakes in IoT solution provider Intellicar Telematics for about INR 15 Cr. The acquisition will allow TVS Motors to accelerate its ongoing digital initiatives and enhance the customer experience.

Other Developments Of The Week

• US-based mutual fund T Rowe has raised Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Paytm‘s valuation by about 35% to $255 per share, totaling its valuation to $16 Bn. Earlier in June, T Rowe Price has cut down the valuation of its shares in Paytm by 26%.
• Walmart-owned ecommerce company Flipkart India Pvt Ltd reported a 12% growth in its revenues for the year ended March at INR 34,610 Cr, and at the same time cut its losses by 18% to INR 3,150 Cr.
• The Indian unit of US-based SaaS mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform AppsFlyer has earned INR 12.58 Cr in the financial year 2020, representing a 127% increase from the INR 5.54 Cr it has earned in the previous financial year. The company’s increased earnings have been a result of operational activities only.
• Betterplace reported revenue of INR 41.1 Cr in FY2020. Compared to FY2019, its revenue has grown by 1.2x from INR 33.3 Cr. Its expenses also increased from INR 32.3 Cr to INR 48.8 Cr in FY2020. The company recorded a loss of INR 7.75 Cr in FY20, compared to a profit of INR 84 Lakh in the previous fiscal.