Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [November 9- 14]

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

Pune-headquartered logistics company Xpressbees has raised $110 Mn in Series E funding round led by private equity firms Investcorp, Norwest Venture Partners and Gaja Capital. The new round valued the startup at more than $400 Mn. It plans to deploy the fresh capital to further automate its hubs and sorting centres, and expand its delivery footprint to cover the entire country.

Founded in 2015 by Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari, Xpressbees offers logistics services such as last-mile delivery, reverse logistics, payment collection, drop shipping, vendor management, cross-border services, fulfilment services and tailored software solutions. The company had raised $175.8 Mn to date.

About $217 Mn was invested across 25 Indian startups this week. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts).

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Xpressbees: $110 Mn
2. Ather Energy: $35 Mn
3. Nepra: $18 Mn
4. Wellness Forever: $17 Mn
5. Furlenco: $7 Mn
6. slice: $5.2 Mn
7. Winzo: $5 Mn
8. FrontRow: $3.2 Mn
9. InFeedo: $3.2 Mn
10. CityMall: $3 Mn
11. Uolo: $2.6 Mn
12. Nektar.ai: $2.15 Mn
13. BitClass: $2 Mn
14. Kirana King: $940K
15. Clientjoy: $800K
16. MoooFarm: $570K
17. Rezolve.ai: $500K
18. Gonuts: $469K
19. Rapawalk: $300K
20. Jade Forest: $250K
21. iKure: Undisclosed
22. Lava: Undisclosed
23. Shilps Sciences: Undisclosed
24. Okie Gaming: Undisclosed
25. Oga Fit: Undisclosed

• Ather Energy: Bengaluru-based electric two-wheelers maker Ather Energy has raised an investment of $35 Mn in its latest round of Series D funding, led by Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal’s who pitched  in $23 Mn.

• Nepra: Ahmedabad-based dry waste management company Nepra Resource Management Private Limited has raised $18 Mn in Series C funding from Aavishkaar Capital and Circulate Capital. It plans to expand its capacity and manage dry waste across the country.

• Wellness Forever: Mumbai-based retail pharmacy chain Wellness Forever has raised $17 Mn (INR 130 Cr) from Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla and UAE-based Allana Group. The round saw participation from existing investors which include banker and investor Rajiv Dadlani and venture capitalist Sajid Fazalbhoy. The company is promoted by Gulshan Bakhtiani, Ashraf Biran and Mohan Chavan.

• Furlenco: Bengaluru-based furniture rental startup Furlenco has raised $7 Mn (INR 53 Cr) in fresh debt financing from Rangoli Resorts, Beeline Impex, Aditya Burman and Crescent Enterprises.
  

• slice: Bengaluru-based fintech platform slice received $5.2 Mn (INR 39 Cr) in debt funding from multiple financial institutions including Vivriti Capital, Northern Arc Capital and InCred Financial Services.

• Winzo: Delhi-based online gaming platform WinZO has announced a $5 Mn (INR 37.50 Cr) fund for the Indian Game Developer ecosystem. Recently, it raised $18 Mn (INR 132.1 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by Makers Fund based in Singapore and New York-based Courtside Ventures. Both funds made their first-ever investment in India through WinZO.

• CityMall: Indian social ecommerce venture CityMall has raised $3 Mn in a seed funding round led by Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners). The round also saw participation from Waterbridge Ventures, Arun Tadanki’s private syndicate on LetsVenture.
  

• FrontRow: Edtech startup FrontRow has raised $3.2 Mn in a seed funding round led by venture capital firms Lightspeed and Elevation (formerly SAIF Partners), along with Deepika Padukone’s Family Office.

• InFeedo: Gurugram-based employee analytics platform InFeedo raised $3.2 Mn in its latest funding round, which was led by Bling Capital and its founder Benjamin Ling. CitiBank APAC’s former MD Simon Yoo, OYO’s chief strategy officer Maninder Gulati, SoftBank’s MD for EMEA Munish Varma, Freshworks’ founder Girish Mathrubootham and others also participated in this round.

• Uolo: Bengaluru-based edtech startup Uolo Technologies has raised $2.6 Mn (INR 20 Cr) in a pre-Series A round led by Omidyar Network India and Blume Ventures. With the raised capital, the K12 learning platform plans to expand its team across technology and operations and improve its offerings for school administration and students.

• Nektar.ai: Singapore-based B2B sales productivity startup Nektar.ai has raised seed funding of $2.15 Mn led by Nexus Venture Partners, with the participation from Insignia Venture Partners, Arka Venture Labs, Better Capital, and Vietnam Investments Group.

• BitClass: Bengaluru-based product-as-a-service (PaaS) raised $2 Mn in seed funding round led by Venture Highway, with the participation from AET Japan, Figure Eight Investments and Waterbridge Ventures.

• Klovechef: Conversational AI-based technology platform Klovechef has raised $1 Mn from Mumbai-based startup incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts. The round also saw participation from new investors JPIN VCATs, Ravindranath Chenna, and Klovechef’s existing investors SOSV (Food-X accelerator), NB Ventures, along with other angel investors.

More Funding From The Indian Startup Ecosystem 

• Jaipur-based Kirana King raised $940K (INR 7 Cr) pre-Series A funding round from Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVFC). It has a grocery retail network of more than 200 stores in Jaipur.

• Ahmedabad-based SaaS startup Clientjoy has raised $800K in a pre-Series A funding round from Gujarat Venture Finance Limited (GVFL). It will help the company accelerate its sales marketing and engineering to expand its product offerings.

• Gurugram-based agritech startup MoooFarm has raised $570K (INR 4.3 Cr) in a pre-Seed funding round from Rockstart and Navus Ventures. It will use the funding to strengthen their product-market fit and hire key technology talent to launch new services to farmers.

• AI-powered employee service desk platform Rezolve.ai raised $500K led by Venture Catalyst, along with several angel investors. It automates all the repetitive tasks in the employee service desk, improving the overall service management by saving more time and effort for complex issues.

• Mumbai-based celebrity commerce platform Gonuts has raised $469K (INR 3.5 Cr) in seed funding round led by angel investors Sweta Rau and Archana Priyadarshini. 9Unicorns, AngelList, Lets Venture, Mindhouse and Zomato’s cofounder Pankaj Chadda, LivSpace’s Ramakant Sharma, IIM Indore Alumni Fund, Morde Foods’ Harshal Morde also participated in this round.

• Bengaluru-based online footwear brand Rapawalk raised $300K in seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). It plans to continue expanding its online business for the coming 12-15 months and also offer an omnichannel shopping experience to its customers.

• Delhi-based premium beverage and mixers brand Jade Forest raised $250,000 in seed funding round led by marquee angel investors Gaurav Kapur, Rohan Abbas, Ashish Tulsian, and AngelList India, among others.

• Kolkata-based healthcare startup iKure has secured an undisclosed amount from Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group. It plans to scale its operations across India and globally, and provide healthcare services to over 10 Mn people in the next five years.

• Bengaluru-based organic brand LAVAL has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A round from Jazal Group.

• Bengaluru-based biotech startup Shilpa Sciences has undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding round led by AngelList. The funding will be used to expand client workflows on their platform and expand presence in the US.

• Mumbai-based online gaming platform Okie Gaming has raised an undisclosed amount from Bollywood actress Kajal Aggarwal, who has picked up 15% stake in the company. She will also be joining the company’s board of directors.

• Health and wellness startup Oga Fit has raised an undisclosed amount 9Unicorns as a part of its pre-Series A round. The company has last raised a Series A funding round from US-based Joyance Partners.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Mumbai-headquartered non-banking financial company (NBFC) BlackSoil has raised INR 110 Cr in the first close of its alternative investment fund (AIF) called BlackSoil India Credit Fund (BICF).

• State-run Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has committed to invest INR 250 Cr ($33 Mn) in three funds — India SME Investments Fund, Stride Venture and JSW Ventures Trust. Venture debt fund Stride, on Thursday (November 12) announced that it has raised INR 85 Cr ($11 Mn) from the financial institution.

• SoftBank Vision Fund has decided to move away from its overflowing cash infusion strategy to focus more on enterprise, healthtech and software-as-a-services (SaaS). The company is also in talks to invest $80 Mn to $100 Mn in Pune-based startup MindTickle.

• Gurugram-based foodtech giant Zomato may raise another $100 Mn in its ongoing Series J funding round from Fidelity Management & Research and New York-based hedge fund D1 Capital as the company is preparing to go public by the middle of the next year.

• Curated AI-powered superconnector CoffeeMug has partnered with revenue-based financing (RDF) platform Klub to directly around INR 100 Cr in direct-to-consumer brands.

• State Bank of India (SBI) Group’s venture capital arm SBICap Ventures (SVL) has reportedly raised $25 Mn from European Investment Bank (EIB) for its Neev II Fund, which it plans to close at $118 Mn (EUR 100 Mn).

• Online grocery store Grofers is reportedly in the final stages of raising $55-60 Mn from its largest investor, the SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF) and other existing investors.

• Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has committed to invest $33 Mn in three funds — India SME Investments Fund, Stride Venture and JSW Ventures Trust. Venture debt fund Stride has raised $11 Mn from the financial institution, which majorly focuses on the development and financing of the MSME sector.

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