Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [October 12-17]

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

Bengaluru-based payments gateway Razorpay is the latest entrant in India’s unicorn club with its latest $100 Mn funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and existing investor Sequoia India. Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, Y Combinator and Matrix Partners also participated in this round.

Razorpay is the fifth Indian fintech firm to achieve ‘unicorn’ status after online payment gateway BillDesk, Retail payment company Pine Labs, Flipkart-owned PhonePe and insurtech startup PolicyBazaar. Razorpay was founded by Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur in 2014 and counts Airtel, BookMyShow, IRCTC, Aditya Birla Capital, and NSE as its clients.

Overall, nearly $251.5 Mn was invested across 22 Indian startups this week. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts).

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Razorpay: $100 Mn
2. Zomato: $52 Mn
3. Finova Capital: $35 Mn
4. Ninjacart: $30 Mn
5. Wow! Momo: $8.9 Mn
6. Avataar.me: $7 Mn
7. Pepper Content: $4.2 Mn
8. Miko: $3.1 Mn
9. Fleetx.io: $3.1 Mn
10. CredR: $2 Mn
11. GoodGamer: $1.8 Mn
12. InnAccel Technologies: $1.5 Mn
13. TREAD: $1.1 Mn
14. TeaMonk: $885K
15. CreatorOS: $500K
16. ReNEWate: $272K
17. Anveshan: $149K
18. Harmonizer India: Undisclosed
19. Tango Eye: Undisclosed
20. Gourmet Garden: Undisclosed
21. RACEnergy: Undisclosed
22. Rare Planet: Undisclosed

• Zomato: Food aggregator business Zomato has raised INR 380 Cr or $52 Mn from US-based Kora Investments. With this, Zomato has braised $220 Mn from investors like Tiger Global, Temasek and Kora. Zomato’s valuation has been pegged at $3 Bn with this round.

• Finova Capital: Jaipur-based Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) Finova Capital is raising around $35 Mn (INR 260 Cr) from existing investors Sequoia Capital India (SCI) Growth Investments and Faering Capital.

• Ninjacart: Ecommerce marketplace Flipkart and US-based retail giant Walmart, which is also the parent company of Flipkart, has made its second investment of $30 Mn in fresh produce supply chain startup Ninjacart.

• Wow! Momo: Quick-service restaurants chain Wow! Momo Foods is raising$8.9 (INR 66 Cr) in a mix of debt and preferential shares from Grand Anicut Fund – 2. Earlier this week, the company received $5.4 Mn (INR 40 Cr) in debt from Grand Anicut Fund – 2 as a part of this round.

• Avatar.me: Bengaluru-based deeptech startup Avataar.me has raised $7 Mn from Sequoia Capital India. The company’s 3D and Augmented Reality software helps enterprise customers create immersive shopping experiences for end-users.

• Miko: Robotics startup Miko has raised $3.1 Mn (INR 23 Cr) in a Pre-Series B round led by Stride Ventures. Existing investors including Chiratae Ventures, YourNest Venture Capital and a group of angel investors, led by former Nasscom chairman Keshav Murugesh, participated in the round.

• Fleetx.io: Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven logistics startup Fleetx.io has raised $3.1 Mn in Pre-Series B funding from existing investors Singapore-based BEENEXT and India Quotient. The company had raised $2.8 Mn in Series A round earlier in February.

• Pepper Content: Mumbai-based content marketplace Pepper Content has raised $4.2 Mn in Series A funding round led by Lightspeed India to expand its presence into Southeast Asia and enter newer content categories like video and audio. Several prominent angel investors across India and Silicon Valley also participated in this round.

• CredR: Mumbai-based used bikes marketplace CredR has raised $2 Mn (INR 14.7 Cr) from Eight Roads Investments and ON Mauritius. CredR is a marketplace for second-hand bikes and scooters.

• GoodGamer: Daily fantasy sports and Esports app GoodGamer has announced that it has raised $1.8 Mn in seed round. The company has also managed to record 250K registered users within the first month of its launch.

• InnAccel Technologies: InnAccel Technologies has raised $1.5 Mn in Series B round led by Mount Judi Ventures. It will use the funds to commercialize its products in India and other emerging markets.

• TREAD: Bengaluru-based online fitness startup TREAD has raised $1.1 million in its Pre-Seed round from a clutch of angel investors and VC firms. Better Capital, Whiteboard Capital, FirstCheque and Stanford Angel also participated in the round.

• Rare Planet has raised an undisclosed amount in its Pre-Series A round led by Uni-M Ventures, along with the participated of several angel investors.

More Funding From The Indian Startup Ecosystem 

• Bengaluru-based premium tea brand TeaMonk has raised $885K (INR 6.5 Cr) in Pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures with participation from Sarcha Ventures and Lead Angels.

• Influencer platform CreatorOS (formerly called Socionity) has bagged $500K in funding from angels Phanindra Sama, Gaurav Munjal, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Sujeet Kumar, Vidit Aatrey, Vivekananda Hallekere and Alvin Tse.

• Deeptech startup ReNEWate bagged $272K in Pre -Seed Investment from Better Capital. It will use this funding to expand its product offerings, accelerate growth and further development on technology and improve end-to-end workflow.

• Bengaluru-based foodtech startup Anveshan has raised $149K (INR 1.12 Cr) in the pre-seed funding round led by Titan Capital to focus on expanding its supply chain and operations across India.

• The captain of India’s first World Cup-winning team, Kapil Dev has invested an undisclosed amount in power sector-focused technology company Harmonizer India.

• Delhi-based eyewear startup Lenskart has invested in an AI-powered software company Tango Eye. Besides Lenskart, Silicon Valley-based seed funding platform RiSo Capital Fund and Aroa Ventures’ Gaurav Gulati also participated in this round.

• Bengaluru based fruits and vegetables brand Gourmet Garden has raised an undisclosed Pre-Series A funding from Incubate Fund India and Whiteboard Capital.

• RACEnergy has raised an undisclosed amount from existing investors, growX ventures and existing angels.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Tata Group is looking to acquire a 20% stake in online groceries unicorn BigBasket to catch up with other conglomerates like Reliance and Amazon. This partnership with BigBasket could help Tata to bolster its digital arsenal.

• Bengaluru-based Indian edtech platform Unacademy announced it will undertake an ESOPs (employee stock ownership plan) buyback programme worth INR 25-30 Cr in December this year.

• New York-based product accelerator WeKan plans to incubate and fund about 18-20 startups in the ‘future of work’ space in India. The firm will be looking at investing a ticket size of $250K in B2B development tools such as Low or No-Code, DevOps/Infrastructure Tools, API Management, and Software Testing tool.
• Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has doubled his investment in the debut fund of alternative asset management firm Roots Ventures.

• Rajan Nanda Innovation Lab has selected five startups in agritech, railtech and infratech through its Inter-College Innovation Challenge IC2 to fund, incubate and mentor. All selected concepts would receive a seed funding from Escorts.

• Predictive maintenance solutions Ecolibrium Energy has received stakeholders’ approval to raise $816K (INR 6 Cr) in Series B.

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