Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [October 5-10]

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

Chennai-based subscription management platform Chargebee has raised $55 Mn in its Series F funding round led by Insight Partners along with the participation of existing investors Tiger Global and Steadview Capital. So far, the company has raised $105 Mn across multiple rounds.

The company plans to invest the capital to improve its platform and develop new solutions to cater to companies with increasingly complex revenue models. Prior to this, it had raised $14 Mn in a Series D round led by Steadview Capital, Insight Venture Partners and Accels Partners.

Meanwhile, Delhi-based edtech startup Pesto Tech also raised an undisclosed amount from angel investors such as Product Hunt’s Pyan Hoovers, Anand Chandrasekaran, Teachable’s Ankur Nagpal, Gumroad’s Sahil Lavingia, FYI’s Hiten Shah, Remote First Capital Andreas Klinger, Interact’s Maran Nelson, Bevy’s Derek Anderson and CapitalX’s Cindy Bi.

Overall, nearly $99 Mn was invested across 21 Indian startups this week. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts).

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Chargebee: $55 Mn
2. Uni: $18.5 Mn
3. Credit Wise Capital: $6 Mn
4. Ergos: $5 Mn
5. Treebo: $3 Mn
6. NirogStreet: $2 Mn
7. Winuall: $2 Mn
8. Unnati: $1.7 Mn
9. Disprz: $1.6 Mn
10. Livve: $1.5 Mn
11. Krishitantra: $1 Mn
12. Acculi Lab: $684K
13. Monet Network: $500K
14. Genrobotics: $342K
15. Omnify: Undisclosed
16. Unocoin: Undisclosed
17. PakkaProfile: Undisclosed
18. Gourmet Garden: Undisclosed
19. Bambrew: Undisclosed
20. MikeLegal: Undisclosed
21. Pesto Tech: Undisclosed

• Credit Wise Capital: Digital NBFC Credit Wise Capital (CWC) has raised $6 Mn in seed funding round led by chairperson of the real estate-focussed MJ Shah Group Mayank Shah. The company plans to use these funds to grow its dealer network, increase geographical expansion, improve collection technology and underwriting models.

• Uni: Former PayUMoney CEO and cofounder and former Ola Financial Services CEO, Niti Gupta, has raised $18.5 Mn for his stealth mode startup Uni. The funding round was led by venture capital firms Lightspeed India Partners and Accel Partners. 

• Ergos: Bengaluru-based agritech startup Ergos has raised an additional $5 Mn in a Series A funding round from Chiratae Ventures and Aavishkaar Capital. It is expected to be a part of a larger $10 Mn funding round that may see participation from Aavishkaar Capital and an undisclosed institutional investor.

• Treebo: Bengaluru-based budget hotel chain Treebo Hotels announced that it has raised an additional $3 Mn in Series D round from existing investors Matrix Partners India, SAIF Partners, Bertelsmann India Investments, and Ward Ferry. The company had raised $3 Mn from these investors back in July, according to Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42. Overall, Treebo has raised $6 Mn in this round.

• NirogStreet: Ayurveda healthtech startup NirogStreet has raised $2 Mn in Pre-Series A funding round led by Wavemaker Partners and Amand Ventures. Existing investors Spiral Ventures has also participated in this round. Prior to this, the company had raised $300K from Japanese venture fund Spiral Ventures in 2018. It will use this funding for deeper penetration, strengthening technology platforms and digitise supply chain.

• Winuall: SaaS edtech startup Winuall on Wednesday raised $ 2 Mn from Prime Venture Partners, Beenext, LivSpace’s founder Ramakant Sharma, along with a clutch of angel investors in the latest funding round. The startup plans to use the fresh capital to enhance product capabilities and hire across technology, product, AI and business development teams.

• Unnati: Noida-based agritech startup Unnati has raised $1.7 Mn in Pre-Series A funding round from Nabventures Fund to scale up its tech platform and introduce digital technologies to farmers in India. Besides this, the company is also looking to invest in increasing our geographical and crop footprint.

• Disprz: Chennai-based AI-based skills and career acceleration platform Disprz has raised $1.6 Mn (INR 12 Cr) in a new funding round led by Vikas Phadnis-founded investment and advisory firm Auctus Capital. The company will use the funding to accelerate its growth and skilling prospects.

• Livve: Kerala-based real estate startup Livve, which also offers online deposit and rent payments platform for owners and tenants, has raised $1.5 Mn in seed round from undisclosed angel investors.

• Krishitantra: Soil technology startup Krishitantra raised $1 Mn in a seed funding round led by NABARD’s venture capital arm NABVENTURES along with Omnivore. The agritech startup plans to use the funding for national as well as international expansion.

More Funding From The Indian Startup Ecosystem 

• Acculi Lab raises $684K (INR 5 Cr) from Mumbai-based investment firm PirE Ventures. It focuses on patient-centric disease management and diagnostics and aims to make home-based care accessible to all sections of society.

• AI-powered data analytics startup Monet Network has raised $500K in a bridge funding round led by SenseAI Ventures.

• Trivandrum-based Genrobotics has raised $342K (INR 2.5 Cr) in Pre-Series A round from Unicorn India Ventures and Mahindra & Mahindra’s Anand Mahindra along with SEA Fund.

• Global SaaS platform for SMEs Omnify has raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-series A funding round led by AngelList Syndicate and Sequoia Scout with participation from angel investors such as Ramakant Sharma, Anand Chandrasekharan, Dhruv Vohra, Ashish Tulsian, Adi Chugh and others. The company plans to use the funding to grow the team, and invest in the product, technology, and growth.

• Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from US-based venture capitalist Tim Draper’s Draper Associates. XBTO Ventures and 2020 Ventures have also participated in the funding round. The latest round of funding will help it bolster its continued growth in India, allow it to build a stronger technology team, and enhance its product infrastructure and offerings.

• Game-based gig workforce assessment and recruitment platform PakkaProfile has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Java Capital. Early-stage investors Letsventure and work tool startup Notion’s COO Akshay Kothari also participated in this round.

• Agritech startup Gourmet Garden has raised an undisclosed amount from Incubate Fund India and Whiteboard Capital. The company now plans to expand its operations to Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.

• Greentech and eco friendly packaging solutions startup Bambrew has raised an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Seed round led by Upsparks. LetsVenture, Amity Capital Ventures, Amity Technology Incubator and industry veterans like Corpin COO Kunal Prasad, Tropicana’s business head Prashant Gagneja participated in this round.

• Gurugram-based legaltech startup MikeLegal has raised an undisclosed amount in seed round from SOSV and Australia-based VC firm Artesian. It will use the funds to scale its operations to other legal domains and geographies.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Hostel chain Zostel has turned to its customers to raise INR 10 Cr funding as a pre-money valuation of INR 75 Cr. The company has invited its customers to turn into angel investors and infuse anywhere between INR 5 Lakh to INR 1 Cr into its hostel chain.

• SAIF Partners plans to raise $400 Mn for its new India-dedicated fund.  These plans come a little over two years after it closed a previous fund and will take its assets under management to over $1 Bn.

• PharmEasy is said to be in talks to raise $200 Mn from South African technology and media conglomerate Naspers and US-based private equity firm TPG. The proposed investment is likely to be done at a pre-money valuation $1.2 Bn.

• Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital, South Korean Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, US hedge fund Luxor Capital and private equity firm Bow Wave Capital may invest $150 Mn funding in Indian foodtech giant Zomato.

• Amazon, which holds indirect stake in Future Group, has approached the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) claiming that the proposed deal between Future Retail and Reliance Industries does not have its approval and hence should not go through. The ecommerce giant had also served a legal notice to Kishore Biyani-backed Future Group for the same reason this week.

• The Indian government organised its maiden National Startups Awards on Tuesday (October 6) to recognise startups from 12 different categories. Payments platform BharatPe, ride-hailing service Bounce, digital therapeutics healthtech Wellthy Therapeutics, energy analytics startup MinionLabs, agritech startup Intello Labs, cybersecurity startup Lucideus Tech and healthtech startup Niramai Labs won the award. You can go through the full list of winners of the National Startup Awards here.

• Amazon Pay may raise $1.4 Bn from its parent company Amazon in order to effectively compete against other payments giant Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay.

• Reliance Retail has bagged nearly INR 7,349K Cr (nearly $1 Bn) from Global investors GIC and TGP to accelerate the growth of its digital retail empire. The company also raised INR 5,512.50 Cr from UAE-based sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) this week.

• Bengaluru-based P2P platform Vadoo, which enables users to simultaneously consume and deliver the stream, has raised $68K (INR 50 Lakh) after winning BITS Pilani’s startup accelerator.

• Lumis Partners-backed Supply Chain Labs has announced the names of 11 startups from the latest cohort for 2020, under which it will mentor and help startups that are solving supply chain problems across a diverse set of industry verticals. The startups include Edgistify, Statwig, Eunimart, Koinearth, Reshamandi, Qzense, Frontier Markets, Mytrux, SmartShip Hub, Aerchain, and Invento Robotics.

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