Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [September 21 – 26]

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

Edtech giant BYJU’S has raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round from New York-headquartered asset manager BlackRock, Sands Capital and hedge fund Alkeon Capital. Existing investors General Atlantic, Owl Ventures and Tiger Global Management too participated in the round.

This investment is part of BYJU’S ongoing $500 Mn funding round announced earlier this month led by Silver Lake and existing investors. The company has managed to increase its valuation from $8 Mn to 10.5 Bn between March to August 2020. Since the lockdown, it has added over 25 Mn new students on its platform. On August 5, it also acquired the Mumbai-based online coding platform WhiteHatJr for $300 Mn.

Overall, $243 Mn was invested across 18 Indian startups this week, and two acquisitions took place. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts).

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Mobile Premier League: $90 Mn
2. ShareChat: $40 Mn
3. Hopscotch: $25 Mn
4. Servify: $23 Mn
5. Samunnati: $20 Mn
6. Smallcase: $13.42 Mn
7. Pristyn Care: $12 Mn
8. Onsitego: $10 Mn
9. BestDoc: $2.1 Mn
10. Clairvolex: $2.1 Mn
11. Fokuz: $2 Mn
12. Rephrase.ai: $1.5 Mn
13. WoodenStreet: $1 Mn
14. ClanConnect. Ai: $678K
15. AFK Gaming: $200K
16. BYJU’S: Undisclosed
17. WeInnovate Biosolutions: Undisclosed
18. MobiGarage: Undisclosed

• Mobile Premier League: Bengaluru-based mobile esports platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) has raised $90 Mn in a Series C funding round led by SIG Ventures, RTP global and MDI Ventures. Sequoia India, Go-Ventures and Base Partners had participated in this round. It plans to expand outside of India in the upcoming months.

• ShareChat: Bengaluru-based Indian regional language social platform ShareChat has raised $40 Mn funding from investors including Twitter Inc and Lightspeed Ventures in its Pre Series E round. The round also saw participation from SAIF Partners and India Quotient. The funding will be used to grow Sharechat’s latest short video app Moj.

• Hopscotch: Mumbai-based online retailer Hopscotch has raised $25 Mn from Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s investment arm EE Capital, Lionrock Capital, Rise Capital, RPG Ventures and IIFL Seed Ventures Fund. Several prominent angel investors also participated in this round.

• Servify: Mumbai-based device lifecycle management platform Servify has raised $23 Mn in Series C round led by Iron Pillar. Blume Ventures, BEENEXT and Tetrao SPF have also participated in this round, along with Sparkle Fund, SF Roofdeck Capital, Go Ventures and Madhu Kela Family Office.
  

• Samunnati: US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has committed $20 Mn debt funding to non-banking financial company (NBFC) Samunnati Financial. It will help d the NBFC to expand its financing and technical assistance to low-income farmers and enterprises throughout the agricultural value chain in India.
  

• Smallcase: Investment tech startup Smallcase funding is raising $13.4 Mn (INR 99 Cr) in a mix of equity and preference shares from a clutch of investors as a part of its Series B round. DSP Asset Management Firm, Sequoia’s SCI Investment V, Milestone Trusteeship Services, BEENEXT, Unitary Funds and others participated in this round. It will use this funding to meet its growth objectives and strengthen its financial position.

• Pristyn Care: Gurugram-based healthcare platform Pristyn Care has raised $11 Mn (INR 86.14 Cr) from SCI Investments, Redwood Trust, Hummingbird Ventures, and Epiq Capital.

• Onsitego: After-sales services startup Onsitego has raised $10 Mn in its Series B round from IFC. Overall, the company has raised $30 Mn in Series B round. Onsitego will be using the freshly raised funds to consolidate its market position and strengthen its B2C offerings like AMC, home protection. and on-demand services.

• BestDoc: Kerala-based healthtech SaaS startup BestDoc has raised $2.1 Mn (about INR 16 Cr) in a  Pre-Series A round from Accel Partners and Arkam Ventures. Bengaluru-based SEA Fund, an existing investor also participated in this round. It plans to use the funds to expand its presence across India and develop products aimed at improving the in-patient admission and hospitalisation experience.

• Clairvolex: Intellectual property (IP) solutions company Clairvolex has raised $2 Mn (INR 16.68 Cr) in debt from IndusAge Global Technology Venture Fund & JF Mauritius SPV (special purpose vehicle).

• Fokuz: Fokuz, which is a video-conferencing platform developed by Kochi-based Skyislimit Technologies, has secured $2 Mn from a US-based healthcare and manufacturing company.

• Rephrase.ai: Bengaluru-based startup Rephrase.ai has raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding led by Lightspeed Ventures and AV8 Ventures. It will use the funding to scale its AI-powered video personalisation platform, strengthen its commercial presence in North America, and expand its engineering and research teams based out of Bengaluru.

More Funding From The Indian Startup Ecosystem 

• Custom furniture startup WoodenStreet has raised $1 Mn to expand its services to West Bengal by opening two new Experience Stores.

• Delhi-based self-serve influencer marketing startup ClanConnect.ai has raised $678K in seed funding round from Venture Catalysts, Forest Essentials’ Samrath Bedi, Droom’s Sandeep Aggarwal, Haptik’s Aakrit Vaish and Redchillies VFX’s Haresh Hingorani.

• Mumbai-based media company AFK Gaming has raised $200K in a Pre-Series A round from Indian investment company Inflection Point Ventures. The funds will be used to link reach to revenue through programmatic and direct advertising as well as expanding AFK Gaming’s scope to additional esports titles in Southeast Asia.

• Venture capital fund Chiratae Ventures has announced a seed investment in WeInnovate Biosolutions, which was a part of the sixth cohort of the VC firm’s DeepTech Innovator Programme.
  

• Delhi-based mobile hardware and service platform MobiGarage has raised undisclosed amounts in its ongoing pre-Series A round from US-based SOSV.

Acquisitions This Week

• Bengaluru-headquartered edtech startup Unacademy acquired a UPSC test preparation platform Coursavy for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its position in the UPSC test prep market.

• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the merger of online pharmacies Medlife with PharmEasy. The deal will see API Holdings, the parent entity of PharmEasy, acquire 100% equity shares of Medlife, filings with the CCI show. Medlife’s promoters will in return get a 19.95% stake in the combined entity.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Google India has released the list of startups for the fourth batch of Google for Startups Accelerator India programme. The 20 Indian startups selected to be a part of the programme include Antwak, BharatAri, BlackLight Games, Decoder, Factors.ai, Foxy.in, Gram Powder, InnerHour, Leher, Lokal, Math Buddy, Mera Cashier, Mosaic Wellness, myHQ, Navia Life Care, Orowealth, Virohan, Wellthy Therapeutics, Womaniya, and Zeo Auto.

• Jaipur-based Girnar Software (more commonly known as GirnarSoft), the parent company of CarDekho, BikeDekho, Gaadi.com, Zigwheels.com and BusesDekho.com among other ventures, has invested $20Mn in its insurance venture InsuranceDekho to strengthen its presence in 32 cities across India in the next six months. It also plans to onboard one lakh agents; so far they have onboarded 20,000.

• Sachin Tendulkar backed gaming company Smaaash has decided to shut down the company. In an email to his employees sent on September 15, founder Shripal Morakhia said, he was sorry that despite his best efforts he has failed in his efforts to save the company from its premature death.

• Bengaluru-based vehicle-sharing marketplace Drivezy is in talks to raise $30 Mn in a funding round led by an undisclosed Middle East sovereign fund, along with the investment arm of UK-based international oil company Shell Global, Shell Ventures B.V. The company plans to use this funding to expand its operations in Abu Dhabi.

• Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven logistics startup Fleetx.io is looking to raise $3.14 Mn (INR 23.19 Cr) to expand its business and fulfill its working capital requirements.

• Japan’s MonotaRO Co Ltd has invested $15 Mn (about INR 110.5 Cr) in a joint venture with IndustryBuying to grow the latter’s small and medium enterprises (SME) ecommerce business in India. MonotaRO will own 51.6% stake in the JV, IB monotaRO Pvt Ltd, while the rest will be held by IndustryBuying.

• About eleven social enterprises from the Atal Incubation Centre-IIIT-Hyderabad’s first cohort of its Akash and Dhanush programme have graduated. These include 1Money, Candiphi Healthcare, Truspectra India Locus Scaleup Consultants, Xshala Energetics, Aquatic Livelihoods, Vitthai Agri Solutions, Cerelia Nutritech, Ambus Services, Checkroof and Next Skills 360.

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