Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [September 28 – October 3]

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

Location-based social network app Public, which is owned by news aggregator app Inshorts, has raised $35 Mn from venture capitalist Lee Fixel’s Addition, SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners. The funding by Addition marks the first investment in an Indian startup by Lee Fixel, which launched the $1.3 Bn venture capital firm earlier this year.

Launched in 2019, Public enables people to record and share happenings around them and provide real-time local updates, happenings in local commerce, jobs, classifieds and more. The app is available in Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Assamese, Gujarati and Marathi.

The company plans to utilise the funding towards rapid scaling up of tech infrastructure, content offerings and employee base to further speed up the growth and continue improving on retention and engagement.

Overall, $73.6 Mn was invested across 19 Indian startups this week, and one acquisition took place. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts).

Checkout Inc42 Plus’ Indian Startup Funding Tracker For Latest Funding Deals Info

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Public: $35 Mn
2. Avanse Financial: $15 Mn
3. SquadStack: $5 Mn
4. Sunstone Eduversity: $3.27 Mn
5. Etrio: $3 Mn
6. Financepeer: $3 Mn
7. GPS Renewables: $3 Mn
8. StayQrious: $2 Mn
9. Infilect: $1.5 Mn
10. Legal Salah: $1 Mn
11. EduGorilla: $726K
12. AgroWave: $500K
13. ECOSTP Technologies: $250K
14. ShipsKart: $225K
15. Sapio Analytics: $150K
16. Morning Context: Undisclosed
17. Oga Fit: Undisclosed
18. 7 Classes: Undisclosed
19. Codeyoung: Undisclosed

• Avanse Financial: Education-focused non-banking financial company (NBFC) Avanse Financial Services Ltd has raised $15 Mn through external commercial borrowing (ECB) route from US-based financial institution World Business Capital Inc. The company plans to use this investment to expand its education financing program and strengthen its lending space.

 

• SquadStack: San Francisco and New Delhi-based sales tech startup SquadStack has raised $5 Mn (nearly INR 36.8 Cr) in Series A funding round led by Chiratae Ventures, along with the participation of existing investor Blume Ventures. It will use this funding to accelerate product growth and hire top product, engineering, and data science talent in the US and India.

 

• Sunstone Eduversity: Edtech startup Sunstone Eduversity has raised $3.27 Mn (INR 24 Cr) in Series A funding from Saama Capital, with participation from Ashish Gupta, Pankaj Bansal. Existing investors, Prime Venture Partners, Rajul Garg and Purvi Capital also participated in the round.

 

• Etrio: Hyderabad-based electric vehicle retro fitment kit maker Etrio has raised $3 Mn in Series A funding round from a group of Singapore-based high net worth individuals (HNIs). The round was led by serial investor, Janardhan Rao, founder of Triumph Global Group. It will use the investment to fuel the growth of new electric vehicles in three-wheelers and bicycle product lines. It will also focus on customer acquisition across both B2B and consumer segments.

 

• Financepeer: Education fintech startup Financepeer has raised $3 Mn in Pre Series A funding round from MS Fincap, Danube (UAE’s largest conglomerate), Aar Em Ventures, Angelbay Holdings, JITO Angel Network, and HEM Angels. The fund will be used to enhance edu-fintech product offerings, accelerate product development and enable organic growth in India.

 

• GPS Renewables: Cleantech startup GPS Renewables has raised $3 Mn in a Series A funding led by Hivos-Triodos Fund from impact investing firm Caspian through its fund SME Impact Fund IV.

 

• StayQrious: Bengaluru-based edtech startup StayQrious has raised $2 Mn in seed funding round from Learn Capital’s dedicated seed fund Learnstart, Draper Associates, Y Combinator, First Principles VC Nitin Sharma, Lavni Ventures and Japan-based Dream Incubator. It will use this funding to build its product, coach tools and instructional content that will enable its ‘classroom of the future’.

 

• Infilect: SaaS-based retail visual intelligence startup Infilect has raised $1.5 Mn in pre-series A funding led by Mela Ventures and 1Crowd, with participation from The Chennai Angels (TCA). It will use the funding to boost its sales and marketing, and  further its R&D in Image Recognition (IR) in areas like supply-chain optimisation, store personalisation, and category planning.

 

• Legal Salah: Kolkata-based legaltech startup Legal Salah raised $1 Mn in a seed funding round led by I2I Capitals, a family fund that comprises angel investors. It plans to use the funding to build a technological base, support product development and fuel market expansion in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Chennai, and Tier-II cities, besides exploring international markets with Dubai.

 

More Funding From The Indian Startup Ecosystem 

 

• Lucknow-based edtech startup EduGorilla has raised funding from $736K (INR 5.3 Cr) from SEBI – Cat 1 Angel Fund – Auxano Entrepreneur Fund and group of angels led by Venture Garage –SucSEED Venture Partners, Pune Angels, Hem Angels and VG Angels. The funding will be used for intensification of its marketing and sales functions for an array of its offerings.

 

• Gurugram-based AgroWave has raised $500K in funding from US-based investor Sekhar Puli. The company will use the funds to scale its mobile pickup station model in more villages and build a price prediction model at the supply side for the farmers, for which the company will expand its technology team.

 

• ECOSTP Technologies, a startup that develops sanitation solutions through bioengineering, raised $250K from Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter.

 

• Delhi-based B2B ecommerce startup ShipsKart has raised $225K in Pre Series A funding round led by Betatron. It will continue to expand its global footprint and establish aggregator centres in India and abroad. The ecommerce startup also plans to improve its supply chain and procurement process.

 

• Data driven government advisory firm Sapio Analytics has raised $150 through an association with Indeed Smart City, a unit of Dentsu Aegis Network Communications India Private Limited.

 

• Subscription-only digital media publisher covering technology and business The Morning Context has raised an undisclosed amount from individual investors Nium’s CEO and cofounder Pranjit Nanu, Transearch India’s partner Ashish Sanganeria, Netflix’s director of business development Abhishek Nag, chief of staff of co-founder’s office at Grab Arun Makkath, and Eazydiner and The Postcard Hotel’s chairperson of board Kapil Chopra participated in this round.

 

• Bengaluru-based fitness startup Oga Fit raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding round from US-based Joyance Partners.The brand proposes to use the capital for product development, content creation and marketing purposes, and also expand to the US this year.

 

• Diagnosis-based e-learning platform 7 Classes has raised an undisclosed amount from Venture Catalysts.

 

• Bengaluru-based edtech startup that provides live online coding classes to K12 students Codeyoung has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round led by Guild Capital. It will use this funding to scale up in international markets, as well as strengthen academics research, technology, and product teams.

Acquisitions This Week

• Indian online automobile marketplace Droom acquired Delhi-NCR based augmented reality (AR) startup Visiolab Ideas for an undisclosed amount. With the acquisition, Droom will look to leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), AR, virtual reality (VR), machine learning and big data to offer a better customer experience on its automobile commerce platform.

Other Developments Of The Week

• US-based retail giant Walmart is reportedly in talks to invest $20-$25 Bn in Tata Digital’s proposed Super app, which aims to create a digital services behemoth offering a wide range of products in the retail space. The super app is said to be valued at around $50-$60 Bn. The new app, which is expected to be launched by December this year, will pit Tata Group against rival businesses such as Reliance and Amazon, among others.

 

• After a profitable 2019, Bengaluru-based fintech startup Perfios has dropped down into the red for FY20, with INR 26.88 Cr in losses. The company’s expenses for the financial year 2020 grew by 2.6x from INR 39.7 Cr to INR 104 Cr in the same time frame. Its revenues also doubled from INR 43.59 Cr to INR 77.59 Cr, representing a growth of nearly 78%.

 

• The government of India is engaged in talks with a global pension fund and Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to float a $2 Bn alternative investment fund (AIF). With this, the government aims to provide more domestic funding options for the startup community reducing their dependence on foreign private equity players.

 

• The National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), an autonomous board under the Department of Science and Technology, has sanctioned an INR 10 Cr grant to Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC). The grant has been sanctioned to GUSEC as part of the NIDHI Seed Support System (SSS) scheme and will enable it to invest in startups under its ambit.

 

• Grocery delivery platform BigBasket is reportedly in talks to raise $350-400 Mn funding from Singapore-based Temasek, hedge fund Tybourne Capital and former US vice-president Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management at post-money valuations of $2 Bn.

 

• This week, Reliance Retail raised funding from Silver Lake’s co-investors and Mubadala. The company raised another INR 1,875 Cr from Silver Lake raising its stakes to 2.13%and INR 6,247 Cr from  Mubadala Investment Company for 1.4% stake. Besides this, the company also raised INR 3,675 Cr from General Atlantic, which will be translated into a 1.34% equity stake.

 

• Ecommerce giant Amazon has infused INR 1,125 Cr into its Indian unit ahead of the country’s festive season and the biggest sales opportunity for etailers in India. The fund infusion comes two months after the company had infused INR 2,310 Cr in Amazon Seller Services, its India marketplace.

 

• Paytm Mall has narrowed down its losses by 60% to INR 479 Cr in the financial year ending in March 2020. However, the reduction in losses comes with a 27% decrease in revenue for the ecommerce company. The company recorded INR 703 Cr in FY2020 as compared to INR 968 Cr in FY2019. In FY2018, the company had reported a revenue of INR 775 Cr.