[Funding Galore] From slice To CureFit—Over $535 Mn Raised By Indian Startups This Week

After a boiling funding round throughout November that raised $1.8 Bn in investment across 38 deals, December started on a cold note; so far. Startup investment has dropped significantly in the first week of December. Between November 29 and December 4, the Indian startup ecosystem managed to raise around $535 Mn across 49 deals. This is a 70% drop from the last week, where the ecosystem mopped up around $1.8 Bn in investment across 38 deals. However, this week’s investment is also 33% higher than the week prior, when the ecosystem bagged $400 Mn across 26 deals.

The biggest investment in this week was picked by Bengaluru-based fintech startup slice, which bagged $220 Mn in a Series B round led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners. This capital infusion helped slice to enter the unicorn club at over a billion dollars valuation.

The second largest round of funding was led by CureFit. Inc42 exclusively reported that CureFit closed its $145 Mn round after receiving investment from Zomato, Temasek, South Park Commons, Accel and Mukesh Bansal at over $1.4 Bn valuation. 

Here are all the funding rounds disclosed this week:

Startup IPOs

MapmyIndia Gets SEBI Nod To Offload 9.58 Mn Shares Via IPO

C.E. Info Systems, the parent company of MapmyIndia, a digital-based mapping startup, has received the approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its initial public offering (IPO).

The startup’s proposed offering would consist of only offer for sale (OFS) from the promoters and the existing shareholders. They would offload up to 9,589,478 equity shares.

Last month, the company increased its offering by over 2 Mn shares from the initial offer of 7,547,959 shares.

RateGain IPO To Open On December 7, Fresh Issue Size Lowered To INR 375 Cr

The initial public offering (IPO) of travel tech startup RateGain will open on December 7 and close on December 9, 2021.

The travel tech startup has lowered its fresh issue size by INR 25 Cr to INR 375 Cr for its proposed initial public offering, according to the company’s red herring prospectus (RHP). Its initial offer included a fresh issue of INR 400 Cr.

The Noida-based travel and hospitality software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup got the approval for its IPO from SEBI around a week back. It had filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in August 2021.

Travel tech startup RateGain has fixed the price band for its initial public offering (IPO) at INR 405 – INR 425 per share.

IPO-Bound Snapdeal Issues 394 Mn To Its Shareholders

IPO-bound ecommerce platform Snapdeal has issued bonus equity shares to shareholders ahead of filing its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator SEBI. 

As per the regulatory filings accessed by Inc42, the New Delhi-based ecommerce platform is allotting around 394 Mn equity shares to 61 of its shareholders. The Kunal Bahl-led Snapdeal has allotted the bonus shares in the proportion of 159 new bonus equity shares of INR 1 for each equity shares of INR 1 (i.e., in the ratio of 159:1 share). 

Acquisition This Week

• Edtech startup UpGrad acquired Australian-based study abroad company Global Study Partners (GSP) for $11.2 Mn with a commitment of further $ 7Mn investment in future
• Kunal Shah-led fintech startup has announced acquiring expense management platform Happay at $180 Mn valuation
• Tharasio-style venture 10club has acquired Aurion, a sports and fitness equipment brand

Startup Funds This Week

• US-based Bessemer Venture Partners has closed an India-dedicated early-stage focussed fund with a $220 Mn corpora. Along with the raised fund, the venture capital firm (VC) has also appointed ex-India Resurgence Fund executive and VixCap founder Nithin Kaimal. Kaimal joins Bessemer as the COO for the VC’s Bengaluru office to oversee operations, portfolio services, and fund governance.
• Early-stage venture capital (VC) fund 8i Ventures has launched 8i Fund II—a corpus of $50 Mn that comes after the $13 Mn 8i Fund I. Fund I had startups like slice, M2P, EaseBuzz and Blue Tokai on its portfolio.

Other Developments

• Online food delivery major Swiggy has announced to invest $700 Mn in its express grocery delivery platform Instamart
• ANI Technologies, the parent company of Ola, has pumped INR 786.14 Cr in Ola Financial Services (OFS), making it a 100% subsidiary. 
• Fintech startup Cashfree Payments made an equity investment of $15 Mn in Telr, a payment service provider that operates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.
• US-based ecommerce giant Amazon has infused fresh capital of INR 650 Cr (approx $87 Mn) into Amazon Wholesale (India), according to regulatory documents.
• Mobility unicorn Ola is looking to raise over $500 Mn in debt through Term Loan B (TLB) deal.