[Funding Galore] From Oxyzo To ShareChat— Over $552 Mn Raised By Indian Startups This Week

The startup ecosystem has received half a billion funding in the fourth week of March. Between March 21 and 26, the Indian startup community has raised $552 Mn across 38 deals. This is  almost a 51% rise from the third week, when the ecosystem managed to bag $365 Mn across 29 deals.

The week saw OfBusiness’ financial arm Oxyzo entering the unicorn club after bagging $200 Mn in its Series A – highest Series A round in the Indian startup ecosystem from Alpha Wave, Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, and Creation Investments. With this, Indian startup ecosystem is close to hit a century of unicorns. 

The busiest investor of this week was Kunal Shah who rolled out three cheques. Apart from Shah, Tiger Global and NB Ventures had participated in two deals each this week. 

The Indian Startup Funding Deals Of The Week

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

OYO Likely To Reduce IPO Size

Hospitality unicorn OYO is planning to reduce the size of its initial public offering (IPO) after some of its investors including Japan-based Softbank have stepped back from the OFS (offer for sale).  

In its DRHP in October 2021, OYO had proposed an INR 8,340 Cr IPO which included a fresh issue of shares worth INR 7,000 Cr and an offer for sale amounting to INR 1,430 Cr from SoftBank Group, AI Holdings, China Lodging Holdings and IVY Ventures.

BSE Sought Clarification To Paytm For Its Steep Share Price Fall

The Bombay Stock Exchange, on March 22, asked One97 Communications Limited, the parent company of fintech unicorn Paytm, on the matter of the consistent downfall of its stock.

“The Exchange has sought clarification from One 97 Communications Ltd on March 22, 2022, with reference to significant movement in price, in order to ensure that investors have latest relevant information about the company and to inform the market so that the interest of the investors is safeguarded,” the BSE said, in a corporate announcement.

From The Startup Acquisition Desk

• Reliance Retail acquired an 89% stake in Purple Panda Fashions, the parent company of D2C lingerie startup Clovia for INR 950 Cr
• Mumbai-based B2B packaging and textile startup Bizongo acquired internet-of-things (IoT) startup Clean Slate for an undisclosed amount 
• Walmart-backed digital payments platform PhonePe acquired GigIndia, a B2B marketplace for on-demand work completion for freelance micro-entrepreneurs, for an undisclosed amount
• Good Glam Group’s Baby Chakra acquired Bengaluru-based healthcare and parenting network startup Tinystep
• Edtech startup Bodhi AI announced acquiring Kota-based SkoolStream to strengthen its product offerings and tech infrastructure
• SparkCognition announced acquisition of Bengaluru-based Integration Wizard
• Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola to acquire his brother’s Ankush Aggarwal’s Avail Finance 
• IPO-bound Mumbai-based Netcore has acquired majority stake in Unbxd Inc for $100 Mn
• Reliance-backed Glance has acquired gaming startup Gambit for an undisclosed amount.

Startup Funds This Week

• Tamil Nadu government earmarks INR 75 Cr to establish an iconic State Startup Hub in Chennai. The state government has also allotted INR 50 Cr to the Emerging Sector Seed Fund to make equity investments in the state-based startups and also leverage capital from institutional investors
• Early-stage angel investing firm Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) launched its AIF CAT II Physis Capital, a $50 Mn venture capital fund 
  • Physis Capital will have a corpus of $50 Mn with a green shoe option of another $25 Mn and aims for its first close at $20 Mn.
• UAE-based VC firm Cypher Capital announced the launch of a global $100 Mn blockchain-focused fund. Of this, the VC firm has set aside 40% of the amount for emerging blockchain and crypto startups in India
• Mobile game developer CrazyLabs announced an investment of $1 Mn in the Indian game development industry 
• Coinbase Ventures partnered with Indian Incubator, Buidlers Tribe, to launch a Startup Pitch Session to help the Web3 ecosystem in India. The top five shortlisted startups will  be able to win from a prize pool of $1Mn from Coinbase Ventures and an additional $25K  grant with mentorship support Belief DAO.

Other Developments From The Indian Startup Ecosystem

• Urban Company expanded its ESOP pool size by $17 Mn
• Foodtech unicorn Rebel Foods announced ESOP buyback worth $10 Mn from its employees
• Ola Electric made investments in Israeli battery tech firm StoreDot