Funding Spring: Indian Startups Raised $4.6 Bn In April 2021, With 8 New Unicorns

April 2021 turned out to be a great month for Indian startup ecosystem, which witnessed the entry of eight companies into the unicorn club. The month was filled with 13 mega rounds (rounds with $100 Mn or more infusion), compared to 2 in March 2021. This obviously is a result of massive funding that took place in the ecosystem in April 2021.

India startup funding increased 2.8X, from $1.6 Bn in March 2021 to a whopping $4.6 Bn in April 2021. The number of deals, on the other hand, remained stable with 111 deals in March and 110 in April. The second week of April made a big difference in the startup funding, as $2.5 Bn was invested that week across 34 deals.

Startups That Entered Unicorn Club In April 2021

• Meesho raised $300 Mn in a round led by SoftBank, at a valuation of $2.1 Bn. Prosus Ventures, Facebook, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway and Knollwood Investment also participated in the round.

• PharmaEasy raised $323 Mn in a Series E funding round,at a valuation of $1.5 Bn. Prosus Ventures, TPG Growth, Temasek, CDPQ, LGT Lightrock, Eight Roads & Think Investments participated in the funding round

• CRED raises $215 Series D funding round, at a post-money valuation of $2.2 Bn. Falcon Edge Capital, Coatue Management LLP and Insight Partners had participated in the round.

• Groww raised $83 Mn Series D funding round led by Tiger Global, at a valuation of $1 Bn. The round saw participation from existing backers Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital, YC Continuity and Propel Venture Partners.

• Sharechat raised $502 Mn funding in Series E round led by Lightspeed Ventures and Tiger Global, at a valuation of $2.1 Bn. Snap Inc, Twitter, India Quotient and  others participated in the round.

• Gupshup raised $100 Mn in its Series F funding round led by Tiger Global Management, at a valuation of $1.4 Bn.

• Chargebee raised $125 Mn in its Series G funding round at a valuation of a whopping $1.4 Bn. Once again, the round was led by Tiger Global, along with Insight Venture Partners and Sapphire Ventures. Steadview Capital also participated in the round.

• Urban Company is the latest startup to join the unicorn club, as the company is said to be valued at $2 Bn in its latest $188 Mn Series F funding round. While it has not confirmed the $1 Bn+ valuation after the Series F, Urban Company had raised its Series E in 2019 at a valuation of $933 Mn.

Swiggy closed a $800 Mn Series J round in April 2021, at a valuation of $5 Bn. The company had already raised $323 Mn in the first tranche from MIH India Food Holdings, INQ Holding, Accel, Goldman Sachs Asia Strategic, Alpha Wave Venture and others. The Inc42 report took only the $323 Mn amount raised into consideration.

The biggest rounds of March 2021 were BYJU’s $460 Mn Series F round led by MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings and Dream11’s $400 Mn secondary investment led by TCV, D1 Capital Partners and Falcon Edge.
Overall, $2.73 Bn was invested in Indian startups in the first quarter of FY2021, between January and March, as per Inc42 Plus analysis. Of which, 50% or $1.38 Bn of the capital was raised by top 10 deals such as Udaan, Zomato, BharatPe and others. Even as India is still recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy in the last three quarters of 2020, startups are projected to raise $13.7 Bn in startup funding this year, under the present conditions.

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