Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Feb 10-15]

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

In one of the biggest funding rounds, Pune-based baby products marketplace Firstcry has raised $296 Mn (INR 2120 Cr) in Series E funding from Softbank’s Vision Fund. The recent investment is the first tranche of the total $400 Mn funding which has been committed by SoftBank, according to the filings. The additional INR 703 Cr ($100 Mn) has been reserved by SoftBank to be invested on the second anniversary of the transaction in January 2021. With this funding, Firstcry has entered the unicorn club.

Overall, 27 startups raised around $542.71 Mn funding and four startup acquisition took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Firstcry: $296 Mn
2. Innovaccer: $70 Mn
3. Pepperfry: $40 Mn
4. MoEngage: $25 Mn
5. Vedantu: $24 Mn
6. Chaayos: $21.5 Mn
7. SimSim: $8 Mn
8. Shuttl: $7.98 Mn
9. Esper: $7.6 Mn
10. WorkIndia: $5.9 Mn
11. Paytm Money: $5.6 Mn
12. Clover: $5.5 Mn
13. Coding Ninjas: $5.2 Mn
14. Innoviti: $5 Mn
15. BigBasket: $3.5 Mn
16. CYFIRMA: $3 Mn
17. Classplus: $2.5 Mn
18. Furlenco: $2.2 Mn
19. Brick&Bolt: $1.5 Mn
20. YAP: $1.4 Mn
21. HempStreet: $1 Mn
22. Oga: $330K
23. PetPooja: Undisclosed
24. Friyey: Undisclosed
25. Altor: Undisclosed
26. ClassMonitor: Undisclosed
27. HooLiv: Undisclosed

• Innovaccer

Noida and San Francisco-based healthcare data analytics startup, Innovaccer, has raised $70 Mn in Series C funding round from Steadview Capital, Tiger Global, Dragoneer, Westbridge, Mubadala and Microsoft’s venture fund M12. Innovaccer plans to use the latest funds to strengthen its Data Activation Platform. The company believes that this will facilitate improvement in the processes that digitise healthcare for providers, payers and patients.

• Pepperfry

Mumbai-based online furniture and home products marketplace Pepperfry has raised $40 Mn in a funding round led by Pidilite Industries, which makes the Fevicol lineup of products. As per media reports, the round is still not closed and Pepperfry could add more investors before closing the round.

• MoEngage

Bengaluru and US-based intelligent marketing cloud platform MoEngage has raised $25 Mn in Series C funding. The investment has been led by Eight Roads Ventures with participation from its US-based sister fund, F-Prime Capital, along with Matrix Partners India and Ventureast. The fresh funds will help MoEngage deepen relationships in Asia, integrate advanced capabilities into the product mix and scale operations in the USA and Europe, MoEngage’s two fastest-growing markets. Prior to this, the company has raised $14.5 Mn from investors like Ventureast and Matrix Partners India.

Vedantu

Bengaluru-based online tutoring startup Vedantu has raised $24 Mn in a Series C funding round led by global investment firm GGV Capital. The edtech startup’s existing investors also participated in the round.Vedantu plans to use this funding to invest in “brand leadership” and also expand into new categories such as tutoring for students studying in kindergarten to fifth grade. The company believes that it can influence the experiences of young learners from metros and small-town India by bringing them fun and engaging courses.

• Chaayos

Food chain Chaayos has raised $21.5 Mn in a mix of equity and debt in its Series B funding round. Chaayos founder and CEO Nitin Saluja said that the company will invest the funds to expand the store network. “We’ll hire a few more senior people, and invest more in technology,” Saluja added.

• SimSim

New Delhi-based video commerce platform SimSim has raised $8 Mn in Series B round from Accel Partners and Shunwei Capital. The seven month old startup will utilise the funds to invest in technology, improving network, and adding more users.

• Shuttl

Gurugram-based bus aggregator startup Shuttl has continued to add onto its Series C funding round with the latest infusion from a private equity firm, SIG Global India Fund. According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, Super Highway Labs, the parent company of Shuttl, has raised $7.98 Mn (INR 57 Cr) in its Series C funding round.

• Esper

Bengaluru-based enterprise tech startup Esper has raised $7.6 Mn in Series A funding. The investment has been led by US-based venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group, with participation from existing seed investors – Root Ventures, Ubiquity Ventures, Haystack Ventures, and Pathbreaker Ventures. The company will use these funds towards expansion in India and the US. The company will also invest in growing its India market share and expand the team in Bengaluru across engineering, sales, marketing, and customer success.

• Paytm Money

Bengaluru-based wealth management company Paytm Money has received $5.6 Mn (INR 40 Cr) infusion from Paytm parent company One97 Communications. The company filings accessed by Inc42 showed that on January 31, 2020, One97 Communications picked up 4 Cr equity shares worth INR 10 each in Paytm Money on rights basis.

• Clover

Bengaluru-based agritech platform Clover has raised $5.5 Mn in Series A funding round from venture capital companies — Omnivore, Accel Partners, and Mayfield. In December 2018, Accel and Mayfield had invested in Clover’s seed funding round. With the recently raised funds, the company will invest in accelerating its growth in managing farm network and diversify its fresh produce offerings. Moreover, Clover is also planning to expand operations to more cities in India.

• WorkIndia

Mumbai-based online recruitment platform WorkIndia has raised $5.9 Mn (INR 42) from Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi. With this recently raised funds, the company plans to strengthen its team. WorkIndia will also invest in strengthening the tech backend for improved matchmaking, predictive and real-time analytics for employers, said founder Kunal Patil.

• Coding Ninjas

New Delhi-based edtech startup Coding Ninjas has raised $5.2 Mn in a Series A funding from Info Edge, the parent company of online job listing platform Naukri. With the recently raised funds, the startup plans to scale operations and hire new professionals in tech and content teams. The funding will also be used in expanding business in newer geographies.

• Innoviti

Bengaluru-based digital payments solutions company Innoviti has raised $5 Mn (INR 35.6 Cr) in debt funding from FMO, the Dutch development bank. The bank in its disclosure said that Innoviti’s payments solution is designed for small businesses in line with the bank’s strategy of catalysing economic growth and bridging the digital divide.

• CYFIRMA

Singapore-headquartered cybersecurity startup CYFIRMA, which has operations in Bengaluru, has raised Series A funding round from early-growth private equity fund Z3 Partners. While the company has not disclosed the funding amount, sources close to the development told Inc42 that CYFIRMA has raised $3 Mn in this round. The funds will be used for the development of CYFIRMA’s cyber-intelligence analytics platform, adding functionalities, that will improve its predictive capabilities.

• BigBasket

Bengaluru-headquartered grocery company BigBasket has been raising rounds of debt funding from Trifecta Capital and was even planning to issue warrants to BCCL. According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings of Supermarket Grocery Supplies, B2B arm of BigBasket, accessed by Inc42, the company has received $3.5 Mn (INR 25 Cr) worth debt funding from Trifecta Capital on February 11, 2020.

• Classplus

Delhi-NCR based edtech startup Classplus has raised $2.5 Mn in Pre-Series A round from Blume Ventures. As Classplus was the part of the Sequoia Capital India’s Surge programme, the venture capital company has also invested in this funding round. Classplus founder Mukul Rustagi said that the recently raised funds will be primarily used to improve existing technology. The startups will also expand the team across engineering, product, and business verticals, Rustagi added.

• Furlenco

Furniture rental startup Furlenco has raised $2.2 Mn (INR 16 Cr) funding from its existing investor Chowdry Associates, which is Dabur family’s asset management firm. The funding is a part of Series C round. As per the ministry of corporate affairs’ filing, accessed by Inc42, New Delhi-based Chowdry Associates has bought 6,53,871 Series C5 cumulative convertible preference shares (CCPS) in Kieraya Furnishing Solutions Private limited (Furlenco).

• Brick&Bolt

Emarketplace for end-to-end construction services Brick&Bolt has raised $1.5 Mn in Pre-Series A round led by Sequoia’s accelerator programme Surge. With its operations limited to Bengaluru, Brick&Bolt is planning to use the funding to expand into operations in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. For this financial year, Brick&Bolt has planned to expand into two to three cities.

• YAP

Chennai-based fintech platform YAP has raised $1.4 Mn (INR 10 Cr) in an angel funding round. The parent company of YAP, M2P Solutions, has raised this money from former PayU India CEO Amrish Rau, founder of Jupiter Jitendra Gupta, founder of Cred Kunal Shah, venture capitalist of 8i Ventures Vikram Chachra, FinTech MeetUp’s Abhishant Pant, and Karbon’s Peifu Hsieh. With the recently raised funds, cofounder of YAP Madhusudanan R said that the company is looking for an expansion in Asia. The funds will also be used to expand the team and develop new banking products for fintech startups. As part of this deal, Rau will also join the board of M2P Solutions.

• HempStreet

Cannabis-focusses healthtech startup HempStreet has raised $1 Mn in Pre-Series A funding round led by Pharmacon Holdings, a US-based healthtech company. Angel investor Romain Barberis, who invests in startups working in cannabis-related startups in the US and Canada, also participated in the funding round. With the recently-raised funds, HempStreet wants to invest in technology development and research and development of new cannabis-related medicines. “This funding will help us in further strengthening our commitment to bring an effective and responsible usage of Cannabis, especially on the pain relief front,” said Abhishek Mohan, cofounder of HempStreet.

• Oga

Bengaluru-based fitness startup Oga has raised $330K funding from Inflection Point Ventures (IPV). The startup plans to utilise the investment for product development and onboarding some of the world’s best fitness companies and influencers on the platform.

• PetPooja

Restaurant billing platform PetPooja raised undisclosed funding from B2B ecommerce unicorn Udaan. This is the first startup investment made by Udaan. The move is looked at as being in line with the company’s aspirations to scale up fresh foods and vegetable supply business to small and medium enterprises, this is the first startup investment made Udaan.

• Friyey

Pune-based coworking space startup Friyey has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from angel investor Tarun Bhalla. With the latest funding, Friyey wants to expand its operations to 50 locations in seven metro cities by the end of 2020.

• Altor

Kolkata-based deeptech startup Altor has raised an undisclosed amount from Venture Catalysts. Altor, which builds IoT and AI-enabled smart helmets, plans to utilise the current round of funding to optimise the product and to establish a clear market and increase client base, across several geographic locations.

• ClassMonitor

Indore-based edtech startup ClassMonitor has raised an undisclosed amount from angel investor Ashwin Khorana, former CIO of Jana Bank and Megha Venkatesh. This fund raise will be utilised in further team and territory expansion.

• HooLiv

New Delhi based student coliving startup HooLiv has raised an undisclosed amount from the Kolte-Patil Family Office(KPFO). The startup is planning to utilise the funds to hire across the functions as it looks to expand into the newer cities in India.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Titan acquihired Hyderabad-based Hug Innovations. Speaking at a product launch event on Tuesday (February 11), Titan CEO- Watches & Accessories S Ravi Kant said that the Hug Innovations team of 23 employees along with the founder Raj Shekhar Neravati joined Titan on January 1.
• Bengaluru-based home rental startup NestAway has acquired Bengaluru-based apartment management and security solution, ApnaComplex. The acquisition will help NestAwayin fulfilling the apartment ecosystem with end-to-end support by both companies.
• Online insurance policy aggregators Easypolicy and Quickbima have announced the merger of the two companies. Under the agreement of these companies, the merged entity will operate under the brand name of Easypolicy.
• Bengaluru-headquartered real estate platform NoBroker has acquired Gurugram-based Society Connect in an all-cash deal. NoBroker wants to combine efficiencies of Society Connect’s ERP system along with Nobroker’s own visitor and community management app NoBrokerHood. 32 employees of Society Connect will join NoBroker and thus, Society Connect becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of NoBroker.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Bengaluru-based InnovationQore has selected 25 startups as winners for the first cohort of the Turbostart programme. As part of the cohort, selected winners will receive a funding of up to $1 Mn.
• In a bid to support India’s early-stage startup ecosystem, founders of Hyderabad-based venture capital firm, Parampara Capital, have announced the launch of a new fund— Inflexor Technology Fund. The founders are targetting to raise $100 Mn corpus from international investors.
• In a bid to promote the growth of small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India, Facebook announced the launch of the fourth edition of the VC Brand Incubator Initiative in partnership with Sequoia Capital India’s Surge programme.
• Bengaluru-based tech incubator N/Core in partnership with IT company Cisco has announced that it has selected 10 startups for the third cohort of its flagship accelerator programme for nonprofit startups which are alleviating poverty using technology.
• Delhi-based Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), Atal Incubation Centre- BIMTECH (AIC-BIMTECH), Greater Noida; and Huddle Incubator, Gurugram, has launched a sector agnostic program to to create a collaborative support ecosystem for incubation and acceleration of startups.
• Times Bridge, the global investments and partnerships arm of an Indian media company, the Times Group, has participated in $93 Mn Series C funding round of US-based healthtech company Headspace. Headspace said it will use the funding to invest in Headspace Health, an endeavour to integrate mindfulness into healthcare and Headspace for Work, its rapidly-expanding B2B segment.

Stay tuned for the next week edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!