Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Jan 20-25]

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

In one of the biggest funding rounds, Clean energy startup ReNew Power has raised $450 Mn funding through a dollar bond issuance. ReNew Power is planning to use this funding to refinance its previous borrowing, which will be maturing next year. Moreover, $65 Mn of the funding will be used to meet its future capital requirements.

Since its launch, the company has emerged as India’s largest renewable energy producer in terms of total energy generation capacity. In the last three fiscal years, the company has also managed to double its operational capacity.

Overall, 20 startups raised around $972 Mn funding and one acquisition took place in the Indian startup ecosystem this week. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. 1. ReNew Power: $450 Mn
   2. AppsFlyer: $210 Mn
   3. Bounce: $105 Mn
   4. Digit Insurance: $84 Mn
   5. Livspace: $60 Mn
   6. Zoomcar: $30 Mn
   7. Park+: $11 Mn
   8. Samya.AI: $6 Mn
   9. Kristal.AI: $6 Mn
   10. Eupheus: $4.3 Mn
   11. Samosa Singh: $2.7 Mn
   12. Crysta: $1.4 Mn
   13. SmartKarrot: : $1 Mn
   14. Invento Makerspaces: $0.29 Mn
   15. GetVantage: Undisclosed
   16. Pine Labs: Undisclosed
   17. Instoried: Undisclosed
   18. Keito: Undisclosed
   19. Konfinity: Undisclosed
   20. Nupay: Undisclosed

• AppsFlyer

San Francisco-headquartered and Bengaluru-based martech platform AppsFlyer raised $210 Mn Series D funding led by US-based growth equity firm General Atlantic. The round also saw participation from existing investors Qumra Capital, Goldman Sachs Growth, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, Pitango Venture Capital and Magma Venture Partners. The new round will help the company to improve marketing based services.

• Bounce

Bengaluru-based dockless bike rental startup Bounce raised an additional $105 Mn (INR 746.33 Cr) from Accel Partners and B Capital Group. The round also witnessed participation from existing investors such as Sequoia Capital India, Chiratae Ventures, Maverik Ventures, Falcon Edge, Qualcomm Ventures and Omidyar Network India among others. Bounce said the funds raised will help the company to expand its dockless bike rental service to more cities across India and march towards profitability.

• Digit Insurance

Bengaluru-based insurtech startup Digit Insurance has raised $84 Mn funding from A91 Partners, Faering Capital and TVS Capital at a post-money valuation of about $870 Mn. Digit Insurance is planning to use this funding to meet regulatory capital and foreign exposure guidelines that limit the foreign holding of insurance companies to 49%.

• Livspace

Bengaluru-based Livspace has raised $60 Mn in the Series D funding round led by Hong Kong-based venture capital firm Tahoe Investment Group and Singapore-based Mercer Investment. The round also witnessed participation from EDB Investments, Kharis Capital and Venturi Partners’ managing director Nicholas Cator and others. Livspace was founded by Anuj Srivastava, Ramakant Sharma and Shagufta Anurag in 2014. The company offers end-to-end home design experience for homeowners and home designers.

• Zoomcar

Bengaluru-based self-drive car rental platform Zoomcar has raised $30 Mn (INR 213 Cr) in funding led by Sony Innovation Fund, the venture capital wing of electronics giant Sony. The funding round also witnessed participation from existing investors, which is part of Zoomcar’s ongoing $100 Mn Series D funding round.

• Park+

Delhi NCR-based Park+ has raised $11 Mn in funding from marquee VCs — Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners. The funding round also witnessed participation from MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra and cofounder Rajesh Magow; BookMyShow founder and CEO Ashish Hemrajani; CRED founder Kunal Shah; Snapdeal cofounders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal among others. The funds will be utilised for building the platform, raising the supply i.e. discovering and adding more parking spots and getting users to adopt.

• Samya.AI

Bengaluru-based SaaS company Samya.AI has raised $6 Mn seed-stage funding round from Sequoia India. Junglee.com founder and Helion Ventures cofounder Ashish Gupta, G100 Companies partner and former P&G president Deb Henretta, Kradle Ventures and Antuit founder Arijit Sengupta, former Antuit CEO Deborah Kops, MarketsandMarkets founder Sandeep Sugla also participated in this round. Samya.AI says it delivers revenue growth to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands using AI algorithms to address issues.

• Kristal.AI

Kristal.AI has raised $6 Mn funding in Series A round from Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India), and Desai Family Office. Launched in 2016 by Asheesh Chanda and Vineeth Narasimhan, Kristal.AI today works with an entire spectrum of customers. This includes sophisticated funds and family offices as well as mass affluent clients,

• Eupheus

New Delhi-based edtech startup Eupheus Learning raised $4.3 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in its Series A funding round. The investment is a mix of equity and venture debt, which was led by Yuj Ventures. Other investors in the round included Sixth Sense Ventures. The funds will be used to increase nationwide presence, develop new product offerings, and expand the team. The company said it will also start its operations in the Middle East and drive international expansion in other markets.

• Samosa Singh

Bengaluru-based food and beverage startup Samosa Singh has raised $2.7 Mn (INR 17 Cr) in Series A funding round led by women-led startups-focused She Capital. Samosa Singh’s previous investors Fireside Ventures also participated in the round, along with Equanimity Investments, AL Trust, and Japan-based AET Fund. Samosa Singh will use this fund to expand the capacity expansion of its central kitchen, which is located in Bengaluru.

• Crysta

New Delhi-based healthtech startup Crysta has raised $1.4 Mn (INR 10 Cr) Pre-Series A funding round led by the family office of Ruchirans and Anuraag Jaipuria. Mumbai-based Green Shots Capital and Alfa Ventures, Delhi-based Real Time Ventures and NGB Diagnostics, Dubai-based Petrotech, Steel City Securities and a clutch of angel investors also participated in the funding round. The investment will help Crysta in scaling up operations to other cities in India. It will also invest in increasing market reach and technological capabilities.

• SmartKarrot

Texas and Bengaluru-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup SmartKarrot has raised $1 Mn from undisclosed investors in an angel funding round. The company is looking to expand its India presence with the new round of funding.

• Invento Makerspaces

Bengaluru-based robotics startup Invento Makerspaces raised $0.29 Mn (INR 2 Cr) from Windrose Capital and Mumbai based ITI Growth. The company is planning to use the funded amount for research and development in building and innovating new robot variants, business expansion into new industries & verticals.

• GetVantage

Mumbai-based fintech startup GetVantage has raised seed funding to come out of stealth mode. The investment has come in from early-stage investors such as Samyakth Capital and Venture Catalysts. The company didn’t confirm the funding amount, however, sources indicated that it has raised $8 Mn-$10 Mn in cash and debt round.

• Konfinity

Noida-based edtech startup Konfinity has raised an undisclosed amount of fund from US-based curated closed marketplace for startups and investors, AngelList. The funding round also witnessed participation from FirstCheque, mCarbon CEO Rajesh Razdan, Jugnoo ClickLabs CEO Samar Singla, founders of healthtech startup Curofy and Amit Kapoor, faculty at Harvard Business School among others. With this freshly infused capital, Konfinity will expand its services to over 100 colleges across 12 cities in the next six months.

• Pine Labs

Retail payment and hardware company Pine Labs has raised an undisclosed amount from global payments giant Mastercard. With this funding, Pine Labs and Mastercard are expected to extend their partnership to facilitate rapid growth of convenient electronic payment options for consumers across India.

• Instoried

New Delhi based AI-based SaaS startup Instoried has raised undisclosed funding from SOSV and Shanghai-based Chinaccelerator. The startup plans to utilise the funds for global expansion.

• Keito

Pune-based SaaS startup Keito raised an undisclosed amount of funding led by Pune based Suma Soft Pvt Ltd. Keito is an enterprise artificial intelligence(AI) and productivity-focused startup. The funds will be utilised for scaling, improving current products, introducing new products, customer acquisition, and strengthening the fundamentals for consistent, and sustainable growth.

• Nupay

Neobanking startup Nupay has raised an undisclosed amount of funds from Venture Catalysts. The funding round also saw the participation of many leading angel investors, including the likes of Navin Puri, ex-country head branch banking, HDFC Bank and Vishwadeep Bajaj, CEO and founder of ValueFirst. Nupay aims to utilise the funds towards geographical expansion and product optimization.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Bengaluru-based Zomato has acquired Uber Eats’ food delivery business in India for $350 Mn, the Indian food delivery giant has announced. After this acquisition, Uber Eats’ will continue to remain a separate brand. However, customers will be automatically redirected to Zomato, giving the Indian food aggregator access to almost 50-55% of the market.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Noida-based Info Edge (India) Ltd, the parent company of online job listing platform Naurkri has launched an INR 100 Cr IE Venture Fund. The fund is sponsored through Smartweb Internet Services Ltd, a wholly-owned company of Info Edge.
• Cloud data services provider NetApp announced the graduation of its fifth cohort as part of its acceleration programme, NetApp Excellerator. The five technology startups, which graduated from the programme are CloudSEK, Senseforth.ai, Lightwing, Coralogix and Curl Analytics.
• Gurugram-headquartered wealth management platform INDwealth is now raising its Series C funding round, after barely one and a half years of starting operations. The company is raising $12 Mn in the current round of funding from existing and new investors.
• Mydala founder and former CEO Anisha Singh has launched an early-stage venture capital fund, She Capital, to facilitate fundraising for Indian women entrepreneurs.
• Japanese financial services company Credit Saison has decided to create a loan book of $1 Bn in India over the next few years with a special focus on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector. Flagging off the initiative, Credit Saison announced a partnership with an India non-banking financial company (NBFC) Capital Float.
• Realty firm Embassy Group is planning to foray in coliving space with an investment of INR 1000 Cr by 2021. The Bengaluru-based group will operate the coliving business under a separate firm called Olive.
• Global machine connectivity solution company Skylo has raised $103 Mn in Series B funding round led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Global.
• American multinational investment bank JP Morgan and UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) have committed $15 Mn to fintech accelerator Catalyst Fund to back 30 startups across the globe.
• Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal seems to be putting everything at stake for the success of his new venture Navi Technologies. According to reports, he is likely to invest all the proceeds from the sale of his stake in Flipkart into the financial services company.
• Bengaluru-based tech and service company G7CR Technologies has announced the launch of the ‘SSB 360 programme’ in partnership with global tech giant Microsoft. The programme provides opportunities for startups and small enterprises to receive benefits of up to $3 Mn.
• Sequoia Capital, the most active VC in the Indian startup ecosystem last year, may soon be about to launch a $1.25 Bn fund for India, which would be the largest venture fund for Indian startups to date.
• California-based logistics automation platform LogiNext has raised $39 Mn funding from US-based marquee investors Tiger Global Management and Steadview Capital. LogiNext is planning to use this Series B funding to expand its presence outside India and into New York, London and Sydney.

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