SUMMARY
The funding round was led by Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Surge and 9Unicorns, with participation from investors such as Aureolis Ventures and Kwaish Ventures
The equity investment was reportedly pegged at around INR 30-35 Cr, while the rest was raised via debt
The startup will use the funding to shore up its product line and ramp up infrastructure development
Bengaluru-based water purifier startup drinkprime
has raised INR 60 Cr in a mix of debt and equity as part of its Series A funding round led by marquee investors such as Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Surge and 9Unicorns.
The round also saw participation from other investors such as Aureolis Ventures, Kwaish Ventures, ZNL Growth Fund Northern Arc Capital, and Unitus Capital.
According to The Economic Times, the equity investment was pegged at around INR 30-35 Cr, while the rest was raised via debt.
The startup will use the funding to shore up its product line and ramp up infrastructure development. It will also use the fresh funds to ‘invest in people‘ and scale up its operations.
“Looking forward to serve more and more customers, solve more problems for them and to bring in innovation, efficiency and scalability in everything we do,” Sanjay Sunku, chief of strategy at DrinkPrime, said.
DrinkPrime, founded in 2015 by Vijender Reddy Muthyala and Manas Ranjan Hota, claims to be a ‘drinking water company’ that offers Internet of Things (IoT)-powered customised water purifiers on subscription to users. The startup leverages IoT to enable a seven-stage filtration process to give its customers access to clean drinking water.
It had last raised INR 21 Cr in a pre-Series A round from Omidyar Network India and Sequoia Surge in 2020.
The startup currently offers its services in seven major cities, including Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and Hyderabad. DrinkPrime claims to have grown by 330% this year so far, and has served 1 Lakh users in seven cities so far.
DrinkPrime competes with the likes of Swajal, OwO, among others, in the nascent space.
Meanwhile, investors continue to pose faith in the country’s burgeoning watertech ecosystem. A report pegged the size of the global market for water and wastewater technologies at $64.4 Bn in 2018, which is projected to soar to $83 Bn by 2023.
In December last year, Gurugram-based water purifier startup OwO raised $3 Mn in a seed funding round. Another Bengaluru-based watertech startup Uravu Labs also raised an undisclosed amount of funding by Speciale Invest.
In February 2021, Swajal raised $1.6 Mn in funding from Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund.
