[Funding Galore] From VerSe Innovation To Doceree — Over $954 Mn Raised By Indian Startups This Week

The beginning of the new financial year FY23 and of the second quarter CY22 marked a 54% week-on-week rise in funding raised by the Indian startup ecosystem. Between April 3 and 9, 2022, the country’s ecosystem has raised $954 Mn across 33 deals.

Last week, Indian startups raised $618 Mn across 41 deals.

Leading this week’s funding was Dailyhunt and Josh’s parent VerSe Innovation’s $805 Mn mammoth round — the highest fundraise amount in CY22 so far. The week also saw six acquisitions, including upGrad completing the acquisition of Talentedge.

120 investors invested in Indian startups this week, of which only Cloud Capital invested in two startups — in fintech Tortoise and deeptech startup OWN.

The Indian Startup Funding Deals Of The Week

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Content optimisation startup Instoried secured a $200 Mn capital commitment from alternative investment firm GEM for its IPO. Instoried will have to file for an IPO within 36 months
• Flipkart internally raised its IPO valuation to $60-$70 Bn. It also plans to list on the US bourses in 2023 instead of 2022

From The Startup Acquisition Desk

• Edtech unicorn upGrad completed the acquisition of higher education startup Talentedge which was announced in December 2021
• Rebel Foods acquired a majority stake in luxury chocolate brand SMOOR, eyeing to grow its revenue by 3X in FY23
• Real estate consultant Anarock acquired a 75% stake in flexible workspace providing startup myHQ, in a cash and stock deal of INR 125 Cr
• MakeMyTrip’s fintech arm TripMoney acquired a majority stake in BookMyForex for an undisclosed amount
• Gupshup acquired Active.Ai, a conversational AI startup used by banks and fintech firms in an all-cash deal
• Raise Financial Services is set to acquire online learning startup Valuationary, in a cash and stock deal

Startup Funds This Week

• IPO-bound Navi Technologies set up a metaverse-based Fund of Funds scheme, the Navi Metaverse ETF FoF of around $300 Mn
• Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners) has launched an eight fund worth $670 Mn to back early-stage startups across consumer tech, consumer brands, fintech, SaaS and Web3 startups
• Aavishkaar Capital raised $130 Mn for the first close of the sixth impact fund, eyeing to close the fund at $200 Mn by the end of 2022
• Early-stage VC fund YourNest Venture Capital’s $75-Mn third fund received $15 Mn from the Indian sovereign fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF)
• Seed-stage VC firm Speciale Invest announced the final closure of its second fund after raising INR 286 Cr to back deeptech and global SaaS startups
• Maharashtra Government announced to create an EV-focused fund to help EV startups to scale operations 
• Growth stage VC firm Beams Fintech Fund completed the first close of its maiden fund at $36 Mn (INR 270 Cr), targeting a corpus of $100 Mn (INR 750 Cr) by CY22
• 100X.VC is planning to invest INR 125 Cr (over $16.5 Mn) in 100 early-stage startups in the next 12 months besides its cohort classes
• Agritech VC firm Omnivore launched its third fund, with a target corpus of $130 Mn (INR 1,000 Cr)

Other Developments From The Indian Startup Ecosystem

• Micro VC fund 100X.VC has unveiled 10 startups that are part of its seventh cohort – Class 07. The list includes fintech startups Zerobalance, ToastApp and GoCrow, cybersecurity startup BugBase, EV OEM Emo Energy, edtech Helppr, D2C startup Pilk, enterprisetech startup Kloudmate, social media Quriverse and petcare brand Papa Pawsome
• Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC is reportedly set to lead a fresh funding round of $200 Mn in CRED, valuing the fintech startup at $6.5 Bn
• Global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has joined hands with AIM, NITI Aayog, AGNIi, FITT, IIT-Delhi and Social Alpha to launch the Pfizer INDovation Program which will back oncology startups in India providing a grant of up to INR 65 Lakhs
• Nazara Technologies is investing $2.5 Mn in US-based gaming fund BITKRAFT Ventures for co-investment opportunities
• Sports fantasy unicorn Mobile Premier League (MPL) is likely to raise funds from crypto exchange FTX, among others, to drive web3 proliferation and adoption in the Indian gaming industry
• SoftBank is reportedly looking to slow down investments globally in 2022.