Funding Galore: From Dream11 To DotPe — $696 Mn Raised By Indian Startups [March 22-27]

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

This week, Dream11’s parent company Dream Sports has raised a $400 Mn secondary investment led by TCV, D1 Capital Partners and Falcon Edge. Tiger Global, ChrysCapital, TPG Growth, Steadview Capital and Footpath Ventures also participated in the round.

Reports last month suggested that existing investors including China’s Tencent Holdings, Kalaari Capital and Multiples Alternate Asset Management among other investors are looking to sell their shares. It is as yet unclear whether these investors have seen an exit from the company.

DotPe Raises Series A From Google

Gurugram-based offline-to-online (O2O) commerce platform DotPe has raised $27.5 Mn funding from Google through its $10 Bn India Digitisation Fund. The Series A round was led by PayU, with participation from Info Edge Ventures, which has doubled its shareholding in the company.

The company plans to use the latest funding to accelerate product development, market expansion and scaling technology to meet the growing demand. “This new partnership will empower businesses (big or small) to be more discoverable, expand business avenues and conduct commerce like never before. Pandemic or not, we are here to reimagine the way offline businesses work and bring the digital revolution to the doorstep of every entrepreneur,” Nag said.

Y Combinator Unveils Its Winter Batch 2021

US-based early-stage startup accelerator programme Y Combinator has unveiled its winter batch of 2021, featuring 350 startups across 41 nations. About 50% of startups in the new batch were based outside of the United States.

India was the second-largest demographic represented in the new batch with over 43 startups. Prior to this, Y Combinator had hosted 25 Indian startups in the winter batch of 2020, 14 in the summer batch of 2020, 12 each in the summer and winter batch of 2019 and one each in the winter batch of 2016, summer batch of 2015 and the winter batch of 2015.

Top Indian Startup Funding Deals This Week

Overall, about $696 Mn was invested in the Indian startup ecosystem across 31 deals.

Note: This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts

Acquisitions In Indian Startup Ecosystem

Unacademy Makes Its Ninth Acquisition

Edtech unicorn Unacademy has made its ninth acquisition this week, by acquiring MBA and CAT test prep platform Handa Ka Funding for an undisclosed amount. Handa Ka Funda has on boarded 20K students so far and aims to reach 1 Lakh students by leveraging free content.

KhataBook Makes First Move Towards Monetisation With SaaS Acquisition

Digital ledger startup Khatabook has acquired a software-as-a-service (SaaS) accounting software Biz Analyst for $10 million in a mix of cash and equity. This is Khatabook’s first acquisition since its inception in 2018. The acquisition will help the company offer premium subscription services such as automatic reconciliation and digital invoicing capabilities to its 8.5 million monthly active merchant partners.

Fund Announcement

• The asset management arm of financial services group IIFL has launched a INR 1,500 Cr ($207 Mn) fund to invest in the pre-initial public offering (IPO) and late-stage rounds of digital businesses. The fund has a green shoe option of around INR 500 Cr ($69 Mn), taking its total size to INR 2,000 Cr ($276 Mn).
• Silicon Valley-based early-stage investor Sequoia Capital has closed its second seed fund at $195 Mn, as a part of its accelerator programme Surge.
• Elevation Capital’s founder and managing director Ravi Adusumalli and Think Investments’ Shashin Shah have partnered to launch a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) for investments in Indian tech startups looking to list in the US in the near future.

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