[Funding Galore] From BYJU’s To Licious — Over $1.3 Bn Raised By Indian Startups This Week

After a steep rise of investment in the Indian startup ecosystem, the first week of October, saw a marginal dip in the total funding raised by Indian startups. The Indian startup ecosystem reported total funding of about $1.3 Bn across 42 deals between October 4 to October 9.

This week’s investment was 13% lower than last week’s investment which was $1.5 Bn. However, the ecosystem saw the emergence of three Indian startups entering the unicorn club, thus taking the total unicorns this year to 30. 

The highest investment this week was raised by edtech decacorn BYJU’s. Inc42 exclusively reported BYJU’s $296 Mn (INR 2200 Cr) fundraise from Oxshott Capital Ventures, Edelweiss, Veriton Fund, XN Exponent Holdings among others.

This week, India got its second unicorn crypto unicorn with CoinSwitch Kuber mopping up $260 Mn in its Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16Z) at $1.9 Bn valuation. Ribbit Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm, Tiger Global among others have also participated in the round. The investment also marked the US-based a16z’s first investment in the country.  

The week’s third-biggest investment was raised by foodtech startup Rebel Foods. The Bengaluru-based startup which operates popular food brands such as Behrouz Biryani and OvenStory Pizza bagged $175 Mn at a unicorn valuation of $1.4 Bn valuation from Qatar Investment Authority, Coatque, Evolvence among others.

Rebel’s fundraise came a day after Bengaluru-based gourmet meat startup Licious entered the unicorn club. The startup raised $52 Mn in its Series G round from IIFL AMC’s Late Stage Tech Fund, Avendus FLF (Future Leaders Fund) and other private equity investors.

Here are all the funding rounds disclosed this week:

From The Indian Startup IPOs Desk

IPO-Bound Delhivery Converts Into Public Company

Gurugram-based logistics unicorn Delhivery has converted into a public company. Inc42 on October 6, exclusively reported that Delhivery’s shareholders have approved the conversion of the startup into a public company.

The startup is also splitting its equity shares in a 1:10 ratio. Delhivery is even making amendments to its existing Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOP) to comply with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and SEBI Listing Regulations. The logistics unicorn is aiming for a $1 Bn IPO and is likely to file its draft red herring prospectus this month. 

Paytm’s Employees Convert ESOPs Worth Around INR 346.9 Cr To Shares

IPO-bound One97 Communications which operates digital payments platform Paytm has allotted a total of 18,49,191 equity shares to its 120 employees upon ESOP conversion.  

Inc42 has exclusively reported on October 5 that Paytm has allotted equity shares worth INR 346.9 Cr to its employees for INR 2.7 Cr.

Paytm To Bring Sovereign Funds As Anchor Investors In IPO

Vijay Shekhar Sharma led-Paytm is reportedly in talks with multiple sovereign wealth funds such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (AIDA), Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), and financial investors such as US-based BlackRock and Japan-based Nomura to consider bidding as anchor investors in Paytm’s pre-IPO placement.

IPO-Bound PharmEasy To Rope In New Investors For Its $300 Mn Pre-IPO Round

IPO-bound PharmEasy which is set to file its draft red herring prospectus this month is likely to bring in a new set of investors such as Steadview Capital, IIFL and a US-hedge fund to raise its pre-IPO round worth $300 Mn.

From The Acquisitions Desk

• Mumbai-based content commerce platform Good Glamm Group has acquired D2C mom and baby brand The Moms Co. to further strengthen its growth across South Asia.
• Bengaluru-based Thrasio-styled startup Mensa Brands has acquired a majority stake in 10 D2C brands within six months of launch
• California-based market account engagement platform 6sense has acquired California and Bengaluru-based SaaS market intelligence startup Slinte
• US-based Dairy tech company Dairy.com has acquired a 100% stake in Gurugram-based Mr.Milkman — a dairy supply chain SaaS startup to digitise several areas of the agricultural supply chain in the country.
• IPO-bound Ola has acquired geospatial services provider GeoSpoc to develop location and geospatial technologies and enhance its offerings.
• Bengaluru-based blue and grey collar workforce management startup Betterplace has acquired micro-learning SaaS platform Oust Labs in an all-cash deal. 
• Bengaluru-based Xoxoday has acqui-hired Planetworx team
• Thrasio-style venture firm GlobalBees has acquired andMe, a D2C brand that offers women products across menstrual health, hormonal health, beauty and fitness.

Other Development Of The Week

• Massachusetts, US-based Thrasio, may enter the Indian market with its first local acquisition of Delhi NCR-based home appliances startup Lifelong Online. As per reports, Thrasio is likely to earmark $500 Mn for acquisitions in Indian startups.
• Tata Digital is in talks to raise $5 Bn in an institutional equity round from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, SoftBank Group, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
• Food delivery unicorn Swiggy has announced to hold two ESOP liquidity events in the next two years worth $35 Mn – $40 Mn at its current valuation. The foodtech platform is currently valued at $5.5 Bn.
• Fosun International has received a 6X return upon selling its majority stake in IPO-bound ixigo to US-based Invesco’s Emerging Market Innovators Fund and its existing investor Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC