Funding roundup: Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, Google dominate funding scene

As we move towards the end of 2017, and ready to welcome 2018, Silicon Valley biggies made a splash in the Indian startup ecosystem. Google made news this week with its first direct investment in personal concierge app Dunzo.

As speculations were rife on why Google chose to invest in Dunzo, Facebook’s co-founder Eduardo Saverin made his first bet in the Indian startup ecosystem with Mswipe.

Apart from these, this week has been interesting in terms of funding. Nine startups raised funding, and most were high ticket ones. The key fund raises of this week include:

Dunzo gets $12.3 million funding from Google

Bengaluru-based personal concierge app Dunzo raised Series B funding from Google. This is the search giant’s first direct investment in India. The round also saw participation from Dunzo’s existing investors – Aspada Investments and Blume Ventures.

The deal was under Google’s Next Billion Users (NBU) push. Founded in 2015 by Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri and Mukund Jha, Dunzo is a daily task-management app that helps prioritise tasks using a mix of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human operators.

Facebook Co-founder Eduardo Saverin leads $10 million funding in MSwipe

PoS merchant acquirer Mswipe announced it had closed its Series-D round of above $40 million with the latest funding, believed to be around $10 million, from Facebook’s co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s investment fund B Capital. With the investment, Eduardo will join Mswipe’s Board, and work closely with the company as it enters its next phase of growth.

The company had raised $31 million in June this year.

Other investors who participated in the Series-D funding include UC-RNT Fund, Matrix Partners India, and Falcon Edge Capital.

The Label Life raises $3.1 million funding led by Kalpavriksh PE

The Label Life, an internet-first lifestyle brand offering contemporary fashion, accessories and home décor, garnered Rs 20 crore in funding from Kalpavriksh, Centrum’s PE fund. The company’s investors include Mithun Sacheti, Co-founder of CaratLane; and Haresh Chawla. Founded in November 2015, The Label Life retails products styled by Sussanne Khan, Malaika Arora and Bipasha Basu.

Happay raises $10 million Series B funding

The Bengaluru-based expense management platform has raised $10 million Series B funding. The round was led by Sequoia Capital and Jerry Yang’s fund. News reports confirmed that with this fund raising, Happay has been valued at $55 million.

Founded in 2012, Happay is a business expense management solution that streamlines an organisation’s expense workflow. It is an end-to-end solution that takes care of expense management to reporting and gives real-time visibility and control over business spending.

Flintobox raises $7 million Series A funding

Early education company Flintobox has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Lightbox, with participation from existing investors. A press release from the company said it had turned profitable, and aims to reach Rs 40 crore in revenue this year. Launched in September 2013 by Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijay Babu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam, who experienced the lack of quality early education in India, Flintobox aims to change the way children learn and play by focusing on holistic development at their two primary spaces of learning — home and preschool.