[Weekly Funding Roundup] Urban Clap tips the scales with $50 M Series D round

The last week of November more than made up for the rest of the month. Funding raised totalled $140 million across 25 deals that were well spread out across stages. A handful of exits rounded off the week ended Friday. 

UrbanClap raises $50 million Series D funding led by Steadview Capital and Vy Capital 

Hyperlocal marketplace for home services UrbanClap raised equity funding of $50 million, led by Steadview Capital and Vy Capital. In addition, there was secondary ESOPs and angel investors stock liquidation of $4 million. The founders' stake wasn’t diluted in this round of funding. The company’s other investors include Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Ratan Tata. The funds raised will be deployed for service partner onboarding, invest in team building, accelerate customer growth.

Drivezy raises $20 million in Series B, $100 million in asset financing 

Bengaluru-based vehicle sharing marketplace Drivezy raised $20 million in a Series B round. It also secured $100 million in an asset financing deal under which the company will induct more than 50,000 vehicles. The round was led by existing investor Das Capital. Other investors who participated in the round include Yamaha Motor Co Ltd, Axan Partners and IT-Farm. Drivezy plans to use the funds raised to expand its fleet and geographic presence.

Vedantu raised $11 million Series B led by Omidyar Network and Accel Partners 

Bengaluru based e-learning platform Vedantu announced last Saturday that it had Series B funding of $11 million led by Omidyar Network and Accel Partners. The funds will be deployed for expansion and deeper penetration across Tier II and Tier III cities. Vedantu currently focusses on school students across Class 6 to 12. It plans to use the funding raised to enter the GMAT and GRE preparations space.

The company, founded in 2014, plans to use the funding for tech development to make sessions more personalised, and track aspects of learning like a student’s attention span and understanding of concepts - all using machine learning, AI and facial recognition.

Freyr Energy raises $3.8 million in Series A funding 

Hyderabad-based rooftop solar startup Freyr Energy raised Rs 27 crore in Series A funding led by C4D Partners, a Netherlands-based Impact Investment Fund. The investment was a mix of equity and debt and will be utilised to strengthen the technology platform, as well as the sales and marketing networks.

Veerloop raises $3 million from IDFC Parampara Fund 

Bengaluru-based SaaS customer engagement automation provider Verloop raised $3 million in a Series A funding round, led by IDFC Parampara Fund. The money is likely to be used for tech development to improve customer engagement and to expand the team overseas.

Niramai raises $7 million funding led by Ankur Capital and existing investors 

Non-invasive breast cancer screening startup Niramai raised $7 million, led by Ankur Capital and existing investors. Founded in 2016 by Geetha Manjunath and Nidhi Mathur, the company uses a non-invasive form of risk assessment using big data, AI and ML.

The Souled Store raises $3 million

Pop culture merchandise marketplace The Souled Store raised $3 million in a round led by RP-SG Ventures, backed by the Sanjiv Goenka Group. The company plans to use the capital to strengthen is backend operations, marketing and launching new product lines. It also plans to build an offline presence. Abhishek Goenka, Head of RP-SG Ventures, will join the board of The Souled Store.

Early-stage funding

Information security risk management startup CloudSEK raised Rs 14 crore ($2 million) in a Pre-Series A round led by Exfinity Venture Partners and StartupXseed. The SaaS-based company will deploy the funds to evolve its flagship product XVigil, a unified risk management platform. CloudSEK, which uses AI and ML to power its cybersecurity platform, will also use the funds to expand its footprint in India and Southeast Asia.

Medical tourism startup Hospals raised $1.5 million Pre-Series A funding led by Spiral Ventures and Venture Catalysts. Founder Danish Ahmed had earlier co-founded ecommerce site Yebhi.com and has also served as VP at Paytm. The company said it would use the funds to accelerate its growth towards $10 million GMV by the year-end.

Other early-stage funding

In Fintech, Lendbox raised $850,000 led by IvyCap Ventures, while Paymatrix, raised $100,000 led by SucSeed Venture Partners.

HR-tech player Hush raised funding of $637,000, led by Accel Partners. DreamVu, Clinical Nutrition, and Perspectico also raised undisclosed pre-Series A funding rounds.

Exits this week

Japanese company NTT Data announced earlier this week that it had acquired a majority stake in Mumbai-based IT services company ATOM Technologies.

Bengaluru-based dockless bike sharing startup Bounce acquired Chinese bike-sharing unicorn Ofo’s India assets. Bounce had raised debt funding in September this year and is reportedly in talks to raise another $10 million in funding.

Times Internet’s Dineout made its third acquisition by acquiring Pune-based restaurant management software provider Torqus. Dineout had acquired Gourmet Passport, an app for best food deals, in 2018 and restaurant management and food delivery system inResto in 2015.