[Weekly Funding Roundup] Festival lights cast a shadow on funding activity

This week, only four funding deals were announced, with just one late-stage deal.

As Diwali festivities took centre stage this week, there was a sharp drop in the number of funding deals. There were a total of four funding deals during the week ending November 9, of which one late-stage deal – that of Meesho – cornered around 76 percent of the weekly funding with a $50 million round. Overall, this week saw total funding of $65 million across four deals.

Bengaluru-based reselling platform Meesho raised $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Shunwei Capital, DST Partners and RPS Ventures. Existing investors like Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, Venture Highway and Y Combinator also participated in the funding round. The company said it would use the funds to build products, scale its technology team and expand into more categories and scale in domestic and international markets.

Silicon Valley-based Quantela, which also has a presence in India, raised $10 million from Digital Alpha this week. The smart city automation and AI-platform plans to use the funds to expand its market to enable a deeper presence in strategic locations across the US and Europe.

Bengaluru-based digital gaming startup Mobile Premier League (MPL) raised $5 million in its Series A round. Owned by Galactus Funware Technology Private Ltd, MPL runs a gaming platform where users compete in skill-based mobile games in live tournaments.

Hyderabad-based Startoon Labs, which works on developing smart electronic systems used in IoT and robotics, raised an undisclosed amount in its seed round of funding from friends and family.

Bengaluru-based daily task management app Dunzo raised debt funding of $0.96 million from venture debt firm Alteria Capital. Last year, the startup had raised $12.3 million from Google in a Series B round.

While Indian startups lay low in terms of fundraising this week, US-based startup Stelligent Systems LLC garnered some attention when Indian information technology company Mphasis Ltd acquired the cloud automation company in an all-cash deal valued at $25 million.