[Weekly funding roundup] BigBasket is India’ newest 'unicorn', the second this year

The last month of financial year 2018-19 saw two startups join the coveted 'unicorn' club - the first was logistics company Delhivery, followed by online grocery platform BigBasket.

The final week of the fiscal saw the Indian startup ecosystem raising total funding of $469 million across 14 deals. The week saw two big-bang rounds – that of BigBasket which announced it was raising $150 million from its largest stakeholder Alibaba and new investors Mirae Asset and CDC Group, and Delhivery, which raised $413 million from SoftBank, Fosun and Carlyle Group.

Also read: BigBasket joins the 'unicorn' club with $150M in fresh funding from Alibaba, others

Early stage deals

There were five pre-Series A rounds this week, of which three were for undisclosed amounts. The remainder two together raised $8.3 million.

Interior design brand Bonito Designs raised $6.3 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by early stage strategic investment fund Tomorrow Capital.

Ecommerce application in Indian languages Bulbulshop raised Rs 14.05 crore (around $2.03 million) led by 10XF, a Mauritius-headquartered entity connected to Sequoia Capital, with participation from Leo Capital and its founder, Rajul Garg, Sequoia Capital India Trust and Mohan Krishna Lakhamraju.

The  undisclosed rounds were raised by edtech startups iChamp and eShiksha, and venue aggregation marketplace Venuelook.

iChamp's funding was led by Raju Shukla, CEO of Singapore-based Ariana Investment Management, with participation of existing investors, the co-founders of Adda52, Anuj Gupta and Mohit Agarwal.

eShiksha received investment from Mentor Capital while Venulook's funds came from Crayon Data Co-founder Srikant Sastri, TPG Capital’s Shailesh Rao, Convonix Founder Vishal Sampat, and Banyan Capital Advisors Managing Partner VP Rajesh.

New Street Technologies, a Bengaluru-based blockchain startup, raised $2 million in seed funding from Unitures and a clutch of individual investors.

Series A and B see five deals

Bus aggregator Shuttl raised Rs 49.99 crore (around $7.2 million) from Sequoia Capital, SCI Investments, Lightspeed India Partners and Times Internet this week as part of its Series B round.

Jaipur-based non-banking finance company Finova Capital also raised funds in its Series B round. The NBFC raised $15 million from Faering Capital, along with participation from existing investor Sequoia Capital.

B2B platform for custom manufacturing Bengaluru-based Zetwerk raised $9 million in a Series A round from Accel Partners, and existing investors Sequoia Capital and Kae Capital.

Online real estate investment platform Property Share raised close to $2 million in a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. According to filings with the Registrar of Companies, Beenext Singapore, Pravaga Ventures Trust and a clutch of other investors also participated in the round.

Delhi and Singapore-based OxfordCaps raised $8 million in a Series A round led by Times Internet and existing investors Kalaari Capital and 500 Startups. The student accommodation provider will use the funds for expansion.

Other deals

E-sports platform GamingMonk raised $100,000 from Japanese media company GameWith this week, and the Delhi-based startup said it will use the funds for product development, team building and brand marketing.

The week saw one debt funding deal. Student housing company Stanza Living raised $4.4 million in debt funding from Alteria Capital. Founded in 2017, the Delhi-based startup claims to have scaled its business by 7x since last year.

Acquisitions and funds launched

In another note, Walmart-owned-Flipkart announced the launch of its venture fund to back early-stage startups. Media reports indicate the fund would be between $6 million and $100 million. Flipkart will focus on fintech, payments and other complementary sectors, investing $2 million to $3 million in each startup, reports suggest.

On the acquisitions front, ride-hailing giant Uber confirmed it had acquired Dubai-based Careem in a combined cash and convertible deal worth $3.1 billion, stated media reports. Back home,Food supply chain startup WayCool Foods and Products acquired significant stake in Chennai-based Benani Foods. WayCool bought the shareholdings of angel investors, including TVS Electronics.

Also read: WayCool Foods acquires Benani Foods, enters ready-to-cook segment