[Weekly funding roundup] Tiger Global bets big on agritech with Ninjacart

The Indian startup ecosystem raised $282.24 million this week across 16 investments. However, bike-sharing startup Rapido is in the process of raising its $11.2 million Series B funding.

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Leading the funding for the week was Ninjakart with Tiger Global investing $100 million in a Series C round in the B2B agritech startup.

The size of the deal underscores Tiger Global's renewed interest in the Indian startup ecosystem, and in agritech startups, particularly. Founded in 2015, Ninjacart enables a direct link between farmers and end retail outlets through its supply chain technology infrastructure. Delivering around 500 tonnes of fruits and vegetables every day across the cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai, the B2B startup plans to add more number of locations.

Investor Tiger Global has been known for putting the Indian startup ecosystem on the global map, especially with its investment in Flipkart.

Pre-series A and Series A

This week accounted for one undisclosed Pre-Series A deal, and two Series A deals amounting to $38.5 million.

Bengaluru-based e-sports startup Mobile Premier League (MPL) raised $35.5 million in Series A round, led by Sequoia India, Times Internet, and GoVenture. Existing investors RTP Global, Beenext, Base Venture and Venture Highway also participated in the round.

Fintech startup Enkash raised $3 million in Series A round from Mayfield India, and Axilor Ventures. Post the funding round, Vikram Godse, Managing Partner, Mayfield, will be joining Enkash's Board of Directors.

Jaipur-based agritech ecommerce platform FreshoKartz, which allows users to buy products directly from farmers, raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A round, led by Chennai-based investor Sunil Kumar Shinghvi.

Series B

There were four Series B deals amounting to $57.47 million this week. It was a mixed bag including fintech, healthtech, retail automation, and transport aggregators. Sequoia invested in two of them -Vue.ai, and Quick Ride.

Consumer leading platform ZestMoney raised $20 million as a part of its Series B round, led by global fintech investor Quona Capital. Australian fintech investor Reinventure and existing investors Rabbit Capital, Omidyar Network, and PayU also participated in the round.

Healthtech startup mfine announced raising $17.2 million as a part its Series B funding round. The round was led by Japan-based venture capital firm SBI Investment. BEENEXT also participated in the round, along with existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners, and Prime Venture Partners.

Bengaluru-based Quick Ride raised $14.4 million in Series B round of investment from existing partner Sequoia Capital, Naspers, and Venture Highway.

Mad Street Den’s retail automation platform Vue.ai raised $17 million in Series B. The round was led by Falcon Edge Capital. Existing investors Sequoia Capital and Global Brain participated in the round.

Bus aggregator platform Shuttl has raised $5.87 million from a clutch of investors led by Proof.VC as a part of their Series B round. RoC filings accessed by YourStory showed that Sabre Investments, Karun Carpets, Exponential 1 Mobility, Trifecta Capital, and BCCL (Times Internet's parent company) MD Vineet Jain, and Mu Sigma Co-founder and former CEO Ambiga Subramanian also participated in the round.

There was one Series C deal by Ninjacart, which raised $100 million led by Tiger Global.

Others

San-Francisco based B2B startup Harness, which is in the space of continuous delivery-as-a-service, raised $60 million in Series B. The funding round was led by IVP, Google Ventures (GV), and Service Now Ventures. Existing investors Menlo Ventures, and Unusual Ventures also participated in the round. The startup also has its operations Bengaluru.

Online education platform Coursera has raised $103 million in Series E funding. The round was led by Australian Securities Exchange listed SEEK Group. Existing investors Future Fund, and New Enterprises Associates also participated in the round.

UK-based development finance institution CDC Group invested $40 million in BigBasket. This was a part of a bigger round of $150 million that BigBasket is currently raising.

Renewable energy provider CleanMax Solar raised $39.4 million in equity funding from UK Climate Investments.

Tech-driven publishing startup Leadstart Publishing raised $430,000 in a round led by Mumbai Angels Network.

Edtech startup DoubtNut raised $3.3 million in a round led by Surge, early-stage startup accelerator programme by Sequoia India. New investor AET Japan, along with existing investors WaterBridge Ventures, and Omidyar Network India also participated in the round.

Scooter-sharing platform Bounce raised $3 million in debt financing. The round was led by InnoVen Capital. Last month, the company had raised debt funding led by Sachin Bansal.

New-Delhi based health food startup Evolve Snacks raised an undisclosed amount from ITI Growth Opportunities Fund.

Edtech startup Kraftshala raised its first external round from Nandu Nandkishore, Global CEO for Nestle Nutrition, Sarfaraz Khimani, and Pallavi Jain.

IIT Madras-incubated edtech startup GUVI raised its first institutional round of funding from Gray Matters Capital for $143,000.

Exits

This week also saw three exits.

Online classifieds marketplace Quikr acquired Bengaluru-based online marketplace Zefo to further scale its pre-owned goods and services vertical. The statement from Quikr did not reveal the terms of the acquisition.

Zacco India R&D has acquired a 100-percent stake in Coimbatore-based startup Lakhshya Cyber Security Labs in an all-cash deal. The amount of the deal, however, is undisclosed. 

Japanese healthcare venture M3 Inc acquired a majority stake in Bengaluru-based DailyRounds, a mobile and web-based applications for doctors and medical students in India.

Also read: [Funding alert] Fintech startup Enkash raises $3M from Mayfield and Axilor