[Weekly Funding Roundup] Indian startups raise around $148M, Sachin Bansal invests $32M in Ather

The Indian startup ecosystem raised $148.1 million of equity funding across 17 deals in the last week of May, a strong pickup from the previous week’s $45.6 million.

While more than half of the deals were either Pre-Series A or Series A, these only accounted for 16 percent - $24.3 million - of the total funding.

This week was dominated by two deals:

Electric scooter startup Ather Energy raised $51 million led by Sachin Bansal, Co-founder of Flipkart, and BAC Acquisitions, who pumped in $32 million in this round. As an angel investor, he invested $500,000 in the startup in 2015. The Bengaluru-based company is now looking to scale to 30 cities by 2023.

Chennai-based Samunnati, a non-banking financial company (NBFC), closed its Series D funding raising $55 million. The round was led by Nuveen, the investment management arm of TIAA. Existing investors Elevar Equity, responsAbility, and Accel Partners also participated in this funding round. The company will utilise the latest funds to scale up its current book size and expand into new geographies.

Early-stage funding gains interest

Eight of the total 17 deals this week were Pre-Series A, including two undisclosed. Startups managed to raise around $5.5 million, primarily contributed by deep tech startup Agara Labs, which raised $2.5 million from Blume Ventures and Russian VC fund RTP Global.

Delhi-based social travel platform Airblack raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by SAIF Partners. With this funding, the team plans to launch its consumer product, ramp up its traveller community base, and hire a core team.

Web-based video creation startup Rocketium raised $716,900 as a part of its Pre-Series A round, led by India-based early-stage investment platform 1Crowd. The funds will predominantly be used for marketing and expanding the product globally, product development, and introducing newer features on their platform.

Mumbai-based @, a social media marketing startup, raised $330,000 through a consortium of marquee angel investors, including Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal. The startup said that this round of investment will enable it to build further capabilities on its technology platform. 

Prop-tech startup, Zaasna, raised $286,670 in a seed round of funding from global investors in Singapore, Middle East, and the US. The Bengaluru-based company aims to utilise the funds to strengthen its tech platform, provide enhanced services to its consumers, and grow its team.

Hyperhire, a B2B HR solutions platform received seed funding of $200,000 from Seoul-based early-stage venture capital firm SpringCamp, supported by the Korean government.

Four companies raised Series A funding, accounting for $18.7 million of the total.

Bengaluru-based meat delivery startup FreshToHome raised $11 million in its Series A round led by CE Ventures. The funding will be used to strengthen its sourcing supply chain by extending the company’s patent pending sourcing technology to fishermen and farmers across India.

Lifelong Online, a Gurugram-based consumer durables startup, raised $5.7 million in its Series A round, led by Singapore-headquartered Tanglin Venture Partners. The company plans to use the funding to increase investments in design, product development, and scaling of its manufacturing capabilities, while expanding the brand’s product portfolio.

Bengaluru-based Homescreen Network (HSN), a vernacular digital media venture, raised $2 million in its Series A round from SAAMA Capital. The company aims to use the funds to strengthen its content delivery platform and introduce new languages in the coming year.

Data science startup TheMathCompany raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A round from entrepreneur and venture capitalist Arihant Patni. The Bengaluru and Chicago-based company will use the capital to expand its footprint globally, build next-generation platforms, and enhance its customer experience.

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Other deals

Craft beer brand Bira 91 raised close to $4.3 million as a part of its pre-Series C round from Sixth Sense Ventures India. This fiscal year, Bira 91 is focussing on expanding its current production capacity in India to two million.  

Bengaluru-based social commerce startup GlowRoad secured $11.5 million in its Series B+ round, less than two months after its last round. South Korea-based Korea Investment Partners (KIP) and Singapore-based Vertex Ventures invests in this round.

FreshVnF, a Mumbai-based agritech startup, raised $2 million in led by Equanimity Ventures. Ahmedabad-based GVFL (Gujarat Venture Finance Limited) and non-executive Vice Chairman of Asian Paints Limited Manish Choksi, through his family office, also participated in the round.

Acquisitions of the week

Print retail chain Printo acquired Inkmonk, the custom print products online marketplace. With this acquisition, Printo is now poised to become the country's largest digital printing firm.

Gurugram-based home diagnostics service provider Healthians, backed by cricketer Yuvraj Singh, has entered Mumbai and Pune with the acqui-hire of the owner and operator of a B2B diagnostic logistic service provider, Healthy Labs. As part of the deal, all Healthy Labs employees, including founder Nikhil Jadhav, will join Healthians.

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