[Weekly Funding Roundup] A new unicorn emerges as Indian startups raise $220M this week

The third week of June saw funding action back in the Indian startup ecosystem. This week, the startups raised close to $220 million in equity funding across 13 deals. 

This is a whopping 458 percent growth from last week when only $39.4 million was raised in equity funding. While eight out of the 13 deals were early stage, their total value contributed a mere 6.7 percent of the amount raised. 

ALSO READ

[Weekly Funding Roundup] Indian startups raise only $39.4M; Facebook debuts startup investment ...

This week also saw SME lending startup Lendingkart raise debt funding worth $11.47 million.

Growth capital took centre stage with the ecosystem seeing close to four Series B and C deals, which together contributed to $205 million to the total deal flow.

Deal of the week

This week marked the entry of a new unicorn, as US-based Druva Inc., which has operations in Pune, raised $130 million in a round led by Viking Global Investors.

Other new and existing investors also participated in this round, which took the valuation of the company above $1 billion. The cloud data protection and management startup plans to use using the capital to fuel growth and global expansion, as well as drive new product innovations.

Growth capital taking centre stage

Online payments solution provider Razorpay raked in one of the biggest funding amount this week. The Bengaluru-based startup raised $75 million as a part of its Series C round, led by new investors Ribbit Capital and Sequoia India with participation from existing investors Tiger Global Management and Y Combinator. 

Next was Bounce, which raised $72 million in a Series C round led by B Capital, Falcon Edge, Accel Growth Fund, Maverick, and Qualcomm. Existing investor Sequoia Capital, IDG, Omidyar, and Accel Partners too invested in this round. The ride-hailing and urban transportation startup aims to use the capital to scale its teams, technology, and supply to touch one million daily rides.

Bengaluru-based API development platform Postman completed its Series B round worth $50 million, led by CRV and Nexus Venture Partners.

This week, India Alternatives Investment Advisors Ltd said that it had invested $8 million for a significant minority stake in Brinton Pharmaceuticals Limited.

Early-stage deals

Biryani delivery startup Biryani By Kilo (BBK) raised Series A funding of $5 million led by IvyCap Ventures. The food brand stated that it will use the capital to expand its geographic presence across West and North India, and to improve its platform, product, and technology.

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Active.Ai raised $3 million in an extended Series A round from Innocells, the innovation hub and corporate venturing arm of Spanish banking group Banco Sabadell. Existing investors Kalaari Capital, Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India), and Vertex Ventures also participated in the round.

Bengaluru-based Wysa raised about $2 million (Rs 15 crore) in a pre-Series A round led by pi Ventures, with participation from Kae Capital and other investors. The AI-based mental health startup plans to use this funding to further strengthen its technology and for expansion.

This week, education-focussed fintech company Finwego raised $1.7 million in its seed round from SAIF Partners. A group of HNIs and angels also participated in its Pre-Series A round.

Bengaluru-based SwitchOn raised $1 million seed funding led by pi Ventures. The edge-AI enabled industrial IoT firm will use the capital to strengthen its edge-compute architecture, expand its team, and increase market adoption in India, and other countries in the EU and APAC region.

Additionally, HRTech startup Kredily raised $750,000; online financial planning startup CapitalQuotient reportedly raised $600,000; digital platform for the chemical industry Chemarc.com raised $861,690.

Other deals

This week, Singapore-based skills verification startup Indorse raised $6.5 million from Brand Capital, the ad-for-equity investment arm of The Times Group. 

California and Bengaluru-based Jovian also raised $450,000 led by Arka Venture Labs.

On the other end, news and local language content platform Dailyhunt said that it has acquired LocalPlay, a hyperlocal video content and news content application. The acquisition is a part of the Bengaluru-based company’s aggressive strategy to attract new users in Tier II, III and IV Indian towns and villages.

ALSO READ

[Weekly Funding Roundup] Indian startups raise $111M; Gmail creator, YouTube Founder come calli...