[Weekly funding roundup] After a slump last week, funding crossed $150M with fintech emerging as investors' favourite

This week, Indian startups raised a total of $167 million in equity across 17 deals. The amount is almost three times of last week when Indian startups raised a mere $58 million in funding. Early-stage deals contributed about 33 percent of the total equity deal amount while the rest was contributed by PE, late-stage deals and other deals. A total of $14.75 million was raised as debt funding this week across four deals. 

Deal of the week

Chennai-based non-banking financing company (NBFC) Five Star Business Finance Limited (Five Star) raised $50 million in a funding round led by existing investor TPG Capital. The company’s first investor, Matrix Partners India, is still an investor in the company along with its existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia, and Morgan Stanley.

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Five late-stage deals

Mumbai-based supply chain solutions provider LEAP India raised $31.3 million in a Series C round led by private equity firm TVS Capital Funds. Other existing investors Sixth Sense Venture Fund, Samena Capital, Mayfield, and IndiaNivesh Fund, among others, also participated in the round.

B2B payments startup PayMate raised an undisclosed amount in its Series D round from Recruit Strategic Partners, the venture capital arm of Japanese firm Recruit Co. Ltd., Brand Capital, and payments behemoth Visa. Existing investor Mayfair 101 also participated in this round.

Fintech startup Zeta secured an undisclosed amount as a part of its Series C investment from partner Sodexo. The round values Zeta at about $300 million. With this new capital, the startup will look at expanding its business in global markets including the US, UK, Europe, as well as Southeast Asia.

Industry-specific B2B lender Indifi raised $21.32 million in its Series C round led by CDC Group. Existing investors Omidyar Network, Elevar Equity, and Accel India Ventures also participated in the round. 

Online insurance aggregator platform Coverfox raised $5.79 million from its existing investors as a part of its ongoing Series C funding round. The Mumbai-based company has issued shares to investors such as International Finance Corporation, Aegon Digital Investments, Transamerica Ventures, Accel India, and SAIF Partners.

Eight early-stage deals

Palo Alto- and Mumbai-based fintech firm Drip Capital raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Accel with participation from existing investors Sequoia India, Wing VC, and Y Combinator. New investors in this round included US-based GC1 Ventures as well as institutional investor platform Trusted Insight. 

Electric vehicle startup SmartE raised $14.4 million as a part of its Series B round of funding from Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. With this funding, the company is looking to rapidly increase its fleet size within Delhi-NCR as well as other key cities around the country.

Augmented reality technology startup PlayShifu raised Series A funding of $7 million, led by Chiratae (formerly IDG Ventures India), Inventus Capital, and Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF). Existing investor IDFC-Parampara Fund also participated in the round.

Bengaluru-based credit card bill payment startup Cred raised $4 million from Sequoia Capital India and Workex Solutions & Services Pvt. Ltd, a digital recruitment startup raised $4 million in its Series A funding.

Hyderabad-based Cellestial E-Mobility raised $200,000 in its first round of investment from angel investor Meka Sudhakar Reddy.

Pune-based exam preparation platform Pariksha raised Rs 4 crore in a Pre-Series A round led by incubator and accelerator platform Venture Catalysts (VCats).

Mumbai-based NBFC peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform PaisaDukan raised an undisclosed amount in its second round of funding from JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation (JIIF).

Other deals of the week

New Delhi-based ecommerce company Snapdeal raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Anand Piramal, Executive Director of the Piramal Group.  

This investment has been made by Anand in his personal capacity. 

Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal invested Rs 25 crore in Chaitanya India Finance, a Bengaluru-based micro-finance company run by Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Developments Services.

Indonesia-based beauty startup Raena raised a $1.82 million in a seed round. California-based AI analytics startup Pyze raised $4.6 million in funding.  

Singapore-based retinal diagnostic startup Leben Care also raised funds this week in an angel round.

Finally, TVS Motor Company announced, as a part of its BSE filings, that it has signed a definitive agreement with New York-based Scienaptic Systems Inc to invest $7 million in the latter’s Series-A funding. 

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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