[Weekly Funding Roundup] Startups raise $56M in equity, venture debt rose by 10X

Venture debt was the flavour of this week as startups chose to raise more debt funding that rose to $100.3 million, compared to just $10 million last week. Equity deals dropped to $56.7 million.

The reason for a gloomy funding week was the absent of an anchor or a mega deal. The amount of $56.7 million was spread across 16 deals of which 12 were early-stage deals. This week also saw a single late-stage deal that cornered $8.1 million.

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Early-stage disclosed deals

B2B ecommerce platform Shopkirana raised $10 million in Series B round of funding from Info Edge, Incubate Fund, Akatsuki AET Fund, NPTK Emerging Asia Fund, and Better Capital. The Indore-based startup will use the fresh funding for expanding the business to 30 Tier-II cities in India. It aims to hit Rs 1,200 crore annual run rate in the next one year.

Delhi-based AVIOM India Housing Finance raised Rs 60 crore ($8.3 million) in Series B round from Gojo & Company, Inc Japan, and Capital 4 Development Asia Fund, Netherlands. With this funding, the housing finance company is planning to venture into the cities of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttaranchal, and Delhi NCR. 

Infra.Market, a Mumbai-based B2B online procurement marketplace for real estate and construction materials, raised $3.5 million in seed round from Accel Partners. 

AI-powered natural language generator (NLG) leader vPhrase raised Series A funding with a $2 million investment by Bharat Innovation Fund and Falcon Edge Capital, at an undisclosed valuation. 

Noida-based study abroad admissions startup AdmitKard raised $1 million in Pre-Series A round led by Australian EdTech fund Growth DNA. The round also saw participation from other investors based out of Australia and India.

Lo! Foods, a Bengaluru-based low carb and keto-friendly range of packaged foods brand, raised $500,000 in a seed funding round, with participation from a clutch of well-known angels. 

Bengaluru-based AI-driven deep tech content startup Instoried, which helps brands predict the emotional impact of their content upon their customers' minds, raised $500,000 in seed round from Venture Catalysts. 

Early-stage undisclosed investments

Startups that raised undisclosed amount in their early-stage funding rounds are retail-focussed tech startup Slingloft, Smart enterprise data platform Resonance, Gurgaon-based product review startup, Mishry.com, Telugu-focused news app Lokal, Mumbai-based online gaming company Global Esports, audio streaming platform Dose FM, and Gurugram-based Bolo Indya.

A lone late-stage deal

EatGood Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the parent of Bengaluru-based, corporate food catering startup Hungerbox, raised $57.9 crore ($8.1 million) as a part of its Series C round from Paytm parent company One 97 Communications and Sabre Partners Trust. 

Other deals

INDwealth, Gurugram-based wealth management platform for HNIs, raised $15 million funding led by Tiger Global. Last November, the team had raised $30 million funding led by Steadview Capital.

With this fund raise, the total funding raised by INDwealth will be at $45 million. The team plans to use the funds to build its AI, technology, R&D, advisory team, and also invest in marketing and customer acquisition programmes. 

Mumbai-based real estate services firm SILA raised Rs 56 crore ($7.80 million) growth capital from Norwest Venture Partners, a growth equity investment firm.

The company said that this round of investment would be used to exit SILA’s early investors and further establish its industry leadership position through strategic investments and acquisitions.

Exits and acquisitions

There was one acqui-hiring this week. Bike taxi startup Rapido acqui-hired Mumbai based Vahanalytics, a data analytics startup that allows organisations to track their vehicle fleet operations.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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