[Weekly Funding Roundup] Startups raise $101.6M; NBFC Kogta Financial leads with $42.25M Series C round

Like last week, this week's funding activity was also devoid of venture debt deals. Of the $101.6 million, five late-stage deals raised $80.1 million.

Saturday October 12, 2019 , 5 min Read

After a surge last week, October that saw startups raising equity funding of $474.6 M, the Indian startup ecosystem raised only $101.6 million this week.

This was spread across 16 deals, including six early-stage deals, five late-stage deals and five other deals.

Like last week, this week's funding activity was also devoid of venture debt deals. While the late-stage deals raised $80.1 million, the balance amount was raised through early-stage and other deals.

Deal of the week

Kogta Financial, a retail non-banking financial company (NBFC), raised Rs 300 crore ($42.25 million) in its Series C round, led by Creador IV LP along with Morgan Stanley Private Equity. Founded in 1996, Kogta offers financing for used and new commercial vehicles, cars and tractors, along with loans to MSME segment. The Jaipur-based NBFC operates 105 branches across eight states in central and west India, serving over 30,000 active customers.

Early-stage funding

Social commerce startup DealShare raised $11 million in its Series A round of funding led by Matrix Partners India and Falcon Edge Capital. The round also saw participation from partners of DST Global, Omidyar Network India, and few leading angel investors. The company said that the funds will be utilised for city expansion, developing artificial intelligence-based solutions, and indigenous logistics network.

San Francisco and Bengaluru-based firm, Hevo Data, an automated unified data platform that helps companies understand their users and customers better, raised $4 million in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital’s Surge Venture and Chiratae Ventures. By using Hevo, companies can build a 360-degree view of their customers, by combining data from multiple disparate data sources and applications including sales CRM, advertising channels, marketing tech, financial system software, and customer support products.

Neo banking startup, Juno raised $3 million seed funding led by Sequoia Capital and Polychain Capital. Dragonfly Capital, Consensys Labs, Astarc Ventures, Jitendra Gupta, and Nitin Sharma, and others, also participated. The company plans to use the funds to expand its team in Bengaluru and Singapore.

CleanseCar, a startup in the vehicle services space, raised $2 million. Currently operating in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, and Gurgaon, with 20,000-plus monthly subscribers, the startup looks to expand its business in these cities. The investors who participated in the round were Haldiram’s Family Office, (Vevek Ventures Investments Pvt Ltd), Dr Apoorv Ranjan Sharma (Founder, Venture Catalysts), Dhianu Das (Alfa Ventures), Karan Kumar (Founder, Amalthea Capital), Rahul Bothra (CFO, Swiggy) and others.

Mumbai-bassed Neuroleap, a brain enhancement and mental health venture, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Rajashree Birla, Chairperson, Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, and Sminu Jindal, MD, Jindal Saw, and Founder Chairperson, Svayam.

Specialised winter wear brand Kosha raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from a clutch of individual and financial investors including Tres Monos Capital and Narendra Hiranandani, Founder of Enhira Software. Kosha, which was launched in 2017 by Yuktie Jhangiani, offers technically designed garments ideal for adventure travel and fashionable trench coats, accessories and sweaters.

Late-stage deals

Melorra, a Bengaluru-based jewellery brand, raised $12 million funding from VC Lightbox, BlackSoil Capital and family offices of some of India’s biggest business houses. These include Ravi Sheth's Great Eastern Shipping Company, the Burmans of Dabur, Rainmaker Ventures, and the Jeejeebhoy family office. The Series C funding will be used to improve Melorra’s technological capabilities, increase brand visibility, and expand its employee base.

Greytip Software Private Limited, which operates HR automation and payroll product GreytHR, raised Series C funding of $4.8 million (Rs 34.5 Cr) from Info Edge. The round also saw participation from existing investor MegaDelta Capital. As part of the deal, Info Edge has come on board as a new investor. Lincoln International were the exclusive advisors to this fundraise round.

BASIX Sub-K iTransactions Limited, a Hyderabad-based fintech company focussed on financial inclusion, has raised Series C round of Rs 75 crore ($10.5 million) from Maj Invest, a Denmark-based asset management company. Sub-K plans to utilise the funds for product innovation and strengthening the IT platform that would position the company as a preferred fintech as well as a distribution partner for banks and financial institutions.

Global tea brand Vahdam Teas raised Rs 75 crore ($10.5 million) in its Series C round of funding led by consumer fund Sixth Sense Ventures. A cluster of reputed family offices and HNIs including Mankind Group Family office, Infosys Founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, SAR Group Family office, Zomato Co-founder Pankaj Chaddah, Urmin Group Family office, etc., also invested in the company.

Other deals

Online discovery platform Smytten raised $1.5 million in a funding round from existing investor Roots Ventures. The Gurugram based firm plans to use the fresh funds to scale up, product innovation and building multiple touchpoints for brand discovery.

Vahan Inc., a Bengaluru-based AI startup, which was a part of the latest batch of Y Combinator, raised a fresh round of undisclosed funding from Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, and Pioneer Fund. The startup plans to use the funds to hire talent across engineering, products, sales, marketing, and operations.

Sattuz raised an undisclosed amount from Indian Angel Network, a pioneer in the seed and early-stage investing. Owned and operated by Gorural Foods & Beverages, the Bihar-based brand is facilitating improved access to the goodness of foods and beverages of rural India for the global consumer base comprising new-age, health-conscious individuals.

Bollywood singer Sukhbir Singh has invested an undisclosed amount in Noida-based coworking and managed office space provider Nukleus. As part of the deal, Sukhbir Singh will join the advisory board of the startup as an active member.

Bengaluru-based location intelligence platform GeoIQ has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from IP Ventures. Founded in 2018 by Devashish Fuloria (CEO), Tusheet Shrivastava (CTO) and Ankita Thakur (Chief Data Scientist), GeoIQ has over 25 clients across retail and logistics including Sanofi, Eko Financial, Bounce, Curefit, etc.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)