[Weekly Funding Roundup] Startups raised $53.3M, a drop of 75.8 pc from last week

This week, startups raised $53.3 million in equity funding, down 75.8 percent as compared to last week's $220.7 million. Three venture debt deals were also signed that saw startups raising a total of $6.1 million.

While two late-stage deals raised $2.1 million, 17 early-stage deals raked in a total of $45.1 million. The balance was cornered by one growth-stage deal.

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Deal of the week

PayU co-founder Jitendra Gupta’s latest venture, Digifin raised $24 million in an early-stage round from Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Greyhound Capital, 3One4 Capital, Rocket Internet, BeeNext, and Tanglin Venture Partners. The company operates under Amica Financial Technologies.

Early-stage deals

Exam preparation startup Gradeup this week said it had received $7 million in Series A funding from Times Internet. This is the second fundraise for Gradeup, taking the total funds raised by the startup to $10 million. Gradeup will use the funds to enhance its technology and product capabilities, diversify offerings, and scale its academic team.

Online learning platform Adda247 raised Series B funding of $6 million led by Infoedge (India) Ltd and Asha Impact. STL, a current investor of Adda247, also participated in the latest round. With this round, Adda247 has raised a total of $10 million of funds to date.

Delhi-based healthcare platform BeYouPlus raised $3.2 million in its Series A funding round, led by IvyCap Ventures. The round also saw participation from Madison Capital and Singapore Angel Network, among others.

SafeHouse Technologies, that focusses on mobile-first cybersecurity, raised $2.2 million in a seed funding round led by Barclays UK Ventures, the venture capital business unit of British multinational financial services group Barclays.

Residential proptech startup YourOwnROOM raised $1.3 million in seed funding from a group of investors that includes US-based investment firm Lotus Capital; Ravi Chaturvedi, former President of P&G; Narasimha Murthy, Co-founder of a US-based healthtech company; and a group of angel investors based out of the US and Bengaluru.

Bengaluru-based transport service for kids, PiggyRide raised $1.05 million (Rs 7.5 crore) led by JAFCO Investment Asia Pacific, along with a clutch of angel investors, including InMobi’s Naveen Tewari; Livspace Co-founders Ramakant Sharma and Anuj Srivastava; Goldman Sachs' MD, Niladri Mukhopadhyay; Zipdial’s Amiya Pathak; and EzCred’s Sachin Maheshwari. 

Pet-care platform Wiggles raised angel funding of $1 million from investors such as Nachikhet Deshpande, COO of L&T Infotech; Aparna Badkundri, Director, Dell Computers; Sachin Phadke, MD of Vetbiochem India; Abhay Amrute, Senior Partner, IIFL Wealth Management Ltd; Satish Billakota, VP, Europe Cognizant; Risshee Tandulwadkar, Founder, Solo Stem Cell Clinic, apart from a few other HNIs.

Mumbai-based edtech startup ENpower, which provides entrepreneurship learning programmes for teenagers, raised seed funding of $0.37 million (Rs 2.65 crore) from an investor consortium led by Nikhil Vora, Founder & CEO of Sixth Sense Ventures, a consumer-centric venture fund.

The Knotty Tales, a tech startup that acts as a digital wedding planning platform, raised $0.06 million from a group of angel investors as a part of its seed round. This fundraising will be used to focus on new product innovation and further strengthening relationships with clients and vendors.

Seed investor Venture Catalysts invested an undisclosed amount in deep-tech computer vision and augmented reality (AR) specific startup peAR Technologies.

Mitrata Financial Services, a women-focussed microlender, raised Series A funding from a group of individual investors. Sadaf Sayeed, CEO of Muthoot Microfin, was one of the investors in Mitrata.

Mumbai-based podcast startup Kuku FM raised an undisclosed amount from the dream team of VCs – 3one4 Capital, Shunwei Capital (a Chinese investment firm spun off from handset-maker Xiaomi), and India Quotient. This investment has raised the bar for the Kuku FM team. The funds raised will be used to expand its content library and increase its user base.

Vehicle maintenance startup Hoopy raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Lead Angels and Venture Farmer. Bengaluru-based family office Venture Farmer typically makes Pre-Series A to Series B investments ranging between $100k-$700k. 

Delhi-based startup goStops, a premium chain of youth traveller hostels, raised an undisclosed amount of funds in its initial funding round from angel investors.

Corefactors, an integrated sales and marketing company, raised an undisclosed amount in its seed round from Mumbai based angel investment firm, Ah! Ventures.

Late-stage deal

There was one late-stage deal this week. Omnichannel furniture brand Urban Ladder has raised close to $2.1 million (Rs 14.91 crore) from SAIF Partners, Steadview Capital and Sequoia Capital India, as a follow-on of its Series E round, according to regulatory filings accessed by YourStory.

Other deals

News and classifieds platform Lokal raised $3 million from 3one4 Capital, Y Combinator, RB Investments, SOMA Capital, and its existing investor – India Quotient. Focused on regional languages, Lokal will be using the freshly raised funds to improve its product and expand to newer geographies.

Data, analytics, and decisioning company Experian has picked up a strategic stake in smart data mobile marketing platform Vserv Digital Services. While the deal size and amount were undisclosed, the company stated the investment was in line with its vision to boost financial inclusion, by ensuring a friction-free digital onboarding experience for its consumers.

Hyderabad-based Thinkwide PGO raised $1 million in equity funding from Sreeni Musani of Ektha Pvt. Ltd. and Narsi Reddy Posham of IRA Reality Pvt. Ltd. The startup has also received an additional commitment of $1 million in equity investment from the same set of investors.

Debt funding

Online furniture rental firm Furlenco raised Rs 2.5 crore ($1.6 million) debt funding from Sandeep Baid, Shakuntalam Holdings, and Ritona Vincom. The company has issued 250 non-convertible debentures (NCD’s) of face value Rs 1 lakh each for the same.

Consumer and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) focussed digital lending app InCred raised Rs 31.4 crore ($4.4 million) in its second round of debt financing.

Furniture and electronics leasing platform, Rentomojo raised Rs 1 crore ($0.14 million) as non-convertible debentures (NCD’s) from Kamal Bhandari on private placement basis.

Exits and acquisitions

Used vehicle marketplace Droom acquired NBFC Xeraphin Finvest Pvt. Ltd.

SoftBank-backed robotic process automation (RPA) player Automation Anywhere which acqui-hired engineering startup Cathyos Labs.

And finally, Netcore Solutions acquired AI startup Boxx.ai. 

(Edited by Suman Singh and Saheli Sen Gupta)

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