[Weekly Funding Roundup] Equity increases by 200 pc as Indian startups raise $146.95M this week

Indian startups raised $146.95 million in funding across 17 deals, a 200 percent increase since last week when only $48.3 million was raised in equity.

Friday January 24, 2020 , 4 min Read

After hitting a bottom low, the fourth week of January witnessed a pickup in funding value.

Indian startups raised $146.95 million in funding across 17 equity deals. This is more than 200 percent of an increase since last week when equity funding dropped to $48.3 million.

This week, only one startup raised debt funding – Gurugram-based solar energy startup ReNew Power, which raised a whopping $450 million through dollar bonds.

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Deal of the Week

As a part of its first external funding round, Fairfax Holdings backed insurtech startup Digit Insurance raised $84 million from three growth equity investors – A91 Partners, Faering Capital, and TVS Capital.

Post this round, the total funding raised by Digit stands at close to $224 million.

Growth-stage deals

This week, growth-stage startups emerged as the biggest fund rakers, raising close to $96.2 million of the total equity raised this week.

Apart from Digit Insurance, Gurugram-based wealth management platform for HNIs, INDWealth raised Rs 87.14 crore ($12.2 million) as part of its new Series C fundraise, documents filed with Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) showed.

Late-stage deals

Late-stage deals cornered close to $30 million of the overall funding.

Gurugram-based merchant fintech platform Pine Labs raised an undisclosed investment from Mastercard.

Bengaluru-based vehicle rental platform Zoomcar raised $30 million as part of its larger $100 million Series D round, from existing and new global investors.

Early-stage deals

Early-stage deals cornered close to $20.75 million in funding across 13 deals.

Pune-based venture capital firm Windrose Capital and Mumbai-based ITI Growth Fund invested Rs 2 crore in a seed round of Invento Makerspaces.

Noida-based fintech startup Mera Cashier raised $250,000 in seed funding led by Startup Buddy’s co-founders Amit Singal and Manish Aggarwal.

Mumbai-based fintech startup GetVantage raised seed funding led by early-stage investors Samyakth Capital and Venture Catalysts.

Bollywood singer Sukhbir Singh invested an undisclosed amount in international music startup Flutin and is also exploring creative collaboration with the app.

He also invested in Jaipur-based startup MEDdelivery.

Tea Trunk, a global premium tea brand from India raised $220,000 in angel funding led by a group of angels and the Rebalance community.

Park+, a new smart parking solution startup launched by Amit Lakhotia, former VP of Paytm Payments, raised $11 million funding co-led by Sequoia India and Matrix Partners India.

Crysta, a part of Delhi-based Redcliffe Life Sciences, raised Rs 10 crore in a Pre-Series A funding round led by the family office of Ruchirans and Anuraag Jaipuria.

Startup accelerator Venture Catalysts invested an undisclosed amount in ‘Neo-banking’ business payments platform Nupay as a part of its seed funding.

New Delhi-based edtech startup Eupheus Learning raised $4.3 million (Rs 30 crore) in its Series A round through a mix of equity and venture debts.

Konfinity, an artificial intelligence (AI) powered platform for software programming courses, raised its seed round of funding from AngelList and a cluster of other investors, this week.

Bengaluru-based food startup Samosa Singh raised funding of $2.7 million in a Series A round led by She Capital. The round also saw participation from Fireside Ventures, Equanimity Investments, AL Trust, and Japan-based AET Fund.

Microloan-focussed fintech startup, mPokket raised $597,754 as a part of its Series A round from Lotus Microfinance LLC.

Other Deals

In the other deals this week, Singapore-based digital wealth management platform Kristal.AI closed its latest Series A funding round of $6 million.

US-based enterprise SaaS startup Samya.ai raised $6 million in seed round funding led by Sequoia India.

San Mateo-based Skylo Technologies raised $103 million in its Series-B round led by Softbank Group and existing investors.

San Francisco-based martech platform AppsFlyer raised $210 million in Series D funding round led by General Atlantic.

California and Mumbai-based LogiNext raised $39 million as a part of its Series B funding, led by Tiger Global Management and Steadview Capital.

Texas and Bengaluru-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup SmartKarrot raised $1 million in angel funding.

Online home decor startup Livspace secured $60 million in funding.

Exits

In the exits this week, there was the much talked about acquisition this week where Gurugram-based foodtech unicorn Zomato has acquired Uber Eats India. The all-stock transaction was announced early on Tuesday and gives Uber a 9.99 percent stake in Zomato.

Accelerator and growth investment firm Ghost Kitchens bought a majority stake in cloud kitchen companies QSR Brands India and Eathos Group for an undisclosed sum.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)