[Weekly funding roundup] Investments into startups touch $88 million

The investments into Indian startups continue to remain subdued in the second week of May also as the total funding remained under $100 million, given the impact of coronavirus on the global economy which continues hamper any restoration of normal activity.

The total quantum of investment into startups in India for the second week of May stood at $88 million spread across 11 deals. As compared to the previous week, when the total funding touched $43 million, it is little more than double that number, but it has still not crossed the triple digit mark.

ALSO READ

How exchanges are helping SMEs get listed and raise funding during coronavirus

During the second week of May, in continuation of the earlier trends, the major focus of the deals continues to be in early and growth-stage startups, indicating that venture capitalists are only willing to part with smaller amounts of their money. Early and growth-stage deals accounted for five deals each during the week.

Debt investments into startups continues to draw a blank for the second week in the row.

Key deal

Enterprise contract management startup SirionLabshas raised $44 million Series C funding led by Tiger Global Managementand Avatar Growth Capital. SirionLabs will use this round of funding to focus on strengthening its leadership. It has also announced the launch of its new Seattle-based Technology Centre and appointed a few leaders. With this round of funding the total capital raised by SirionLabs is at $66 million. The earlier rounds were led by Sequoia Capital.

Other deals

Shiprocket, a tech-enabled logistics aggregator for D2C sellers, has announced its Series C funding round of $13 million (Rs 100 crore). The round was led by Tribe Capital, a Silicon Valley-based investment firm, along with Innoven Capital and existing investor Bertelsmann India Investments. The latest capital infusion brings Shiprocket’s total funding to $26 million. The investment will be used by the Delhi-based startup to fuel its product development roadmap, which includes hiring top talent across the data science and engineering domains. The funds will also be focused on the company’s new initiatives, including its international expansions.

Online beauty turned omni-channel lifestyle retailer Nykaahas raised Rs 66.64 crore from its existing primary investor Steadview Capital. Earlier, on March 31, Nykaa had announced that it raised Rs 100 crore form Steadview. This came after it had raised an additional Rs 100 crore from Singapore-based TPG Growth IV SF. Prior to that, Nykaa had acquired fashion styling and ecommerce platform 20Dresses, and raised Rs 113 crore from Lighthouse India Fund III, and another Rs 160 crore through primary and secondary share sales.

Sindhuja Microcredit, a new generation digital and rural-focused Micro Finance Institution (MFI) providing financial services to the bottom of the pyramid self-employed women entrepreneurs, has raised a Series B funding round of $8.7 million from Norway-based Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI) and Carpediem Capital. It closed its Series A round $4 million from Carpediem Capital earlier in March 2019.

Gurugram-based agritech startup, Intello Labs has raised $5.9 million in Series A funding led by Saama Capital. New investors who participated in the round include Singapore-based agritech fund GROW, and US-based SVG Ventures THRIVE. Existing investors Omnivore and Nexus Venture Partners also participated in this round. Intello Labs was founded in 2016 by Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra, Himani Shah and Devendra Chandani.

Gurugram-based local discovery, rewards, and commerce platform Magicpinhas raised funding of Rs 29.3 crore led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with the participation of Moonstone Investments, WaterBridge Venture, The Bunting Family Private Fund, and Srivatsan Rajan. Due to the coronavirus induced lockdown in the country, Magicpin has forayed into grocery delivery.

Bengaluru-based furniture rental platform RentoMojo has raised Rs 24.48 crore in Series C funding. The investors in this round include Chiratae Ventures, Accel Partners, BCIP Venture Associates, Bain Capital, and Renaud Laplanche. The fresh funding will be used for the expansion of business and for general working capital purposes.

Undisclosed transactions

Spyne, a Gurugram-based AI-driven tech startup that helps online businesses with all kinds of photoshoots and photographers to leverage their visual content for business growth, has raised an undisclosed amount as growth capital in its pre-Series A funding. The investment was led by Angellist, Smile Group and other individuals. The startup will use the current funding to build and reinforce the AI-based image editing suite that will help businesses in getting images edited 4x faster with the highest precision.

Bengaluru-based startup Refrens, which offers free invoicing, payments, and expense management system, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of angel investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder of Paytm) and Anupam Mittal (Founder of Shaadi.com). The startup will use the funds for expanding reach of the platform and adding freelancer friendly financial services. 

GroCurv, a Gurugram-based technology-powered marketing and sales services procurement startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Singapore's early-stage venture capital firm, Unicorn Investments Pte Ltd. Started in January 2019 by Venkatesh and Vipul, GroCurv offers clients a wide range of business-related services such as branding and marketing, digital marketing, social media marketing, talent acquisition, and outsourced sales, among many others.

Tecso Charge Zone, which operates electric vehicle (EV) charging startup Charge+Zone, has raised capital from Mumbai Angels Network. Tecso Charge Zone is a subsidiary of Tecso Global Ltd, a Gujarat-based group that has interests in service engineering, education, and renewable energy.