[Weekly funding roundup] Investments rise by 37 percent to touch $168M

The month of July has been favourable to the Indian startup ecosystem so far as the third week saw total funding touching $168 million, which is a rise of 37 percent when compared to previous week when it was $106 million.

For the second consecutive week in a row, startups in India managed to receive funding in excess of $100 million, a figure which was difficult to attain especially in the month of June.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a deep impact on the startup ecosystem but a segment like edtech continues to attract strong investor interest with companies like Byju’s, Vedantu, and Unacademy continuing to raise funds or make acquisitions.

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During this week, there were 15 deals with 13 of them being in the early stage and the rest in late stage. Debt financing continues to remain modest with a single deal but the value was $76 million during the week.

Highlight of the week

Vedantu, one of the leading edtech startups in the country, has raised $100 million as part of its Series D round valuing the company at $600 million. This fresh round of funding was led by US-based investment firm Coatue along with participation from existing investors. This is the third time that Vedantu has raised funds during this year and the total amount has crossed $200 million. Backed by Tiger Global, Accel, GGV Capital and others, Vedantu’s core strength is in conducting live tutoring.

Other deals

Hyperlocal discovery platform magicpin has raised $7 million (Rs 52 crore) from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC), and saw participation from existing investors Lightspeed and WaterBridge. The latest funding is part of magicpin’s ongoing Series D round. The funds will be mainly used for business expansion and to develop new products.

Hyderabad-based ecommerce startup IncNut Digital has raised $4 million in its Series A round. The round was led by RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group backed early-stage consumer centric venture capital fund, RPSG Ventures.

Procol, the B2B agriculture commodities buying platform has raised Rs 28.65 crore led by Sequoia’s Surge. Singapore-based Beenext has also joined the round with existing backer Blume Ventures.

GoDutch Technologies, a group payment fintech startup has raised $1.7 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by Matrix Partners India and the other investors in the round include Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, Soma Capital, and VentureSouq.

Yumlane, a Mumbai-based cloud kitchen startup owned by Qwikpik Technology Pvt Ltd, has raised a pre-Series A round of $1 million led by Singapore-based fund Jetty Ventures. Yumlane, which currently has 30 PoDs across Bengaluru and Pune, will use the funding for expansion in new cities and hiring.

Crio, a learning platform for developers, has secured Rs 7 crore in a pre-Series A funding round from Binny Bansal-backed 021 Capital. This is the second fund raise by the two-year-old startup. It had earlier raised $1 million in debt funding round led by Binny Bansal.

Plum, a Bengaluru-based group health insurance startup that works with corporates, has raised Rs 7 crore in seed funding. The round was led by Incubate Fund with participation from Gemba Capital and Tracxn Labs along with angel investors, including Abhijit Gupta and Ram Sahasranam of Praxify Health, Sudheendra Chilappagari of Belong.co, Nitin Jayakrishnan of Pando, and Alvin Tse of Xiaomi. 

Openapp, an internet of things security solutions startup has raised $500,000 from early-stage investment firm Unicorn India Ventures, an existing investor in the company.

PumPumPum, a Gurugram-based startup that offers leased car services has secured Rs 2.2 crore in seed funding from LetsVenture Syndicate, led by Pallav Pandey (former Co-founder and CEO, Fastfox). The other angel investors who participated in the round include Ritesh Malik (Founder and CEO, Innov8), Shobhit Shukla (Co-Founder, Near.co), and Rahul Agarwal (CFO, Near.co). The startup plans to utilise the capital for category disruption, technology development, brand building, and expansion.

Delhi-based parking spot reservation platform ParkSmart has raised Rs 1.5 crore from ah! Ventures, with participation from Marwari Angels. Founded by IIT-Delhi graduates Prateek Garg, Vishva Sharma, Rahul Gupta, Rishabh Nagpal, and Ratan Sethi in 2019, ParkSmart allows people to search, reserve, and pay for a parking spot through a mobile application. It also provides IoT-based smart parking solutions for malls, hospitals, institutes, and corporates, among others.

Mumbai-based deep tech platform Ripsey has raised Rs 1 crore from a US-based investor in its ongoing Pre-Series Round of Rs 2 crore through ah! Ventures angel platform. Earlier in May, the startup had raised Rs 1 crore in an undisclosed seed round. Ripsey is looking to utilise the funds to build their technology platform as well as fund their next leg of growth and expansion to other metros and Tier I cities in India.

Undisclosed deals

Bengaluru-based neobank startup Walrus has raised an undisclosed amount of funding for its platform which is focussed on providing banking solutions for teens and young adults. The pre-seed funding round was led by Better Capital and also saw participation from seasoned angel investors, including Raveen Sastry (Co-founder, Myntra), Raghunandan G (Ex-Founder and CEO of TaxiForSure), and Brijesh Thakkar, among others. 

uFony Services Pvt Ltd, a Pune-based edtech startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from The Chennai Angels and other independent investors for School Diary, a platform that brings education to smartphones. School Diary is a user-friendly platform that caters to K12 schools, helping them engage students and conduct classes virtually without compromising on privacy.

India connect deals

Singapore and Bengaluru-based air retailing and payments platform Mystifly has raised $3.3 million in a pre-Series B round of funding from existing investor Recruit Co., Ltd. The company last raised Series A in 2016 led by Recruit and has since been focussing on profitable growth.

Delhi and New York-based FLYX, a social network platform for OTT content, announced that it has raised pre-seed funding amounting to $200,000 led by HNIs, including Raj Mishra, Chairman and Founder, AIT Global Inc. The company will use the funds to accelerate product development and further expand services in India.

The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group has acquired a 51 percent stake in video-based news app Editorji Technologies Pvt Ltd, a move that marks its foray into the digital news media space. Editorji Technologies is started by former Chief Executive Officer of NDTV Ltd Vikram Chandra.

M&A

Edtech startup Unacademy has acquired majority stake in another edtech startup Mastree with an investment of $5 million. Mastree has presence in the K12 learning platform. Following this acquisition, Unacademy has added another startup to its portfolio where others include Wifistudy, Kreatryx, PrepLadder, and CodeChef.