[Weekly funding roundup] Venture investments touch $118M in the first week of December

Fintech startups emerged as the investor favourite in the first week of December, with CRED getting closer to unicorn valuation in an otherwise muted environment of fund inflow into the Indian startup ecosystem.

The total venture funding for the first week of December touched $118 million cutting across 23 deals as compared to $501 million in the comparable previous week. The highlight investments during the week were that of CRED, MobiKwik, and Fisdom.

Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the major trend in the venture funding has been the focus on early-stage deals. Out of the 23 deals for the first week of December, 18 were in early-stage followed by four in growth and one in late-stage.

Key highlights

Credit card bill payment app CRED raised $80 million in a Series C funding round from Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Tiger Global, giving it a valuation of $800 million.

MobiKwik raised funding of Rs 52 crore led by Hindustan Media Ventures, the investment arm of HT Group, with participation from Infosys Co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan’s family office Pratithi.

Wealthtech startup Fisdom raised $7 million in a fresh round of funding led by PayU, with participation from existing investors — Quona Capital and Saama Capital.

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Other deals

Infinite Uptime, an IoT startup, raised $5.15 million led by VenturEast in Series B round which also saw participation from THK, Mayfield, GSR Ventures, IIML, and GiTV.

Tech-led jobs platform Awign raised funds from existing investors Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Unitus Ventures, and Eagle10 Ventures.

No code AI platform Signzy raised an additional $3 million from Vertex Ventures, taking its latest round of fundraising to $8.4 million.

India and Singapore headquartered educational technology platform Kyt raised $2.5 million led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge programme.

Pune-based Loop Health, a health insurance broker, raised $2.3 million in its seed round led by Sierra Ventures. It also saw participation from Y Combinator, Soma Capital, and other angel investors.

Raskik, a fusion beverages startup, raised $1 million in pre-Series A funding round led by Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns. It also participation of other angel investors.

BHIVE Investech, a fintech startup raised $1 million seed funding from a group of HNIs.

SAWO Labs, a Mumbai-based tech startup, raised a seed round of Rs 5.5 crore led by StartupXseed.

TagMango, a creator monetisation startup, raised $750,000 in a seed round led by Y Combinator, XRM Media, Pioneer Fund, and angel investors.

Habitat, a social learning edtech platform for civil service aspirants, raised Rs 5 crore in seed funding from Unitus Ventures and Whiteboard Capital.

HappyLocate, a Bengaluru-based relocation platform, raised Rs 4.4 crore in pre-Series A round, led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) with participation from VM Ventures.

Bengaluru-based online coding platform for K-12 kids - Codingal raised $560,000 in its seed round from Rebright Partners, Java Capital, and GSF Accelerator.

Bengaluru-based edtech startup KopyKitab has raised an undisclosed funding amount from a clutch of institutional and angel investors.

India connect

US and India-based tech startup Eightfold.ai raised $125 million in its latest funding round at a valuation of $1 billion.

Let's Dive, a HR tech startup, raised $1.7 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge with participation from Village Global and other angel investors.

US and Singapore-based personalised messaging software startup Aampe raised $1.8 million (about Rs 13.2 crore) in funding led by Sequoia Capital India's Surge.

Cloud-based browser testing platform LambdaTest raised $6 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital India Surge with participation from Blume Ventures, Entrée Capital, and Leo Capital.

CoreStack, the Seattle-based cloud governance and compliance SaaS startup, has raised $4 million in funding led by Iron Pillar, the venture growth investor.

Reliance Jio has led an undisclosed Series A round in Augmented Reality (AR) gaming startup Krikey. With this round, Krikey's total funding stands at $22 million.