[Weekly funding roundup] Venture investments cross $0.5B in fourth week of March

The month of March has ended on a positive note after a not-so-encouraging three weeks. Total equity venture funding into Indian startups touched $577 million in the fourth week of March, driven primarily by gaming unicorn Dream11.

The funding amount rose by 248 percent as compared to the third week's figure of $166 million. This was primarily due to the $400 million infusion into Dream Sports — the parent company of Dream11.

A total of 24 deals were signed during the week, with 20 of them in early-stage startups, three in the late-stage, and one in growth.

ALSO READ

Sequoia Capital India announces new $195M seed fund

Besides the Dream11 funding, there were several important developments such as fintech startup KhataBookmaking an acquisition and VC fund Sequoia India announcing a new seed fund for its Surge programme.

Key deal

Fantasy sports unicorn startup Dream Sports — which owns the flagship brand Dream11 — raised $400 million in second investment led by TCV, D1 Capital Partners, and Falcon Edge.

Other transactions

Purplle, a direct-to-consumer beauty brand, raised $45 million from Sequoia Capital India, along with existing investors Verlinvest, Blume Ventures, and JSW Ventures.

Public App — a location-based social network backed by news aggregator startup Inshorts — raised Rs 300 crore in funding from A91 Partners, with participation from existing investors.

DotPe, an offline-to-online commerce platform, raised $27.5 million in a Series A round led by PayU, with participation from existing investor Info Edge Ventures and Google.

Social ecommerce and online grocery platform startup CityMall raised $11 million in a Series A round led by Accel Partners.

Fintech startup Velocity raised $10.3 million in seed funding led by Valar Ventures — a US-based VC firm backed by Peter Thiel.

Student startup Zaara Biotech raised $10 million from UAE-based TCN International Commerce LLC for its project 'AlgaeSeaweed Technology.'

Tech startup FloBiz raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Elevation Capital.

Masai School, a coding boot camp startup, raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Omidiyar Network India. Existing investors Unitus Investors, India Quotient, and AngelList India also participated in the round.

Fintech startup Rupifi raised $4.1 million in a pre-Series A round led by Quona Capital. Other investors from Ankur Capital and Flipkart Co-founder Binny Bansal also participated in the round.

Grooming startup Bombay Shaving Company raised Rs 15 crore in funding from its existing investor Sixth Sense Ventures.

SaaS startup Voiro raised $1.8 million in a pre-Series A round led by Mela Ventures, with participation from existing investor 1Crowd.

Agritech startup ReshaMandi raised $1.7 million in a seed round from Omnivore, Strive Ventures, Axilor Ventures, and Lumis.

SaaS startup NeoDove raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by India Quotient. It also saw participation from other angel investors.

Healthtech startup Cancer Clinics raised $1.5 million in pre-Series A round from Axilor Ventures, M-Venture Partners, NATCO Pharma, and angel investors.

Healthtech startup Janani raised seed funding of Rs 8 crore from Venture Catalysts, Apollo Hospitals, Inflection Point Ventures, Lets Venture, and 9unicorn.

$1 million and below deals

Fintech startup FinOne Technologies raised a seed round of $1 million from various angel investors.

ExtraaEdge, a martech startup, raised $1 million in a pre-Series A round from Pentathlon Ventures, 9Unicorns, Indian Angel Network, Faad Network, and DevX Innovation.

Food brand Happy Jars raised Rs 3 crore in a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures.

Edtech startup SkilloVilla raised $300,000 in a seed round from Titan Capital and other investors.

Healthtech startup Jeevam Health raised $150,000 from Y Combinator in a pre-seed round.

Edtech startup Zotalabs raised $125,000 in a seed funding round.

EV startup Tilt raised $125,000 from Y Combinator, and an additional undisclosed round from a set of angels.

Instoried, a deep-tech startup, raised an undisclosed amount from Rockstud Capital.

M&A

Khatabook acquired Mumbai-based Biz Analyst, a SaaS startup, in a deal valued at $10 million.