[Weekly funding roundup] 6 unicorns and $2.5B investments in one week creates new record

The Indian startup ecosystem broke all records after six startups turned unicorns and $2.5 billion of venture funding was raised in just one week. This unprecedented week set the stage for the remaining nine months of this year to create new benchmarks.

To put it in context, the funding worth $2.5 billion for the second week of April actually accounts for 25 percent of the entire venture capital investments in 2020, which totalled $9.94 billion.

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Six new unicorns emerged during the week, starting with Meesho and followed by CRED, Pharmeasy, Groww, ShareChat, and Gupshup. These six unicorns accounted for around $1.5 billion in funding during the week.

There were 23 deals during the week and the spread of these investments were across all stages. Debt funding accounted for $41 million in the second week of April.

Blockbuster deals

Delivery unicorn Swiggy raised $800 million in funding led by Falcon Edge, Amansa Capital, Think Investments, Carmignac, and Goldman Sachs.

Social media startup ShareChat was valued at $2.1 billion after it raised $502 million led by Lightspeed Ventures and Tiger Global, with participation from Snap, Twitter, and India Quotient, among others.

Online pharmacy startup PharmEasy raised $350 million in a Series E round led by Prosus Ventures and TPG growth at a valuation of $1.5 billion.

Social commerce startup Meesho raised $300 million led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 at $2.1 billion valuation. Prosus Ventures, Facebook, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway, and Knollwood Investment also participated.

Fintech startup CRED raised $215 million at $2.2 billion valuation led Falcon Edge Capital, Coatue Management. DST Global, RTP Global, Tiger Global, Greenoaks Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, and Sofina also participated.

Other transactions

B2B startup OfBusiness raised $110 million led by Falcon Edge Capital, with participation from Matrix Partners India, Creation Investments, and Norwest Venture Partners.

Groww, an investment platform startup, raised $83 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion led by Tiger Global with participation from Sequoia India, YC Continuity, Ribbit Capital, and Propel Venture Partners.

Spinny, an online used car retailing platform, raised $65 million led General Catalyst. Arena Holdings, Think Investments, Elevation Capital, and Fundamentum Partnership also participated.

D2C startup WOW Skin Science raised $50 million from ChrysCapital.

AR startup PlayShifu raised $17 million from Inventus Capital India with Inflexor Ventures. Chiratae Ventures and Bharat Innovation Fund also participated.

Fintech startup ShopSe raised $5.5 million led by Chiratae Ventures and BEENEXT. Pentathlon Ventures, Opus and Yatra Angel Network also participated in the round. 

Automobile service startup Pitstop raised $3.5 million led by Ventureast, along with ACKO Technologies, LetsVenture, AngelList India, Blume Ventures among others.

EV solutions startup Oye Rickshaw raised Rs 24 crore from Alteria Capital.

CareerLabs, a profile building startup for college students and working professionals, raised $2.2 million led by Global Founders Capital and angel investors.

WiT-ACE (Women in Technology- Accelerated Career Experiences) raised $1 million as part of its first seed fund from various angel investors.

Legal research platform Legitquest raised Rs 5 crore from Info Edge and Waterbridge Ventures in a pre-Series A funding round.

Fantasy sports platform Fantasy Akhada raised Rs 5 crore in equity funding through Prime Securities.

Tech startup Superpro.ai raised $300,000 as part of its seed round led by IvyCap Ventures Angel Fund. 

Karnival, a SaaS startup, raised seed round of $250,000 led by We Founder Circle (WFC) and angel investors.

Undisclosed deals

Do Your Thng (DYT), a branded content marketplace, raised $150,000 led by Mumbai Angels with participation from Faad Network and Angel Bay.

Rage Coffee raised undisclosed amount of capital from a clutch of investors led by Refex Capital.

Kudos, a fintech startup, raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from angel investors.

Edtech startup AntWak raised undisclosed seed round led by Matrix Partners India and angel investors.

Overseas connect

Singapore-based neobanking startup StashFin completed its Series B extension equity funding round, raising $40 million from a clutch of global investors.

Gupshup, the Silicon Valley-headquartered conversational messaging tech startup, raised $100 million in funding from Tiger Global at a valuation of $1.4 billion.