[Weekly funding roundup] Venture investments cross $500M for second consecutive week

Venture capital funding into the India startup ecosystem crossed $500 million for the second week in a row, giving the month of April a very positive start amid sustained capital inflow and inorganic deals.

Total venture capital funding for the first week of April stood at $528 million, lower than the $577 million garnered in the previous week. There were a total of 13 deals during the week.

The highlight of the first week of April was the new fund-raise by edtech unicorn BYJU'S, which continues to attract investor interest. There was also inorganic transaction during the week with Amazon acquiring retail tech startup Perpule.

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As has been the trend for quite some time now, majority of the transactions were in early-stage startups, which saw 10 deals during the week. This was followed by two in late-stage and one in growth-stage startups.

Key deal

Edtech unicorn BYJU'S raised Rs 3,328.23 crore ($460 million approximately) as part of its ongoing Series F funding round led by MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings at a valuation north of $13 billion.

Other transactions

Bhubaneswar-based microfinance institution Annapurna Finance raised $30 million as primary equity from Nuveen Global Impact.

Healthtech startup HealthPlix raised $13.5 million as part of the ongoing Series B funding round led by Lightspeed Ventures.

Homegrown short-form video app Chingari raised $13 million in an investment round led by OnMobile.

Easebuzz, a B2B-focused, API-driven full-stack payments solution provider, raised $4 million in a Series A round led by 8i Ventures, Varanium Capital, and Guild Capital.

Uable, a skill development platform for children raised $3.5 million in a pre-Series A round led by JAFCO Asia and Chiratae Ventures. Existing investor 3one4 Capital also participated.

Tech platform Zoko raised $1.4 million in seed round from Y Combinator and angel investors such as Ryan Hoover, Flipkart Co-founder Binny Bansal's family office, and others.

DusMinute, the startup focused on services for gated communities, raised $1.1 million in a pre-Series A round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and a few high net-worth individuals (HNIs).

Circus Social, a social media analytics and big data SaaS startup, raised $1 million in a pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures and angel investors.

Zeda.io, a tech startup, raised $450,000 in a pre-seed round from Whiteboard Capital, Paradigm Shift Capital, Firstcheque.vc, and several angel investors.

Undisclosed deals

GetWork, a edtech and HR tech platform, raised Rs 2 crore in a seed round led by Artha Venture Fund (AVF) with participation from India Accelerator's angel investors.

B2B rental company Settlrs raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A round from MaGEHold Pte. and angel investors.

Onsurity, a tech startup that provides healthcare-related services, raised an undisclosed round of funding from a group of its customers who have now turned investors.

India connection

Uniphore, the Chennai and California-based voice technology startup, raised $140 million in a Series D round led by Sorenson Capital Partners.

M&A

Amazon Technologies Inc, which is part of global ecommerce company Amazon, acquired Perpule, a Bengaluru-headquartered retail tech startup for Rs 107.60 crore.

Delhi-based Ruptok Fintech, a fintech platform for gold loans, acquired Mumbai-based Vinrak Technologies which owns GoldUno brand, in an all-stock deal.