[Weekly funding report] First week of August sees over $1B inflow into Indian startups

The good tidings from the month of July in terms of funding into Indian startups seems to have extended to August as the first week of this month saw an inflow of $1.2 billion.

After close to $10 billion coming into the Indian startup ecosystem in the month of July, there seems to be no ebb in fund inflow for August as there were new unicorns born – BharatPe and Mindtickle, even as a profitable startup, Nykaa, announced its DRHP with plans to go public.

The funding of $1.2 billion during the first week of August was double of what was registered in the comparable previous week at $601 million. The performance in the month of July and early signs in August sets the stage for a very strong finish for 2021.

Key deals

Edtech unicorn Unacademy raised $440 million from Temasek along with others like Softbank Vision Fund, General Atlantic and Tiger Global.

Fintech startup BharatPe raised $370 million led by Tiger Global at a post money-valuation of $2.85 billion to turn into a unicorn.

Construction materials marketplace Infra.Market raised $125 million in Series D funding from Tiger Global at $2.5 billion valuation.

Other transactions

Yellow.ai, a tech startup, raised $78.15 million led by WestBridge Capital, along with Sapphire Ventures and Salesforce Ventures.

Jupiter, a neobanking startup, raised $44 million from Nubank, Global Founders Capital, Sequoia Capital India, Matrix Partners and Mirae.

Moengage, a tech startup, raised $32.5 million led by Multiples Alternate with participation from Eight Roads Ventures, F-Prime Capital and Matrix Partners.

Email startup Titan, launched by Bhavin Turakhia, has raised $30 million in funding from Automattic Inc, the parent company of WordPress.

B2B manufacturing marketplace Fashinza raised $20 million in a mix of equity and debt from investors such as Accel Partners and Elevation Capital among others.

Edtech startup Skill-Lync raised $17.5 million led by Iron Pillar with participation from Y Combinator and Better Capital. It also included angel investors.

Healthtech startup Onsurity raised $16 million led by Quona Capital with participation from Nexus Venture Partners.

Insurtech startup RenewBuy raised $10 million from Evolvence Capital.

Social investment startup StockGro raised $5 million from Roots Ventures and Velo Partners.

Apnaklub, a B2B marketplace for FMCGs, raised $3.5 million from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge.

Neeman’s, an eco-conscious footwear brand, raised Rs 20 crore led by Sixth Sense Ventures.

Vernacular audio platform Khabri raised $2.1 million from Liquid 2 Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Rebel Fund and other investors.

Agritech startup Faarms raised $2 million from global angel investors.

Logistics tech startup StackBOX raised $1.2 million from Ecosystem Ventures and CMM Group.

D2C startup The Souled Store raised Rs 75 crore led by Elevation Capital and angel investors.

Tech startup QuickShift raised $770,000 from Anicut Angel Fund and Axilor Ventures.

Bitcoin rewards company GoSats raised $700,000 from Alphabit Fund, Fulgur Ventures, Stacks Accelerator, and SBX Capital.

Celcius, a cold chain marketplace startup raised $50,000 from Mumbai Angels Network, Huddle, Lumis Partners and angel investors.

Edtech startup Rocket Skills raised Rs 2.2 crore from Better Capital, First Cheque and Titan Capital.

ChefKart raised $300,000 from Titan Capital, Lead Angels, Pravega Ventures, Manyavar Family Office and angel investors.

Drone startup UrbanMatrix raised Rs 1.2 crore led by SARA ELGI.

The following startups raised undisclosed round of funding: MedPrime Technologies, FrontRow, Fabheads, Enguru, and AyuRythm.

India connect

B2B sales productivity startup Nektar.ai raised $6 million led by B Capital Group, 3One4 Capital and Nexus Venture Partners.

Palo Alto and Pune-based fintech startup Zeni raised $34 million led by Elevation Capital along with Think Investments and Neeraj Arora. 

Mindtickle raised $100 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

M&A

Gurugram-based healthtech startup Meddo acquired Doxper in an undisclosed cash and stock deal.

Edtech startup upGrad acquired US-based startup, KnowledgeHut, for an undisclosed sum. 

Edtech unicorn BYJU’S acquired Whodat for an undisclosed value.

Travel app Ixigo acquired bus ticketing and aggregation platform AbhiBus in a cash and stock deal for undisclosed value.