[Weekly funding roundup] Venture investments into Indian startups sees marginal uptick

Venture funding into Indian startups saw a small uptick in the last week of August. Till now, August witnessed a capital inflow of over $3 billion.

The first two weeks of the month saw venture funding crossing $1 billion each, but it tapered down for the last two weeks.

This week, the total venture funding stood at $327 million across 27 deals as compared to $258 million in the previous week. However, the overall funding momentum remained strong as the last week saw the emergence of one more new unicorn, Zetwerk.

It is expected the last four months of 2021 would see a stronger inflow of venture funding to create a new benchmark for the Indian startup ecosystem.

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Key highlights

Zetwerk, a B2B manufacturing startup, raised $150 million at a $1.33 billion valuation from D1 Capital, Avenir, IIFL, and existing investors.

Fintech startup KhataBook raised $100 million in Series C round led by Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV).

Other deals

Curefoods — the spin-off foodtech brand founded by Ankit Nagori in 2020 — raised $13 million led by Iron Pillar, Nordstar, and Binny Bansal. Angel investors also participated in this round.

Gold-based lending platform Indiagold raised $12 million led by PayU, Alpha Wave Incubation, Better Tomorrow Ventures, 3one4 Capital, and others.

Edtech startup Camp K12 raised $12 million co-led by Matrix Partners India and Elevation Capital. 

D2C fashion brand Bewakoof raised Rs 60 crore led by InvestCorp. IvyCap Ventures and Spring Marketing Capital also participated in the round.

Smytten, a sampling and engagement platform for D2C brands, raised $6 million led by Fireside Ventures and other family offices.

Breathe Well-being, a digital therapeutics startup, raised $5.5 million led by Accel Partners, General Catalyst, and Scott Shleifer of Tiger Global.

Agritech robotics startup TartanSense raised $5 million led by FMC Ventures, Omnivore, and Blume Ventures.

AppsForBharat raised $4 million co-led by Sequoia Capital India and BEENEXT. WEH Ventures also participated in the round.

Sporjo, a sports-focused startup, raised $2 million from multiple individual investors.

Tech startup Lumiq raised $2 million led by Info Edge Ventures and Redstart Labs.

HRtech startup Advantage Club raised $1.7 million led by Y Combinator, Broom Ventures, Liquid.vc, and Kunal Shah. 

Women health-focused startup Elda Health raised $1.5 million from Avaana Capital, Orios Ventures, and Ananth Narayanan Family Office.

Gaming startup FanPlay raised $1.2 million from Upsparks, Kunal Shah, Goodwater Capital, LetsVenture, Atrium Angels and angel groups.

Tech startup Syook raised $1 million from Inflection Point Ventures and ONGC.

Supply chain startup Kirana247 raised $1 million from multiple investors.

Online food brand NOTO raised Rs 4 crore from Titan Capital, Rockstud Capital, John Abraham, WEH Ventures, and others.

Cocktail startup O’ Be Cocktails raised Rs 3.5 crore from First Cheque, Letsventure, Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati, and others.

Digital catalogue marketplace IsGoingOnline raised Rs 1.5 crore from Artha Venture Fund, Unicorn India Ventures, SEA Fund, and Devdatt Shah.

This week, startups, including Winvesta, NeoDocs, Imagimake, Hike, CommerceUP, Blowhorn, and Akudo, raised an undisclosed round of funding.

India connection

California and Bengaluru-based tech startup Synth AI Labs raised $125,000 from Y-Combinator.

Singapore and Bengaluru-based foodtech startup Ai Palette raised $4.4 million led by pi Ventures and Exfinity Ventures.

Pune and Singapore-based social gaming startup SuperGaming raised $5.5 million from Skycatcher, AET Fund, Dream Incubator and others.

B2Brain, the Bengaluru and Delaware-based SaaS startup, raised $1 million from Ideaspring Capital and Arka Venture Labs.

M&A

Suumaya Industries acquired a 51 percent stake in agritech startup payAgri Innovations for an undisclosed value.

Logistics unicorn Delhivery acquired Bengaluru based Spoton Logistics for an undisclosed value.