Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (September 21, 2021)

Fivetran raises $565M, to acquire HVR

Tech firm Fivetra​n has raised $565 million in funding (about Rs 4,161.8 crore) led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The series D round also saw participation from existing investors - General Catalyst, CEAS Investments, Matrix Partners, and others, along with new investors ICONIQ Capital, D1 Capital Partners and YC Continuity, a statement said.

Aerchain raises $3M from Season Two Ventures and IndiaMart

Aerchain, the Bengaluru-based AI tech startup focused on the procurement segment has raised $3 million in a pre-Series A round co-led by IndiaMart and Season Two Ventures. Founded by BITS Pilani alumni - Harsha Kadimisetty and Himavanth Jasti in 2019, Aerchain, which operates on a SaaS model, will use this capital for product development, market expansion and hiring of talent.

Edtech startup Expertrons raises capital from Kunal Shah and Anant Maheshwari

Mumbai-based AI videobot edtech startup Expertrons has raised an an undisclosed sum from industry veterans Kunal Shah (Founder of CRED) and Anant Maheshwari (President, Microsoft India). The recent round of funding comes close on the heels of Expertrons raising $2.3 million in Pre-Series A funding from a host of marquee investors like Ivycap Ventures, Iceland Venture Studios, LetsVenture, Ah!Ventures, Venture Garage, Auxano, Venture Catalyst and more. 

CuriousJr raises seed round of $1M from WaterBridge Ventures, Enzia Ventures (Funding)

CuriousJr, an online coding platform for kids, on Tuesday, said it raised a seed round of $1 million led by WaterBridge Ventures, EnziaVentures, and angel investors.

Angel investors, including Aditya Shankar (Co-founder, Doubtnut), Tanushree Nagori (Co-founder, Doubtnut), Abhinav Sinha (COO, OYO), Mohd Wassem (Founder, EasyEat), and Shashank Shekhar (Director- Content Strategy and Operations at ShareChat).

Wow! Momo raises over $15M in Series C led by Tree Line Investment Management (Funding)

QSR chain Wow! Momo Foods, which currently owns and operates Wow! Momoand Wow! China, has raised Series C funding of over $15 million, led by Tree Line Investment Management. The round also saw participation from IAN Fund (Indian Angel Network), as well as existing investor Lighthouse Funds.

The fresh funds will enable the brand to amplify efforts on its newly launched FMCG business, add more energies to the expansion of its QSR & Cloud Kitchen brands and also fuel its growth in the launch of its new verticals to be announced soon, the company said in a statement.

Coffee brand Hatti Kaapi raises Rs 10 Cr in pre-Series A round (Funding)

Bengaluru-based authentic coffee brand Hatti Kaapi recently announced its pre-Series A round of Rs 100 million (Rs 10 crore) led by BlueWolf Capital, Investribe, Kochi Holdings, and CreedCap Asia.

The company will use the capital to expand the brand's retail and cloud footprint to over 200 stores from the existing 115 outlets. It will also use the fund to scale up its ready-to-use product portfolio under the 'Six Seconds' line of products on both online and offline channels.

InMobi's Glance crosses 150M active users; reaches 1 in 4 smartphone users in India

InMobi-owned lock screen content platform Glance , which became a unicorn last December, has crossed 151 million active users.

Glance hit the mark in the second quarter of 2021, growing eight percent from 140 million users in Q1 2021, according to data from Counterpoint Research. One in every four Indian smartphone users is currently active on the Glance platform.

10Club makes its first roll-up acquisition with baby products brand My NewBorn

Bengaluru-based 10Club has rolled up its first business with the acquisition of My Newborn, a brand selling baby products on Amazon.

Founded in 2020 by Bhavna Suresh, Joel Ayala, and Deepak Nair, 10Club is a new age ecommerce startup that acquires, operates, and helps digitally native businesses scale up.  

GAIN launches graduation, startup showcase under StartupToScaleup programme

Global startup accelerator The GAIN recently announced the ‘graduation come startup showcase’ for its ‘StartupToScaleup’ Cohort I and II. The GAIN helps emerging tech startups to scale globally by providing access to funding, business, and active mentoring.

Supertails raises Rs 5.75 Cr in venture debt from Alteria Capital (Funding)

Bengaluru-based digital pet care startup Supertails has raised Rs 5.75 crore in venture debt funding from Alteria Capital.

Started by former Licious executives Vineet Khanna, Varun Sadana, and Aman Tekriwal this year, Supertails is a first-of-its-kind platform that supports the ever-increasing pet parent community by providing trustworthy veterinary care and a one-stop solution for pet food and supplies.

Our listing will provide bountiful rewards to employees: MobiKwik

Fintech major MobiKwik, which filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) on Tuesday, said the listing should provide a bountiful rewards to its employees through the ESOPs issued to them.

The company, under its ESOP 2014 Scheme, has reserved 4.5 million equity shares for creating a pool of ESOPs for the benefit of the eligible employees.

Oliveboard acquires online SSC test preparation platform SSCTube

Oliveboard, a Bengaluru-based edtech platform in the government exam preparation space, has announced the acquisition of SSCTube, a long-standing brand in the SSC exam space.

The acquisition will reinforce Oliveboard’s commitment to provide quality education to the learners from India’s top educators across exam categories.

Spiritual wellness startup Emerging Vision raises $4M led by LightSpeed (Funding)

Singapore-based Emerging Vision raised $4 million in Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The round also saw participation from a few angel investors, according to a release shared by the company.

The online spiritual wellness platform will use the funds to scale its operations and develop its Android platform - Guruji, and its iOS version - Teller. So far, the startup has raised a total of $5 million in funding.