[Weekly funding roundup] Venture investments into Indian startups continue to rise

Venture funding into Indian startups continued to rise, with new unicorns emerging from the ecosystem as the total amount for the third week September touched closer to $500 million.

The third week of September reported a total venture funding of $434 million, which was 37 percent rise when compared to the previous week where the total amount stood at $317 million. There were totally 27 deals during the week with 22 of them coming under the early stage category.

The week did not witness any large deal transactions, but two new unicorns emerged – Mobile Premier League and Apna. The blue collar jobs platform Apna became one of the fastest startup to get into the unicorn category.

It remains to be seen how the remaining months are going to play out for the Indian venture ecosystem in terms of funding.

Key deals

Gaming startup Mobile Premier League has turned into unicorn at $2.3 billion valuation after it raised an estimated $150 million funding led by Legatum Capital.

Fintech startup Pine Labs raised $100 million from Invesco Developing Markets Fund.

Apna, the jobs platform raised close to $100 million at $1.1. billion valuation led by Tiger Global with participation from Owl Ventures, Insight Partners and others.

Other transactions

BetterPlace, a tech platform for blue collar workforce, raised $24 million from CX Partners and Singapore-based Jungle Ventures.

Edtech startup Eupheus Learning raised $10 million from Lightrock India.

Vahan, a jobs platform, raised $8 million led by Silicon Valley investor Khosla Ventures.

Agri advisory startup BharatAgri raised $6.5 million led by Omnivore, with participation from existing investors India Quotient and 021 Capital.

Healthtech startup Ayu Health raised $6.3 million from Vertex Ventures and Stellaris Venture Partners.

B2B networking platform Anar raised $6.2 million co-led by Elevation Capital and Accel India.

Healthtech startup HexaHealth raised $4.5 million led by Omidyar Network India and Chiratae Ventures with participation from 3one4 Capital.

M2P Fintech raised $4 million in Livquik Technology.

SaaS startup GTM Buddy raised $2 million led by Stellaris Venture Partners. 

Gaming startup Awon GameZ raised $2 million in seed funding from Aditya Duggar and Family.

Fintech startup Paytail raised $1.5 million from Cholamandalam and other angel investors.

Fintech startup 4Fin raised $1.1 million from Curesense Therapeutics.

Home loans startup Easiloan raised Rs 8 crore from Tomorrow Capital. 

Healthtech startup Medpho raised $1 million in angel round led by Cygnus Medicare Group and other angels.

Godamwale, a warehouse discovery and leasing platform, raised $1 million from Capt. Anand Aryamane.

D2C brand Flatheads raised $1 million from We Founder Circle and Dexter Angels.

Retail tech startup Gobbly raised Rs 7.2 crore led by Anicut Angel Fund and Sauce.VC.

Edtech startup Tinkerly raised Rs 6.5 crore led Navneet Tech Ventures.

Online music education platform Artium Academy raised $750,000  led by Bollywood singer Sonu Nigam, Whiteboard Capital and JetSynthesys.

SaaS startup eShipz raised $700,000 led by Indian Angel Network.

D2C brand WickedGud raised $340,000 led by Titan Capital and angel investors.

Home interiors startup Shadez raised over $200,000 led by Inflection Point Ventures.

Drone startup Enercomp raised Rs 1.5 from ah! Ventures angel platform.

Edtech startup EventBeep raised undisclosed round of funding.

India connect

California and Bengaluru-based Bidgely raised $26 million from Moore Strategic Ventures and Accurant International.

The US and India-based marketing tech startup Pyxis One raised $17 million co-led by Celesta Capital and Premji Invest.

M&A

Edtech decacorn BYJU’S acquired US-based K-12 coding platform Tynker.

Harness, the US-based tech unicorn acquired the Bengaluru-based cloud startup Lightwing for an undisclosed value.