Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (November 24, 2021)

Blume Ventures announces first close of Fund IV at $105M

Venture capital fund Blume Ventureshas announced the first close of its fourth fund - Blume Fund IV - at $105 million. The company stated the final close of the fund closer to the $200 million mark. 

With Fund IV, Blume will continue to invest in its core strategy -- pre-Seed to pre-Series A technology startups across India as well as consumer internet, SMB marketplaces, and global opportunities in software and enterprise technology being addressed by Indian founders.

Indifi raises Rs 340 Cr in Series D equity and debt funding round

CX Partners and OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I (the first Finnish global emerging markets impact fund) along with existing investors CDC Group (the UK’s development finance institution), Omidyar Network, Flourish Ventures, Elevar Equity and Accel, have invested Rs 140 crore in the Series D round of equity capital raise for Indifi Technologies, a digital financial services company based in Gurugram.  Indifi has also secured Rs 165 crore in debt financing from Vivriti, Northern Arc, SIDBI, along with other lenders. Additionally, US DFC (United States International Development Finance Corporation) has guaranteed Rs 35 crore of funding to Indifi.

Co-living startup Settl raises $500K from ah! Ventures, We Founder Circle, others

Settl, a technology-driven managed accommodation platform, has raised an investment worth $500,000 in seed round. The funding round witnessed participation from an array of investors- We Founder Circle, ah! Ventures and other angel investors like - Saurabh Jha (Director- Growth and Analytics, Housing.com), Ashu Dubey (Principal Product Manager, Linkedin), Mahesh Pillai, Senior Vice President, Pierian Services Private Limited and Abdul Paravengal (ex CBO, Shipper).

Park+ raises $25 M in Series B round led by Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners

Park+, a new smart parking solution startup launched by Amit Lakhotia, ex-VP of Paytm Payments, on Wednesday announced that it has raised ~$25 million in a Series B round co-led by Sequoia Capital India, Matrix Partners India and Epiq Capital. Existing and new investors, including AdvantEdge, Fund II - a series of Somani Investments LP and Motherson Lease Solution Limited, also participated in the round.

CoreStack closes $30M Series B round led by Avatar Growth Capital (Funding)

CoreStack, a global multi-cloud governance SaaS provider, has raised $30 million Series B funding led by Avatar Growth Capital, with continued participation from Dallas Venture Capital (DVC), Iron Pillar, and other angel investors. 

This brings CoreStack’s total funding to $45 million, following its Series A in March 2020. The funding will help CoreStack continue its rapid pace of growth and innovation with its AI-powered continuous and autonomous cloud governance at scale.

EV startup Simple Energy raises $21M in oversubscribed pre-series round (Funding)

Bengaluru-based electric vehicle startup Simple Energy on Monday announced the completion of a $21 million (Rs 155 crore) pre-series investment round.

The company had aimed to raise $15 million in fundraising, but immense investor interest resulted in Simple Energy raising a total of $21 million, it stated.

Cryptocurrencies take a hit over govt’s move to ban all private tokens

Cryptocurrency exchanges in India witnessed frenzied activity on Wednesday with prices of these tokens recording steep decline and app crashing as a reaction to the government's decision to introduce a Bill in the Parliament that will ban all private digital currencies.

The value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Polkadot fell more than 10 percent on early trade before making certain recovery. Bitcoin was down about 8.68 percent at around 1:30 pm, and Shiba Inu was down close to 16 percent.

Hike onboards Elad Gil, Mark Pincus & Shishir Mehrotra as investors (Funding)

After onboarding Tinder co-founders, Binny Bansal, Kunal Shah, and others, Hike has onboarded Zynga Founder Mark Pincus; Shishir Mehrotra, Co-founder, Coda and Elad Gil, Entrepreneur as investors "to bolster innovation at Hike," said the company in a statement.

Mark, Shishir & Elad would be joining the iconic line-up of incredible leaders and product builders Hike onboarded as investors in its last round raised in August 2021 led by Justin Mateen, Co-Founder, Tinder.

GlobalBees enters health, sports supplement and eyewear categories with 3 investments

GlobalBees, a roll-up ecommerce company, has announced three new entrants to its house of brands with investments in Healthyhey, Rey Naturals and Intellilens. 

With the current investments, the company now has a portfolio across homecare, personal care, nutrition and wellness, health and sports supplement and intelligent eyewear categories.