Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (November 8, 2021)

Paytm IPO sees 9 percent overall subscription with retail portion at 50 percent on day one opening

The initial public offering (IPO) of One97 Communication, the holding company of fintech major Paytm , has got off to a good start on the first day of subscription, on Monday, with 9 percent subscription and retail portion accounting for 50 percent.

According to data available on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) at 12:38 pm, the retail portion was subscribed by 43,65,420 shares out of the allotted 89,98,076. The total number of shares subscribed was 44,68,626 out of the total offer for sale at 4,83,89,422.

BrightChamps raises $63M from various marquee investors (Funding)

BrightCHAMPS, a global platform for kids to learn next-generation skills, on Monday announced that it has raised $63 million. This round saw contributions from multiple marquee investors across geographies such as Premji Invest - private equity investor, GSV Ventures - edtech focused Venture Capital firm based out of the US, Binny Bansal - investor and co-founder of Flipkart, Bangalore-based 021 Capital, and Singapore based BEENEXT.

According to the official statement, the startup plans to utilise the funds to hire across functions such as product, technology, growth, content, operations, sales, marketing, and business development, and build a team of superlative quality.

HR tech startup Advantage Club raises additional $3.3M in Pre-Series A round (Funding)

Gurugram-based HR Tech startup Advantage Club on Monday announced that it has raised nearly $5 million in a Pre-Series A round from Y Combinator, Jetty Ventures, Earlsfield Capital, SMC Advisors, Kunal Shah, and others.

With this latest round of funding, the company aims to expand its operations further worldwide and add more tech-led products and features. It also plans to continue investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to improve its product offerings.