[Weekly funding roundup] Capital inflow continues to remain strong

Venture investments into the Indian startup ecosystem for the second week of the month of December rose by close to 50 percent, giving a positive indication given the tepid investment environment during the end of the year.

The total funding amount for the second week of the month stood at $517 million — a 49 percent rise as compared to the previous week. There were 25 key deals during the week.

As has been the trend for the year, the majority of the deals were in the early stage category and of lower value. There were no debt deals during the week.

The year is coming to a close and this would be a record year for the Indian startup ecosystem in terms of record inflow of capital and the creation of unicorns.

Key deals

Ecommerce shipping and enablement platform Shiprocket raised $185 million from Zomato, Temasek Holdings, Lightrock, and others.

Bizongo, the B2B startup focused on the packaging industry, raised Rs 825 crore in its Series D round of funding led by Tiger Global.

Agritech startup Agrostar raised $70 million from Evolvence, Schroders Capital, Hero Enterprise, and CDC.

Other transactions

Tech startup Moengage raised $30 million from Steadview Capital, Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Eight Roads Ventures, and others.

Audio OTT app Pocket FM raised $22.4 million from Lightspeed, Times Group, Tanglin Venture Partners, and others.

Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler startup Ultraviolette Automotive raised $14.85 million from TVS Motor and Zoho Corporation.

Edtech startup PlanetSpark raised $13.5 million from Prime Venture Partners and angel investors Binny Bansal, Deep Kalra among others.

Fintech startup LenDenClub raised $10 million from Tuscan Ventures, Ohm Stock Brokers, Artha Venture Fund and angel investors.

EV startup CHARGE+ZONE raised $10 million led by Venture Catalysts and others.

Tech startup CloudSEK raised $7 million from MassMutual Ventures, Omidyar Network India, 100X Entrepreneur, and angel investors.

Tech startup AuthBridge raised $7 million from Phi Capital and others.

Insuretech startup Probus Insurance raised $6.7 million led by BlueOrchard Impact Investment Managers.

Social trading platform Trinkerr raised $6.6 million from Accel India, India Quotient, Titan Capital, and other angel investors.

EV startup Exponent Energy raised $5 million from YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital, AdvantEdge VC, and Motherson Group.

Web 3.0 cross-chain infra project Router Protocol raised $4.1 million token sale fundraise from Coinbase Ventures, and others.

Pseudonymous social network platform Zorro has raised $3.2 million in a seed funding round led by 16 unicorn and soonicorn founders.

India connect

Sense, the San Francisco headquartered HR tech startup which has an office in Bengaluru, has raised $50 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

US and India based tech startup CometChat raised $10 million from Signal Peak Ventures (SPV), Matchstick Ventures, Range Ventures and others.

Suki AI raised $55 million from March Capital, Philips Ventures, Venrock, Flare Capital, Breyer Capital, and inHealth Ventures.

M&A

Edtech unicorn upGrad has acquired Talentedge, an upskilling platform for an undisclosed value.