[Funding roundup] Jar, Bombay Shaving Co raise late-stage deals; Un1feed, Pillow, and others raise early rounds

Fintech startup Jar raises $32M in Series A round led by Tiger Global

Bengaluru-based saving and investment app Jar on Friday raised $32 million in its Series A financing round from US-based hedge fund Tiger Global Management.

Rocketship.vc, Third Prime, Stonks, and Force Ventures also came on board as new investors, while existing backers Arkam Ventures and WEH Ventures contributed too. The Series A round follows a $4.5 million seed funding round that took place in August last year.

A clutch of high-profile investors, including Victor Jacobsson (Founder at Klarna), Suleman Ali (Co-founder and General Partner at Ali Capital), Shamir Karkal (Founder at Sila Money), Byron Ling (Partner at Canaan Partners), Joel John (Principal at Ledger Prime), and Jeremy Cai (Founder at Italic) were also participants in the round.

The startup, founded by Nishchay AG, former director and founding member at mobility startup Bounce, and Misbah Ashraf, Founder of community-focused ecommerce platform Marsplay (acquired by Foxy in 2020), was launched in May 2021, and allows users to save money by taking a small amount from their everyday online transactions and automatically investing in digital gold.

Bombay Shaving Company raises Rs 50 Cr from GII in follow-on Series C round

New Delhi-based personal care and hair removal brand Bombay Shaving Company has raised Rs 50 crore from Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), as a follow on to its Rs 160 crore Series C funding round led by Malabar. This takes the round size to Rs 210 crore.

The round comes 11 months after the company raised Rs 45 crore from Reckitt, a global FMCG giant in the health, hygiene, and nutrition space. The company is capitalised with two global, strategic giants – Colgate Palmolive and Reckitt on their cap table.

In an official statement, Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) said it plans to scale operations to Rs 500 crore top line with an omnichannel presence in the next two years, and will deploy the funds towards expanding its portfolio of personal care and hair removal products. GII will also be strategically positioned to provide access to GCC markets in addition to the already existing domestic market expertise the company has attained.

Proptech startup POPT raises funds from Canadian angel investors at $2M valuation

Proptech startup POPT said it has raised undisclosed funding from two Canada-based angels, MRW Ventures and Riar Holdings, at a pre-seed valuation of $2 million.

Seven other Indian angel investors participated in the round as well, the startup said.

Founded in 2021 by Manpreet Singh, POPT makes it easy for people to search for, buy and sell properties within their budgets. It also makes it easy for real estate investors to find the right property fit and simplifies complex processes such as delivery, documentation and other services.

Fitness startup fitpage acquires India Running for undisclosed amount

Mumbai-based Fitpage said it has bought race registration platform, India Running, for an undisclosed amount in a bid to strengthen its position in the endurance fitness space.

The deal will enable fitpage to tap runners on the India Running platform and sell them services such as nutrition consultations, training, registration, etc., to prepare for races in the country.

Fitpage last year raised $3.7 million in funding from investors such as Astra Ventures and Gaurav Jaitly, MD and head of equity at Goldman Sachs India.

Shiprocket invests $1.5M in SaaS platform Logibricks

Logistics giant Shiprocket said it has invested $1.5 million in Logibricks, a SaaS platform that helps online retailers manage their logistics operations.

The deal will help Logibricks to revamp its current product and unveil its new platform by April 2022. The funds will also be used for hiring.

Founded by Ameya Shah, Karan Kabra, and Shereef Mohammed, Logibricks is a 5-year-old startup based out of Pune.

DeFi startup Pillow raises $3M in seed from Elevation Capital

Decentralised finance startup Pillow said it has raised $3 million in seed funding from investors including Elevation Capital and a host of crypto angel investors such as Scott Lewis, Co-founder of DeFi Pulse; Aniket Jindal, co-founder of Biconomy; and FamPay's co-founders, Kush Taneja and Sambhav Jain, among others.

Founded by Arindam Roy, Rajath KM, and Kartik Mishra in 2021, Pillow helps users worldwide earn interest rates on their crypto, instead of letting them lie idle. It invests in curated, actively managed DeFi strategies.

After launching its beta in December 2021, Pillow has managed to accrue nearly $1 million in assets under management.

D2C Ayurveda brand Life & Pursuits raises $500K in angel funding

Life & Pursuits said it has raised $500,000 in funding from angels such as Supermorpheus, led by Sameer Guglani, and Eagle10 Ventures.

Pankaj Agrawal from IndiaMart's promoter family, Madhup Agrawal from IndiaMart, Tarun Matta, founder of iimjobs.com, which was acquired by Naukri.com, and Ankur Singla, founder of Tapzo which was acquired by Amazon Pay, also participated in the round.

The capital infusion will be used by the startup to enhance its global footprint by launching in the US, the UK, and EU.

Social-tech startup Un1Feed raises $1M in pre-seed funding from Silicon Valley-based Neo

Un1Feed said it has raised a pre-seed round of $1 million from Neo, an early investor in Facebook.

The startup said it will use the funds to enhance its product development, as well as hire engineers and marketing executives.

Founded in 2021 by Ansh Nanda and Hardik Patel, Uni1Feed allows users to log into all their social media platforms on a single platform, and control what sort of content they see, down to the last detail.

"Gen Z and Millenials spend over 20 percent of their waking life on social media, with almost no control over the kind of content they consume. In just the past year, nearly half of my generation has attempted to delete their social media account. Clearly, social media users have a love/hate relationship with it, and we want to change that," said Hardik Patil, Co-founder of Un1Feed in a press statement.