[Weekly Funding Roundup] Startups raise $116 million in the first week of March

Indian startups raised $116 million in funding in the first week of March, cutting across 19 deals. However, it was a decline of 37 percent compared to the same period last week.

During the week, the Pre-Series A round saw the highest volume of funding activity at seven deals, although, the largest investment was in a Series B round at $84 million. Further, in the stage-wise funding, the early-stage startups recorded the highest number of deals at 13, followed by growth deals at six.

The week also witnessed debt financing in startups to the tune of $9.5 million from three deals with two-wheeler rental startup Bounce accounting for the lion’s share.

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Highlights of the week

Gurugram-based online used car retailing platform Spinny raised $43.7 million (about Rs 315 crore) in Series B funding led by Fundamentum Partnership (FP), a growth-capital fund backed by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal. The round also saw participation from new investors such as US-based General Catalyst Partners, Korea-based KB Financial Group, and existing investors Accel, SAIF Partners, and Alteria Capital as co-investors.

Fintech startup SMEcorner raised $30 million in a Series B round in a combination of debt and equity, led by Paragon Partners. Existing investors such as Quona Capital, Accion Venture Lab, Bharat Shah, and a few other HNIs also participated in the round. Further, Promoter Samir Bhatia made fresh investments in the startup in the round.

Other key deals

Tricog, a Bengaluru-based healthcare analytics startup, raised $10.5 million in Series B funding from UTEC - the University of Tokyo Edge Capital, Japan; Aflac Ventures, LLC, Japan; TeamFund, US; and Dream Incubator, Japan. Existing investors Inventus Capital and Blume Ventures also participated in this round.

Bengaluru-based startup Salesken.ai raised $8 million in Series A funding from Sequoia India. The round also saw investors such as Unitus Ventures and Michael and Susan Dell Foundation making a partial exit from the startup.

Post-harvest agritech startup Arya raised $6 million in Pre-Series B funding led by Omnivore and existing investor LGT Lightstone Aspada.

San Francisco and Bengaluru-based fintech startup Leap Finance raised $5.5 million in a round led by Sequoia India. The round also saw participation from leading angels including - Bhupinder Singh, Founder and CEO, InCred, as well as Kunal Shah, Founder and CEO, CRED, among others.

Gurugram-based fintech startup Chqbook.com raised $5 million in Series A funding from Aavishkaar Venture Capital. The fresh capital will be deployed to expand its product portfolio, scale-up distribution across multiple cities, and strengthen its proprietary AI-powered technology platform.

Bengaluru-based lifestyle-community-commerce platform Trell raised $4 million in Pre-Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Fosun RZ Capital, and KTB Network. Existing investors Beenext, WEH Ventures, and Sprout Ventures also participated in the round.

Singapore-based deep tech startup Flixstock raised $2.5 million in a round led by Wavemaker Partners and Seeds Capital. Leo Capital also participated in the round.

London-based data science startup Gyana raised $3.9 million (about Rs 28.5 crore) in Pre-Series A round of funding led by Fuel Adventures, Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone, Green Shores Capital, and U+I.

Debt deal

Bengaluru-based scooter-sharing startup Bounce raised $6.5 million in debt funding from existing investor InnoVen Capital. This marks InnoVen Capital’s third investment in Bounce in 18 months, taking the total debt investment to $12 million exclusively from the firm.

Small and undisclosed deals

Strata, a Bengaluru-based real-estate investment tech startup, raised $1.5 million funding in a seed round led by SAIF Partners and Mayfield India.

Anicut Angel Fund has made its maiden investment and led a Pre-Series A round of close to $1 million in Hyderabad-based Neeman's, an eco-conscious footwear brand making comfortable shoes using Merino Wool. 

Noida-based consultancy startup Spaciya Advisors raised $500,000 in Pre-Series A round from angel investor and serial entrepreneur Alok Garg. Following this investment, Alok will also take up the role of Director – Operations in the startup.

Bengaluru-based edtech startup Oda Class raised an undisclosed amount in its Pre-Series A round of funding led by Yuanfudao, a China education giant.

Delhi-based youth hostel chain GoStops raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Atraxn Partners, an angel investor firm headed by Nirmal Singh and Pawan Kumar.

New Delhi-based smart bus startup gogoBus raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by AI-based travel app ixigo.

F5, a New Delhi-based 'retail aggregator' raised an undisclosed seed round of funding led by investors from LetsVenture.

(Edited by Suman Singh)