[Weekly funding roundup] Venture investments touch $620 million for the week

The first eight days of the New Year has brought back the momentum of venture capital funding into the Indian startup ecosystem, with total investments touching $612 million as B2B unicorn Udaan led the show.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns, venture funding in 2020 had also taken a hit, but with the start of 2021, there are very positive signs of things returning to pre-pandemic normalcy. There are startups like CRED and boAt Lifestyle which continue to get stronger investor backing.

The second week of January saw a total of 20 transactions, with 12 of them in early-stage funding, followed by four each in growth and late stages. Debt funding made a comeback during the week with investments of $2.3 million.

Key deals

B2B unicorn Udaan raised $280 million in additional financing from its existing and new investors. The new investors include Octahedron Capital and Moonstone Capital, while the existing group include Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, GGV Capital, Altimeter Capital, and Tencent.

ALSO READ

Outlook 2021: What happened in ecommerce in 2012 is happening in edtech now, says Pankaj Makkar of Bertelsmann India Investments

boAt, founded in 2016 by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, has secured $100 million in PE funding from Warburg Pincus.

CRED, the Bengaluru-headquartered fintech startup founded by Kunal Shah, raised $81 million in Series C round at a valuation of $806 million.

Biocon Biologics has raised Rs 555 crore from Abu Dhabi-based holding company ADQ at a valuation of $4.17 billion.

Other transactions

Agritech startup CropIn raised $20 million in a Series C round led by ABC World Asia. Existing investors Chiratae Ventures, Invested Development, and Ankur Capital also participated.

Hospitality firm Oyo has raised Rs 54 crore from Hindustan Media Ventures as part of Series F1 round.

Edtech startup Kyt raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Alpha Wave Incubation, and saw participation from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, January Capital, Titan Capital, and other angel investors.

Practically, an interactive and immersive learning app, raised $4 million in a pre-Series B round led by Siana Capital. 

Bengaluru-based Devic Earth, a green technology company, raised its first institutional funding of Rs 10 crore from Blue Ashva Sampada Fund.

Fintech startup Zerone Microsystems raised $1.3 million in pre-Series A round led IAN and TCA. It also saw participation from angel investors.

KiranaKart, a grocery delivery startup, raised $730,000 in a pre-seed round led by Global Founders Capital. It also saw participation from Contrary Capital, 2 AM Ventures, and angel investors.

Sub $1 million deals

Legalwiz.in, a legaltech startup, raised Rs 3.8 crore from ContCentric IT Services Private Limited.

DcodeAI, an edtech startup, raised angel funding of $500,000 from educational publishing house Sultan Chand and Sons.

Finsall, a Bengaluru-based insurtech startup, raised Rs 2.4 crore in a seed round from Unicorn India Ventures, with participation from SEA Fund and other angel investors.

iMumz, a Bengaluru-based pregnancy health app, raised $300,000 (Rs 2.2 crore) from Enzia Ventures, Titan Capital, and AngelList.

Organic beauty marketplace Vanity Wagon raised a seed funding of $200,000 led by Agility Venture Partners and other angel investors.

HobSpace, the Mumbai-based extra-curricular activities platform, raised around Rs 1 crore in pre-Series A1 round led by angel investment platform Inflection Point Ventures.

Pune-based agritech e-marketplace Agri10x has raised an undisclosed seed round from impact investor Omnivore.