Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [June 29- July 4]

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

This week, Intel Capital has committed to invest INR 1,894.50 Cr ($253 Mn) in Reliance Jio Platforms for 0.39% equity stake on a fully diluted basis. The investment has come at an equity value of INR 4.91 Lakh Cr and an enterprise value of INR 5.16 Lakh Cr.

With this, the company has raised over INR 117,588.45 Cr ($15.65 Bn) for less than a quarter of its business across 11 deals with leading tech investors like Facebook, Silver Lake, General Atlantic, KKR, TPG Capital, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Mubadala Investment Company, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, L Catterton and Vista Equity Partner.

Overall, 15 startups raised around $44 Mn funding and one acquisition took place in the Indian startup ecosystem this week. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts).

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Zetwerk ($21 Mn)
2. Flinto ($7.2 Mn)
3. Paper Boat ($3.7 Mn)
4. Bulk MRO ($3.3 Mn)
5. Indus OS ($2.86 Mn)
6. Ken42 ($1.47 Mn)
7. Big Bang Boom Solutions ($1.5 Mn)
8. Forbidden Foods ($1 Mn)
9. ChitMonks ($650K)
10. Inspektlabs ($600K)
11. Universal Sportsbiz ($503K)
12. Gobbly ($500K)
13. Mitron (Undisclosed)
14. Samosa Party (Undisclosed)
15. Bold Care (Undisclosed)
16. Aerostrovilos (Undisclosed)

• • Zetwerk
    B2B marketplace for manufacturing items has raised $21 Mn in a Series C financing round led by San Francisco-based investment firm Greenoaks. Existing investors Accel,  Kae Capital,  Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital India also participated in the round. The company is looking to scale its domestic operations and help local businesses find customers overseas.

• • Flinto
    Chennai-based edtech startup Flinto Learning Solutions has raised $7.2 Mn in a Pre-Series B round led by Lightbox Ventures. The early-stage venture capital firm had also participated in the Series A funding round of the startup.

• • Paper Boat
    Gurugram-based beverage and snack brand Paper Boat has raised $3.7 Mn (INR 28 Cr) funding from Sofina Ventures, A91 Emerging Fund I, SCI Growth Investment II and Catamaran Ventures. With this investment, Sofina Venture has picked up 2,07,425 stake for $2.2 Mn (INR 16.50 Cr), while A91 Emerging Fund I has picked up 62,856 stake for $669K (INR 5 Cr).

• • Bulk MRO
    Y Combinator-backed Bulk MRO has raised upto $3.3 Mn (INR 25 Cr) as a part of its new debt funding round led by venture debt provider Stride Ventures, by partnering with an undisclosed bank to facilitate this deal. Stride intends to become a strategic partner of Bulk MRO and its business with their customized offerings and deep relationships across banks and corporates.

• • Ken42
    Bengaluru-based edtech startup Ken42 has raised $1.47 Mn (INR 11 Cr) led by a national programme for early-stage startups, Turbostart. The round also saw participation from Murali & Co’s managing partner Muralidhara C,  SRK Infrastructure’s director Mohan Raju Manthena.

• • Big Bang Boom Solutions
    Defence tech Big Bang Boom Solutions (BBBS) has raised $1.5 Mn in Series A from Mumbai Angels Network, Praveen Dwarkanath and Dr. Shivaraman Ramaswamy. The company has received earlier investment from an Individual investor to the tune of INR 5 Cr.

• • Forbidden Foods
    Packaged foods startup Forbidden Foods has raised $1 Mn in seed funding from marquee angel investors Globevestor, Secocha Ventures, First Cheque VC, HyperTrack founder and chief executive Kashyap Deorah, and Quess Corp’s Vijay Sivaram.

• • ChitMonks
    Hyderabad-based fintech/blockchain startup ChitMonks has raised $650K in Pre-Series A round from Unicorn India Ventures Fund II. The company has developed a Blockchain-based product empowering the state government regulators to administer Chit fund operations across the state on a private permissioned Blockchain network.

• • Inspektlabs
    Inspection AI Startup Inspektlabs has raised $600K in a Pre Series A round led by Better Capital, Titan Capital and a cluster of angel investors. The US and New Delhi- based startup will utilize this funding for product development and to increase its breadth of offerings for insurance and automotive players across the globe.

• • Universal Sportsbiz
    Universal Sportsbiz (USPL) on July 2 has received fresh funding. According to the ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42, the company has received $503K (INR 3.76 Cr) from NB Ventures by issuing 97 preference shares at a face value of INR 10 with a premium of INR 3.88 Lakh per share.

• • Gobbly
    Gurugram-based retail technology venture Gobbly has raised seed equity funding of $500K from Sauce.vc. Gobbly plans to allocate the funds towards development of their technology and marketing initiatives.

• • Mitron
    Short video app Mitron has raised undisclosed amount in seed funding from 3one4 Capital and LetsVenture syndicate list led by Arun Tadanki. The company said it will use the funding to accelerate its product development roadmap, engage more deeply with a wide network of Indian content creators, and hire talent.

• • Samosa Party
    Snacking startup Samosa Party has raised an undisclosed amount from angel platform Inflection Point Ventures. The startup intends to utilise these funds to set up the infrastructure for scale, open cloud kitchens across Bangalore and other Tier 1 cities.

• • Bold Care
    Men’s health and wellness platform Bold Care has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed round from strategic investors such as Fung Strategic Investments’  Rajesh Ranavat, CommerceX’s founder Abhishek Shah and others.

• • Aerostrovilos
    IIT Madras incubated Automotive startup Aerostrovilos has raised an undisclosed amount from Mumbai Angels Network. The company plans to use this funding to complete the full proof of concept (POC) of Turbine Generator.

  Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

  • Bengaluru-based edtech startup GetMyUni has acquired online learning company Avagmah from AEON Learning in an all-cash deal. Avagmah is a full stack online programme manager (OPM) that allows universities to fully outsource their online programs. Through this acquisition, GetMyUni has entered the online certification and degree-granting space.

  Other Developments Of The Week

  • Microsoft’s 100X100X100 program is collaborating with Accenture to host the third edition of the Accenture Ventures Challenge for Indian startups across supply chain resilience, channel shift to digital commerce, systems resilience and responsible technology.
  • US and Singapore-based investment firm B Capital, which is founded by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin and Silicon Valley investor Raj Ganguly in 2014, has announced the final close of its second fund at $820 Mn (INR 6,192 Cr) to invest in growth-stage startups. B Capital typically invests $10 Mn to $60 Mn in B2B and B2B2C companies across sectors. Its portfolio includes 41 companies across Asia, Europe and North America.
  • MG Motor India has signed up six more startups for its ongoing MG Developer Program & Grant, under which it will provide mentoring from technology experts and the opportunity to work directly with specialized MG teams. The six finalists include Highway Delite, Socialcore, InCabEx, CamCom, ClearQuote, and the Alexa-based project Meeseeks.
  • Social impact-focused investment firm Omidyar Network India has funded 67 proposals under its INR 10.75 Cr Rapid Response Funding Initiative for Covid-19.
  • American payments giant Visa has onboarded Future Group-backed LivQuik in its Fintech Fastrack Programme in India. The programme will provide a new commercial framework that includes eased access to Visa’s payment capabilities and streamlined processes to support companies of different sizes and at different growth phases.
  • Sajan Pillai has now set up a new entity, McLaren, to support investments in B2B startups. McLaren will have an outbound strategy, where its team would help startups in their portfolio to access global markets and an inbound strategy, where it will focus on identifying and investing in cutting-edge work.
  • After the Indian government has increased the scrutiny over Chinese investments in the new FDI rules put a halt to ANT Financial’s bid to gain a further stake in Zomato, the foodtech giant may raise $100 Mn from Singapore-based VC Temasek.
  • ShareChat is reportedly in preliminary talks with its existing investors like SAIF Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and microblogging platform Twitter to raise $200 Mn funding.
  • Online pharmacy 1mg is raising $17 Mn (INR 133 Cr) in debt from existing investors MPOF Mauritius, MAF Mauritius, HBM Healthcare Investment, AG’s subsidiary KWE Beteiligungen and World Bank’s investment arm International Finance Corporation (IFC).
  • Mastercard-backed Indian payments startup Pine Labs is considering to buy out the Asian business of bankrupt Wirecard. According to sources, multiple players have expressed interest in the company’s assets, while others such as Hitachi Payments and Atos-backed Worldline Technology have made inquiries about the sale.
  • Vernacular social media platform ShareChat is reportedly in preliminary talks with its existing investors like SAIF Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and microblogging platform Twitter to raise $200 Mn funding.
  • BYJU’s, has made a $300 Mn all-cash offer to acquire smaller peer WhiteHat Jr. Additionally, BYJU’s has also been reported to be in advanced stages of negotiations to acquire Doubtnut.
• Stay Tuned!