The economic slowdown may have become an official news now but its effect is still nowhere visible on the Indian startup ecosystem. This was proven beyond doubt as Indian startups had yet another decent run on the fundraising front. It is to be seen for how long India’s startup industry will continue to defy the gloom that has slowly started casting its shadow on several important sectors. But as for now Indian startups can really take sigh of relief as we take yet opportunity to bring our weekly funding section. So here are the top 10 funding activities of this week.
Cred: This week’s biggest funding round was grabbed by Kunal Shah’s Cred as it raised whopping $120 Mn in its ongoing series B round. The round was spearheaded by existing investors Ribbit Capital, Gemini Investments and Sequoia Capital. Tiger Global, Hillhouse Capital, General Catalyst, Greenoaks Capital and Dragoneer also infused capital in the round. Cred is a member only app that seeks to incentivize its members to encourage them to pay their credit card bills on time.
Vedantu: Investor’s love affair with the edtech sector continued this week as Vedantu raised $42 Mn this week. New York based hedge fund Tiger Global and WestBridge Capital led the round. Existing investors Accel, Omidyar India and TAL Education also participated in the round. Vedantu, which offers online tutorials to students of CBSE and other boards, will utilize funds for branding purposes and ramping up technology as well as content capabilities.
Rapido: Bike rental startup Rapido drove into the fast lane by securing $55 Mn (nearly INR 391 Cr) in series B round. Westbridge capital led the round while Nexus Venture Partners, Integrated Capital, Bace Funds and Astrend India also participated in the funding round. Clutch of independent investors too participated in the round. Following the latest round, Westbridge capital has become the largest stakeholder in the company.
Chargebee: With $14 Mn (INR 100.5 Cr) capital infusion this week, Chennai based Chargebee secured the first funding of this year. Steadview Capital led the round while existing investors Insight Venture Partners and Accel Partners also contributed funds to the round. The Subscription management platform aims to utilize the funds to make its subscription management ecosystem more efficient and further enhance its upscale automation.
Innovcare Lifesciences: Mumbai based healthtech startup Innovcare Lifesciences raked up $6.4 Mn in its fresh funding round. JM Financial Private Equity spearheaded the round while existing investors also poured capital in the funding round. The company will use the latest capital infusion for ramping up its product portfolio and expanding into new therapeutic areas. Innovcare Lifesciences is a healthtech startup that seeks to provide reliable solutions in the field of Nutraceutical, Cosmeceuticals and Functional Food category.
Dunzo: Hyperlocal delivery platform Dunzo quietly raised INR 34.56 Cr in a desperate aim to cope with its high cash burn rate problem. The Bengaluru headquartered startup raised the funds by allocating debentures as well as preference shares to existing investor Alteria Capital. Apart from coping with high cash burn rate, the latest capital infusion will also help the company to fend off competition emanating from deep-pocket players like Swiggy and Zomato.
RentMojo: An online furniture & consumer durable leasing platform RentMojo secured 27.74 Cr in its latest fundraising round. The round was led by Samsung’s investment vehicle Samsung Venture Investments Corporation (SVIC) and Mitsui Sumitomo. SVIC poured 20.88 crore while Mitsui pumped Rs 6.86 crore in the round.
Advantage Club: Employee reward and recognition platform Advantage Club scooped up $1 million in a pre-series A round. GrowX Ventures led the round while Axilor Ventures, Sprout Venture Partners, Mumbai Angel among other investors also participated in the round. The company said that the funds will be utilized to create deeper insight that could eventually help in building more holistic platform for offering comprehensive rewards to employees.
InGage Technologies: Augmented reality and virtual reality solution provider, InGage Technologies, raised $2 million from TNQ Technologies. According to reports, no other investors participated in the round. The investment has paved for the Joint venture (JV) between the two companies. Both companies said that JV will focus on offering cutting edge augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality solutions to wide range of sectors.
Recko: Fintech startup Recko secured undisclosed amount of funding from clutch of angel investors including Taavet Hinirikus, Ashish Gupta, Vaibhav Puranik, Shamir Karkal and Eric Kwan. Recko utilizes the power of AI to keep track of the complete transaction lifecycle for the organization.
