Here are the top 10 funding activities of this week. The week gone by saw the glamour quotient returning back to the funding horizon. More on this and other funding rumors doing the rounds in this week’s weekly funding roundup.
1mg: This week’s biggest funding round was bagged by online pharmacy marketplace 1mg. 1mg raised $70 million in Series D funding round led by IFC. A consortium of South Korean based VC firm also participated in this round. But participation of IFC particularly counts for a huge significance for 1 mg as it is an investment arm of Corisol Holdings, which is the largest stakeholder in n Zur Rose/ DocMorris – Europe’s largest online pharmacy marketplace.
Unacademy: Edutech startup Unacademy secured this week’s second biggest funding round. The Delhi based startup raised $50-million from American hedge fund Steadview Capital. The round also witnessed the participation of existing investors like Sequoia Capital India, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. Unacademy is among the few Edutech startups that has carved a respectable place for itself over the years.
GOQii: Now here comes the glamour quotient that we were talking about earlier. Bollywood Star Akshay Kumar has now become the latest celebrity to invest in a startup. Kumar invested undisclosed amount in fitness wearable startup GOQii. The Bollywood Star will also come on board as a strategic advisor for the company.
MyGlamm: The beauty industry is widely considered among the most recession proof industries in the world. Taking cue from this fact, Bessemer Venture Partners and the Mankekar family office spearheaded $14.47 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in beauty marketplace MyGlamm. Other existing investor L’Occitane also participated in the round.
Open: Fintech startup Open raised $30 Mn in a Series B funding round that led VC giant a Series B funding round. The round also saw participation of existing investors including 3one4 Capital, Speedinvest and BetterCapital AngelList Syndicate.
Curefit: This week Curefit once again displayed its funding abilities by raising $120 Mn from clutch of existing investors including Chiratae Ventures, Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Oaktree Capital. Last week there were unconfirmed reports that the Bengaluru based health & fitness startup is in talks with SoftBank for raising fresh funds.
Milkbasket: This week Milkbasket once again demonstrated that investors are going full throttle in reposing their faith in micro-delivery startups. Milkbasket raised $10.5-million in a round led by Unilever Ventures. Other investors that participated in the round are Mayfield India, Kalaari Capital and Blume Ventures.
Recko: Prime Venture Partners led a small seed funding round of $1 million (Rs 6.93 crore) in Fintech startup Recko Software Pvt. Ltd. According to reports, no other investors participated in this seed funding round. Recko claims that it has built AI enabled reconciliation SaaS product to keep track of the complete lifecycle for organizations.
Isthara Eyes: Coimbatore headquartered startup Isthara Parks secured $5.7 Mn (INR 40 Cr) of capital infusion from JM Financial India Fund II. Isthara Eyes provides shared-living accommodation for working professionals and students. The startup said that it will use funds for expansion purposes in all the existing markets and also in key Asian markets.
Streak.tech: Algorithmic trading platform Streak.tech got a much needed funding boast with $1 Mn Pre-Series A funding. The round was led by 3one4 Capital and its existing investor Rainmatter Capital.
Other startups that managed to raise funds this week included WizCounsel, String Bio, TapChief and i2iFunding. And as promised we would like to end this week’s weekly funding roundup with a top funding rumor. Grapevines are claiming that Meesho, which recently secured funding from Facebook, is vying for another funding round.
