This week’s startup funding took place under the shadow of Coronavirus but funding mood managed to stay somewhat optimistic despite the onslaught of the deadly virus. That said, apart from two big ticket funding round that were bagged by SMEcorner and Spinny, the funding scenario largely stayed subdued.
Here are this week’s top funding stories covered under our weekly funding section.
SMEcorner: B2B Fintech startup SMEcorner, which lends credit to MSMEs, raised $30 Mn in a series B round. The round was a mix of equity and debt and was led by Paragon Partners. Existing investors Quona Capital, Accion Venture Lab and clutch of HNIs also participated in the round. Samir Bhatia, founder & CEO SMEcorner, said that the latest fund infusion will help in acquiring 20,000 new customers and increase its loan book up to INR 1,500 by end of the current financial year.
Spinny: Second hand car platform Spinny raised this week’s biggest funding rounding, securing massive investment of $43.7 Mn in a fresh funding round. Investment firm Fundamental Partnership, K B Financial and General Catalyst Partners led the round. Existing investors Accel and Saif partners also participated in the round.
Gurgaon based startup will use the funds to strengthen its technology, ramp up its business team and expand to newer geographical territories.
The company currently offers services only in four cities and has till date sold nearly 10,000 used cars through its platform.
Salesken.ai: Sequoia India led an $8 Mn series A funding round in artificial intelligence startup Salesken.ai. The funding round also led to partial exit of investors Unitus Ventures and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. The startup, which is headquartered in IT city of Bengaluru, will use the fresh capital to ramp up its AI conversation intelligence platform and expand footprints across Asia Pacific and North America.
Salesken.ai is an AI conversational platform that helps companies to increase their sales ROI.
Arya: Arya Collateral Warehousing Services, an agri tech startup based in Noida, secured $6 Mn in pre-series B round. Omnivore and existing investor LGT Lightstone Aspada led the funding round. The startups plans to use the capital for expanding its storage network and warehouse receipt financing business. It also plans to soon launch a rural storage discovery platform.
Arya basically offers array of post-harvesting services including warehousing storage, warehousing receipt financing etc.
Chqbook: Avishkaar Capital pumped $5 Mn in Gurgaon headquartered Fintech startup Chqbook in a series A round. Apart from Avishkaar, no other investors participated in the round. The company said that it will use funds to increase its product portfolio, expand distribution presence across several cities and ramp up its AI power technology platform.
Chqbook claims to be building country’s first marketplace bank for small business owners.
Epigamia: Existing investor and leading Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone pumped INR 1.05 crore in yogurt brand Epigamia. Following the latest funding, Epigamia is now valued around $68 Mn, according to the latest regulatory filings filed by the company. As part of the deal, Deepika Padukone is the strategic advisor as well as brand ambassador of the company.
Epigamia, operated by Drums food international, offers flavored and greek yogurt products across various retail outlets.
FlixStock: FlixStock, a fashion focused image technology startup that leverages the power of AI, secured $2.5 Mn funding from Wavemaker Partners and Seed Capital. Existing investor Leo Capital also contributed to the round.
The company will use the latest proceedings to start a dedicated AI startup in Singapore and to further expand its presence in United States.
Strata: Commercial real estate platform, Strata, raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding round. Saif Partners and Mayfield India led the round while PropStack also contributed to the round. Established in 2019, this barely one year old startup plans to use the latest capital infusion for expanding to other metro cities and further strengthen its tech team.
The startup is currently operational only in Bengaluru and Mumbai.
goStops: Hostel chain startup, goStop, secured undisclosed amount of angel investment from Atraxn Partners.
Headquartered in New Delhi, the startup currently operates 13 hostels and 800 beds across several Indian cities.
Sleepy Owl: Delhi based Coffee brand, Sleepy Owl, secured an undisclosed amount of investment from Rukam Capital AngelList India. Existing investor DSG Consumer Partners also pumped funds into the round.
The startup will use the latest fund infusion to expand its product portfolio, ramp up operations and strengthen distribution network.
The three year old startup sells array of cold brew coffee products.