This week witnessed decent surge in the funding activities, with three startups raising moderately high funding rounds. The week also witnessed lot of buzz around the upcoming budget as startups desperately hope for some tax relief and bold measures to foster long term growth. Keeping aside the buzz around the budget, we now turn our attention towards our weekly startup funding series to uncover the top startup funding activities of this week.
InterviewBit: Barely few days after raising massive $3.8 Bn funding corpus, Tiger Global made first Indian investment after it spearheaded the $20 Mn round in Edtech startup InterviewBit. It spearheaded this round along with Sequoia India. Global Founder Capital among other investors also participated in the round.
InterviewBit is essentially a skill enhancement platform that aims to improve the coding skills of software professionals. Last year, the company launched a 6 month online coding program called Scaler Academy for software professionals. It claims that this program received 200,000 applications within nine months of its launch.
The company plans to utilize the latest capital infusion for ramping up its enrollment and expanding to new markets. The startup also plans to invest in its curriculum and live teaching product to enhance teacher-student experience.
MoneyTap: But the honor of raising this week’s biggest funding round went to MoneyTap. The Fintech and consumer lending platform raised whopping $70 Mn or Rs 500 crore from RTP Global and Sequoia India. Existing investor Prime Venture Partner also pumped capital into the round. As per Economic Times, the startup will use the funds to expand its consumer loan lending operation to over 200 cities and strengthen its data lending models.
Bizongo: Bizongo, a marketplace for B2B packaging solution, raised $30 Mn in a series C round led by Switzerland based hedge fund Schroder Adveq. Existing investors B Capital, Accel, Chiratae Ventures and IFC also pumped capital into the round. The Mumbai headquarter firm will use the funds for expanding its national footprint and penetrate deeper into pharma packaging sector. Bizongo had last raised funds in 2018 at a market valuation of $96 Mn.
AdOnMo: Outdoor advertising specialist startup AdonMo raised $3 Mn in a pre-series A funding round. Alibaba backed investment firm BAce Capital led the round. The round also saw participation of Astarc Ventures and Mumbai Angels Network. The company said that it will use the funds for further expanding the territorial operations, R&D operations and enhancing the existing team.
AdonMo aims to revolutionize outdoor advertising by fusing together the best of online and OHH advertising world.
Zetwerk: Zetwerk – a B2B startup dedicated to requirements of manufacturing industry – raised $2.24 Mn from venture debt firm InnoVen Capital. No other investor reportedly participated in the round. The latest funding round has come closely on the heels of series B, which was raised only few weeks back. Commenting on the latest fundraising round, Zetwerk’s CEO Amit Acharya said that company will continue to focus on expanding business in domestic as well as international markets. The company currently claims to have nearly 1,500 SMEs and 100 enterprises on its platform.
Kisan Network: Kisan Network probably became amongst the first agri tech startup to raise funds in 2020. The startup, which uses technology to streamlines supply chain to help small farmers, secured $3 Mn in a seed funding round. The round was led by Singapore based investment firm Mistletoe. Y Combinator, the Thiel Foundation, Veneture Highway among other investors also participated in the funding round.
WizKlub: This week proved to be pretty good week for edtech startup, with another edtech startup WizKlub raising $1 Mn or Rs 7 crore in seed funding round. The funding was led by Incubate Fund India while Insitor Impact Asia Fund also participated in the round. The Bengaluru based company plans to use the seed funding to further develop its products and ramp up its presence in other markets.
WizKlub leverages the power of AI to develop cognitive thinking skills among small children – aged between 5 and 15.
Uniplatform: Uniplatform technology, which operates B2B real estate platform MultiplyMyLeads.com, raised undisclosed amount of funding from investors. Frontline Strategy Funds, SucSEED Venture Partners LLP and other investors participated in the round. The company said that it will use the funds to launch services in the New Delhi region.
MultiplyMyLeads.com basically acts as a aggregator platform for providing leads to real estate property brokers, property developers and builders and connects them to customers.