Commerceiq Turns Unicorn, Inflection Point Ventures To Launch $50m Vc Fund, Leverage Edu Bags $22m In Series B & Ola Electric Makes Strategic Investment In Storedot

CommerceIQ turns unicorn after raising $115 million from SoftBank Vision Fund 2

Retail Ecommerce Management Platform CommerceIQ has turned unicorn after raising $115 million Series D financing round at a valuation of over $1 billion. The funding round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and witnessed participation from existing institutional investors including Insight Partners, Trinity Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Madrona Venture Group.

The fresh investment comes after CommerceIQ bagged $60 million Series C round in June 2021, bringing the total funding raised by the firm in the last 12 months to $175 million.

The startup will use the funds to expand its business globally, including India, and to accelerate the development of its unified Retail Ecommerce Management Platform, which connects and automates data and decisions across the entire e-commerce stack to power intelligent, profitable growth for leading global brands, the company said in a statement.

The investment will also fuel accelerated hiring for CommerceIQ in India, including expansion across software development, data science & analytics, product operations, and customer support, the firm added.

Inflection Point Ventures to launch $50 million VC fund

Angel investment platform Inflection Point Ventures has announced the launch of its new fund Physis Capital – CAT II fund, which will have a corpus of $50 million (about Rs 380 crore). The new fund aims to build a portfolio of 15-20 startups with an average ticket size of $2.5 million, IPV said in a statement.

The fund will actively invest in sectors like vertical commerce, consumer tech, social and content creator, business to business software as a service, and enterprise tech, it added.

“With Physis Capital, the Partners, namely – Vinay Bansal, Mitesh Shah, and Ankur Mittal, are set to replicate the success of First Port Capital (Angel Fund) and the IPV angel investment platform,” a statement said.

Physis Capital will have a corpus of $50 million (about Rs 380 crore) with a green-shoe option of another $25 million (about Rs 190 crore) and aims for its first close at $20 million.

It will participate and lead investments in startups looking to raise Pre-Series A to Series B capital. Physis Capital will start deploying capital post the first close. It is in the final stage of the registration process and is awaiting the nod from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Leverage Edu bags $22 million in Series B, valued at $120 million

Leverage Edu, a startup that helps students with higher education and career guidance in foreign universities, said it has secured $22 million in its Series B round led by a consortium of funds, family offices, and angel investors.

The round saw participation from Kaizenvest Private Equity, DSP Mutual Fund Group, Artha Ventures, UAE-based NB Ventures, 9Unicorns, Blume Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, Tomorrow Capital. Chona Group (behind Havmor), FMCG player Vicco, Mankind Pharma, and other family offices joined the round. Trifecta Ventures and Bennett Coleman also pitched in.

Prominent individuals like Morgan Stanley MD Hemant Gupta, CRED founder Kunal Shah, BookMyShow founder Ashish Hemrajani, True North Partner Haresh Chawla, Lenskart founder Peyush Bansal, ShareChat founder Farid Ahsan have also invested.

With the fresh investment, the company’s valuation has soared to $120 million. “We have grown over 12x in revenue between February 2021 and 2022, and are at a $20 million annualised revenue crossed milestone now. The team has done this while cutting CAC by crazy 2/3rds – thanks to over 20 percent of our business now coming from referrals, another 35% from a bunch of slick product channels like virtual fair platform UniConnect, IELTS-prep product Leverage Live, the uber-popular AI Course Finder, & a growing double-digit from our organic traffic which is now the largest in the world for the category at 30Mn last year and an expected 100Mn+ this year,” said Leverage Edu’s founder and CEO Akshay Chaturvedi.

Additionally, Leverage Edu also announced its foray into financial services, awaiting an FFMC (Full Fledged Money Changer) license from RBI, which will accelerate its foreign remittance business. While the company doesn’t give out loans on its own balance sheet, it aims to hit a Rs 500 Cr loan book by this fall.

Ola Electric makes strategic investment in Israeli company StoreDot

Electric vehicle maker Ola Electric has made a strategic investment in Israeli battery technology company StoreDot. The investment in StoreDot is the first of several global strategic investments planned by Ola Electric as it looks to ramp up its core R&D in advanced cell chemistry and manufacturing as well as other battery technologies and new energy systems, the company said in a statement.

As part of the investment in StoreDot, Ola Electric will have access to the company’s state-of-the-art XFC battery technology that charges a battery from 0 to 100% in just 5 minutes. Ola will also have exclusive rights to manufacture batteries integrating StoreDot’s fast charge technology in India, it added.

“We are increasing our investments in core cell and battery technologies and ramping up our in-house capabilities and global talent hiring, as well as partnering with global companies doing cutting edge work in this field. Our partnership with StoreDot, a pioneer of extreme fast-charging battery technologies, is of strategic importance and a first of many,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Ola.

The company is now looking to set up a gigafactory for manufacturing cells in the country to meet the demand generated by Ola Futurefactory and has already submitted a bid under the Government’s PLI scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage.

FutureCure Health secures $4 million Series A round from RVCF India Growth Fund and others

Healthtech startup FutureCure Health has raised $4 million in a Series A funding round led by RVCF India Growth Fund, Unicorn India Ventures, Kotak Investment Advisors Limited, and other investors.

Having scaled up the technology for treating Vertigo and Dizziness patients in over 150 clinics under the brand NeuroEquilibrium, FutureCure said it now aims to help patients with Migraine and other chronic diseases. The funding will be used to further develop various technologies, FDA approvals, and global expansion, the company said in a statement.

It is also launching a Digital Therapeutics app that will help patients with managing lifestyle changes for chronic diseases. “FutureCure plans to launch various technologies for migraine patients, including wearable Neuromodulation and Biofeedback device.

In addition, the Digital Therapeutics app will help identify the triggers using AI and help manage lifestyle changes. The interactive app will also provide Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT),” said Rajneesh Bhandari, founder of FutureCure Health.

Velocity invests Rs 2.5 crore in JSB Healthcare

Home health and fitness products brand JSB Healthcare has gotten Rs 2.5 crores from Velocity.in across two rounds of financing. “The funding from Velocity further validates the strength of our business, and will go a long way to enable us to scale operations,” said Jagjot Singh, CEO of JSB Healthcare.

“We will use this funding to finance inventory for new products and to ramp up our digital marketing,” Singh added.

JSB Healthcare’s products include massage chairs, sports and fitness equipment, patient care, and wellness products. It has an online presence on marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, JioMart, Paytm, and Snapdeal.