Venture funding tops USD 1.3 bn, 3 new unicorns created

India’s startup ecosystem witnessed huge inflow of venture capital for the second consecutive week in October. The venture funding topped USD 1 billion for the second week in a row riding high on the robust investor sentiments. Over USD 1.35 billion was raised in 28 deals from Oct 2 to Oct 9. The figure would rise substantially if we add the crossover ventures, for startups based abroad with Indian connection. CoinSwitch, Licious and Rebel Foods joined the big league of startups with over USD 1 billion taking the total count of unicorns in India in 2021 to 31. Ola Electric and OfBusiness also attracted huge investments.

Here is the quick recap of all the key deals from this week

Big deals

Edtech decacorn Byju’s is raising USD 296 Mn (Rs 2200 cr) as new investment, which appears to be part of its ongoing Series F round.

Coinswitch Kuber on Wednesday said it has raised USD 260 million (around Rs 1,943 crore) in a fundraising round that values it at USD 1.9 billion.

Ola Electric has raised about USD 200 million (around Rs 1,500 crore) from a clutch of investors in a fresh funding round, valuing the company at over USD 5 billion.

Rebel Foods on Thursday said it has raised USD 175 million (around Rs 1,300 crore) in a funding round led by Qatar Investment Authority, valuing the company at USD 1.4 billion.

Gourmet meat startup Licious on Tuesday announced that it has raised $52 million in Series G round led by IIFL AMC’s late stage tech fund and Aventus.

B2B marketplace OfBusiness raised $200 million from Tiger Global, Matrix Partners India, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Falcon Edge Capital.

Other deals

Fintech firm Progcap on Monday said it has raised USD 30 million in primary equity capital led by existing investor, Tiger Global Management and Creation Investments.

Sunstone Eduversity, owned by Sunstone Education Tech, on Wednesday said it has raised USD 28 million (about Rs 208.8 crore) in funding, led by WestBridge Capital

Social media platform Chingari raised $19 million from multiple investors.

Start-up automotive spare parts e-commerce platform, boodmo.com on Monday said it has raised Rs 40 crore.

GramCover, India’s leading rural insurtech startup, has raised USD 7 million in Series A fundraise

Start-up electric scooter maker kWh Bikes on Wednesday said it has raised USD 2 million (around Rs 15 crore) in a seed round.

Blue-collar workforce management platform Smartstaff (previously Qikwork) on Monday said it has raised USD 4.3 million in funding.

Chennai-based Kaar Technologies on Tuesday said it has raised Rs 30 crore (about USD 4 million) in acquisition financing facility from BlackSoil Capital to fuel its inorganic international expansion plans.

Pazcare has raised $3.5 million (INR 25 crore) as part of its seed round led by BEENEXT, along with 3one4 Capital, and other investors.

Public transport technology firm Chalo on Tuesday said it has raised around USD 40 million (about Rs 297.8 crore) in funding led by Lightrock India and Filter Capital.

Fintech startup Mobileware bagged $4.75 million from Kvanto Payment Services of Denmark.

SaaS startup ProfitWheel secured $3 million in seed round.

Telangana-based rural tech startup Hesa has received a grant of INR 450k from NABARD to upskill 100 rural women

Live video infrastructure platform 100ms has announced a USD 4.5 million seed round of funding.

LetsVenture’s equity management arm Trica secured $3 million in a seed funding round from Accel, LC Nueva AIF*, others.

Bengaluru-based IBSFINtech India Private Limited (IBSFINtech), a leader in Treasury, Risk & Trade Finance Management solutions in India, rased USD 1 million in funding.

Ishitva, a robotic startup, moped up $1 million led by Inflection Point Ventures.

Home fashion brand D’Moksha Homes raised $575,000 from Venture Catalysts and others

Phool.co, a Social Alpha-backed D2C wellness startup, on Thursday announced that Alia Bhatt is now an investor in the company.

Advanced battery-tech startup Log 9 Materials said it has raised USD 2 million (around Rs 14 crore) in a funding round

——————
Deals involving undisclosed fund

Pumps and water technologies manufacturer EKKI has made an investment in Bengaluru-based agritech startup Kissan Pro.

Karat Farms―a Bengaluru based smart kitchen garden company has raised an undisclosed pre-seed funding from Vriksh Impact Partners.

————–

Crossover ventures

Diabetic-focused healthcare start-up Twin Health has raised USD 140 million (around Rs 1,000 crore) in Series-C round.

India and US-based Esper on Monday announced that it has raised USD 60 million (about Rs 447 crore) in funding led by Insight Partners.

On-demand cloud communication services provider Ozonetel on Wednesday said it has raised USD 5 million in funding.

Equity management platform Qapita on Wednesday said it has raised USD 15 million (about Rs 112 crore) in funding from East Ventures (Growth Fund), Vulcan Capital and others.