Weekly rundown: Shiprocket turns unicorn; Razorpay buys Ezetap

Zomato-backed logistics firm Shiprocket became the latest start-up to enter the unicorn club this week after the company earned a valuation of more than a billion in its latest funding round. The New Delhi-based company raised $33.5 million in a fresh round of funding co-led by Temasek and Lightrock India. Returning investors in the round include Bertelsmann India Investments, March Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, PayPal Ventures, and Huddle. In December last year, the e-commerce shipping platform secured $185 million in a round co-led by Zomato Ltd, Temasek and Lightrock India.

In other major funding rounds, Gurugram-based higher education platform Sunstone Eduversity bagged $35 million led by mid-market private equity firm WestBridge Capital. Alteria Capital also participated in the round. The company said it will utilize the capital to launch new programs with a focus on undergraduate technology programs. In October 2021, WestBridge Capital led a $28 million financing round into the start-up.

Micro-savings app Jar secured $22.6 million in a Tiger Global-led Series B funding round at over $300 million valuation. Returning investors include Arkam Ventures, Eximius Ventures, Force Ventures, LetsVenture, Rocketship Venture Capital and WEH Ventures. The round also saw the participation of a clutch of new investors including 1Finance, Capier Investments, Cloud Capital, Folius Ventures, Panthera Capital, Prophetic Ventures, Yes VC, Adam Nash (Founder of WealthFront and Board Member of Acorns) and Zachary Hargreaves (an investor in Founders Fund as well as Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Vires Aeronautics). Jar said it will utilize the current round of funding to expand its workforce and continue to build a comprehensive, one-stop savings financial platform.

E-commerce solution provider Graas raised $40 million in its first-ever venture capital funding round. The round was led by Galaxy (Kejora-led SPV), Performa (multi-billion European Asset Manager-led SPV), Integra Partners, Yuj Ventures (Xander Group) and AJ Capital. Along with the fundraising, the company also made two acquisitions — D2C and data specialist Shoptimize and marketplace specialist SELLinALL.

In the largest M&A deal of the week, fintech unicorn Razorpay acquired offline payments firm Ezetap in a deal worth $150 million. The acquisition, the sixth and the largest to date for Razorpay, enables the company to foray into offline payments, thus building a strong online and offline presence in payments.

Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah snapped up Jaipur-based doubt-solving and resource management start-up FreeCo for an undisclosed amount. The deal, the first after the company turned unicorn in June, will help PhysicsWallah improve its content library and build a strong doubt faculty management. FreeCo’s offerings include video and textbook solutions, doubt solving, online tutoring, payroll management, animated videos, and freelance management.

The week also saw venture capital firm Fundamentum Partnership and venture debt company Stride Ventures raising new funds.

Fundamentum Partnership, an early growth-capital fund floated by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and Helion Ventures co-founder Sanjeev Aggarwal, Fundamentum Partnership, raised $227 million for its second fund. The company said it will double down on the number of investments from six in the first fund to 12 in the second fund. Launched in 2017 with a fund size of $100 million, fund one is fully drowned now with six investments, of which two — online pharmacy PharmEasy and used car marketplace Spinny — have become unicorns. Logistics SaaS start-up Fareye; hospital network Ayu Health, online trading platform Probo, and online travel portal Travel Triangle are its other investee firms. The second fund will focus more on SaaS, healthcare, digital content and Bharat Apps, which are categorized as applications for the next 400 million users in India.

Venture debt firm Stride Ventures closed its second fund at $200 million. The firm was initially targeting to raise Rs 1000 crore for the second fund. The first close of Rs 500 crore was announced in August 2021. Investors in the second fund — Stride Ventures India Fund II — include banks, family offices, corporate treasuries, sovereign funds, private equity funds, insurance firms, and HNIs. Launched in 2019, Stride Ventures, a sector agnostic fund, sanctioned more than Rs 1600 crore in over 70 companies across sectors such as consumer, fintech, agritech, business-to-business (B2B) commerce, healthtech, B2B SaaS, mobility & energy solutions (EV).