The Indian startup ecosystem, in the third week of October, enabled around 15 startup deals with $256 million (approx INR 1,819 crore) of funding from a clutch of existing as well as new investors.
The IndianWire has again brought to you the latest week’s overall startup funding deals across several domains.
Please check out the list below:
The week started with an online retailer platform Bewakoof, securing INR 80 crore as part of fresh funding round from Investcorp. While, the fresh funds are expected to be used for investing in technology and hiring new talent. Also Investcorp has provided nearly 90 per cent of funding and would hold around 14 per cent stake in Bewakoof with a seat on the board.
For details: Investcorp puts INR 80 cr in online retailer Bewakoof as part of fresh funding round
In a different segment, relating to water management and environment-driven WEGoT Utility Solutions, an IoT-based water management startup, has closed a $2 million (approx INR 17 crore) seed funding round from clutch of investors. The company WEGoT Utility Solutions said that the bulk of the funding will use utilized to strengthen its IoT-enabled product portfolio, scale its presence in India, and double its employee base in the next six months, especially in research and development (R&D), sales and marketing.
For details: Water management startup WEGoT closes $2 million seed funding from clutch of investors
Meanwhile, a SaaS-based platform UrbanPiper, also secured $7.5 million (approx INR 53 crore) in a Series A round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia India. While, Axilor also participated in the round. The platform UrbanPiper will utilize the fresh funds to scale up the team, produce suite and for international expansion.
For details: Tiger Global, Sequoia India, Axilor back Saas startup UrbanPiper with $7.5 million investment
In the social commerce startup group, Mall91 bagged $7.5 million (approx INR 53 crore) in series A round from group of investors including GoJek, Beenext, Kalaari Capital. And Nitin Raj Gupta, co-founder and CEO at Mall91 said that the platform plans to use the funds to grow the business by expanding to other top 8 local languages, amplify its supply chain capabilities domestically and internationally while also expanding its engineering, operations, marketing, and support teams.
For details: Social commerce startup Mall91 bags $7.5 million in series A round from GoJek, Beenext, Kalaari Capital, other
Apart from the above startups raising, a startup in the automobile sector bagged the biggest funding amount of the week-
Mahendra Singh Dhoni-backed platform Cars24, which enables people to buy and sell used cars, has secured $100 million (approx INR 714 crore) in Series D equity funding round from Sequoia Capital, DST Global, Partners Fund and a clutch of existing investors. Cars24 will be using the infused capital to deepen its presence in new cities, franchise model, technology and NBFC business.
Other remaining startups deals of the week along with the acquisition partnerships are mentioned below.
- MyGate: Ace investors such as Tencent Holdings, JS Capital LLC, Tiger Global Management, Prime Venture Partners have invested $56 million (approx INR 399 crore) as part of Series B funding round in security management app MyGate.
- CleverTap: WizRocket, a parent company of mobile marketing platform CleverTap, has bagged $35 million (approx INR 250 crore) series C funding round from Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global.
- Remedico: Remedico, a mobile-based healthcare platform, which provides consultation for skin problems, has bagged $500,000 (approx INR 3 crore) as seed funding from Venture Catalysts.
- White Owl: White Owl, an Indian company that makes and sells beer, has received an investment of INR 40 crore from IIFL India Private Equity Fund and other existing investors.
- RupeeRedee: RupeeRedee, a digital lending platform, has raised close to $6 million (approx INR 42 crore) from a parent company- ‘Digital Finance International‘ (DFI), which is based out of Russia.
- True Balance: True Balance, a mobile balance management service startup has secured $23 million (approx INR 164 crore) in a series C funding round from a slew of Korean investors.
- Super Smelly: Super Smelly, a personal care products startup, has bagged a confidential amount in a round led by Lyte Investment Bank, along with other angel investors.
- LegalKart: Legalkart, a legal tech startup, has bagged around INR 3.5 crore in seed funding round from a group of angel investors.
- Bare Anatomy: Bare Anatomy, a personal hair care brand, has bagged a seed funding of $500,000 (approx INR 3 crore) from Sauce.vc.
- Tork Motors: Tork Motors, an electric vehicle startup, is all set to raise an undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata.
- Muse Dot Media: An integrated marketing solutions Agency Muse Dot Media, raised $1 million (approx INR 7 crore) in fresh funding from two existing angel investors. The platform will utilize the infused financing to enhance its production unit in New Delhi, develop licensed brand marketing solutions and help in expanding its operations with fresh offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Furthermore, under the acquisition deals of the week, Dose FM, an audio streaming space, has been taken over by a fintech startup Cleartax, for an undisclosed amount. Post acquisition, Cleartax will consume a four-member team of Dose FM.
For details: Fintech startup Cleartax acqui-hires an audio streaming space Dose FM for undisclosed amount
“While their core product was in a separate domain, we will leverage the team’s technical know-how on developing a recommendation engine, local language capabilities, and a few others,” said Archit Gupta, CEO of Cleartax.