Here’s a lowdown of the top deals from the startup space this week
Reliance Retail invests $132M in Addverb Technologies, startup to deploy robots across Hospitals & Airports
Retailers and consumer-facing companies across the globe are looking at automation to meet a new wave of demand and speed – in other words, what we call the rise of quick commerce. Reliance Retail has invested $132 million in robotics startup Addverb Technologies. With this investment, Reliance has become the largest shareholder in the company.
The fresh funds will accelerate the company’s expansion in Europe and US and enable it to set-up the biggest Robotic manufacturing facility at a single location, the startup said in a statement.
Pixis raises $100M in SoftBank Vision Fund 2-led Series C to grow its codeless AI infrastructure
California based Pixis (formerly known as Pyxis One), a leading provider of contextual codeless AI infrastructure for complete marketing optimisation, has secured $100 million in Series C funding.
The Series C round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from new investor General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm. Existing investors Celesta Capital, Premji Invest, and Chiratae Ventures also participated in the round.
This round has enabled Pixis’ early investor Exfinity Venture Partners to make a partial exit with 37X returns. The venture funds have brought out the stake held by Exfinity. With the close of its $17 million Series B round just four months prior, Pixis has raised a total of $124 million to date since its inception in 2018.
Tiger Global & Sequoia Capital India invests $80M in SaaS startup Lummo
SaaS startup Lummo (previously known as BukuKas) has secured $80 million in Series C funding round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India.
Other global tech and e-commerce investors such as CapitalG (independent growth fund of Google parent company Alphabet); NuvemShop CEO Santiago Sosa; and former Lazada CEO Max Bittner also participated in the fundraise.
The startup is seeking to accelerate the business growth of MSMEs in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia. In addition, Lummo’s flagship product, TOKKO, has been rebranded to LummoSHOP as it aims to cement its status as a leading software solution to entrepreneurs and brands.
INDmoney secures $75M from Tiger Global, Steadview & Dragoneer
Money management and investment platform INDmoney has raised $86 million in a Series D round led by Tiger Global, Steadview Capital, Dragoneer with the startup’s founder and CEO Ashish Kashyap too investing further in his personal capacity.
INDmoney intends to acquire 25 million more users via inorganic growth activities and further invest in Research & Development as well as Technology. It will also be adding stock brokerage stack and credit products, the firm said in a statement. Post this round of financing, INDmoney’s total capital raise stands at $133 million.
Agritech startup Arya bags $60M, valued at $300M
Agritech startup Arya, has raised $60 million in its Series C funding round in a mix of equity and debt, at a valuation of $300 million.
The equity round was led by Asia Impact SA, Lightrock India and Quona Capital. The agritech platform also raised debt financing from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) among others.
“We have visibility on grains worth $2 billion on the Arya platform, and this number is growing rapidly as we gather data from warehouses around the country. This funding round will help us gain market share for our core offerings and add more services to consolidate our position as India’s most trusted platform in agriculture,” said Chattanathan Devarajan, Arya’s co-founder. Arya also intends to use the funding to capture 20 percent of the $100 billion grain commerce market.
Avendus announces the first close of its Structured Credit Fund II at Rs 432 Cr
Avendus PE Investment Advisors, an asset management arm of Avendus Group, has marked the first close of its second structured credit fund Avendus Structured Credit Fund II (ASCF II) by raising Rs 432 crore (around $57.85 million).
It has secured the funds primarily from family offices, high net worth individuals (HNIs), two private insurance firms and two private sector banks.
“Around 40% of the investors from the first fund participated in the second fund as well,” said Nilesh Dhedhi, Fund Manager, Avendus Structured Credit Fund. The investment firm’s ASCF–II, a category 2 Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) is targeting a total corpus of Rs 1,000 crore including the green shoe option of Rs 500 crore.
Payments Infrastructure startup M2P Fintech secures $56M in Series C1 round
M2P Fintech, a payments infrastructure startup has secured $56 million in a Series C1 round led by New York-based venture capital firm Insight Partners with participation from MUFG Innovation Partners, a CVC company of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG).
Existing investors Tiger Global and Better Capital also participated in the round. This is the company’s third fundraise in less than a year. Just last October, M2P raised $35 million in a Tiger Global-led Series C round. The firm said that it has raised over $100 million since early 2021. The investment allows M2P to further build its technology and team, while accelerating its plans to expand internationally, the startup said in a statement.
SaaS Labs raises $42M led by Sequoia; enters Europe with two acquisitions
SaaS Labs, which builds business automation tools for sales and support teams worldwide, has raised $42 million (about Rs 312 crore) in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India.
The Series B funding round also saw participation from existing investors — Base 10 Partners and Eight Roads Ventures. Prominent Silicon Valley angel investors such as Amit Agarwal, Allison Pickens, Anand Chandrasekaran, and Michael Stoppelman, also pitched in.
The company plans to use the funds raised on research and development, to develop new products for its global users, as well as to scale newly-launched products.
pi Ventures marks first close of second fund at $40M
Early-stage venture fund pi Ventures has marked the first closing of its second fund at $40 million. The fund was launched in March 2021 with a base target corpus of $75 million and a green shoe option of $100 million.
The first close of the new fund was primarily driven by Limited Partners (LPs) comprising entrepreneurs, high net worth individuals (HNIs) and family offices from across the globe.
The LPs include Binny Bansal, Varun Alagh, Samit Shetty, Rajesh Ranavat, Vikram Kailas, Anupam Mittal, Hemendra Kothari, Hitesh Oberoi, Ullas Kamath, Deep Kalra, and senior leaders from IBM, Facebook, and Google, among others, the firm said in a statement.
The final close of the second fund is expected in mid-2022. By then, institutional investors are also expected to come in as LPs.
Social investment startup StockGro secures $32M from BITKRAFT Ventures, General Catalyst & others
Social investment startup StockGro has bagged $32 million in Series A round of funding from BITKRAFT Ventures, General Catalyst, and Itai Tsiddon, who is the co-founder of Lightricks, an Israel-based unicorn.
The round also saw participation from existing investors like Roots Ventures, and Creed Capital Asia. A syndicate of angel investors including Base10 Capital Founders, Junglee Games founder Ankush Gera, Nazara Technologies founder Nitish Mittersain and founding member of Robinhood also participated in the round.
According to the firm, this round also included a commitment for secondary financing for its early backers which would lead to multi-fold returns on their previous investments.
Scripbox raises $21M in Series D round led by Accel Partners
Wealth management platform Scripbox has raised $21 million led by Accel Partners. The series D round, a combination of debt and equity saw participation from Transpose Platform, DMI Alternative Investment Fund – The Sparkle Fund, InnoVen Capital, Trifecta Capital, KPB Family Trust, LetsVenture, Kube VC, and YY Capital.
Angel investors including, Alok Ohrie of Dell Technologies, MakeMyTrip’s Deep Kalra, Girish Mathrubootham and Shanmugam Krishnasamy of Freshworks among others joined the round. The company will use the funds to expand its product line-up, build the brand and customer acquisition.
Customer on-boarding platform Rocketlane bags $18M in Series A round
Rocketlane, a platform that SaaS businesses use to onboard new customers and help reduce churn, has raised $18 million in a Series A round of funding. The round was led by previous Asana investor, 8VC, with participation from Nexus Venture Partners, Matrix Partners India, and prominent angel investor, Gokul Rajaram.
This comes just seven months after Rocketlane announced its seed funding round, bringing the total capital invested to $21 million. The funding will be used to expand product offerings, accelerate marketing, and grow the Rocketlane team, the company said in a statement.
Chingari raises $15M funding from Republic Capital, others
Short-video platform Chingari on Monday said it has raised $15 million (about ₹111.4 crore) in funding led by Republic Capital. The extended Series A round also saw participation from Onmobile, JPIN Venture Catalysts, Hill Harbour, Angellist, Venture Collective, Makan Family, Cowa Ventures, MVC Friends, Protocol Labs and other HNI family offices, a statement said.
The app will invest this new round of funds to enhance and integrate new in-app features, strengthen the backend technology team, as well as boost its marketing initiatives for 2022, it added.
Zuper raises $13M in Series A round
Zuper, provider of productivity suite for intelligent field service management and customer engagement has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by FUSE.
The round also saw participation of Sequoia Capital India, Prime Venture Partners, and HubSpot Ventures. The startup has so far raised $14.1 million.
Zuper will use the new capital to further invest in innovative product leadership, expand its extensive partner ecosystem, and invest in sales and marketing, it said in a statement.
Silver jewellery startup GIVA bags $10M from Sixth Sense Ventures, others
Silver jewellery startup GIVA has raised $10 million in its series A funding round from D2C-focused venture capital funds Sixth Sense Ventures, A91 Partners and other marquee investors like India Quotient, Grand Anicut Angel Fund, and Founder’s Bank Capital.
Providing a major fillip to its expansion strategy, these funds will help GIVA proliferate both online and offline channels with its range of modern silver jewellery that are crafted with quality for everyday use, a company statement said.
The startup will also use some fund to expand its international presence. While most of the capital raised will be pumped into driving product development, GIVA plans to venture into new product categories to appeal to a wider set of audiences.
ZingHR raises $10M from Tata Capital Funds
Cloud-tech HR venture ZingHR has raised $10 million from Tata Capital Funds that will give the latter a 33 percent stake in the company. ZingHR will use the funding for expansion into more global markets, upgrade technology and scale up its talent pool, the firm said.
ZingHR, which is already present in Australia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, is looking to expand to Europe, more countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the US.
Startup Your-Space raises $10M to grow student housing business
Student housing startup Your-Space has raised $10 million from a clutch of investors for the expansion and growth of its business. The company has raised the amount in Series-A funding through a combination of pure equity and convertible debentures, it said in a statement.
The funds will help the company deepen its presence in a competitive crowded market. Your-Space has over 7,000 operational beds in 9 cities. It targets to have more than 20,000 beds by July this year for the coming 2022-23 academic year.
Toothsi gets $9M in venture debt from Stride Ventures
Dental tech startup Toothsi has bagged $9 million in a venture debt round from Stride Ventures. The investment comes four months after the company raised a Series B round led by Eight Roads Ventures.
The company plans to invest the capital in improving technology, geographical expansion and brand building, the company said in a statement.
Early cancer-detection startup Epigeneres Biotech raises $6M
Early cancer detection startup Epigeneres Biotech has raised $ 6 million in a Series B funding round led by Kotak Investment Advisors, Moez Daya (of Satya Capital), and LetsVenture Angel Fund.
Other investors include Ashish Kacholia, East River Advisors, One Decacorn, Nandita Advisors, and Chockalingam Valliappa, to name a few. The Series B round investors join the list featuring HCG, Torrent Pharma, Vijay Karnani (Ex-Goldman Sachs, India), Venkat Ramaswamy (of Edelweiss), and Sanjeev Khandelwal (of K-Labs).
Commenting on the fundraise, Ashish Tripathi, Founder & Chairman, Epigeneres, said, “The investment will go toward expanding the R&D team, scaling operations, and development of new products, even as we continue bringing out the finest healthcare technologies and solutions. We will soon begin to commercialise the cancer test; first in India, and then at a global level.”
Foodtech platform Pluckk gets $5M seed capital from Exponentia Ventures
Fresh produce foodtech venture, Pluckk has raised $5 million (around Rs 37 crore) seed capital in a funding round from Exponentia Ventures, a fund focussed on emerging business ideas in both B2C and B2B space.
Pluckk is aiming to build a digital commerce business to serve the growing demand of lifestyle-oriented fresh produce, it stated. “This round of funding will be utilised towards building the right team, technology, farm to fork infrastructure, customer acquisition and expansion into key metro cities,” the firm said in a statement.
A part of this fund will also be utilized to acquire Indus Fresh – an existing player in the fresh FnV category serving both B2C and B2B customers like Flipkart, Amazon, Swiggy, Dunzo and Zepto, it said without giving details.
Health-monitoring startup Dozee gets Rs 71 Cr in additional funding round
Remote health management startup, Dozee, has raised Rs 71 crore in an additional funding round led by Doordash’s Gokul Rajaram.
The round also saw participation from existing investors such as Prime Venture Partners, 3one4 Capital, YourNest and other angel investors. The cumulative fundraise by the startup now stands at Rs 139 crore.
The company plans to use the fresh funding to make critical care more easily accessible and available in Indian hospitals and will launch new products, continue with Research and Development and expand globally, it said in a statement.
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