Oxyzo steps out of Ofbusiness’ shadow, turns unicorn in India’s largest Series-A round
One unicorn gives birth to another as Oxyzo, the financing vertical of B2B marketplace OfBusiness, bags $200 million in Series-A funding round led by Alpha Wave Global at a valuation of $1 billion.
The round — India’s largest-ever Series-A fundraise — saw the participation of Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Creation Investments.
Oxyzo, now carved out of OfBusiness, is India’s 94th unicorn, according to Venture Intelligence. Oxyzo Financial Services was one of OfBusiness’s three verticals. The other two are the B2B e-commerce vertical and SaaS offerings. All three feed off each other and enable OfBusiness to provide a full-stack offering to SME customers.
CommerceIQ turns unicorn after raising $115M from SoftBank
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.
UAE’s Cypher Capital launches $100M crypto fund, to invest 40% of new fund in India
UAE-based fund Cypher Capital has announced the launch of a $100-million Blockchain Fund that will focus on crypto, blockchain and digital-asset projects. Cypher Capital aims to invest 40% of the seed fund in the emerging blockchain and crypto startups in India.
The VC firm has already invested in over 15 Indian blockchain startups like Safle, Solrazr among others from its Fund one. It will now take an entrepreneurial approach to building its portfolio and will focus on seed funding and also taking stakes in other established blockchain funds as general partners (GPs) and limited parners (LPs) as part of its value proposition as well, the firm said in a statement.
Stanza Living secures $57M in debt financing
Accommodation startup Stanza Living has secured $57 million in debt financing led by Kotak Mahindra Bank and RBL Bank. Existing debt provider Alteria Capital also participated in the funding round.
The debt capital follows a $100 million equity funding raised by Stanza Living mid last year. To date, Stanza Living has raised close to $220 million in debt and equity combined.
The fresh funds will be used to fuel the capital expenditure of Stanza Living’s current and future projects and accelerate the company’s next phase of multi-city expansion, it said in a statement.
Inflection Point Ventures to launch $50M 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.
Physis Capital will have a corpus of $50 million (about Rs 380 crore) with a greenshoe option of another $25 million (about Rs 190 crore) and aims for its first close at $20 million.
D2C brand Plum gets $35M in Series-C round from A91 Partners and others
D2C clean beauty brand Plum has raised $35 million (Rs270 crores) in a Series C round led by late stage-focused venture capital fund A91 Partners.
The round also saw participation from existing investors Unilever Ventures and Faering Capital. Till date, the cruelty and toxin-free beauty brand has raised $50 million from consumer-focused institutional investors. Post the transaction, Abhay Pandey from A91 Partners will join the board of Plum.
The startup will use the fresh capital to strengthen its omni-channel presence, building new categories in addition to its core skin care category, enhance R&D capabilities, and onboard high-quality talent with a focus on investments in marketing and technology.
Leverage Edu bags $22M in Series B, valued at $120M
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.
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.
Aquaconnect raises $8M in debt funding from Trifecta Capital
Aquaconnect, a full-stack aquaculture input and outputs platform has raised $8 million (Rs 60 crore) in a venture debt funding round led by Trifecta Capital.
The startup will utilize the fresh capital to deepen its presence across India by expanding its network of Aqua partners- franchise stores that enable access to quality input products to the fish and shrimp farmers, the firm said in a statement. The funds will also be used to expand the scale of operations and enhance its post-harvest market linkage solutions, it added.
Puerto Rico-based startup Tea raises $8M from Binance Labs
Puerto Rico-based startup Tea that’s building an open-source software platform on the blockchain, has $8 million in a seed funding round led by Binance Labs, the venture capital and innovation incubator of Binance.
XBTO, Lattice Capital, Darma Capital, Coral Capital, Woodstock, Rocktree, SVK, and MAKE services, also participated in the funding round.
These fresh funds will be used by the firm to hire additional resources to continue work on the protocol, software, and the development of the community.
Zomato invests $5M in food robotics company Mukunda Foods
Online food delivery giant Zomato has invested $5 million in food robotics company Mukunda Foods, taking the company’s post-money valuation to $30 million.
Prior to this, Mukunda has raised funds from Ncubate Capital, Singapore Angel Network, and Indian Angel Network. With the fresh investment, the brand’s cumulative fundraise stands at $8 million.
The company plans to utilize funds to expand its reach across QSRs, cloud kitchens and fine dine segment. Zomato’s investment will also help the startup introduce multiple ROI based models to help the F&B businesses scale, the company said in a statement.
This announcement comes after Deepinder Goyal-led Zomato’s board approved the acquisition of a 16.66% stake in Mukunda Foods.
Rage coffee gets investment from Virat Kohli
Food and beverage D2C brand Rage Coffee has received and undisclosed investment from Indian cricketer Virat Kohli. As part of the deal, the startup has also roped in Kohli as its brand ambassador.
This is not the first investment made by Kohli. This year, he along with his wife Anushka Sharma made an investment in plant-based meat startup Blue Tribe. Earlier, the duo had invested Rs 2.2 crore in Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa-backed insurance startup Digit Insurance in February 2020, while he also owns a stake in wellness startup Hyperice.
With the fresh capital, the brand is planning to expand its online presence and offline footprint Pan-India and will utilize the funds for marketing and distribution purposes. At present, it claims to have more than 2500 touch points offline pan India through a network of four CFAs and over 30 distributors. Rage Coffee will also use the proceeds to scale production, launch innovative new products and add senior management talent, it said in a statement.
Athiya Shetty invests in Stage3, to helm the post of creative director
Actor Athiya Shetty has invested an undisclosed sum in social commerce platform Stage3. With this actor has turned into an entrepreneur and will take on the role of Stage3’s creative director.
According to the firm, Athiya will provide creative and financial backing to Stage3 as it builds the next generation of fashion shopping powered by the creator economy.
Polygon founder Jayanti Kanani invests in tech entertainment firm Plutoverse
Technology entertainment company Plutoverse has received an undisclosed investment from Polygon’s Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer and billionaire Jayanti Kanani.
With the amount secured, Plutoverse aims to build virtual identities that can coexist and socialize in the same shared universe, and to tell stories inspired by and tailor-made for Gen Z and Millennials, it said in a statement. The investment will also be used to further create the building blocks of the product and make it ready for launch, the firm added.
Yamaha Motor invests in B2C startup Malbork, enters EV sector for 4-wheelers
Yamaha Motor’s shared mobility platform Moto Business Service India (MBSI) has forayed into the 4-wheeler EV segment by forging a partnership with sustainable energy-powered vehicle service firm Malbork Technologies.
MBSI provides services to tech startups that focus on the shared mobility space in the country. Bengaluru-based Malbork Technologies offers an app-based B2C taxi aggregator service in Bangalore.
This is the second investment in a firm by MSBI in recent months. Late last month, it partnered with bike rental company Royal Brothers.
Micro VC firm Upsparks to invest in 100 startups by 2022
Upsparks, a micro VC firm focused on early-stage investments, has announced its aggressive growth plans to add at least 50 startups to its already existing portfolio of 50 startups, by the end of 2022.
With this, the firm is aiming to reach Rs 100 crores in investment. The company is looking to close an average of 4-5 deals per month with sectors of focus being Web 3.0, Fintech, SaaS and Consumer Tech, it said in a statement.
Some of Upsparks’ most notable investments include Pixis, Zypp, BiteSpeed and Decentro.
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