Financing and acquisitions in Indian startup this week (10th)

As many as 31 Indian startups raised around $336.45 million in funding this week. These deals include 11 growth stage deals and 18 early stage deals. Moreover, the two early-stage startups did not disclose transaction details.

Last week saw a total of about 17 early-stage and growth-stage startups lifted up capital worth over $400 million.

(Growth stage transactions)

Among growth-stage deals, 11 startups raised $170.4 million in funding this week. Battery technology startup Battery Smart topped the list with $65 million in funding, followed by D2C skincare brand Foxtale with $18 million and agricultural finance company Samunnati with $16 million.

D2C brand RENEE Cosmetics and managed workspace provider Smartworks also joined the top five, each raising $12 million in their respective funding rounds.

(Early Stage Offers)

Then, 18 early-stage startups secured $166.05 million in funding within a week. Invite-only networking platform SCOPE topped the list, followed by consumer electronics startup Indkal, advanced manufacturing startup Ethereal Machines, electric vehicle components startup Indigrid Technology, and cross-border B2B home furnishings brand Trampoline.

The list of early-stage startups also includes two startups that have not disclosed their funding amount: on-demand English tutoring platform Clapingo and online and offline NEET, KEAM, CUET and JEE tutoring provider Eduport.

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(Offers for cities and segments)

In terms of the number of funding deals across the city, Bengaluru-based startups led the way with 11 deals, followed by Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

In terms of segments, e-commerce start-ups took first place with six transactions. This list includes startups from the Fintech, EV, Edtech, Foodtech and Healthtech industries, among others.

(Series Offers)

During the week, Seed financing deals topped the list with 10 deals, followed by 7 Series A deals and 2 Pre-Series A deals. Series B and debt financing also saw 6 and 3 deals, respectively.

(Financing trend week by week)

On a weekly basis, startup funding dropped 16.38% to $336.45 million compared to approximately $402.34 million raised in the previous week.

Average funding over the last eight weeks is approximately $335.62 million with 27 deals per week.

(Fund launch)

Debt marketplace Recur Club has launched its new lending product Recur Scale, designed to finance startups and SMEs at Series A and B stages and beyond, with revenues of Rs 40 crore and above. The platform will offer debt financing of up to Rs 100 crore (approximately $12 million) across various sectors including SaaS, e-commerce, manufacturing, electric vehicles, D2C, agritech and more. South Park Commons (SPC), a tech community and early-stage venture capital fund, in partnership with Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, announced its expansion outside the US and the opening of a new location in Bengaluru, India.

Hyderabad-based Pavestone VC has raised INR 15 crore (approximately $1.8 million) from Colruyt Group India, the engineering arm of Belgium-based Colruyt Group, for its first fund. Neo Asset Management, the asset management arm of Fintech Neo Group, closed its first special credit opportunity fund on approximately $308 million. Chennai-based VC firm Unifi Capital, through its subsidiary Unifi Investment Management LLP (UIML), has launched two new funds at the International Financial Services Center in GIFT City, Gujarat.

(Key Hiring and Exit)

Among its key hires, Aurm, an asset protection company that provides safe deposit box services, has appointed Vijay Arisetty, founder of community management app MyGate, as its founder and CEO. Meanwhile, hBits welcomed Saumil Parekh, former vice president of marketing at Pharmeasy, as its new chief marketing officer (CMO), bringing over seven years of experience in marketing, growth and revenue leadership. Additionally, VS Mani & Co, a South Indian filter coffee and snacks brand, has roped in composer Anirudh Ravichander as co-founder and brand ambassador.

Hemesh Singh, co-founder and chief technology officer at Unacademy, has decided to quit after nearly a decade at the Bengaluru-based edtech company. Now he will move to an advisory position.

(Layoffs)

SaaS company Kissflow has laid off approximately 45-50 employees, representing 15% of its workforce across sales, marketing and product development. According to a report by Money controllayoffs resulted from product downtime and annual performance reviews. Suresh Sambandam, founder and CEO of Kissflow, explained that around 20-25 employees were laid off due to the strategic shift from ground transportation procurement to traffic expansion to increase customer acquisition based on their products.

In addition, approximately 20 employees were dismissed as a result of regular performance reviews conducted every two to three years.

(MOM)

Wealth and alternative solutions firm 360 One (formerly IIFL Wealth) has acquired Times Internet-owned wealth management platform ET Money for approximately Rs 365.8 crore. The transaction included an amount of Rs 85.83 crore as cash consideration and the remaining payment was made through issue of fully paid equity shares. In another deal, Suven Pharmaceuticals on Thursday announced that it will acquire 67.5% stake in Hyderabad-based Sapala Organics for Rs 229.5 crore.

Additionally, Nazara Technologies subsidiary NODWIN Gaming International Pte Ltd, part of NODWIN Gaming Private Limited, has acquired Ninja Global FZCO, an e-sports and gaming company operating in the UAE and Turkey, for approximately Rs 29.8 crore in a cash and stock transaction .

(ESOP buyout)

Full-stack agriculture platform DeHaat has completed its first employee stock buyout program (ESOP) worth Rs 10 crore ($1.2 million). According to Rishu Garg, who heads Human Resources at DeHaat, the buyout benefited 153 team members at various levels, from senior vice presidents to field teams, providing them with the opportunity to create wealth. So far, DeHaat has issued ESOPs worth over Rs 100 crore ($12 million) to over 200 people.

(Potential offers)

82°E, a direct-to-consumer personal care startup, raised $6 million in a seed round. Fast trading company Zepto is eyeing a much larger haul worth $650 million, which would significantly increase its valuation. Beauty platform Purplle is expected to raise $100 million in funding. Audio equipment and smartwatch maker boAt is also exploring investment opportunities.

Visit TheKredible see offers covering the series together with breakdown of the amountfull details launch of the fundand more insights.

(New releases)

▪️Hood starts Whistle’s launch health metrics platform

▪️ Swiggy restarts “Handpicked” grocery delivery services

(Financial results this week)

▪️ Games 24×7 crosses Income of Rs 2,000 in FY23; controls losses

▪️ Fintech unicorn InCred posts 1267 Cr revenue and 316 Cr PAT in FY24

▪️ Go digital crosses Revenue of Rs 7,000 in FY24; profit increased 5 times

(New this week)

▪️South Park Community comes in India in association with Binny Bansal

▪️Neobank Jupiter receives wallet license from RBI

▪️Stoa School has hit the pause button, but it’s not dead

▪️Zomato to invest Rs 400 on Blinkit and Zomato Entertainment

▪️Pocket FM initiated taking legal action against Disney+ Hotstar

▪️Ixigo IPO is closing oversubscribed by over 98 times

(Application)

Weekly funding fell 16.38% to $336.45 million. This week, VC launched five startup-focused funds, namely Recur Club, South Park Commons, Pavestone VC, Neo Asset and Unifi Capital. Additionally, there were layoffs this week as SaaS company Kissflow laid off approximately 45-50 employees.

Pocket FM has filed a case against Disney+ Hotstar in the Delhi High Court, accusing the video streaming platform of infringing the copyright of the audio series ‘Yakshini’. Pocket FM is seeking an interim injunction to remove the trailer of the web series produced by Disney+ Hotstar’s parent company, Novi Digital Entertainment.

The public offering of online travel aggregator Ixigo ended on June 12 with strong investor interest, leading to oversubscription by over 98 times. Interest from qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) increased on the last day, with an offer of 254.81 crore shares against the allotted 2.38 crore shares, leading to oversubscription of 106.73 times. Non-Institutional Investors (NIIs) also showed strong interest from the beginning, crossing their quota by 110.53 times by bidding 131.94 crore shares against reserved shares worth 1.19 crore. In the NII segment, offers above Rs 10 lakh were oversubscribed by 117.40 times. On the last day, retail retail investors (RIIs) crossed their limit by 54.85 times by placing bids for 43.64 crore shares against the available 79.58 lakh shares.

Early-stage venture capital firm Orios Venture Partners partially exited battery-swap startup Battery Smart, resulting in a 29x return. This exit likely came as a result of Battery Smart’s $65 million Series B financing round, led by LeapFrog Investments. The financing included both primary and secondary investments. Orios’ exit is consistent with a strategy to provide limited partners with a significant return on their principal investment within four to five years. Additionally, Orios recently completed a similar partial exit from Country Delight, achieving a 45x return on investment.