Funding roundup: Large bets on three sectors lift deal value above $350 mn

A string of big-ticket transactions propelled the value of deals past the $350-million mark in the third week of June. This marked a seven-fold increase over the previous week, even though the number of deals was nearly the same.

Three sectors -- enterprise technology, fintech and urban mobility -- accounted for nearly 92% of the deal value. A couple of late- and growth-stage deals also boosted the overall value of funding.

In all, 15 startups secured a total of $353.86 million, in comparison with the $46.15 million secured by 12 startups the previous week. In the first week of June, around $162 million was spread across 14 startups.

Enterprise-tech steals the show

Druva and Postmaster, both ventures in the enterprise-technology domain, raised a combined $180 million -- more than half the total funding secured by Indian startups this week. Nexus Venture Partners was a part of both transactions.

US and India-based cloud data backup and recovery firm Druva Inc raised $130 million (around Rs 902.5 crore) in a funding round led by Viking Global Investors. 

The funding round puts the Sunnyvale-based company’s valuation north of $1 billion, making it the only second software-as-a-service (SaaS) company to achieve the coveted unicorn status in India after Chennai-headquartered Freshworks.

Neuberger Berman and Atreides Capital are the two other new investors taking part in this round while existing investors including Riverwood Capital, Tenaya Capital and Nexus have also contributed. Founded in 2008, the company delivers data protection and management for the cloud.

US and India-based application programming interface testing and development platform Postman raised $50 million (around Rs 348 crore) in a Series B round of funding led by US-based venture capital firm Charles River Ventures (CRV). Its existing investor Nexus Venture Partners has also participated in the funding round.

Postman is platform that is used to build connected software via APIs. 

Razorpay leads the way for fintech

Online payment gateway startup Razorpay Software Pvt. Ltd raised $75 million (around Rs 524 crore) in its Series C funding round co-led by Ribbit Capital and Sequoia India.

Existing investors Tiger Global Management and Y Combinator also participated.  

Online SME lending platform Lendingkart Technologies Pvt. Ltd raised Rs 80 crore ($11.4 million) from Alteria Capital. This was a large sum for a venture debt deal.

Likewise, education-focussed fintech startup Finwego raised $1.7 million (Rs 12 crore) in its seed funding round led by venture capital fund SAIF Partners. The round also saw participation from a group of high net-worth individuals (HNIs) and angel investors.

Urban mobility deals 

Bounce, a dockless scooter- and bicycle-sharing platform, announced a Series C round of funding worth $72 million (Rs 504 crore).

The investment was led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s venture capital firm B Capital and New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital.

The Indian and US arms of VC firm Accel, Chiratae Ventures, Maverick Ventures, Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Capital India and Qualcomm Ventures also contributed. Bengaluru-based Bounce will use this capital for pan-India expansion.

A day later, another scooter-sharing platform, Vogo Automotive Pvt. Ltd, said it had raised an undisclosed amount from former Myntra chief executive Ananth Narayanan, serial entrepreneurs K Ganesh and Srini Anumolu, and SVG Media founder Manish Vij.

This came a fortnight after venture debt firm Alteria Capital invested Rs 25 crore ($3.6 million) in the company. 

On Friday, Mint reported that Vogo was in talks to raise another $40-50 million.

Other notable deals

• Biryani By Kilo, an online kitchen with a few dine-in outlets, raised Rs 30 crore ($4.3 million) in its Series A round of funding led by venture capital firm IvyCap Ventures.
• TechCircle reported that business-to-business (B2B) agri-marketing platform NinjaCart had raised $2.87 million (about Rs 20 crore) from venture debt provider Trifecta Capital.
• Bengaluru-based Touchkin eServices Pvt. Ltd, which owns mental health chatbot Wysa, received $2 million (about Rs 14 crore) in a pre-Series A round of funding led by pi Ventures.
• TechCircle reported that digital media startup Pocket Aces Pictures Pvt. Ltd was raising $1.35 million (Rs 9.36 crore) from returning investors Aarin Capital, 3one4Capital and Axilor Ventures.
• Industrial internet of things (IIoT) startup SwitchOn raised $1 million (Rs 6.9 crore) in a seed round of funding led by pi Ventures.
• Online chemical solutions platform Chemarc secured Rs 6 crore (about $860,000) in a pre-Series A funding round.
• Bengaluru-based human resources technology startup Kredily pocketed $750,000 (Rs 5.23 crore) in a seed funding round led by Fosun RZ Capital, an affiliate of Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group.
• California and Bengaluru-based data science platform Jovian raised $450,000 from Arka Venture Labs. Better Capital, SenseAI and  Axilor Ventures.

Acquisitions

Fintech and the native-language content segment were in the limelight in connection with consolidation.

Dailyhunt acquired fellow content platform LocalPlay to ramp up its hyperlocal presence and to augment its offerings to core users who live in Tier-2 cities and beyond.

Separately, artificial intelligence-driven lending platform MoneyLoji acquired a majority stake in Inblox Network for $750,000 (around Rs 5.2 crore) to leverage its blockchain capabilities.