Deal Roundup: Tiger Global, Cars24 lead revival in tech startup funding

Funding activity in India’s technology startup market picked up pace in the third week of October, changing tracks from an otherwise dull investment run since late September.

The rally came largely on the back of a big growth funding round for used cars marketplace Cars24 and Tiger Global's bets on three startups -- MyGate, UrbanPiper and CleverTap.

Overall, investors put $260 million to work across 17 deals this week. Last week, startups managed to garner barely $60 million across 12 deals.

Top Funding Deals

Cars24: The Gurugram based used cars marketplace accounted for 40% of the total investment this week. The startup raised $100 million from new and returning investors. New investors in the round were London headquartered investment firm Unbound and New York based Moore Strategic Ventures.

CleverTap: The Mumbai born mobile analytics startup raised $35 million in a Series C round from existing investor Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India. The latest round puts the startup's post-money valuation at $385 million.

myGate: The Bengaluru based home security platform raised $56 million in a Series B funding round from Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings, Tiger Global, JS Capital Management and existing investor Prime Venture Partners.

Classplus: The Delhi based ed-tech startup raised an undisclosed sum from Blume Ventures. This follows a $1.6 million seed round that the startup raised in May this year from Times Internet and GREE Ventures.

UrbanPiper: The Bengaluru based SaaS startup that enables restaurants to manage online orders raised $7.5 million in a Series A round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India.

True Balance: The balance tracking and digital payment services company raised $23 million in a Series C round from a group of seven Korean investors. The SoftBank-backed company, which is based in Seoul and Gurugram, was also awarded a non-banking finance company (NBFC) licence by the Reserve Bank of India for its digital lending arm True Credits. With the current infusion, the company has raised a total of $65 million capital across four rounds of funding.

Paper Boat Apps: Mumbai based gaming and digital sports media firm Nazara Technologies invested $11.7 million in Paper Boat Apps, the holding company of preschool edutainment app Kiddopia. Post-deal, Nazara acquired a 51% stake.

DropKaffe: Mumbai-based cloud kitchens players Rebel Foods, will invest $4.9 million in online beverages company DropKaffe Food and Beverages. While the investment will be made in tranches, the company is yet to receive approval from shareholders, regulatory filings showed.

India Assist: The Delhi based startup, which offers a travel assistance app for foreign tourists in India, raised $1 million in a seed round from an undisclosed Silicon Valley based angel investor.

M&A

Tax filing and investment platform ClearTax bought audio streaming platform Dose FM for an undisclosed amount in a bid to build mobile products that include the likes of accounting, analytics and governance platforms, for its medium and small enterprise customers. Founded in 2018 by Abhishek Damodara, Rishabh Harit and Akhil Appana, Dose FM has a significant presence in Tier 2 cities. The platform lets users create and stream live audio shows. Creators can also directly interact with their listeners.