Deal Roundup: PolicyBazaar, Freshworks make a splash; seed, Series A startups draw investors

In further validation that India is fast taking center stage as a hotbed for global SaaS companies, Chennai born Freshworks scooped up its largest cheque till date from marquee investors Sequoia Capital, Accel and CapitalG. Following the deal, Freshworks’ post-money valuation vaulted to $3.5 billion. 

Aside of Freshworks’ big haul, the other big deal from the week was Tencent’s investment in insurance platform PolicyBazaar. Overall, the week saw about $327 million deployed across 18 deals (several deals did not disclose the investment value). The previous week reported just seven deals.

The uptick in the number of deals closed is a positive given that several were at the seed and Series A stages. Funding activity was spread across sectors such as SaaS, hospitality, gaming, edtech, fintech, property-tech, agritech, logistics, mobility, wellness, ecommerce and grocery.

Top Funding Deals

Freshworks: The customer engagement software company raised $150 million from returning investors Sequoia, Accel and CapitalG. The latest infusion takes the total capital raised by the SaaS company to nearly $400 million. 

Shipsy: The logistics technology startup raised $0.7 million in a Series A round from Info Edge. The deal marks Naukri.com owner Info Edge’s first investment in the logistics sector. Shipsy’s other investors include DTDC Express and Udaan Angel Partners. 

Sturmfrei: The Ahmedabad based budget hospitality startup raised $0.5 million from a group of angel investors, TechCircle reported exclusively last week. The company is lining up for a foray into the coliving market next year.

PolicyBazaar: Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent acquired a minority stake in insurance platform PolicyBazaar, confirmed Info Edge, an investor in the company, in its earnings call. Details on the stake acquired by Tencent and the size of the deal were not disclosed. However, sources privy to the transaction confirmed to TechCircle that Tencent picked up a 10% stake for $150 million. The deal created a partial exit for Tiger Global Management.

Happily Unmarried: The omnichannel personal care products retailer raised $0.5 million from Wipro Consumer Care Ventures, TechCircle reported exclusively last week. 

SimSim: The vernacular language video-based online shopping platform raised $6 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel India and Shunwei Capital. Early stage investment firm Good Capital, and high networth individuals Sunil Kalra and Samarth Bedi participated in the round.

NinjaCart: The Bengaluru-based B2B agri-marketing platform NinjaCart raised $4.18 million from venture debt provider Trifecta Capital. This second tranche of venture debt from Trifecta comes amidst reports that Amazon is in talks with NinjaCart for an investment.

Lido Learning: The online classroom platform raised $3 million in a Series A funding round from Ronnie Screwvala, promoter of education platform Upgrad, and Ananth Narayanan, chief executive at epharmacy Medlife, among other HNI (high networth individual) investors.

M&A

FintechLabs: Bengaluru-based Perfios Software Solutions acquired the intellectual property rights and other assets of digital lending solutions provider FintechLabs Technologies for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2015 by Vishal Sahu and Vipul Rawal, Noida-based FintechLabs Technologies is engaged in the business of providing digital lending management software to banks, NBFCs (non-banking finance companies), digital lenders and financial institutions in India and overseas. 

Contineo Health: IT services firm UST Global bought healthcare technology consulting firm Contineo Health in an effort to develop end-to-end business solutions that work across the payer and provider domains, for an undisclosed sum. This made the US and India-based firm’s third acquisition in as many months. 

Funds

Windrose Capital: Pune-based venture capital firm Windrose Capital completed the first close of its maiden fund, dubbed The Next Billion Fund. While the firm did not disclose how much it raised as part of the first close, the fund has a final target corpus of $30 million. The remainder of the corpus will be raised by the end of the year from UHNIs (ultra-high net worth individuals), family offices and domestic institutions.