Deal Roundup: Fresh cheques for Spinny, Soxytoes, StyleNook; Quona closes second fund

Even as the global coronavirus outbreak threatens to cause interim problems for India’s startup funding market, March opened on the reasonably strong note with as many as 23 deals concluded this week. 

The total value deals stood at $133 million, discounting six deals whose values were undisclosed. Last week, technology startups picked up $170 million across 16 deals.

About 50% of the deals this week were at the growth stage, reflecting a re-affirmed confidence in performing assets. Four startups raised capital at the seed stage.

Topping the charts this week was used car marketplace, Spinny, which scooped up $43.7 million in a Series B round from returning investors Accel, SAIF Partners and Alteria Capital. 

This week also saw impact investor Quona Capital close its second global fund at $203 million. 

Top Funding Deals

Spinny: Delhi-based used cars marketplace Spinny raised Series B round led by The Fundamentum Partnership. Venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners, and South Korea-based KB Financial Group joined the round as new investors. Returning investors Accel, SAIF Partners and Alteria Capital participated in the round.

SMECorner: Digikredit Finance, which owns fintech platform SMEcorner, raised $30 million in a mix of Series B preference shares and debt capital led by private equity firm Paragon Partners. Existing investors venture capital firms Quona Capital and Accion Venture Lab, along with some undisclosed high networth individuals participated in the round.

Soxytoes: Noida based socks brand Soxytoes, raised an undisclosed sum in an angel funding round from a group of individuals including Sorabh Agarwal, former senior managing director of Copal Amba; Hemant Dua, former CEO of Delhi Daredevils; and Vikas Bagaria, founder of Pee Safe. 

StyleNook: Personal shopping and styling platform StyleNook raised an undisclosed amount in seed round from Lead Angels, Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs and other high networth individuals (HNI).

Tricog: Healthcare analytics platform Tricog raised $10.5 million in a Series B round from returning investors the University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC) and Aflac Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Columbus, Georgia-headquartered insurance provider Aflac. Delaware-based impact fund TEAMFund and Tokyo-headquartered Dream Incubator along with other existing investors Blume Ventures and Inventus Capital also pitched in. 

Salesken: Artificial intelligence (AI) powered sales assistant platform SalesKen raised $8 million in a Series A round from Sequoia Capital India. The round also saw a partial exit by early investors Unitus and Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. 

Bounce: Bengaluru headquartered scooter sharing startup Bounce raised $6.5 million in venture debt from existing investor InnoVen Capital. With this infusion, the company has raised a total of $12 million from the Mumbai-based venture lender over the last 18 months.

Arya: Delhi-based Arya Collateral Warehousing Services, which provides post-harvest supply chain services, raised $6 million in an extended Series A round from impact investor Omnivore and returning investor LGT Lightstone Aspada. The company plans to raise capital in a Series B round later this year. 

Leap Finance: Sequoia Capital India led a $5.5 million investment into student loans financing platform Leap Finance. The fundraise also saw participation from non-banking finance startup InCred’s founder and CEO Bhupinder Singh, rewards-based credit card payment platform Cred’s founder and CEO Kunal Shah, among other angel investors. 

Flickstree: Mumbai based Flickstree Productions raised $3 million in a Series A round led by Samsung Venture Investment, the investment arm of the South Korean smartphone maker. Other new investors in the round included Singapore-based family investment offices LionRock Capital, Accretio Investments, and angel investor Laxmi Datt Sharma. 

MyGlamm:The on-demand beauty services marketplace raised $1.8 million in an investment round from venture lender Trifecta Capital. The company raised $1.6 million as debt, in exchange for 120 debentures at $13,500 per debenture, its latest regulatory filings showed. In addition, Trifecta invested $0.2 million to pick 81 preference shares and a sole equity share for $ 2,500, the filings showed. 

Stanza Living: Dtwelve Spaces, the Delhi-based company that owns shared living services provider Stanza Living, received an undisclosed investment from Equity International (EI), a private equity firm founded by American billionaire Sam Zell. The investment is part of the company’s Series C round. 

Oda Class: Online learning platform Oda Class, raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from Beijing headquartered digital education major Yuanfudao. The Bengaluru-based company will use the funds to upgrade its technology platform and expand product offerings.

M&A

Nestaway-StayAbode: Home rental company Nestaway Technologies acquired Bengaluru based co-living space provider StayAbode Ventures in a cash and equity deal, two people privy to the transaction told TechCircle. The acquisition is Bengaluru headquartered Nestaway’s second one this year after it bought apartment complex management platform ApnaComplex. 

ClearTax-Karvy: Y-combinator backed tax filing and investment platform ClearTax acquired asset management platform Karvy’s goods and services tax (GST) filing business for an undisclosed amount. The all-cash deal will bolster ClearTax's Goods and Services Tax (GST) clientele. ClearTax will also hire employees from the GST division of Karvy Data Management Services. 

Funds

Quona Capital: Impact investor Quona Capital closed its emerging markets focused Accion Quona Inclusion Fund at $203 million. The venture capital firm, which focuses on financial inclusion investments, will deploy its latest fund across Latin America, Africa, India and Southeast Asia. With the close of this fund, Quona Capital currently has $363 million in assets under management.