Deal Roundup: Zolo Stays, Aye Finance bag mega funding rounds; Unacademy scoops up PrepLadder

Early and later stage investors put more than $125 million to work this week across 17 deals. Out of the 17, seven did not disclose the financial details of the deals. 

Investors mostly focused on startups in the ecommerce and edtech sectors.

The period also saw most capital infusions in bridge, debt and seed funding rounds. 

Notably, in terms of internal infusions, ecommerce major Amazon invested $308 million in Amazon Seller Services, its Indian marketplace services unit. This is the first investment by the US parent in the Indian arm since the Covid-19 outbreak began in the country. 

Funding

Zolo Stays: The Mumbai based co-living startup scooped up $56 million in a Series C round of funding from returning investors Investcorp, venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners, Mirae Assets and others. 

Arvind Youth Brands: Ecommerce firm Flipkart invested about $35 million to acquire a minority stake in Arvind Youth Brands, a subsidiary of Arvind Fashions that owns the clothing brand Flying Machine. The companies will work collaboratively to identify opportunities to innovate and develop products with strong value propositions at attractive price points.

Aye Finance: The technology focused non-banking financial company (NBFC) raised $16.75 million in a debt funding round from Frankfurt headquartered impact investor, Invest in Visions.

Zomentum: Bengaluru-based Pactora, which owns and operates software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Zomentum, raised $4.1 million in a seed funding round from Accel and SAIF Partners.

Specsmakers Opticians: The eye-care products retail chain which runs an eponymous online store, has raised capital of $3 million from existing investor Eight Roads Ventures.

CueLearn: The edtech startup raised $2.7 million in a mix of equity and debt issue from Trifecta Capital’s venture debt fund. 

Frontier Markets Consulting: The Jaipur-based last mile assisted ecommerce and distribution startup raised $2.25 million in a bridge funding round led by Engie Rassembleurs d’Energies, The Rise Fund and The Singh Family Trusts.

PiggyRide: Kidext Technologies, which operates a transportation service for children under the PiggyRide brand, has raised $1.86 million in a bridge funding round.

Cars24 Financial Services: The subsidiary of automobiles classified services provider Cars24 Services raised about $1.3 million in a debt funding round from Vivriti Capital.

Securden: The cybersecurity startup Securden raised $1.2 million in a seed-stage funding round led by venture capital firm Accel.

M&A

PrepLadder: Online test preparation and learning platform Unacademy acquired the postgraduate medical entrance exam preparation platform for $50 million. This is Unacademy’s fourth acquisition so far, as the company pursues an inorganic growth strategy.

Flint: Customer engagement software company Freshworks acquired the information technology (IT) orchestration and cloud management platform, for an undisclosed amount.

Raheja QBE: Digital payments platform provider Paytm and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is set to acquire a 51% stake in general insurance company Raheja QBE, for about $39 million.

Percy: Mumbai and San Francisco-based web and mobile application testing platform BrowserStack acquired visual testing and review platform Percy.

Venture Capital Funds

Blue Ashva Capital: The Singapore and Mumbai headquartered firm raised about $60 million to make the first close of its maiden startup and SME-focused fund.

Sequoia Capital: The Menlo Park, California headquartered venture capital firm closed two new India funds totalling $1.35 billion. The funds include a venture fund of $525 million and an $825 million growth fund,  which it will use to invest in companies across India and Southeast Asia.