Deal Roundup: Vedantu scores high this week; Jio Platforms continues fundraising spree

This week continued the steady startup dealmaking trend from last week, while also witnessing multiple high-decibel investments from global companies.

Of the 19 startups that secured funds, four did not disclose financial terms of the deals. The rest raised a total of $125 million, the same as last week, which saw an investment of $125 million across 17 deals. 

Edtech startup Vedantu's $100 mn fundraise from New York-based Coatue Management on Thursday accounted for nearly 81% of the total fundraise this week.

Additionally, India’s most valued internet startup Flipkart raised a fresh equity of $1.2 billion, led by its majority owner Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart. The deal values the Bengaluru headquartered company at $24.9 billion post money.

Reliance Industries-led Jio Platforms, which has been on a fundraising spree since April, added San Diego, California-based Qualcomm and Mountain View, California-based Google to its list of investors. While the wireless technology major put in $97 million, Google infused $4.5 billion -- nearly half of its total India commitment of $10 billion -- in the company, which has raised a total of $16.71 billion so far.

Funding

Vedantu: Vedantu Innovations, which operates an eponymous online tutoring company for the K-12 segment, raised $100 million in a growth funding round, led by technology sector hedge fund Coatue Management. Returning investors Tiger Global, Accel, GGV Capital, Omidyar Network and Legend Capital participated in the round. The current round values the edtech firm at $600 million. It has raised over $200 million across multiple rounds so far.

Kiddopia: Mobile game developer Nazara Technologies has completed its acquisition of 51% stake in Mumbai-based Paper Boat Apps, the holding company of preschool edutainment platform Kiddopia. The company issued shares worth Rs 43 crore ($5.72 million at current exchange rates) in the final tranche of the transaction. The latest capital infusion is part of the Rs 83 crore ($11.7 million as per exchange rates at the time) the company had pledged to invest in November last year. 

Mastree: Sorting Hat Technologies, which runs edtech platform Unacademy, invested $5 million in Bengaluru headquartered K12 learning platform Mastree for a majority stake. Blume Ventures, which has invested in both firms, exited Mastree as part of the deal. 

IncNut Digital: Media and ecommerce startup IncNut Digital has scored $4 million in a Series A round of funding from RPSG Ventures, the early-stage venture capital fund backed by RP Sanjiv Goenka Group. The Hyderabad headquartered firm owns personalised beauty care brands SkinKraft and Vedix, and operates online beauty and wellness community StyleCraze and parenting network MomJunction.

Mystifly: Singapore and Bengaluru-based travel technology firm Mystifly Consulting India has raised $3.3 million in a bridge funding round, dubbed a pre-Series B round, from Tokyo headquartered private equity firm Recruit Holdings.

goDutch: Mumbai headquartered goDutch Technologies, which owns and operates an eponymous group payments platform, has raised $1.7 million in a seed funding round led by Matrix Partners India. Institutional investors including YCombinator, Global Founders Capital, Soma Capital and VentureSouq, and a number of angel investors also participated in this round.

Yumlane: Qwikpik Technology, which owns and operates cloud kitchen brand Yumlane, has raised $1 million in a bridge funding round, dubbed a pre-Series A round, from Singapore headquartered early stage investor Jetty Ventures. 

GigIndia: Pune-based B2B jobs marketplace GigIndia has raised $970,000 in a bridge funding round, dubbed a pre-Series A round, led by Japanese venture capital firm unit Incubate Fund India. 

Plum: Plum Benefits, which runs an eponymous group health insurance platform, raised $928,000 in a seed funding round, marking the second deal for Incubate Fund this week. The round also saw participation from Gemba Capital, Tracxn Labs and angel investors.

Additionally, parking spot reservation platform ParkSmart and online food ordering and delivery portal Ripsey raised $200,000 and $132,940, respectively, from angel investor platform ah! Ventures. 

Also raising smaller rounds of worth less than $1 million were OTT content discovery platform Flyx, used car leasing platform Pumpumpum skill development and learning platform for developers Crio and IoT-based smart lock startup Openapp. Edtech platform School Diary, news aggregation platform Editorji, edtech firm Uable and fintech startup Walrus did not disclose the amount they raised.

M&A

JioMart-Milkbasket: Reliance Industries-backed JioMart is set to acquire Gurugram headquartered micro delivery company Milkbasket to boost its presence in the Delhi National Capital Region. The development was first reported by TechCircle.