Deal Roundup: Byju’s $122 mn round accelerates startup dealmaking rebound

Picking up pace from last week’s positive growth, technology startups attracted a total of $157 million across 12 deals, registering a 59% week-on-week increase.

The final week of August witnessed 18 deals, six of which did not disclose the amount raised.

DST Global’s $122 million investment in edtech platform Byju’s and the Falcon Edge Capital-led $11.8 million funding round in fintech lending startup Avail Finance drove the growth charts this week. All other investments this week were early stage ones.

Mindtree co-founders-led venture capital fund Mela Ventures announced the first close of its maiden fund on Monday.

The period also witnessed the merger of hospitality sector technology providers AxisRooms and Piquor Technologies with hotel property management software provider Hotelogix.

Funding:

Byju’s: Online learning platform Byju’s raised Rs 909 crore (about $122 million) in a new funding round from DST Global, the investment firm headed by Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner. Post deal, the Hong Kong-based investor will own a 1.2% stake in the edtech company.

Avail Finance: Bengaluru-based online lending platform Avail Finance secured $11.8 million in a Series B funding round, led by Falcon Edge Capital. Returning investor Matrix Partners also participated in the round.

Verloop: Conversational artificial intelligence and customer support software-as-a-service provider Verloop.io bagged $5 million as a part of a Series A funding round, led by Alpha Wave Incubation.  The round also saw participation from returning investors IDFC Parampara and Kris Gopalakrishnan.

Gamezop: Multi-game platform Gamezop snagged $4.3 million in a Series A funding round, led by early stage investment firm BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from consumer growth capital firm Velo Partners and stage agnostic investment firm FJ Labs.

TrueFan: Celebrity-fan engagement startup TrueFan raised $4.3 million in a seed funding round from Mayfield India, Saama Capital and angel investor Ronnie Screwvala. 

Virohan: Gurugram headquartered healthcare vocational course provider Virohan secured a total of $2.8 million across seed and Series A funding.  The seed funding round was led by angel network Keiretsu Forum, while the Series A round was led by impact investor elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization and the Singh Family Trusts.

Other startups that raised capital this week are biomaterial firm Phool, construction services marketplace Brick&Bolt, digital lending startup CASHe, agritech startup Crofarm, last mile logistics firm Exprs and fashion-tech firm 6Degree. Startups that did not disclose the amount raised include OneCode, eVage, Passwork, Fanspole, Sarva and The Money Club. 

Venture capital fund

Mela Ventures: Mela Ventures, set up by former Mindtree co-founders Krishnakumar Natarajan and NS Parthasarathy, has announced the first close of its maiden fund MV Core Tech Fund-I at Rs 130 crore ($17.5 million).  The fund, which looks to raise a total corpus of Rs 200 crore ($27 million), made its first close within 12 weeks of receiving launch approval from markets regulator Security and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI).

M&A

Hotelogix-AxisRooms-RepUp: Bengaluru-based AxisRooms and Gurugram-based Piquor Technologies, which provide technology solutions for the hospitality sector, have entered into a transaction to merge with Accel backed hotel property management software provider Hotelogix to create a full-stack solution for hotels. The merged entity will be absorbed into Singapore-headquartered Hotelogix Pte. The deal is a no-cash stock swap acquisition.

ShareChat-Circle Internet: Bengaluru-based vernacular social media platform ShareChat acquired Circle Internet, a hyperlocal news and information platform. ShareChat did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. The acquisition is expected to help ShareChat penetrate deeper into geographies and set up a hyperlocal content ecosystem to cater to the latent content needs.