Deal Roundup: Muted week for startup dealmaking; Lee Fixel returns to India

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries raking in two more mega funding rounds and Walmart’s potential investment of up to $25 billion into Tata Group made headlines this week even as startup dealmaking remained uncharacteristically quiet.

Overall, startups raised just $68.3 million across 10 deals, which is a 68% drop from last week.

A $35 million funding into video based social networking app Public, led by former Tiger Global Management executive Lee Fixel’s new fund Addition, accounted for 51% of the week’s overall venture capital funding volume.  The deal marked the return of Fixel, best known for his early bet on Flipkart, to the Indian startup market after resigning from the company in March last year.

Three startups did not disclose the amount raised. Smallcase Technologies’ $14 million fundraising was the only other double digit deal for the week.

The week also saw Droom acquiring an AR startup Visiolab Ideas and Infibeam Avenues divesting a majority stake in its wholly-owned subsidiary Infibeam Logistics to Osia Hypermart Retail (Osia).

Funding 

Public: Fixel’s VC fund Addition led a $35 million investment round in location based social networking video app Public. Private equity firm SIG Global and Tanglin Venture Partners, a venture capital fund floated by former Tiger Global executives Ravi Venkatesh and Edwina Yeo, co-led the round. Public App is operated by Tiger Global-backed news curation app Inshorts.

Smallcase: Online investment platform Smallcase secured $14 million in a Series B funding round led by asset management company DSP Group. This round also saw participation from Arkam Ventures; Utpal Sheth, CEO, Rare Enterprises; and Kunal Shah, founder, CRED. Returning investors in this round included Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Beenext and WEH Ventures.

Squad Stack: SaaS-based sales acceleration solutions provider SquadStack bagged $5 million in a Series A funding round from venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures led the round, with participation from returning investor Blume Ventures.

Sunstone Eduversity: Edtech startup Sunstone Eduversity raised $3.3 million in a Series A funding led by Saama Capital, with participation from Ashish Gupta, MD - Helion Advisors, Pankaj Bansal, co-founder and CEO- PeopleStrong. Existing investors, Prime Venture Partners, Rajul Garg and Purvi Capital also participated in the round.

Financepeer: Fintech platform Financepeer scooped up $3 million from a group of investors, including Jaipur-based NBFC MS Fincap, UAE conglomerate Danube and Mumbai-based Aar Em Ventures, along with Angelbay Holdings, JITO Angel Networks and HEM Angels.

Etrio: Hyderabad-based electric vehicle startup Etrio landed $3 million in a Series A funding round from Singapore-based serial investor Janardhan Rao, also the founder of trading house Triumph Global Group and other anonymous high profile investors.

Other startups that raised investments this week are Agrowave, Infilect, StayQrious, Legal Salah, FanPlay, MobiGarage, and 7Classes.

M&A

Droom-Visiolab Ideas: Automobile marketplace Droom acquired augmented reality solutions provider Visiolab Ideas for an undisclosed amount. Droom said the acquisition will help it to launch dedicated augmented and virtual reality (AR-VR) lab to enhance customer experience.

 Infibeam-Osia: Ahmedabad-based Infibeam Avenues divested 51% ownership with control in its wholly-owned subsidiary Infibeam Logistics to Osia Hypermart Retail (Osia) for Rs 19 crore.