Deal Roundup: Chargebee leads funding week as dealmaking gathers pace

Global private equity funds have become a staple investment source for Reliance Retail and unsurprisingly, the Mukesh Ambani-led company scored a total of $1.7 billion this week. The sovereign wealth fund of Singapore government, GIC; San Francisco based private equity firm TPG; and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) joined the retail giant’s ongoing fundraising this week.

Meanwhile, startups in the technology space raised a total of $102 million across 12 deals this week, which marks a 49% jump week-on-week. Two firms did not disclose the amount raised.

Chennai-based cloud billing solutions provider Chargebee’s $55 million round, led by Insight Partners, accounted for over half of the week’s funding. Cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin, PayU India co-founder Nitin Gupta’s stealth-mode startup Uni, agritech platform Ergos and edtech startup Lido Learning raised significant rounds this week.

Venture and growth capital firm SAIF Partners also launched its fourth India dedicated fund this week.

Financial technology company Paytm announced two small funds, both in direct response to its ongoing tussle with search engine giant Google. Paytm is creating what it calls a Mini App Store to fight Google’s app distribution dominance.  Early in the week, Paytm said it will dedicate Rs 10 crore under Paytm First Games for the purpose of providing a launchpad to homegrown game developers. 

As ecommerce marketplaces gear up for the annual festive season sale events, fashion and lifestyle platform Myntra and Amazon Pay saw significant fund infusions from parent entities. Myntra received slightly over $103 million while Amazon injected about $96 million into Amazon Pay. 

Funding

Chargebee: San Francisco and Chennai-based Chargebee secured $55 million in a growth round led by venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners. Existing investors Steadview Capital and Tiger Global also participated in the round.

Uni: Yet-to-be-launched fintech startup Uni landed $18.5 million from venture capital firms Lightspeed India Partners and Accel. The deal marks one of the biggest seed funding rounds in India. Uni aims to make credit cards more accessible for consumers across different regions.

Treebo: Budget hotel aggregator Treebo secured $6 million in the latest round of funding from returning investors including Matrix Partners India, SAIF Partners, Ward Ferry and Bertelsmann India Investments.

Unocoin: Venture capitalist Tim Draper of Draper Associates led the latest funding round in Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin. The Series A funding round, which looks to raise a total of $5 million at a valuation of $20 million, saw participation from XBTO Ventures and 2020 Ventures, apart from other veteran investors in the segment.

Ergos: Agritech startup Ergos bagged $5 million in an ongoing Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures with participation from returning investor Aavishkaar Capital, the impact investment arm of the Aavishkaar Group.

Lido Learning: Mumbai-based edtech startup Lido Learning reportedly raised $4 million from a dozen investors, including angels and family offices, in an ongoing seed funding round.

Other startups that raised investments this week include soil technology startup Krishitantra, robotics company Genrobotics, edtech startup Winuall, agritech startup Unnati, rental space provider Livve, career accelerator platform for software engineers Pesto Tech, healthtech co NirogStreet, and gig economy-focused recruitment platform PakkaProfile. 

Fund

SAIF Partners, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced that it is raising $400 million for its new India fund. Called SAIF Partners India VII, this will be the firm’s fourth India dedicated fund. The corpus is larger than its previous India fund of $350 million launched in 2017.

M&A

Infosys-Blue Acorn iCi: Information technology (IT) services major Infosys announced it will acquire Blue Acorn iCi, which provides digital customer experience, commerce and analytics solutions, for up to $125 million.