Deal Roundup: Flipkart closes two deals in a slow week for startup fundraising

It was a busy week for ecommerce major Flipkart. The Walmart-owned company made an investment in fashion brand house Universal Sportsbiz Private Limited (USPL) and acquired the intellectual property rights of mobile gaming company Mech Mocha Game Studios.

Reliance also continued its fundraising spree for its retail arm, which secured Rs 9,555 crore (about $1.3 billion) from Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF), in exchange for a 2.04% equity stake.  

The week was otherwise tepid in terms of fundraising activity. Truck aggregator Rivigo, with its $11 million growth round, was the only startup that saw a double-digit million round this week. Sixteen startups raised a total of $60.5 million, of which five did not disclose the funding amount. 

Funding

Rivigo: Returning investor Elevation Capital has invested Rs 84.4 crore ($11.4 million) in technology enabled logistics startup Rivigo Services, making its first deal after it rebranding from former moniker SAIF Partners. 

Leena AI: Delhi-based artificial intelligence (AI)-backed platform for human resource management Leena AI raised $8 million in a Series A round of funding. Venture capital firm Greycroft led the round, with individual participation from its chairman Alan Patricof, Cornerstone OnDemand founder Adam Miller and Jim Moffatt, the former chairman/CEO of Deloitte Consulting.

Docsapp: Bengaluru-based online doctor consultation platform DocsApp raised Rs 58.63 crore ($7.8 million) in a funding round led by JAFCO Asia Tech Fund and Team Fund. Palo Alto-based venture capital firm FinSight I Ventures participated in the round. 

Letstransport: Intra-city logistics platform LetsTransport secured around $7.5 million (Rs 55.8 crore) from returning investors including Bertelsmann, Rebright Partners, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital among others.  

Pyxis: Artificial intelligence (AI)-based marketing cloud startup Pyxis bagged $7 million (Rs 52 crore) in a Series A funding round. The round was led by Chiratae Ventures, Pi Ventures along with Pyxis’ existing investor Exfinity Venture Partners.

Mobikwik: Gurugram headquartered digital payments platform MobiKwik landed Rs 41.5 crore ($5.5 million) in the first tranche of a growth funding round from Hindustan Media Ventures, the venture arm of Hindustan Times. The deal values the fintech firm at $380 million, Upasana Taku, co-founder of MobiKwik, told TechCircle.

M&A

Flipkart-Mech Mocha: The ecommerce giant acquired the intellectual property rights of Bengaluru-based mobile gaming company Mech Mocha Game Studios for an undisclosed amount. Mech Mocha employees will join Flipkart’s gaming team and report to the latter’s vice president Prakash Sikaria. Flipkart GameZone offers arcade games such as Snake Smash and fantasy sports such as My11Circle, as well as Supercoin rewards that can be redeemed in-app.

ANSR Consulting-FastNext: Dallas, Texas headquartered ANSR Consulting, which helps multinational firms set up offshore, global capability centres (GCCs) in countries including India, has acquired Bengaluru-based AI recruitment startup FastNext in an all-stock deal. 

AutoBrix-Cartisan: Doorstep auto care provider Autobrix acquired Xenon Automotive, which owns and operates AI-driven car service provider Cartisan. The acquisition will mark Autobrix’s entry in the periodic car maintenance and repairs business.

Fund

WinZO Games: Tictok Skill Games-owned vernacular esports platform WinZO Games announced the launch of a $5 million Game Developer Fund II, to fuel the pandemic-induced surge of interest in the Indian gaming ecosystem. With the fund, the New Delhi-based firm will fund projects in the interactive entertainment space. The company raised its first fund of $1.5 million in 2019. The nine teams chosen for capital infusion in the programme developed ten games, which were introduced to the WinZO platform.