Tech startups funding deals breach $1.4 bn mark in Aug first week

Funding deals among startups in the Indian tech ecosystem in the first week of August resulted in the creation of two new unicorns--BharatPe and OfBusiness, thanks to their post-deal $1 billion or more valuation. 

In the same period, a total of 30 startups collectively raised about $1.46 billion across different funding rounds. Five other startups raised capital too, but the funding values were undisclosed.  

The top five startups that raised most capital, and the only ones that raised nine-figure dollars were Unacademy, BharatPe, OfBusiness, Infra.Market and Mindtickle.  

The funding primarily went in favour of business-to-business (B2B) commerce and healthtech businesses.  

Other areas in which technology startups raised capital in the week included edtech, software-as-a-service (SaaS), supply chain management, foodtech, jobtech, agritech, deep-tech, fintech, real estate, media and drone technology.   

Bengaluru-based Sorting Hat Technologies, parent of edtech platform Unacademy, raised $440 million in a new funding round led by Temasek Holdings.  

Delhi-headquartered fintech company Resilient Innovations, which operates merchant payment platform BharatPe, raised $370 million in a round led by returning investor Tiger Global.  

Gurugram headquartered OFB Tech, which owns and operates OfBusiness, raised  $160 million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The company facilitates raw material procurement and provides cash-flow based financing.   

Tiger Global led another round of investment in Infra.Market with $125 million at the technology-enabled marketplace for on-demand construction materials.  

SoftBank Vision Fund 2 too led another round of investment in the week at Pune and San Francisco-based MindTickle, which helps small and large companies perfect their sales pitch. The company raised $100 million.  

Startups that raised money in the funding amount range from $10 to $100 million were MoEngage, Skill-Lync, Nova, Yellow.ai, RenewBuy, Onsurity and Jupiter.   

In the $1 million to $10 million category were ApnaKlub, Nektar.AI, Krishify, Revery, StackBox, Aartas Clinishare, StockGro, Khabri, Faarms, Goodmeetings and Pixuate.  

ChefKart, QuickShift, Celcius, Rocket Skills, Rolling Plates, Urbanmatrix, Playo were the startups under $1 million fundraise category.  

Meanwhile, MedPrime Technologies, Fabheads, Enguru, AyuRythm, and Farmers Family did not disclose funding values.  

In terms of acquisitions, deal values of all the five mergers were undisclosed.  

Investment banking giant JPMorgan reportedly acquired Pune-based customer engagement and loyalty programmes startup Tavisca.  

Gurugram-based healthtech startup Meddo acquired Mumbai-based digital clinical documentation startup Doxper.   

B2B consumer benefits marketplace Thriwe, backed by venture capital firm YourNest, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Alliances Galore in a share-swap deal.  

Tel Aviv-based game publisher CrazyLabs acquired Mumbai-based hyper casual game development studio Firescore Interactive.   

Le Travenues Technology, which operates travel and booking service ixigo has acquired bus ticketing and aggregation platform AbhiBus.  

Edtech giants Byju’s and upGrad reportedly announced the acquisitions of augmented reality startup Whodat and upskilling platform KnowledgeHut, respectively.  

On the funds end, Myntra, PolicyBazaar and Lenskart backer Chiratae Ventures, a homegrown tech-focused venture capital firm, closed its fourth fund at $337 million on Friday.