Zetwerk becomes 24th unicorn of 2021; Yamaha, Shell, Hero fuel Rapido’s growth

Another week, another unicorn is born. Business-to-business (B2B) manufacturing services marketplace Zetwerk has become the latest startup unicorn in India.

The Bengaluru-based company raised around $120 million on Friday as part of its Series E funding round led by global investment firm D1 Capital.

According to VCCircle estimates, Zetwerk's aggregate equity valuation has touched $1.06 billion.

The new funding comes just months after Zetwerk raised $120 million in a Series D round led by US-based Greenoaks Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners earlier in February.

According to several media reports, Zetwerk becomes the 24th startup to have crossed the $1 billion valuation mark this year --up from 11 last year.

Of these, seven startups – Zetwerk, Eruditus, UpGrad, CoinDCX, BharatPe, MindTickle, OfBusiness – achieved the coveted milestone this month.

A total of $468 million was raised this week by 32 tech startups, while seven did not disclose the funding amounts.

In what could be an early sign of India’s mobility space getting back to shape, bike and auto rickshaw taxi platform Rapido secured $52 million in its Series C round of funding.

The round saw participation from new investors including Shell Ventures, Yamaha India, Cred founder Kunal Shah, Spotify India’s CEO Amarjit Singh Batra and Positive Moves Consulting. Existing investors - Pawan Munjal of Hero Group, Westbridge, Nexus Venture Partners and Everblue Management also participated in the round.

Rapido will use the fresh funds to invest in innovations, technology, people and supply to further boost its growth.

Meanwhile, e-commerce roll ups continue to gain investor interest. This week, Gurugram headquartered UpScalio, which aggregates and invests in e-commerce brands, landed $42.5 million in a Series A round of funding led by Presight Capital and an undisclosed global hedge fund.

Heliad Equity partners, MPGI, 468 Capital and Whiteboard Capital also chipped in. The round also saw commitments from prominent angel investors including CEO of BharatPe Suhail Sameer; co-founder of ShopClues Radhika Ghai; CEO of OYO India and Southeast Asia Rohit Kapoor; Arjun Vaidya, founder of Dr Vaidya’s and Erik Podzuweit, founder at Scalable Capital.

Capital markets-focused fintech, smallcase, secured $40 million as a part of its Series C funding round led by Faering Capital, at a valuation of around $200 million. E-commerce major Amazon also participated along with Premji Invest, as new investors in the company. 

Existing investors, including the likes of Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Beenext, DSP Group, Arkam Ventures, among others, also invested in the round.

Skill-based real money gaming platform Zupee raised $30 million as part of its Series B round. The round was co-led by Silicon Valley-based WestCap Group and Tomales Bay Capital. With the fresh capital, Zupee is valued at $500 million, up almost five-fold since January, when it had secured $10 million in a round led by existing investors WestCap Group and Matrix Partners India.

Agritech startup AgNext, marketplace CoutLoot, payments startup BharatPe, revenue-based financing platform Klub, metabolic fitness startup Ultrahuman, have also raised significant venture capital funding rounds this week.