Funding Rundown: Hasura turns unicorn, MediBuddy raises $125 mn, Facilio gets $35 mn in Series B funding & Princeton Digital bags $500 mn from Mubadala

End-to-end digital healthcare platform, MediBuddy has raised $125 million in Series C funding from Quadria Capital and Lightrock India. Others who participated in the round included existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, India Life Sciences Fund III, Rebright Partners, JAFCO Asia, TEAMFund LP, FinSight Ventures, InnoVen Capital, Stride Ventures, and Alteria Capital.

The venture claims it is the largest funding round in the Digital Healthcare services space. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to MediBuddy on this transaction.

With the new round of funding, the comprehensive healthcare platform will further invest in customer awareness, hiring, strengthening technology platforms including data science capabilities, clinical research, and product development.

The platform has already catered to the healthcare needs of over 3 crore Indians, leveraging its pan-India network of 90,000 doctors, 7000 hospitals, 3000 diagnostic centers, and 2500 pharmacies.

Facilio, a leading property operations software platform has raised $35 million in Series B financing led by Dragoneer Investment Group with participation from Brookfield Growth and existing investors Accel India and Tiger Global Management.

"This investment will allow us to extend our market leadership, expand sales and marketing, and enable more companies to reach success through a predictive, connected model of real estate operations,” said Prabhu Ramachandran, founder and CEO, Facilio.

Founded in 2017, Facilio offers a unified software platform that leverages an AI-led predictive engine to help real estate portfolios digitize processes and optimize their property operations. The platform encompasses a suite of SaaS applications for maintenance and operational visibility, sustainability, and remote equipment performance monitoring.

Asian data centre operator Princeton Digital Group has raised $500 million in an equity funding round led by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala, underscoring the sector's appeal as demand from global cloud providers fuels its growth.

While Mubadala led the round with a $350 million cheque, existing shareholders Warburg Pincus and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board accounted for the rest.

PDG, formed by the company's chairman Rangu Salgame and Chief Operating Officer Varoon Raghavan with Warburg Pincus in 2017, will deepen its presence in its operating markets in Singapore, India, China, Japan and Indonesia, the Singapore-based firm said in a statement.

"Mubadala’s track record of long-term investments combined with extensive know-how in the digital infrastructure space makes it a great partner as we continue to scale our business,” said Rangu Salgame, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of PDG.

The company serves hyperscalers, internet and cloud companies, and financial institutions with scalable and reliable internet infrastructure and world-class data center services to meet their increasing demand across Asia.

Vymo, an Intelligent Sales Engagement platform for Financial Institutions, has raised $22 million in a Series C funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments. Existing investors Emergence Capital and Sequoia Capital participating.

As part of the financing, BII's Rohit Sood will be joining the company’s board. "2021 was a momentous year for us: 20 percent + quarterly growth, 142 percent NRR, zero logo churn, entry into the US with wins like Berkshire Hathaway, and onboarding some of the largest Insurers in Japan.

Sales tech is a $10B+ opportunity in just these two countries and this fundraiser will help us accelerate our growth plans for these markets,” said Yamini Bhat, co-founder and CEO.

Vymo was founded in 2013 and has clients such as Microsoft, Salesforce, Softbank, Lineworks, and EY. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Singapore, Bengaluru and Tokyo.

Millet-based food startup Wholsum Foods, which is the maker of children’s food brand Slurrp Farm has raised $7 million in a fresh round of fundraising led by Investment Corporation of Dubai and existing investor Fireside Ventures. The fundraise comes a year after Fireside Ventures’ initial investment of $2 million in the company.

The startup plans to use the fresh capital for developing millet-based products with zero junk ingredients. The funds will also be deployed towards product innovation, marketing as well as increasing global footprint, it said in a statement. Wholsum Foods claims to have registered a 10x growth from June 2020 till December 2021.

"We are growing steadily and currently clocking in over Rs 50 crore of revenue run rate, with an aim to reach Rs 500 crore in revenue by 2025. The funds raised will enable us to build a global Indian FMCG brand,” said Meghana Narayan and Shauravi Malik, co-founders and co-CEOs of Wholsum Foods.

The firm said it launched 20 new SKUs in 2021, including several in previously unexplored categories, such as the baked Little Millet Noodles and Foxtail Millet Noodles. The brand also expanded to the UAE and is looking to grow its offline and online presence in the region by 40 percent in the next 12 months.

Agritech platform Krishify has raised $6.2 million in a pre-Series A round led by venture capital fund Omnivore. Existing investors Ankur Capital, Omidyar Network India, and Orios Venture Partners, also participated in the funding round.

Prior to this, the startup had already $2.7 million in August 2021 and has now closed the Pre-Series A round with an additional $3.5 million in funding. The rural social network plans to use the funds for accelerating pan-India growth and to further refine the technology for an enhanced user experience in the agriverse.

It is also accelerating monetization on the network via advertising, lead generation, and marketing services for companies targeting rural consumers, the startup said in a statement. The company claims to have over 6.5 million downloads and 1.3 million monthly active users on its platform.

Chargeup, a battery-swapping network for electric two and three-wheelers, has raised $2.5 million in pre-Series A round led by Capital-A and Anicut Capital.

Other marquee investors who participated in the round include actors Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor, Aman and Sameer Mehta (founders of Boat). Grip invested as the leasing partner.

The fresh funds will be used for the expansion of Chargeup’s network to new cities and building larger capacities to meet the growing demand, the company said in a statement.

"We are rapidly expanding our network and aiming to benefit the lives of millions of e-rickshaw drivers in India, while also extending our solutions to growing delivery network of EV 2 & 3 wheelers,” said Varun Goenka, CEO, and co-founder, Chargeup.

Mobility startup Baaz Bikes has raised $2 million in Pre-Series A from Kalaari Capital along with the participation of AdvantEdge, 9Unicorns and Sumant Sinha (CMD-Renew Power).

The company plans to use the fresh capital towards furthering the platform and infrastructure - including battery swap stations to provide complete coverage and service throughout Delhi, it said in a statement.

Founded in 2007, Baaz Bikes provides gig delivery workers, access to its in-house designed cost-efficient bikes (Baaz Bikes) provided by the local bike rental partners.

"With new-age companies promising 10-minute deliveries, demand is only going to strengthen from here. We are excited to have Kalaari’s support in our journey towards Building for Bharat. With this funding, we are going to blanket Delhi with our ecosystem in the next 6 months and are targeting to clock 100,000 kms every day,” said Anubhav Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO of Baaz.

Pillow and sleep accessories manufacturer-to-consumer (M2C) brand Sleepsia has raised $2 million from its parent company Agile Ventures. With the fresh infusion of capital, the brand will expand its customer base in tier-II and tier-III cities, with an aim to reach at least 2.5 lakh additional consumers.

The company is also working to reduce time spent on the supply chain by strengthening its production capacities in India, it said in a statement.  "So far, we have served 200k happy customers. And now with the recent funding, we are planning to bring 250,000 more sleepers onboard,’ said Dheeraj Kapoor, Director, Sleepsia.

The D2C firm is also looking to establish full-stack customer experience labs to innovate, develop and research high-end and avant-garde sleep products.

Bangladesh-based learning app 10 Minute School, has raised $2 million of seed funding from Sequoia India’s rapid-scale up program—Surge. This is Surge’s first investment in a Bangladesh-based edtech company. The startup said that it will utilise these funds to invest in product, technology, and talent acquisition across both Bangladesh and India.

"We want to double down on our growth trajectory this year while creating an unparalleled learning experience for our students," said Ayman Sadiq, founder and CEO, 10 Minute School.

10 Minute School is a mobile-first online learning platform that offers affordable, accessible and highly relevant educational content to 25 million school and college students, university admission test candidates, job-seekers, and people looking for specialised skills training. As per the firm, approximately 7 percent of 10 Minute School’s audience is based in India.

Mental healthcare app heyy has raised $555,000 in a pre-seed round of funding led by early-stage institutional investor Wavemaker Partners. This marks the first external fundraise for the company.

Founded in 2021, heyy, operates in the preventative ‘emotional first-aid’ space, much before the issues become clinical or severe. It has built a ground network of trained ‘Helpers’ – the first respondents in a conversation, who engage with aid-seekers for as many times as required, before recommending expert guidance.

The company claims to have clocked strong growth on the basis of solid traction in its Enterprise and Consumer verticals. It has a renewal rate of 100% and 40% in the Enterprise and Consumer segments respectively, the firm added.

Influencer-marketing platform Adicube has bagged Rs 12 crore in pre-seed funding led by Pitcherlabs Ventures and a clutch of angel investors, including Chandrahas Panigrahi, Founder Edukemy, Ashish Padiyar and Brijesh Damodaran, Founders, Auxano Capital.

Rahul Khandelwal at Felix Advisory acted as the financial advisor to the transaction. Adicube will use the capital to continue investing in its platform, and for business development, it said in a statement.

"With this funding, we are looking to double down on our growth to emerge as the go-to platform for both influencers and brands”, said Sreetam Panda, Founder and CEO, Adicube. The firm connects influencers and brands, offering transparency in costs. It gives brands access to more than 5,000 verified influencer profiles.

The platform has been accessed by Groww, Unacademy, Fampay, Edukemy, CoinSwitch Kuber and other brands to reach millions of consumers, the firm added. India’s influencer market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 percent till 2025 to reach a size of Rs 2,200 crore, according to GroupM INCA’s India Influencer Marketing Report.

Cyber security and IP-led analytics startup, Com Olho has raised Rs 1.8 Crore in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds raised will be utilised towards hiring, stack improvement, and aggressive market penetration in India, MENA, and APAC, it said in a statement.

The firm has also been granted a patent for non-rule-based ad fraud detection. Using this, the company claims to have been able to provide at least 20 percent MoM savings to even cost per sale (CPS) campaigns and improve ad viewability by their brand safety toolkit.

"We at Com Olho create innovative – AI-based technology to help enterprises and governments mitigate the risks arising from various kinds of digital frauds. We are India’s first company to get a patent grant for advertising fraud detection, to which Indian advertisers will lose Rs 6,000 crore in 2022, said Abhinav Bangia, founder and CTO, Com Olho.

Digital credential management platform CertifyMe has raised an undisclosed amount in its seed funding round led by Callapina Capital and angel investors. The funds will be utilised in expanding the firm’s range of SaaS products in the digital credentials space besides investments in venturing into new domains such as Ecommerce, luxury and HR Tech, CertifyMe said in a statement.

"We started small during the pandemic and have grown to process more than 1,00,000 credentials and five million social media impressions in this short span. Today, the platform is used across the globe by 700+ enterprises in over 70 countries,” said Ranjith Tharayil, founder and CEO, CertifyMe.

CertifyMe is a platform and solution for the creation, issuance, and management of digital credentials. It ensures seamless verification, increases brand visibility, and assists the awardee in publishing credentials across 50+ social media sites.