Kris Gopalakrishnan-backed Axilor Ventures sets up $100M Fund II
Early stage venture capital firm Axilor Ventures has announced the launch of its second fund Axilor Technology Fund – II with a total corpus of $100 million (Rs 700 crore), almost four times the size of its maiden fund of Rs 200 crore that was launched in 2018.
Backed by family offices of Infosys co-founders Kris Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal, professor Tarun Khanna of Harvard Business School, and IT industry veterans Srinath Batni and Ganapathy Venugopal, the VC firm said it will continue to focus on emerging opportunities in enterprise SaaS, B2B commerce, agritech, consumer tech and healthtech, with a renewed focus on the fintech sector.
With cheque sizes upto $750,000, ATF-II has also set aside 30 percent of its corpus to back 10-12 winners from its first fund. The new fund will have a longer tenure allowing it to stay longer in companies and has a higher follow-on reserve, a statement said.
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Innoviti raises $45M in Series D funding round
Fintech startup Innoviti Payment Solutions has closed its $45 million Series D round which was a combination of equity and debt. The round was led by Singapore-based growth equity firm, Panthera Growth Partners which invested $15M from its recently announced Fund II, along with Alumni Ventures, Patni Family Office, and FMO and Bessemer Venture Partners, Netherlands.
The firm also raised debt from Trifecta Capital in this round with the participation of a clutch of individual investors, such as Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Bharat Jaisinghani, and others. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Innoviti in this transaction.
The company will use the fresh capital to expand its mid-market product lines in electronics, fashion, and grocery. The capital will also be used for building products and making strategic acquisitions in the marketing technology and data sciences fields. The enterprise division of the company claims to be profitable, and said it expects to reach total break-even and plans to double revenues within FY23.
Campus Fund launches $10M fund II to invest in student founders
Venture capital firm Campus Fund, which invests in student-led startups, has raised $10 million for its second fund.
According to the company, Campus Fund has been funding Indian students for the last two years. It includes Digantara, HealthySure, Expand My Business, among others, who have gone on to raise follow on funding from reputed VCs. Campus Fund II will invest in Pre-Seed stage startups in India. The fund has a corpus of Rs 75 crore, a statement said.
IIFL Wealth, Omidyar Network India, Bharat Shah (former chairman of HDFC Securities), Jaimin Bhatt (CFO, Kotak Mahindra Bank), Kanwajit Singh (founder, Fireside Ventures), Shivkumar Janardhanan (former CEO, Essilor India) participated in the round.
Jungle Ventures and Dream Capital lead $10M round in MarketWolf
Fintech stock trading platform MarketWolf has raised $10 million in its Series A funding round led by Jungle Ventures and Dream Capital. Existing investors and others including 9Unicorns, iSeed, Crescent and Riverwalk, also participated in the round.
This brings the total capital raised by the startup to $17.4 million since inception. The company said it will use the fresh capital for building out its product suite and to hire top talent across product, marketing and engineering functions.
MarketWolf claims to have clocked over 1.5 million app downloads in India in the last 18 months and the number of trading accounts and retail active clients have grown 10X compared to the same period last year, despite the volatility seen in public capital markets this year, a statement said.
AntWalk raises $7.5M in a Series A investment round
AntWalk, a B2B edtech platform has raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round led by GSV Ventures. The round also saw participation from Y Combinator and existing investor Matrix Partners India.
The fresh funds will be used to strengthen the Learning Experience Platform (LXP) using gamification, build best-in-class content pedagogy through R&D, and expand the sales & marketing team to widen the customer base, it said in a statement.
“We are well on our way to building a robust ed-tech company focused on the global skilling opportunity, by leveraging this power of collaborative learning and are excited to partner with GSV Ventures on this journey,” said Joybroto Ganguly, Co-founder and CEO, AntWalk.
Acefour Accessories raises $7M in Pre-Series A round
Travel accessories company Acefour Accessories has raised $7 million in Pre-Series A funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures through its current fund Sixth Sense India Opportunities III.
The round also also saw participation from existing investor, Volrado Venture Partners.
Acefour plans to disrupt India’s $3.5 billion luggage market which is highly fragmented, wherein the largest player holds 7% share, a statement said.
The Baker's Dozen raises $5M in Pre-Series A round led by Fireside Ventures
Homegrown artisan bakery The Baker’s Dozen has secured $5 million in Pre-Series A funding round comprised of equity and debt.
Fireside Ventures led the equity investment, marking its first presence in the D2C Baking & Confectionery space.
The startup said it will use this new influx of capital to further key product innovation, team building, brand marketing efforts, distribution expansion, and in upgrading the company’s tech play.
Ensuredit gets $4.2M in Pre-Series A round led by Cover Genius
Insurtech startup Ensuredit has received $4.2 million Pre-Series A funding round led by Cover Genius. 9Unicorns, NexStep Discovery, CP Ventures, Venture Catalysts, IPV along with existing investors, also participated in the round.
As per the startup, the fresh capital will be used to ramp up product offerings and expand the technology team. The firm will also look to develop and deploy context-driven artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and computer vision-based products.
“As Cover Genius deepens its global capabilities, especially in the Indian market which is highly underinsured, we are eager to help Ensuredit use its technology to bring relevancy to the traditional insurance market,” said Angus McDonald, CEO and co-founder, Cover Genius.
BuildNext bags $3.5M in Pre-Series A round led by Pidilite
BuildNext, a tech-enabled homebuilder has raised $ 3.5 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Pidilite Industries’ wholly owned subsidiary – Madhumala Ventures.
Existing investors Konglo Ventures, Vineet Kumar (CEO, Native) and Deep Gupta (FatEngine) among others, also participated in the funding round.
The startup said it will use the fresh capital to further expand its R&D capabilities and upgrade its Virtual Reality technology experience centres. It will also expand into new markets Bengaluru, Chennai and Coimbatore while strengthening its foothold in its existing markets, the statement added.
Yatra Angel Network secures SEBI nod to launch Rs 90 Cr fund to invest in fintech startups
Yatra Angel Network has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch its Rs 90 crore early-stage fintech-focused Alternative Investment Fund (AIF).
The fund would primarily invest in 25-30 early-stage fintech startups. With the fund, the firm would participate in the seed stage funding rounds over the next three years, with an average cheque size of Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 3.5 crore, it said in a statement.
Yatra Angel Network has previously invested in M2P Fintech, One Card, Payglocal, ShopSe, Riskcovry, among others.
WayCool raises Rs 50 Cr in debt round from Stride Ventures
Agritech startup WayCool has received Rs 50 crore in debt funding round which was led by Stride Ventures. With this round, the venture debt firm plans to expand its portfolio of new-age Indian startups that are working in diverse sectors.
“WayCool aims to build the world's largest food development and distribution services company and positively impact the lives of 150,000 farmers. The company is supported by best in class investors and a remarkable team who are building the future of the Indian food economy,” said Apoorva Sharma, Partner, Stride Ventures.
This fundraise comes after WayCool secured $40 million from global alternative investment company 57 Stars in June this year. The startup will use the fresh capital to invent in tech-related expansions.
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