Here’s a lowdown of the top deals from the startup space this week.
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital closes $250M early-stage fund
B Capital, a global multi-stage investment firm, has closed a $250 million Ascent Fund II, its first dedicated early-stage fund.
Ascent invests in pre-seed through series A rounds globally, with an emphasis on the US and Asia, including India. With $6.5 billion in assets under management across multiple funds, B Capital has backed Indian unicorns such as Byju's, Meesho, BlackBuck and Dailyhunt.
The VC firm co-founded by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Luiz Saverin and Bain Capital veteran Raj Ganguly, said it targets founders across digital healthcare, enterprise software, fintech and logistics, among other growing industries.
AnyMind Group raises $29.4M in Series D funding round
AnyMind Group, an end-to-end commerce enablement company has raised $29.4 million in its Series D funding round from new investors including JIC Venture Growth Investments, Japan Post Investment Corporation, Nomura SPARX Investment, and PROTO Ventures.
Existing investor Mitsubishi UFJ Capital also participated in the round, taking the firm’s total fundraise till date to approximately $91.7 million. In addition, the company has also secured a $7.2 million credit facility from Mizuho Bank for future use.
As per the company, the funds will be used to strengthen the company’s advancement in the commerce enablement space and fund future acquisitions.
Auxano Capital launches $25M Category 1 Fund
Early-stage venture capital firm Auxano Capital has launched its $25 million fund, which will be raised through its network of high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), ultra HNIs (UHNIs) and family offices.
With its Category 1fund ‘Auxano Entrepreneur Trust’, the VC firm plans to invest in the emerging trends across Fintech, Enterprise SaaS, Sustainable Mobility and Agritech. It will utilise the funds in line with its investment thesis and allocation strategy, which are either based on business classification that is category creator, market creator and market owner, or stage of the business that is seed, pre-Series and Series A/Series B, a statement said.
Auxano Capital expects to achieve the fund’s first close by the end of the current quarter.
Eka Care raises $15M in Series A round led by Hummingbird Ventures
Healthtech startup Eka Care has raised $15 million in Series A funding round led by Hummingbird Ventures with participation from 3one4Capital, Mirae Assets, Verlinvest and Aditya Birla Ventures, among others.
Investors like Flipkart's Binny Bansal and Cloudnine Hospitals' Rohit MA also participated in the funding round.
The company plans to use the proceeds for product development, hiring, and educating consumers. This takes the total funding raised by the Bengaluru-based startup to nearly $20 million including a $4.5 million seed round in July 2021.
Healthtech startup Fitterfly bags $12M in Series A round
Fitterfly, a healthtech startup has bagged $12 million in Series A funding round led by Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund and Fireside Ventures. This is Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund’s first healthtech investment in India. Amazon had announced a $250 million fund to support small businesses.
The co-investors in this round include 9 Unicorns, Venture Catalysts and Nihar Parikh, Founder of 4point0 Health Ventures and Sriram Natarajan, Founder of Molbio.
The Mumbai-based startup will use the capital to enhance its technology stack and branding, and improve the reach of its diabetes management digital therapeutics programme Diabefly.
Crypto exchange KuCoin raises $10M from Susquehanna
Crypto exchange platform KuCoin has raised over $10 million in a strategic investment from Susquehanna International Group (SIG).
KuCoin and SIG will also collaborate in incubation and ecosystem building for crypto startups, especially the projects built on the KCC chain, the blockchain network backed by KuCoin, a statement said.
The fresh capital will be used to upgrade the infrastructure and enhance the product line. The capital will also support KuCoin’s global expansion and hiring plan, with over 300 job openings as of July 21.
Creative Galileo bags $7.5M in Series A round from Kalaari and others
Edtech startup Creative Galileo has raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Kalaari Capital, Affirma Capital, East Ventures, Valiant Employee Investment Fund, and angel investors.
With this, the firm has raised $10 million in funding till date. The startup intends to use the fresh capital to scale up, accelerate hiring across the teams in multiple geographies, introduce regional languages and further strengthen the research and development of the platform.
Lal10 raises $5.5M in its Pre-Series A round led by Yuj Ventures
Lal10, a wholesale cross-border platform, has raised $5.5 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Yuj Ventures (Xander Group) and Beyond Capital Ventures.
The round also saw participation from Spiral Ventures, Singularity Ventures, Asymmetry Ventures, Blacksoil, Panthera Peak, and Pegasus FinInvest. Prominent angels such as Nitish Mittersain of Nazara Technologies, Bikky Khosla from TradeIndia, Ashok Gudibandla from Notion and Kishore Ganji of Astir Ventures, Suprajit FO, Bob Noyen, Reasoned Ventures, UK based Insaan Group, and Partners at Mckinsey participated in the round.
The fresh capital will be used to expand aggressively in the global markets across the US, Japan and Middle East, a statement said. The firm is also looking to expand its tech-based supply chain solutions to buyers and technology innovations for MSMEs, empowering them with design to digitisation to the global wholesale discovery.
First Cheque closes second fund at $5M
Early stage venture capital fund First Cheque has launched its second fund to invest in 50 startups in the next 18 months.
The fund, which used to operate as an AngelList syndicate and had invested in more than 100 startups in the past three years, has raised Rs 38 crore ($5M) from global investors for its second fund.
The firm will focus on first-time founders and will invest $100,000 in each of its portfolio companies, which is essential for founders to get their business started from scratch.
Shaka Harry raises $2M in seed funding round
Shaka Harry, a plant-based meat brand has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Better Bite Ventures, Blue Horizon, and venture debt fund Panthera Peak.
Dexler Holdings, Chef Manu Chandra, and a group of domestic family offices and angel investors, also participated in the funding round. Shaka Harry has a monthly customer base of 25,000. The monthly growth expected for the next few quarters is around 20 to 30 percent, the firm said.
Cybersecurity marketplace BugBase raises $500K from 2am VC and others
100X.VC-backed BugBase, a marketplace for ethical hackers, has raised $500,000 in a funding round led by 2am VC. The round also saw participation from Finsight Ventures, Dholakia Ventures and SAT Industries.
Marquee angel investors which participated in the round include Neeraj Roy (founder, Hungama Entertainment), Nilesh Sangoi (founding CTO and ex-CEO Meru Cabs), Puneet Deora (MD, Deoras Group), Kushal Khandwala (director, KIFS Group), Anoop Mathur (AM Capital and founder, CORE Media), among others.
Shri Chyawan Ayurved gets $200k in seed round from angels
Shri Chyawan Ayurved, a firm providing herbal products, has bagged $200,000 in its seed round led by Dhaval Shah and Vibhor Kanodia, Raipur-based Chartered Accountants and Angel Investors.
According to the brand, the fresh funds will be used for research and development of Shri Chyawan Ayurved Product, expansion and marketing activities of EHO Healthcare App.
D2C footwear brand Plaeto raises Rs 40 Cr in Series A round
Plaeto, a health focused, D2C footwear brand for children has secured Rs 40 Crores in Series A round of funding led by Florintree Advisors, a Mumbai based financial institution and other marquee investors in the D2C space.
The fresh capital will be used to launch new product lines, expand to newer markets and set new benchmarks in the children’s footwear space, a statement said.
The brand aims to impact at least 30% of the 300 million children in India through their product and programs. It has entered the UAE market, where there is already a large Indian population.
Burger Singh raises Rs 30 Cr in funding led by Negen Capital
D2C food brand Burger Singh, has raised Rs 30 crores in Series A funding round led by Negen capital, LetsVenture and Mumbai angels. Old World Hospitality (Rohit Khattar) and Jasleen Royal (Singer, songwriter and composer) also participated in the funding round.
The round also saw participation from existing investors RB Investments, Rukam Capital, KCT Family Office and VM Salgaocar family office.
The company aims to deploy these funds towards its expansive growth plans to launch an additional 120 food court outlets in the current fiscal.
Drone startup EndureAir Systems raises $13.5 Cr in seed funding round
EndureAir Systems, an IIT Kanpur-incubated unmanned aviation technology startup, has raised Rs 13.5 crore in seed funding round led by Jalaj Dani, co-promoter of Asian Paints. The round also saw participation from the founders of robotics and automation company Addverb Technologies.
“The investment would be used to expand our product line-up to meet the demand for heavier payload capacity UAVs,” said Dr. Abhishek, Founder and Director, EndureAir.
The firm provides solutions in border surveillance, logistics and medicine delivery, aerial mapping, crowd monitoring, providing situational awareness and so on. The drones produced by EndureAir can be further customized based on the end user requirement.
(Edited by : Anand Singha)
