Cars24 raises $400M, valuation almost doubles to $3.3Bn
Online used cars retailer Cars24 has closed a $400-million funding round led by returning investor Alpha Wave Global, valuing the platform at $3.3 billion. The round comprised of $300 million equity financing and $100 million from diversified financial institutions in India, Australia, and the UAE.
The unicorn plans to use the funds to accelerate its global expansion in the Middle East, Australia and Southeast Asia and further strengthen its foothold in the Indian market. The proceeds will also be used to improve its technology.
"Cars24 has aggressive plans for 2022 and beyond, and we can’t wait to put this investment to work," co-founder and CEO Vikram Chopra said.
The funding nearly doubles the company's valuation from $1.8 billion in September 2021 when it raised $450 million funding led by DST Global, Falcon Edge Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund. This is Cars24's third funding round in over a year, it said in a statement.
Razorpay bags $375M in Series F round, now valued at $7.5Bn
Digital payments and business banking platform Razorpay has raised around $375 million in Series-F round with a valuation of $7.5 billion. This funding round was co-led by Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital, and TCV and also saw participation from existing partners like Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, GIC, and Y Combinator.
The funds raised will also be deployed to further scale RazorpayX, its neo-banking platform, and work towards completely revamping the banking experience for businesses, said Razorpay CEO and Co-Founder Harshil Mathur.
"With this round, the company will also leverage our learnings of having built products for scale in India and foray into building payment solutions for South-east Asian countries. Further, it will look at new acquisitions in the B2B SaaS space, with the aim of providing the highest levels of experience to customers," Mathur added.
With this round of funding, Razorpay has raised a total of $740 million in investments since its inception in 2014.
OfBusiness secures $325M at $5Bn valuation, eyes listing in 12 months
Business-to-business marketplace OfBusiness has raised $325 million in Series G funding from Alpha Wave Ventures II, Tiger Global Management and Softbank Vision Fund 2.
Other investors such as Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners India, Zodius Technologies, Pantherea Growth Fund and Marshall Wace also participated in the round. This round has pushed the company’s valuation to $5 billion.
"If you look at ofBusiness valuation, it's a straight multiple in terms of growth and the profitability that it has been delivering. If you look at where we exited last year, in FY21, we were at a $600M runrate. Right now, we are at a $1.5Bn runrate. Exiting March 2022, it would be a $2.1Bn runrate. Last year, the PBT was around Rs 77 crore. This year, we are targeting an exit of around Rs 350 crore. The valuation is actually a multiple of either the value that has been created or the potential value which is attached to it,” OfBusiness co-founder Ruchi Kalra told CNBC-T18.
The company is also planning to file its papers for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the next 12 months, Kalra added.
Bizongo gets $110M in Series D funding from Tiger Global, valued at $600M
B2B ecommerce and supply chain enablement platform Bizongo has raised $110 million in a Series D round led by New York-based Tiger Global Management. With the latest round, Bizongo’s valuation has soared to $600 million.
The funding round saw new investments from CDC and IFC EAF, and participation from existing investors BCap, Chiratae Ventures, Schroder Adveq, IFC and Add Ventures by SCG. Manish Choksi, a member of Bizongo’s Advisory Board and the Vice Chairman at Asian Paints, also invested in his personal capacity in the round. The firm will use the fresh funds to ramp up its business and tech teams to develop a suite of digital services for both sides of the marketplace. It will also invest in nurturing its vendor partnerships and transform over 100 factories into true cloud factories through its proprietary solutions, it said in a statement.
“We are now fully geared to sustainably grow the business by at least 300% year-on-year from here on," said Sachin Agrawal, Co-founder at Bizongo. The company offers boxes, containers, pouches and bags for industries such as food and hospitality, consumer goods and retail. Its clients include BigBasket, Nykaa, Swiggy, Delhivery, Teabox and Tata Cliq.
RS Filmcraft invests in unicorn Digit Insurance
Insurtech unicorn Digit Insurance has Rs 50 million in a funding round led by RS Filmcraft. “Digit is delighted to onboard RS Filmcraft as an investor. Insurance is the need of the hour with the pandemic increasing the importance of insurance in everyone’s life,” Kamesh Goyal, Chairman and Founder, Digit Insurance said.
The company has raised funding amounting to around Rs 990 crore from its parent company Go Digit Infoworks Services Private Limited and has raised multiple rounds from growth equity investors — Faering Capital, TVS Capital and A91 Partners. It has raised around Rs 735 crore so far.
Yodacart raises $225K in a Pre-Seed round
E-commerce and last-mile logistics and support startup Yodacart has raised $225,000 in a Pre-Seed funding round led by Ajith Daniel, a New York-based angel investor.
The funds will be used to expand product categories, services in more markets apart from Maharashtra, and improve the platform, the company said in a statement. Yodacart specialises in last-mile logistics and same-day delivery and support, helping ease decision-making on the purchase of consumer electronic products through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). The firm stated that its current online penetration in appliances is merely 2-3%, and it aims to drive it up to 10%.
Keka HR secures $1.6M through Recur Club
The SME HR-tech space company Keka HR raised $1.6 million through non-dilutive revenue funding. The funding was achieved through trading subscriptions made on Recur Club, which enables companies to access capital growth.
The startup intends to hire 200-300 employees in the next financial year. The company aims to go global and cater to the SME industry in the US too along with the Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern nations.
With over 4,750 customers in India, the Hyderabad firm aims to take its expertise to the other countries in 2022 with a major global expansion. Keka, an HR automation software company, was started in 2015 with the mission of solving complex HR challenges.
D2C tea brand Esah Tea raises Rs 5 Cr in pre-series A funding from NEDFi Ventures
D2C tea brand Esah Tea has raised Rs 3 core in its pre-series A round from NEDFI Venture Capital. The Assam-based company plans to use the funds to expand the marketing and operations team, developing new products, and launching brand stores in new geographies, it said in a statement.
Esah claims to be the first tea start-up from Assam to raise venture funding. The brand has earlier raised angel investment from SRD Group and Grant From Assam Startup and NEAT-E-Hub.
According to the startup, it is delivering its products to more than 25 countries. The brand is planning to convert over 20,000 acres of land to organic tea cultivation and onboard around 1,000 local small tea growers by 2023.
Venture Catalysts & 9Unicorns’ joint investments in 5 startups
Early stage investment firm Venture Catalysts and idea-stage accelerator VC 9Unicorns have announced investments in five startups - OTO Capital, Evenflow, GoNuts, Alphaa.AI and Klub.
The startups will primarily leverage the funds raised to increase their audience base while also offering a larger bouquet of products and services, the VCs said in a statement.
Venture Catalysts announced earlier that it is looking to invest in 300 unique startups in 2022. While its focus would be on the Indian market, they hope to make investments in global startups founded by Indians and for the Indian diaspora.
Shiprocket, Mumbai Angels Network partner for the Co-Investment Program
Mumbai Angels Network, a platform for early-stage investments, has onboarded Shiprocket, tech-enabled logistics and fulfillment platform, as their latest partner for ‘The Co-Investment Program’.
This program aims to partner with like-minded networks and funds to facilitate faster access to capital for growth ramp up, the company said in a statement.
Shiprocket along with Mumbai Angels Network will identify, invest in and engage high-potential D2C startups with prominent VCs, Strategies and Family Offices, it added. Shiprocket recently closed $185 million fundraising as part of its Series E funding round co-led led by Zomato, Temasek Holdings and Lightrock India.
