Funding Rundown: Dream 11 parent Dream Sports raises $840 million, Blume Ventures marks the first close of fourth fund at $105 million & Park+ bags $25 million from Sequoia and Matrix

In the gaming sector in India, investments have crossed around $1.6 billion in the first nine months of 2021 and exceeded what was invested in the last five years, a report by boutique investment bank Maple Capital Advisors and All India Gaming Federation said.

Early-stage venture capital firm Blume Ventures has made the first close of $105 million of its fourth fund. The company is looking to close the fund at about $200 million by March-April next year, making it Blume’s largest fund so far.

Also Read: Zerodha's Nithin Kamath warns retail investors against 'buy now pay later'. Here's why

From the new fund, the firm will continue investing in pre-seed to Pre Series A technology startups in sectors such as consumer internet, small and medium business marketplaces, as well as global opportunities in software and enterprise technology. The firm’s Fund-III had mopped up $102 million last year along with a $41 million Opportunity Fund to back a select group of companies.

Parking solutions platform Park+ has bagged $25 million as part of its Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, Matrix Partners India, and Epiq Capital. Existing and new investors, including AdvantEdge, Fund II, and Motherson Lease Solution, also participated in the round.

The company said it plans to utilise the funds raised to strengthen its core technology and build out innovative solutions for cars and car owners that can solve all their pain points on a single platform. In less than 12 months since its inception, the platform said it has witnessed over two million app installs. It has 90,000+ bookable spots in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Online lending platform Indifi has raised Rs 340 crore in a mix of equity and debt as part of its Series D round. CX Partners and OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I, along with existing investors CDC Group, Omidyar Network, Flourish Ventures, Elevar Equity and Accel, have invested Rs 140 core. in Series D round of Equity Capital raise for Indifi Technologies.

Indifi has also secured Rs 165 crore in debt financing from Vivriti, Northern Arc, SIDBI, along with other lenders. Additionally, the United States International Development Finance Corporation has guaranteed Rs 35 crore of funding to Indifi.

Also Read: Paytm IPO listing: Most HNIs escape losses despite stock hitting lower circuit

According to the company, the funds raised will be used for serving more customers, identifying additional segments of MSMEs, and towards technology and product development.

Zenwork, a SaaS platform for digital tax compliance and regulatory reporting for global businesses, has raised over Rs 1,200 crore from a US-based growth equity firm. The funding comes at a time when the company is looking to expand its operations beyond the US and into Europe and Asia.

As per reports, the company said it will invest heavily in growing the capabilities of its Tax1099 and Compliancely platforms, while hiring between 100-150 people across roles of engineering, sales, product management to help make this happen.

Online used car marketplace Spinny has turned unicorn after raising $285 million in its Series E funding round, led by Abu Dhabi-based ADQ and New York-based investment firm Tiger Global.

Tiger Global and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund have invested Rs 739.7 crore each. Somerville SPV and Aveni Spinny have put in the remaining amount, as per Entrackr. Spinny is expected to use the capital to invest in developing tech and product capabilities, for branding and to expand geographical reach, the report added.

EV maker Simple Energy has raised $21 million (around Rs 156 crore) in a funding round. The aim was to raise $15 million in fundraising, but immense investor interest resulted in the company mopping up more capital in the pre-series investment round, the firm said in a statement.

The over-subscribed funding round was driven by the company's current investors and board members, Manish Bharti of UiPath and Raghunath Subramanian, Non-executive Chairman, UiPath India, respectively. This round also witnessed participation from new investors such as Sattva Group, Athiyas Group and several high net-worth individuals (HNIs).

Also Read: NaBFID chairman KV Kamath says tech platforms critical, important to ensure regulatory compliances

This fresh capital will be utilised to increase manufacturing capacity, accelerate new product development, and expand experience centres, consequently bolstering the company's expansion plans, the company stated.

Thrasio-style direct-to-consumer (D2C) venture GlobalBees has added three more startups to its portfolio list. The company has picked up a majority stake in Healthyhey (dietary supplements maker), Rey Naturals (hair care products brand) and Intellilens (eyewear brand) for undisclosed amounts.

With the current investments, the company now has a portfolio across homecare, personal care, nutrition and wellness, health and sports supplement and intelligent eyewear categories. Global Bees has earlier this month onboarded Yellow Chimes, a leading fashion jewellery brand, and Absorbia, an innovative home care brand, to its portfolio.

Prior to that, it had invested in homegrown millennial skincare brand - Prolixr, women's health solutions company - &ME, and home care products company - The Better Home - in August this year, this will take its total acquisitions to 8 in just four months.

In the next three years, GlobalBees is looking forward to investing in 100 brands across verticals, including fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), sports, home organisation, and lifestyle, it said in a statement.

Tel Aviv-based Zenity, a developer of a platform for securing increasingly prevalent low-code/no-code applications, has emerged from stealth with $5 million in seed funding.

Also Read: MobiKwik IPO: Fintech company may defer plan amid weak investor sentiment, concerns on biz model

The round was led by Vertex Ventures and UpWest, and also included investments from Gerhard Eschelbeck, formerly the vice president of security at Google, and Tom Fisher, the former CIO of SuccessFactors.

The startup said the funding will go toward the expansion of R&D, marketing, and sales activities. Zenity currently has a staff of 15 and plans to double its headcount in 2022.

Consumer lending fintech startup Credit Fair has secured an undisclosed sum as debt from Northern Arc Capital. It plans to use the debt fund amount to offer specific financing for education, medical, electric vehicles, and home renovations, the company said in a statement.

The firm is also looking to expand its portfolios with products and services by partnering with other non-banking financial companies. The B2B2C lending-focused startup aims to build a credit ladder for 550 million underserved Indians.

It offers lending solutions to both businesses and private individuals. The ticket size ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20 lakh and tenure from three months to three years.