Funding Rundown: Gramophone raises $10M, Healofy secures $6.5M & Livspace likely to turn unicorn

In addition, Info Edge has doubled down its investment, reports suggest. The round also saw participation from new investors such as Amit Sharma from erstwhile Sunrise Group, Sumeet Kanwar from Verity, and Chona Family Office (Havmor Group).

The fresh fund will be used for geographic expansion, marketing, technology development, and merger and acquisition.

The company offers one-stop solutions for farmers via its full-stack technology platform.

Pregnancy and parenting app Healofy on Tuesday announced a $6.5 million (Rs 48 crore) fundraise in a Series B round led by Celesta Capital.

Existing investors Omidyar Capita Network India, IPV, Venture Catalyst, Haldiram family office and others including Kunal Shah and Vijay Shekhar Sharma also participated in the round.

The direct-to-consumer company also announced a $1 million debt raising from Stride Ventures. The fundraising is aimed at consolidating its position in the market, the company said in a statement.

One out of four women in the early stages of motherhood in top 20 cities accesses the app on a monthly basis at present and it is processing 50,000 orders per month, its co-founder and chief executive Gaurav Aggarwal said.

Omnichannel home interior and renovation platform Livspace is likely to join the coveted club of unicorns soon as the company is in talks to mop up new funding, Entrackr reported.

The firm with operations in Singapore is in late-stage talks to raise a large round that may go beyond $200 million. The proceeds are coming at a time when Livspace is betting on global expansion, the report added.

Livspace had announced a joint entity with Alsulaiman Group (ASG) to enable operations in Saudi with plans to cover other countries in the MENA region.

Social non-fungible token (NFT) platform Hyy.pe has raised $2 million in a fresh funding round led by Elevation Capital. The round also saw participation from several leading angel investors, including Ryan Adams and David Hoffman, founders of Bankless, Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, and Farid Ahsan, co-founder of ShareChat.

Previously, the company had raised $1.5 million from Electric Capital.

Hyy.pe is building a platform for NFT communities to connect, share stories, and collaboratively build their history. For instance, users will be able to share what made them buy a certain NFT, the collectible’s origin story or collaborate on derived artwork, the company said in a statement.

The company plans to launch 13 popular collections initially, including CryptoPunks, Bored Apes, Cool Cats, Avastars, Loot, and Punk Comics, before expanding to include all collections for everyone.

Payments technology and card company Visa has closed its investment of $5 million in Open, which was part of the neo bank’s $100 million Series C fundraise, according to Moneycontrol.

The report added that the startup will use the funding to accelerate its new product lines, expand user base and foray into global markets like South East Asia, Europe, and the US.

On October 12, Open had said that it raised $100 million led by Temasek and with participation from Google and Japan’s SBI Investment.

SaaS-based full-stack hiring platform Spottabl has raised Rs 3.5 crore in its seed round. The round saw participation from Paradigm Shift VC, LetsVenture, Binny Bansal and others.

According to the company, the fresh capital will be used towards building a scalable self-serve product and to start growth initiatives for capturing recruiter agency supply.

Spottabl is a technology-driven recruitment platform that has helped over 50 tech startups and growth-stage companies discover top talent through its AI and human-backed model. The startup claims that it has registered 3x quarterly growth for a period of six months and has seen a 5X growth in the recruiters’ community in 2021.

Blockchain-based fan engagement platform SportZchain has raised $400,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Darq Capital.

Jagadeesh Atukuri, director of Comply Dot and SHISAN Investments (co-founded by EX-COO of Goldman Sachs) were among those who participated in the round.

The funds will be utilised to build the platform’s alpha version of an interactive blockchain-based web app and implement branding and marketing initiatives to drive awareness around its unique offerings, the company said in a statement.

Amazon aggregator startup Thrasio has raised more than $1 billion in a new funding round led by Silver Lake.

Existing investors Upper90, PEAK6 Investments and Corner Capital also participated in the round, as per reports.

Thrasio will use the funding to continue acquiring promising brands - both domestically and internationally - while expanding distribution through additional channels, it added. Thrasio had $500 million revenue and $100 million in profit last year and is now set to have $1 billion in revenue.