Funding Rundown: Sequoia raises $2.85 billion, ShareChat parent raises $78 million, Infra.Market bags $50 million, G.O.A.T Brand Labs secures $50 million & FanClash gets $40 million

The fresh capital has pushed the company’s valuation to nearly $4.9 billion.

Google, alone led this round with Rs 405 crore, and Temasek invested Rs 202 crore. Mohalla Tech may raise $300 million in a funding round from Google, Temasek, and Times Internet, as per a Reuters report. Post the round, Google will hold a little over 1 percent stake in Mohalla Tech, while Temasek will hold about 2.64 percent stake, the regulatory filings showed.

B2B construction materials marketplace, Infra.Market has closed a $50 million in growth capital from Liquidity Group’s MARS Unicorn Fund. Last valued at $2.5 billion in its equity round in August 2021, the company counts TigerGlobal, Accel Partners, Evolvence India, Sistema Asia Fund, Foundamental Gmbh, and Nexus Venture Partners as its investors.

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The company said it is targeting the $140 billion construction materials market with a strong focus on the infrastructure sector. It is expected to significantly benefit from the ongoing increase in allocation for infrastructure projects under the National Infrastructure Pipeline, which has planned projects worth $2 trillion to be executed over the next few years.

D2C brand aggregator G.O.A.T Brand Labs has secured $50 million in funding as part of the Series A1 round. The round saw the participation from new investors, including Winter Capital, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Vivriti Capital, and Oxyzo along with most of the company's existing investors.

The fresh funds will be utilised to acquire new brands, it added. "We will continue to acquire high potential D2C brands across the lifestyle segments and scale them to huge outcomes," co-founder and CEO Rishi Vasudev said.

The company is in advanced discussions with another 12 brands, which will be unveiled in the coming days, it added.

Esports startup FanClash, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge, Info Edge India and Matic Networks.

"The company plans to use the funds raised for global expansion, building the team, and user acquisition. FanClash released its product in India in 2021 and in the Philippines in June 2022 and aims to launch in Vietnam and the USA by early 2023”, said a company spokesperson.

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FanClash provides a forum for the fans to not just enjoy the game as a viewer, but also empowers them to monetize their knowledge of esports. The platform enables users to play fantasy on all leading global tournaments across top esports such as FreeFire, PUBG Mobile, COD Mobile, COD PC, Valorant, CS:GO, League of Legends, DOTA 2, among others.

B2B manufacturing startup Groyyo has raised $40 million in a combination of equity and debt in its Series A round led by Tiger Global. The funding round also witnessed strong participation from early investor Alpha Wave Global.

Existing investors Sparrow Capital and Stride Ventures, and angel investors like Bahram Vakil (founder and Senior Partner at AZB & Partners) and Vineet Gautam (CEO - Bestseller India) were also involved in the round. Debt partners like Blacksoil & Capsave Finance also participated in the round.

The fresh capital will be utilised to exponentially scale the team across manufacturing clusters in India and Bangladesh, and key demand belts in the United States and European Union. The company will also invest aggressively in product and technology development to create a more efficient and sustainable ecosystem, Groyyo said in a statement.

New York-based market intelligence platform AlphaSense has raised $225 million in its Series D funding round led by the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Viking Global Investors.

The new round also includes an undisclosed amount of debt investment from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation.

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The current round of funding values the company at $1.7 billion, nearly double the valuation of its last round. The company plans to use the funds infused to invest in product development, content expansion, customer support, and to drive organic growth, it said in a statement.

US-based DataStax, a real-time data company has secured $115 million in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management with participation from RCM Private Markets fund advised by Rokos Capital Management (US) LP, Singapore-based global investor, EDB Investments.

Existing investors including Crosslink Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, OnePrime Capital, and other current investors, also pitched in.

DataStax will use the funding to accelerate the global expansion and development of its Astra DB multi-cloud database and its Astra Streaming streaming service, a statement said.

​​Multiply Ventures, an early-stage VC fund, has raised Rs 260 crore for its maiden fund. The fund closed above the target of Rs 250 crore and will focus on early-stage deals across sectors like fintech, edtech, retail, and health.

The majority of the investors are Indian family offices and digital-first entrepreneurs. About 95 percent of the investors are from India. Multiply Venture has invested in 15 companies to date and plans to invest in 8 to 10 more startups in the next 12 months, it said in a statement.

"Multiply Ventures will invest very early, and ideally, be the first institutional investor, and in most cases, lead the round. Our average first cheque is Rs 4 crore and we will invest up to Rs 20 crore efficiently run businesses till series A,” said Raveen Sastry, Partner, Multiply Ventures.

Fintech giant Innoviti Payment Solutions has raised an additional fund from Alumni Ventures taking its ongoing Series D funding round to $22 million.

The company announced a second close of Rs 75 crore from Development Finance Bank FMO N.V in May. Innoviti will be raising another Rs 140 crore over the next few weeks towards the final closing of the Rs 300 crore Series D round.

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The fresh capital will be deployed by Innoviti to fund working capital for its enterprise business, marketing of mid-market products, strengthening of the technology platforms for online and B2B payments, and acquisitions in the areas of data sciences and marketing technologies, the company said in a statement.

Siply, a micro-savings platform has bagged $19 million in its Pre-Series A funding round led by QI Ventures. The round also saw participation from existing investors, LetsVenture, and JITO. Angel investors like Vivek Sunder, CEO of Cuemath (Ex COO, Swiggy), also pitched in.

The company said it is currently clocking a $1 million revenue run rate, which has grown 22X since its last round and is projected to reach a $12 million revenue run rate and $80 million AUM by March 2023. Siply also expects to achieve $750 million AUM by March 2024 with a $51 million revenue run rate.

Plobal apps, a no-code app platform for e-commerce stores has raised $8.5 million in a funding round led by Elevation Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners with participation by Better Capital.

The company intends to use the fresh capital to expand its presence in the US, strengthen its technology infrastructure and launch new products. The startup has raised $14 million in funding so far.

Employee benefits and insurtech platform Pazcare has raised $8.2 million in a funding round led by Jafco Asia. The round also saw participation from existing investors 3One4 Capital and BEENEXT.

Post this round the company stands at a valuation of $48 million. It will use the fresh capital to further strengthen and expand the product line and in the growth of the business. Within a year, Pazcare claims to have seen a quarter-on-quarter growth of 100 percent. It currently serves 130,000+ members on the platform.

Deeptech startup Ecozen has raised Rs 54 crore ($7 million) of additional funding as the first tranche of its Rs 200 crore Series C round. The new funding round was led by Dare Ventures, the venture capital arm of Coromandel International, with participation from existing investors Caspian and Hivos-Triodos Fonds through equity. Northern Arc, UC Inclusive Credit, Maanaveeya, and Samunnati also participated with debt funding.

"The new funding will be used for expanding our product range, manufacturing capacity and boosting exports. Expanding beyond India and beyond agriculture will enable us to expand our market potential multifold and grow exponentially while ensuring sustainability," said Devendra Gupta, CEO, and co-founder, Ecozen.

Terra.do, a climate career platform, has raised $5 million in its seed funding round led by Avaana Capital. The round also saw participation from SIG, the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, Precursor, BEENEXT, City Light, Hummingbird Firm, and Avesta.

The company hopes to provide unique, insider access to climate specialists and hiring managers at leading climate tech companies with the introduction of its official app on the Apple App Store and Google Play store, allowing direct contact between climate employers and potential talent.

The firm is also set to host its next virtual job fair on the 29th of June in collaboration with My Climate Journey (MCJ) Collective, a climate fund, and community.

DAOlens, a B2B decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) service provider, has raised $5 million in a funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners. Better Ventures and iSeed II also participated in the round along with angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan, Sandeep Nailwal, Raj Gokal, Gokul Rajaram and Kunal Shah.

The company is looking to simplify how DAOs function by creating a suite of tools aimed at facilitating the discovery, onboarding and contribution processes between DAOs and their community members.

Cannabis startup Hemp Horizons has raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding round led by Mumbai Angels and also saw participation from Hindustan Media Ventures and others.

The fresh capital will enable the company to build a robust offline distribution network, strengthen marketing strategies, promote its D2C brand 'Health Horizons,' and launch new products.

"With these fresh funds, we will be building our offline distribution network, which will allow us to create a true D2C system that is sustainable and has a relatively lower carbon footprint. The Indian hemp and cannabis industry is growing significantly, and soon we will be an exporter to the world," said Rohit Shah, co-founder and CEO of Hemp Horizons.