Stride Ventures closes Fund II at $200M
Venture debt firm Stride Ventures has announced the final close of its second flagship India fund at USD 200 million, exceeding its target corpus.
The fund saw its first close at Rs 550 crore back in August 2021 and the second fund witnessed participation from banks, marquee family offices, corporate treasuries, sovereign funds, PE funds, insurance firms, and high net worth individuals (HNIs) contributing to its success, a statement said.
Fund II was set up in May of 2021 for Rs 1,000 crore with a greenshoe option to raise an additional Rs 875 crore.
The fund’s portfolio includes MyGlamm, Zepto, Yubi (CredAvenue), BluSmart, Uni, Upstox, WayCool, MensaBrands, MediBuddy, Wiz Freight, Perfios, Moneyview, VideoVerse, Chalo and Groyyo, among other new-age startups. The fund has an average ticket size of around USD 4-5 million (around Rs 30-40 crore), up from USD 2-3 million in the first fund.
E-commerce solution provider Graas gets $40M in Series A round
Graas, a solution provider the for e-commerce industry, has raised more than USD 40 million in the first close of Series A funding round led by Galaxy (Kejora-led SPV), Performa (multi-billion European Asset Manager-led SPV), Integra Partners, Yuj Ventures (Xander Group) and AJ Capital.
Angel investors based in Southeast Asia and India, also participated in the round as well.
The firm said it has used part of the fundraising to acquire Shoptimize, a data specialist firm, and SELLinALL, a Southeast Asia marketplace expert. The founders of the two companies joined the board of Graas and will continue to be a part of the combined entity.
Graas will also use the money from the first round of fundraising to drive growth in Southeast Asia, and to expand its team.
Exponent Energy bags $13M in Series A round led by Lightspeed
Electric vehicles charging startup Exponent Energy has raised USD 13 million (over Rs 100 crore) in a Series A funding round led by investment firm Lightspeed.
Existing investors YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital and AdvantEdge VC also participated in the round.
Exponent Energy, which has developed its proprietary charger and battery 'e-pump' and 'e-pack' that together can provide rapid charging of 100 per cent in 15 minutes, said it will use the fresh funds to expand its network and streamline production. The company plans its 'e-pump' network to be 100 location points per city, starting with Bengaluru, the statement said.
"This funding now allows us to execute even faster and make 15-min rapid charging the new normal," Exponent Energy co-founder and CEO Arun Vinayak said.
Yes Bank invests in Venture Catalysts Group Fund
Yes Bank has invested an undisclosed capital in Venture Catalysts Group Funds, an integrated incubator. The fund has invested in two platforms, Beams Fintech Fund and 9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund.
With these investments, the bank aims to bolster its investment in digital finance and help tech companies ideate and experiment with various use cases such as agriculture, healthcare, commerce, and education, a statement said.
“We are pleased to partner with Venture Catalysts and the allied platforms – Beams Fintech Fund and 9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund. We believe that this partnership is a step in the direction to becoming the go-to-bank for technology startups. India is at the cusp of a massive growth and the collaboration between banks and tech companies – especially with fintechs - will play a critical role in this journey,” said Ajay Rajan, Country Head, Transaction Banking , Yes Bank.
Metamaxx.io parent Copperpod Digital raises $10M from KFC Ventures
Copperpod Digital, the parent company of Metamaxx.io, has raised USD 10 million in funding led by KFC Ventures.
The fresh capital will be used to grow operations and further develop its technology and client portfolio. The investment will also accelerate the company's Web3.0 innovation plan and expand its digital workforce to serve more clients, a statement said.
“This funding will help us rapidly expand our digital product engineering and web3 technology services, allowing us to invest in top-tier leadership, engineering and design talent for our operations in the US and India,” said Munish Mishra, Co-founder, Copperpod Digital.
Rusk Media raises $9.5M in Series A round
Digital entertainment company Rusk Media has raised over USD 9.5 million in an extended series A funding round led by Seoul based DAOL Investment and Audacity Ventures.
Existing investors InfoEdge Ventures, Mistry Ventures and Survam Partners also participated in the round. The company also counts Nazara Games, and NODWIN gaming as their investors, among others and claims to have over 500 million monthly views.
“Our future plans are two-fold – firstly, scaling our content with OTT partners via our IPs in India and the rest of the world, with Playground leading the way for our expansion globally. Secondly, building a UGC-led social gaming platform that will enable game developers to create games and publish them on our platform using our game developer app that plans to leverage blockchain technology,” Mayank Yadav, CEO, Rusk Media.
Insurtech startup MetaMorphoSys raises $3M from Capital2B
Insurtech startup MetaMorphoSys has bagged USD 3 million in a seed funding round led by Capital2B along with participation from angel investors like Pavitar Singh and Dhruv Dhanraj Behl.
The fresh funds will be utilised to further innovate its SaaS-based digital insurance platform, expand the product and sales team to other geographies and invest in out-of-box legacy integrations, a statement said.
“The insurance industry is accelerating investments in digital platforms. Leading insurance companies across the globe are using the MetaMorphoSys Digital Insurance Platform to launch innovative products, empower their sales force, settle claims, identify fraud and optimize the entire value chain from customer acquisition to customer engagement including embedded insurance,” said Amit Naik, CEO and co-founder, MetaMorphoSys Technologies.
The Health Factory secures Rs 2 Cr in seed round
The Health Factory, a D2C food brand has raised Rs 2 crore in a seed funding round led by Venture Garage, Happilo founder Vikas Nahar, and other angel investors.
The brand has introduced a range of bread which come in the form of whole wheat, multi-protein, and zero maida bread.
“We will use the funds raised to scale and streamline our operations and manufacturing process, improve our IT infrastructure, build a talented team, and ramp up our marketing efforts. We are excited to take this much-loved range of food products to other cities soon,” said Vinay Maheshwari, CEO, The Health Factory.
D2C brand Zlade raises Rs 1.1 Cr from Velocity.in
Premium D2C personal care brand Zlade has raised Rs 1.1 crores from Velocity.in, a revenue-based financier, across 3 rounds of financing.
The firm said it is also in advanced talks to raise another Rs 6 to 8 crores in equity funding from some marquee investors and family offices based in India and the US. It claims to have witnessed 400 percent YoY growth in FY 2021-22 and closed the financial year with an annual run rate of Rs 12 crore.
“We want to provide world-class grooming products for men at honest and affordable prices. With Zlade Ballistic, we are one of the first brands to bring manscaping products to India with products designed especially for Men’s intimate grooming and hair removal.” said Suraj Chaudhari, Co-founder, Co-CEO of Zlade.
Renkube gets Rs 2.4 Cr in a seed funding from CIIE.CO
Renewable energy-focused deep tech startup Renkube has secured Rs 2.4 crores in a seed funding round led by CIIE.CO. JITO Angel Network and K4 Forum Mumbai Network also participated in this round.
The round also witnessed participation from Halliburton Labs via Renkube’s selection to its clean energy accelerator.
As per the firm, it will use the fresh funds to build industrial-scale manufacturing of this solar panel, secure necessary certifications and demonstrate the technology with top industrial customers in India, the US and Australia.
The company will start with the Solar Photovoltaic market and, in future, enable this technology for different use cases such as an Integrated Solar Roof, Agri PV, Solar Water Heater and Solar Balcony, the statement added.
Finverv raises Pre-Seed round led by Antler India
Finverv, an embedded lending infrastructure platform has raised an undisclosed capital in its Pre-Seed funding round led by Antler India.
The round also saw participation from Force Ventures, Asan Ventures, Luckbox Ventures and angel investors like Ashish Taneja (GrowX Ventures), Anuj Khosla (CEO, Hitachi Payments), Nitin Gupta (CEO, Uni Cards), Pravan Malhotra (Malacca Ventures), Vibhor Sahare (CEO, ANS Commerce), Avinash Kumar (Founder, Credence) and others.
The fresh capital will be used by the company to build and strengthen its functional teams and scale up partnerships.
“While we intend to benefit organizations by opening new possibilities of credit to scale their business, we also aim to expand the credit portfolio of the lenders, thus making this a resourceful experience for all parties involved,” said Sangeet Verma, CTO and Co-founder, Finverv.
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