There were several fundraising by startups during the day, which include UpScalio raises $42.5 million in another boost for Thrasio-style model, Gaming platform Zupee raises $30 million in Series B funding, Klub raises $20 million in seed round; Healthtech startup Ultrahuman raises $17.5 mn, touting a wearable glucose tracker; Yellow Class raises $6 mn from Elevation Capital; and Smart Express raises Rs 100 cr in seed funding. Here are the top deals locked in the startup universe today.
UpScalio raises $42.5 million in another boost for Thrasio-style model
The rush to build a Thrasio-type platform in India is getting massive investor interest and highlighting this new trend is an e-commerce roll-up company – UpScalio.
The five-month-old company has raised $42.5 million as part of its Series A round, led by Presight Capital and an undisclosed global hedge fund, with participation from Heliad Equity Partners, MPGI, 468 Capital, Whiteboard Capital.
The funding round also saw capital commitments from a consortium of lenders including freshly-minted unicorn OfBusiness, Innoven Capital, and Alteria Capital. Some of the company’s angel investors and advisors include Suhail Sameer (CEO, BharatPe), Radhika Ghai (Co-Founder, ShopClues), Rohit Kapoor (CEO, OYO India & SEA), Arjun Vaidya (Founder, Dr Vaidya’s), and Erik Podzuweit (Founder, Scalable Capital).
According to UpScalio, the Indian e-commerce market is one of the fastest-growing globally and is expected to grow at over 35 percent a year over the next five years.
UpScalio aims to be an e-commerce brand investor and operator by partnering with digital-first brands that sell on e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and Nykaa.
The startup said it will help the brands with multi-marketplace management, digital marketing, branding, logistics, sourcing, finance and business operations, all optimized using advanced analytics. It aims to help the companies profitably scale by 5-10x.
Gaming platform Zupee raises $30 million in Series B funding
Online skill-based gaming platform startup, Zupee has raised $30 million at a pre-money valuation of $500 million in its Series B funding round. This round of funding has been co-led by Silicon Valley-based WestCap Group and Tomales Bay Capital.
This round comes within six months after its Series A round at a $100 million valuation, and over 5x increase in the company's valuation.
With total funds raised now at $49 million, Zupee is backed by WestCap Group, Matrix Partners, Smile Group and Orios Partners. The company has an existing user base of over one crore and this new round of funding will be used to enable scaling efforts through an expanded product portfolio, deepening market reach and hiring global talent.
Klub raises $20 million in seed round
Fintech startup Klub has raised a seed funding of $20 million, from existing investors 9Unicorns and Sequoia Surge. The funding round also saw participation of new investors Alter Global and Japan's GMO VenturePartners.
The company had raised $2 million in a pre-seed round in January led by Surge and multiple angel investors. The new round—which is a mix of equity and capital commitment—makes it one of the largest seed rounds till date in India’s startup ecosystem, according to the company.
Klub said it will deploy Rs 500 crore over the next few quarters in local brands and digital small and medium-sized enterprises. The startup plans to use the fresh capital to expand its team, accelerate development of its tech and data platform, and expand its product offerings and market segments.
"India's digital commerce ecosystem requires more than 'one size fits all' financing, and with this round, we can further our mission of enabling growth for loved brands," said Anurakt Jain, co-founder, Klub.
Healthtech startup Ultrahuman raises $17.5 mn, touting a wearable glucose tracker
Fitness startup Ultrahuman has announced a $17.5 million Series B fundraise, with investment from early-stage fund Alpha Wave Incubation (backed by DisruptAD and managed by Falcon Edge), Steadview Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Blume Ventures and Utsav Somani’s iSeed fund.
Marquee founders and angel investors who also participated include Tiger Global’s Scott Schleifer, Deepinder Goyal (CEO and co-founder of Zomato), Kunal Shah (CEO of Cred), and Gaurav Munjal and Romain Saini (Co-founders of Unacademy), among others.
According to Ultrahuman, over a billion people in the world suffer from a metabolic health disorder, which contributes to 85 percent of all chronic diseases in the world.
The startup aims to re-invent fitness-tech via its glucose-tracking device. The product branded ‘Cyborg’ is a wearable and a subscription service —helps people optimize their exercise and nutrition, based on glucose biomarkers.
Yellow Class raises $6 mn from Elevation Capital
Edtech startup Yellow Class has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Elevation Capital.
The round also saw participation from existing investors India Quotient, Titan Capital and First Cheque. The other angel investors include Vidit Aatrey (Co-founder, Meesho), Alok Mittal (Founder, Indifi), Vivekananda Hallekere (Co-founder, Bounce), Maninder Gulati (Global CSO, OYO) Abhinav Sinha (COO, OYO), Dhruv Agarwala (CEO, PropTiger) and Alvin Tse (Country Director, Xiaomi Indonesia).
The startup will use fresh capital for improving the product experience for both parents and children, and developing more holistic content, building brand awareness, hiring for leadership roles across the product, technology and engineering verticals.
The company aims to expand in over 500 cities in India and international markets.
Rage Coffee raises $5 mn in Series A funding from Sixth Sense Ventures
Rage Coffee, which manufactures, markets, and distributes coffee products globally, has raised around $5 million of growth capital as part of its Series A funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures.
The company plans to expand its online presence and offline footprint across India and will utilise the fresh capital for marketing and distribution purposes. Rage Coffee will also use the funds to scale up production, launch innovative new products and add senior management talent.
According to the company, the Rs 7,000 crore Indian packaged coffee segment is dominated by incumbents with two players -- Nestle and HUL (Nescafe and Bru) -- controlling over 65 percent market share of the industry.
The lack of innovation in the space is helping Rage become the brand of choice for the next generation of coffee consumers, the company said.
“Our D2C channel has grown 10 times during the pandemic. With this round of funding, we have our sights set on fulfilling our global demand as well with distributor partners in the United States, Europe, and GCC markets already working with us,” said Bharat Sethi, Founder and CEO of Rage Coffee.
Edtech startup Expertrons raises $2.3 million
Expertrons, a professional growth focussed AI video bot startup, has raised $2.3 million in Pre-Series A funding from Venture Catalysts, Auxano Capital, Venture Garage, Yoga Capital, Ah!Ventures, Lead Angels, and Hyderabad Angels.
Existing investors LetsVenture, Ivycap Ventures, IVS and Nikhil Vora (MD, Sixth Sense) also participated in the round as well, along with entrepreneurs like Bre Pettis, Co-founder of MakerBot (which was backed by Jeff Bezos and got acquired for half a billion dollars), and founder of Early Salary.
The company will use fresh capital in its patent-pending video bot technology and recommendation engine to help aspirants find the right experts suitable to land them a dream opportunity.
Digital health startup Navia Life Care secures $1 million
Digital health startup Navia Life Care has raised $1 million in its Series A funding.
The investment was led by Anicut Angel Fund, the equity arm of Anicut Capital, with participation from 9Unicorns. Other marquee angel investors, including the healthcare and life science practice lead of a top tier strategy consulting firm, strategic partnerships lead at Google India, and CEO of a renowned global pharma company.
The fresh funds will be focused on strengthening the company’s position as one of the fastest-growing digital health startups in India, the company said. It will further allow the company to use the capital for technology, business development, product innovation and development, strategic hiring, and expansion across all healthcare hubs of India, metro cities, along with Tier-II and III cities.
The startup is aiming to close a $5 million Series A round in the next three to four months.
Smart Express raises Rs 100 cr in seed funding
Logistics startup Smart Express has raised Rs 100 crore in seed funding ahead of its launch in the festive season.
The seed funding round is led by IIFL Private Equity Fund and other investors -- Smiti Holding & Trading Company (Jalan Dani family office), founder-promoter Yogesh Dhingra and other co-founders.
The startup is looking to launch operations during the forthcoming festive season in 30 cities, it said adding the plan is to set up 300 centres Pan-India in the next three years. The funds will be deployed for team building and creating Pick-Up and Delivery (PUD) and transit hub infrastructure to service customers across India, it said.
Other key areas where the funds will be utilised include development of technology to support operations and building innovative solutions that will enable customers to experience best-in-class services at optimal cost, the startup said.
First Published: Aug 17, 2021 11:46 PM IST
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