Startup Digest: Funding winter gets colder, UPI & RuPay set sail to Europe, Tesla's early investor Tim Draper funds Indian startup

The funding in Indian startups nosedived a massive 80 percent (year-on-year) in the third quarter (July-September period) this year, with the late-stage funding seeing the biggest fall, a report showed on Tuesday.

Indian startups raised $3 billion in Q3, which was also 57 percent lower as compared to the previous quarter (Q2) this year. The average ticket size also witnessed a drop across all funding stages, with the late stage seeing the biggest fall of over 70 percent, from $142 million in Q3 2021 to $42 million in Q3 2022.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has announced a new Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). The OECD framework provides for reporting and exchange of information regarding crypto-assets.

The frame-work will be presented to G20 Ministers and Central Bank governors on October 12-13. The crypto-assets are not comprehensively covered by the G20 Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and increase the risk of tax evasion.

CARF will automatically exchange information on crypto-assets with jurisdictions of residence of taxpayers annually, in a standardised manner similar to the CRS.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) international payments arm has joined hands with global payments company Worldline to allow European merchants to accept payments via UPI and RuPay.

NPCI will first introduce this for Indians traveling to Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and then expand further in Europe. These transactions will be facilitated via Worldline's product for QR-based payment acceptance product.

It is estimated that pre-pandemic, as many as 10 million Indians traveled to Europe each year, and that number is only expected to increase as Covid worries subside.

Mumbai-based Artha Group has announced the launch of its 'winners-only' microVC fund – Artha Select Fund, which is targetting to close with a corpus of Rs 450 crore fund, including a green shoe option of Rs 120 crore.

Artha Group set up ASF with the intention of backing its category-winning startups in their follow-on rounds. The fund will commit up to Rs 20 crore in the Series B round and an additional Rs 20 crore in the follow-on Series C round. The group plans on backing 11-14 startups in their early-growth rounds through this vehicle.

Artha Group, through Artha Venture Fund and Artha India Ventures, has investments in more than 100 startups across India, the US, Israel, Africa, and the UK. OYO, Purplle, LeveragEdu, Tala, IconBuild, Rapido, Coutloot, Chai Break, Karza Technologies, and Mobilewalla are some leading startups in its global portfolio.

OYO & Spinny-backer BlackSoil has raised Rs 250 crore in fresh funding from reputed family offices, notable UHNIs / HNIs, and marquee institutions. "The funds raised will be lent to mid and growth-stage startups, through a variety of debt products,” said Ankur Bansal, director and co-founder, BlackSoil.

Over the last six years, the venture debt platform has deployed upwards of $300 million in more than 130 transactions. In FY22, it claims to have deployed over $90 million across 30 companies from a broad array of emerging growth sectors. BlackSoil's portfolio includes 9 unicorns — Upstox, Slice, MobiKwik, Udaan, Infra.Market, Zetwerk, OYO Rooms, Spinny & Purplle.

Up (previously React Labs), a smart connected home appliances startup, has raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding led by Tim Draper of Draper Associates. Draper has been an early investor in technology companies such as Tesla, Angelist, Coinbase, Switch, Skype, and Hotmail.

The round also saw investments from Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs of India (SAE India), Tarun Mehta & Swapnil Jain (co-founders of Ather Energy), Gaurav Munjal & Roman Saini (co-founders of Unacademy), among others.

Indian cricketer MS Dhoni invests in alternative protein brand Shaka Harry. The investment follows the startup's recent $2 million seed funding round led by Better Bite Ventures, Blue Horizon and Panthera Peak Ventures. Other investors in the startup include Dexler Holdings, celebrity Chef Manu Chandra, a group of domestic family offices and angel investors.

"We are serving over 30,000 customers across 10 cities monthly, and expect to triple this number in the next few months. Shaka Harry will also be available on global shelves by the end of this year," said Anand Nagarajan, co-founder and CEO of Liberate Foods.

Google has announced that it is extending Google Play Points to users in India in the coming week. It's a loyalty programme that helps consumers earn points and rewards on Google's app marketplace — Google Play Store.

The programme will have four tiers based on the number of points they collect, namely Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. These points can be used to get discount coupons, in-app rewards or Google Play Credit, with different perks or prizes depending on the tier the user is in.

First introduced in September 2018, the programme is available in 28 countries at present and the company claims that "over 100 million people find value in the programme".

Financial Services conglomerate IIFL Group, through its early-stage investing vehicle IIFL Fintech Fund, has led the $1.8 million Series A investment round in Trendlyne — an analytics platform for investors and traders. This is the second time IIFL Securities has invested in Trendlyne and now holds a significant stake in the company.

Trendlyne claims to have grown rapidly with over 350 million page/screen views over 12 months on its website and mobile app. Some of its B2B clients include ICICI Securities, Kotak Securities, 5Paisa, Motilal Oswal, IIFL Securities, SBI Capital, Edelweiss among others.