The new year began on a good note for India’s startup ecosystem with the total venture capital inflow crossing USD 500 million-mark in the first week of January. Reliance Retails’ USD 200 million investment in instant delivery startup Dunzo and Mamaearth’s entry into unicorn club were major highlights of the week. As many as 15 deals were inked with the venture funding nearing USD 550 million.
Here’s the weekly funding roundup of Indian startups for first week of January, 2022 (Jan 01- Jan 07)
Reliance Retail has led a $240 million funding round in Google-backed hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo
Avataar, a leading AI and computer vision platform focused on spatial visual discovery, has raised $45 million Series B funding led by Tiger Global with participation from Sequoia India.
D2C brand Mamaearth entered unicorn club after raising USD 52 million in a round led by Sequoia at a valuation of $1.2 billion.
Tech startup Exotel raised $40 million led by Steadview Capital.
Asia’s leading PE firm NewQuest Capital Partners, along with the existing investor, PremjiInvest, invested Rs 507 crore (USD 68 million) in iD Fresh Food—India’s leading fresh food startup.
Rupifi, a business-to-business (B2B) payments fintech, has raised USD 25 million in a series-A round funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Tiger Global.
Zuddl, a virtual and hybrid events platform, on Friday said it has raised USD 13.35 million (about Rs 99.2 crore) in funding, led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) and Qualcomm Ventures LLC.
Innoviti Payment Solutions announced that it has raised Rs 80 crore in a first close in its ongoing Series D funding round.
Geniemode, has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Info Edge Ventures within four months of its $2.25 million seed round.
B2B Manufacturing and Automation company Groyyo on Monday announced it has raised $4.6 million in a seed round of funding led by Alpha Wave Incubation
Delhi-based LivFin India Private Limited has raised $2Mn venture debt from BlackSoil, a leading NBFC & noteworthy player in the credit space.
Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs raised $20 million from the State Bank of India.
CASHe, India’s leading credit led, AI-driven financial wellness platform, announced that it has closed 140 crores (USD 19 million) of equity funding from its Singapore-based holding company TSLC Pte Ltd.
D2C brand FREECULTR raised $5 million led by Sixth Sense Ventures.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Shiprocket, a logistics aggregator backed by Zomato, is set to acquire a 75% stake in customer data platform (CDP) Wigzo Tech
Logistics firm Delhivery Ltd on Wednesday announced that it has made an investment in Noida-based logistics automation solutions
