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Indian startup ecosystem has raised around $1.9 Bn across 40 deals in the second week of March

The week saw a total of seven acquisitions including gaming unicorn Curefoods acquiring Frozen Bottle

CredAvenue entered the country’s unicorn club in this week

After an overall low funding trend being observed throughout February and until the first week of March, the Indian startup ecosystem has managed to secure $1.9 Bn in funding across 40 deals in the second week of March. Between March 7 and 12, the ecosystem has produced one unicorn in the form of CredAvenue, and witnessed four mega deals that touched or went above $100 Mn.

Bengaluru-based BYJU’s securing $800 Mn formed the mega deal of this week. Out of the $800 Mn, the founder Byju Raveendran has at his own capacity invested $400 Mn. The round, which also saw participation from Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock, helped BYJU’s valuation soar to $22 Bn. 

This week’s funding was 783% higher than the last week when the ecosystem bagged a meager $223 Mn across 32 deals. 

The busiest investor of this week was Accel Partners which has doled out 4 cheques. Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and 3one4 Capital have participated in two deals each this week.

The Indian Startup Funding Deals Of The Week

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

Sachin Bansal’s NAVI To File For INR 4,000 Cr IPO 

Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal’s fintech startup, Navi Technologies is planning to raise INR 4,000 Cr in fresh capital through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Reportedly, the fintech startup will file its DRHP in the coming week.

Payment Solutions Provider EbixCash Files DRHP For INR 6,000 Cr IPO

Noida-based holistic payment solutions startup EbixCash has filed the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the market regulator SEBI. The startup will be raising INR 6,000 Cr through a fresh issue of shares. However, no offer for sale has been mentioned in its DRHP filing.  

Swiggy Ropes In Investment Bankers To Manage Its IPO

Swiggy, the food delivery decacorn, has hired JP Morgan and I-Sec ahead of its imminent IPO worth about $1 Bn. A couple of merchant banks will be hired later to run the process in the coming days. Swiggy plans to offer about a 10% stake in the IPO, which may be a mix of primary and secondary offerings, said one of the persons cited above.

From The Startup Acquisition Desk

• Info Edge announced acquiring 76% stake in online dating app Aisle for INR 91 Cr
• Computer Age Management Services Limited (CAMS), a financial infrastructure and services provider for mutual funds, acquired a majority stake in fintech SaaS startup Fintuple Technologies
• HR SaaS platform PeopleStrong acquired Gurugram-based PayReview, a salary and compensation tech startup for an undisclosed amount 
• Ador Group-led 1908 E-ventures acquired personal care brand, Coccoon
• Cloud kitchen brands aggregator Curefoods announced a majority stake acquisition of milkshake brand, Frozen Bottle 
• Agritech startup Ninjacart acquired SaaS-based smart solutions provider, Tecxprt, for an undisclosed amount
• Edtech startup Infinity Learn announced acquisition of Don’t Memorise, a concept-based multilingual content platform 

Startup Funds This Week

• Mumbai-based venture capital company, Equanimity Investments initiated its second fund. For the same, the VC has set a target corpus of around $45.5 Mn and a green shoe option to raise an equal amount
• Japan-based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s banking subsidiary MUFG Bank announced its plans to invest $300 Mn in Indian startups through its fund named ‘Ganesha’
• Nazara Technologies committed $4 Mn to Web3-focussed VC fund Griffin Gaming Partners Fund II. Nazara will be investing the first tranche of $1.34 Mn and the rest $2.66 Mn will be invested in Griffin’s second fund over the next three years.

Other Developments From The Indian Startup Ecosystem

• Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Paytm Payments Bank, the banking subsidiary of fintech giant Paytm has been asked to stop onboarding new customers by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The central bank has also ordered an IT Audit within the firm to conduct a comprehensive ‘system audit’
• US-based digital mortgage firm Better.com laid off thousands of its employees based in India and the US
• BYJU’s renews its sponsorship rights for team India’s national cricket team till 2023
• Titan Company Limited, a joint venture of The Tata Group and TIDCO, is in discussions to buy a significant stake in the Gurugram-based wearable device startup, Noise
• Construction giant Larsen & Toubro announced the launch of a new B2B ecommerce platform – L&T-SuFin. The platform will allow MSMEs to digitally source their industrial supplies ‘pan-India’ online    
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched UPI on feature phones. The feature, called UPI123Pay, will allow hundreds of millions of feature phone users to use UPI without the internet for transactions
• Kristal.ai announced an ESOP liquidity program worth $1 Mn on Ethereum blockchain for all eligible and former employees
• SaaS-based fleet management platform Fleetx.io announced ESOPs buyback worth INR 3.9 Cr for 45 eligible current and former employees.