PhonePe lands $100M in additional funding at $12B valuation
Digital payments app PhonePe has raised $100 million in additional funding from Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, and TVS Capital Funds, at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. This comes almost a month after it raised $350 million from private equity firm General Atlantic, making it the country’s most valuable payments firm.
The Walmart-backed company started its latest fundraise efforts with a target of $1 billion after it made a domicile shift to India. PhonePe will utilise the funds to scale up its payments and insurance businesses in India, as well as to launch and aggressively scale new businesses like lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping, and account aggregators over the next few years.
Prozo raises Rs 45 Cr in Pre-series B funding
Supply chain technology startup, Prozo, said it has raised Rs 45 crore in a Pre-Series B round, which is a combination of equity and debt financing, led by Sixth Sense Ventures. JAFCO Asia & other marquee investors also participated in the round. With this, the startup has raised a total of Rs 131 crore since it was founded in 2015.
The Gurugram-based company said this is a precursor to a larger Series B planned in 2023-24 and would be utilised for expanding its client base, logistics network, and deepening its warehousing and logistics software-as-a-service platform.
Prozo, which offers its supply chain solutions to around 100 brands such as Tata Consumer, Reliance and Hyundai, said it has grown 10X in terms of its warehousing footprint and customer base since its last funding round of Rs 76 crore, again led by Sixth Sense Ventures, in March 2022.
Venture Catalysts leads $1.8M seed round in Lorien Finance
Integrated incubator Venture Catalysts announced that it has led a seed round of $1.8 million in Lorien Finance, a cross-border fintech platform. It also saw participation from other investors including TSM Ventures, Kunal Shah (Founder at CRED), Suhail Sameer (former CEO, BharatPe), Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta (Founders at boAt), Brijesh Agrawal (Co-founder, IndiaMart), and Yaser Moustafa (CEO, NBK).
Lorien Finance, founded in 2021, offers affordable banking and lending products to immigrants moving to the United States. The fintech platform claims to offer collateral-free education loans to Indian students for as low as 8.5%.
Mumbai Angels invests in agritech startup RuKart
Mumbai Angels, an early-stage investment platform part of alternate investment firm 360 ONE, has invested an undisclosed amount in agritech startup RuKart. The startup, which develops scalable green solutions, will use the funds to build its sales and marketing teams, expand its manufacturing unit and scale up operations.
The startup is trying to minimise post-harvest losses and unsustainable practices in the vegetable, fruit, and flower segments, said Nandini Mansinghka, CEO of Mumbai Angels, in a press note. The founders of RuKart want to create an environmentally-sustainable farm ecosystem for small plot holders or those who operate on less than 0.5 acres of land to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers. RuKart was founded by Sharayu Kulkarni and Gunvant Nehete in May 2019.
