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Venture capital funding into the India startup ecosystem crossed $500 million for the second week in a row, giving the month of April a very positive start amid sustained capital inflow and inorganic deals.

Total venture capital funding for the first week of April stood at $528 million, lower than the $577 million garnered in the previous week. There were a total of 13 deals during the week.

The highlight of the first week of April was the new fund-raise by edtech unicorn BYJU’S, which continues to attract investor interest. There was also inorganic transaction during the week with Amazon acquiring retail tech startup Perpule.

As has been the trend for quite some time now, majority of the transactions were in early-stage startups, which saw 10 deals during the week. This was followed by two in late-stage and one in growth-stage startups.

Key deal

Edtech unicorn BYJU’S raised Rs 3,328.23 crore ($460 million approximately) as part of its ongoing Series F funding round led by MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings at a valuation north of $13 billion.

Other transactions

Bhubaneswar-based microfinance institution Annapurna Finance raised $30 million as primary equity from Nuveen Global Impact.

Healthtech startup HealthPlix raised $13.5 million as part of the ongoing Series B funding round led by Lightspeed Ventures.

Homegrown short-form video app Chingari raised $13 million in an investment round led by OnMobile.

Easebuzz, a B2B-focused, API-driven full-stack payments solution provider, raised $4 million in a Series A round led by 8i Ventures, Varanium Capital, and Guild Capital.

Uable, a skill development platform for children raised $3.5 million in a pre-Series A round led by JAFCO Asia and Chiratae Ventures. Existing investor 3one4 Capital also participated.

Tech platform Zoko raised $1.4 million in seed round from Y Combinator and angel investors such as Ryan Hoover, Flipkart Co-founder Binny Bansal’s family office, and others.

DusMinute, the startup focused on services for gated communities, raised $1.1 million in a pre-Series A round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and a few high net-worth individuals (HNIs).

Circus Social, a social media analytics and big data SaaS startup, raised $1 million in a pre-Series A round led by Inflection Point Ventures and angel investors.

Zeda.io, a tech startup, raised $450,000 in a pre-seed round from Whiteboard Capital, Paradigm Shift Capital, Firstcheque.vc, and several angel investors.

Undisclosed deals

GetWork, a edtech and HR tech platform, raised Rs 2 crore in a seed round led by Artha Venture Fund (AVF) with participation from India Accelerator’s angel investors.

B2B rental company Settlrs raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A round from MaGEHold Pte. and angel investors.

Onsurity, a tech startup that provides healthcare-related services, raised an undisclosed round of funding from a group of its customers who have now turned investors.

India connection

Uniphore, the Chennai and California-based voice technology startup, raised $140 million in a Series D round led by Sorenson Capital Partners.

M&A

Amazon Technologies Inc, which is part of global ecommerce company Amazon, acquired Perpule, a Bengaluru-headquartered retail tech startup for Rs 107.60 crore.

Delhi-based Ruptok Fintech, a fintech platform for gold loans, acquired Mumbai-based Vinrak Technologies which owns GoldUno brand, in an all-stock deal.