Here’s a lowdown of the top deals in the startup space.

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Tala raises $145M in funding round led by Upstart

Fintech company Tala has raised $145 million in Series-E funding round, led by Upstart with participation from the Stellar Development Foundation.

New investors Kindred Ventures and The J. Safra Group, along with existing investors including IVP, Revolution Growth, Lowercase Capital, and PayPal Ventures, also joined the round, which brings Tala's total funding to over $350 million.

Tala will use the investment to accelerate the roll-out of its new financial account experience all through Tala's consumer finance app. It will also grow its world-class team across Kenya, India, the Philippines, Mexico, and the US, and pull forward plans for both geographic and product expansion, including crypto offerings, the company said in a statement.

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The company entered India in 2020 and claims to have already had more than half a million users sign up for the platform.

Since launching in Nairobi in 2014, Tala claims to have delivered more than $2.7 billion in credit to more than six million customers across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India.

Leveraging the Stellar network, Tala also plans to use this funding to develop the first mass-market crypto product for emerging markets.

As part of this fundraising, Paul Gu, co-founder of Upstart, and Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation have joined Tala's board of directors, the company added.

PharmEasy raises $350M in pre-IPO round: Report

IPO-bound online medical store PharmEasy has raised nearly $350 million ahead of filing their draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), as per Economic Times.

The company closed nearly $204 million (more than Rs 1,505 crore) in primary funding from Singapore’s Amansa Capital, Blackstone-backed hedge fund ApaH Capital, US hedge fund Janus Henderson, OrbiMed, Steadview Capital, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ, hedge fund Neuberger Berman and London’s Sanne Group, the report added.

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Nearly 20 senior employees bought shares worth $5 million as part of the secondary sale while early investors sold their stakes in the firm and IIFL’s tech fund has picked up some stake.

API Holdings, the parent company of PharmEasy has also raised $130-$140 million through secondary share sale, taking its post-money valuation to $5.6 billion, the report added.

Cloud-based platform SaaS Labs bags $17M in Series A round

Cloud-based platform SaaS Labs has bagged $17 million as part of its Series A funding round from San Francisco based early-stage venture capital firm Base10 Partners and Eight Roads Ventures.

The startup, which operates out of India, the Philippines, and the US, will use the fresh capital to expand its customer base, hire, and launch new products and services. The company is looking to double its 70-member team by the end of this year.

Founder Gaurav Sharma said the company has witnessed "unprecedented acceleration" of cloud adoption among SMBs in the last 12 months.

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SaaS Labs develops products for sales, support and marketing teams as well as contact centers to boost productivity. The company has two main products - Justcall and Helpwise.

Justcall, allows small and medium businesses (SMBs) to set up a cloud-based contact centre for sales or support, within minutes. It has native integrations with over 70 other business tools. Its other product, Helpwise, allows users to consolidate all communication streams in a single shared inbox, improving the quality and efficiency of customer support teams.

Automovill raises undisclosed funds from AngelBay

Full stack mobility startup Automovill has raised an undisclosed amount from AngelBay.

The round saw participation from Santosh Chandra, chief executive at Essar Oil & Gas Exploration and Production, and executives from Google and PWC. The round was a top up to the bridge round which brand raised in mid-July, the company said.

The firm provides tech-enabled solutions and B2B car service management. While the brand already has served 1,00,000+ orders across 12 cities, it plans to expand its footprint in other geographies, and deploy tech solutions. Automovill will use the funds to widen its wings in 20+ cities, and in ramping up infrastructure.

It plans to reach the 25,000-order mark, and presence across 20 cities by the end of current fiscal.

Numadic gets $2.5M funding from 9Unicorns: Report

Numadic, a vehicle interface platform, has raised $2.5 million in a funding round led by 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts at a post-money valuation of $20 million, as per Economic Times.

Chona Family Office, as well as angel investors including Venture Catalysts founder Apoorva Ranjan Sharma and Spark Private Wealth participated in the funding round.

The capital will be used to acquire talent and technology and scale new products, the report added.

Cannabis e-commerce platform Dutchie raises $350M, valued at $3.75Bn

Cannabis e-commerce platform Dutchie has raised $350 million in its latest funding round that valued the company at $3.75 billion.

As per Reuters, the massive funding round is Dutchie’s second this year. The Bend, Oregon-based company raised $200 million in March when it was valued at $1.7 billion.

Dutchie’s latest funding round was led by venture capital firm D1 Capital Partners and previous investors, including Tiger Global, Dragoneer, DFJ Growth, Thrive Capital, and Snoop Dog’s Casa Verde Capital participated.

Lipson said the funding will be used to double down on research and development for its products. It takes a license fee from dispensaries that use the Dutchie e-commerce platform to sell to consumers. Lipson said the transactions were still mostly in cash as credit card networks have still not opened up for cannabis transactions.

(Edited by : Priyanka Deshpande)