Here’s a lowdown of the top deals from the startup space

Ecommerce Logisitics startup Xpressbees turns unicorn; bags $300M Series F round from Blackstone, TPG & ChrysCapital

It’s raining unicorns in the Indian startup ecosystem. New-age logistics provider Xpressbees has become the latest startup to join the billion-dollar club after bagging a whopping $300 million in its Series F funding round led by private equity funds Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital.

The latest round has valued Xpressbees at $1.2 billion, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC-TV18. Existing investors, Investcorp and Norwest Venture Partners, also participated in the funding round. Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Xpressbees on this transaction.

With this investment, the ecommerce logistics startup’s total fundraise has exceeded $500 million. The Pune-headquartered firm had raised $110 million Series E financing round from Investcorp, Norwest Venture Partners and Gaja Capital in 2020.

With the fresh capital, Xpressbees is looking to evolve into a full-service logistics organization, support the business in its next phase of growth, product development, and hiring talent. According to a report by ResearchAndMarkets, the Indian e-commerce logistics market is expected to reach $ 11.48 billion by 2027 from $ 2.93 billion in 2019. It is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 18.8% from 2020 to 2027.

Sequoia India eyes record $2.8 Bn fund, MD steps down: Report

Sequoia Capital India has written to its US parent and investors to raise $2.8 billion in funds for Indian and Southeast Asian startups, its largest fund by more than double, signalling that India’s unprecedented startup funding boom may be here to stay, sources told Moneycontrol. Sequoia also plans to raise separate funds for India and Southeast Asia, something it has not done in the last seven years since it expanded to the region, in addition to venture and growth funds, a bifurcation it already makes, the report added.

Further, former Uber Asia Pacific Head Amit Jain, who had joined the firm as managing director in 2019, will step down from his position. Jain will be an entrepreneur-in-residence going forward, working on his own venture but getting access to Sequoia’s partners, operators and networks before he steps out. Sequoia’s US partners, led by Roelof Botha will pitch to its investors (Limited Partners) next month- at a common event where investors in Sequoia commit money to all its funds- US, India and China (although China separately raises money from local investors too). Allocations are expected to be finalised by June-July, the report added.

Binny Bansal invests $25M in xto10x Technologies

xto10x Technologies, a scaling platform for growth-stage startups, has raised $25 million in its Series A round led by former Flipkart CEO and Co-founder Binny Bansal. The round also saw participation from 28 founders and senior leaders from the startup ecosystem in India and Southeast Asia.

The funds raised will be primarily utilised to ramp up three core activities – learning programs, software tools and operating capabilities – which will enable growth-stage startups to accelerate their scale-up journeys, the firm said in a statement. “Doing deep operating work with startups and converting that experience into software tools and learning curriculum have helped us build strong momentum, driving 4X growth in the past year. In fact, xto10x is already a profitable company,” added Saikiran Krishnamurthy, Co-founder, xto10x Technologies.

In 2021, xto10x had acquired SaaS-based HR-tech startup, Dockabl to expand their employee experience platform. xto10x has worked with 200+ growth-stage startups across India and Southeast Asia in the past two years.

CRED in talks to raise $300M: Report

Fintech startup CRED is in talks to raise about $300 million valuing it at over $6 billion, an aggressive valuation for one of India's most intriguing technology companies as investor sentiment remains strong despite tech stocks falling globally, sources told Moneycontrol. The new round of funding will likely be led by a crossover fund from the Middle East, while existing backers Tiger Global Management and Falcon Edge Capital will also double down on their bets, the report added.

CRED is also pitching to investors that it can become like Affirm, the US-based company which allows BNPL for online transactions. Affirm recently listed with a market cap of over $24 billion.

Fintech startup Karbon Card bags $15M in Series A round

Fintech platform Karbon Card has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Olive Tree Capital, Harmony and Avenir Growth Capital.

Existing investors Ramp, Mercury and Orios Venture Partners also participated in the funding round. The new investment comes in less than four months of the company raising a Pre-Series A of $12 million in September last year. Karbon has raised $32 million in funding till date.

The startup, which counts Y Combinator as it’s early backer said it will use funds to step up product development, hiring plans and operations as it transitions into a corporate Neobank this year. “We are extremely delighted to close our Series A because it means we now have the resources to build an even more compelling product and service to all our current and future customers. We now have more than 2000 companies as happy customers and are determined to grow this by many times this year,” said Karbon’s Co-founder Amit Jangir.

The startup claims to have closed 2021 with a monthly GTV (gross transaction value) of $30 million and expects to grow the GTV to $200 million per month in 2022 as credit demand picks up pace.

SaaS player Oloid bags $12M from Dell Technologies Capital

SaaS startup Oloid has raised $12 million in Series A funding round led by Dell Technologies Capital with participation from Honeywell Ventures, Okta Ventures and other previous investors. The new funding brings Oloid’s total raised to $17 million. It will be used to help expand Oloid’s retrofit access control products portfolio and teams in Bangalore and Silicon Valley, the firm said in a statement.

Oloid also intends to use the fresh funds to enhance its products and to pool in tech talent in India. The company is currently running a Beta program of its self-install product wherein the retrofit upgrades are being offered at no cost.

“This round of financing will enable us to extend the compatibility of our product with a wider range of badge readers and access control systems and build direct and indirect sales channels across the nation,” said Mohit Garg, Co-founder and CEO of Oloid.

Compliance automation startup Sprinto bags $10M from Elevation Capital, Accel & Blume Ventures

Sprinto, a compliance automation platform for SaaS companies, has bagged $10M in Series A funding led by Elevation Capital with participation from Accel, and Blume Ventures.

The funding will be used for team expansion across key functions and R&D to ensure long-term growth, the firm said in a statement. Sprinto will ramp up hiring and also open its first North American office, in Utah, by this quarter’s end. Earlier, in January 2020, the company had raised $1.5M in seed funding from Blume Ventures. Sprinto is a compliance automation platform that helps SaaS companies obtain compliances, such as SOC 2, ISO27001, GDPR, HIPAA and more in a quick and hassle-free manner.

“With a consultant, companies would take around 3-4 months to be ready for SOC 2 assessment. Using Sprinto’s compliance automation platform, companies can complete the SOC 2 readiness assessment in just days. This levels the playing field, helping smaller companies lacking the resources of larger firms,” said Sprinto co-founder Girish Redekar.

Sprinto claims to have grown rapidly, doubling its ARR over the last 10 weeks alone.

WealthTech platform Wealthy.in raises $7.5M from Alpha Wave & others

WealthTech platform Wealthy.in has secured raised $7.5 million in Series A round of funding led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI). AWI is backed by ADQ’s venture platform, and managed by Alpha Wave Global (formerly known as Falcon Edge Capital).

New investor Savrola Group and existing investors Venture Highway, Good Capital & Emphasis Ventures also participated in the funding round. With the latest round of funding, Wealthy.in plans to penetrate deeper into the Indian market as well as expand in international markets like the Middle East, it said.

“The company has grown 15x since the last fundraise. It is a unique platform which ensures that clients get unbiased recommendations and a wide choice of products through wealth professionals they trust,” said Rohan Malhotra, Managing Partner at Good Capital.

Cybersecurity firm SecureThings raises $3.5M from Inflexor Ventures

Automotive cybersecurity startup SecureThings.ai has secured $3.5 million in a funding round led by tech-focused VC fund Inflexor Ventures. From Fund II, Inflexor has, since November 2020, invested in six companies, including Atomberg, GramCover, and Vitra.ai.

The round also saw participation from 9Unicorns, RPG Ventures, SAB Holdings, and various UHNIs. As per the startup, it will use the fresh capital towards product enhancement, business growth in India and overseas markets and augmenting the India and US teams, and sales and marketing.

The California-based company provides specialised machine learning-based cybersecurity for automobiles. It has a large R&D centre in Pune, to cater to existing customers in the India & APJ market.

Peakperformer raises $3M in funding led by Sequoia India’s Surge

Digital coaching platform Peakperformer ha closed $3 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, alongside co-investors Antler India, Blume Founders Fund, and angel investors. The fresh funds will be used for expansion into new markets, hiring vertical leaders and top talent, as well as for product and tech development, the startup said in a statement.

Peakperformer is currently working with a range of companies including MPL, CRED, Pfizer and Societe Generale. The platform’s data-driven algorithm analyses factors such as professional experience, competencies mapping, functional expertise, and coaching outcomes to match the most suitable coaches with the learner.

EV charging solutions company BRIGHTBLU gets $1.6M from Koolen Industries

Electric vehicle charging solutions company BRIGHTBLU has secured a $1.6 million investment from Dutch clean energy conglomerate Koolen Industries

The startup said that new investment will help accelerate its international expansion. The Mumbai based startup’s products currently cater to the Indian and European markets.

BRIGHTBLU has developed and designed the entire intelligent charging technology stack in-house and the investment will help fund further in-house research and development of both plug-and-charge and vehicle-to-grid solutions. The firm is also in the process of setting up new high-tech research and development centre in Pune where the funds will be used to hire talent and create new cutting-edge charging technologies, it said in a statement.

D2C brand Life & Pursuits bags $500K in angel funding

D2C Ayurveda beauty brand Life & Pursuits, has raised $500,000 from angel investors. The round saw participation from prominent angel syndicates Supermorpheus (led by Sameer Guglani) and Eagle10 Ventures (led by Prashant Pansare) apart from leading angel individuals such as Pankaj Agrawal (IndiaMart promoter family), Madhup Agrawal (IndiaMart CXO), Tarun Matta (Founder iimjobs.com, acquired by Naukri.com) and Ankur Singla (Founder Tapzo, acquired by Amazon Pay). The round also included a few international investments.

“Our USP has been the high trust and authenticity of our products and we will be investing in building this further to become market leader for Organic Ayurveda beauty and wellness products.” said Mudit Consul, founder of Life & Pursuits. The company is currently selling a range of hair care and skin care products on several marketplaces in the US, the UK, the UAE, and Australia.

Waste management startup Cercle X raises Rs 1.9 Cr in a Seed round

New-age Waste Management Platform Cercle X has raised Rs 1.9 CR in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures. The funds raised will be utilised towards marketing, operations and technology, the startup said in a statement.

As per the company, solid waste generated in India daily is 2.76 lakh MT. 58k MT of solid waste that could have been recycled (paper, plastic, metal) is dumped daily without processing. Cercle X is focussing on creating a B2B marketplace that connects key players (brands, consumers, MRFs, aggregators, recyclers, logistics partners, manufacturers) across the waste value chain, thereby improving access to quality waste, enhanced traceability, and transparency, it added.

Cercle X is also planning to expand into key southern Indian cities along with Top tier-1 cities as a part of its growth plan. It has tie-ups with 700+ vendors and channelizes 500+ MT of recyclables each month. Cercle X also executes EPR mandates for 20+ large corporates/brands and works directly with 50+ governmental agencies and ULBs.

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Feb 9, 2022 10:25 PM IST