CoinSwitch Kuber becomes unicorn; raises over $260 million

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinswitch Kuber has become India's second crypto unicorn, after raising over $260 million in Series C funding round, led by American venture capital firm a16z (Andreesen Horowitz) and Coinbase Ventures, at a valuation of $1.9 billion.

The new funding round included existing investors such as Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Tiger Global.

Venture Capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, which makes this investment its first in India, said in June it was launching a new $2.2-billion fund to invest more money in crypto networks.

CoinSwitch Kuber, which currently has more than 10 million users, said it would use the funds to onboard 50 million Indians on its platform and roll out new products.

The central government was set to present a Bill to Parliament by March that proposed a ban on cryptocurrencies, making trading and holding them illegal, but the Bill was not tabled in the session.

Edtech startup Sunstone Eduversity secures $28 million in Series B funding

Edtech startup Sunstone Eduversity has raised $28 million (about Rs 208.8 crore) in its Series B funding round, led by WestBridge Capital.

The round also saw participation from existing investors Saama Capital, Alteria Capital and Work10m -- a work-focused fund by Pankaj Bansal, Group-CEO PeopleStrong.

The company said it will use the fresh funds to enhance its cutting-edge learning and technology assets, while doubling down on geographical and team expansions.

Sunstone, which offers higher education programmes, said it is currently the third-largest B-school in the country, and in the next five years it aims to be the largest higher education provider in India.

Qapita raises $15 million in funding from East Ventures, others

Equity management platform Qapita has raised $15 million (about Rs 112 crore) in funding from East Ventures (Growth Fund), Vulcan Capital and others.

NYCA and existing investors, including Endiya Partners and MassMutual Ventures, also participated in the Series A round. Several existing angel investors across India, Singapore and Indonesia, including Alto Partners, partners of the Northstar Group, K3 Ventures, Mission Holdings, Anjali Bansal (Avaana Capital Founder) and Sujeet Kumar (Udaan Co-Founder) also participated.

With the proceeds from this round, Qapita plans to add more products to its platform, the company said in a statement. Qapita also plans to facilitate liquidity solutions via a digital marketplace enabling transactions for companies between their investors and employee stakeholders, it added.

With this latest round, Qapita will amplify its client base across Singapore, Indonesia and India.

As per the company, the team has grown from seven people 12 months ago to about 65 currently across Singapore and India. Qapita plans to scale up talent across India, Indonesia and Singapore in the near future.

Ozonetel gets $5 mn from Stakeboat Capital

Cloud communication services company Ozonetel has secured $5 million in Series A funding from private equity firm Stakeboat Capital.

The company said it aims to use the fresh capital to expand its sales and marketing teams in the US, while continuing to focus on South East Asia and the Middle East, and expanding in India. It had entered the US market in 2019.

The company also plans to launch its AI-driven Unified Channel Experience Management (UCXM) platform for voice and digital channels.

As per the firm, more than 100,000 call centre agents use Ozonetel’s CPaaS platform ‘CloudAgent.’ The company’s cloud telephony platform currently handles more than 10 million calls per day and more than 10,000 developers use Ozonetel’s CPaaS (communications platform as a service) platform.

kWh Bikes raises $2 mn in seed funding round

Electric scooters startup kWh Bikes has bagged $2 million (around Rs 15 crore) in a seed round led by private market online investment platform, Let's Venture, along with some individuals, including Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

The round also saw participation of Better Capital and Cloud Capital besides individuals such as Info Edge India Ltd Managing Director and CEO Hitesh Oberoi, Unacademy Co-Founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal and Kotak Mahindra Bank Joint Managing Director Dipak Gupta, among others, kWh Bikes said in a statement.

With this (funding), the startup is planning to take their prototype to production and expand R&D across various electric vehicle components like battery, BMS (battery management system), VCU (vehicle control unit) and motor.

kWh Bikes Co-founder and CEO Siddharth Janghu said, "With these funds, we are gearing up to extensively test our prototype, continue our work on components like the battery, motor and VCU, get them homologated, and enter into batch production."

The company said it currently caters to the Indian B2B EV market and soon plans to be available for retail users as well.

SaaS startup Attentive raises pre-Series A funding from Info Edge Ventures

Attentive, an early-stage Geospatial B2B SaaS startup, has raised a pre-Series A round led by Info Edge Ventures.

Redstart Labs, Pavitar Singh (CTO, Sprinklr), Abhishek Khurana (SVP Product Engineering, Sprinklr), and five IIT Delhi alumni also participated in the round.

The primary and secondary transactions saw investors pumping in over $2 million in the startup.

According to the company, Attentive will use the funds to expand the startup and further its investment in innovative technology.

The firm’s SaaS (software as a service) platform enables outdoor services and insurance companies to grow their businesses by accessing valuable property attributes at the click of a button.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Oct 6, 2021 8:43 PM IST