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

Eight Roads Ventures sets up $250 mn India-focused healthcare fund

Global investment firm Eight Roads Venture has launched its first India dedicated $250 million healthcare and lifesciences fund.

The VC firm claimed that the fund is among the largest for the sector in India, and has brought the total amount managed by Eight Roads in India to $1.6 billion.

The company will use the fund to make minority investments in 15 to 20 life sciences, healthtech, consumer health and digital health startups at the early and growth stage. Eight Roads will look to cut smaller cheques as well as cheques as large as $40 million, it said in statement.

The VC firm already has a portfolio of 25 companies across healthtech and life sciences including Laurus Labs, Pharmeasy, Cipla Health, and Toothsi among others.

Fashinza secures $100 mn in Series B round from Prosus, Westbridge Capital and others

Fashinza, an AI-driven B2B marketplace and real-time global supply chain for fashion brands and retailers, has raised $100 million in Series B funding round led by Prosus Ventures and Westbridge. The round was a combination of equity and debt financing.

The round also witnessed participation from existing investors Accel, Elevation, and DisruptAD. Angel investors Naval Ravikant, Jeff Fagnan, Jake Zeller, Nivi, and Nitesh Banta, also pitched in.

Fashinza will use the funds to create a sustainable supply chain for the global fashion industry and in expanding the company’s presence globally. This includes monetizing fintech offerings, expanding into raw material procurement, helping Indian SME apparel manufacturers with supply chain financing, creating a sustainable supply chain by 2030 and Industry 4.0 solutions for SMB manufacturers, it said in a statement.

In the past 12 months Fashinza said it grew the business 10x crossing $150 million in annualized GMV run rate. The company also reduced minimum order units to as low as 50 and reduced design to delivery TATs by 50% in a single year.

D2C jewellery brand Melorra marks the first close of Series D round at $16 mn

D2C jewellery brand Melorra has raised $16 million in the first leg of its Series D funding round led by Axis Growth Avenues AIF-I, SRF Family Office, N+1, and existing investors.

The fresh capital will be used for strengthening brand marketing activities and rolling out more offline experience centres across the country, the firm said in a statement.

Growing at 200 percent CAGR over the last few years, the brand currently stands at a revenue of over Rs 360 crore in 2021-22. The brand is now targeting to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2025-26 by consolidating its online leadership strength in the large gold jewellery industry and expanding its offline footprint.

Coinshift raises $15 mn Series A round led by Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India and others

Cryptotech startup Coinshift has raised $15 million in Series A funding round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India.

The round also saw participation from Ryan Hoover (founder of Product Hunt and the Weekend Fund), Alameda Ventures, Spartan Group, Ethereal Ventures, Alpha Wave Capital, Hash key Capital, Quiet Capital, Polygon Studios, Volt Capital and 300 and more angels and operators in crypto and fintech.

The company said it has witnessed rapid growth since its launch in June 2021, managing more than 1,000 safes, $1.3 billion in assets and $80 million in payouts for organisations like Consensys, Messari, Biconomy, Uniswap, Perpetual Protocol, Balancer and many others.

Smytten gets Rs 100 crore in Pre-Series B funding from Fireside & Roots Ventures

E-commerce enabler Smytten has bagged Rs 100 crore in its Pre-Series B funding round led by Fireside Ventures and Roots Ventures.

The round also saw participation from Sharrp Ventures (Harsh Mariwala family office), Waao Partners (Pratul Shroff Family Office), Survam Partners (Munjal Family Office) and Sattva Group Family Office.

The startup aims to use the fresh capital to build various tech and data solutions with applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to optimise the marketing funnel for D2C brands starting from new product development to consumer acquisition and retention.

Additionally, the platform will invest in creating a servicing infrastructure across the country, to widen the product trial touch points and strengthen the online service delivery to better the pre-purchase buying experience for consumers at scale, it said in a statement.

“We are launching a new brand a day on our platform and bringing more than 15-20 new products every day to consumers to try,” said Siddhartha Nangia, co-founder, Smytten.

SpeEdLabs gets Rs 14.31 crore from Mumbai Angel, LetsVentures and others

SpeEdLabs, an AI-based edtech platform, has received Rs 14.31 crore in Pre-Series A round of funding led by investment platform Mumbai Angels Network.

The round also saw participation from LetsVenture, Ecosystem Ventures and SucSeed Ventures. The startup will use the freshly infused capital towards expanding its presence and bolstering its infrastructure, it said in a statement.

“Currently present in 200+ cities, enabling 1,00,000+ students and empowering over 5,000 teachers, SpeEdLabs will soon be expanding their presence to 800 cities across 23 states in the country,” said Vivek Varshney, Founder, SpeEdLabs.

The company claims to have scaled 10x in 18 months in product revenues and a funnel of 3,000+ clients. It is now close to crossing Rs 1.5 crore per month by June 2022.

Rata Tata backs Repos Energy with Rs 56 crore investment

Energy distribution startup Repos Energy has raised Rs 56 crore in Pre-Series A round of funding led by Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata, followed by other undisclosed investors in a mix of equity and debt.

The funds will help the company refuel the energy distribution. The startup is currently working on bringing renewable energies such as ethanol, methanol and biofuels on its mobile distribution network, it said in a statement.

Repos also plans to use the funds in building its product line, expansion into different geographies of India, as well as team-building. It will also enable the startup to invest in the latest technologies such as IoT, AI, and blockchain to make the energy distribution system of India absolutely seamless in future.

“This fundraise will help us achieve our dream of making energy reach the last-mile across the globe,” said Aparajit Subramanian, Co-founder, Repos Energy.

Karbon Card bags Rs 55 crore debt finance from Northern Arc, UCIC and Oxyzo

Karbon Card, which offers corporate cards to small businesses and startups, has raised Rs 55 crore in a debt financing round from Northern Arc Capital, UC Inclusive Credit and Oxyzo Financial Services.

The fintech startup said it would use the funds to empower and enable startups and SMBs with corporate credit cards that they can use as flexible growth capital. It has also recently launched a banking product for such small businesses called Karbon PayOut to make vendor and salary payments easier and faster.

“We believe that partnering with these stalwarts goes a long way in consolidating our credibility and presence in the new-age banking ecosystem. We will be allocating these funds to expand our customer base and become the preferred neo-banking partner for all start-ups and SMBs in India,” said Kartik Jain, Co-founder, Karbon.

This is the first debt round the Bengaluru-based company has raised. So far, Karbon has raised around $32 million in equity from global and marquee investors such as Ycombinator, Ramp, and Olive Tree Capital among others.

O'2 Nails India raises funding from Atal Incubation Centre — BIMTECH

O'2 Nails, a consumer and fashion retail startups that specialises in nail care space has raised $75,000 in a funding round led by Atal Incubation Centre – BIMTECH under the Startup India initiative along with some marquee investors.

The funding comes in the form of debentures under the Seed Fund Scheme. AIC — BIMTECH is also incubating O’2 Nails India under their “Gurukul” programme, where they are reformulating nail care products in a more sustainable fashion.

This fundraise saw participation from other leading angel investors including G Sowmya (Product Head – Google) and Sanjay Vijayvargiya (Partner Mahindra Holiday). The startup will use the fresh funds for technological advancement along with retail growth by increasing its store numbers.

FlexC raises undisclosed funding from angel investors

FlexC, an AI talent marketplace for hiring and managing a hybrid workforce, has secured an undisclosed funding from new investors Dr RA Mashelkar and Amey Mashelkar.

The company will use the funds for expansion of the various business horizons beyond IT and BPO and venture into Consumer Tech, BFSI, and Retail. It also has plans to invest in technology platforms to render a competitive and comprehensive workplace ecosystem, it said in a statement.

“The funding will help us in expanding our agency network as well as industry verticals to accelerate the business process and provide end-to-end workplace solutions,” said Girish Kukreja, Founder and CEO, FlexC.