India is one of Asia's cultural and population hubs, and with such a large population, it is no surprise that the country generates many top startups. Indian startups benefit from a rapidly growing and developing ecosystem which has a large pool of native talent available to them.  The ecosystem's expansion is highlighted since 12% to 15% annual growth is predicted for it. There are more than 100 unicorns in the country, highlighting India's underlying potential to become one of the biggest startup powerhouses.

This week, we saw India's largest drone manufacturing company, IdeaForge Technology, has completed its pre-IPO (initial public offering) placement at a valuation of around 2,500 crore, banking; and Amp Energy India, which has a portfolio of more than 2.7 GW spread over 17 states in the nation, would use the $250 million capital to support the company's expansion. Here is the compilation of top 10 startups that raised million dollar funds this week.

IdeaForge

India's largest drone manufacturing company, IdeaForge Technology, has completed its pre-IPO (initial public offering) placement at a valuation of around 2,500 crore, banking sources told. The round, which raised 60 crore, saw participation from institutional investors, including Tata AIG General Insurance, 360 One Asset Management, Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund, and Think Investments PCC, a foreign institutional investor, said bankers.

IdeaForge, according to bankers, filed its red herring prospectus earlier this week. The company is expected to launch its public issue at the end of this month. The issue size is estimated to be around 650 crore with an offer for sale (OFS) component of around 350 crore and fresh fundraising of 300 crore. Under the OFS, promoter Ashish Bhat will sell 180,000 shares, Amarpreet Singh will offload 8,362 shares, and Nambirajan Seshadri will sell 22,600 shares. Other selling shareholders include A&E Investment LLC, Agarwal Trademart, and Celesta Capital II Mauritius.

Builder.ai

The AI-powered composable software platform Builder.ai, which was created by serial entrepreneur Sachin Dev Duggal to make it easy and accessible for regular people and enterprises to convert their ideas into software, announced a Series D financial commitment of more than $250 million. With the latest investment, headed by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the firm has now raised more than $450 million, increasing its worth by up to 1.8 times.

The series D funding led by QIA opens new door of possibilities for Builder.ai that is going to be used, according to Sachin Duggal, for research and the development of its composable app/software platform and Natasha, their “AI Product Manager,” which handles many of the things a human product manager would otherwise do like mapping features to when a customer is talking about their ideas. With the use of the startup's tools, customers should be able to create software with little to no coding experience.

ChrysCapital

ChrysCapital has invested $100 million in Lenskart, pushing the Asian eyewear startup’s raise in the past year to $850 million as it expands its offerings and reach in international markets. The Indian venture firm is buying shares worth $100 million in Lenskart through both primary and secondary transactions, the two said. The new investment follows Abu Dhabi Investment Authority announcing plans to invest $500 million in Lenskart. That investment, like the capital infusion from ChrysCapital, is an extension to last year’s round that valued the Indian startup at about $4.5 billion valuation.

“ChrysCapital is one of the most esteemed Indian equity partners, and it is my privilege to have them by our side. Incidences of myopia are rapidly growing globally, especially in Asia, including India, with big unsolved problems of access, affordability, and awareness. We believe that with the help of technology, customer centricity, and big investments in supply chain and talent, we can eradicate the problem of vision correction,” said Peyush Bansal, founder and chief executive of Lenskart, in a statement.

Revoh

IIT-Madras-incubated Revoh Innovations, an EV sub-components manufacturing company announced that it has successfully raised $425K in seed round from Nexzu Technologies and Whiteboard Capital. With the new round of funds, Revoh plans to expand the team size and focus on developing specific products that cater to the current needs of the Indian electric vehicle market. The funds will be utilised to manufacture products with higher power specifications while simultaneously enhancing the existing products by incorporating advanced features. Previously, in round seed A, Revoh received funding from angel investors, and, at present, the company in round seed B, the company has raised $425k. Team Revoh proudly says that the firm has been consistent with the goals, and now, as expected, the seed B has provided generous amount to keep the streak and preset goals going.

Revoh Innovations is an EV sub-component manufacturing company, developing technology solutions for motor controllers to enhance the efficiency of two-wheeler/ three-wheeler EV vehicles. Its commitment to cutting-edge research methodologies and production techniques enables it to deliver the most efficient EV controllers as compared to its other indigenously designed and developed counterparts. Revoh, is on a mission to revolutionize the Indian EV sector by reducing the market's reliance on overseas subcomponents and products. The company has around 75 clients worldwide, ranging from multinational corporations to startups.

Uber

Ride-hailing company Uber has led a $20 million funding round in Mumbai-based fleet operator Everest Fleet, people aware of the matter told. The funding is Uber’s first inorganic investment in India, and comes in the backdrop of the US-based urban mobility company’s expansion into electric vehicle (EV) services for which it has partnered with several fleet operators including Everest.

Notably, Everest also partners with Uber’s rival in India SoftBank-backed Ola. “This funding round will accelerate our transition from being a CNG-dominated fleet to one with CNG and electric vehicles in the next five years. By 2026, we aim to have 10,000 electric vehicles as part of our overall fleet,” Siddharth Ladsariya, co-founder, Everest Fleet, said. Currently, Everest is present in seven cities Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Pune. With this investment, Everest said it plans to expand its footprint to other major Indian cities and new global territories. Even as Uber will only acquire a minority stake in Everest, this marks a step away from the company’s stance of not having a control on its fleet.

Cloudbankin

Cloudbankin, a complete end-to-end digital lending software company headquartered in Chennai Tamil Nadu, announced it has successfully raised USD 400K in funding from Angel investors, Upekkha, SaaS accelerator and fund, and Kube VC - a global venture capital firm. Prominent Fintech angel investors including Ramanathan RV, CEO at Hyperface, Mohan Karuppiah, CEO at IppoPay and Magendra Negi, Head of Alliances & Partnerships (Financial Services Solutions) from one of the leading Global Technology companies extended their support and participated in the funding round.

Cloudbankin started as a bootstrapped venture and has built a robust customer base of more than 50+ financial institutions from multiple countries. Over the past year, Cloudbankin has achieved an impressive 60 per cent annual growth rate. Notably, it has been recognized as the second most user-friendly platform in the loan origination category, according to G2 Review. Currently, financial institutions utilizing this product have achieved loan disbursements in under 10 minutes for unsecured loans.

Easebuzz

Payments infrastructure startup Easebuzz is in advanced stages of talks to raise $15-20 million in a new round, two sources aware of the development told. “Easebuzz is finanlising a financing round to be led by International Finance Corporation (IFC) while existing backers are likely to participate,” said one of the sources. “Easebuzz will be valued at around $120 million post money.”

The Mumbai-based startup had earlier raised $4 million in a seed round led by 8i Ventures, Varanium Capital, and Guild Capital in April 2021. As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the startup was valued at around $17 million during the seed round. Easebuzz is a B2B focused API driven platform where businesses can plug and play financial services by integrating a few lines of code in their own software. It works with financial institutions, regulators, payment networks, banks, and consumer wallets.

NABARD

NABARD’s venture investment arm announced a Rs 10 crore investment in Satyukt Analytics, a satellite agri-analytics startup. Satyukt deploys satellite technology and machine learning to provide software as a service-based advisory services to farmers, as per an official statement. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)-backed Nabventures' investment, started in 2018, in the Bengaluru-based entity by a team of scientists will help the company develop new farmer-centric products and services, it said.

These include the development of an app to empower farmers with data-driven insights, another one to help financiers and insurers to evaluate a farm's creditworthiness and credit risk, and also introduce new products for agri input companies and agri insurers, it said. It also has a proprietary technology that can measure farm soil nutrients content within minutes enabling stakeholders to assess soil quality on their mobile devices without visiting the farm, the statement said.

Blackpoint

Blackpoint Cyber (Blackpoint), a leading, technology-focused cybersecurity firm providing its advanced security suite via managed service providers (MSPs), recently announced that it has received a $190 million expansion investment led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, with participation from Accel. Bain Capital Tech Opportunities and Accel join existing investors such as Adelphi Capital Partners, Telecom Ventures, Pelican Ventures and WP Global Partners. The funds will be used to fund further development of Blackpoint's security technology and enable its MSP partners to combat a constantly shifting threat landscape.

Founded in 2014 by CEO Jon Murchison, a former National Security Agency computer operations expert who spent more than a decade executing high-priority national security missions, Blackpoint leverages real-world cyber experience and deep knowledge of cyber defense tactics to help MSPs safeguard their customers from cyber threats. Blackpoint's Managed Detection and Response (MDR) technology rapidly detects and isolates threats at the earliest sign of a breach. Many security services place the burden of response and action on their customers, whereas Blackpoint's 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) investigates suspicious activity and takes action to neutralize threats in real time on behalf of its MSP partners. This eliminates alert fatigue and time spent on false positives.

Amp Energy

SMBC Bank of Japan (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation), ICG (Intermediate Capital Group), and AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) have each committed up to $250 million (about Rs 2,061 crore) to the energy transformation platform Amp Energy India.

Amp Energy India, which has a portfolio of more than 2.7 GW spread over 17 states in the nation, would use the $250 million capital to support the company's expansion. Pharmaceutical, automotive, cement, steel, heavy engineering infrastructure, FMCG, educational institutions, IT & data centres, utilities, and government agencies are just a few of the marquee clients Amp Energy India serves with renewable energy transition solutions.

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