The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (24th Sept - 30th Sept)


The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (24th Sept - 30th Sept)

Startups can potentially be the engine of growth in the long run. The Indian startup ecosystem has been progressing well, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. They witnessed a rise in the value of private investments and the number of VC funds, both from within India and globally. The deal reflected the scale and momentum at which startups in India had grown. The Government of India has also been Supportive towards startups in the country, leading to the rise in the number of entrepreneurs in the market, seeing the opportunity to capitalise on their own solutions and ideas.

This week, we saw Digital banking infrastructure provider Signzy has raised Rs 210 crore (or $26 million) from investors led by Gaja Capital to support its expansion plan. Online grocer BigBasket has begun the process for a new round of funding that is likely to value the Tata Digital-owned firm at around $3-3.5 billion. Here is the compilation of top 5 startups that raised million dollar funds this week.

Signzy

Digital banking infrastructure provider Signzy has raised Rs 210 crore (or $26 million) from investors led by Gaja Capital to support its expansion plan. Existing investors Vertex Ventures and Arkam Ventures also participated in the round, Bengaluru-based Signzy said. The company said it will use the fund to bolster its existing product line and drive adoption of its platform across banking and financial services clients.

Signzy, founded in 2015, provides a digital software platform to help fintechs, financial institutions and banks with multi-channel on-boarding, as well as automates back-office operations through artificial intelligence.

Saveo

Saveo, a B2B e-commerce marketplace for Indian pharmacies, said it has raised $4.5 million in a venture round co-led by Matrix Partners, Gunosy Capital and 4point0 Health Ventures. Existing investors LC Nueva, Jetty Ventures, Ocgrow Ventures, Capier Investments, RTP Global, India Quotient, and Incubate Fund also participated in the round.

The latest round valued the B2B startup at $50 million, it said in a statement. The company had earlier raised $4 million in seed round in January 2021, followed by $4.5 million convertible in January 2022.

Elucidata

AI-based Life science platform Elucidata announced that has raised $16 million in its series A funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures, with participation from F-Prime Capital, IvyCap Ventures, and Hyperplane Venture Capital.

The funds raised will be used by Elucidata’s data-centric Machine Learning Operations (ML-Ops) platform, Polly to deepen product capabilities in translational drug research and allied markets, scale go-to-market initiatives and accelerate global expansion of operations, the firm said in a prepared statement.

Kidbea

Kidbea, a kidswear brand based secures a pre-seed funding round of 1.5 crores. The brand is being funded by Agility Ventures, along with some individual co-investors, including Nandi Mehta, the CFO of Kaaf Funds, Tapas Sahu, the Chairman of the CII in Jharkhand, Divij Bajaj, the founder of Power Gummies, Abhishek Kocchar, founder of Diamond overseas, and Vivekananda Nareddula, the founder of Apaizer.

The founders intend to use the funds to boost marketing efforts, expand the team, and improve R&D activities within the Indian kidswear market. Founded in 2021 by Swapnil Srivastav, Mohammed Hussain, and Aman Kumar Mahto, Kidbea.

BigBasket

Online grocer BigBasket has begun the process for a new round of funding that is likely to value the Tata Digital-owned firm at around $3-3.5 billion, said three people briefed on the matter. BigBasket's latest financing is likely to come from Tata Digital and existing shareholders. While the size of the round hasn’t been finalised, it’s likely to be in the range of $200 million or more, the people said.

Bengaluru-based BigBasket's holding company Supermarket Grocery, of which Tata owns 62%, filed documents with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) recently about plans to increase the authorised share capital of the firm, typically an indication of a fresh cash infusion on the cards.