The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (6th Nov - 11th Nov)


The Week that Was: Indian Startup News Overview (6th  Nov - 11th  Nov)

Today, India, one of the world's largest economies, is witnessing a continuous rise in its startup ecosystem, with the country now home to more than 100 unicorns. Not only is the number of startups in the country increasing, but the valuation of India's startup ecosystem has risen to nearly Rs 3 lakh crore or Rs 3 trillion as a result of numerous fundings and investments.

We are in the year 2022, and the year 2023 is just around the corner. The Indian startup ecosystem has a lot to look forward to, and there is a palpable sense of eagerness and excitement for the coming years. The more important aspect is the technological advancement they bring to the country. Startups involve dealing with new know-how, which is typically at the top of the value addition chain. Enterprises are recognising the potential of upcoming startups and investing in and partnering with them.

This week saw some major selections & product launches, as well as some companies raising funds to help their businesses grow. Bold Finance, a fintech startup, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding and Chiratae Ventures, a homegrown tech-focused venture capital firm, which has launched its first growth fund with a first close of Rs 759 crore we saw it all.

As the year comes to a close, Indian startups continue to impress us with their long-term growth and success. Here is the list of top 5 startups that excelled this week.

Bold Finance

Fintech startup Bold Finance has raised a seed round of $1.5 mn. This round has been led by Kae Capital, with participation from existing investor Antler India and several angel investors such as Nitin Gupta (Uni Cards), Ishpreet Gandhi (Stride Ventures), Shashikant Dola (McKinsey & Company), Tushar Mehndiratta (Avail Finance), Vadiraj Kulkarni (CEO, ITC PSPD) and some others.

Based out of Mumbai, Bold Finance is founded by IIT Roorkee alumni, Nikhil Jain and Durgesh Suthar, who have collective work experience in stellar organisations such as ITC, McKinsey and Flipkart, xto10x respectively. Bold Finance was started with a broad vision of enabling financial freedom for Bharat, by improving credit availability for users from the lower and middle-income segments of tier-two and tier-three cities. Bold Finance’s first offering is gold loans.

Amagi

Media technology startup Amagi has raised $109 million at a valuation of $1.4 billion. The fresh investment includes $80 million in primary capital from global growth equity firm General Atlantic, and the rest is via secondary stake sales.

In March this year, the startup raised $95 million in a funding round led by Accel, which catapulted it into India’s growing list of unicorns, or startups valued at $1 billion or more. Founded in 2008, Amagi allows broadcasters to virtualise operations on the cloud, helping manage, schedule content and streamline programming remotely through its ‘CloudPort’ offering.

It also provides solutions for personalised insertions of advertisements through its ‘Thunderstorm’ offering. Other solutions include PayTV solutions and analytics for broadcasters. Amagi, a nominee in the Comeback Kid category for the Startup Awards, currently offers three business models for customers - Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), bring your own license and fully managed services.

MTA E-Mobility

Electric mobility startup MT Autocraft has raised Rs 100 crore as seed funding. The latest funds would be used as part of the launch of the electric mobility company MTA E-Mobility Pvt Ltd (MTA EV).Karan Sehgal, Co-founder of MTA EV said, "We have planned an initial investment of Rs 100 crore which will be funded by MT Autocraft, the Sehgal family and a few high-net-worth individuals (HNIs).”

The latest cash injection will also allow the EV startup to hire two hundred more people for the newly built plant based in Palwal, Haryana. The plant, which is spread across three acres in the national capital region, will enable the company to become a complete electric mobility solutions provider.As part of the latest move, MTA EV has named Vivek Jakhmola as the co-founder of the new EV setup. Jakhmola is an industry veteran with over twenty-five years of experience and former president at JBM Group. He also counts Lumax Group as his previous employer.

Chiratae

Homegrown tech-focused venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures has launched its first growth fund and marked its first close at Rs 759 crore ($92.6 million), with an option to raise another Rs 750 crore. It is aiming to make the final close of the fund by December. Chiratae chairman and founder Sudhir Sethi said that he expects the final fund size to be oversubscribed, by about 30-50%.

“We have a large portfolio and our companies raised $1 billion last year, and almost $1 billion this year. We have three companies which are reaching a revenue of $1 billion each and several reaching the $50 million to $750 million mark. So, when they raised capital, we realized that we needed a growth fund to back them,” Sethi said in a face-to-face interaction.

Medikabazaar

Creaegis backed soon icorn Medikabazaar, has announced two top level appointments - Sandeep Gandhi as chief human resource officer and Manish Gahlaut as the company's chief operations officer.

The move will aim to strengthen its leadership in the healthcare supply chain, grow in the emerging market segment, aid in institutional linkage, and create new strategic partnerships globally, said a statement.

Gandhi, has over two decades of experience in companies including PepsiCo, Aircel Maxis, Vodafone, and Telenor, and will support the company's people-first culture and human resources strategy. Gahlaut will spearhead supply chain management and has experience in the healthcare sector in multinationals such as Novartis, Abbott, and Bausch & Lomb.

"To accelerate the business momentum and reach ambitious growth targets, we have been building up the workforce strength, market presence, and technological capabilities. We are working to assemble a potent multinational leadership team to help us achieve our global ambitions," Medikabazaar CEO Vivek Tiwari said.