Bumper Day for Indian Startups, $250 Million+ Raised Within a Day
It has been raining money on Indian tech startups. Take for instance 27th July; Indian startups raised a total of more than $250 million within a day.
One of the big ticket investment came for Mohalla Tech, the parent company of Moj and ShareChat. The Bangalore based internet tech firm raised a whopping $145 million in a Series F round extension at a valuation of $2.88 billion. The round was led by Singapore state investor Temasek and Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), with participation from Mirae-Naver Asia Growth fund.
This is in addition to the $502 million raised in April of this year, which brought the startup into the unicorn club. According to the official statement, the new round will be used to accelerate user growth, supplement a robust creator economy, and reenergize their efforts to build a world-class AI organization.
Mohalla Tech, which was founded in 2015, has now raised over $911 million in seven rounds of funding. Moj, a short video platform, was launched in July 2020, shortly after ByteDance's TikTok app was banned in India. Moj and ShareChat, which have a combined user base of 340 million, hope to create a cohesive AI-powered content ecosystem to meet India's growing digital needs.
This investment came at the heels of Amazon-backed direct-to-consumer (DTC) Indian beauty brand MyGlamm raising an additional Rs.355 crore in Series C funding round led by Accel, bringing the total amount raised to Rs.530 crore ($71.21 million). This figure includes the Rs.175 crore raised earlier this year from Ascent Capital, Amazon, and Wipro.
The Mumbai-based beauty brand intends to use the funds for product development, data science and technology research, increasing offline expansion, funding working capital requirements, expanding content creation capabilities, and expanding POPxo's digital reach, including Plixxo.
MyGlamm, founded in 2017 by Darpan Sanghvi and co-founded by Priyanka Gill, offers over 800 vegan products in the categories of beauty, skincare, and personal care. In comparison, the company has over 10,000 offline sales locations spread across 70 cities in India.
Next investment was made in travel app, ixigo ahead of the company’s IPO. The firm raised $53 million through a combination of primary and secondary issuance of shares from investors. The company plansaRs 1,500-1,800-crore public float.
Other than major startups raising capital, the day saw Axio Biosolutions, a MedTech company raising $6 million in Series B2 equity raise led by TrueScale Capital, with participation from existing investors Omidyar Network India, University of California–Ratan Tata Fund, and Accel.
Additionally, mobility firm Zingbus raised approximately $5 million, social gaming startup Eloelo raised $2.1 million, and Edukemy raised $2 million.
2021 has been a great year for Indian tech startups so far, especially in terms of funding. Within the first six months of 2021, Indian startups raised $12.1 billion from 382 venture capitalists and private equity firms, according to data from Venture Intelligence. From the looks of it, the rest of the year is also moving in a great momentum.
One of the big ticket investment came for Mohalla Tech, the parent company of Moj and ShareChat. The Bangalore based internet tech firm raised a whopping $145 million in a Series F round extension at a valuation of $2.88 billion. The round was led by Singapore state investor Temasek and Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), with participation from Mirae-Naver Asia Growth fund.
This is in addition to the $502 million raised in April of this year, which brought the startup into the unicorn club. According to the official statement, the new round will be used to accelerate user growth, supplement a robust creator economy, and reenergize their efforts to build a world-class AI organization.
Mohalla Tech, which was founded in 2015, has now raised over $911 million in seven rounds of funding. Moj, a short video platform, was launched in July 2020, shortly after ByteDance's TikTok app was banned in India. Moj and ShareChat, which have a combined user base of 340 million, hope to create a cohesive AI-powered content ecosystem to meet India's growing digital needs.
This investment came at the heels of Amazon-backed direct-to-consumer (DTC) Indian beauty brand MyGlamm raising an additional Rs.355 crore in Series C funding round led by Accel, bringing the total amount raised to Rs.530 crore ($71.21 million). This figure includes the Rs.175 crore raised earlier this year from Ascent Capital, Amazon, and Wipro.
The Mumbai-based beauty brand intends to use the funds for product development, data science and technology research, increasing offline expansion, funding working capital requirements, expanding content creation capabilities, and expanding POPxo's digital reach, including Plixxo.
MyGlamm, founded in 2017 by Darpan Sanghvi and co-founded by Priyanka Gill, offers over 800 vegan products in the categories of beauty, skincare, and personal care. In comparison, the company has over 10,000 offline sales locations spread across 70 cities in India.
Next investment was made in travel app, ixigo ahead of the company’s IPO. The firm raised $53 million through a combination of primary and secondary issuance of shares from investors. The company plansaRs 1,500-1,800-crore public float.
Other than major startups raising capital, the day saw Axio Biosolutions, a MedTech company raising $6 million in Series B2 equity raise led by TrueScale Capital, with participation from existing investors Omidyar Network India, University of California–Ratan Tata Fund, and Accel.
Additionally, mobility firm Zingbus raised approximately $5 million, social gaming startup Eloelo raised $2.1 million, and Edukemy raised $2 million.
2021 has been a great year for Indian tech startups so far, especially in terms of funding. Within the first six months of 2021, Indian startups raised $12.1 billion from 382 venture capitalists and private equity firms, according to data from Venture Intelligence. From the looks of it, the rest of the year is also moving in a great momentum.
