The decline has continued for the month of July. The number of deals and total investment in startups continues to be on a decline all this while.
We saw a roughly 45 percent decline in investment activity, giving way to $153 million across 16 deals – significantly less than the previous week’s total of $278 million.
The forthcoming week may give us an insight on what the future of India’s startup ecosystem looks like. It is expected that in the second half of this year there will be more challenges when it comes to finding funding for startups.
Top Deals of The Week
PayCardo raises seed round from Singapore-based MaGEHold
Pune-based startup PAYCARDO has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a follow-on seed round from a Singapore-based investment firm MaGEHold.
This seed investment would mainly be deployed in pursuing pilot project engagements. A major share of the funding would be used to expand the team expansion across various verticals to support the pilot engagements and build the necessary infrastructure to scale the PayCardo platform.
AirAttix a Pune-based first-of-its-kind marketplace for storage and parking spaces, raised Rs 1.25 crore in its pre-Series A round.
The startup plans to use the funds to expand its presence in Tier I and II cities in India, team building, technology development, and marketing.
Founded in 2020, Airattix hosts a marketplace where people can list and rent out privately owned vacant storage spaces and vacant parking slots for goods storage and car parking, respectively.
Airattix is fully operational in Pune and has managed to grow its operations in metro cities like Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.
Also read: Weekly Funding Update – India (June 25 – July 01)
Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions Raises $2.3 Mn in Pre Series A Funding
Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions, a Bengaluru based company that provides end-to-end solutions to transform the way early learning is delivered, has raised $2.3 Million in Pre Series A Funding. The round was led by Switzerland based UBS Optimus Foundation, Spectrum Impact, Gray Matters Capital and 1Crowd, with participation from Innospark Ventures, IIM-CAN and The Chennai Angels. The latest round of funding will be used towards accelerating Kreedo’s next phase of growth and expansion.
Commenting on the investment, Mridula Shridhar, CEO, Kreedo, said, “Our vision is to democratize quality early education. We have an overwhelming response from our partner schools who are looking for the most affordable and simplest way to improve foundational learning. The new round of funding will enable us to take Kreedo to 7000+ schools across multiple cities in India”
Edtech firm AntWalk raises $7.5 million in funding led by GSV Ventures
AntWalk, a business-to-business (B2B) edtech platform, has raised $7.5 million in funding round led by GSV Ventures. Y Combinator and existing investor Matrix Partners India also participated in the funding round, a senior company executive said. The company will use the funds to strengthen its Learning Experience Platform (LXP) using gamification, build its content pedagogy through R&D, and expand the sales and marketing team to widen its customer base, said Joybroto Ganguly, cofounder and chief executive of AntWalk.
Gurgaon and Bengaluru-based insurtech startup Ensuredit has raised $4.2 Mn in its Pre-Series A funding round led by Cover Genius.
The round also saw participation from 9Unicorns, NexStep Discovery Pte, CP Ventures, Venture Catalysts and IPV.
Ensuredit will use the funds in ramping up product offerings and expanding its technology team. It will also invest in artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision-based products that will streamline customers’ experience, optimise sales teams, provide business analytics and prevent leakage in financial reconciliation.
Commenting on the fundraising, Amit Boni, cofounder and CEO of Ensuredit, said, “We are passionate about delivering innovative technology and digitization solutions to the insurance industry, with a special focus on insurance intermediaries and distributors. We believe that empowering them with this technology is critical to the industry’s goal of making insurance available to every Indian.”
Sports activities discovery app Hudle adds $1Mn to its Series A from Inflection Point Ventures
Hudle, a mobile app that lets users discover and book sports activities in and around their location, has added $1Mn in its ongoing Series A round from Inflection Point Ventures. The round also saw participation from existing investors Survam Partners and Indian Angel Network. The funds raised will be utilized to fuel growth in existing and new geographies, strengthen the business and tech team, marketing, and new additions to the product suite.
Suhail Narain, Founder & CEO, Hudle says, “Playing a sport is fun, social, and engaging. Kids grow up playing sports but as we grow older, playing becomes difficult due to a lack of proper facilities and playing partners. Our vision is to change this trend and make millions of Indians fitter through sport.”
Proptech startup BuildNext has raised $3.5 Mn through equity financing in its Series A funding
Proptech startup BuildNext has raised $3.5 Mn through equity financing in its Pre-Series A funding round led by Madhumala Ventures, a subsidiary of Pidilite Industries. The round saw participation from existing investors-Konglo Ventures, Vineet Kumar from Native, and Deep Gupta from FatEngine.
BuildNext will use funds to expand its R&D capabilities and upgrade its virtual reality tech experience centres. It will also utilise funds to geographically expand to newer markets including Bengaluru, Chennai and Coimbatore while strengthening its foothold in existing ones.
Commenting on the fundraising, Gopi Krishnan, cofounder and CEO of BuildNext, said “Our aim is to use our custom technology platform to drive transparency and overcome inefficiencies in the process of constructing and designing a house. We have developed objective parameters to decide how good a home design is and these are put to test again and again every day for continuous improvement.”
