Slice Turns Unicorn After Raising $ 220 Million, Swiggy To Invest $ 700 Million In Instamart And Simpl Raises $ 40 Million In Series B Funding

Here is the list of the best deals in the startup universe this week.

Fintech Slice Start-Up Raises $ 220 Million, Achieves ‘Unicorn’ Status

Slice, an app-based credit card challenger fintech company, is India’s newest unicorn, having raised $ 220 million in a Series B funding round led by the industry giant. Tiger Global investment and investment firm Insight Partners. The company is now valued at more than a billion dollars.

Existing investors also participated in the round, with investment firm Moore Strategic Ventures, a subsidiary of private equity firm Advent International Sunley House Capital, India’s Blume Ventures and Japan’s Gunosy Capital.

The company plans to use the capital to grow. Slice also plans to increase recruitment for positions such as engineering, design and data science while adding new consumer products. Slice is also preparing to launch payments on India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI).

Swiggy to invest $ 700 million in Instamart vertical grocery delivery

A food ordering and delivery platform, Swiggy announced Thursday that the company will invest $ 700 million in its Instamart express grocery delivery service.

Launched in Gurugram and Bengaluru in 2020, Swiggy said Instamart now serves customers in 18 cities and completes over a million orders per week. The company said by January 2022 that it would make deliveries in 15 minutes by having the dark store network very close to the majority of its customers.

“In our current growth path, Instamart is expected to achieve an annualized gross value of goods (GMV) execution rate of $ 1 billion over the next three quarters. growth charged, we are very excited to see our mission of convenience come to life in a very important way, â€said Sriharsha Majety, CEO of Swiggy.

Elevation Capital Considering $ 600 Million Fund: Report

Elevation Capital, one of Swiggy’s first investors Paytm and Meesho, is said to be in talks to raise $ 600 million, just a year after its last fund, Moneycontrol reported.

The venture capitalist will raise a $ 400 million seed fund – on par with previous funds – and a $ 200 million growth fund, a new addition for one of the world’s most influential investors. India.

The growth fund will help Elevation invest more in the top performing companies in its portfolio as well as in the growth stage start-ups that it may have missed in their seed or Series A fundraiser. The fund – the largest to date – is expected to be raised by the first quarter of next year, the report adds.

Bessemer Venture Partners raises $ 220 million for Indian startups

US-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners has announced the closure of a $ 220 million India-focused fund to support the next generation of innovators in India.

According to the company’s blog, the fund will focus primarily on start-up investments, in line with Bessemer’s approach of starting with seed and Series A investments and sticking with companies throughout their lifecycle. growth with investments at later stages.

Bessemer plans to apply its roadmap-based investment approach to deploy new capital across five roadmaps across consumer internet and cloud software, including markets, digital health, social commerce. , vertical and global SaaS (software as a service), he added.

Ola will invest up to Rs 786 Cr in Ola Financial Services

Ola is investing up to Rs 786.1 crore in Ola Financial Services (OFS), which will now become a 100% subsidiary of the carpooling platform, in accordance with regulatory documents.

According to documents submitted by ANI Technologies (which operates Ola) to the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Ola has been approved to “make an investment in Ola Financial Services Pvt Ltd up to Rs 786 64 12 400 in consideration in kind against exchange of shares of the company “.

Sources say ANI Technologies will now own 100% of Ola Financial Services in an all-equity transaction. In a recent regulatory filing, ANI Technologies said OFS was looking to expand its insurance business internationally to support the company’s mobility service with products designed for the UK, UK and US markets. ‘Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

8i Ventures Launches Second $ 50 Million Venture Capital Fund

Early stage venture capital firm 8i Ventures has launched its second fund which seeks to raise $ 50 million.

Fund II aims to close its first close by March of next year, the company said in a statement. The new fund is four times the size of 8i Ventures’ first fund, which closed at $ 13 million in 2020. The fund will have a typical check size of $ 500,000 to $ 5 million.

“The bigger fund will give the venture capital firm the firepower to run start-up and Series A operations and support its businesses until they burst and attract late stage investors,” he said. said Vikram Chachra, founding partner of 8i Ventures.

The company has made bets in startups like Slice, M2P, and Blue Tokai Coffee, among others.

Simpl raises $ 40 million in Series B funding

Simpl, a cardless payment network with integrated one-click payout, Buy Now Pay Later and Buyer Protection, has raised a $ 40 million Series B funding round led by Valar Ventures & IA Ventures with participation from LFH Ventures and other internal investors. This investment brings the total capital raised by the company to $ 83 million.

With Simpl, online merchants offer consumers a simple, secure and intuitive way to purchase. Its flagship product, Pay Later in 1 Touch, allows consumers to shop with one click and consolidate all purchases from network retailers into one bill that can be refunded once every two weeks.

Over the past 18 months, Simpl has increased the number of its monthly active merchants and monthly active users ten-fold. Simpl works with more than 7,000 leading online merchants, including Zomato, MakeMyTrip, Big Basket, Jio Platform, 1MG and Crocs, the company said.

Cloud kitchen startup BOX8 raises $ 40 million from Tiger Global: report

Cloud kitchen BOX8, which operates brands like MOJO Pizza, raised $ 40 million in funding from tech investment giant Tiger Global and also rebranded itself as EatClub Brands, Moneycontrol reported. The valuation of the company was not disclosed.

Eight brands operate in more than 150 cloud kitchens from the company which recently added GLOBO Ice Cream and ZAZA Biryani to its portfolio.

“We have deliberately spent time building in-depth capabilities in the areas of power, technology and operations. With this additional funding, we now plan to rapidly geographically expand more than 500 kitchens in 15 cities, â€said Amit Raj, co-founder of EatClub Brands.

The company also planned to onboard talent and build strong teams, he said.

CollegeDekho raises $ 35 million to expand its educational offering

The online higher education platform CollegeDekho announced on Wednesday that it has closed its $ 35 million Series B funding to further improve its offerings for students and colleges, both in India and abroad.

The round was led by Winter Capital, ETS Strategic Capital, Calega and existing investor Man Capital. Disrupt ADQ and QIC have also joined us.

“We will expand our team and our platforms to serve more students and colleges. We will also increase our investment in products and technologies, while fueling our growth in our new verticals such as education loans, student housing and higher education coaching, “said Ruchir Arora, Founder and CEO of CollegeDekho.

The company will also use the funds raised for acquisitions and consolidations that make strategic sense.

Adda247 Raises Approximately $ 20 Million in Series B Funding Led by WestBridge Capital

The Edtech Adda247 platform raised approximately $ 20 million in a funding round led by WestBridge Capital. The Series B funding round also saw the participation of existing investors, including Info Edge, Asha Impact and JM Financials.

The final injection of funds will be used to optimize technology and products and proceed with the hiring of senior executives. The edtech company is also planning to acquire a few companies with complementary offerings, it said in a statement.

Founded in 2010, Adda247 offers products such as live video lessons, on-demand video lessons, mock tests and government exam focused books and claims to have 15 million monthly active users on its platform. .

Startup Edtech Eduncle raised $ 750,000 from the Mumbai Angels Network

Mumbai Angels Network, a platform for start-up investments with other investors, participated in a $ 750,000 round for the Eduncle e-learning platform.

The edtech startup has said it will use the newly injected capital to meet its expansion goals and develop a new product for additional exams, start live lessons and strengthen its technology infrastructure.

The platform also plans to increase its doubt-solving capabilities with the integration of AI and ML.

Lumos and Gruhas Proptech join forces to raise a real estate fund of Rs 500 Cr

Lumos Alternate Investment Advisors and Gruhas Proptech have teamed up to raise a Rs 500 crore real estate fund focused on structured debt, last mile financing and opportunistic equity in residential projects in major cities.

Gruhas Proptech, focused on real estate investments and accessory technology and promoted by entrepreneur Abhijeet Pai and co-founder of Zerodha Broking Ltd, Nikhil Kamath, has joined Lumos Alternate Investment as lead investor and general partner, according to a statement.

“We are currently actively seeking residential-focused last mile funding and structured private equity deals for our potential fund,†said Anuranjan Mohnot, co-founder and managing director of private equity fund Lumos.