Start-Ups

Indian startups raised more than $7 billion in funding in the fourth quarter of 2021 (October-December), up 18% from the third quarter, and 14 of these companies joined the ever-growing unicorn club according to a Nasscom-PGA Labs report. Unicorns are privately held companies with a market capitalization of $1 billion or more. According to the report, the number of deals closed in the October-December quarter increased by 52 percent to 184, up from 121 in the previous quarter. Fintech and retail tech were the most well-funded sectors, accounting for 24%…

Binny Bansal, a cofounder of Flipkart, has led a new $25 million investment round in his own startup, xto10x Technologies, which is a scaling platform for growth-stage companies, according to a statement released by the company on Wednesday. Swiggy cofounder Harsha Majety, Meesho cofounder Vidit Aatrey, Razorpay founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, and Cred founder Kunal Shah were among the 28 founders and executives who participated in the funding round from India and Southeast Asia. According to the company, the funds will be used to expand learning programmes, software…

Gurugram-based Y Combinator, Java Capital, and Soma Capital led a $1 million pre-Seed funding round for Better Opinions, a skill-based gaming startup that allows users to trade their opinions on the outcome of a real-life event. Mayank Kumar (Co-founder of UpGrad), Sudhanshu Raheja (Head of Product and Engineering, GoTo Financials, Gojek-Tokopedia), Pratyush Prasanna (SVP, Gojek), Chinmaya Sharma (Chief Commercial Officer Namshi), and the Ranadive Family, co-owners of the Sacramento Kings, all participated in the round. In 2021, Soumyajit Das and Samay Jain co-founded the company. Better Opinions allows users to…

Wealthy.in, a wealth management platform based in Bengaluru, today announced the completion of a $7.5 million Series A funding round led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) and Savrola Group. Existing investors such as Venture Highway, Good Capital, and Emphasis Ventures also participated in the round. Alpha Wave Global manages AWI, which is backed by ADQ’s venture platform (formerly known as Falcon Edge Capital). Wealthy.in, founded in 2015 by Aditya Agarwal and Prashant Gupta, allows professionals to grow wealth for investors through its Wealth Management platform. Around $450 million in assets…

Cion Digital, a SaaS blockchain orchestration platform based in the United States, announced the opening of its first office and R&D centre in Pune. This year, the company plans to invest Rs 50 crore and hire over 100 engineers with experience in blockchain technology. Cion Digital focuses on crypto financing and payment solutions, and in January 2022, it raised $12 million in seed funding. “A recent report by crypto exchange, CrossTower, and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) mention that India will hold $1.1 trillion digital asset opportunity by 2032 and…

Xpressbees, an e-commerce logistics provider, became a unicorn on Wednesday, a company valued at $1 billion or more, after raising $300 million in Series F funding led by Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, and ChrysCapital. According to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Xpressbees was valued at $1.2 billion in the most recent round of funding. Existing investors Investcorp and Norwest Venture Partners also participated in the round, according to the company. In October, VCCircle reported that Xpressbees, a startup run by BusyBees Logistics…

Krishi Network, an agritech platform, announced on Thursday that Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi has invested in the company. It did not say how much money Tripathi has put into the platform, which is connected to at least 30 lakh farmers. The new funds will be used to expand the startup’s AI-based technology platform across India and help it grow quickly, according to a statement. “Coming from a farmer background, I have always believed in supporting initiatives that help farmers with access to information to grow their business,” said Tripathi. “Back…

Binny Bansal, a cofounder of Flipkart, has led a new $25 million investment round in his own startup, xto10x Technologies, which is a scaling platform for growth-stage companies, according to a statement released by the company on Wednesday. Swiggy cofounder Harsha Majety, Meesho cofounder Vidit Aatrey, Razorpay founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, and Cred founder Kunal Shah were among the 28 founders and executives who participated in the funding round from India and Southeast Asia. According to the company, the funds will be used to expand learning programmes, software…

There’s a lot of buzz in India about e-commerce, but companies that help modernise traditional kirana stores appear to be unlocking some serious value as well. ElasticRun, a kirana-tech startup that connects businesses to kirana stores, has raised $300 million in a new funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund II, making it India’s latest unicorn. The $1.5 billion round valued the six-year-old startup. ElasticRun has more than tripled in value in the last ten months, making it India’s sixth unicorn this year, following MamaEarth, Fractal Analytics, LEAD School, Darwinbox,…