- Consumer electronics brand BoAt is exploring a public listing to raise funds and offer exits to some of its investors, three people familiar with the matter said.
- BoAt, one of the top sellers of ear wear and wearable categories in India, is looking at a valuation of about $1.4 billion for the initial public offering expected between March and June next year, one of the three people said, requesting anonymity.
- In April, BoAt received undisclosed funding from Qualcomm.
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- Bengaluru: Zoho Corp. has invested $5 million for a 25% stake in Voxelgrids, a Bengaluru-based startup that builds magnetic resonance imaging scanners.
- Zoho aims to bridge this gap by helping in the development of indigenous MRI technology that provides a next-generation and cost-effective alternative that enables healthcare facilities to save on capital and operational expenditure.
- Voxelgrids has developed multiple technologies related to MRI scanners based on custom cryogenics and innovative electronic design and is looking to monetize it through OEM partnerships with other vendors in the field.
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- Has secured $7 million in its seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital fund Matrix Partners India and growth stage investor Elevation Capital.
- The startup aims to utilise the capital to hire more professionals as well as launch and scale their invest-tech product platform.
- The platform goes beyond providing access to vanilla mutual funds, and offers a unique ‘Integrated Portfolio Approach’ combined with white-glove expert advisory.
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- AppsForBharat, a product studio focused on building apps for the spiritual and devotional needs of Indian users, has scooped up $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Elevation Capital with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India, BEENEXT and Matrix Partners India.
- AppsForBharat had raised $4 million in seed funding co-led by Sequoia Capital India and BEENEXT which also saw participation from WEH Ventures.
- On the round in May. Founded in November 2020 by Prashant Sachan, AppsForBharat is currently developing a range of mobile apps that offer superior user experience and cater to the country’s many underserved and often overlooked spiritual as well as devotional needs.
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- Homegrown digital mapping solutions provider has quietly joined the frenzy of IPOs by Indian internet startups.
- MapMyIndia is a data and technology products company that offers proprietary digital maps as a service.
- Read: MedPlus Health Services files for IPO. MapMyIndia, founded in 1992 by Rakesh and Rashmi Verma, also provides SaaS-based and PaaS based mapping solutions, along with advanced digital maps, geospatial software and location-based IoT technologies.
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- NEW DELHI : Fintech unicorn Razorpay is in talks with large global funds to raise $200-250 million at a valuation of around $4 billion, two people familiar with the development said.
- Razorpay raised $160 million this year at a valuation of about $3 billion, a move aimed at scaling up its business banking unit.
- Razorpay, set up in 2013 by Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee alumni Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, has raised $366.5 million in investments to date, including $100 million in a Series D funding in 2020.
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- Jar, a six-month-old savings platform that lets users invest in gold, has raised $4.5 million led by Arkam Ventures in its first institutional funding.
- Silicon Valley-based early-stage fund Tribe Capital and WEH Ventures have also joined the round as new investors besides angel investors like Cred founder Kunal Shah, former Uber CPO Manik Gupta, Shaan Puri, formerly with Twitch, and others.
- While the company currently is focusing on investments through digital gold, it plans to launch other savings products too.
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- Professional networking platform for blue and grey collar workers Apna is in late-stage talks to raise a new round that is likely to push the company’s valuation at over $1 billion, according to two sources aware of the deal.
- The Series B round was led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners at a valuation of around $570 million while its Series A was co-led by Sequoia and Greenoaks Capital.
- According to the company’s website, it has over 10 million users and has provided jobs to over 1.5 million candidates since its inception in early 2020.
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- OTO Capital, which provides financing solutions for two-wheeler buyers, is gearing up for its next phase of growth.
- OTO Capital, operated by 1T9 Technology Pvt. Ltd, will use the fresh capital to grow its user base.
- Apart from OTO Capital, startups and NBFCs such as CreditWise Capital, Berar Finance and WheelsEMI, which are also engaged in providing financing options to two-wheeler buyers, have attracted funding in the past years.
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- Alpaca offers equities trading software via API. The company initially allowed firms to plug into its technology, powering the trading capabilities of investing groups.
- More recently, Alpaca has begun allowing other fintech companies to offer equities trading through its service to their consumer user bases, work that fits under the larger embedded finance trend.
- Yokokawa declined to share the PFOF split with customers, but our guess is that something around 15% to 25% makes sense, providing incentives to potential partners to choose Alpaca over rival tech while keeping enough top line on the Alpaca side of the ledger to continue building a venture-scale business.
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- Syndicate, a decentralized investing platform, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- Why it matters: Crypto is coming for investing, and not just as an asset in which to invest.
- Syndicate’s mission is to make it easier to create DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, which basically enable groups of people to invest collectively and transparently.
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- Virtual extracurricular platform Sparks Studio has secured $125,000 in funding from San Francisco-based Y Combinator, which has previously backed companies such as Airbnb, Meesho and Razorpay.
- Y Combinator received 17,000 applications for the summer program and has chosen to invest in 400 companies globally.
- Spark Studio has over 15 courses across music, communications, and visual arts.
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- Venture debt firm Trifecta Capital is launching a $200 million third fund that will lend to emerging startups across sectors.
- A venture debt fund invests alongside equity investors in startups, helping them meet their working capital and other debt needs.
- Typically, because of the cyclical nature of the capital deployed, a venture debt fund can invest more than the total funds it has received.
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- Offline discovery and reward platform Magicpin has raised around $3 million in a new tranche led by Oyo’s founder Ritesh Agarwal through his personal special purpose vehicle RA Holdings.
- According to Fintrackr’s estimates, Magicpin has raised the fresh capital at a post-money valuation of $165 million.
- Magicpin claims to have over 1.5 lakh merchants on the platform, serving 50 lakh consumers across 50 cities.
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- Dream Sports, the company that runs fantasy sports platform Dream11, is in talks to raise at least $400 million in a round with participation from both new and old investors, say two people familiar with the development.
- Dream11 will probably be the first consumer internet company to list in the US. A clutch of companies in India including Paytm, Nykaa and Policybazaar are set for stock exchange debuts.
- In April, the company was also weighing to raise $1.5 billion from public listing through a special purpose acquisition company.
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- Accel India is expected to launch a programme called Atoms to identify and target early-stage startups at the pre-seed level.
- The venture capital firm will offer $250,000 pre-seed capital to each startup as an ‘uncapped convertible note’, which will convert to equity only in the next round, Prayank Swaroop, partner, Accel India, told VCCircle.
- Accel is launching Atoms at a time when entrepreneurship has rapidly expanded in India alongside investor appetite.
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