Weekly Musings – Big start-up updates for the week to April 19, 2024

25 Apr 2024 , 02:03 PM

START UP STORY OF THE WEEK

The start-up funding story gathered substantial momentum in the latest week to April 19, 2024, more than doubling to $260 Million in the week. This is sharply higher than the previous week and also higher than the average of the last 5 weeks. The week not only saw more deals, but also bigger ticket sizes. There were several important deals in the week, like the fund raising by GPS Renewables, ShareChat, Altum Credo, Ecozen, ProcMart etc. There were 2 deals that are yet to be finalized, and we have not included them. GPS Renewables remained the biggest funding deal of the previous week.

In 12 out of the last 12 weeks, the start-ups raised more than $100 Million per week. In the 5 weeks prior to the current week, the start-up collections were to the tune of $105 Million, $152 Million, $243 Million, $205 Million, and $226 Million. In the latest week to April 19, 2024, start-ups raised $260 Million across a total of 31 start-up deals, with GPS Renewables, ShareChat, Altum Credo, Ecozen and ProcMart dominating the funding story in the week.

NUMBER OF DEALS AND FUND RAISING

The number of deals in the latest week stood at 31 deals, compared with 21 deals, 22 deals, 17 deals, 14 deals, and 18 deals; in the 5 weeks prior to that. That is indicative of a slew of big-ticket deals in the vicinity of over $15 Million on an average. Compared to the average of the last 5 weeks, the start-up funding in the latest week was 39.8% higher. On a week-on-week (WOW) basis the start-up collections were 147.6% higher. Fintech was the dominant theme in the current week to April 19, 2024.

Funding Week	Start-up funding raised
Week ending March 15, 2024	$226 Million
Week ending March 22, 2024	$205 Million
Week ending March 29, 2024	$243 Million
Week ending April 05, 2024	$152 Million
Week ending April 12, 2024	$105 Million
Average of previous 5 weeks	$186 Million
Week ending April 19, 2024	$260 Million

The start-up funding for the latest week ended April 19, 2024 was decisively higher on a week-on-week basis and also higher than the average of the previous five weeks. The $260 Million of fund raising in the week was dominated by the Fintech story, which witnessed fund raising to the tune of $75 Million across 5 major deals in the week. The good news is that seed funding has picked up sharply in the current week, which is a good portent for start-ups looking to raise risk capital from PE funds and VC funds.

GPS RENEWABLES RAISES $50 MILLION IN DEBT FUNDING IN THE WEEK

GPS Renewables has just raised $50 Million (₹418 Crore) via debt to build biogas plants across India. The debt financing offering saw participation from a number of key participants which included Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank, Yes Bank, HSBC Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank, Vivriti Capital, and Northern Arc. GPS Renewables plans to utilize the fresh funds to expand its footprint across India in the biogas space as well as to fuel expansion and build compressed biogas plants across India. GPS Renewables currently offers end-to-end solutions for the development, production and distribution of biofuels and is seen as a solid play on the alternate energy segment.

SHARECHAT BAGS FUNDING OF $49 MILLION TO EXPAND ITS SOCIAL PRESENCE

Sharechat has raised $49 Million (₹409 Crore) in debt from Lightspeed, Temasek and others to expand its social media presence in an aggressive manner. Some of its marquee investors include Harbour Vest, Moore Strategic, Alkeon Capital, and Tencent. These players also participated in the current funding round. It continues to report net losses but the burn rate has come down sharply and that should be positive for the stock valuations in the future. The funding will allow the company to focus on its expansion plans.

ALTUM CREDO RAISES $40 MILLION TO SCALE UP DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Start-up home finance company, Altum Credo has just raised $40 Million (₹334 Crore) from an array of investors with the intent to boost its distribution network to economic scale. Out of the total funding of $40 Million, Altum Credi raised $27 Million via equity and the balance $13 Million via debt. Altum Credo will use the fresh funds expand its capital adequacy to boost its AUM. Much of its AUM growth is targeted to come from expanding its distribution network and enhancing its operational footprint in central and north India. Its total AUM stands at a modest ₹830 Crore, but what is interesting is that nearly 93% of its customers come from the economically weaker section or low-income (unbanked) group category.

ECOZEN GETS $30 MILLION TO PROFFER SOLAR SOLUTIONS TO FARMERS

The solar solutions provider, Ecozen, has just raised $30 Million (₹251 Crore) from a slew of investors. The funds would be used to offer solar solutions to marginal farmers who are outside the ambit of regular channels. The equity funding was led by Nuveen, with select additional participation, while the debt funding came from InCred Credit Fund and DFC. Ecozen plans to deploy the funds just raised for product development and innovation. The company has, reportedly, growth 5X times in the last 2 years while the net profit itself has grown twice. The current year is again expected to double revenues from current levels.

PROCMART GETS $30 MILLION FOR SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRATION

ProcMart has just got a whopping $30 Million (₹251 Crore) to enable the company to boost its supply chain integration offering for customers. The funding round was spearheaded by Fundamentum Partnership. Incidentally, Fundamentum is a VC firm that was co-founded by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal. Edelweiss Discovery Fund is also a participate in this deal. ProcMart will be looking at this fund raising purely for its inorganic growth and will be actively exploring strategic acquisitions to boost market leadership. In addition, ProcMart also plans to foray into new industries, expand its distribution network in India as also consolidate its global operations in Southeast Asia.

RING RAISES $11.98 MILLION FROM TRIFECTA CAPITAL

In another case of fintech start-up fund raising, RING has raised $11.98 Million (₹100 Crore) from Trifecta Capital in order to grow its loan book to a higher plane. It will not only use to create a fresh book but also to on-lend to customers. It may be recollected that RING had early raised ₹50 Crore in debt from Trifecta Capital in the year 2022. It has a robust app which offers multi-tenured loans and also allows users to make UPI payments. RING is largely targeted at small ticket loans to people who are mostly outside the ambit of traditional formal sources of finance.

VIVEK SINHA RAISES $11 MILLION FOR EDTECH VENTURE

Vivek Sinha, a former executive and COO of Unacademy, has just raised $11 Million (₹91.80 Crore) in fresh funding for the proposed edtech venture. The participation came from several marquee names like Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners. In addition, angel investors like Ritesh Agarwal of OYO and Gaurav Munjal of Unacademy also chipped in with funding for the project. The focus of the new edtech venture proposed by Vivek Sinha will purely focus on developing employability-led training, certification, and recruitment services tailored for the grey-collar workforce. That has a huge potential considering that the introduction of ML and AI is leading to a huge churn in job definitions and role limits. People are going to urgently need to be equipped for a new paradigm. It will also simultaneously address the skill shortage in soft sectors like healthcare, edtech, hospitality etc.

UNIQUS CONSULTECH BAGS $10 MILLION FUNDING FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES

Uniqus Consultech has just raised $10 Million (₹83.50 Crore) from Nexus and Sorin in order to provide consultancy services. This funding will be used in the next round of growth, which would include scaling of existing solutions, launch of adjacent solutions etc. Uniqus was founded by Jamil Khatri and Sandip Khetan as a tech-enabled consulting company that has its core competency in ESG and accounting and consulting. Uniqus Consultech is currently operational across 8 locations in the US, India, and the Middle East.

VARTHANA GETS $10 MILLION TO FUND PRIVATE SCHOOLING

Varthana, the education focused NBFC, has just got funding of $10 Million (₹83.50 Crore) via debt. The idea is to offer loans to affordable private schools, to enable meeting working capital mismatches. The funding came from impact investor, Blue Orchard Finance. The funds will be used by Varthana to boost its efforts to provide accessible financing solutions to a wider network of affordable private schools across India. This would only be limited to affordable private schools where the fees charged is not too exorbitant. Till date, Varthan has financed over 11,000 affordable private schools and acted as a conduit for more than 16,500 loans for school expansion and renovation programs.

GAMING FIRM, LIGHTFURY, GETS $8.50 MILLION FUNDING

LightFury, the gaming business model floated by former Unacademy Executive, has just got funding of $8.5 Million (₹70.98 Crore). LightFury will use the funds to develop AAA games in India, with an initial focus on mobile gaming. Eventually, it will shift to other platforms too. LightFury Games plans to revolutionise gaming experiences by developing top-tier AAA titles. Indian gaming market has been expanding rapidly with several unicorns already in business. India is estimated to have more than 50 Crore active gamers.

WOW! MOMO BAGS $8.38 MILLION FROM Z3 PARTNERS

The east-based Wow! Momo has just bagged funding to the tune of $8.38 Million (₹70 Crore) from Z3 Partners to give a boost to its QSR chain across India. Bags $8.38 Million or you can say INR 70 Cr From Z3Partners To Expand Its QSR Chain Across India. Here QSR refers to quick service restaurants. This funding round from Khazanah Nasional and OAKS Asset Management had already commenced earlier and this is just an extension. The proceeds of the fund raising will be deployed to expand the footprint of Wow! Momo’s QSR brand. In addition, it will also sue the funds in order to strengthen distribution and shore up research & development (R&D) for its FMCG arm. Wow! Momo has a 16 year pedigree, having been set up in Kolkata in the year 2008.

FINCFRIENDS RAISES $7.8 MILLION VIA DEBT AND EQUITY COMBINED

FincFriends, the NBFC arm of Rupee Redee has just managed to raise $7.8 Million (₹65.13 Crore) from a slew of investors. The debt funding came from InCred Finance and Grow Money Capital. In addition, APV Management infused the balance amount of $4.8 Million through a mix of debt and equity. FincFriends will use the fresh infusion to fuel growth and accelerate the expansion of its product portfolio. FincFriends offers instant short term personal digital loans that are entirely evaluated, assessed, cleared, and delivered digitally.

CLICKPOST BAGS $6 MILLION TO BOOST THE BUSINESS OF E-TAILERS

ClickPost has just bagged $6 Million (₹50.10 Crore) in funding to enable the electronic retailers (E-tailers) to streamline shipping operations. The funding round was led by Inflexor Venture Partners and Athera Venture Partners with additional participation from Riverwalk Holdings and Rebright Partners, which is already an existing investor in ClickPost. With the new fund arsenal, ClickPost will roll out new AI-driven modules, hire talent, and build footprints in new geographical areas. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) will enable the company to grow beyond its traditional boundaries. ClickPost is a logistics intelligence platform that helps online retailers enrich their shipping experience.

CLAIMBUDDY RAISES $5 MILLION TO STREAMLINE HEALTH CLAIMS

ClaimBuddy has just got funding of $5 Million (₹41.75 Crore) to streamline the insurance claims operations of hospitals and solve problems for patients. The funding round was led by Bharat Innovation Fund with participation from CAC Capital of Japan, Chiratae Ventures and Rebright Partners. The fresh funds will be used by the company to strengthen its tech stack, hire talent, and give a leg up to its product portfolio. ClaimBuddy was incorporated in the year 2020 and it tries to ensure hassle-free claims for patients. In addition, the app also offers digital infrastructure for partner hospitals to streamline their claims processing so that entire activity is seamless from end to end.