PhysicsWallah joins unicorn club with $100 mn maiden fundraise:
Edtech startup PhysicsWallah (PW) has raised USD 100 million (around INR 777 crore) in Series A funding from Westbridge and GSV Ventures at hitting a unicorn valuation in its maiden fundraise. With this PW has become India’s 101th unicorn. The latest capital raised will be used for business expansion, branding, and opening more PW learning centres. In 2016, PW, initially, started as a YouTube channel by Alakh Pandey. During the pandemic of 2020, Alakh joined hands with Prateek Maheshwari to work on a technology solution for students by launching the PW app. It focuses on interactive learning experience with live scientific experiments, which are also very popular on Youtube. It recently opened it teaching center in education capital for JEE and NEET prepration Kota, Rajasthan. The fund raise comes at a time when Indian ed-tech space is facing cash crunch leading to massive layoffs.
Here is some latest financial news on private equity, venture capital, and merge & acquisitions:
- Private Equity:
Nippon to raise up to INR 3,000 cr in multiple alternative investment funds:
Nippon India Alternative Investments (formerly Reliance Alternative Investments), a subsidiary of Nippon Life India Asset Management (NIAM), has raised around INR 2,000 crore to INR 3,000 crore (USD 257 million – USD 386 million) across multiple funds including credit, technology space, and real estate. Till now, NIAM has received commitments of INR 4,500 crore across funds from global institutional investors, primarily from Japan.
(Source: VC Circle, 06 June 2022)
Actis buys Welspun’s six road projects for USD 775 mn:
Global sustainable investor Actis has acquired a portfolio of six operating highway toll road projects which has a stable mix of annuity and toll cash flows, with the projects located strategically across India including in the most prominent North-South highway corridor from Welspun Enterprises Limited (WEL), part of the Welspun Group, for a total value of USD 775 million (INR 6,000 crore).
(Source: VC Circle, 10 June 2022)
LeadSquared turns unicorn with USD 153 mn fundraise from WestBridge Capital:
LeadSquared, the decade-old Bengaluru-based company helps improve efficiency and sales performance to over 2,000 companies by helping them improve marketing, call centre, inside sales, field sales, including verifications, collections, vendor on boarding, etc. has become India’s 103rd unicorn after raising USD 153 million (around INR 1,195 crore) in a Series C funding round from new investor WestBridge Capital and other existing investor. The raised capital will be used for expansion and to double its headcount in the next 18 months.
(Source: VC Circle, 21 June 2022)
Apollo Global partner Australia’s Hostplus for USD 1.25 bn APAC fund:
US private equity major Apollo Global Management in partnership with Australian fund Hostplus has formed a USD 1.25 billion (INR 9,790 crore) Asia Pacific (APAC) credit fund, to focus on Australia, India, Singapore, South Korea, and Hong Kong with select deployment across other parts of the region. Apollo Global has more than USD 10 billion of assets under management (AUM) invested in the region and has a team of nearly 60 investment professionals.
(Source: VC Circle, 24 June 2022)
Google joins Progcap as new investor in its USD 40 mn round:
Fintech startup Progap has raised USD 40 mn Google in its Series C funding round led by existing investor Creation Investments and Tiger Global Management. The latest funding found valued the New Delhi-based startup at USD 600 million, a three-fold jump from its previous valuation of USD 200 million. Founded in 2017, by Pallavi Shrivastava, Progcap aims to be a full-stack retailer-focused digital bank which enables capital flow across the supply chain to underserved retailer.
(Source: VC Circle, 28 June 2022)
PE-backed TTK Prestige to acquire 51% stake in modular kitchen solutions firm:
Private equity player Nalanda Capital-backed TTK Prestige is set to acquire 51% equity stake in Ultrafresh, an end-to-end modular kitchen solutions provider. As part of the business collaboration, Ultrafresh Modular Solutions has opened their first experience centre in Koramangala, Bengaluru with a 2,700 sq feet store.
(Source: VC Circle, 27 June 2022)
- Venture Capital:
Cred raising Series F capital at USD 6.4 billion:
Unicorn fintech startup Cred led by Kunal Shah has raised USD 140 million in a Series F round led by GIC and existing investor. The latest funding valued Cred’s parent entity Dreamplug Technologies Pvt Ltd at around USD 6.4 billion. GIC also owns a stake in other Indian fintech businesses, including Razorpay and Paytm. The round was also participated by its existing investor like Sofina, Tiger Global, FalconEdge, and Dragoneer.
(Source: VC Circle, 9 June, 2022)
Web3 firm DAOLens snags USD 5 mn in pre-seed round:
Bengaluru-based Web3 startup, DAOLens established by Vikram Aditya and Apoorv Nandan in January 2022 has secured pre-seed funding of USD 5 million (around INR 38.5 crore) co-led by Nexus Venture Partner, Better Ventures and iSeed II. The funding round was participated by Gokul Rajaram of Coinbase, Sandeep Nailwal of Polygon, Raj Gokal of Solana, and Softbank’s Vishal Gupta and Narendra Rathi, among other. The raised capital will be used to develop product, onboard more talent and to facilitate its stack of tools roll out.
(Source: VC Circle, 15 June 2022)
Shiprocket to acquire Pickrr for around USD 200 mn:
Founded in 2015 by Mangla, Rhitiman Majumder and Ankit Kaushik, “Pickrr” is set be acquired by Shiprocket for around USD 200 million in a mix of cash and stock deal. Shiprocket, the third-party logistics or 3PL player earlier acquired Glaucus, Rocketbox and Wigzo. It had also made its entry to international market last year starting with Saudi Arabia.
(Source: VC Circle, 15 June 2022)
Neobanking startup StashFin raises USD 270 mn; valuation tops USD 700 mn:
Founded in 2016 Neobanking startup StashFin founded by Tushar Aggarwal has raised USD 270 million (around INR 2,079 crore) in a mixture of debt and equity in a round led by Uncorrelated Ventures, Fasanara Capital and Abstract Ventures. This funding round values the fintech platform between USD 700-800 million. StashFin helps customer by improving their financial health, offering flexibility and affordable interest rates.
(Source: VC Circle, 21 June, 2022)
Tiger Global leads round in EV battery solutions company Battery Smart:
Battery-swapping network for electric vehicles, Battery Smart founded by Pulkit Khurana and Siddharth Sikka in 2019, has raised USD 25 million (around ₹192.5 crore) in its Series A funding round led by Tiger Global. The raised capital will be used for geographical expansion, strengthening battery assignment technology and building a team to continue scaling operations.
(Source: VC Circle, 27 June, 2022)
Nithin Kamath-owned Rainmatter, other back fintech startup Castler:
New Delhi-based fintech platform Castler which provides global escrow platform for enterprises offering domestic and cross-border escrow solutions has secured seed funding round of USD 1 million (around INR 7.7 crore) led by Zerodha’s venture capital arm Rainmatter, with participation from Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns, Faad Network and LetsVenture. Castler claims to provide escrow solution to over 150 enterprises and manages over INR 1,000 crore in transactions every month.
(Source: VC Circle, 22 June 2022)
- Mergers & Acquisitions:
Pristyn Care buys doctor consultation platform Lybrate:
A chain of multi-specialty clinics for planned surgeries, Pristyn Care has acquired Lybrate, a doctor consultation platform. Lybrate, founded by Saurabh Arora and Rahul Narang in 2013. Pristyn Care is a Gurgaon based health-tech company that deals into minimal invasive medical and surgical interventions. Organization has a network of more than 700 partnered hospitals and 100 clinics.
(Source: VC Circle, 07 June 2022)
BetterPlace makes 2nd acquisition in 2 weeks:
Founded in 2015, BetterPlace Safety Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform which helps companies to manage the entire lifecycle of their blue-collar workforce by providing them with services such as hiring, background verification, and digital onboarding of the worker has acquired the no-code workflow builder platform, ezeDox.
(Source: VC Circle, 8 June 2022)
IndInfravit to acquire 5 India assets of Brookfield in USD 1.2 bn deal:
India’s IndInfravit Trust is set to acquire five operational road projects from companies owned by Brookfield Asset Management’s funds in a deal valued at about USD 1.2 billion, including debt, as it seeks to expand its road portfolio. It currently has a portfolio of 13 operational road assets with about 5,000 lane km spread across five states.
(Source: VC Circle, 10 June 2022)
Mensa Brands acquires smart wearables brand Pebble:
Mensa Brands, D2C unicorn has acquired Noida-based consumer electronics brand Pebble, marking its debut deal in smart wearable segment. Pebble was founded in 2013 by the father and daughter duo, Ajay and Komal Agarwal. It primarily sells headphones, wireless speaker, smart wearables, chargeINR and tablets besides power banks. The deal amount was not disclosed.
(Source: VC Circle, 14 June 2022)
Zomato to acquire Blinkit for USD 569 mn:
Online delivery platform Zomato has acquired quick commerce startup, Blinkit for INR 4,447 crore (for USD 569 million) in an all-stock deal. Zomato will issue up to 62.9 crore shares to Blinkit investor, which would amount to equity dilution of 6.88% stake, on a fully diluted basis at the prescribed preferential allotment price of INR 70.76 per share. Albinder Dhindsa, founder of Blinkit, will continue to lead the quick commerce business.
Source: VC Circle, 24 June 2022)
Zetwerk strengthens industrials portfolio with three acquisitions:
Zetwerk, a business-to-business (B2B) manufacturing services marketplace has acquired three companies for INR 100 crore (around USD 13 million) in a bid to strengthen its industrial verticals in the oil and gas, aerospace, defence and infrastructure component segments. It has acquired bought a majority stake in Sharp Tanks, Pinaka Aerospace Solutions, and a 100% stake in the Wardha fabrication unit of listed company Wheels India.
Source: VC Circle, 30 June 2022)