Funding: 11 Indian startups raise funds in the last four days

The last week of March has witnessed many startups receive funding. This may not be an exhaustive list, yet it shows how towards the end of the financial year 2020-21, startups have risen. The pandemic led lockdown had shut down much business, run them into losses and the economic revival looked difficult, yet the series of funding in the past week looks like a good sign for the Indian startup ecosystem as the financial year 2020-21 comes to an end.

Key Deals

1. Unotag

Gamification startup, Unotag raised an undisclosed amount from IAN in its angel round. The round also saw the participation of Angel investors Vikas Kuthiala, Anand Saklecha, Pradeep Jaisingh. With the funds, the company aims to further develop its cutting edge tech product and expand into newer markets.

The company’s product pathway includes evolving more gamification features Fantasy Leagues for Sales Teams, Housie and Bingo Contests, World Cups, and Championship events. They also plan to embed AI to better track behaviours, higher personalization and coach users in completing their goals.

2.  Anar

Business Community platform, Anar has also raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Titan Capital. The company aims to use the funds to strengthen its core product offerings. It also aims to make the platform more useful for users. It further aims to use a significant pie of the funds to build a technology stack that will allow the platform to deliver a better experience for its users.

The year-old startup offers SMBs to build their network online as well as offline. It helps them provide access to newer products, market trends and knowledge, a broader market etc. The startup already has 1 lakh+ business registered on the platform.

3. Zotalabs

EdTech Zotalabs has raised $100,000 in its seed funding round.  Prashant Narang from Agility Venture Partners served as the round's India Accelerator, while Dhianu Das from Alfa Ventures led the round. Bhavesh Jain (CRO, Transa CIBIL), Sandeep Jain (CEO, Value Unlocked and Ex Strategy Head, HT Media), Deepak Goyal (ISS Thailand), Ankur Shrivastava, Gen Real Property, and Vatsal Jain from Paypal also participated in the round.

The company aims to create a subscription-based platform to provide students access to K-12 education globally from multiple educational institutions.

4. FloBiz

SMB digitisation startup FloBiz has raised $10 Mn in a Series A round led by Elevation Capital. The latest round also saw participation from existing investors Greenoaks Capital and Beenext. The company, which offers a billing and accounting app myBillBook as its flagship product, intends to use the capital for team expansion, product development and accelerate sales and marketing efforts.

FloBiz’s mission is to help accelerate the growth of Indian SMBs through digitisation. In this endeavour, the company has re-designed the complete user experience and created a good software product. Before the $10 Mn Series A capital raise, FloBiz raised $3 Mn in its seed stage round in 2019.

5. ExtraaEdge

MarTech Startup ExtraaEdge has raised $1 million in a pre-Series A round from Pentathlon Ventures. The round also saw participation from other investment firms -- 9Unicorns, Indian Angel Network, Faad Network and DevX Innovation. Prominent angels like Monish Darda (Co-Founder & CTO, Icertis a SaaS Unicorn ), Manasij Ganguly ( ex CEO – Threadsol ) & Aditya Somani ( ex - Premji Invest) also participated in the round along with the existing investors, Sprout Venture Partners and TiE Pune Angels.

Extraaedge aims to use the funds to increase its customer base, bolster product development primarily in the area of robotic process automation and data science team. It also aims to expand into international markets.

6. Native Milk

Milk Tech Startup Native Milk has raised an undisclosed amount of capital in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Rukam Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. Currently, the company is offering dairy products, including milk and ghee, in Mumbai. Native Milk aspires to expand its presence in the overall premium milk market in the metro cities with the capital infusion while maintaining its USP of traceable cruelty-free sourcing in the next three years.

7. Janani

Healthtech startup Janani has raised seed funding of Rs 8 crore in a round led by Venture Catalysts. Prominent investors such as Apollo Hospitals, Inflection Point Ventures, and Lets Venture also participated in the seed and angel rounds, along with existing investors including 9unicorn and AL.

The startup will utilise the recent capital infusion to build its technology stack and initiate full-fledged operations in three metro cities in the country.

8. CityMall

eCommerce platform startup CityMall has raised $11 million in a Series A round led by Accel Partners. Existing investors Elevation Capital and WaterBridge Ventures participated in the funding round. The startup plans to use the funding to strengthen its supply chain, logistics network. It also aims to expand its footprint to 20 new cities in Tier-II, III, and IV markets.

9. Masai School

Edtech startup Masai School raises $5 million in funding from Omidyar Network. Existing investors Unitus Ventures, India Quotient and AngelList India also participated in the funding round. This new round of funding comes less than a year after Masai School raised its Pre-Series A round in August 2020, led by Unitus Ventures. With the fund, the startup plans to expand into courses in a broader range of careers such as data analytics, product management and UX Design.

10. Public

Public App has announced that it secured Rs 300 crore in funding from A91 Partners with participation from existing investors. The startup had raised Rs 260 crore in funding led by Addition, along with SIG and Tanglin Venture Partners six months ago. It plans to utilize the fund towards rapid scaling up of tech infrastructure, content offerings and employee base to further speed up the growth and continue improving on retention and engagement.

11. Recycle. Green

GreenTech start-up Recycle. Green has recently secured seed funding from India Accelerator. It aims to utilize the capital in developing a robust digital marketplace including the mobile app and web platform. To help cities go more sustainable, smart and zero waste, the startup works on an innovative approach of helping the consumers get greener recycled product options on their smartphone. Further, consumers can divert their product consumption to sustainable zero waste products and exchange them against segregated waste through its state-of-the-art app.