ETtech Deals Digest: Two unicorns, and a whole lotta funding

Two red-hot startups + Two bullish buyers = Two Unicorns. That equation held true within the week to August 6.

BharatPe will get unicorn standing, and a brand new CEO

BharatPe, an internet funds startup centered on offline retailers and retailers, has
raised $370 million in a funding spherical led by New York-based Tiger International. The corporate’s valuation has reached $2.85 billion, put up the funding.

The fundraising provides the PhonePe and Paytm rival capital
as it takes over PMC Bank together with Centrum Monetary Providers to create a small finance financial institution.

Aside from Tiger International, which
has been aggressive with its India play, a slew of different buyers additionally participated on this spherical.

• Two new buyers — Dragoneer and Steadfast Capital — have come on board.

• Present buyers Coatue, Perception Companions, Sequoia Progress, Ribbit Capital and Amplo additionally participated within the fundraising.

• The corporate mentioned it has accomplished a $20 million secondary share sale as a part of an worker share buyback programme.

“We now have $500 million money on books and are extraordinarily well-capitalised to ship on our mandate to construct India’s first really digital financial institution,” Grover mentioned.

BharatPe has additionally elevated Suhail Sameer, who
had joined the company as group president final 12 months, as chief government officer. He replaces Grover, who will transition to the position of MD.

“I’m excited to be stepping in his (Grover’s) sneakers and taking up the duties of CEO,” Sameer mentioned. “I’m positive that along with his continued steering and give attention to constructing a powerful tech and product core, we will scale the enterprise 10x from right here.”

Mindtickle turns unicorn after SoftBank-led funding

SaaS startup Mindtickle has
raised an additional $100 million in a Collection E funding spherical led by current investor SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund II. Norwest Enterprise Companions, Canaan, NewView Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures additionally participated.

The fundraising pegs the valuation of the Pune-based agency at $1.2 billion, making it the twentieth Indian startup unicorn of 2021. Mindtickle was valued at $500 million final November, when it raised round $100 million, once more led by SoftBank.

• Mindtickle can also be the eighth Indian software-as-a-service firm to enter the unicorn membership after Freshworks, Druva, Icertis, Postman, Zenoti, Chargebee and BrowserStack.

• Of the 20 Indian startups which have turned unicorns this 12 months, 4 hit the milestone on the again of funding rounds led by SoftBank.

• The opposite three are: social commerce startup Meesho, banking expertise platform Zeta, and business-to-business commerce agency OfBusiness.

OTHER KEY FUNDING ROUNDS

Jupiter raises $45 million: Neobank Jupiter has
raised $45 million in a funding spherical co-led by Brazil’s fintech main Nubank, International Founders Capital, and current buyers Sequoia Capital and Matrix Companions, founder & chief government Jitendra Gupta instructed us. South Korea’s Mirae Asset additionally participated within the spherical.

Jupiter is one among a number of Indian fintech startups—together with Open, EpiFi, Razorpay and Niyo—which have entered the nascent neobanking sector.

Unacademy appears past edtech: Unacademy
has raised $440 million in a funding spherical led by Singapore’s Temasek, valuing the edtech startup at $3.4 billion.

Whereas the transaction will largely embrace a main infusion of funds, the startup is facilitating a secondary share sale of $20 million to supply exits to one among its early buyers in addition to a slew of angel buyers. With this, the startup may have performed secondary share gross sales price $70-80 million previously 12 months.

In an unique interview, Unacademy cofounder Gaurav Munjal mentioned the six-year-old startup that started as a YouTube channel “desires to place itself as a broader expertise agency with a number of consumer-facing merchandise and never be restricted to edtech”.

Munjal plans to make use of the contemporary funds to construct new companies in areas reminiscent of jobs and hiring, the place it is going to compete with the likes of Naukri.com and Linkedin.

It’s going to additionally launch creator-led quick programs and scale current companies reminiscent of check preparation and Ok-12 teaching.

Extra constructing blocks for Infra.Market: The business-to-business commerce platform for development supplies
has raised $125 million from current investor Tiger International at a post-money valuation of $2.5 billion, founder Souvik Sengupta instructed us.

The fundraising comes 5 months after it grew to become a unicorn.

The corporate plans to make use of the funds to amass mid-sized manufacturers within the development market to increase its choices and provide end-to-end options to its prospects over the lifecycle of a development mission, Sengupta mentioned. In Might, the corporate
acquired a majority stake in Equiphunt, a development gear rental service based mostly in Hyderabad.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

■ Greater schooling agency
upGrad has
acquired KnowledgeHut to enter the short-duration upskilling and reskilling phase. KnowledgeHut will function as a wholly-owned subsidiary of upGrad and is anticipated to clock a income of Rs 300 crore subsequent 12 months. Final month, upGrad had
earmarked $250 million for mergers and acquisitions over the following 7-9 months.

■
Square, the digital funds agency of Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey,
has acquired Australian funds agency
Afterpay in a $29 billion all-stock deal to create a world on-line funds large.

The buyout, which is predicated on Sq.’s July 30 closing value of $247.26, values Afterpay round A$126.21 per share, a 30.6% premium over its newest closing value of A$96.66. After the deal is accomplished, Afterpay shareholders are anticipated to personal round 18.5% within the mixed firm on a totally diluted foundation.

■ IPO-bound on-line journey portal
Ixigo
has acquired Hyderabad-based
AbhiBus, making the ticketing and aggregation platform the most recent to succumb to a pandemic-induced slowdown in transportation. The droop sale contains a mixture of money and Ixigo inventory as consideration.

“The AbhiBus crew, led by its founder Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, have joined the Ixigo crew, and all mental property, manufacturers, expertise and operations are being transferred to Ixigo,” in accordance with an announcement.