BalrajDroom, an online marketplace for cars, as well as OfBusiness, an enterprise tech firm, both achieved unicorn status this week. In 2021 alone, 17 Indian startups have achieved unicorn status, bringing the total number of startups valued at more than $1 billion to 58. Talking about funding Gupshup secured the highest capital, around $240 million followed by Droom and OfBusiness which raised $200 million and $160 million respectively. While the software conglomerate Microsoft is in talks to acquire a minor stake in Ritesh Agarwal led OYO Hotels & Homes prior to its IPO.
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Gupshup raised $240M
Gupshup, an enterprise messaging platform, has secured an additional $240 million in a Series F funding round. Fidelity Management, Tiger Global, Think Investments, Malabar Investments, Harbor Spring Capital, as well as some accounts handled by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers spearheaded this new investment. The company was founded by Beerud Sheth 15 years ago in India has earlier raised $100 million in April this year, approximately 10 years after its last funding round, and earned unicorn status. Within three months, the San Francisco startup has raised fresh funding from leading investors.
Droom secured $200M
Droom, based in Gurgaon, has attracted around $200 million in a pre-IPO development fundraising round. The fresh investment, of which a fraction has already been raised, brings the seven-year-old startup’s valuation at $1.2 billion, up from around $500 million in October 2018. The tech and data science-driven online automobile marketplace is the 17th Indian startup to join the unicorn club, as renowned investors increase their investments in the world’s second-largest internet market. The Gurugram based which competes with other Indian startups such as Spinny and Cars24 has revealed that it plans to register for an IPO and list on the Nasdaq or in India next year.
OfBusiness raised $160M
OfBusiness, a business-to-business e-commerce platform, has secured $160 million in a new round of funding this week led by SoftBank Vision Fund II alongside existing venture capitalist Alpha Wave Incubation. The Gurugram-based startup earlier raised $110 million in funding led by Alpha Wave. OfBusiness is currently valued at $1.5 million according to Co-founder and CEO Asish Mohapatra. As tremendous inflows of cash are injected into the country’s startup ecosystem, the business-to-business (B2B) commerce platform is now the 18th Indian unicorn for the year 2021.
Sharechat raises $145M
ShareChat, an Indian social media platform, has received an additional $145 million in funding, bringing its total valuation to nearly $3 billion, less than three months after raising $502 million at a $2.1 billion valuation. The funding was part of a Series F, backed by Temasek, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Mirae-Naver Asia Growth Fund. The aforementioned $502 million funding was led by venture capital groups Lightspeed Ventures and Tiger Global. Social media conglomerates Twitter as well as Snap Inc. also actively participated in the previous round.
Blaize collected $71M
AI edge computing solutions company, Blaize secured $71 million in a Series D round of funding led by Franklin Templeton, a new investor, alongside Temasek, an existing investor, featuring participation from DENSO and other new and existing investors. With this capital, the Hyderabad-based tech startup promises to boost its development roadmap and scale the business, as well as expand existing operations aggressively within the next 12-18 months. Blaize also seeks to expand its talent pool in India by recruiting engineers and AI technology professionals in domains such as hardware design, software development, verification, research, and customer support.
ixigo secured $53M
Online travel aggregator ixigo secured another $53 million in a pre-IPO fundraising round led by Singapore-based sovereign fund GIC, with backing from InfoEdge, WhiteOak, Bay Capital, Orios Venture Partners, Trifecta Capital, and Malabar Investments. According to filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the newest round involves a combination of primary share issuance and secondary share sales by a few of the existing investors. The Gurugram-based ixigo is seeking a valuation of $750-800 million before it goes public in the current fiscal year.