The Indian startup ecosystem this week saw four unicorns emerge in a matter of three days. This momentum carried forward from the last year reveals the firepower of the ecosystem as the total venture funding for the second week of February touched close to $1.5 billion.
After a dismal first week where the total capital inflow was just $155 million, the venture funding in the second week of February stood at $1.46 billion led by the four new unicorns – , , , and .
Polygon founders (L to R) Anurag Arjun, Sandeep Nailwal and Jaynti Kanani
The week saw over 40 transactions with a mix of fintech, edtech, and SaaS startups leading the round. These developments augur well for the Indian startup ecosystem as along with the funding, the week also saw interesting merger and acquisition activity.
Key transactions
Polygon, the blockchain startup focused on Ethereum platform, raised $450 million from Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, SoftBank, and others.
Logistics startup Xpressbees raised $300 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion from Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, and ChrysCapital.
ElasticRun, the B2B ecommerce startup, raised $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation from SoftBank and Goldman Sachs.
Home interior startup Livspace raised $180 million at over $1 billion valuation from KKR, Ingka Group, Jungle Ventures and others.
Other deals
Fintech startup Mintifi raised $40 million from Norwest Venture Partners and Elevation Capital.
EV startup Altigreen raised $39.8 million from Sixth Sense Ventures, Reliance New Energy, Xponentia Capital, Accurant International, US, and others.
Virtual event-tech startup Airmeet raised $35 million from Prosus Ventures, Sistema Asia Capital , RingCentral Ventures, and others.
Edtech startup Invact Metaversity raised funding from over 70 investors at a valuation of $33 million.
xto10x, a scaling platform for startups, raised $25 million from Flipkart founder Binny Bansal and other investors.
Fintech startup KarbonCard raised $15 million from Olive Tree Capital, Harmony and Avenir Growth Capital.
SaaS startup Sprinto raised $10 million from Elevation Capital, Accel, and Blume Ventures.
Wealthtech startup Wealthy raised $7.5 million from Alpha Wave Incubation, Savrola Group, Venture Highway, Good Capital, and Emphasis Ventures.
Spacetech startup SatSure raised $5 million from Baring Private Equity India, ADB Ventures, Flowstate VC, Force Ventures, IndigoEdge Advisors, and others.
M&A
Short video content platform Moj and MX Media-backed MX TakaTak have announced a strategic merger.
Fintech unicorn Pine Labs has acquired Qfix Infocomm, a Mumbai-based online payments startup, for an undisclosed value.
Rollup commerce startup GlobalBees has acquired the fitness equipment and accessories brand, Reach.
Edited by Kanishk Singh