Startups

Indian job seekers want to work for emerging sectors like online commerce, electric mobility and fintech startups. At No.1 is newly minted unicorn Zepto, a quick commerce startup that delivers groceries in a matter of minutes. This “Top Startups” list has been fuelled by unique data and actions taken by the people on Linkedin.

Homegrown quick-grocery delivery provider Dunzo, set to raise $35 million in funding from existing backers like Reliance Industries and Google as well as new investors, is reportedly laying off at least "150-200" more employees amid severe cash crunch.

Homegrown quick-grocery delivery provider Dunzo will be raising $35 million in funding from existing backers like Reliance Industries and Google as well as new investors following salary delays, media report said. According to the report, the company is hoping to avoid a cash crunch. Since June, it has failed to pay staff salaries on time and has also failed to pay vendor bills.

Incubate Fund Asia, a Japanese venture capital fund that provides seed-stage investments across various sectors, has recently announced the successful initial closing of its third fund, which has a target corpus of $50 million (approximately ₹416 crore).The capital raised from this fund will be utilised for making initial investments in early-stage startups and providing follow-on funding to those that exhibit strong fundamental growth.

Accel India, a leading venture capital firm that works with founders from seed to scale stages, has identified two key themes – AI and Industry 5.0 – as their next big bets. Accel should know this because the firm has invested very early on in startups like Flipkart, Swiggy, Freshworks and Zetwerk.

In a development in the realm of climate-focused investments in India, Green Frontier Capital, an early-stage venture capital (VC) fund with operations in both India and the U.S., has unveiled a strategic partnership with Companion Capital (Companion), a growth equity initiative with a focus on climate solutions.This collaboration is crucial for startups and companies operating in the climate technology sector, particularly in terms of gaining access to funding beyond the Series A funding stage.

Pee Safe, a hygiene and wellness brand owned by Redcliffe Hygiene, has secured $3 million (approximately ₹25 crore) in funding for its Series B round. The total target for this funding round is $6 million (₹50 crore). The present funding comes from Natco Pharma and Rainmatter Health. It is supported by Zerodha founders, Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath. Alkemi Growth Capital, an existing investor, also participated. Pee Safe had raised Series A funding of ₹30 crore from Alkemi Growth Capital in October 2019.

Razorpay, a payments and banking platform for businesses, has acquired BillMe, a Mumbai-based startup specialising in digital invoicing and customer engagement. BillMe, established in 2018, has introduced innovations aimed at reducing the reliance on paper bills and enhancing the value proposition for merchants through digital invoicing solutions.The startup has a clientele of over 4,000 businesses, overseeing more than 15,000 retail point-of-sale (POS) systems.

Perfios, a B2B SaaS fintech company, said on Monday that it is raising $229 million from Kedaara Capital, as part of its Series-D funding round. The capital raise programme will be through the combination of a primary fund raise and a secondary sale. Startup to use funds to expand its global footprint beyond 18 countries to US and Europe.

Homegrown healthtech startup Kenko Health has laid off 20 per cent of its employees across functions, a media report said.

Around 20 CEOs of Indian startups have quit their posts this year to date, amid the deepening funding winter and regulatory concerns, a significantly higher number than previous years, the media reported.

Startup investors are in an upbeat mood, as over two-third of them surveyed by Redseer believe that the funding winter will end in a year maximum. As per the survey, 50% said that it will end in 6-12 months and another 17% believe that it will end even before that. As many as 33% of the respondents are slightly more circumspect and believe that it will take another 12-18 months for the funding to start flowing properly again. The funding winter was set off in the second half of last year, resulting in startups retrenching, reducing manpower and tightening belt

India now has a data privacy law in place. Companies can no longer report data breaches and get away with it. ​​However, the new DPDP Act has the startup ecosystem and their legal advisors in a bind because there is no clarity on how much time will be given to implement the new Act.

Kavin Bharti Mittal-founded Hike, which owns Rush Gaming Universe, has laid off about 55 people - more than one-fifth of its total workforce - to absorb the impact of the GST hike on online gaming, a top company official said on Thursday. The development comes within a week of gaming unicorn Mobile Premier League (MPL) laying off about half of its India team or close to 350 people to cut down cost burden due to the increase in GST to 28 per cent.

Ride-hailing company Ani Technologies Pvt Ltd, popularly known as Ola Cabs, saw its loss widening to Rs 3,082 crore in 2021-22, according to financial data accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler. The company's losses have more than doubled on a year-over-year basis, the data showed. "Ani Technologies Pvt Ltd, an online transportation network company (popularly known as Ola Cabs), reported its revenues for the 2021-22 financial year at Rs 1,350 crore, a 49 per cent jump since the last financial year," Tofler said in a statement.

The next three years will be testing times for unicorns, says Redseer, which sees a bleak future for around 20% of India’s unicorns. “They will likely struggle due to regulatory challenges, plummeting demands, and unclear business models. These could pivot to new models, get acquired by other companies or close for good,” said Rohan Agarwal, partner at Redseer.

Softbank-backed SaaS platform Unicommerce has registered a 50% growth in revenue driven by onboarding of new clients and international expansion, a senior company official said. Unicommerce CEO Kapil Makhija told PTI that the company has achieved an annual run rate of processing over 600 million transactions amounting to over $7 billion in annual gross merchandise value.

New Delhi, E-commerce fashion brand Styched has acquired D2C casual sneaker startup Flatheads in an all-equity transaction, ...

US-based cryptocurrency company Circle which manages stablecoin USDC (USD Coin), has announced that it is reducing its workforce and cutting investments in non-core business activities.

Gurugram-based OfficeBanao, which is a workspace interior platform, said in a statement that it has "raised an undisclosed amount of angel investment" from Ajit Mohan, founding CEO, Hotstar and former MD, Meta India, Ramesh Nair and Apurva Chamaria - Head of Partnership solutions, start-ups & venture capital, Google India.

Former BharatPe Co-founder Ashneer Grover on Thursday claimed that the new funding round by the beleaguered unicorn PharmEasy is not a "down round" but actually the end and will bring "sudden death" for the company's founders owing to the anti-dilutive clause.

Anand Chandrasekaran, Kunal Shah, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, and Anupam Mittal have been identified as India's top angel investors for their impressive portfolios of future unicorn startups. Chandrasekaran has invested in 16 startups, Shah in 12, Bahl and Bansal in eight each, and Mittal in six. Despite the challenges faced by Snapdeal, the e-commerce company, its associates have emerged as successful angel investors. Among the startups they have invested in are Cred, Rapido, and Rupeek.