Over the past five months, Indian startups have raised close to a thousand crore dollars in funding. Approximately 940 crore dollars! Also, so far this year, 13 unicorns have been born. Eighty per cent of the total funding acquired in 2020 has already been received. ‘Tiger Global’, which helped eight startups achieve unicorn status, is the leader among investors. Most of the fundraising has been done by fintech startups.
In the last week of May alone, 19 Indian startups raised funds. Of them, 13 startups raised $48 million. The startup ‘DealShare’ received the highest funding of the year, which is $28 million. It is followed by ‘BharatPe’ with a funding of $ 6.7 million. Six Startups have not disclosed their funding details. Some startups have stood unbeaten amidst the second wave of coronavirus, garnering funding and stardom.
‘BharatPe’, a UPI digital payment and lending company, has received $ 6.7 million in funding from Northern Arc Capital. ‘BharatPe’ was founded in 2018 by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani. It introduced India‘s first UPI interoperable QR code and the first UPI-supported Merchant Cash Advance service. ‘BharatPe’ was able to achieve significant growth in 2020 when the pandemic gripped the country. During this time, the payment business grew five times while the loan business 10 times.
‘SuperOps.ai’, a professional services automation, remote monitoring and management platform, has raised $ 3 million in the seed round. MSP software refers to an IT product that manages business services for clients like a virtual assistant. The company is headquartered in the US and the R&D team is based in Chennai.
Deep -Tech AI startup ‘Myelin Foundry’ has raised $ 1 million in a pre-series funding round led by Japanese venture capital fund ‘Beyond Next Ventures.’ Founded in January 2019 by Gopichand Katragadda, Ganesh Suryanarayanan and Aditi Olemann, ‘Myelin Foundry’ aims to improve human interaction and industrial output by building AI algorithms on video, voice and sensor data for cutting edge devices.
Deep-tech company ‘Cron AI’, which builds the 3D data edge perception platform, has raised $ 4 million in a funding round. Founded in 2015 by Tushar Chabra and Sourav Agarwal, ‘Cron AI’ has developed a platform that enables innovators to accurately understand and study the real world and to discover intelligent solutions using 3D sensors.
Digital customer experience platform ‘Locobuzz’ has raised $ 1.2 million from the Maharashtra State Social Venture Fund of Sidbi Venture Capital Limited in a pre-Series A funding round. The startup supports B2C brands through services such as real-time data analytics, customer experience automation, customer statistics, and social media management. Locobuzz works with some of the country’s leading brands in the BFSI, telecom, automobile, retail, FMCG and eCommerce sectors.
There is no shortage of investments for startups in India even during the pandemic. Another good news is that Softbank is looking to invest $ 1.2 billion in new ventures.
