ETtech Deals Digest: The unicorn stampede

India minted another unicorn this week with edtech platform Vedantu becoming the 28th startup in 2021 to enter the coveted club of companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more.

Meesho, Ola Electric, OfBusiness were among the startups that raised funds this week.

Meesho's valuation more than doubles to $4.9 billion
Meesho secured $570 million in a new round of funding led by US asset manager Fidelity and Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital after which its valuation has more than doubled to $4.9 billion in less than six months.

ET first reported that the social commerce startup was in talks to close a new financing round which will see it on board Fidelity and B Capital on September 24. Existing investors SoftBank Vision Fund, Prosus Ventures, and Facebook have also participated in the round.

In April, Meesho was valued at $2.1 billion when it raised $300 million from SoftBank Vision Fund, which was its larger financing round.

OfBusiness valuation nearly doubles to $3 billion
OfBusiness, a business-to-business (B2B) commerce startup, raised $207 million in fresh funding led by New York-based investment fund Tiger Global.

This is the third major fundraise by OfBusiness this year, reflecting the broader trend of record capital being pumped into the startup economy.

Its valuation post-money has nearly doubled to around $3 billion from July, when Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund II led a $160 million investment. In April, after a $110 million round, the company was valued at $800 million.

Both SoftBank as well as Falcon Edge-managed Alpha Wave Incubation have participated in the funding round, OfBusiness cofounder and chief executive Asish Mohapatra told ET.

Ola Electric gets $200 million funding
Ola Electric raised more than $200 million from Falcon Edge and SoftBank among others at a valuation of $3 billion.

This is Ola Electric’s fifth fundraising— excluding the $10 million it received from Bank of Baroda last year—since inception, according to Tracxn data. The company counts Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd., Tiger Global, Matrix Partners India and Ratan Tata as among its investors.

The announcement of the fundraising comes two weeks after Ola sold electric scooters worth Rs 1,100 crore during the two days that the purchase window was open.

Vedantu turns unicorn
Edtech startup Vedantu bagged $100 million in a new funding round led by Temasek-backed impact investing fund ABC World Asia, catapulting it into the unicorn club.

Existing investors such as Coatue Management, Tiger Global, GGV Capital and WestBridge Capital also participated in the fundraising.

Vedantu’s valuation jumped to $1 billion from around $600 million last year when it raised $100 million from Coatue. This makes Vedantu the 28th Indian unicorn—startups with a valuation of $1 billion or more—this year.


CredAvenue lands $90 million in India's biggest Series A funding round
CredAvenue picked up $90 million in Series A funding, led by Sequoia Capital and co-led by others such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, TVS Capital Funds and Lightrock India.

The round values the enterprise debt marketplace at $410 million.

This is the largest ever Series A round in India, ahead of Ola Electric’s ($58 million in 2019) and Mensa Brands ($50 million in May 2021), according to data from Venture Intelligence.

Other key deals

• Digital lending startup Capital Float received $50 million in a round led by private equity firm Lightrock India.
• Digital health startup MFine said it raised $48 million in funding, co-led by Moore Strategic Ventures and BEENEXT.
• Bijnis, a business-to-business platform for factories, secured $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Westbridge Capital.
• Cloud telephony company Exotel raised $35 million in its Series C funding round, led by Sistema, CX Partners and existing investor A91 Partners.
• Leena AI, an enterprise software-as-a-service company, raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, along with participation of Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital Group.
• MyGlamm raised an additional Rs 255 crore in a mix of debt and equity as part of its Series C funding round.
• Mobile and app testing platform BrowserStack bought back employee stock ownership plans (Esops) worth $50 million, as part of its ongoing effort to aid employees in their wealth creation journey.
• Classplus, a mobile platform for coaching institutes, educators and content creators to launch their teaching apps, completed its first buyback of shares issued to staff under its employee stock ownership plan.