Page 128 - Start Ups

Byju's enters higher education segment, acquires Great Learning for $600 mn

The sellers of Singapore-based Great Learning will receive certain payments based on its future performance, and Byju's will set aside a further $400 mn to boost the unit's growth

Swift raises $2.2 mn in pre-Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital

Funds will be used to scale engineering efforts and simplify complex business workflows across checkout, payments and fulfilment

Bizongo scales to $150 mn in annualised revenue, nears profitability

Bizongo is backed by investors such as Schroder Adveq, CDC Investment, AddVentures, Chiratae Ventures, IFC, Accel and B Capital Group

B2B e-commerce startup Udaan to tap $100-bn opportunity in small-town India

Udaan is expanding into building a digital trade ecosystem and aims to have 10% of the total transactions worth $1 trillion on its platform in the next few years

Simpliwork Offices plans to raise $50-60 mn to expand business

Realty firm Salarpuria Sattva's co-promoted Simpliwork Offices plans to raise $50-60 mn as equity to expand business in India and enter into overseas markets

16 unicorns, $11bn funding: Indian startups rise sans Chinese money

The great Indian tech startup story is being rewritten amid the Covid-19 pandemic as traditional sectors still bear the brunt.

Ant-backed Zomato's roaring India debut sets pace for internet startups

Shares of Zomato Ltd nearly doubled on Friday in a stellar first listing of local unicorn in India, setting pace for a slew of such debuts by internet-based startups that are thriving during pandemic

Trucking startup BlackBuck's valuation crosses $1 bn, joins unicorn club

BlackBuck, which digitises fleet operations for the truckers, will use these funds to further penetrate the market and launch new service offerings for its customer base

Ayurveda platform NirogStreet raises $2.5 mn in Series A funding

Ayurveda doctor platform, NirogStreet said it has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding from investors such as Gokul Rajaram, Pureland Venture, and Wavemaker Partners among others.

Byju's acquires US-based digital reading platform Epic for $500 mn

The acquisition will help Byju's expand its US footprint; firm seeks to become a natural part of America's learning culture

D2C personal care brand Beco raises Rs 4 cr seed led by Climate Angels Fund

With the added capital support, Beco aims to quadruple sales and encourage consumers to switch to sustainable living through their eco-friendly product range

Vegan lifestyle brand Zouk raises $1.5mn in pre-series A led by Stellaris

Having gained 50,000-plus customers with a 4x growth in the past seven months, Zouk aims to double its consumer base every six months for the next 5 years

ADIF aims to make Indian startup ecosystem among top 3 globally by 2030

Digital startup think tank ADIF plans to make the Indian startup ecosystem among the top three globally by 2030, with focus on boosting knowledge base, driving collaboration and finding right policy

Swiggy valuation tops $5.5 bn after raising $1.25 bn from SoftBank, Prosus

The fundraise will give Swiggy enough firepower to take on rivals such as Zomato, Amazon, Dunzo and Ola Foods

HealthifyMe raises $75 mn funding from Khosla Ventures, LeapFrog

HealthifyMe said its users have lost 20 million pounds of weight, tracked over 1 billion foods and burnt over 66 billion calories working out on HealthifyMe.

Is the pandemic a silver-lining for startup accelerators and incubators?

Latest data from EY show PE and venture investment in startups doubled in H12021 to $6 bn. With more activity in the market, ancillary businesses like accelerators and incubators also thrived

With an eye on online shoppers. YouTube buys social commerce startup simsim

The simsim app serves as a platform to connect local businesses, influencers and customers. The company had raised $16 million in 2020

Bella Vita Organic raises $10 million to scale up personal care products

The firm, which has a portfolio of face care, body care and hair care products, has been profitable since inception and plans to push the pedal on growth with this fund-raise

SmartCoin secures debt funding to bring fin services to small entrepreneurs

The company has seen strong demand for micro-credit from tier-2 and 3 cities through the second wave as people grappled with a lack of capital for medical situations and businesses

Meet the man who plans to disrupt the retail coffee biz by democratising it

Chaitanya Chitta's brand SLAY has a three-pronged strategy aimed at ushering a marked shift in coffee drinking from indulgence to habit among millenials, in much the same way as pizza