VCBay Weekly News Roundup – AWS launches Public Sector Startup Ramp, Flipkart raises pre-IPO round

Welcome to VCBay Weekly News Roundup. Here are some important developments in the startup space and major funding rounds this week –

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS) launches its Public Sector Startup Ramp in India

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing arm of Amazon, launched its AWS Public Sector Startup Ramp in India on 13 July 2021.

The new program seeks to help early-stage technology startups focused on the public sector build solutions on AWS. India is one of the first countries with Amazon offices to roll out this program. AWS Startup Ramp is an acceleration program for startups that are building innovative solutions for public sector customers worldwide, which includes customers in national and local government, space and defence and healthcare.

ECommerce

1. Indian E-commerce giant Flipkart raises Pre-IPO round of US$ 3.6 billion

Indian E-commerce giant Flipkart announced on Monday that it has raised US$ 3.6 billion at a post-money valuation of US$ 37.6 billion in a pre-IPO round as it eyes to list in the public markets as soon as early next year. This new round of funding is by far the largest for any Indian startup.

The funding round was led by GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Walmart, with participation from sovereign funds DisruptAD, Qatar Investment Authority, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Tencent, Willoughby Capital, Antara Capital, Franklin Templeton and Tiger Global. 

2. Egypt-based Taager raises USD 6.4 Million in a Seed round

Taager, an Egyptian eCommerce platform that offers online merchants end-to-end logistics, announced on Thursday that it raised USD 6.4 Million in a seed funding round.

The seed round was led by 4DX Ventures, a Venture Capital firm that is focused on the Pan-African region. The participants of this funding round were Beco Capital, Raed Ventures, Breyer Capital, with some private investors, in which one was Magnus Olsson, co-founder of Careem. This is the first-ever investment of Breyer Capital in the MENA region. This funding round will bring Taager total investment to more than USD 7 Million, since its inception.    

SpaceTech 

1. Indian Spacetech startup Digantara raises US$ 2.5 million from Kalaari Capital in a seed funding round

Spacetech startup Digantara has raised US$ 2.5 million in seed funding with Kalaari Capital on July 15 2021. The Bengaluru-based startup plans to stimulate its product development and originate its first tech demonstration satellite to LEO from this venture. The SID- IISc-incubated startup intends to intensify its efforts to make space operations more secure and improve orbital sustainability in the country.

Edtech

1. India-based edtech startup Little Leap raises US$ 360K in seed funding round

Delhi, India-based ed-tech startup Little Leap, which is catering content appropriate for different age groups. raised US$ 360,000 in a seed funding round on 12 July 2021.

The funding round was led by ah! Ventures, with participation from First Cheque VC, LetsVenture, and Good Capital VC. This is ah! Ventures’s 16th investment this year. It also plans to make 50 more investments in 2021, totalling over US$ 20 million.

SaaS

1. India-based construction management app Powerplay raises $5.2 million from Accel Partners and Surge
   

Bengaluru-based construction management app Powerplay raised $5.2 million in a funding round on July 9, 2021, led by Accel Partners and Surge, a brisk scale-up programme by Sequoia Capital India for startups in Southeast Asia and India. India-Quotient and Snapdeal founders were also witnessed participating in the investment round. Connecting multiple stakeholders associated with construction and allowing them to collaborate more efficiently, Powerplay is a free mobile application launched in October 2020.

2. ShardSecure raises pre-Series A funding round of US$ 2.5M

US-based ShardSecure, a cloud data security software company, announced that it has closed an oversubscribed pre-Series A funding round of US$ 2.5M on 12 July 2021.

The funding round was led by EPIC Ventures, with significant participation from existing investors Industrifonden and cybersecurity luminary Tom Noonan. The company’s valuation has doubled since it closed an initial seed round one year ago.

3. Palo Alto-based Bevy acquires Cairo-based Eventtus

Bevy, a San Francisco-based  Community event SaaS platform, which is the only enterprise community event engine, announced that it acquired Eventtus, an Egypt based event management software on July 14, 2021.

After this acquisition, 20 more engineers joined Bevy including founders of Eventtus, Mai Medhat and Nihal Fares. This acquisition will also increase the technology stack with a mobile conference app as well as some other tools for attendees. 

4. US-based startup founded by Stanford students – Nooks raises US$ 5M

US-based startup Nooks, a virtual workspace space targeting distributed teams to make a better place for them to work and collaborate, raised US$ 5M in a seed funding round on 14 July 2021.

The funding round was led by Tola Capital with participation from Floodgate, Julia and Kevin Hartz, CEO & chairman of Eventbrite and Julia Lipton, founder of Awesome People Ventures.

Social Media

1. Bengaluru-based Social commerce startup Trell raises $45 million in a Series B round; valuation soars to $62 million

Influencer-led lifestyle-social commerce platform Trell has secured a fundraise of $45 million in a Series B funding round from H&M Group, Mirae Asset and LB Investments, raising $62 million to date, the startup announced on July 12, 2021.

Subsisting backers KTB Network, Samsung Ventures, and Fosun RZ Capital were also participating in the funding round at a $120 million post-money valuation. The funding round saw some early-stage investors sell stock worth $5 million.

2. Indian news aggregating app Inshorts raises US$ 60M

India-based startup Inshorts, a news aggregator application that collects and summarizes news based on user behaviour and preferences, raised US$ 60 million in a new financing round on 15 July 2021. The funding is mainly to support its new social media app called Public.

The funding round was led by Vy Capital. The current investors of Inshorts include Addition, Tiger Global, SIG, A91 and Tanglin Venture Partners among its investors. The new investment round values the startup at US$ 550 million, up from about a US$ 250 million valuation after it raised US$ 41 million in March.

Fintech

1. Vara raises US$ 4.8M to digitize Indonesian SMEs payroll

Indonesia-based startup Vara that focuses on making staff management easier for small businesses, raised US$ 4.8M in a seed funding round on 12 July 2021.

The investors included Go Ventures, RTP Global, AlphaJWC, Sequoia Capital, India’s Surge, FEBE Ventures and Taurus Ventures. Vara is part of the Surge accelerator program’s fifth cohort of startups.

2. India-based Fintech startup MPOWER Financing raises $100 million funding from multiple investors

Fintech startup MPOWER Financing has raised $100 million in venture funding. The recent investment is in addition to $30 million MPOWER raised in the former months of 2021 from Tilden Park Capital Management, which also partook in the current venture and ETS Strategic Capital. The additional investors include Drakes Landing Associates, King Street Capital Management and Pennington Alternative Income Management.

3. London-based fintech startup Revolut banks $800 Million in Series E, valuation soars to US$ 33 Billion

The UK-based digital banking startup Revolut has raised US$ 800 Million in a Series E funding round led by private equity titans SoftBank and Tiger Global, which now hold a near 5% stake in the business, making Revolut’s valuation stand at US$ 33 Billion, six times more than at its last fundraising in early 2020. The company is now meriting more than NatWest, one of the UK’s biggest retail banks. . The recent venture pushed the British startup to become the most valued fintech of all time, the startup announced on July 15 2021, in a press release.

4. Indian fintech startup Credit Fair bags US$ 15M in Seed funding

Credit Fair, an Indian fintech company providing lending solutions to both enterprises and the general public, has secured US$ 15 million in a Seed investment round led by high-profile investors Anand Ladsariya and Alok Agarwal on 14 July 2021.

The proceeds from the new investment round are a mix of equity and debt. The funding round featured Anand Ladsariya, Owner of Everest Flavours Ltd and Alok Agarwal, Founder of Striver Capital Advisors, as the lead investors. 

HR Tech

1. Danish startup HelloFlow raises US$ 1.5 Million in a Seed funding round

Denmark-based startup HelloFlow raised US$ 1.6 Million in a seed funding round led by UK-based Seedcamp and Danish VC PreSeed Ventures, announced by the startup on July 13, 2021. Founded in 2020, HelloFlow remodels customer onboarding, and through a no-code platform, it identifies verification in the commercial market and ID authentication services in the local industry.

2. US-based HR tech platform Remote raises US$ 150M

US-based startup Remote, an HR tech platform and provider of global employer of record services and international contractor management, raised US$ 150 million in Series B funding round on 13 July 2021.

The funding round was led by Accel with participation from existing investors Sequoia, Index Ventures, Two Sigma, General Catalyst and Day One Ventures. Remote is valued at over US$ 1 billion.

Greentech

1. Estonian startup Single.Earth raises $7.9 million from ETQ Ventures to link carbon credits to the crypto token market

On July 7 2021, Greentech startup Single.Earth announced that it has secured a $7.9 Million fundraise from ETQ Ventures and many leading investment firms. The funding round also witnessed the participation of its subsisting investors Icebreaker, Ragnar Sass and Martin Henk, founders of Pipedrive. The capital will be used to launch its marketplace for nature-backed MERIT tokens, as the startup says in “Tokenize Nature.”

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