FUNDING | Pixr8 News

30Jul By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

WASABI RAISES $1.8Mn SEED FUNDING LED BY ANKUR CAPITAL

India, July 30th, 2021: Bengaluru-based tech startup, Wasabi (Truegrit Technologies Private Limited) has raised $1.8 Million in a seed round led by Ankur Capital. The round also saw participation from Binny Bansal backed 021 Capital, Sparrow Capital, and notable angels like Ankit Bhati (Ola), Mekin Maheshwari (Udhyam Learning), Lalit Keshre (Groww), Revant Bhate (Mosaic Wellness), Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn), and Ashish Goel (Urban Ladder) among others. The funds raised will be utilized to build a strong engineering team, develop their product offering and create early customer traction. Founded in January 2021 by Pradeep Dodle and Nikhil Goenka, Wasabi is building easy-to-use communication and growth platform for small and medium businesses in India to help them manage customer relationsh...

Pine Labs raises $600 mn at $3 Billion Valuation

6Jul By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Pine Labs raises $600 mn at $3 Billion Valuation

Singapore, July 6, 2021 - Pine Labs, one of Asia’s leading merchant commerce platforms raises $600 million with the entry of new investors Fidelity Management, BlackRock, Ishana, Tree Line, and a fund advised by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC at $3 billion valuations. IIFL AMC via its ‘Late-Stage Tech Fund’ and Kotak are also participating in this investment round. Pine Labs continues to be well-financed and has been EBITDA profitable for several years. The company is backed by Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Actis, PayPal and Mastercard amongst other leading global investors. “Over the last year, Pine Labs has made significant progress in its Offline to Online strategy in India and the direct-to-consumer play in Southeast Asia. Our full-stack approach to payments an...

Job Market Platform Apna Raises $70M at $570 million valuation

21Jun By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Job Market Platform Apna Raises $70M at $570 million valuation

BANGALORE, India, June 21, 2021-- Apna, the leading job-based platform in India raises $70 million Series B round led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global. Existing investors, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Greenoaks Capital and Rocketship VC have also participated in the round. The investment amounts to an endorsement of Apna's undisputed market leadership and stellar business growth. With this investment Apna has now raised over $90 million and is now valued at $570 million, within 16 months of product launch. The team plans to double down on their edtech platform for skilling by continuing to invest in hiring exceptional talent and building world-class engineering and product capabilities. Additionally, Apna plans to expand to high potential international markets such a...

16Jun By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

BrowserStack raises $200 mn funding at $4 billion valuation

DUBLIN and SAN FRANCISCO, 16th June 2021: World’s leading software testing platform BrowserStack raises USD 200 million in funding, led by BOND. The Series B round, which valued the company at USD 4 billion, also saw participation from Insight Partners and existing investor, Accel, a statement said. BrowserStack offers software testing on the cloud and has over 50,000 customers and more than four million developer signups across 135 countries. Its products help developers build bug-free software. BrowserStack was founded in 2011 at a coffee shop to solve one problem testing on different browsers, leading to BrowserStack’s first version, which helped developers test their websites on Internet Explorer 11. The investment will support BrowserStack’s strategic acquisitions, expansion ...

General Atlantic leads $100 million investment in Fresha

16Jun By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

General Atlantic leads $100 million investment in Fresha

NEW YORK, June 16th, 2021-- Fresha, a top beauty and wellness software platform raises $100 million Series C investment led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, with strategic participation from Huda Kattan of HB Investments and the founder of Huda Beauty, as well as Michael Zeisser of FMZ Ventures, former Chairman Investments at Alibaba Group, and Jonathan Green of Lugard Road Capital. Fresha's existing global investors Partech, Target Global and FJ Labs also participated in the round, bringing the company's total fundraising to $132 million to date. Fresha will leverage the new funds to further broaden its global community of partner salons and spas, scale product development, deepen its marketplace bookings and pursue strategic M&A. Fresha allows cons...

Home Services Marketplace Urban Company raises $255 mn

7Jun By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Home Services Marketplace Urban Company raises $255 mn

Bengaluru, 7th June 2021: Home services marketplace Urban Company raises USD 255 million in funding led by Prosus Ventures, Dragoneer, and Wellington Management. The series F round which also saw participation from Vy Capital, Tiger Global, and Steadview takes Urban Company’s valuation to USD 2.1 billion. The latest round includes a primary capital infusion of USD 188 million and a secondary sale of approximately USD 67 million by select angels and early investors, Urban Company CEO and co-founder Abhiraj Singh Bhal told Pixr8 News. He added that Urban Company has raised about USD 330 million in primary capital to date. Bhal said the funds will be used towards innovation, training, product development, enhanced quality control and safety measures for both partners and consumers. The ...

Zeta raises USD 250 mn from SoftBank at USD 1.45 bn valuation

25May By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Zeta raises USD 250 mn from SoftBank at USD 1.45 bn valuation

Mumbai, May 25th, 2021: Technology startup in banking sector Zeta raises USD 250 million from Japanese investment major SoftBank at a valuation of USD 1.45 billion, its co-founder and chief executive Bhavin Turakhia announced on Monday. This was the first-ever institutional investment in the 2015 founded company and also a first for Turakhia, a serial entrepreneur who has started four businesses. The investment happened from SoftBank's Vision Fund II. Zeta's main product offering is focused on retail banks, which integrates mobile app, debit processing, credit processing and lending platform without changing the existing core banking systems. Its customers include the largest domestic private sector lender HDFC Bank and a slew of others. The company had raised an undiscl...

17May By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Lenskart raises $95 million from KKR

NEW DELHI, 17th April 2020-- Lenskart, a leading omni-channel eyewear retailer in India raises $95 million from global investment firm KKR via a secondary stake acquisition. As part of the transaction, existing investors TPG Growth and TR Capital, who first invested in Lenskart in late 2014, will each divest a portion of their holding in the Company. Established in 2010, the Company today is the largest service provider for eyewear in India, serving over 7 million customers annually through its omni-channel shopping experience, which spans online, mobile application, and 730 omni-channel stores in 175 cities across the country. In 2019, Lenskart also expanded to Singapore marking its foray into Southeast Asia where it is now a key service provider for optical. Peyush Bansal, CEO o...

Gupshup Raises $ 100 Million from Tiger Global at $1.4 billion Valuation

8Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Gupshup Raises $ 100 Million from Tiger Global at $1.4 billion Valuation

SAN FRANCISCO, 04/08/2021 - Gupshup, the leader in conversational messaging has raised $ 100 million in funding from Tiger Global Management, bringing the company's valuation to $ 1.4 billion. This financing will be followed by a second round of financing, in which further investors will bring in considerable funds. Details will be announced at a later date. This latest round of financing follows several years in which Gupshup has risen to become the global market leader in conversational messaging through profitable growth, product innovation and customer acceptance. The Gupshup API enables over 100,000 developers and businesses to create messaging and conversational experiences, who send over 6 billion messages per month on more than 30 messaging channels. Gupshup will use th...

ShareChat raises $502 Mn from Snapchat, Twitter & others

8Apr By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

ShareChat raises $502 Mn from Snapchat, Twitter & others

Calif., SF, 04/08/2021: Short Video app ShareChat has raised USD 502 million in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tiger Global, valuing the social media platform at over USD 2.1 billion. Snap Inc (which owns Snapchat) and existing investors Twitter and India Quotient, among others, also participated in the funding round in Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat and short video app, Moj. Founded in 2015, Mohalla Tech has raised over USD 766 million across six fundraising rounds. "We are at an exciting inflection point in our journey, where we are going after a massive opportunity with the right team in place and the backing of long-term investors who have a deep conviction in our mission. With ShareChat and Moj, we are well-positioned to build the largest AI-pow...

22Mar By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Purplle.com raises USD 45 mn from Sequoia & others

Mumbai, 03/22/2021: Beauty products selling platform Purplle.com raises USD 45 million involving a clutch of investors, led by Sequoia Capital India joining as a new investor. Sequoia, along with existing investors Verlinvest, Blume Ventures and JSW Ventures, put fresh capital into the company. Ivy Capital, an existing investor, has partially exited its investment making returns of 22 times, a statement said. Collectively, the total money invested across the fresh investment by backers and the partial exit by Ivy comes at USD 45 million. The company did not detail the split between the two. The statement said the investment will bolster the brand''s ambition to deliver 8-10X growth in the next 4-5 years. Its co-founder and chief executive Manish Taneja said it has delivered 90 ...

Stripe Raises $600 Million, Becomes US Most Valuable Startup

15Mar By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Stripe Raises $600 Million, Becomes US Most Valuable Startup

San Francisco, 03/15/2021: Digital payment company Stripe raises $600 million in funding at a valuation of $95 billion, The payment startup becomes US most valuable company surpasses Elon Musk's SpaceX. At the top TikTok owned ByteDance is the most valued digital company at around $180 billion in the world. Founded in 2010 by Patrick and John Collison, Stripe allows companies to accept online or in person card payments. Stripe has more than 50 companies each processing over $1 billion annually. Its list of customers includes Google, Uber and Amazon, and more recently shipping giant Maersk and Jaguar Land Rover. San Francisco and Dublin-headquartered company said it would use the capital to invest in its European operations and expand its global network. At $95 billion, Stripe i...