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Startup Digest: FirstCry refiles IPO papers, IvyCap Ventures closes ‘Fund III’ at ₹2,100 crore, Charge Zone raises $19 million from BII, and more
KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)
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Summary
Here are the top headlines from the startup space.
FirstCry refiles papers for IPO to raise ₹1,816 crore
FirstCry, an omnichannel retailer focused on kids and mothers, has refiled its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to raise ₹1,816 crore via a fresh issue of shares.
According to the recent DRHP, the offer-for-sale (OFS) component in the IPO comprises shareholders selling 5.4 crore equity shares. The market regulator had earlier claimed that the startup failed to disclose certain significant indicators in its draft papers filed in December last year.
The startup will utilize the fresh issue for investment in its subsidiaries and setting up of new modern stores under the brand name “BabyHug” and warehouses.
IvyCap Ventures closes ‘Fund III’ at ₹2,100 crore
IvyCap Ventures, a homegrown VC firm, has closed its third fund at ₹2,100 crore. With this, the VC firm’s total assets under management (AUM) stood at ₹5,000 crore.
With ‘Fund III’, IvyCap plans to invest in around 25 firms at the Series A level, with an average starting investment worth ₹30-50 crore, it said. “About 20 percent of the Fund will be invested in the existing portfolio companies, where it will act as a co-investor when those companies are raising their next rounds and will not provide secondary funding to their previous funds,” the VC added.
The company has earmarked ₹100 crore for investment in seed-stage companies, collaborating with partners such as IITs, IIMs, incubation centers, accelerators, corporates, and other platforms.
ChrysCapital closes Continuation Fund in India at $700 million
ChrysCapital, the largest homegrown PE fund, has marked the final close of its Continuation Fund in India at $700 million. The continuation fund is anchored by HarbourVest Partners, LGT Capital Partners, and Pantheon Ventures (“Continuation Fund”).
The newly closed fund has acquired a stake in the National Stock Exchange of India. The stake originally belonged to ChrysCapital VI, LLC (“Fund VI”). ChrysCapital Fund VI first invested in NSE in 2016 and will continue as a significant, long-term shareholder in the company through the Continuation Fund, a statement said.
ChrysCapital has invested over US$4 billion across 100+ deals. The investor has backed startups like Lenskart, Wow Skin Science, FirstCry, Awfis, Xpressbees, and Dream Sports.
Charge Zone raises $19 million from British International Investment
Electric vehicle charging network Charge Zone has raised $19 million in a fresh funding round led by British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution (DFI), and impact investor.
As per the firm, the fresh capital will be used to expedite the expansion of its high-speed charging network for electric cars, buses, and trucks across key cities and highways in India.
The startup intends to use the funding to roll out more than 1500 super-charging stations over the next 18 months and reach a portfolio of over 10,000 charging stations by 2027. This forms part of their long-term plan to create a network of one million charging points by 2030, a statement said.
PoinO secures ₹6.2 crore in seed round led by Equirus InnovateX Fund
EV-battery startup PointO has secured ₹6.2 crore in a seed funding round. Equirus Group led the funding round with an investment of ₹5 crore, its first from Equirus InnovateX Fund.
With an initial focus on adoption and financing of lithium batteries for e-rickshaw owners in Tier-II cities and beyond, the company is targeting the problem of low adoption in this segment due to operational and financial complexities.
The startup claims to have grown 7x in the last 12 months and plans to expand its physical centers to 10+ cities over the next 12 months.
vHub.ai bags seed funding from Z21 Ventures, Start-Up India Seed Fund Scheme
Influencer marketing startup vHub.ai has raised an undisclosed funding in a seed round led by Z21 Ventures and Start-Up India Seed Fund Scheme, along with participation from its existing early-stage angel investors.
The platform said it is supporting 40,000+ influencers and 100+ brands. The funds will be used in advancing the company’s AI technologies to deepen influencer discovery analytics and in enabling more precise connections between brands and influencers. vHub.ai also plans to develop additional tools to understand their audience on their social media pages better and to devise marketing strategies around that, a statement said.
“The funding will also help the company in scaling up its technology to accommodate thousands of brands and to facilitate expansion into international markets. Since its inception, vHub.ai has grown significantly, and is now supporting over 40,000 influencers and more than a hundred brands,” said Sachin Modi, CEO of vHub.ai.
BluSmart crosses ₹500 crore in annual run rate in FY24
Homegrown electric vehicle (EV) company BluSmart has crossed ₹500 crore in annual run rate (ARR) in FY24, achieving 102 percent growth over the previous fiscal year.
The company’s gross business value (GBV) delivered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 300% over the last three years, it said in a statement.
BluSmart said it has the largest fleet in South Asia of over 7,300 EVs, which have covered 460 million “clean kilometers” saving 34 million kgs of CO2 emissions. The BluSmart charging network has also grown multifold and spans across prime locations in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.
Groww gets RBI’s final nod to operate as payments aggregator
Groww Pay, the UPI payments platform of broking firm Groww, has received final approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payments Aggregator (PA).
According to the latest RBI data, the in-principle authorization for payment aggregator license was granted in January 2024. This license will allow the company to enable e-commerce transactions through its UPI app — Groww Pay.
Groww has registered ₹1,277 crore in revenue in FY23, a huge 266% surge. The Zerodha rival reported a net profit of ₹448.7 crore in FY23 against ₹239 crore in net loss in the previous fiscal year.
Cleartrip’s CFO Aditya Agarwal steps down
Flipkart-owned online travel aggregator Cleartrip has announced that Aditya Agarwal will step down as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) owing to personal reasons. Akshat Mishra will take over as the new Head of Business Finance at the company.
Agarwal will remain with Cleartrip for a few months to facilitate a smooth transition, the company said in a statement.
“With two years of experience in the Cleartrip Business Finance team and eight years within the Flipkart Group, Mishra brings a deep understanding of both Cleartrip’s operations and the broader ecosystem in which it operates,” it added.
Google blocked 2.28 million apps on Play Store for policy violation in 2023
Google, in a recent blog post, announced that it prevented 2.28 million policy-violating apps from being published on its Play Store. The platform has also identified and banned over 333,000 bad accounts associated with confirmed malware and severe policy violations.
Additionally, Google Play has rejected or remediated nearly 200,000 app submissions to ensure proper usage of sensitive permissions.
Collaborations with SDK providers have further bolstered privacy efforts, impacting over 790,000 apps and empowering developers to make informed choices regarding data access and sharing.
OneAIChat launches a multi-modal AI aggregator; brings together ChatGPT, Gemini and others
OneAiChat, a multi-modal AI aggregator, is bringing together a host of LLMs, such as ChatGPT4, Claude 3, Gemini, DALL-E, and Mistral, allowing users to use them on a unified interface.
The platform aims to streamline the user experience by eliminating the need to visit multiple Generative AI websites for human-like responses — similar to Quora’s AI platform called POE. From health and audio/music to faith, marketing, video, art & design, and mathematics, the platform promises to cater to a wide range of needs.
“We’re thrilled to unveil OneAiChat, the culmination of our team’s passion and dedication to democratising AI accessibility. Our primary objective is to transform the AI landscape into an inclusive and user-friendly environment, empowering individuals and businesses alike to effortlessly harness cutting-edge AI technologies,” a company executive said.
SwopStore clocks ₹5 crore GMV in March; eyes ₹400 crore by FY24-25
SwopStore, a customer acquisition platform for online businesses, has announced that it is on track to achieve a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of ₹400 crore by the fiscal year 2024-2025.
The firm said it has surpassed a GMV of ₹5 crore in March 2024 and has grown 40 percent month-on-month led by its targeted acquisitions and collaborations. Some of the firm’s notable acquisitions include The Man Company, Bombay Shaving, Perfora, Snitch, Plix Life, Enamor, Hindustan Liver, Earth Rhythm, Godrej, Lenskart, and John Jacob.
SwopStore said it has scaled up its sales for over 100 online businesses by up to 20% in the past year and facilitated 1 million transactions. “SwopStore aims to target key sectors such as fintech, quick-commerce services, multinational restaurant aggregators, airlines, banking loyalty programs, and hotel chain loyalty programs. By strategically focusing on these sectors, SwopStore intends to further broaden its impact and establish itself as a versatile solution provider in the global marketplace,” said Ayush Gupta, CEO of SwopStore.
GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY & STARTUP NEWS
Facebook, Instagram in EU crosshairs for election disinformation
Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram have failed to tackle deceptive advertising and disinformation in the run-up to European Parliament elections, the European Commission said as it opened an investigation into suspected breaches of EU online content rules.
The move by EU tech regulators came amid concerns about Russia, China, and Iran as potential sources of disinformation, but also inside the EU, with some political parties and organisations seeking to attract voters with lies in the June 6-9 vote to select the next five-year parliament.
The Digital Services Act, which kicked in last year, requires Big Tech to do more to counter illegal and harmful content on their platforms or risk fines of as much as 6% of their global annual turnover.
Microsoft to invest $1.7 billion in cloud, AI in Indonesia: Nadella
Microsoft will invest $1.7 billion over the next four years into expanding cloud services and artificial intelligence in Indonesia, including building data centers, visiting chief executive Satya Nadella said.
Jakarta is Nadella’s first stop on a trip to Southeast Asian countries aimed at promoting the U.S. company’s generative AI technology. He will go to Malaysia and Thailand later this week.
Microsoft’s investment will “bring the latest and greatest AI infrastructure to Indonesia,” Nadella said. “We’re going to lead this wave in terms of AI infrastructure that’s needed,” he added.
Amazon may be feeling pressure to join the dividend club
E-commerce titan Amazon may be under increasing pressure to offer investors a dividend, as it now finds itself one of the few massive U.S. technology and growth companies not making regular payouts to shareholders.
Google parent Alphabet last week became the latest of the so-called Magnificent Seven group of market heavyweights to start paying a dividend, after Meta Platforms declared one in February. The announcements were followed by big post-earnings gains in the shares of both companies, though they were far from the only factor.
Amazon will report quarterly results and hold a conference call with analysts after the market closes on Tuesday, in the midst of an earnings season that has produced mixed reactions to results by Big Tech companies.
Binance’s CEO Zhao faces sentencing over money laundering violations
The former chief executive of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, could face years in prison when he is sentenced after his guilty plea to violating U.S. money-laundering laws.
U.S. prosecutors have told District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle that they want Changpeng Zhao, who goes by “CZ,” to serve twice the maximum 18 months recommended under federal guidelines.
Prosecutors said a tough sentence for the man once considered the most powerful person in the crypto industry would send a message that “the right choice, every time, is to comply with the law.”
Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout
3 Mins Read
Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter
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