Unicorn startup | Business Upturn

World is looking at India very favourably: Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant

Himanshu Mishra — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:21:31 +0000

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Monday announced that Indian startups are affecting the world in many means, particularly in the modern developing sectors of health and agriculture.

Addressing a program by FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), Amitabh Kant told that women entrepreneurs are the vehicles to get a more equal society. He further asserted that India currently has more than 61,000 start-ups and 81 unicorns.

“Indian start-ups are disrupting the world primarily in new developing regions of health, nutrition and agriculture,” he announced. According to Kant, women-owned businesses and enterprises are playing a very crucial role in the nation and will soon be the subsequent big disruption within the Indian start-up ecosystem.

“Women-based entrepreneurship is one of the vehicles for getting a more equal society as more women take on entrepreneurship, it performs as a catalyst for socio-economic transformation, by strengthening women’s agency and status,” he said.

The Niti Aayog CEO reported that presently venture capital (VC) and private equity firms are helping women start-ups. “This will help frame strategies and propose appropriate steps to promote healthy growth of startups and will help improve women entrepreneurship,” he announced.

Kant told that today India is a compelling growth story steadied for rapid development in consumption, urbanisation, digitisation along with surging income levels. To all the women entrepreneurs constituting potential entrepreneurs, he asserted: “The world is watching at India very favourably.”

Mensa acquires denim brand High Star

Malvika Choudhary — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 12:56:35 +0000

The fastest startup to join the ever-growing Indian unicorn club- Mensa Brands acquired a direct-to-consumer(D2C), home-grown denim brand, High Star, as a part of a series of possessions it has done this year.

The startup came off with flying colours just in six months when it became the fastest startup to enter the group of Indian unicorn clubs. The founder of the Indian direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand aggregator Mensa Brands on November 19 told CNBC that it has become a unicorn and is already profitable after closing a $135 million Series B fundraising round.

“We are excited to welcome High Star to our tech-led house of global brands. Together, we are working towards boosting the brand’s growth trajectory, setting a target of achieving a 10x gross turnover for the brand within the next 4 to 5 years. Our team has outlined a strategic roadmap for expanding the brand’s footprints in the domestic and international markets across channels to reach consumers and continue to improve customer experience,” Ananth Narayanan, Founder and CEO of Mensa Brand confirmed the deal and said.

Earlier this month, Mensa acquired Mumbai-based home décor and kitchenware brand Folkulture. High Star has become an emerging brand of denim, which has become popular on leading Indian e-commerce platforms, including Myntra, Ajio, Flipkart and Bewakoof.com, among others.

“Being part of Mensa Brands will help High Star scale to the astronomical levels we aim for. Mensa’s team will bring their expertise to expand the brand’s presence pan India and take it global. Within the first year of onboarding, Mensa will support us in areas such as digital marketing, technology, working capital management and channel expansion,” Rohit Mirchandani, Founder of High Star, said.

Good Glamm Group turns unicorn after amassing $150 million through funding

Cheryll Jain — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:02:34 +0000

The Good Glamm Group — parent company to direct-to-consumer beauty brand MyGlamm — has entered the ranks of unicorn startups in India after it reached a total valuation of $1.2 billion owing to the latest round of funding headed by private equity investors Prosus Ventures (Naspers) and Warburg Pincus.

In the Series D round of funding, the group entity, comprised of three brands — MyGlamm, digital media platform POPxo and online parenting startup BabyChakra, amassed $150 million with participation from existing investors L’Occitane, Bessemer Venture Partners, Amazon, Ascent Capital and the Mankekar Family Office. Venture debt fund Alteria Capital also joined the fundraising round.

Of the cumulative fresh funds raised during the round, $140 million was raised as primary capital. Meanwhile, $10 million was raised through a secondary share sale which led to the partial exit of Chiratae Ventures from the company. Several other high net worth individuals have also exited the company following the secondary sale, MyGlamm’s founder Darpan Sanghvi revealed.

The startup is aiming to utilise the fresh influx of funds for sustaining value engines for its brands, Sanghvi stated. It will also invest in expanding its product offering, promoting data science and technology research, increasing offline development, and financing the company’s working capital requirements.

Moreover, a part of the funds will be employed to enhance the content production capabilities and digital influence of the startup’s various digital brands including POPxo, Plixxo, BabyChakra and ScoopWhoop. The group will also continue to make investments in more beauty and personal care brands.

The Glamm Group is now the first beauty commerce brand this year to enter the esteemed unicorn startup club, becoming the 35th domestic company to attain unicorn status in 2021.

Edtech startup Byju’s raises $1.2 billion through TLB funding

Cheryll Jain — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 08:30:59 +0000

Edtech unicorn Byju’s has raised $1.2 billion through a term loan B (TLB) funding. The development makes Byju’s the second company in India to have raised a TLB after Oyo, which in July raised $660 million to refinance existing debt.

TLB is used in the lending market to refer to a piece of senior secured credit facilities obtainable to a borrower that is designed to be regulated in the institutional loan market. TLBs usually have a floating interest rate, with tenures of 5 to 7 years.

Byju’s was reportedly in works with American investment banks JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to structure the TLB financing which was originally supposed to raise $ 500 million. However, the fund round was upsized due to a surge in demand from investors.

The borrowing comes as India’s most valued startup is looking to refinance itself after spending over $2.2 billion on an acquisition spree this year. Its list of acquisitions this year include the online upskilling platform Great Learning for $600 million, US-based reading platform Epic for $500 million, and coaching firm Aakash Educational Services Limited, which it acquired for $1 billion.

The company unveiled in a filing that it will use these funds for general corporate purposes. However, the edtech unicorn had earlier disclosed that it planned to primarily use the funds for acquisitions, while a part of the money raised would also be employed as working capital.

Byju’s has raised over $1.5 billion over the last 18 months, buoyant on the growth of online education that surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. In its latest round of funding in June, the company accumulated $350 million from investors such as UBS, Blackstone, ADQ, Phoenix Rising, propelling the total valuation of the startup to $16.5 billion.

As of September, Byju’s had over 100 million registered students and 6.5 million paid subscribers. The company is also looking to list itself on the stock market with an initial public offering within the next year.

Digital insurance startup Acko enters the unicorn club with the latest funding of $255 million

Cheryll Jain — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 06:07:45 +0000

Digital general insurance company Acko announced on Thursday, October 28 that it has raised $255 million in its latest round of funding led by private equity majors General Atlantic and Multiples Private Equity. The fresh funds have propelled the four-year-old startup to unicorn status by raising the company’s total valuation to $1.1 billion.

The Series D round of funding saw participation from new investors such as Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Lightspeed, as well as existing investors such as Intact Ventures and Munich Re Ventures.

With a surge in interest of investors in Indian startups, Acko is now the 34th company to become a part of the unicorn club in India this year. Unicorns are privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more.

The latest fundraise is also presumed to have a secondary component, which is likely to take the round size from $250 million to more than $300 million, sources claimed. A secondary transaction involves an existing shareholder selling their stake to an incoming investor.

The Bengaluru-based startup was valued at around $400 million last year but its total funds raised up to date stand at $450 million. Its existing backers include Amazon, Accel, Elevation Capital, Ascent Capital, Intact Ventures, Munich Re Ventures and Flipkart’s co-founder Binny Bansal, among others.

The startup plans to employ the fresh funds to further invest in the healthcare insurance sector and scale its team, specifically within technology products and data science.

Varun Dua, Founder and CEO of Acko stated that the company will continue to focus on its primary auto insurance business and aims to invest over $150 million in the health business in the future. “We believe health insurance and a deeply connected ecosystem of health services that improve health outcomes for customers are today’s most urgent needs,” he added.

The startup confirmed that it has over 70 million customers, clocking a run-rate of approximately $150 million in premiums. Besides offering auto insurance, Acko is also a leading player in embedded insurance products like mobility and gadget insurance across digital platforms such as Amazon, MakeMyTrip, Ola, among others. It also provides insurance covers to nearly 1 million workers through its partnership with companies including Zomato and Swiggy.

Online investment startup Groww crosses $3 billion in valuation

Cheryll Jain — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 05:32:49 +0000

Bangalore-based online investment platform Groww announced on Monday, October 25 that it has crossed $3 billion in valuation after raising $251 million in its latest round of funding. The milestone comes just six months after the startup had entered the coveted Unicorn club when it crossed $1 billion in total valuation in April.

In a Series E round of funding led by US-based investment firm ICONIQ Growth, the startup tripled its valuation. Alkeon, Lone Pine Capital and Steadfast as well as existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, YC Continuity, Tiger Global, and Propel Venture Partners participated in the new financing round.

With the raised funds, Groww is aiming to further its reach in the under-penetrated markets in India along with building its team and investing in tech infrastructure. The company will also invest in spreading awareness on financial matters.

“We will look at adding government bonds and other fixed-income products. We are also launching derivatives. Plus, there is a lot to build for our mutual funds vertical itself,” stated Groww’s Co-founder and CEO Lalit Keshre on the company’s plans to diversify its offerings with the fresh funds.

Groww has been steadily expanding to become a key player in the online investment market in India. More than 200 million people in India use digital payment methods, but the market for online investment platforms is small, with only around 30 million currently investing in mutual funds and stocks in the country.

The startup had over 15 million registered users earlier this year, two-thirds of whom were first-time investors. For its platform, Groww is looking to build a userbase of amateur investors from small cities and towns and make investing in stocks and mutual funds more accessible.

Groww was valued at $250 million in September last year. But in its last Series D round of funding led by Tiger Global in April, the company had raised $38 million which helped to propel the startup to unicorn status. Groww has now raised over $390 million to date through various rounds of funding and continues to expand its operations as it was approved for the acquisition of the mutual fund arm of the Indiabulls Group for Rs.175 crores earlier this year in September.

CoinDCX gets unicorn status by raising $90 million led by B Capital

Vandana Nampoothiri — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 05:58:22 +0000

In an official statement on Tuesday, cryptocurrency exchange platform CoinDCX announced that it raised $90 million in its Series C funding at a valuation of $1.1 billion, becoming the first Indian crypto exchange platform to reach a ‘Unicorn’ status.

Unicorn status is given to privately owned startups that are valued at more than $1 billion. The Series C funding was led by former co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital. Other cryptocurrency exchange platforms like Coinbase Ventures, Polychain, Block. one, and Jump Capital also invested in the funding.

“The funds raised will be allocated to expand (bring more Indians to crypto / make crypto a popular investment asset class in India) and strengthen our workforce that will cater to our growth story. We will hire talent across multiple functions, and focus on new business initiatives,” said Sumit Gupta, co-founder, and CEO of CoinDCX.

“Apart from this, we will be joining hands or enter into partnerships with key fintech players to expand the crypto investor base, set up a Research & Development (R&D) facility, strengthening the policy conversations through public discourse, working with the government to introduce favourable regulations, education, and amping up the hiring initiatives,” he further added.

CoinDCX was founded in 2018. In 2021, the company introduced CoinDCX Go, a bitcoin app. Currently, the company has more than 3.5 million users.