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Deal Street: Mswipe, Unbxd Led Funding Pack Last Week 

Your weekly dose of startup deals...

(Source: BloombergQuint)
(Source: BloombergQuint)

Ten startups raised close to $60 million (around Rs 400 crore) in angel, seed or venture capital funding last week, 50 percent higher than the week ago.

Mumbai-based Mswipe and Bengaluru’s Unbxd mopped the bulk of the capital. Startups from Bengaluru led the pack…

Mswipe Raises $31 Million



 (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
A vendor holds a Mswipe terminal, operated by M-Swipe Technologies Pvt Ltd., in an arranged photograph at a roadside stall in Bengaluru, India.)

Point-of-sale merchant acquirer and network provider Mswipe raised $31 million (around Rs 206 crore) in a Series D round of funding led by UC-RNT fund, a joint venture between Ratan Tata’s RNT Associates and University of California. Existing investors Matrix Partners India, Falcon Edge Capital, and DSG Consumer Partners participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

Mswipe said it will use the funds to develop the largest network of merchants accepting digital payments in the country.

“With merchants of all sizes actively looking to enable digital payment acceptance at their establishments, we expect to grow exponentially going ahead, create card and electronic payment acceptance infrastructure across cities and widen our user base,” Manish Patel, founder and chief executive officer, Mswipe, said.

The company recently acquired PayU’s offline PoS division, partnered with Samsung Pay and Sodexo and launched BharatQR and UPI acceptance for Mswipe’s merchants.

Unbxd Raises $12.5 Million From Fidelity Arm, Others

A product discovery platform provider for e-commerce firms, Unbxd raised $12.5 million (around Rs 83 crore) in Series C funding led by Eight Roads Ventures, the investment arm of Fidelity International Ltd., the company said in a statement.

Infosys Ltd.’s co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, along with existing investors IDG Ventures, Inventus Capital Partners and Nirvana Ventures, also participated in the round. The company said the funds will be used to strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities and technology platform.

Unbxd had last raised $2 million in a Series A round in October 2013 from IDG Ventures and Inventus Capital Partners. It counts online retailers such as Ashley Furniture HomeStore, Express, FreshDirect, rue21 and ibSupply, among others, as its clients. The company said it facilitates more than 1.5 billion consumer interactions every month.

Grow Fit Raises Series A Funding

Bangalore-based health technology startup Grow Fit raised $4.5 million (Rs 29 crore) in Series A funding led by Manipal Education and Medical Group, the private equity arm of the Manipal Group, the company said in a statement. Existing investors SAR Group and The Grover Trust also participated in the round.

Currently operational in Bengaluru, the company aims to expand to 10 more cities within the next 12-15 months. The firm also plans to expand solutions to fertility, joint health, stress management and more, all through the mobile.

As part of the deal, Ranjan Pai, the managing director and chief executive officer of Manipal Education, will join the board of directors at Grow Fit, the company said.

Grow Fit offers wellness solutions through a combination of services, including data science, medical expertise and personalised inputs, besides providing coaching and health food tips and behavioral insights.

Fashion Portal Fynd Closes Its Series A Funding



Source: Fynd
Sreeraman MG, Farooq Adam and Harsh Shah, founders, Fynd

Online fashion marketplace Fynd raised $2.4 million (around Rs 15 crore) in a round led by IIFL Seed Ventures. Kae Capital, FJ Labs, Singularity Ventures, GrowX Ventures, Tracxn Labs and Hong Kong-based Axis Capital also participated in the round, a company statement said.

With the latest fund infusion, the firm has closed its Series A round at $3.4 million. In May, Fynd had secured $1 million from Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund Rocketship and seed investment platform Venture Catalysts.

The firm said it will use the capital to accelerate growth, enhance its consumer base, strengthen technology infrastructure, and optimise operations including marketing strategies.

The Mumbai-based company sources products such as apparel, shoes and bags directly from nearby outlets and takes 4-24 hours to deliver the order. Buyers also have the option to try the products and return them, if not satisfied. The company claims to have 3.5 million styles live on its app and website, and plans to roll out another 3.5 million soon.

Others

Hyderabad based Darwinbox, a human resources software-as-a-service startup, raised $4 million (about Rs 25 crore) in series-A funding led by Lightspeed India Partners, the India-dedicated fund of California-based Lightspeed Venture Partners. Existing investors including Endiya Partners, Mohandas Pai's 3one4 Capital and StartupXseed Ventures also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

Fintech startup Kissht, based in Mumbai, raised $2 million (around Rs 12 crore) from early-stage venture capital firm Endiya Partners and Ventureast, the company said in a statement. The Kissht app provides collateral-free loans to users.

Business-to-business e-commerce and supply chain platform MaxWholesale raised $1 million (around Rs 6.4 crore) in its pre-Series A funding round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and existing investor Maple Capital Advisors, the Delhi-based company said in a statement.

GSTSTAR, which provides products and services on GST compliance, raised $1 million (around Rs 6.4 crore) in a Seed Funding round from TV Mohandas Pai and V Balakrishnan, among others, the Bengaluru-based company said in a statement.

Bengaluru and China-based consumer-to-consumer m-commerce platform ForeverShop raised $300,000 (around Rs 1.9 crore) in seed funding from Chinese investor 91maker. The startup aims to boost customer-to-customer e-commerce using social network, SaaS tools, big data and artificial intelligence.

Bengaluru-based Fabulyst, an artificial technology-enabled virtual stylist, raised $21,700 (Rs 1.4 crore) in seed funding from iBhubs.co, a pan-India startup hub, VCCircle reported. The startup plans to use the funds raised in refining its existing technology and acquiring global e-commerce clients.