Deal Street: All-Woman Delivery Startup Gets Its First Cheque, Sequoia Backs Social Commerce

Five Indian startups raised nearly Rs 106 crore in angel, seed and venture capital funding last week. That’s lower than the Rs 1,400 crore collected by the same number of firms in the week prior.

Startups in the commerce space received the bulk of the funding last week.

Sequoia India Leads $11.5-Million Round In Meesho

Social commerce startup Meesho raised nearly Rs 77 crore ($11.5 million) in a fresh round of funding led by Sequoia India.

Existing investors such as SAIF Partners, Y Combinator and Venture Highway also participated, the company said in a statement. The latest round takes the total funds raised by the startup to about $15 million.

The fresh funds will be used to strengthen its employee base, develop its products and introduce newer categories on its platform, the company said. “We have grown 20 times since our Series A fundraising last year,” co-Founder and Chief Executive Vidit Aatrey said.

Founded in 2015, the company aims to have 20 million entrepreneurs over the next two years. Meesho is an online platform that helps sellers launch, build and promote businesses online and allows users to share content on various social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and Pinterest.

Logistics Startup Bags Fresh Funding From Rocketship, Others

Logistics startup Locus raised Rs 26.8 crore (around $4 million) in a fresh round of funding from U.S.-based early stage investor Rocketship.vc, Recruit Strategic Partners, pi Ventures and Hemendra Kothari, chairman of DSP BlackRock Investment Managers.

Existing investors such as Blume Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners, BeeNext and GrowX Venture also participated in the current round, the company said in a statement.

Locus said the proceeds will be used on its products and for global expansion.

Founded in 2015, the Bengaluru-based startup optimises logistics operations for tech-based enterprises to manage their deliveries. Its clients include Urban Ladder, Lenskart, Licious and Tata Group. The company also works with clients in Singapore, Jakarta, Phoenix and Vancouver.

The startup uses a decision-making engine that employs patented algorithms to automate logistics operations. These include operations like route optimisation, real-time tracking, analytics, warehouse management and vehicle allocation, among others.

All-Woman Hyperlocal Delivery Startup Raises Seed Funding

Hey Deedee, an all-woman last-mile logistics services startup, raised a pre-seed funding of nearly Rs 3.3 crore ($500,000) from Metaform Ventures LLC, an early stage investor, the company said in a statement.

The startup said the funds will be used to expand its footprint to 10 cities from four this year, without putting a timeline on it. A part of the investment will be used to build the technology infrastructure.

Founded in 2016, Hey Deedee provides logistics solutions to e-commerce companies for their last-mile delivery. The startup trains women from less priviledged socio-economic backgrounds to ride two-wheelers and employs them as last-mile delivery executives. It also helps them to avail loans for two-wheelers.

The company has over 62 riders across Mumbai, Bengaluru, Nagpur and Pune while another 2,000 women have registered themselves. It aims to train and employ 10,000 women this year.

Amazon, Shadowfax, Subway, Ecom Express, Godrej Nature’s Basket and Birdy’s are among its key clients.

Others

ClearDekho, a Delhi-based budget eye-wear brand, raised Rs 2 crore ($297,700) in a fresh funding round led by Venture Catalysts. Other investors such as Samyakth Capital and Windrose Capital also participated, the company said in a statement.

Health-tech startup Zoctr raised an undisclosed amount in an early stage funding from Dubai-based NB Ventures and a host of other angel investors, including Udaipur Angel Network, a company statement said.