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Deal Street: Binny Bansal Backs Online Insurance Startup, Flipkart Chief Invests In Moglix 

Six startups, across sectors such as insurance and agriculture, raised nearly Rs 1,000 crore in venture capital funding last week.

(Source: BloombergQuint)
(Source: BloombergQuint)

Six Indian startups raised nearly Rs 1,000 crore in venture capital funding last week, across sectors such as insurance, cloud kitchen and agriculture, among others.

Startups based out of Mumbai led the funding pack.

Acko General Insurance pockets $65 million

Mumbai-based online Insurance startup Acko General Insurance raised $65 million (Rs 452.3 crore) in a growth round of funding from a clutch of new and existing investors.

Flipkart Co-Founder Binny Bansal; RPS Ventures, which is managed by Kabir Misra, former managing partner at SoftBank; and Intact Ventures, the strategic venture arm of Intact Financial Corporation; are the new investors that participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

Existing investors such as Amazon, Accel, SAIF and TechPro Venture too took participated, the statement said.

“Insurance is a capital intensive sector and as we grow, we will be raising more capital in compliance with the guidelines of the regulator,” Varun Dua, founder and chief executive officer of Acko, was quoted as saying in the statement.

Founded in 2016, Acko operates as an independent general insurance company and offers services through its digital platform. It provides personalised insurance products as well as general and auto insurance.

Acko also offers micro-insurance products such as rider insurance, mobile and appliance protection and ticket cancellation, and has tied up with companies such as Ola, Amazon, redBus, Zomato and UrbanClap.

Mswipe Raises $31.4 Million

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

Mumbai-based mobile point-of-sale services (mPoS) startup Mswipe is raising $31.47 million (Rs 219 crore) in a fresh funding round from its existing investors, according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies.

The round will be co-led by tech investment firm Epiq Capital and venture capital firm managed by Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin.

Founded in March 2011, the firm offers point-of-sale solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses, enabling plastic card payments via mobile phones. It also provides a card reader that can convert the mobile phone into a card acceptance device.

The company also enables merchants to accept digital payments from platforms like UPI, Google Pay, PhonePe, Bharat QR, and BHIM.

Bertelsmann India Infuses $27 Million In AgroStar

AgroStar, which operates a direct-to-farmer mobile-based retail platform, raised $27 million (Rs 187 crore) in its growth funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments.

The company’s existing investors Accel, Chirate Ventures and Aavishkaar Bharat Fund also participated in this round, the company said.

Pune-based AgroStar said the funds will be used to expand its digital footprint across India. Besides a part of investment will also be made the technology platform and its data science capability, and will also strengthen its leadership team by adding seasoned farm processionals.

Founded in 2013, the company claims to have 150 channel partners and is operational in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, with over one million farmers using its platform.

Others

  • Rebel Foods, an internet kitchen platform which owns and operates a number of brands, including Faasos and Behrouz Biryani, raised $15.8 million (around Rs 110 crore) as part of a larger growth round of funding led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India. Lightbox Ventures and Evolvence India Fund also participated in this round, according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies.
  • Vivriti Capital, which runs an online platform for institutional debt, raised $15.8 million (around Rs 110 crore) from existing investor Creation Investments, according to a company statement.
  • Online business-to-business industrial goods marketplace Moglix has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Kalyan Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer of homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart, the company said in a statement. This is Krishnamurthy’s first individual investment in the B2B e-commerce sector.