Deal Street: Byju’s Rival Toppr Gets $35 Million In Growth Funding Round

Five Indian startups raised $1.6 billion—the most in a week this year—in angel, seed or venture capital funding across sectors such as education, micro-delivery, food ordering, among others.

Toppr raises $35 million

Toppr, a Mumbai-based online education technology startup, raised $35 million (Rs 245 crore) in a growth funding round led by firm's existing investors Eight Roads Ventures, Helion Ventures, SAIF Partners and a new investor Kaizen Management Advisors Pvt. Ltd, an education-focussed private equity firm.

Other new investors such as Alteria Capital and Brand Capital, the ad-for-equity arm of media house Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd also participated in the round, Zishaan Hayath, co-founder of Toppr told BloombergQuint in an interview.

He said the funds will be used to ramp up branding, product awareness and to strengthen product features.

In December last year, Toppr had raised $7 million (around Rs 45 crore) from SAIF Partners, Helion Ventures and FIL Capital Management, a part of Eight Road Ventures.

Founded in 2013, Toppr is a test-preparation platform for engineering, medical and secondary school students. The company said it uses artificial intelligence-based machine learning algorithms to personalise learning paths for every student.

Toppr, which has about 6 million users, is eyeing Rs 150 crore revenue rate for FY19 and expects to achieve profitability in 24 months.

Ratan Tata-backed Moglix raises $23 million

Online business-to-business industrial goods marketplace Moglix raised $23 million (Rs 164 crore) in fresh funding round led by existing investors such as Accel, Jungle Ventures and International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of the World Bank.

Venture Highway, former Twitter and Google executive Shailesh Rao and venture debt firm InnoVen Capital also participated in the round, Moglix said in a statement.

The Noida-based company added that the investment will be used to expand to newer regions, and to also increase its logistics network. A part of investment will also go in strengthening its digital supply chain technology solutions with data science and machine-learning capabilities.

“The funds will play a critical role in fueling our expansion efforts by optimising efficiencies in our focus areas such as technology innovation, analytics and building a wide logistics infrastructure network,” Rahul Garg, founder and chief executive officer at Moglix said in a statement.

The fresh investment takes the total funding raised by the startup to $41 million.

Founded in August 2015, the Ratan-tata backed startup specialises in procurement of industrial products like industrial electricals, hardware, and safety items. It operates across 10 centres in India and works with both institutional customers and individual customers.

Micro-delivery grocery startup Milkbasket raised $7 million

Gurugram-based micro-delivery grocery startup Milkbasket raised $7 million (Rs 49 crore) in a funding round led by US-based venture capital firm Mayfield Advisors.

Existing investors Kalaari Capital, BeeNext, Unilever Ventures and Blume Ventures also participated in the round, Milkbasket said in a statement.

The deal also included a secondary component, the statement added without disclosing further details. The latest fund was an extension of $7 million the firm had raised in May earlier this year.

The company said the funds will be used for geographical expansion, ramping up the technology backbone and hiring initiatives.

Started in 2015, the micro-delivery startup caters to a household needs. It started off by delivering milk, bread and eggs, and has since expanded its business to a whole range of daily groceries.

Others

Food ordering startup Swiggy raised $1 billion in a round led by Naspers. The round also saw participation from several existing investors including DST Global, Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management, along with new investors Tencent, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management Company, the company said in statement. The round values the firm at around $3.3 billion.

Online education startup Byju’s raised $540 million led by Naspers Ventures and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the company said in a statement. The funding round has more than doubled its valuation to $3.8 billion, one person privy to the development told BloombergQuint