1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 193

Six VC funds have announced the closing of their new funds

1. Swiggy, Paytm early backer Elevation Capital raises its largest India fund at $670 million

Early-stage investor Elevation Capital (formerly Saif Partners) — which has backed the likes of Swiggy, Paytm, Urban Company and Meesho — has closed its eighth India-dedicated fund at $670 million, its largest-ever corpus.

This comes amid signs of a funding slowdown and overall macro headwinds hurting technology investments and valuations globally. It also follows a $400 million fundraising by the venture capital firm as part of its India-focussed Fund VII in October 2020, which coincided with the start of a never-seen-before boom period for Indian startups as record-breaking capital flowed into the country.

As the pace of funding starts to decelerate, Elevation said it would look to deploy the fresh capital over a three-year time frame, unlike the previous fund which was aggressively distributed among more the 30 startups.

Swiggy, Paytm early backer Elevation Capital raises its largest India fund at $670 million

2. ‘Unicorn couple’ fancy India’s biggest tech IPO after Paytm, raising $2-bn

A husband-and-wife founding team is in discussions with banks about raising as much as $2 billion in an initial public offering for one of their startups, aiming for India’s biggest tech debut since fintech giant Paytm.

OfBusiness, a startup founded by entrepreneurs Ruchi Kalra and Asish Mohapatra to help Indian enterprises buy bulk raw materials, could file initial listing documents around October, people familiar with the matter said. The startup is in talks now to raise about $400 million of pre-IPO financing in coming months, one of the people said. It’s in discussions with potential IPO arrangers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley and India’s Kotak, Avendus and ICICI Securities.

At $2 billion, OfBusiness is aiming to pull off India’s largest tech IPO after Paytm’s.

'Unicorn couple' fancy India's biggest tech IPO after Paytm, raising $2-bn

A podcast episode:

Shiva Singh Sangwan @shivassangwan

Hear out Salone's (@SaloneSehgal) Story! If not me, then who? If not now, then when? Worked in the UK → connected the dots → moved back to India and launched India's first gaming and interactive media fund @Lumikai!

anchor.fm18: Salone Sehgal (Lumikai Fund) by 1947 RiseSalone Sehgal is the Founder and GP of Lumikai Fund. Lumikai Fund is India’s first gaming and interactive entertainment venture fund. SHOW NOTES Salone’s journey from growing up in India to moving to the US and then moving back to India (1:00) The origins of Lumikai Fund and the vision she holds…

Worth your attention:

1. Lenskart all set to close $250 million round Link

2. VerSe Innovation Funding | Dailyhunt’s parent VerSe Innovation raises $805 million led by CPPIB… Link

3. Aavishkaar Capital Funding: Aavishkaar Capital, impact investing arm of the Aavishkaar Group… Link

4. Agritech VC firm Omnivore sets up new $130 million fund Link

5. Arkam hits final close of first fund at $106 mn Link

6. Venture Catalyst’s Beams Fintech Fund raises $36 million Link

7. Speciale Invest Funding: Seed stage investment firm Speciale Invest raises Rs 286 crore Link

8. SaaS startup Rattle raises $26 million in funding led by Insight Partners Link

9. Bombay Play raises $7 million led by Kalaari Capital Link

10. Early-stage rounds saw 63% more money in 2021 Link

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