The vast majority of e-commerce customers prefer to preview the product before making the purchase. That’s the reason why the likes of Amazon have historically struggled to move fashion and home decor items online. A San Francisco and Bengaluru-based startup is attempting to solve this problem and has just raised a new funding round to […]
Record number of unicorns and IPOs: Indian startups raised $39B in 2021
In late March last year, as the virus started to spread across India, investors began to worry about the impact a potential pandemic could have on their portfolio firms. They exchanged notes, and on April 1, penned a joint open letter to the local startup ecosystem, advising firms to “prepare for the worst.” In the […]
Indian fintech giant Razorpay valued at $7.5 billion in $375 million funding
Razorpay has more than doubled its valuation to $7.5 billion from $3 billion in April as one of India’s largest fintech giants demonstrates fast growth and aggressively broadens its product offerings. The Bangalore-headquartered startup, which is a market leader in payments processing in India, said Sunday evening it has raised $375 million in its Series […]
Voly raises $13M led by Sequoia to deliver instant groceries in Australia
The trend that is instant grocery delivery — online ordering of essentials with your purchases being delivered to you in under an hour — continues to proliferate across multiple markets, and in the latest development, Sequoia is leading an investment in one out of Australia. Voly, a five-month-old Sydney-based startup that offers thousands of SKUs […]
VCs eye investment in Polygon
A number of investors including Sequoia Capital India and Steadview Capital are in talks to back Polygon, which operates a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks, by way of tokens purchase, three sources familiar with the matter told me. The investors are looking to purchase tokens worth $50 million to $150 million, sources said, requesting […]
Sequoia, 120 angel investors back former Google execs’ consumer finance startup Arbo Works
A team of Google executives, many of whom worked with one another for years, left the company earlier this year to launch a startup. The fintech firm, Arbo Works, has raised a financing round led by Sequoia Capital India, the two said Thursday. Arbo Works, spearheaded by Caesar Sengupta, said on Thursday 120 angel investors, […]
Stripe backs India’s Clear in $75 million funding
Stripe has made its second investment in India, just days after disclosing the first. One of the world’s most valuable startups has backed Bangalore-based SaaS fintech firm Clear, the two said Sunday evening. The 10-year-old Indian startup, formerly known as ClearTax, said it has raised $75 million in its Series C funding. The round was […]
SoftBank-backed Oyo files for $1.16 billion IPO
Oyo is ready to explore the public markets. The eight-year-old Indian budget hotel giant has filed the paperworks (PDF) with the local market regulator for an initial public offering, in which it is seeking to raise about $1.16 billion. The Gurgaon-headquartered startup — which offers an operating system of sorts to help hoteliers accept digital bookings, payments, […]
India’s Bijnis lands $30 million to help manufacturers build digital identity and sell to retailers
The proliferation of affordable and fast mobile data allowed hundreds of millions of Indians to come online for the first time in the past decade. But there are scores of areas in the South Asian nation’s economy that remain largely offline. One of those is factories. There are about 150,000 factories in India, but the […]
FloBiz raises $31 million to scale its neobank for small businesses in India
FloBiz, an Indian startup that is building a neobank for small- and medium-sized businesses in the South Asian market, said on Monday it has raised $31 million in a new financing round as it works to broaden its product offerings. Sequoia Capital India and Think Investments co-led the 18-month-old startup’s Series B financing round. Existing […]