Check out all the interesting happenings in the startup ecosystem across the world.
The top startup stories of the day:
SAIF Partners rebrands as Elevation Capital; closes new early-stage fund of $400 million
One of India’s leading early-stage investors SAIF Partners has unveiled its new brand identity, will now be known as Elevation Capital. The VC firm has closed its seventh fund at $400 million. Fund VII will invest in Global SaaS, consumer, e-commerce, content, gaming, edtech startups.
With a focus on consumer internet, consumer brands, B2B technology and financial services, Elevation (SAIF Partners) has invested in more than 100 companies in India like Urban Company, Meesho, No Broker, ShareChat, Treebo and Ixigo.
The early-stage investor backs unicorns like Paytm, Swiggy, Unacademy, Rivig and Firstcry, among others. Some of its early bets are in publicly listed – Makemytrip, JustDial and IndiaMart.
Besides Adusumalli, the investments would be led and managed by Elevation’s five Managing Directors – Deepak Gaur, Mayank Khanduja, Mridul Arora, Mukul Arora and Vivek Mathur.
Dukaan raises $6 million in seed funding co-led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed India
Dukaan, an app that allows offline stores to sell their products and services online, has raised $6 million in seed funding co-led by Matrix Partners India and Lightspeed India Partners.
The startup also saw participation from angel investors like Haresh Chawla (Founding CEO Network18, Viacom18), Ryan Hoover (Founder, Weekend Fund and Product Hunt), Jitendra Gupta (Founder, Jupiter), Shashank Kumar (Founder, Razorpay), Sandeep Tandon (Founder, Freecharge), Prabhkiran Singh (Founder, Bewakoof.com) and Kunal Shah (Founder, Cred).
With this infusion of capital, Dukaan will continue to expand geographic operations and enhance its product suite to help merchants widen their digital footprint and grow their business online.
ShopUp raises $22.5 million, co-led by Sequoia Capital India and Flourish Ventures
Dhaka, Bangladesh-headquartered startup ShopUp has raised $22.5 million in a round co-led by Sequoia Capital India and Flourish Ventures, making this the largest Series A and the venture funds maiden round in Bangladesh. With their target group being neighborhood mom-and-pop stores, ShopUp offers these small businesses easy access to B2B sourcing, last-mile logistics, digital credit, and business management solutions.
GoodGamer raises a seed funding round of $2.5 million
Daily Fantasy Sports and Esports Gaming platform GoodGamer closes a seed funding round of $2.5 million led by an undisclosed group of investors. Goodgame will use the funds almost exclusively for user acquisition. The gaming platform claims that within one month, it has registered 250,000 users.
43 percent MSMEs and startups plan to hire women in the next six months: Local Circles Survey
LocalCircles conducted a survey to understand the startup & MSME pulse on their workforce adjustments due to COVID, especially focusing on how the employment of women has changed in their business and how does the hiring outlook look as far as hiring of women in the next six months. The survey received over 7,000 responses from startups, MSMEs and entrepreneurs spread across 104 top business districts of the country.
The survey highlighted that 78 percent of companies had to reduce their workforce in the last eight months. Only 22% of companies either hired or maintained their workforce. 54% of companies either reduced the women in their payroll or did not have any women working in the company. 50% of companies polled say they do not plan to hire women in the next six months. 43% say they plan to hire women, and 7% are unsure.
ProfitBoard Ventures to infuse $100 million into startups through a consortium
Taxmantra Global has launched its standalone investment banking arm and private investment arm, ProfitBoard Ventures, to back technology-enabled startups in India and South East Asia. Headquartered in Singapore, ProfitBoard Ventures would assist early and growth-stage startups in fundraising through its consortium of investors.
“It has already onboarded a consortium of global investors to inject $100 million funding into selected startups in the next 18 months, it said. Our medium-term three-year goal is to nurture 100-plus startups from India and Southeast Asia, said AlokPatnia, the Managing Partner of ProfitBoard Ventures.
TMG has assisted in 100-plus deals in the last three years, translating to about $180 million funding in its existing portfolio of startups. Founded in 1983, TMG provides advisory, tax and regulatory services to global businesses with delivery centres in Singapore, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi, it was stated.
Facebook-CMA row over Giphy
UK’s merger Competition and Markets Authority has warned Facebook that it could go beyond forcing the tech giant to unwind its purchase of image-hosting platform Giphy if the deal is deemed to be anti-competitive according to a report by Bloomberg. CMA and FB have clashed in court over the review of the $400m deal.
The regulator issued the warning at a London tribunal hearing where Facebook is arguing that the CMA’s restrictions on the tie-up were unreasonable and disproportionate.
Facebook had to pause its integration with Giphy in June after the CMA said it wanted to investigate whether the deal would give the social network too much information on its rivals’ operations.
