Startups, Mergers, Acquisitions and Funding Round-up this week

This week saw fewer developments in the start-up industry. While a few Indian start-ups raised significant amounts of money, a lot of big players announced acquisitions of homegrown brands. Here’s a look at this week’s report and updates. 

Mindgrove Technologies secures $8 million 

Fabless semiconductor design start-up Mindgrove Technologies has raised $8 million through Rocketship.vc and Speciale Invest, wherein existing investors like Mela Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Nishchay Goel, and Whiteboard Capital also participated. It was a Series A funding round and the funds will be used for expanding its workforce and enhancing its in-house engineering capabilities.

Sparkl Edventure Bags $4 million 

Aakash Chaudhry, the cofounder of offline coaching institute Aakash Educational Services Limited, has raised seed funding of $4 Mn, which is approximately, Rs. 34 Crore from Zomato’s founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal and Zerodha’s cofounder and CEO Nithin Kamath for his venture Sparkl Edventure. As per reports, students from cities such as Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad have already enrolled with Sparkl for its programmes.

Proxgy gets $3 million

An Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider, Proxgy which is focused on enhancing safety, connectivity, and productivity, has announced that cricketer Ajinkya Rahane has participated in its ongoing $3 million Series A funding round. The funds will be used for scaling operations, expand its product offerings, and strengthen its international presence. Proxgy reported revenue growth in FY24, with a Rs. 50 crore order book, and plans to venture into industries such as oil and gas, mining, construction, and logistics.

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Xcelerate has acquired staked in Carisma Solutions a knowledge-driven business services provider.
• TVS Motor has purchased majority stakes in DriveX Mobility for $11.5 million

Other Updates

• Bajaj Auto has overtaken Ola-electric as the top electric two-wheeler firm.
• Blinkit has launched an ambulance service in Gurugram. 
• Indore garment traders are likely to stop taking UPI payments over cyber fraud.
• DPIIT partnered with boAt to support D2C and manufacturing startups. 
• Logistics firm Leap India to raise $63 million led by KKR.
• Logistics SaaS unicorn Shiprocket is about to raise $26 million.