Startup funding this week | KreditBee gets $75 million; ed-tech, direct-to-consumer brands continue to attract investors

Representative image: AP

The Indian startups space remained abuzz with deal activities, with digital lending startup KreditBee securing an investment of $75 million in a Series C round of which saw participation from Premji’s PremjiInvest and South Korea’s Mirae Asset Venture.

The deal was a mix of primary and secondary transactions. Its existing China-backed investors were learnt to have made partial or complete exits.

Some other companies in the ed-tech and direct to consumer segments also managed to grab early or growth stage investor cheques.

Delhi-based Eupheus Learning, for instance raised $4.1 million in Series B round led by United Education Company, a leading education firm in Kuwait. Ed-tech startup Eupheus aims to bridge the gap between in-class and at-home learning by offering pedagogically differentiated, technology-led solutions in the K–12 space.

Direct-to-consumer brand Happily Unmarried, which sells grooming products for men, also raised $2.7 million in Series H round of funding. The investment came from IIFL Finance.

Another startup, ePayLater, which is a leading player in the B2B Pay Later space especially the food and groceries segment also raised $2.5 million in seed round from Pravega Ventures. This segment is marked by low penetration of formal financing that belies its massive size in excess of $500 Billion.

Two more companies who managed to raise early rounds are electric-two wheeler subscription platform eBike and online grocery platform Express Stores.

While eBike raised $1.5 million from Sukhbir Singh, Vijay Sivaram, Brahmanand Mohanty, Alparslan Kütükçüoğlu.

Express Stores raised $1.1 million from Venture Highway, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Anupam Mittal and Amit Singhal.