CredAvenue - 11th unicorn of '22 🦄, Meesho's IPO plans 📊, Dunzo to scale up dark stores ⬆

CredAvenue turns unicorn in 18 months, Meesho targets early 2023 for IPO, Dunzo to scale up its dark stores network, What are Dark Stores?, Funding Deals & more.

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Mar 07, 2022

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CredAvenue raises $137 million, turns unicorn in 18 months🦄

Online debt marketplace CredAvenue has become the latest Indian startup unicorn after raising $137 million in a fresh round led by New York-based Insight Partners, B Capital Group and Dragoneer.

The round, which also saw participation from existing investors, catapulted the company’s valuation to $1.3 billion. It was last valued at $410 million in September 2021.

With this, CredAvenue joins the likes of other Indian startups such as Mamaearth, Fractal, Lead School, Elastic Run and Livspace that have entered the unicorn club in 2022.

At present, CredAvenue has a portfolio of five credit platforms: term lending and enterprise working capital solutions provider CredLoan; a co-lending platform with banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) CredCoLend; bond issuance platform Plutus; trade financing platform CredSCF; and portfolio buyout solution for financial institutions CredPool.

Facebook-backed Meesho targets early 2023 for IPO🥻

Meesho, which counts Facebook-owner Meta Platforms and SoftBank Group's Vision Fund 2 as its investors, is aiming to go public in early 2023, according to Reuters.

The Bengaluru-based startup is reportedly working to be ready for a listing by the end of 2022. The report also claimed that Meesho was also mulling Indian and U.S exchanges as prospective listing destinations.

Meesho – Founders — Meesho - Founders, Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal

Founded in 2015 by IIT-Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho is a social commerce startup that allows resellers on its platform to sell a variety of unbranded products. The startup is primarily focused on Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and towns in the country.

Users can resell products from the supplier marketplace for a profit margin to customers, largely through Meta-owned platforms WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook's investment in Meesho in June 2019 was the Silicon Valley giant's first equity investment in an Indian startup.

Hot Shorts⚡

Apollo.io, a business-to-business (B2B) sales and intelligence and engagement platform, has raised $110 million as part of its Series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
Junio, kid-focused digital payments and pocket money app has raised $6 million in pre-series A funding round led by UAE-based NB Ventures.
Ginglani Distillers, a whisky startup in India, has raised ₹6.6 crores in a pre-series A round led by Supermorpheus, Eagle10 Ventures (via LV Angel Fund) and Grand Anicut Angel Fund.

Reliance Retail-backed Dunzo to scale up its dark stores network🛒

Delivery startup Dunzo, which raised $240 million in January in a round led by Reliance Retail, plans to use the fresh capital to more than double its footprint to 15 cities and also increase the count of so-called ‘dark stores’ to 200 from 75 by December-end, its co-founder and chief executive Kabeer Biswas said.

The dark store business, run under the Dunzo Daily brand, processes grocery delivery once orders are placed online.

Dunzo gets $240m delivery in Reliance-led round

“The focus is to become the biggest convenience store, and once that is achieved, we will start creating other categories," Biswas said. As a part of the initiative, the company has already launched Dunzo Daily in Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune.

The other major focus area is Dunzo’s business-to-business (B2B) delivery vertical, wherein it is leveraging its established delivery partner network to offer services to enterprise customers and merchants.

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`What are Dark Stores?`

Dark stores got their name for being hidden away from shoppers. Also known as micro-fulfillment centers, they're not really the type of shops that take in customers. Instead, they're mini-warehouses where orders can be picked up or delivered to customers.

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