GlobalBees acquires 3 more brands🐝, PayU launches 'LazyCard'💳, LIC IPO📊
GlobalBees takes over 3 more brands, PayU's LazyPay launches 'LazyCard' , India aims to file LIC IPO prospectus, Funding Deals & more.
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SoftBank-backed GlobalBees takes over 3 more brands, plans to house 100 brands🐝
GlobalBees, which acquires and scales fast-growing brands on e-commerce marketplaces, has announced the investment in three more direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies. The new entrants to the SoftBank-backed venture's house of brands are: healthy-snack food brand — The Butternut Company, fitness equipment brand — Strauss, and sustainable clothing brand — Mush.
The Thrasio-styled startup now has 11 portfolio brands, including The Better Home, andMe, Prolixr, Absorbia, Yellow Chimes, HealthyHey, Rey Naturals, and Intellilens. "These brands have a great growth trajectory and come with a deep purpose to build meaningful products across categories that address unique consumer needs," said Nitin Agarwal, CEO, GlobalBees.
Over the next three years, GlobalBees is looking to invest in more than 100 brands across verticals including fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), sports, home organisation, and lifestyle.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after GlobalBees became one of India's youngest unicorns, or startups valued at $1 billion or more, after raising $111.5 million in Series B funding led by Premji Invest and Steadview Capital with participation from existing investors SoftBank and FirstCry.
PayU's LazyPay launches 'LazyCard' amid growing competition in BNPL space💳
Payment service provider, PayU is diversifying its India play, as the company announced the launch of its new credit and prepaid payment instrument, LazyCard. PayU’s ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) solution, LazyPay has partnered with SBM Bank India for the prepaid instrument, as the company looks to up the ante against card-based BNPL providers Uni and Slice, among others.
The BNPL space continues to be attracting investor interest for the past few months, as demand for online shopping grows. In December last year, BNPL card provider, Uni raised one of the largest Series A rounds in the Indian fintech space, cornering $70 million led by General Catalyst.
Recently, credit and payments card provider, Slice became the 41st Indian unicorn of 2021, after raising $220 million led by Tiger Global, at a valuation of $1 billion.
Last year, Prosus-owned PayU India made one of the most expensive acquisitions in the fintech landscape by acquiring Indian payment gateway service provider, BillDesk for $4.7 billion.
Hot Shorts⚡
Gold loan platform Rupeek has raised $34 million from Lightbox and existing investors at a valuation of $634 million.
Waste management-focused startup Recykal has announced a $22 million (around Rs 162.58 crore) fundraise led by Morgan Stanley India.
Fintech startup IppoPay has raised $2.1 million in a seed-funding round led by Coinbase Ventures, Better Capital, Blume Founders Fund, and other angel investors.
OneDios, an aggregating platform for customer service requests, has raised $1.2 million in a funding round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and LetsVenture.
India aims to file LIC IPO prospectus in week of 31 Jan📊
Life Insurance Corporation of India could file a prospectus in the final week of January for what would be the nation’s biggest initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The state-run insurer plans to file the draft IPO prospectus in the week starting Jan 31, which will provide the embedded value of LIC as well as the number of shares on offer, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are private.
The planned deadline would set Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on track to list LIC by the end of March, providing a much-needed boost to revenue. His administration had sought to sell a 5%-10% stake in the insurer, fetching as much as 10 trillion rupees, Bloomberg News had reported.
LIC could be valued at as high as five times the so-called embedded value -- higher than 3-4 times for most insurers.
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