SaaS startups🔥, Snapdeal to open store🏪, Zepto eyes🦄
SaaS startups raise $4.5Bn, Snapdeal goes omnichannel, Zepto eyes unicorn status, Funding Deals & more.
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Indian SaaS startups raise a record $4.5 bn in 2021💻
Indian software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups have raised a record $4.5 billion from investors in 2021, nearly three times the previous year, led by innovation, access to capital, and larger market size, according to a report from a consultancy firm Bain and Co.
The year also created 6 SaaS unicorns being valued at over a billion dollars or more.
Indian SaaS companies currently employ 62,000 people. 250 new companies have been set up by former SaaS employees, which employ about 5,000 people, the report said.
India has the third-largest SaaS ecosystem globally, after USA and China; a 100% growth in exits in 2021 over 2018.
The report added that SaaS companies are poised to reach $30 billion in revenue, capturing an 8-9% share of the global SaaS market by 2025.
Snapdeal goes omnichannel to target ‘Bharat’ ahead of IPO🏪
Ahead of its $250 million initial public offering (IPO), e-commerce firm Snapdeal is all set to venture into the offline domain with the launch of partner stores across small cities of the country with an aim to attract and cater to ‘Bharat’, according to Moneycontrol.
The first Snapdeal partner store will be launched in January. The company plans to gradually expand the number to around 25 by the end of the next year.
Snapdeal will partner with existing or aspiring retailers for an asset-light focused rollout under which the company will help retailers procure goods of its power brands through its very own sellers, the report added.
Snapdeal which of late has expanded focus on non-branded categories and non-metros currently gets over 80% of its business from smaller cities across the country. The omnichannel strategy will help it get further traffic and also act as a physical touchpoint for the brand.
Hot Shorts⚡
Agritech startup AgroStar has raised $70 million as a part of its Series D funding round from Evolvence, global asset manager Schroders Capital, Hero Enterprise, and UK’s development finance institution CDC.
Customer engagement platform MoEngage has raised $30 million, led by Steadview Capital.
Edtech platform in the K12 category PlanetSpark has raised $13.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Prime Venture Partners.
Peer-to-peer lending firm LenDenClub has secured $10 million in a Series A round from investors such as CRED founder Kunal Shah and cricketer Hardik Pandya.
CometChat, a CpaaS (communication platform as a service) startup has bagged $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Signal Peak Ventures.
Ten-minute grocery delivery app Zepto eyes unicorn status🦄
Ten-minute grocery delivery startup Zepto has been garnering lots of interest from consumers and investors alike. While customers are amazed at its ultra-fast delivery, large US-based tech investors are bullish on the company’s future prospects.
Mumbai-based Zepto is likely to end up raising over $250 million in a new round, according to Entrackr.
If the deal goes through, Zepto will become one of the fastest startups to achieve unicorn status. Recently, marketplace rollup platform Mensa Brands became a unicorn within six months of its inception.
Zepto enables online grocery ordering and delivers them within ten minutes in a few locations of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi (NCR). According to the company’s website, it will soon go live in Kolkata and Pune.
Quick delivery space has turned into a battlefield for deep-pocketed unicorns including Zomato and Swiggy.
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