Funding Rundown: AlphaSense raises $225 million, ShareChat parent raises $78 million from Google & Temasek, G.O.A.T Brand Labs gets $50 million & Pazcare secures $8.2 million

New York-based market intelligence platform AlphaSense has raised $225 million in its Series D funding round led by the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Viking Global Investors.

The new round also includes an undisclosed amount of debt investment from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. The current round of funding values the company at $1.7 billion, nearly double the valuation of its last round.

The company plans to use the funds infused to invest in product development, content expansion, customer support, and to drive organic growth, it said in a statement. The company will also use the funds to grow across all offices globally, including its innovation hubs in India.

"This round of funding will allow AlphaSense to invest in our growth and capitalize on opportunities to expand our content sets and improve our value offering, furthering our mission to help companies across all industries make better decisions with greater confidence and speed,” said Jack Kokko, CEO, AlphaSense.

Social media platform ShareChat’s parent company Mohalla Tech has raised $78 million as part of its Series H funding round from Google’s parent Alphabet and Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, the company's filings with the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) show.

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The fresh capital has pushed the company’s valuation to nearly $4.9 billion.

Google, alone led this round with Rs 405 crore, and Temasek invested Rs 202 crore. Mohalla Tech may raise $300 million in a funding round from Google, Temasek, and Times Internet, as per a Reuters report.

Post the round, Google will hold a little over 1 percent stake in Mohalla Tech, while Temasek will hold about 2.64 percent stake, the regulatory filings showed.

D2C brand aggregator G.O.A.T Brand Labs has secured $50 million in funding as part of the Series A1 round. The round saw the participation from new investors, including Winter Capital, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Vivriti Capital, and Oxyzo along with most of the company's existing investors.

The fresh funds will be utilised to acquire new brands, it added. ''We will continue to acquire high potential D2C brands across the lifestyle segments and scale them to huge outcomes," co-founder and CEO Rishi Vasudev said.

In one year since starting the venture, the company said it has completed 15 acquisitions in the lifestyle space, including The Label Life (lifestyle brand), Voylla (fashion jewellery), trueBrowns & Abhishti (Indian wear), Frangipani (children wear), Neemli and Nutriglow (beauty and skincare) and pets brand Doggie Dabbas. The company is in advanced discussions with another 12 brands, which will be unveiled in the coming days, it added.

Employee benefits and insurtech platform Pazcare has raised $8.2 million in a funding round led by Jafco Asia. The round also saw participation from existing investors 3One4 Capital and BEENEXT.

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Post this round the company stands at a valuation of $48 million. It will use the fresh capital to further strengthen and expand the product line and in the growth of the business.

"India as an economy is going through one of the most exciting times. Insurance as a market is going to see leapfrog growth in the current decade. We believe health & life insurance penetration will be employer-driven and we want to play an important role in providing world-class benefits to Indian employees," said Sanchit Malik, CEO, and co-founder, Pazcare.

Within a year, Pazcare claims to have seen a quarter-on-quarter growth of 100 percent. It currently serves 130,000+ members on the platform.

Deeptech startup Ecozen has raised Rs 54 crore ($7 million) of additional funding as the first tranche of its Rs 200 crore Series C round. The new funding round was led by Dare Ventures, the venture capital arm of Coromandel International, with participation from existing investors Caspian and Hivos-Triodos Fonds through equity. Northern Arc, UC Inclusive Credit, Maanaveeya, and Samunnati also participated with debt funding.

"The new funding will be used for expanding our product range, manufacturing capacity and boosting exports. Expanding beyond India and beyond agriculture will enable us to expand our market potential multifold and grow exponentially while ensuring sustainability," said Devendra Gupta, CEO, and co-founder, Ecozen.

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The company said it crossed Rs 100 crore in revenue in FY2021-22 and was EBITDA positive and is on track to more than double its sales in FY2022-23 and become highly profitable. Growth will come from scaling up existing businesses as well as expanding beyond the Indian market, the firm said. The company expects the market size for its innovative technology stacks in India will grow to $25 billion by 2025.

Institutional crypto and digital asset management platform Rooba Finance has raised $1.3 million in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, LetsVenture, Endurance Capital, KubeVC, and other angel investors. The funds raised will be utilised towards Platform Development, setting up a licensed platform overseas, and to enable a global GTM, the company said.

"There is a need for a safe, fast and efficient trading platform which can be adopted by enterprises to profit from by enabling digital asset trading. Rooba is addressing this large untapped market, which we believe will experience exponential growth in the next 24 months," said Mitesh Shah, co-founder, Inflection Point Ventures. The platform is slated to go live in October this year, with a strong international presence.

Cold chain solution provider Tessol has secured Rs 7.5 crore in a funding round led by Mela Ventures, along with participation from existing Investors, 1crowdAngels, and 1Fund.

The funds raised will be utilised in geographical expansion, capacity building, team building, new products, and application development, the company said in a statement.

"The funds would be utilised for capacity expansion and team building. We will soon be onboarding some of the best minds who will help us scale and expand into international markets as well. We aim to leverage their experience and expertise to take Tessol to its next level of growth," said Niranjana Neelakantan, co-founder and COO, Tessol. As part of the deal, Mela Ventures will be joining the company’s board soon.

Kytchens, a full-stack "Kitchen as a Service'' platform, has raised Rs 6.5 crores in equity for its Pre-Series A funding led by Anicut and angel investors like Anand Ladsariya, Bharat Jaisinghani, and Neeraj Goenka.

As per the firm, the funding will help them build a robust and agile team with the right skill sets and capabilities to accelerate its growth in the Indian market. Additionally, the cloud kitchen service provider aims to expand its footprints across Mumbai and tier 2 markets in South Gujarat.

Further, Kytchens will allocate funds towards exemplifying their services as a strategic partner in enabling the growth of F&B brands with the strong managed cloud kitchen network consisting of strategically located Central and Delivery Kytchens to maximize reach, a statement added.

MicroGO, a biotech startup, has raised Rs 6 crore in Pre-Series A funding round from angel investors in Calcutta. The funds will be used primarily for strengthening MicroGO’s sales and marketing activities, the company said.

The firm aims to provide its customers with hygiene and infection control solutions by technologies that deliver the correct science and provides profitability and environmental sustainability. MicroGO holds patented platforms that have been granted patents in as low as 90 days- one of the fastest patents granted in India.

'This is a very important juncture for us to scale our business as we are focusing on increasing the outreach of our products and solutions. What we are building in this space is very significant, since hygiene and infection control practices are looked upon as an expenditure and thus, not given its due attention.