ETtech Deals Digest: Polygon, ElasticRun, Livspace raise funds

Polygon raises $450 million from Sequoia Capital India, others

Polygon, a secondary scaling solution founded by three Indians for the Ethereum blockchain,
raised $450 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital India. The fund was raised through a private sale of Polygon’s native Matic token.

SoftBank Vision Fund II was among the 40 marquee venture capital firms, including Tiger Global, Elevation Capital, Accel Partners and Steadview Capital, that participated in the fundraising. Polygon’s market capitalisation was over $13 billion at the time of going to press, with 1 token selling for about $2 a piece, according to Coingecko.com.

The company, founded by Sandeep Nailwal, Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, had received a “sizable investment” from US-based billionaire Mark Cuban last year.

SoftBank-led funding more than triples ElasticRun’s valuation to $1.5 billion

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ElasticRun, a kirana-focused business-to-business ecommerce firm,
raised $300 million in a new funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund II. Goldman Sachs has joined as a new investor in the fundraising that trebles the Pune-based company’s valuation to $1.5 billion, according to regulatory filings and people aware of the transaction.

The company had last raised $75 million in April 2021 at a valuation of more than $400 million. With this, ElasticRun has become the sixth unicorn so far this year. The latest fundraising also includes a secondary share sale of around $32 million, taking the total round size to $332 million. In a secondary share sale, new investors buy shares from existing investors and the money does not go to company coffers.

According to regulatory filings by ElasticRun’s parent Ntex Transportation Service, SoftBank has put in $180 million in the company. Its shareholding now stands at 14%. Existing investors Prosus Ventures and Abu Dhabi’s Chimera Investments also participated in the fundraising. Kalaari Capital and Avatar Ventures are its other backers.

Livspace closes new funding led by KKR at $1.2 billion valuation

Omnichannel home interiors platform Livspace
raised $180 million in a new round of funding led by private equity fund KKR, which values the company at $1.2 billion. This makes Livspace the newest entrant in to the coveted unicorn club of startups with more than a billion dollar in valuation.ET was the first to report of the development on January 7.

Livspace will use the capital to expand overseas, deepen its presence in core markets such as India and to widen its product offerings, a senior company official told ET.

The funding round also saw participation from existing investors such as Ingka Group Investments (part of largest IKEA retailer Ingka Group), Jungle Ventures, Venturi Partners, and Peugeot Investments, among others. Till date it has raised $450 million from investors.

Mintifi raises $40 million in fresh funding

Mintifi, a digital lending platform for distributors and retailers,
raised $40 million (about Rs 299 crore) in fresh funding, led by Norwest Venture Partners and Elevation Capital. Mintifi expects to use the funds to build on its existing technology infrastructure, expand into newer offerings as well as scale up its team.

It has raised $60 million in equity and another $40 million in debt so far.

Airmeet gets $35 million from Prosus, others

Virtual events platform Airmeet
raised $35 million in its Series B round, led by Prosus Ventures and Sistema Asia Fund. RingCentral Ventures, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, DG Daiwa Ventures and Nexxus Global also participated in the funding round, alongside existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Accel India. Airmeet, which helps organise virtual events and conferences, will use the funds to expand its footprint in the global market, invest in R&D and scale its go-to-market function.

In 2020, the company had raised $12 million from Sequoia Capital.

Karbon Card raises $15 million

Fintech firm Karbon Card
raised $15 million, about Rs 112 crore, in a funding round led by Olive Tree Capital. Harmony and AvenirGrowth Capital also participated in the funding round. Existing investors Ramp, Mercury and Orios Venture Partners also invested.

The new round of funding for Karbon comes in less than four months of the company raising a pre-Series-A of $12 million in September last year. With the current round, the total funding raised by Karbon stands at around $32 million.

Spacejoy raises $4 million

Home decor and furniture ecommerce platform Spacejoy
raised $4 million in a funding round, led by Accel.

TI Platform and TiE SoCal Angels, including angel investors, and real estate/prop-tech founders such as Larry Braitman, Venkat Tadanki, SquareFoot CEO Jonathan Wasserstrum, Jeroen Bertrams and Landis founders Cyril Berdugo and Tom Petit, also participated in the round .

Other key deals

■ Pillow, a decentralised finance startup that helps generate yields on crypto investments,
raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by Elevation Capital. A clutch of angel investors – including Polygon founders JD Kanani and Sandeep Nainwal, FalconX cofounder Prabhakar Reddy, Livspace’s Ramakant Sharma and Dunzo’s Mukund Jha – also participated in the fundraising.