ETtech Deals Digest | VerSe Innovation, Fetch Rewards, Nord Security raise funds

VerSe Innovation raises $805 million led by CPPIB, valuation reaches $5 billion

VerSe Innovation, the parent firm of online news aggregator DailyHunt and short-video platform Josh,
signed definitive documents and raised $805 million in a funding round led by existing investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

New investors like Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund, Luxor Capital and Sumeru Ventures, and its existing backers such as Sofina Group, Baillie Gifford and others have also participated in this round.

The Bengaluru-based firm said the latest fundraising will take its valuation up to $5 billion, post the investment.

CPPIB has invested $425 million, contributing almost half the total capital mopped up by the company, which began life with the Newshunt portal in 2007.

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Fetch Rewards raises $240 million in funding round


Fetch Rewards, a shopping rewards app backed by SoftBank Group Group’s Vision Fund 2,
raised $240 million in a funding round that valued the company at more than $2.5 billion, Chief Executive Officer Wes Schroll said.

The fresh capital, consisting of both equity and debt, came after the app doubled its active users base in the past year to 13 million, underpinned by pandemic-fueled e-commerce growth and consumers on a tighter budget in a high-inflation economy.

The latest round, led by investment management firm Hamilton Lane, brought the app’s total funding to $578 million, and existing investors including Vision Fund 2, ICONIQ Capital and DST Global also participated.

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Nord Security raises $100 million at $1.6 billion valuation


Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN,
raised $100 million in its first external investment round from Novator Ventures, Burda Principal Investments and General Catalyst at a valuation of $1.6 billion.

Chief executives of video game maker Supercell, food delivery firm Wolt and web developer Automattic also joined the funding round, which made NordVPN the second tech unicorn in Lithuania.

Enkash raises $20 million funding led by Ascent Capital

Corporate spend management startup Enkash
raised $20 million in a new round of funding, led by Ascent Capital along with Baring India Private Equity Partners and Singapore-based White Ventures, backed by fintech entrepreneurs Amrish Rau and Jitendra Gupta.

Other existing backers Mayfield India and Axilor Ventures also participated in the funding round.

The Mumbai-based firm plans to utilise the capital to expand its offerings around banking-as-a-service, scaling up its ‘plug and play’ cards issuance stack and its geographical presence.

Doceree raises $11 million from Eight Roads Ventures, others


Doceree, the digital marketing platform targeting healthcare professionals (HCPs),
raised $11 million in Series A funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures, a global investment firm backed by Fidelity.

F-Prime Capital and Alkemi Growth Capital also participated in the round.

Doceree will use the funds to scale its global operations, expand partnerships, augment its product portfolio and advance the platform’s measurement and behaviour lift capabilities to bring greater transparency to results.

Phool raises $8 million in funding from Sixth Sense Ventures


Direct-to-consumer (D2C) home fragrance and wellness brand Phool.co
raised $8 million in a funding round from consumer-focused venture fund, Sixth Sense Ventures. The round also saw participation from existing investors, Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt and IAN fund.

Phool.co has previously raised seed rounding from IAN Fund, Social Alpha (FISE), Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (San Francisco), and IIT Kanpur.

The company said with the fundraise, Phool will scale up operations, and ramp up R&D efforts to make animal leather obsolete with Fleather – a vegan alternative to animal leather.


Other key deals

■ Hyper-social gaming platform Bombay Play
raised $7 million, led by Kalaari Capital. Online gaming platform Winzo also participated in the round along with Lumikai Fund, Leo Capital and PlayCo, AdvantEdge VC, and AMEA Ventures. The company plans to invest the new funds in scaling its existing ‘hyper-social’ game offerings, supporting upcoming projects and allocating capital toward product development.

■ CynLr, a visual robotic platform
raised $4.5 million in funding round led by Speciale Invest and growX Ventures. Other institutional investors that participated in the round include Anicut Capital, Infoedge, Java Capital, Venture Catalysts, and Arali Ventures.

■ Nazara Pte. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nazara Technologies has invested in US-based Bitkraft Ventures, an investment platform for gaming and Web3. Mumbai-based Nazara
will invest $2.5 million in Bitkraft Ventures spread out over three years.