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Nutrition snacking start-up Kikibix has raised USD 300,000 from founders and co-founders of nine unicorns, including Mama Earth, Pristyn Care, Fashinza etc, the company said on Friday. Early-stage venture capital firms Blume Ventures led the funding round and US-based Angelist also participated in the fundraising. Founded by paediatrician Ridhi Kaur in 2022, the company makes cookies in flavours such as Cranberry Oats, Gur Chana, Ragi Mocha, Coconut, Figs, and Date Almonds. Mama Earth Founder Varun Alagh, Mosaic Wellness Co-founder and CEO Revant Bhate, Pristyn Care Co-Founders Vaibhav Kapoor and Garima Sawhney, EaseMyTrip Co-Founder Prashant Pitti, Fashinza Co-Founder Abhishek Sharma participated in the funding round. Kaur said that in the last six months, the company had seen 10 times growth in its monthly revenues. The organization plans to use the funds to launch more product categories, build a team and enter more distribution channels across the country.
Around 18 per cent of India's unicorn startups are founded or co-founded by women and 20 other firms are in pipeline to become unicorn, a joint study said on Tuesday. The study conducted by TiE Delhi NCR, research firm Zinnov, Google, NetApp and venture capital firm Indian Angel Network found that despite comparable metrics, success, and high entrepreneurial intent, socio-cultural barriers hinder women founders' growth. "Approximately 18 per cent of India's total unicorns are founded by women, with 20 Potential Unicorns in the pipeline," the study said. The startups that are in the pipeline to become unicorns include WinZO, Doubtnut, Infinity Learn, Locus, Pratilipi, Portea, SirionLabs, etc. Women founded or co-founded start-ups that have already become unicorns include acko, BYJU's Pristyn Care, MyGlamm, MobiKwik, Open etc. The total valuation of unicorn built by women founders stands at over USD 30 billion and total equity investments raised by them is over USD 12 billion. The
India overtook China by adding 23 unicorns in 2022 while the neighbouring country created 11 such startups with valuation of USD 1 billion or more, according to a report released on Wednesday. For the second time in a row, India topped China creating 23 unicorns in 2022, taking the total number of such high-value companies to 96, as against China's 11 in the year, said a reporty by IVCA-Bain & Co. However, this year's number is just half of the unicorns created in 2021 when it stood at a record 44, which took the overall number to 73 in that year. According to the report, nine of the 23 unicorns added in the year have emerged from cities outside of the top 3 metros, indicating a shift to more democratic funding geographically. This means that funding to startups in non-metros grew to 18 per cent of the total inflows share. The year also many investors raising their largest ever India-focused funds, the report said, adding the SaaS (Software as a Service)-based and fintech players .
Unicorn proptech startup NoBroker has raised USD 5 million from technology major Google as part of its expansion plan. NoBroker has bagged funding from Google, which joins existing investors General Atlantic, Tiger Global and Moore Strategic Ventures in its Series E round, the Bengaluru-based firm said in a statement. In November 2021, NoBroker.com raised USD 210 million from investors, including General Atlantic and Tiger global to expand its business across 50 cities. The Series E funding round was led by General Atlantic, Tiger Global Management and Moore Strategic Ventures. NoBroker platform helps in renting, buying, selling, home services, financial services to society management services through NoBrokerHood. "One of the key areas where we will leverage this partnership will be to build unique solutions that help simplify the lives of the residents of NoBrokerHood societies. Our objective is to aggressively grow and reach 1 lakh societies in the next few years," said Akhil ..