Here’s the lowdown on the top deals from the startup universe this week.

Fintech startup Slice raises $220M, hits "unicorn" status

Slice, an app-based credit card challenger fintech company, is India's newest unicorn, having raised $220 million in a Series B funding round led by investment giant Tiger Global and equity firm Insight Partners. The company is now valued at over $1 billion.

Existing investors also participated in the round, with investment firm Moore Strategic Ventures, Private equity firm Advent International's affiliate Sunley House Capital, India's Blume Ventures, and Japan's Gunosy Capital pitching in.

The company plans to use the capital to scale up. Slice is also planning to step up hiring for positions like engineering, design and data science while adding new consumer products. Slice is also gearing up to launch payments on India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Swiggy to invest $700M in grocery delivery vertical Instamart

Food ordering and delivery platform, Swiggy Thursday announced that the company will invest $700 million in its express grocery delivery service Instamart.

Launched in Gurugram and Bengaluru in 2020, Swiggy said Instamart is now serving customers across 18 cities and doing over 1 million orders per week. The company said by January 2022, it will make deliveries in 15 minutes by having the network of dark stores very close to the majority of its customers.

"At our current growth trajectory, Instamart is set to reach an annualised gross merchandise value (GMV) run rate of $1 billion in the next three quarters. With our food delivery business trending at a $3 billion annualised GMV run rate, and Instamart's super-charged growth, we’re very excited about our convenience mission coming to life in a very big way," said Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy.

Elevation Capital eyes $600M fund: Report

Elevation Capital, an early investor in Swiggy, Paytm and Meesho, is said to be in talks to raise $600 million, barely a year after its last fund, Moneycontrol reported.

The venture capital firm will raise a $400-million early-stage fund – on a par with previous funds – and a $200-million growth-stage fund, a new addition for one of India’s most influential investors.

The growth fund will help Elevation invest more in its best-performing portfolio companies as well as in growth-stage start-ups that it may have missed out on during their seed or Series A fundraising. The fund – its biggest so far – is expected to be raised by the first quarter of next year, the report added.

Bessemer Venture Partners raises $220M fund for Indian startups

US-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners announced the closure of a $220 million India-focused fund to back the next generation of innovators in India.

As per the company’s blogpost, the fund will focus primarily on early-stage investments, consistent with Bessemer's approach of starting with seed and Series-A investments and sticking with companies throughout their growth lifecycle with later-stage investments.

Bessemer plans to apply its roadmap-driven investment approach to deploy the new capital over five roadmaps across consumer internet and cloud software, including marketplaces, digital health, social commerce, vertical and global SaaS (software as a service), it added.

Ola to invest up to Rs 786 Cr in Ola Financial Services

Ola is making an investment of up to Rs 786.1 crore in Ola Financial Services (OFS), which will now become a 100% subsidiary of the ride-hailing platform, as per regulatory documents.

As per documents submitted by ANI Technologies (which operates Ola) to the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Ola has received the nod to "make an investment in Ola Financial Services Pvt Ltd up to Rs 786,64,12,400 in-kind consideration against swap of shares of the company".

According to sources, ANI Technologies will now own 100% of Ola Financial Services in an all-stock deal. In a recent regulatory filing, ANI Technologies had said OFS is looking to expand its insurance business internationally to support the company's mobility service through products designed for the UK and Australia, and New Zealand (ANZ) markets.

8i Ventures launches second VC fund worth $50M

Early-stage venture capital firm 8i Ventures has launched its second fund that seeks to raise $50 million.

The Fund II aims to make its first close by March next year, the company said in a statement. The new fund four times larger than 8i Ventures' first fund which closed at $13 million in 2020. The fund will have a typical cheque size of $500,000 to $5 million.

“The bigger fund will give the venture capital firm the firepower to lead seed and Series A deals and support its companies till they break out and attract late-stage investors,” said Vikram Chachra, founding partner, 8i Ventures.

The firm has made bets in startups like Slice, M2P, and Blue Tokai Coffee, among others.

Simpl raises 40M in Series B funding

Simpl, a cardless payment network with embedded 1-Tap Checkout, Buy Now Pay Later and Buyer Protection, has raised a $40 million Series B round led by Valar Ventures & IA Ventures with participation from LFH Ventures and other internal investors. This investment brings the total capital raised by the company to $83 million.

With Simpl, online merchants provide consumers an easy, safe and intuitive way to buy. Its flagship product,1-tap Pay Later, enables consumers to buy with a tap and have all the purchases across retailers on the network aggregated into one bill that can be repaid once every 15 days.

Over the past 18 months, Simpl has grown its monthly active merchants and its monthly active users by 10X. Simpl works with over 7,000 category-leading online merchants including Zomato, MakeMyTrip, Big Basket, Jio Platform, 1MG and Crocs, the company said.

Cloud kitchen startup BOX8 raises $40M from Tiger Global: Report

Cloud kitchen BOX8 which operates brands like MOJO Pizza has raised a funding round of $40 million from tech investment giant Tiger Global and also rebranded itself to EatClub Brands, Moneycontrol reported. The valuation of the company has not been disclosed.

Eight brands operate out of more than 150 cloud kitchens of the company that recently added GLOBO Ice Cream and ZAZA Biryani to its portfolio.

“We have deliberately spent time in building deep capabilities in food, technology & operations. With this additional funding, we now plan to rapidly scale geographically to 500+ kitchens in 15 cities,” said Amit Raj, Co-Founder, EatClub Brands.

The company was also planning to on-board talent and build robust teams, he said.

CollegeDekho raises $35M, to expand education offerings

Online higher education platform CollegeDekho on Wednesday said it has closed its Series B funding of $35 million to further improve its offerings for students and colleges, both within India and abroad.

The round was led by Winter Capital, ETS Strategic Capital, Calega and existing investor Man Capital. Disrupt ADQ and QIC also came on board.

"We will expand our team and platforms to serve a larger number of students and colleges. We will also increase our investment in products and technologies, while fueling our growth in our new verticals such as education loans, student accommodation and coaching for higher education," said Ruchir Arora, founder and CEO, CollegeDekho.

The company will also use the funds raised for acquisitions and consolidation that make strategic sense.

Adda247 raises around $20M in Series B funding round led by WestBridge Capital

Edtech platform Adda247 has raised around $20 million in a funding round led by WestBridge Capital. The Series B funding round also saw participation from existing investors, including Info Edge, Asha Impact and JM Financials.

The latest infusion of the funds will be utilised to optimise technology & product and conduct senior-level hiring. The edtech company is also foreseeing the acquisition of a few companies with complementary offerings, it said in a statement

Founded in 2010, Adda247 offers products like live-video classes, on-demand video courses, mock tests, and books focused on government examinations and claims to have 15 million monthly active users on its platform.

Edtech startup Eduncle raised $750K from Mumbai Angels Network

Mumbai Angels Network, a platform for early-stage investments along with other investors, participated in a $750,000 round for online learning platform Eduncle.

The edtech startup said it will utilize the freshly infused capital to achieve its expansion objectives and to develop new product for additional exams, commence live classes, and bolster its tech infrastructure.

The platform also plans on augmenting its doubt-solving features with the integration of AI and ML.

Lumos and Gruhas Proptech partner to raise Rs 500 Cr property fund

Lumos Alternate Investment Advisors and Gruhas Proptech have partnered to raise a Rs 500 crore real estate fund, focused on structured debt, last-mile funding, and opportunist equity in residential projects across major cities.

Gruhas Proptech, focused on real estate investments and prop tech and promoted by entrepreneur Abhijeet Pai and Zerodha Broking Ltd co-founder Nikhil Kamath, has joined Lumos Alternate Investment as anchor investor and general partner, a statement said.

“We are now actively looking at residential-focused last-mile funding and structured equity deals for our prospective fund," said Anuranjan Mohnot, co-founder and managing director of private equity fund Lumos.