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YES, IT'S A TREND
That’s 18 unicorns and counting for India in 2021. OfBusiness crossed the $1 billion threshold with its Series E round. The company joins fellow B2B services platforms Udaan, Infra.Market, Zetwerk and Moglix in India’s overall pantheon of 54 unicorns, emphasizing the extent of investor bullishness in helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) achieve efficiency by reducing bureaucracy.
No surprise in the identity of the investor that led the OfBusiness round either – SoftBank Vision Fund 2 has participated in at least seven India technology deals of $100 million or move since the start of the year. However, the most prolific growth investor is Tiger Global Management on 16, according to AVCJ Research.
With ShareChat (see more below), GupShup, Droom, and Unacademy also attracting significant sums in the past week, India’s technology investment boom continues unabated. Sentiment has been spurred by the prospect of domestic IPOs and – perhaps – by a newfound wariness of China.
A total of $20.5 billion has been pumped into minority tech deals in India so far this year, nearly double the 12-month total for 2020. Growth transactions alone have attracted $13.3 billion, compared to $5.3 billion in 2020. Tech accounts for 72% of all capital put to work by PE and VC investors in India year to date. In 2020 it was 24%.
In Depth:
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From social networking for dogs to surgical robotics, Philip Liang’s career as an entrepreneur and investor has been rich and varied. He welcomes the barrage of ideas filling his inbox at Hong Kong-based E15 VC.
The Indian direct-to-consumer beauty brand claims to stand out from the competition thanks to broad product coverage and a content-driven customer acquisition engine. Its Series C investors appear to agree. 
The Indian social networking platform has seen its valuation grow more than fourfold in the past year, helped in no small part by the rise of short video offering Moj as an alternative to TikTok.
Chiratae Ventures has realized its largest-ever exit in terms of multiple with a zero-to-one leap of faith for local gaming studio PlaySimple. 
