Kissht raises ₹220 cr in Series C

Kissht, an EMI payment and digital lending platform, has raised about ₹220 crore ($30 million) in a Series C round led by Vertex Ventures, the venture capital arm of Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, and Sistema Asia Fund. Existing investors Fosun RZ Capital, VenturEast and Endiya Partners also participated in this round. Kissht will use the money to grow its business among both offline and online merchants. It will also use the funds to strengthen its data and analytics capabilities.

Chaayos gets ₹81 cr in Series B

Chaayos, a leading tea café chain, has raised about ₹81 crore ($12 million) in a Series B round from SAIF Partners, Integrated Capital and Pacatolus. The company will use the money to expand its retail footprint in the existing markets of Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Chandigarh and to new markets. It serves over 16,000 cups of tea every day through 50 cafes in seven cities.

Temasek invests ₹2,840 cr in NIIF

Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek has committed about ₹2,840 crore ($400 million) to the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, resulting in the second close of NIIF’s Master Fund. With a proposed corpus of ₹40,000 crore, out of which the Government will contribute 49 per cent, was created in 2015 as an Alternative Investment Fund to invest in infrastructure. Apart from the Centre, its shareholders include Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, HDFC Group, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance and Axis Bank.

$140-m funding for GreyOrange

Flipkart, which has been working with robotic automation start-up GreyOrange to improve its warehousing capabilities, has participated in a $140-million Series C round in the venture. The round was led by Mithril Capital and the other investors include Binny Bansal, Blume Ventures, Mitsubishi and Ajay Royan, co-founder and Managing General Partner of Mithril Capital. With its headquarters in Singapore, GreyOrange has offices in India, Japan, Germany and the US.

Mitsubishi arm picks stake in Chennai-based real estate project

An investment arm of Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan has invested about ₹180 crore for a 70 per cent stake in a residential project, Shriram Park 63, of Shriram Properties. The project, coming up along the GST Road in Chennai, will have 1,450 units and two million sq ft of area.

BabyChakra receives funds

BabyChakra, an online parenting platform, has raised an undisclosed amount from a clutch of investors, including Equanimity Ventures Fund, Facebook Director Anand Chandrasekaran, OYO Chief Strategy Officer Maninder Gulati and Silicon Valley investor Gideon Marks. Existing investors Arihant Patni, Artha Ventures and Bharat Rawla also participated. The company will use the money to strengthen its region and languagte specific content and communities and deepen personalisation in the product platform.

Satya MicroCapital raises ₹34 cr from BlueOrchard Finance

Delhi-headquartered Satya MicroCapital, which does group lending for economic activies in rural and urban areas, has raised ₹ 34 crore from Swiss impact investment manager BlueOrchard Finance. It will use the money to lend to micro-, small- and medium-enterprises with a focus on women entrepreneurs. It has a presence in 11 States, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. Satya MicroCapital had raised ₹43 crore in equity in August from Gojo & Co of Japan.

CIIE invests in sports tech start-up Heelium

The Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad has invested an undisclosed amount as seed funding in sports tech start-up Heelium. Heelium makes high performance, tailor made footwear for runners and atheltic socks. These are sold exclusively through Amazon and running events. The company plans to get into enterprise sales to sports institutions.

Frubites raises funding from Mumbai Angels

Frubites, Rev Snack Pvt Ltd, a real fruit snacks brand, has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Mumbai Angels Network, a leading angel investor group. The Pune-based company will use the money to build the brand, expand distribution and widen its product offering across vegetables, nuts and more fruits.

AI start-up ThinCI raises $65 m in Series C round

ThinCI, an AI hardware start-up based in California with offices in the UK and in Hyderabad, has raised $65 million in a Series C round led by DENSO and its subsidiary NSITEXE, Inc., and Temasek. The company aims to expand the team to over 350 in India for its engineering and customer operations groups.

Experiential learning start-up SRJNA raises funding from Gray Matters Capital

Jaipur-based SRJNA, a brand of Elation Edtech Pvt Ltd, has raised an undisclosed amount from US-headquartered impact investor Gray Matters Capital under its edLABS initiative. Keiretsu Forum, another US-headquartered angel investor group with chapters in India, and SucSEED Venture Partners also participated in this funding round. The company, which helps schools to integrate affordable and turnkey STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) solutions in their regular curriculum, will use the money on course content.

KKR closes global $7.4-b infrastructure fund-raise

Global investment firm KKR has announced the final closing of its global infrastructure fund at $7.4 billion. The fund, KKR Global Infrastructure Investors III, will pursue infrastructure investment opportunities with an emphasis on OECD countries.

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