City Growth Financial News

Boba Bhai, a quick service restaurant (QSR) brand specialising in bubble tea and other food items, has raised Rs 30 crore in a funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm 8i Ventures. The round also saw participation from Titan Capital Winners Fund, Global Growth Capital, DeVC (anchored by Z47) along with other existing investors. The funds will be used to expand its reach into new cities, enhance operations in current markets, diversify menu options, and look at new sub-brands.

Growth capital firm Playbook Partners intends to invest $20 million (around Rs 175 crore) each in about 12-15 companies over the next two years, a top company official said. The firm's investment portfolio includes companies like Myntra, PolicyBazaar, InMobi, Nazara Technologies, Rapido, and Renee, among others. While primarily investing in India, it has also backed global companies like SpaceX and Stripe. «With planned investments up to $20 million each in 12-15 companies, we are targeting high-potential ventures across SaaS, E-commerce, Healthtech, ClimateTech, B2B & B2C,» Playbook Partners Founder and Managing Partner Vikas Choudhury said. «Our focus is on companies that have crossed Rs 100 crores in turnover, where our capital and expertise can accelerate their journey to the next level of growth,» Choudhury told PTI.

Growth capital firm Playbook Partners intends to invest USD 20 million (around Rs 175 crore) each in about 12-15 companies over the next two years, a top company official said. The firm's investment portfolio includes companies like Myntra, PolicyBazaar, InMobi, Nazara Technologies, Rapido, and Renee, among others. While primarily investing in India, it has also backed global companies like SpaceX and Stripe. «With planned investments up to USD 20 million each in 12-15 companies, we are targeting high-potential ventures across SaaS, E-commerce, Healthtech, ClimateTech, B2B & B2C,» Playbook Partners Founder and Managing Partner Vikas Choudhury said. «Our focus is on companies that have crossed Rs 100 crores in turnover, where our capital and expertise can accelerate their journey to the next level of growth,» Choudhury told PTI.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bengaluru: Dragon Fund, which has backed prominent Indian startups including Meesho and Zepto, will ramp up its pace of investments in India and is likely to deploy more than half of its $500 million global fund it raised in 2023 by the end of this year, a top executive told Mint. “India will undoubtedly be one of our largest markets.

Myntra, Fractal, Nazara, Policybazaar and Rapido. Playbook’s fund will invest in growth-stage, tech-enabled businesses in large addressable markets that have meaningful scale, healthy operating margins, and high growth. With an average ticket size of $10-20 million, the fund will roughly constitute about 15-20 investments across various sectors including health-tech, SaaS, fintech, ecommerce and supply chain.

Startups raised a total funding of about $1.47 billion in August 2024, marking an 89% increase from the same period last year, when they had raised a total of $779 million across 123 rounds. Startups, primarily in the early and late stages, secured funding through 86 rounds, according to data from the private market intelligence platform Tracxn. In July 2024, startups raised around $718 million from 72 rounds.

Zepto is set to raise another $310 million that will value the quick-commerce firm at $5 billion after the funding, a 40% jump from its last round closed just over a month ago, people in the know said. This will take the total funds raised to nearly $1 billion in two successive rounds for the three-year-old firm. It raised $665 million from a clutch of investors in late June, more than doubling its valuation to $3.6 billion from $1.4 billion in August last year. In a year, Zepto has seen a more than three-and-a-half-time spike in valuation, aided by the rapid rise in demand for quick commerce. Mars Growth Capital, co-run by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and Israel’s Liquidity Group, is set to participate in the next round joining US-based General Catalyst and other existing investors of the Mumbai-based firm for which a term sheet has now been signed, people briefed on the matter said.

Medulance, an emergency healthcare services startup, has raised $3 million in Series A funding, led by Alkemi Growth Capital. The funding round also saw participation from investors such as Dexter Capital, Boat founder Aman Gupta, and Emcure Pharmaceuticals’ executive director Namita Thapar.

Popular Vehicles and Services debuted on the exchanges with a discount of 2% on Tuesday. The stock listed at Rs 289.2 on NSE, compared to an offer price of Rs 295. Meanwhile, the stock listed at Rs 292, down 1% on BSE. Ahead of the listing, the company's shares had no premium in the unlisted market.

Considering the upper price band of Rs 295, the stock is expected to see a flat or even a discounted listing, keeping in trend with the last few debuts, which were muted.

Banyan Tree Growth Capital, GPT Healthcare operates multispecialty hospitals under the ILS brand in eastern India. The Kolkata-based healthcare company is rolling out a ₹525 crore IPO comprising an offer of sale of ₹485 crore and a fresh issue of ₹40 crore. The IPO represents 34% of the post-paid capital of the company. Business: Set up in 2000 as an eight-bed hospital at Salt Lake in Kolkata by laparoscopic surgeon Dr Om Tantia, the company now operates four secondary and tertiary care hospitals in Dum Dum, Salt Lake and Howrah in West Bengal and Agartala in Tripura with a total capacity of 561 beds. Each of these hospitals provides integrated diagnostic services and pharmacies. It has signed MoUs for setting up hospitals in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, and Ranchi, Jharkhand that are likely to be operational in 2025-26. The management has plans to expand operations in other tier-II cities such as Varanasi, Patna, Guwahati, Kanpur and Cuttack. However, new hospitals have longer gestation periods to mature and provide returns.

The trust said its board and investment manager, Baillie Gifford, are focused on “maximising returns” for shareholders.

₹450-500 crore through the issue. The company had received the markets regulator's nod to float the issue but did not go ahead with the launch. According to the DRHP, the IPO comprises a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating to ₹40 crore, and an offer for sale of up to 2.6 crore equity shares by BanyanTree Growth Capital II, LLC, a Mauritius-based structured private equity.

Pee Safe, a hygiene and wellness brand has raised $3 million in a Series B funding round led by Natco Pharma Limited, and Rainmatter Health. Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath, founders of Zerodha. Alkemi Growth Capital, an existing investor, also participated in the round. «This funding will accelerate our expansion efforts and establish us as the leading brand in the rapidly growing intimate wellness sector, which boasts a remarkable CAGR of 16%,” Vikas Bagaria, founder and CEO of Pee Safe adding that over the past five years, the brand has achieved a growth rate of 100% CAGR, surpassing market expectations.

Bitcoin adoption in Argentina is surging, contrasting the more measured approach seen in El Salvador. As Argentina grapples with soaring inflation, its citizens are increasingly turning to Bitcoin, driven by economic challenges and political shifts.

American Express Global Business Travel is close to a merger with a blank-cheque company backed by Apollo Global Management to go public with a roughly $5.3bn valuation, people familiar with the matter said.